Ellicott City dog trainer Cynthia Horner and her dog, Nimble, made history at the Westminster Dog Show this year. Nimble became the first mixed-breed dog to win the agility competition. Horner offers dog training in Hunt Valley, Maryland. Photo by Barbara Ruben

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A dog aptly named Nimble is a blur of black and white fur as she leaps through a ring, jumps high over a bar,and then races through a tunnel.

Her speed and dexterity, even when charging up a see-saw and confidently prancing down the other side, led the 6-year-old Ellicott City dog to become the first mixed-breed to win the agility competition at the Westminster Kennel Club dog show in May.The prestigious event, held in New York, is the country’s oldest dog show, dating back to 1877.

Nimble’s owner and trainer, Cynthia Hornor, couldn’t be prouder of her. “Nimble loves what she does and works so hard,” Hornor said of her border collie-Papillion mix.

At the competition, Nimble flawlessly zipped through the course in a fleet-footed 28.76 seconds, which no other dog could do in less than 30 seconds.

She was also the first dog in the smallest height division — 12 inches from paws to shoulders — to win the competition title, officially called the Masters Agility Championship.

One of Hornor’s other dogs, a pure-bred border collie named Truant, won the Westminster agility competition last year. And Truant’s mother, Spice, has also placed in numerous competitions. “She’s getting up there in years now at 16, and that makes me very sad,” Hornor said of Spice.

Always dogs at home

Hornor, who is in her 50s, grew up in New York state with several dogs in the household. Her mother owned German shorthaired pointers that she entered in field competitions, where they were judged on their hunting ability. Hornor helped with the dogs but also had an affinity for horses, riding competitively on a horse she owned.

“My sister and I had to take care of our horses and clean up after them and feed them even when it was 20 degrees below. We also helped take care of the dogs. My mother believed that taking care of animals made us very dependable,” Hornor said.

Hornor also fell in love with training dogs for shows. She began her career as a certified public accountant but found herself drawn to canine competitions, which led to starting her own training company.

“Very early on,I realized [traveling] to national and international events makes it very hard to work 9 to 5,” she recounted. “I had all these people that were asking me to give [their dogs] lessons and teach them, so I started teaching dog agility full time.”

Hornor and her husband havethree adult children, but none “caught the agility bug.”

Back yard for training

Hornor teaches dogs from beginners to those who have placed in national competitions.

Her large Ellicott City yard includes a fenced agility area with equipment. Hornor also teaches in Millersville and Hunt Valley, and offers online training classes for those outside the area. She says basic training — with commands for sit, stay and heel — should start in early puppyhood. Dogs are ready for agility training at around six months old.

But not all dogs are cut out for fancy footwork.“Everybody says, ‘Oh my dog will be great at agility,’ but then they don’t pay attention to the handler, and they just run around. “Just because they can run fast doesn’t necessarily mean they will follow cues and not get distracted,” Hornor said.

Food and toys are essential

While some dogs learn cues from, and are incentivized by, food, others — like Nimble — have an affinity for toys. Nimble’s favorite are little round balls. But they’re so small they pose a choking hazard, so Hornor ties them to a bungee cord.

“You actually transfer the value of that toy to the [track’s] obstacles,so she learns to love the obstacles as much as the toys,” Hornor explained.

Nimble’s favorite piece of equipment is called the “dog walk” — a 12-foot-long bridge-like apparatus where dogs scamper up a ramp, across the flattened top, and then down a ramp on the other side. Nimble also likes to weave her way back and forth between horizontal polls.

“But, honestly, she just likes all of it. She just loves running fast,” Hornor said.

In fact, Nimble runs at a speed of seven yards per second. Agility competitions don’t convert that to miles per hour, but if Nimble were doing the 100-meter sprint in the Olympics, she might not run quite as fast as Noah Lyles’ 9.7 seconds, but she could still cross the finish line in 15 seconds.

Keeping fit with her dog

It’s not just the dogs that have to be fast and fit; it’s the trainers, too, Hornor said. While Nimble is racing around the course, Hornor is keeping pace and giving cues.

“You do have to train yourself to make sure that you keep up,” she said. “I try to have a fitness program as much as I can because, while there are many people who are not terribly fit that do agility, I find that the people who are competing at a high level on really big courses need to be physically in shape. “You also have to have a good mental game, and you have to be good at memorization,” she added.

Hornor said she’s “on the older side for a trainer. I’m competing against people who are 25.”

Last year, a new league for dog agility trainers over 55 was formed. The first Senior Open Agility World Championship was held in July in Belgium. Hornor and Nimble missed that one because they were already committed to another competition in England around the same time.Hornorstays in shape on her Peloton bike, as well as hiking with Nimble, who also loves to swim and will prick up her ears in delight at the phrase “swim swim.”

“I think that being happy is really, really important for the dogs,” Hornor said. “And that goes for the trainers, too.”