T-Falls boy breaks into adult sport

Matt Unrau

You can hear Tyler Riffle’s young voice speaking quickly and excitedly, “up, up,” he says one second followed by a paddle of soft footsteps. The next second it’s “come, come, and finally “good girl.”

Tyler has just run his four-year-old Shetland Sheep dog, Belle, through a maze of hoops, ladders and tunnels during his bi-weekly agility course training.

Dog agility is a dog sport where the dog and handler run through an obstacle course that is judged both on time and accuracy. It highlights the playful nature of a dog letting both the master and the pet have fun running around and through obstacles.

At 12 years old, Tyler, is a master of master in his own rights. As a 4-H member he nearly swept every single Grand Champion dog award only losing out in one competition to his cousin from Noxon, Leah Watson.

Although he has proven himself in every competition from showmanship to Rally, it’s showmanship where his heart really lies.

“I was actually depressed that I had to do showmanship and rally. I just wanted to do agility,” says Tyler of the Sanders County Fair dog competitions.

Since then he has dedicated himself to the sport and taken agility further than any other 4-H member. He has been traveling to competitions around the state racking up first place prizes numerous times. It does help though that many times he is the only competitor in his age and skill at the competition.

That’s because in many ways Tyler is competing beyond his years. Huckleberry Hounds Agility Club instructor, Jan Manning explains that agility is mainly an adult sport. This is due mostly to the fact that the sport takes a massive amount of time and effort that many young people are not willing to sacrifice.

“That’s the difference between him and the other kids,” says Manning citing Tyler’s mature work ethic. “That’s what makes him better in agility.”

There are three categories in agility. Right now, Tyler is competing at the novice level and Manning says it typically takes one year for competitors to jump into the next bracket. This puts Tyler on pace to be competing at the highest level at the tender age of 15, compared to the much older age of his competition.

“If he stays with agility for the next few years he’s going to be competitive with the adults,” says Manning.

In the meantime, however, Tyler typically finds himself as the only junior at the time trials, but refuses to be intimidated by the age gap.

“I don’t think of myself as ‘The Junior’, (I think) of myself as a normal person doing it, not someone younger.”

An upbeat attitude is crucial in dog agility. As Tyler runs through the course you can hear his voice filled with excitement as he urges on his dog.

“You got to stay excited, but stern at the same time,” says Tyler. He says it’s better to lean a little bit more towards excited than stern, because it’s playtime for Belle who “likes it because she can go out and run.”

It wasn’t always easy for Tyler to stay upbea.t. He described one time trial that went horribly wrong where Belle actually ran out of the arena entirely.

“It just made me really mad, but everyone was coming up to me and saying ‘don’t worry, it happens to everyone.’ So I went out and played with Belle in the field then came back and got first in jumpers and tunnelers,” says Tyler. The two courses he placed first in are courses that are filled exclusively with jumps and tunnels respectively.

Staying positive is what Tyler says he learned the most since he started the sport, and it’s the most important character trait needed for success.

“Never get frustrated with your dog and keep going no matter what happens. If the dog messes up just keep going,” says Tyler.

It’s a tidbit of advice that Tyler plans to follow long term as he hopes to make it out of the novice level and compete at excellent and eventually qualify for nationals. The difference between novice and excellent is all a matter of time as what is typically about a 45 second race time shrinks down to a 25 second race time.

In the meantime Tyler will continue to practice and push himself in a sport where no one can tell him he is too young to excel.