Twister Agility & Dog Sports

Twister Agility

Those enrolling their dogs in agility classes have high hopes their pet can eventually bob and weave their way through a competition course and follow through with commands with minimal effort on the owner’s part.

But a lot of people don’t realize that when a dog gets trained, so does its human. That’s why Nancy Dudeck, owner of Twister Agility & Dog Sports, succinctly describes her job this way: “I train dogs and their owners.”

“We teach the owners how to train their dogs to do the sport of agility,” Dudeck said. “If they’ve never done agility, they think it’s going to be a cakewalk. Maybe they’ve watched agility on TV or the internet and it looks like so much fun — and it is alot of fun — but it also is a lot of work. There’s a high level of training that goes into it.”

At Twister Agility, pet owners can enroll in weekly one-hour sessions with Dudeck and assistant instructors Jessi Cantwell, Heidi Cleveland and Kris Hiney. While most students opt for the group classes, some prefer to take private lessons — and then some do both.

A former equestrian, Dudeck hung up her riding boots when faced with a back injury and turned to training her new Alaskan Malamute puppy.

“I decided that agility was similar in ways to horse training and I wanted to try,” she said. “We both took to it immediately.”

Dudeck opened her business in 2004 and the dog training facility is now celebrating the opening of its new indoor heated training facility at 11807 S Sooner Road in Edmond. Until now, classes took place almost entirely outside.

Dudeck said some people come to class intending to compete one day, and others are solely in it to learn something new with their pet. Either way, the goal should be to have fun and make the experience enjoyable for the person and the pet.

“It’s more than just training the dog,” Dudeck said. “The people and their dogs look forward to coming to class. A lot of the students have high-pressure jobs during the week and that one hour of dog training every week is their escape; they come, play with their dog and they’re relaxed, and when they go back home they feel like their life is a little bit better.”

Learn more about Twister Agility & Dog Sports by visiting twisteragility.com or email nancy@twisteragility.com.