Clean Run - January 2013 - 63

Trainer: Daisy Peel Base: Portland, Oregon Training since: 1998 Venues of competition: AKC, USDAA, and FCI How often do you compete: One to two weekends a month Number of national competitions: USDAA 10, AKC 10 Number of international competitions: 10 Dogs: Border Collies Frodo, age 4 months; Juno, age 2.5; Solar, age 5; Jester, age 9; Fly, age 14. What is your favorite training treat? Kibble If you weren’t doing agility, what dog sport would you like to get involved in? Herding or nosework. “It’s fun to watch dogs do what they are skilled at and we are not.” What’s in your training bag? Vet wrap, EMT Gel, tug toy, paper and pencil for taking notes and making notes on course maps, iPad, video camera with extra memory cards. Piece of technology that has benefited your training: Manners Minder Who do you train with: Linda Mecklenburg. “She’s an excellent coach, and has excellent fundamentals.” Where do your dogs sleep? “On the bed, and under the bed, which freaks out my husband!” Best agility advice you can give: “When you are out there looking for information to improve your handling skills, make sure that you are getting good information. If someone is trying to sell you a complicated solution for a simple problem, keep looking. The solutions are always simple. Not easy, but simple.”
January 13 | Clean Run

Training with the Stars Daisy Peel
By Sally Silverman, photos by Dog Sport Photos Daisy Peel is driven. That’s not unusual for a top agility competitor. Review her history, however, and her drive and determination are just short of astonishing. Most competitors discover the game, get hooked, and then started setting goals that will carry them up the ladder of success. Daisy did it diﬀerently: the first time she ever saw agility, on TV’s Animal Planet, she decided right then and there to get a dog with the goal of competing on Animal Planet herself. A few years later, that goal was accomplished. In her 12 years competing in agility, she has been a national finalist more than 20 times, a national champion 5 times, a member of the AKC/USA Team 10 times, and a World Agility Open gold medalist, just to name a few of her impressive accomplishments. She owes her success as much to good training as she does to good mental management.

The Right Formula
A former high school chemistry teacher, Daisy has created a formula for handling her time as a professional trainer that is proving successful, if not exhausting. Much of her time is spent teaching seminars—two or three a month—around the country, and the world. At home

in Oregon, on the property that she recently moved to with her husband, she works 40 to 60 hours a week in her online classroom. “Teaching is important to me for reasons that are not entirely within my understanding,” Daisy states on her website. “Even when I’m exhausted, there’s
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Clean Run - January 2013

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Clean Run - January 2013