Meet Carrie Veldhuizen

I have been an animal lover my whole life. My mom tells me my first words were dog and horse. I had several family dogs, cats, horses, fish and even a couple of lizards through my childhood. I first got excited about agility in about 1999 when a friend of mine was taking her dog to SAC. I went with her to watch a class once and I was hooked. I took my dog Hagen to classes at a different facility but soon found out she had hip dysplasia so we stopped and I only got to dream of the day I would be able to get another dog to be an agility partner. Jump forward about 4 years.

My husband (boyfriend at the time) did not grow up with pets as I had. He was pretty sure that Hagen was enough and we don’t need any more dogs. Until one day, he went to town to get gas for the mower. He came home and asked me if a Corgi mix would be a good agility dog. I said yes, of course, and ten minutes later we were bringing home Scout. He had taken one look at her in the back of a pickup truck in the Safeway parking lot and he was in love. The first thing I did was jump online to see when we could start our agility training. She started puppy class with Karen in October 2004. We took puppy class twice. Then my brother got a lab puppy and I took him to puppy class too. In early spring of 2005 Diana suggested that I start learning to teach puppy class since I’d taken so many classes myself. That started my agility teaching career.

In May of 2006 my friend came to me and said she could no longer keep her dog, Tater, and she was taking her to the pound. I went home and told my husband and he said no way is Tater going to the pound; she can come stay with us. So, Tater and I started agility too. She was a bit more challenging than Scout, but is turning into a wonderful agility team mate.

Teaching agility is a something I never thought I would be doing, but I’m so glad I am. I really enjoy the challenge that each individual team brings me each week. I can’t imagine not having agility be a part of my life.