No Bark All Bite

Published in the 2023 Warrior yearbook and in the 2023 Arrow newspaper here

If you thought Maia Suggs’ dogs were just cute and cuddly, you’d be barking up the wrong tree. Junior Maia Suggs, along with her family, has been training dogs in sports for years. 

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“My dogs are trained in a lot of different events,” Suggs said, “which include sports such as dock diving, tracking, scent detection, agility, obedience, bikejoring, and personal protection sports.”

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Suggs’ favorite aspect of competing is personal protection.

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“I enjoy the personal protection aspect of training the most because I’ve done the most trials in that area and it’s just really fun,” Suggs said. “Personal protection is like K9 martial arts. The dogs are trained to recognize a threat and protect on command. It is vital that the dogs have a high level of control and discipline. In public, a well-trained personal protection dog will appear no different than any other dog.”

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Obtaining that level of discipline and trust between dog and owner requires lots of time and practice. 

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“Every weekend we go to club training. At club we work on different things based on each dog’s individual needs and what each handler wants to work on,” Suggs said. “For the most part, we work on maintaining good obedience and on different personal protection scenarios.”

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This time commitment is nothing new to Suggs, who has been in the world of dog sports for 12 years. 

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“I’ve been in the dog sports world for as long as I can remember,” Suggs said. “My mom started taking me to club when I was very little and I grew up loving everything about it.

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“My first memories of training are doing obedience work when I was really young, maybe 4 years old,” Suggs said. “I remember how nervous I was stepping on the field in front of people for the first time for my first protection trial.”

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Suggs has three dogs: Barracuda, an Australian cattle dog; Fish, an Australian cattle dog; and Shark, a Belgian Malinois. Suggs’ first-ever protection trial was with Shark at age 10.

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“Shark still actively competes in protection trials and occasionally other events such as shed hunt, which is like a form of scent detection,” Suggs said. “He has earned many titles for his performance in scent detection and obedience trials.”

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In Shark’s nine years of competing, he has won nine titles and qualified for the Working Dogs of America National Championships.

“I placed first in the beginner class at the 2021 Dog Sports Open with Shark. The DSO is a competition that has a lot of challenging scenarios that are often difficult to train for,” Suggs said. “During this competition, there was a scenario where the dog had to take a bite from a gator-type vehicle. The goal of the scenario was to keep the dog inside the vehicle at all times and that if the dog were to come out you lose all points for the scenario. 

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“I go to the scenario and get in the vehicle, the decoy comes up to take the bite, and as soon as Shark bit, he gets out of the vehicle,” Suggs said. “I was crushed because I just lost any chance of getting a decent score. It turns out that the decoy accidentally pulled Shark out so it was by no means mine or Shark’s fault. I earned points for the scenario and got first place. It was one of the best experiences I’ve ever had.”

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Fish has also competed and won various titles in his 8.5 years of competing. Like Shark, Fish has also won nine titles, qualified for the Working Dogs of America National Championship, and was selected for America’s Top Dog; however, he was unable to compete due to the Covid-19 pandemic.  

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“Fish also used to compete in protection, scent, and obedience trials,” Suggs said. “He was actually the first and only to date Australian cattle dog to earn a Police Dog 1 title. Additionally, he did dock diving, which he absolutely loved, but he’s retired now so he doesn’t compete anymore.”

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Though Barracuda has never competed, Suggs plans to compete with her in scent detection and shed hunting in the future. 

“It [dog sports] is something I’ve been around for my whole life,” Suggs said. “The people I’ve gotten to know have not only taught me so much about dogs and dog training but also about life in general. In part, these people and these dogs are why I am the way I am.”