Competition…
Harvey County's Brown travels to Belgium for annual contest
Valley Center's Hayden Brown of Kansas 4H spent part of the summer wearing a Team USA jersey at the Junior Open Agility World Championships in Belgium. (Courtesy photo)
VALLEY CENTER, Kan. – Wearing a U.S. national team jersey on a midsummer trip feels like an Olympic moment.
For 16-year-old Hayden Brown of Valley Center, summer vacation was exactly that time of year. But his moment came in a different setting: in a town just two hours north of Paris, home to this year's Games of the XXXIII Olympic Games.
Brown instead represented the United States at the Junior Open World Agility Championships in Oudsbergen, Belgium, with her dog, Onyx, a 6-year-old black and white Sheltie, who was selected by the American Kennel Club to represent the United States at this year's world competition.
“The atmosphere was electric,” said Brown, a Harvey County 4-H member and junior leader for the club's dog project. “When you think about the adrenaline … it's hard to imagine what it feels like. That's probably what the Olympians are experiencing right now.”
The three-day competition featured 1,072 competitors, 73 dog breeds and more than 4,000 agility events, Brown said. About 24 countries were represented. Brown was one of about 50 Americans invited to compete.
The first day was a team competition, where Brown was paired with two Americans and one Austrian, and each team member led their dog through two rounds of jumping and agility tests (called contact), including weave poles, A-frame dog walks and see-saws.
“It's hard, trust me,” Brown said. “Agility rounds are no joke. The contact is nerve-wracking for everyone.”
Days two and three are individual competitions. Brown said the entire competition will be determined by how quickly and cleanly the trainers can get their dogs through the obstacles.
“To be successful with this project you have to put in the effort to understand the dog's behavior and translate that behavior into commands,” Brown says.
After three days of competition, Brown finished in 44th place out of 77 competitors in her class. “That was a great result for my first year,” Brown said.
“In competitions, you try to do things perfectly and fast. In international competitions, you have to be fast to win. We weren't fast enough, but I think we ran well for the first time.”
Looking back, Brown added, “It was a humbling experience. Dog projects are always humbling because you're walking with creatures that are not human. You can't physically communicate with them outside of training commands and body language. You have to read their body language to know what they're thinking and what they're trying to do. But they're dogs, and you don't know exactly what they're going to do on any given day.”
Ann Pitts, Harvey County 4-H youth development agent, said Brown's success is a result of finding a passion for 4-H, a key motto of the program.
“I've seen many young people and Hayden is a great example of the skills they have learned and the accomplishments they have achieved throughout our 4-H community,” she said.
Brown believes her experience in 4-H has helped her develop humility, perseverance, grit, discipline and hard work. “Wearing the Team USA jersey is an honor and privilege that I will never forget,” Brown says.
He said he is eligible to apply for the U.S. national team again next year and intends to do so.
The Kansas 4-H program offers more than 30 projects for youth across the state. Learn more online or by contacting your local Kansas chapter.
— Pat Melgares, K-State Research and Extension News Service
