For this Richland woman, ‘greyhound’ used to just be a bus. Now, these dogs are her life

Fifteen years ago, Torka Poet didn’t even own a dog. She had never had a pet.

With four dogs under her roof, a backyard covered in obstacles and her weekends booked for dog competitions, it’s safe to say something changed along the way.

“It’s like an illness,” Poet said. “Once you get started, you can’t stop.”

Four Italian greyhounds run around her house with slender legs and incredible speed. An elderly mutt floats around the backyard. A bird flies across the room. Poet is surrounded, but that’s just the way she wants it.

Italian greyhounds are her breed for competitions, but she trains all of her dogs, even 13-year-old Finn, who is going blind and deaf.

Poet turned her backyard into a training area, where her dogs run through obstacle courses as part of their agility training.

“We just wanted to have a place where we could put all of the equipment together,” Poet said. “Some friends come over and run their dogs.”

This weekend, Poet will compete with a friend’s dog, Tyche, at the Columbia Basin Dog Training Club agility trials on the Horn Rapids Park fields. The competition will feature several trainers and dogs as they compete to be named Master of Agility Champion.

It’s the title Poet once won with her “superstar” Teaghan, who recently fell ill with immune mediated polyarthritis. Poet said she hopes Teaghan will be back competing next year. For now, she will run with Tyche.

“They enjoy it so much,” Poet said. “They really do.”

It will be a busy weekend, with more than 100 dogs competing each day. Poet said all that action makes the Columbia Basin event a good one for first-time fans.

“When you start training dogs, you realize they need not only physical but mental stimulation,” Poet said. “It’s fun for the dogs to play.”

Poet is a member of the Columbia Basin Dog Training Club and serves as an American Kennel Club judge. She said the Tri-Cities is a community filled with dog trainers and others interested in the craft.

She enjoys the “speed and accuracy” of agility. She believes other people would enjoy watching the dogs at their best.

“They really benefit and grow and have a much better life being trained then not being trained,” Poet said.