Pasco woman wins top honors in dog agility training. It all started with a lost dog

It started seven years ago when a pit bull-boxer mix named Hype jumped into JuliAnna Munden’s yard.

“We ended up keeping her, but she chewed up our couches, she chew up stuff in my room. It was bad,” Munden said. “My parents were like, ‘If you want to keep this dog, you need to train it.’”

So she took Hype to obedience classes, and then found agility training. She discovered a sport she excelled at and has since competed across the country.

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“And it’s something I’m finally good at,” she said. “All throughout my childhood, I did sport after sport, and I was always that kid that sucked at every sport. I was like, ‘What am I good at? What is my point in life?’ Finally I started agility and ... well finally I had a natural gift.”

The 22-year-old Pasco woman took home top honors at the Cynosport World Games with her second dog, Threat. The 5-year-old border collie was up against hundreds of competitors from six countries and 35 states in the early November competition in Scottsdale, Ariz.

The competition has dogs run through a series of obstacles as quickly as possible without making any errors. The animal must do this only with voice commands from the trainer. When Munden leads Threat through a practice obstacle course, it sounds like she’s speaking a special language only they understand.

It ends with Munden happily yelling, “Supa” and throwing Threat’s toy, which the dog scoops up and carries back to Munden.

“I just love border collies and their speed and how dedicated to the person they are,” she said.

Munden trains her dogs when she’s not at work. She works in the human resources department for a contractor working for the Department of Energy.

The training for each dog takes about two years as Munden breaks down each of the obstacles for them. For instance a dog can approach a jump from either side of the obstacle, which is determined by a single command from the trainer. Once the dog understands that, then they need to learn to make the jump.

“It takes a lot of time and commitment. I’m usually out here every day doing something,” she said. “Then you’re balancing conditioning, like any other fitness program that people do — strength, stamina, flexibility.”

The competition Threat won was a biathlon, which is a series of two runs. One course is comprised of jumps, tunnels and a series of poles that the animal needs to weave through. Another course also contains a teeter-totter, a two-sided ramp and a narrow walkway.

The relationship with her dogs and the continuous challenges have kept her going in the sport. While Hype has retired, and Threat is in her fifth year, the next generation — Fusion — is already being trained.

While Threat performs well, a problem with her eye has left her unable to compete at the highest levels.

Munden’s goal is to have a dog participate as member of the U.S. World Team. The team travels to different world competitions to face off.

“It’s kind of like the Olympics for agility,” Munden explained. “Each organization sends their own team for U.S.A. So we would go against Russia, we’d go against Germany.”