Skateboarding dogs impress Fieldays crowd
Chelsea Marriner’s travelling dog show Dogmattic impresses crowds at the Fieldays with tricks from jumping through hoops to skateboarding.
Chelsea Marriner’s 10 dogs are anything but ordinary.
As well as being able to sit on command she has trained her dogs to skateboard, jump through hoops and perform ballet, just to name a few.
Dogmattic is her travelling dog show and she will be performing twice a day for the duration of Fieldays.
Marriner and her dogs are well known to New Zealanders after they competed on New Zealand’s Got Talent in October 2012, an experience that she said has opened up more opportunities.
“This is the fifth year we’ve done Fieldays,” Marriner said. “This year we’ve brought three young dogs in and done more with them. So we’ve sort of started from scratch with the dogs and the routine.”
The reaction from the crowd was very positive.
Fieldays visitor Pam Chitty said the show was “absolutely wonderful.”
“My favourite was the skateboarding dogs. They were just all really, really amazing and obviously very intelligent dogs,” Chitty said.
Marriner said she stole her dad’s puppy when she was two and that’s when it all started for her.
“I stole his puppy and got into a bit of trouble of him, and then I saw Wonder Dogs when I was four and I decided if they could do it then I could too,” Marriner said.
Marriner, who is celebrating her 22nd birthday today, said that it usually takes a couple of years to train each dog the tricks and she spends most mornings training.
All dogs are heading dogs and were bred to work on the farm. Marriner said that while they love the tricks, sheep farming is what they really love to do.
“They hear quads and see metal rods and they’re just hanging out the window. They love it.”
After Fieldays, Dogmattic has a competition down in Hawera for agility and then dog trials there the following week.
“Hopefully we’ll find some farms in between to let off some steam.”
