Leila Widgren

My beginnings and fascination with dogs started at an early age (around 7) when our first dog, a small border collie, used to stand in the front yard and bark at Barney the crow and enjoy it thoroughly when Barney imitated Lady by “barking” back. Lady had no formal obedience training, but reliably came when my Mom rang a small dinner bell (as did we.) Funny what you remember as a kid.

For a long as I can remember, we had a family dog. I started training in obedience and agility 12 years ago when Butchie, a sweet rescued Shih Tzu, came to live with me. The day that he discovered that he was allowed to run as fast as he could in agility touched my heart. You see, he grew up in a local puppy mill for 5 years as a stud muffin before he was rescued by Geauga Humane Society and didn’t know what running and playing was all about. My heart was joyful to discover that he knew what running with the wind blowing his ears was and it grieved my heart when I realized that up until then he didn’t know that he was even allowed to run and play. This profoundly touched me.

I was highly involved in a canine obedience drill team for 5 years with Butchie and then Ollie, my second Shih Tzu, writing and teaching, and performing in the group drill team routines. Having a synchronized swimming background, with routines being choreographed in an artistic manner with the music, I longed to make this happen on the drill team. After leaving the drill team, I started dabbling in canine freestyle.

After trying another canine freestyle organization and being concerned about the dance step and prop coordination aspect of it, I found Canine Freestyle Federation (CFF) freestyle (where the emphasis is on the dog, not the handler) over two years ago and have been working very hard to bring it to the North Coast ever since.

My artistic and creative experience includes 5 years of being on a synchronized swim team, coaching and judging synchronized swimming for 9 years, working in the performing arts as a clown for 17 years, and playing in our church bell choir for 25 years.