At the end of 2008 Kevin started competing in AKC agility with Miley and Howie, our hyperactive, fun-loving, and perpetually malodorous Boston Terriers. He entered them in a weekly class after work as a way to get some exercise while teaching the dogs a few basic obedience commands.
In these classes, Kevin learned to guide Miley and Howie through obstacle courses, competing in a race for speed and accuracy, using only his voice and hand gestures.
As it turns out, it was also a whole lot of fun.
Last weekend Miley earned her Master Agility Champion (MACH) title.
The MACH is the highest AKC agility title a dog can earn. The dog and its handler must compete together to earn qualifying scores and titles in multiple divisions of agility before reaching the highest division in agility, Excellent B. In Excellent B, the dog can start earning MACH points for each second it finishes a course under the standard course time set by the judge.
There are two courses the dog can compete in on a trial day. The standard course includes each of the basic agility obstacles like the A-frame, chute, teeter-totter, and table, where the dog must show restraint and control by pausing on the table until given a release command. The jumpers course is a maze of jumps, weave poles, and tunnels.
In competition, each and every agility course is different and can have over 20 obstacles per course. The handlers have a few minutes to walk and familiarize themselves with the course, but the dog only gets one chance to complete the course successfully. The dog does not get a practice run of the course.
To get the MACH title, the dog must accumulate 750 MACH points and have 20 double qualification runs. A Double Q is when the dog has perfect runs on both courses (standard and jumpers) on a trial day. Miley completed her 20th Double Q back in October, but still needed around 200 more MACH points to finish the title.
Last Friday at a trial in Nashville, TN she earned those final points and got the title.
I am bursting with pride for these two.
Here’s a video Kevin made that shows Miley’s 20th Double Q runs in October, and her run last weekend where she earned her 750th MACH point to get the Champion title. At the end, they get to take a bar off the course as a trophy and run a victory lap around the ring.
You’ll see the camera start to shake as I well up with pride.
See more Miley and Howie agility videos on our Vimeo and YouTube channels.
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140 Comments
Awww, many congratulations to Kevin and Miley!! That is an amazing accomplishment!
Huge congrats!!! That’s awesome!
I was thinking of doing something like that with my Boston. She has so much energy.
I literally cried the entire victory lap! I have a Boston that I adore that we had to leave with my sister (temporarily, of course!) while we moved out of the country. I miss him so much and you inspired me to do something like this with Henry when we get back. Congratulations Miley and Kevin!
Congrats to them! :) LOL! I love how the ribbon’s twice the size of Miley! :D
This really takes me back to when I used to do agility with my dog. Thanks for posting.
This reminds me so much of my Boston. I had to have him put to sleep in December 2010 at 13 yrs. of age. I really miss him and he would have loved to have had a chance to do agility competing.
Your Bostons are so beautiful and congrats to you all!!
enjoy your posts so much, thanks for sharing
Congrats to Kevin and Miley that is so neat. Now they both need some sweet treats. Bostons are a wonderful breed small, the capacity of love they have for their owners is amazing Paulette
I LOVE this! I would like to do this with my dog but I don’t see him succeeding! He’s an older dog and a rescue and won’t leave my side for anything, 85# of Malinois always leaning against me!
Congratulations Kevin and Miley! Agility is a great thing to do with your dog!
Congrats! That is a major accomplishment & they are too adorable together. I did agility with my dog & we had such a great time.
Watching your video, the one thing I did NOT expect was for my eyes to fill with happy tears. Wow… such joy!
I had tears in my eyes the whole video!! That was so awesome! Congratulations Kevin & Miley!!!! They were perfect and this was so much fun to watch!!
That was so awesome. I love Bostons. We have a Silky and I am going to get him started in Agility. Good job Miley and good job Kevin. And hey, you got lots of great hugs!
Dangit! Now I’m sitting here tearing up!! Congrats to Kevin and Miley! You can tell the trust she has in him to guide her through the course.
Fantastic !!! Congratulations Kevin & Miley. Such an accomplishment
for dog & man.
Congratulations!! This made me tear up and I was not expecting it! Thanks for sharing!
That is so cool! I’ve always loved watching those competitions on tv! Congrats!!
That is so neat! I have watched these competitions on television before and thought they were amazing. You can tell they are having so much fun, too. Congratulations on a great accomplishment!
How awesome is that? We’ve got a Jack Russell who needs way more exercise – I think she’d love agility. I just have to find a place to do it close to home…thanks for the video!
How cool! That award ribbon is bigger than Miley! Ha!
That was awesome!! Congratulations.
I LOVE Miley’s expression in the posed picture with Kevin and the ribbon. She looks just like a kid that is saying, “hurry up and take the picture, would ya?” Congrats!
That was so much fun to watch! Great job to Miley and Kevin!!!
WOW… what a lucky dog and what a lucky master! Miley, indeed,must be very, very intelligent. Congratulations!!
Wow, that’s awesome. Thanks for posting the video. I enjoyed that (and am jelous of Miley’s energy – lol)!
Congratulations! My son was involved with flyball for several years and loved it….looks like Miley and Kevin had alot of fun together! Miley appears very proud! Thanks for sharing! Loved it!
Congratulations to lil miss Miley for her MACH title and to Kevin for keeping up with a lightening fast Boston.
aaaaw! awesome job, miley and kevin! SO COOL!
absolutely LOVED the video!!!
Major congratulations!! I run my two Australian Shepherds in agility so I know exactly how much work goes into obtaining this title!! My girl Kaylie has all her MACH points – it’s those QQs that are hard to get! We’re at #14, so just 6 more to go. Some day!! But good job, and give that Miley lots of hugs and treats!
Oh my gosh, how adorable! I can’t wait to watch the video after work. Congrats Kevin and Miley :)
That was a total joy to watch…thanks for posting it!
Very cool! Daddy and the “kid” both have lots to be proud of!
That was the coolest and sweetest thing. I didn’t expect to get teary eyed but I did!
P.S. I love your website. It’s one of my favorites.
That was just wonderful. It made me cry, too!
Adorable! That is such a great way to spend some quality time with your puppies.
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Your Bostons are adorable. Boy do I know about all that energy! I also have a Boston [her name is Lola] and she is nothing but a big ball of energy!
What a little sweetheart! You can just tell she is enjoying every minute of that and her “star” status!
Congratulations! I loved watching your video! :0)
Congratulations! I found myself tearing up as well! Love those Bostons!
Hi Amanda,
So very happy for you all. Congratulations on winning the Championship!! I loved watching the video…Hooray!!
OK. Does it make me a complete weirdo that I cried during the victory lap??!! Sheesh. Awesome accomplishment — WTG Miley and Kevin!! :)
Thank you! I’ve enjoyed following your adventures. Amazing how you capture your life and share it with us all. Very Cool!
Haha wow, that was fun! :] And Kevin does have a do a bit of running! I think my favorite part is when Miley stands on the platform until Kevin says she can move. :] Congrats!
Congrats to Kevin and Miley! So awesome, I got a tad emotional watching the video. =)
That was amazing thanks for sharing Miley you ROCK!!!
That is so cool! I can only imagine how proud you must all be! Great job Kevin & Miley! :) Thanks for sharing the video – it was fun to see all the excitement!
Wow! That’s so great! Congratulations to Kevin and Miley.
That is by far the cutest thing I have ever seen… How AWESOME!!! Great job.. what smart little pups you have? I’m curious, is this something new that they started doing? How great they could learn that! Congrats to Kevin and Miley!
How exciting! Congrats to Kevin & Miley!! Would love to grab coffee if you’re ever in Nashville again! :)
That’s fantastic! You two (or should I say four) sure live life to the fullest. Congratulations!
That is awesome! Congratulations to you, Kevin, & Miley! <3 The video was a joy to watch! <3
VERY IMPRESSIVE!! Congratulations!!
Awesome!!!!!! Thanks for sharing. Congrats Kevin and Miley!!!!
Congrats to Miley and Kevin! That is so fun and exciting. My husband and I talked about doing that with our dog since he has so much energy.
Congratulations Kevin and Miley! That was an awesome video. Thanks for sharing.
Congratulations Kevin and Miley. A well-deserved award. Thanks for letting us see the video.
That’s great!!! Kevin looks so happy, so does the dog, too! WTG! :-)
That is fantastic!!! Miley was great! Thanks for sharing!!
congrats! i totally teared up! what a proud mama you must be!
Congratulations!! That’s a great video and the music is sooo fitting! Thanks for sharing!
wow miley sure has him very well trained… omg… thanks for the video it was fantastic!!!!! And coongrats for the MACH!!!!!! oh… and I have to say Kevin does the cutest march when weaving poles… LOL!!!
– dalis
Congratulations! I always figured Boston’s would be great at agility because they have a lot of speed and are very smart. They are also “people pleasers” which helps too :). I would love to get mine started doing something like that but we have no facilities around here :(
thats great, Congrats to you guys. i wish i could get my ADHD dog to do the same but he has a short attention span haha.
Congrats to Kevin and Miley! That’s AUsome!!
Aw, congrats to Kevin & Miley! Thank you so much for sharing that video!! I welled up too, what a great moment. Our pets really are members of the family…thank goodness for them!
And I’m super jealous of Miley’s ability to stay, even when she wants to run. I need to know the trick to making that work since my hyper little pug is CONSTANTLY moving :)
As a new fan of your blog I have really enjoyed your adventures and recipes!! My husband, a veterinarian, and I really enjoyed today’s
video and Miley’s superb performance. What a thrill for you all. Our
hardiest congratulations and best wishes.
Kevin did quite a job too. Not an easy task!!
Keep up the good work!
Janet
Thanks for posting this! That was so much fun to watch! Smart dog!!
Just finished watching Miley and Kevin! Congrats! Job well done . . . my older son was watching with me and was just amazed!
Awww… That is so great! What a good little girl :-) My friend is thinking about starting her dogs in some agility training… It looks like they have so much fun! :-)
Thank you so much for posting this. I saw it on my reader and just had to see. I unfortunately lost my dog over the weekend and it has been very tough. I have been reaching out to the blog community to share my loss with others and to reflect on all the ways our fur-babies enhance our lives. This post brought tears to my eyes, as I watch the two interact together. Thank you.
Congratulations to Miley and Kevin, great job! i too welled up a bit, you should be VERY proud!!
Awwww, I had tears rolling down my face watching Miley! I saw you guys compete in Alpharetta last year when I brought my Boston, Bella, to watch! Way to go–all the hard work has paid off!
That was so awesome! Congratulations Kevin and Miley! Thank you so much for sharing, I had tears in my eyes! ♥
Miley and Kevin and Amanda Congrats. That was so exciting. So much work Wow.Im proud for all of you.
Congratulations, Kevin and Miley! (Amanda and Howie too!)
MACH is a HUGE accomplishment!
that was a lot of work and committment on both parties. Congrat’s to all of you, it was so cute. Mary
Way to go Miley! I’m so proud of you. Good for you Kevin. I had never heard of this before. Awesome!
What an accomplishment! As a fellow agility handler I know the hard work that went into those runs. Please pass along my congratulations to Kevin & Miley.
Wow! Miley is so well trained! I just love all of your posts about your dogs– I wish I could have one of my own, but unfortunately, dogs and dorm rooms don’t really mix! :0)
Congratulations! That is quite an achievement. That video had me tearing up towards the end. I am so glad that I found your blog!
he must be so smart, the dog, not the husband. well, i guess he’s pretty smart, too. aren’t they amazing creatures? (the dog, i mean. well, again, maybe the husband ,too.) congrats, looks like so much fun.
I had tears in my eyes watching your little dog race around the course and gaining such a wonderful achievement!!! Your husband must be extremely fit because your dog runs really fast. I tried agility with my dog and he is also really fast but I didn’t have enough control over him and sometimes in the middle of things he would just run off!!! Dogs are so much fun and you definitely have fun with your two dogs. Thanks for sharing.
Way to go Kevin and Miley!!! That was awesome to watch! I can’t imagine how much time and effort you must have put in to accomplish that amazing run!
I just now read this – congrats – that is incredibly awesome for you all!
Wow!! Great job Miley (and Kevin)…*sniff*sniff*….as I sit here with tears in my eyes!!
I smiled the whole way thru! I’m such a sap – I even teared up! She’s the sweetest thing and you husband definitely gets a workout! CONGRATULATIONS!!! :-)
Aww! Congrats Miley (and Kevin, too!). Good work. I got a lump in my throat when all the applause happened, too!
I just love you blog, by the way. Your photography is beautiful – and when you photograph food – well, oh.my.goodness! I’m just about crawling into my monitor to try and get a bite….I love your travel shots – and your sunset shots – and all the other shots you share, too. I’m not all just about food! :)
And – of course when you share Miley & Howie shots with us – well, that’s just icing on the cake! (here I go again with the food!)
Thanks for sharing with us……
Congrats!! That is such a huge accomplishment for them both. You have every right to be a proud spouse and mom :) Thanks for sharing
That is so special!! So neat, glad I watched the video. Thanks for sharing. I always enjoy your blog you have the neatest things on it, and I look forward to seeing your post.
How fun! I just finished watching the video with my 2 year old who’d crazy about dogs! As a veterinarian I have to say that Miley’s the most lean Boston I think I’ve ever seen :) hahaha Good job mom!
That is so cool! I used to think about getting our Dharma into agility – she loved jumping and running and would have had a blast – but then she blew a disc and had to have back surgery, poor girl. She’s gone now (too early), and I like to imagine that her idea of puppy Heaven is one big agility course.
Congratulations to your champs!!
VERY cool!
Wonderful. Congrats. Looked like huge fun.
Congratulations that is so awesome! I actually got tears in my eyes at the end.
It’s so great to see Miley again!! What an amazing accomplishment for her and for Kevin too! The video made me cry! :) SOO proud of you guys!!! :)
Way to go Miley!!! And you, too, Kevin ;-)!!!! What a fabulous accomplishment!
That was awesome! Congratulation to the family.
Great work. Thanks for sharing the video.
Oh too cute! Go Miley and Kevin!!!