Kreg Hill got started in dog sports with a different breed than the Australian Terriers he competed with in Obedience and AKC Rally in Orlando in 2024. The Palm Springs, California resident, who is 76 years old, has spent the better part of the last three decades competing with Australian Terriers across multiple dogs sports, crushing the myth of the “stubborn Terrier” by not only collecting titles with his dogs, but often being the top Terrier at obedience and AKC Rally competitions. But this advocate for the terrier breed got his start with a toy breed: Silkie Terriers.
From Toys to Terriers
Hill’s husband, William, was doing obedience with Airdale Terriers when they still lived in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He took his Silkies with them, and fell in love with the sport of obedience. It wasn’t until his late 30s, when one of his Silkie Terriers passed away, that he was introduced to Australian Terriers.
“My obedience trainer in Albuquerque was one of the original members of the Australian Terrier Club of America, and she imported Aussies in the 60’s,” Hill recalls. From there, Hill got his first Aussie, and became a devoted owner of Australian Terriers.
“I got an Australian Terrier because they’re very similar breeds,” he says. “I like the Australian Terrier because of its coat, and they’re a little bigger and heartier than the Silkie.”
He currently has seven Aussies, including 11-year old “Mamie” and 7-year-old “Dory,” with whom he competed at the 2024 AKC Obedience Classic and AKC RACH Invitationals. He’s now had five or six obedience dogs over the years, and is training 4-year-old “Tino” to join the ranks. Tino will be competing in conformation in 2025, and then retire from showing to focus on his obedience and Rally career with Hill. Tino is the first male dog Hill’s trained in over 20 years — the jury is still out on which he prefers.
Mamie (GCHB CH RACH3 Christhill First Lady Marie Geneva UDX2 PCDX OM3 BN GN RM11 RAE8 FDC CGC TKI ATT) was one of the oldest dogs competing at either competition, but still competed in Masters Obedience, placing third in the Terrier Group. Dory competed in the Open class, and they were among the few members of the breed represented in either sport. Despite being AKC-recognized for over 60 years, Australian Terriers remain in the bottom 25% of most popular breeds in the United States.
Natural Crossovers in Dog Sports
Hill’s breeder requires dogs to be shown in conformation, but considering his competitive streak, this is a happy addition to their dog sport careers. In fact, Hill started in AKC Rally solely due to ambition. “When they started AKC Rally, our parent club had an award for versatility where you had to get titled in three different things,” Hill recalls. He already had conformation and obedience, and AKC Rally seemed like a natural fit for this dogs. “I went into the Rally ring not knowing what I was doing, and I got the third title so that I could get a versatility award on my dog.”
And their devotion to the sport certainly stuck. “I always enjoyed it, and I like working with my dogs,” Hill says. Even though obedience is his first love, he says that its easy to do both with the same foundational skills.
“If you have a really good Rally dog, you can do obedience also,” Hill says. It’s easier to get started in Rally – the beginning portion is much easier, I think, than the beginning of obedience. But when you get to a higher level, it’s challenging.”
Hill believes that most very good AKC Rally dogs often have obedience sport backgrounds. With either sport, he finds that it depends entirely on effort and training. “It’s just you and your dog, and it’s your own efforts and the dog’s efforts,” he says. “You know exactly what you didn’t do well and what went wrong. It’s extremely structured.”
Top Terriers in Dog Sports
Despite the stereotype that Terriers can be stubborn, Hill doesn’t see this as a barrier to doing dog sports like obedience and AKC Rally. “I think it’s up to training. I think everybody needs a trainer – I don’t think you just learn all of it on your own,” Hill says. Though he doesn’t see his dogs ever being the top obedience dogs in the country, he does find his hard work paying off. Even at big national competitions, Hill and his dogs often rank highly among terriers, even often being the top terrier.
“I like the terriers, I like the personality,” Hill says. Some call it stubborn, but Hill likes to think of them as decisive. “They just know what they want to do, and don’t want to do.”
Navigating changes in their environment is, he says, the biggest challenge for his dogs. They are used to training outdoors in California and New Mexico, and when they come to the East and South, Hill says indoor venues are more common. “Being indoors with that noise is really difficult for my dogs and myself, because we never train in that environment,” Hill says. “We don’t do indoor shows that much, so I try to do more indoor shows before I get there.”
Not Ready to Quit Yet
While Hill feels passionately that any obedience dog can be an AKC Rally dog and vice versa, he also recognizes that advocating for the breed is incredibly important. Australian Terriers are a rarer breed in the United States, and seeing them at dog sports, as well as major national stages like at the AKC Obedience Classic and AKC RACH Invitational, is vital.
“More obedience and AKC Rally people need to join breed clubs,” Hill says. Often he’s found that breed clubs may have conformation handlers, but fewer have obedience and AKC Rally members. It’s a two-way street: breed preservation and getting handlers involved across sports can go hand in hand.
Despite being in the dog sports for over three decades, Hill isn’t slowing down. Even though Mamie’s retirement from obedience and AKC Rally is around the corner, he is just getting started in training Tino to follow in her and Dory’s footsteps.
“I’m pretty competitive,” Hill laughs. “I’m not ready to quit yet.”
Working with his dogs and the joy that they both get from doing sports together is a major factor in continuing. Plus, the visibility of bringing his dogs to compete at these competitions is good for the breed. “Dogs want to please you, and they want to work with you,” Hill says.
The post From ‘Mamie’ to ‘Tino:’ Kreg Hill’s Dog Sport Journey With Australian Terriers appeared first on American Kennel Club.