Bud Houston Bio

Bud Houston is one of America’s most popular agility teachers, stressing solid handing
fundamentals and positive training techniques. He operates Dogwood Training Center in
central Ohio, the location of CampDogwood.

Bud Houston is the most prolific writer in the sport of agility. He is the author of 24 volumes of
training manuals published in the pages of the Just For Fun Agility Notebook. He wrote the very 
popular series of Agility Training manuals published by Clean Run Productions. He co-authored 
with Stacey Peardot, Go The Distance a training manual aimed at teaching handlers to work at 
a distance from their dogs; and the Clean Run Book of Agility Games, a comprehensive guide 
to rules for agility games; and with Ruth Van Keuren the Junior Handlers' Training Manual

Bud is an AKC Judge Emeritus (agility & retired from that venue), and an active USDAA, JFF,
and TDAA judge. His contributions to the agility community include founding the Clean Run
Magazine
, starting the largest Internet-based discussion group on Earth (Agiledogs). Today
Bud is the agility editor for the Just For Fun Agility Notebook, a popular agility training
publication, and is a columnist and contributor to Front and Finish, Clean Run Magazine, and
Off-Lead Magazine.

Bud is the founder of Just For Fun Agility (JFF), a loosely knit affiliation of clubs and training
centers who do agility… just for fun. JFF is a sanctioning organization for agility league play. An
agility league is a community based group that plays agility games in a team format on a
prearranged schedule.

In 2001 Bud spawned a new agility organization, the Teacup Dogs Agility Association
(TDAA). The purpose of the Teacup Dogs Agility Association is to provide a competitive
venue for dogs of small stature without regard to breed or pedigree; and to encourage course
challenges that are comparable to the course challenges which face large dog handlers in other
popular venues.

Bud’s expert commentary has been featured on the USDAA Nationals video tapes for several
years. These tapes are available through the USDAA (www.usdaa.com).

Bud Houston has added to the agility lexicon such technical terms as the Flip, the BLT, the
Tandem Turn, and Yeehaw!

Experience

Publication

Judging

Training Center Instruction

Seminar Instruction

Bud is available for seminar instruction on a number of topics. The most popular is Handling
Fundamentals
which can be adapted for students at any level. This is a very active and hard
working seminar in which you won't hear much lecture but will get a real workout and a lot of 
fine tuning under the watchful eye of one of the world's best handler movement coaches.  

The seminars Bud has taught are too numerous to mention. He teaches approximately 20 agility
handling seminars a year throughout the United States, and has been twice to Australia, where
he led seminars across that continent.

Camp Dogwood is led by Bud Houston, where we run 12 camps each year.  These camps are
divided into several specialized topics, including: Beginners, Novice, Advanced and Masters
handling camps; Instructors Certification camp; Speed camp; Games camp; and Distance
camp.