PRINEVILLE – It was a dog-beat-dog kind of a day at the Crook County Fairgrounds on Sunday.

With cloudy skies outside and 140 running, jumping, barking, panting border collies, Jack Russell terriers and German shepherds inside the arena at the fairgrounds, the place had gone to the dogs – in a good way.

The fairgrounds played host to two days of dog agility trials, organized by Bend Agility Action Dogs.

The purses are small here, but owners and their dogs come for much more than money.

”My dog lives, eats and breathes it,” said Lynneia Holladay Kollmorgan, of Bend, who had two border collies competing in different events Sunday. Kahula, a female, took second place in a national dog agility competition in 2005.

”She’d rather do agility than anything else in the world,” Kollmorgan said.

Some of the dogs in the steeplechase competition – which requires them to navigate a series of jumps, weave through posts and bound through a tunnel in the right order – will qualify this weekend for the national Dog Agility Steeplechase in Scottsdale, Ariz., an event run by the United States Dog Agility Association with a $10,000 prize for the winner.

One of those dogs that is already qualified is Hillcrest Kate, a 9-year-old border collie owned by Brittney MacNeill, of Terrebonne.

Coming off a 29.34-second run of the steeplechase Sunday, Kate and MacNeill were exuberant.

The run was fast, with Kate gliding over the jumps and smartly dodging through the line of 12 weaving posts as MacNeill ran alongside her and called out commands like ”jump,” ”weave” and ”turn.”

Kate’s time was just two-hundredths of a second short of the first-place time for her size category.

Of the 140 dogs that entered this weekend’s events, 74 ran Saturday’s steeplechase and 25 of those qualified for Sunday’s run, which most of the dogs ran more aggressively, organizer Barb Brandt said. Several knocked down bars on their jumps, tacking on five-second penalties to their times.

”They’ll do things in here that they probably wouldn’t do the rest of the weekend because they’ve got nothing to lose at this point,” Kollmorgan said.

Defeats are hardly crushing here, even as dogs vie to win plaques or ribbons in each event. Regardless of how they do, the dogs get treats and a little bit of play time after each run. Even criticism, as when one owner admonished her border collie that a run was ”horrible,” comes in a sugar-coated tone of voice.

Agility dog trainer Stephanie Morris, of Bend, said the sport has become increasingly popular in recent years. Most dogs will need about a year of training before they’re ready to compete, Morris said, though ”it’s totally individual to the dog.”

Morris trains more than 100 dogs in Central Oregon, giving owners and canines weekly lessons. Many owners set up small courses in their yards and work with their dogs on all the basic skills, like jumping, weaving and following commands.

The first time owners see a given course is when it is set up immediately before a round of runs. Owners get several minutes at the start of each round to walk the course – but the dogs stay behind in their crates and don’t see the course until they run it. Each dog only gets one chance to run the course and post a time.

Dogs enter separate categories based on their height. Larger dogs are expected to clear higher jumps and generally run the courses more quickly.

”It’s a spectator sport, as well as a handler and dog sport,” Morris said. ” People like to see the dogs out there having a good time.”

Peter Sachs can be reached at 617-7837 or at psachs@bendbulletin.com.