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Key time pittie: Woodsboro pit bull, handler to make Hollywood debut on ‘America’s Leading Dog’ Tuesday | Culture

Key time pittie: Woodsboro pit bull, handler to make Hollywood debut on ‘America’s Leading Dog’ Tuesday | Culture
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Creasy Pigott has extensive been a qualified good boy. The Woodsboro dog has been training for — and afterwards winning — competitions because he was seven months outdated.

Quickly, however, the 8-calendar year-old American pit bull terrier’s superstar standing will attain new heights. On Tuesday, his gentle brown mug will be highlighted on TVs throughout the nation as he would make his Hollywood debut on year two of “America’s Leading Puppy,” which features a massive canine impediment program competitors. The display is hosted on A&E by comic David Koechner and sporting activities broadcaster Curt Menefee.

“It was genuinely remarkable,” Creasy (just kidding — his handler, Gary Pigott) reported. “Kind of like a the moment-in-a-lifetime point.”

Outdoors of the limelight, Creasy is effective as a “demo dog” at the pet training facility “Sit Indicates Sit,” which Pigott and his spouse, Kari Pigott, run in Frederick. But even however teaching puppies is Pigott’s bread and butter, he explained he’d by no means found just about anything like the program dogs race to end on “America’s Best Pet dog.”

When the demonstrate premiered past January, canine had to soar in and out of cars, leap about and crawl below partitions and dash throughout an unstable rope bridge. This period, Creasy is going head-to-head against other operating pet dogs — as effectively as police K9s and civilian “underdogs” — in a training course that features a 30-foot-long tunnel, a doggy zip-line and other excessive obstructions.

Each and every week, the furry athletes and their handlers contend for the likelihood to win $10,000 and an additional $5,000 to donate to an animal charity of the handler’s alternative. In the last 7 days of the competition, the season’s profitable teams will be pit in opposition to each other for the esteemed title of “America’s Major Dog” and a $25,000 prize.

It took some convincing from friends for Pigott to throw Creasy’s hat in the ring. When he didn’t hear something back again from the present for a when soon after sending in Creasy’s audition tape and application, he assumed the dog hadn’t created the minimize.

Then, he received an electronic mail from a producer on the display: “America’s Top rated Dog” was heading to get started filming in the drop. Could Creasy and Pigott be in Los Angeles in two weeks?

With no time to spare, the duo dove into making ready for the competitors. There was just a single dilemma — Pigott didn’t know that the present had changed the obstacle class from the past season, so he and Creasy invested a week teaching for the original training course. When a producer stated the zip line he and Creasy would have to ride, he was very caught off-guard.

“I’m like, ‘What? Nobody told me anything,’” Pigott explained, laughing at the memory. “They have been like, ‘Oh, you did not get the electronic mail with the new system?’ and I’m like, ‘I did not see any of that.’”

Not extensive just after that, the Pigotts were being en route to LAX. The clearly show hooked them up with a lodge home, but they weren’t authorized to go sight-viewing — the rivals and their attendees were less than quarantine due to the pandemic. All people also experienced to get examined for the virus just about every working day. That did not dampen the Pigotts’ exhilaration, while — his youngest daughter designed bedazzled “Team Creasy” T-shirts for the pup’s followers to don during the competitors.

On the working day of the competitors, Creasy and Pigott only acquired a several minutes to check out out the obstacle system with the other opponents in the afternoon. Then, when the sunlight went down — and the climate in the desert grew to become additional bearable — it was Creasy’s time to glow.

What transpired following? Nicely, you will have to enjoy to come across out.

Creasy arrives from a extensive line of operating dogs and furry athletes — his dad and mom, grandparents and good-grandparents all have various titles.

As for Pigott, his oldest daughter was the 1 who introduced him to the dog competition entire world. Some of his fondest recollections are packing up the family’s RV to just take his two ladies to present dogs across the country. This was just before “Sit Usually means Sit” and Creasy — he was an electrician back again then.

Nonetheless, some points haven’t altered. When his oldest begged Pigott to enable her start out demonstrating puppies, he had a issue for her.

“I was like, ‘If you want to do that, we’re not heading to get a very little floofy dog to go in the clearly show ring,’” he remembers saying. “‘We’re gonna get a pit bull.”

Pigott has generally experienced pit bulls. He acquired his to start with when he was 12 years aged, living in the Takoma Park area, from a litter of puppies his neighbor had. He appreciates what very good pet dogs they are — how tenacious they are and how substantially they adore men and women.

But he’s also very well conscious of their standing. He’s experienced people today arrive to “Sit Suggests Sit” with pit bull puppies, contemplating they adopted terrier mixes, only to start off crying when Pigott tells them their true identities.

Yes, Pigott mentioned, pit bulls are quite strong and strong puppies. But they can be educated to interact in a human-social natural environment just like any other breed. That’s one of the causes why he attempted out for “America’s Leading Dog” with Creasy, Pigott claimed: He desires people today to stop writing off pit bulls as aggressive or “out of control” just simply because of the way they glance.

“These dogs can do nearly anything that other canines can do,” he said.

Observe Angela Roberts on Twitter: @24_angier