It’s a summer evening and the fireflies are twinkling in the front yard, it’s just you and your dog. You’re a kid with a cape running around the front yard with arms out like Superman and you’re yelling “Ma, Pa, we’re flying!”

The nostalgic scene evokes thoughts of friendship, youth and innocence, and according to Bob Anderson, it depicts the feeling he gets when training with his four and a half year old border collie Canaan.

“In the middle of an agility run, I’ve felt like that, felt like yelling, ‘We’re flying!’” Anderson said. “And this dog is running next to you with its tongue hanging out and is just in heaven.”

The phrase “man’s best friend” is thrown around often, but it can be rare to see a man and his dog working as a team to a shared goal.

The bond that Anderson and Canaan share is the same one that gets them up at 6 a.m. every morning for training six days a week and has led them to compete in the North American Dog Agility Council competitions in Springfield, Illinois Oct. 1-4.

Anderson left San Juan Sept. 18 to roadtrip east with Canaan, swimming and camping as they go to make it to the preliminary trials Sept. 28-30.

So far Canaan has taken first-place in 84 agility trials and 15 titles around the country since Anderson and Canaan first began running trials in December 2014. Canaan will be running courses five times a day in the preliminary runs, which are around 35 seconds each.

Anderson, chief surveyor at Star Surveying, Inc. got Canaan as a rejected sheep dog from a farm near Republic, Wash.

Anderson said he decided to take Canaan to training classes with trainer Lisa Holt to understand basic commands and exercise.

But what started as something simple has turned into something much larger then “sit” and “stay” over the span of four years of training, especially for a dog as smart as Canaan.

“He’s training like an Olympic athlete, they’ve really done the work,” Holt said of Canaan and Anderson. “From everything I’ve seen, he is certainly one of the fastest dogs on the west coast.”

When competing, Anderson runs next to Canaan for part of the course, and then directs him with hand signals and body language. Anderson said training with Holt was critical in their success, improving their communication.

“We’re on the road to a happy destiny. Sure we’re going to Nationals, but that’s just a part of it,” Anderson said. “Getting up in the morning, having the routine, being over 60 and being fit enough to run around and keep up with my dog, that’s the road that we’re on.”