Barrie James & Diva - Ouja Fink
Introducing “Diva” registered K.C name: Ouja Fink (who da you fink).
She is a little rescue WSD from the Dogs Trust in Bridgend. One day I had a text from a friend to tell me there was a short haired black & white bitch there, with massive ears! “More her type than mine”. At this time, my wife Sam, was on holiday for a fortnight with her mother in
That was it, after visiting the site on numerous occasions I called a friend at the Dogs Trust at Bridgend and said if she was still there in a fortnight I would have her......
That was it, Agilitynet rescue me pages were red hot for the next 14 days incase someone else took a shine to her. A fortnight passed and my wife returned home from holiday, and the first thing she said was, “have you got another dog then” (I did say I would get another rescue when my youngest dog Smug “Seriously Smug of Valgray” was 7, and she was). I explained the situation and we agreed to go to the dogs trust later that week. When we arrived I was expecting to go to the kennels, but luckily, Lisa, at the Dogs Trust had kept her in her home as she lived on site. On first impression I thought she was quite chunky looking, (staffy x WSD perhaps?) how wrong could I be? My vet thinks she is a whippet cross! Anyway, after completing all the paper work and checks, the following week we went and collected her. She settled in fine with the rest of my pack (6) and it was like she had never been anywhere else. I did all the playing and basic obedience stuff at home and she used to also come and run around the agility field before and after training with my other dog, Smug. Her agility training started well, but she lacked a little confidence, she mastered most of the basic things by the time she was 15 months, but we hadn’t started on the weaves.
After the sudden passing of my mother in September (rip), Susie offered to take her and Smug to stay with her for a few weeks, to make it easier for me with family commitments. When Diva and Smug returned, miraculously Diva could weave, (thanks Susie). Since this time she has gone from strength to strength, however the steering can be a bit of a problem on occasions. I must thank “our” trainer Susie Josty for putting up with me, I know I am not easy to train, and only being able to train for 1 hour a week, I often bombard Susie with what I want to do and try to rush our training. Diva will do whatever, she loves to work and try her heart out for me all of the time, and I thank you D. The one thing I will say I have done different with Diva, is that less training with the equipment and more fun with me, toys and games and her faithful piece of Astroturf for her down command. Not having access to my own equipment to use, I trained her to run to a piece of Astroturf at home and then introduced it to floor at the bottom of the contacts, (its working so far, touch wood).
We have a long way to go yet, but I can honestly say I would not want any other dog than her. She is 2 years old 
now and to date this she has had 11 KC wins and qualified for the Pedigree Novice semi-final and the CSJ Novice Final. The Olympia Novice semi did’nt really go to plan for us, however she worked really well. We got the big E from taking an extra jump on the course, but with an early running order on a challenging course, we had to go for it. She did get all her contacts and weaves at least. The CSJ Final also was a great experience for us both. In the invitation agility in the morning we won, I was so pleased! Nerves did play a big part in the afternoon when we were 3 from home, Diva slipped in the weaves after getting all the contacts superbly on the course, and the commentator said “they are nearly 3 seconds up on the clock” to this point. So it wasn’t to be our afternoon, but we did win the morning event.
Another highlight this year for me was at Diva’s first grade 4 show, which was the KC Festival where she won grade 4 jumping and also grade 4/5 jumping. I did join UK Agility to give her some confidence in the beginners classes in the winter, so far she has won 18 classes and is currently working and winning at Champion Level, she is my dream dog (at the moment). So after a great first season, I am really looking forward to the next, we start in grade 5 and I would like to stay there for a while, as it is very easy to forget Diva is only 2. I would also like to thank everyone for there encouragement and support the last year and a special mention to Karen for being the backbone in Rescue Agility and promoting it in such a great way, with the site, leagues and Final.
