Bob Sharpe & Meg - Flynn's Little Sweetheart
In April 2004 at an agility fun day we were asked if we knew of anyone who wanted a Red/White collie bitch, as this 10 month old girl was being bullied by her housemates and had twice leapt a wall to escape, both times narrowly missing traffic on a busy main road. My wife Pauline had always wanted such a dog, but with 3 collies already, one a recent rescue herself we vowed not to be tempted. We did however walk past Meg who looked such a sad figure staked outside the car, and we thought how pretty she was. I later passed and she came towards me with that nervous wiggle she still has, and that is where fate intervened for when I told the owner we had just had a fuss she seemed genuinely surprised as Meg never sought others and was indeed afraid of strangers.
Meg joined our household the next day after a long run with our collies but at this stage we had no thoughts of Agility doubting that this nervous little girl would ever have the drive to work and we were adamant that we would do nothing to cause her stress. Pauline spent hours 1:1 teaching her what a ball was for, coaxing a tug and generally bonding, my part was merely setting up simple jumping exercises for the pair to complete. We gradually introduced her to Agility and always aware of her background set no timescales to compete, but she slowly grew in confidence and learnt quickly at every session. Her speed increased with confidence and her natural tight turns caused many to comment. She learnt to weave over Christmas 2004 at which stage she had completed all the equipment and we began to think about competing.
Her KC debut was at Scunthorpe 2005 but only in team and pairs. She had only 5 faults on a difficult team course, raising comments on her contact technique,and an elimination in pairs as she produced speed that I had never seen in training. Her individual debut was at Otley in May and after 5 faults in Graduate, produced 2 clears in Agility and Jumping finishing 12th and 13th respectively.
The rest of 2005 saw some amazing runs with the odd pole down and even odder handling by me as with every outing she seemed to produce a speed of turn that I had not seen before. In training she was very vocal and frantic to get started. (Where was that timid girl of 12 months ago?) She qualified for the CSJ final and although failing to improve on her morning 8th place she proceeded the next day to win Novice Agility at Easington beating one of my others into second place. If there were to be any doubts now of her ability they were dispelled the following week where she twice beat my fast (so I thought) Senior dog at a UKA show.
2006 saw her placed 3rd at Scunthorpe in the first show, then a year to the day of her individual debut she won Novice Agility at Otley to go Senior. Her last outing at this level saw a Novice win at Wyre along with 2nd place in Intermediate and on her Senior debut at Tweedbank she achieved 2nd and 3rd places. The rest of the season brought 7 top 5 placings at North Derbyshires 3 day show,before that elusive win towards advanced was achieved with a Senior Agility win at Derbyshire in August. She also competed in the Pedigree Team relay final at Stoneleigh achieving 4th place in the morning individual event and qualified for the DARL final, winning the Large Novice section in September.
October brought further success when Meg & Friend won the Laser Knockout Pairs at
Next year will see further Agility development for the Little girl with Big time temperament,and many will be thrilled at her progress so far.
Someone up there must like us both ! Meg is such a sweetheart and still brings a tear to my eye when, I remember that sad little face at Chesterfield 2 years ago, I have given her lots of love and my time but she has given me so much more. My set up before a run always includes a cuddle and a kiss and whatever the result I am delighted to have changed the life of a lovely little dog.
Bob Sharpe (still with a tear in my eye)