This is the story of Defa`s 2006 Award Winner - this is Simon's story by Tracey Hopper

When my daughters agility dog was taken ill we decided to look for another dog that she (then aged 11) could train herself from scratch. So off we went to the Dogs Trust, where we met Simon a fluffy gold and white 2 yr. old, what looked at the time like a Collie/Retriever. We had to wait a couple of weeks whilst he had an abscess on his neck treated. Then came a phone call saying he had bitten one of the vets after lengthy discussions we (perhaps foolishly) decided to still take him on.
 
The first couple of days were good, then he began to show his true colours and became the most challenging and hardest dog I've owned.
The first step was to remove all the mats and dead undercoat which made this skinny dog look fat and fluffy easier said than done. he'd obviously never seen a brush and it took weeks to sort his coat, we now can brush him of sorts but not as thoroughly as our other dogs.
He hated cars even the car parked on the drive freaked him out. His feeding routine consisted of clipping on his lead and feeding him on the drive, I'm sure the neighbours thought I finally lost the plot. He quite happily gets in the car now and has stopped trying to catch the passing cars on our walks.
His most serious problem was an intense dislike of children especially when we had an 11yr old daughter. He was originally a stray in Ireland so we have no history but suspect he was tethered and taunted by gangs of kids. For the first year we couldn't leave the house without a muzzle on him. Helped by living near 2 schools, friends kids and lots of treats we gradually desensitised him and now can quite happily walk him round busy places without any fuss, although I wouldn't ever totally trust him with kids.He had food issues with anything he couldn't eat straightaway, he would bury it somewhere. My daughter got bitten on the face when she sat on her camp bed which unknowingly Simon had buried a chew under. The second time he bit her for no reason other than going to sit down. That was an all time low my head was telling me enough was enough I'd tried for a year and I could do no more he had to go. But my heart couldn't do it to take him back would be to life in kennels a prison sentence. So he was here to stay one way or another we would help this dog. And we did three years later he's a different dog looking at the picture of contentment lying at my feet now its hard to believe a couple of years ago he would have had a panic attack if he got shut in a room by himself or attacked my foot if I dared to wiggle a toe.
 
As far as agility goes if only he had a RECALL. He was supposed to be my daughters but that was never to be. He has the potential to be my best dog if only he'd stay in a ring. If he's got his collie head on he's brill, but if he's got his Saluki head in no chance, we entered the EMDAC series in 2005 and we managed 1 CR and a 12th, every other time he jumped the netting, left the ring and ended up at the river. One time he got on an Island we couldn't get to him and refused point blank to budge. We didn't enter him in any this summer but took him to Whitstable a couple of weeks ago where I managed to
get him round 4 entire courses 1 E, 2 X 5R and 1 just out of the places. might not seem much but for us it was a huge achievement.  I think he'll be up to his usual tricks this weekend. We'll never compete properly with Simon but will continue to train him and you never know one day he might just master the recall, after all the things we've sorted out you'd think a recall would be a piece of cake!