GABI POWELL & SPIDER PIE MEDIUM GRADE 2 WINNER

Spider was about 14 months old when she was booted off a farm in Ireland and onto a van headed for the pound to be shot, but luck intervened. I was looking for an active dog who could keep up with me on long walks and I found her at The Arc Animal Rescue Centre in Buxted, East Sussex.

She was desperate for love and hugs and is still very much an attention seeker, "me, me, me too"! My last rescue Tinker , sadly had little sense of humour and was too old and lame to play with Spider, so it was down to me to get down on my hands and knees and taught her - she now loves a good game of rag with her special, preferably, boyfriends.

Our training started with some obedience work together which went quite well except for the heelwork as i cannot walk in a straight line - then I heard about agility and thought why not? but also thought, am I too old? my legs dont know the word run and would I ever remember a course and so on, well I thought what the hell, lets go for it, and Spider, well she never had any doubts. Spider is now 5 and a half and has been competing for about 18 months so I feel we are still playing catch up

We both love the traing, the shows, the atmoshere, the people, the dogs and the thrill of the win, which I hardly believed possible. My huge thanks to those - you know who you are - who have been so helpful and patient training us and without whose help we would'nt have stood a chance.

Gabi Powell