Jess (Hint of Blue AW)

Back in 1998 Ed and I decided that we would like a dog, but not just any dog it had to be a border collie.  We had researched the breed and decided that our lifestyle would suit.  We decided that we wanted to give an unwanted dog a second change, so we registered with various rescue centres.  A couple of weeks later we had a call from a local rescue centre saying that they had received a phone call from a man who’s bitch had had a litter of puppies, but he wanted the rescue centre to buy them from him.  Obviously rescue centres don’t do this and so they took his name and number, telephoned us and passed his details on saying they were concerned for the dogs’ welfare.  We phoned the number and arranged to go over and see the litter that day.  The dogs weren’t in too bad a condition and had in fact been bathed ready for our visit.  After much deliberations we decided on the fat one that came waddling from behind the washing machine.  However, the man concerned thought we were going to have them all!!  When we finally got him to understand we only wanted one, we walked away with a beautiful bitch, who we called Jess. 

Jess turned out to be a bit of a nightmare.  She chewed up most of the post that came through the letterbox, numerous shoes (including designer ones!), passports, walls, cupboards…the list goes on! But we still loved her to bits and could laugh about it (most of the time). I started off with obedience training but decided that I wanted to give agility a go.  You know the scenario, you see it on Crufts, think ‘that looks like fun’ and want to have a go.  We found a local club and it didn’t take long for Jess to be gripped as much as I was. 

When Jess was about 21/2 I entered her in her first show, Shrewsbury DTC.  It wasn’t a huge success, but it did mean that I got well and truly bitten by the agility bug.  Jess won out of elementary in 2003 and starters (with 3 agility wins and 1 jumping win) in 2004.  She has qualified for pretty much all of the starters finals over the years and achieving 4th place in the Tuff Stuff Graduate Final.  At 9 years old Jess now works at Grade 5 and is still going strong, getting lots of top 10 places in 2007, as well as several top 5.  Jess really has been a fantastic first dog and inspired us to look for our second dog, Sally.

Sally (Don’t Dally Sally AW)

In October 2001 Ed and I went to Rhos Goch Animal Sanctuary in Wales looking for a playmate for Jess.  We had walked several dogs but unfortunately Jess didn’t particularly take to any of them.  As we were chatting to the owners, a tri-coloured collie came out to go to the toilet and then sat by the door wanting to go back in.  I asked the owner if that dog was up for re-homing and he said yes, but no one wants her because she doesn’t like going for walks with them and she has too many problems(!).  I looked at Ed and we both said well, we’d like to give her a chance.

So the owner went off to get a lead and brought her over to us.  We could see straight away she was a very nervous and timid dog, but she went off with us and Jess for a walk, albeit reluctantly.  This was the only dog Jess had taken to, so we went back and said we would like to give her a home.  The owners were quite surprised at this and agreed that we could take her with us straight away and they would be in touch to carry out a home check.

Sally was about 21/2 years old when she came home with us, having spent most of that time being passed from rescue centre-to-rescue centre - she didn’t know what a home was, she was very timid and shy and just generally seemed to dislike life. 

It was very much an uphill struggle for many months - she'd run and cower in the corner at the sight of her lead, not wanting to go out, she was hand shy and had no idea how to play with toys or other dogs. 

We thought we would give Sally a go at agility, to see if this helped her overcome her fears.  However, this was a huge challenge - when we got excited with her for doing something right, she thought she had been naughty and would go and hide by a wall and shut down, and that would be the end of the lesson.  We had to find the right way of being able to let her know she had been good without scaring her.  Many people told us to give up with her, but we refused, knowing that this would be great for Sally’s confidence just so long as we took our time.

It took over 12 months of training before Sally started to trust us and began to show the first signs of enjoying agility. 

Sally finally made it into the competition ring in 2003.  After several months of eliminations and faults, but with sheer determination, Sally eventually achieved 1st place in elementary agility at Godmanchester’s limited show that November. 

In 2004 Sally really started to find her feet and won out of elementary at North Derbyshire in June with a 1st and a 3rd, together with several more 2nd and 3rd places before leaving elementary behind forever. 

With a close call at winning out of starters at Bromsgrove’s show in September with a 2nd in Starters Agility, we all knew it wouldn’t be long before the day would come.  And on 20 November 2004 Sally won out of novice agility at Newton Heath, meaning she was out of starters and half way to Senior.  This win also gave her the last few points to obtain her Agility Warrant, with her being one of the first to gain this award.

In February 2005 Sally got her second win, again at Newton Heath, in novice agility taking her to the dizzy heights of senior.  What an achievement for a ‘useless dog’!  She’s now a completely different dog; so full of life and energy.  Those people that remember her from the early days always comment on how different and happy she now is.

Sally is currently competing at Grade 6, however because she had quite bad back problems when we got her, I am now slowly retiring her into veteran.

Dylan (Wiccaweys Sparky Blue)

In August 2002 I saw a bundle of blue merle fluff on the Agilitynet Rescue Me Pages, looking for a new home via Wiccaweys Border Collie Rescue.  It wasn’t long before Dylan came to join the ever growing gang.

In the beginning Dylan was good to train.  He started out with obedience classes and it was only a matter of weeks before he was elevated to the competition obedience class.  However, this didn’t last long as we were ‘looked down’ on because I wanted to do agility with him.

I started his agility training when he was about 8 months old (nothing too demanding, just poles on the floor, etc) and at first things were going well.  However, it soon became clear that Dylan really wasn’t all that interested in agility, and found it much more fun to run into the next field or just simply misbehave.

I persevered and eventually he came out into the world of competition in February 2004.  It was a disaster!  But people came up to me saying how happy he looked and that was more important to me.

2005 and 2006 saw much of the same disasters occurring and it got to the point where I didn’t think Dylan was enjoying it.  I made the decision that if in 2007 he wasn’t happy, then I would retire him.  Thankfully 2007 saw a new Dylan.  He got quite a few places and even made it into the Agility Eye league tables - I was so proud to see his name in black and white at last, and he also got points in the DARL league tables.

Dylan has definitely been the hardest dog to train and, like Sally, I was told to give up with him.  We will see how 2008 pans out, but as long as my little man is happy, then so am I.