My Sister Princess, The Best First Dog I Could Ever Have.

Chapter 8: An Agility Star Is Born!

My mom and I, continued to go to agility classes with Champ. He was doing well, so we put him in his first dog show. The day of the trial came and we went and got him measured for his Jump Height Card. This card shows what height the dog should jump during the event. He measured fourteen inches at the shoulder. We would need to do it at least one more time for the card, but this would be at the next trial. I had put him in a course call Jumpers With Weeves. We did well, but did not win our first time in the ring.

We trained some more, and then tried him again. We measured him again and this time he measured larger. I was in a panic because if he was that height I would have to put him as preferred. In agility dogs can be in two different classes. Normal and preferred. Preferred allows the dog to jump one height lower that they are. This is not a bad thing, but me wanting Champ to jump normal, I prayed that the third and final measurement would say that he was 14 inches tall allowing him to normal jump 12 inches. The third measurement came and my prayers were answered. He measured 14 inches allowing him to stay normal 12.

When it was time for our run we entered the ring and ran the coarse. After I finished running the coarse I took Champ to the ribbons table to see if we had qualified or not. The lady at the table looked through all the second and third place ribbons. No luck finding Champ's and my name. She looks in the first place ribbons section and found our ribbon. We won our first qualifying ribbon along with a first place ribbon! My mom and I were so happy! Lynette, our backdoor neighbor, had come to the show to watch Champ and I run. She brought out her camera and took a picture of champ and I with our first place ribbon.

Champ and I continued working on agility and entered for our second qualify ribbon. We got it on our third trial. With needing only one more qualifying ribbon to move up to Open I entered Champ in a two day trial hoping that he would win at least one of the two days that we were enterd. The first day comes and champ enters the ring and wins his third first place ribbon as well as his third qualify ribbon. Not only did Champ win first place, but he also had a perfect score for his run.

The kennel club that was hosting this agility event had a special ribbon for people that finished their class. This meant that you had your three qualifying ribbons need to move up to the next class. In our case we were moving up from Novice to Open. The next day came and I ran champ in Open jumpers with weaves. I also ran him in Novice standard for the first time and won our first qualify in Novice Standard Agility.

Champ and I did not qualify for Open Jumpers With Weaves (Open JWW) because we were a little slow on our run. I was sad that we did not qualify for Open JWW, but it showed me what we needed to work on. I decided that day that I would focus on standard agility instead of jumpers with weaves. Boo never showed interest in agility, so I have never showed him in agility. We hope that one day Bonnie will need a sheltie for a commercial. Until that day Boo will just be a companion dog for Champ as well as a loving family member for my family. Sadly money became an issue so Champ and have not been in any more shows. I had lost my job in childcare, and did not fid a job for over a year in childcare.

I hope to start back with Champ in agility again if I can ever find the time to train him on the teeter again. We trained Champ and Boo bear to become Therapy dogs like Princess. They both passed the test and became therapy dogs. But just like agility I could not find the time to do much therapy work with them, so they are on a break from that as well. As for now Champ and Boo bear are just loyal house pets.

That is all for now hopefully there will be more in the future, but until then thanks for reading.

Kimberly McClure