Fly (Fly Mark Two)         

Aka Flopsy Bunny or Floozy Woozy Wipsel Wopsel

I have always had dogs, but Fly was the first dog that I did agility with. She was born on 23rdJuly 1996.
We bought her from Crewkerne in Somerset. She was from Hamish, a working sheepdog and Bonny a pet collie. There were three in her litter. We picked her up on our way home from our holidays. It was so exciting.
We had lost our previous Fly 5 months earlier, when she was 14, and had decided not to have another dog!
We started doing a bit of obedience and then moved onto agility.
I was told she was a great starter dog. She just did it. I didn’t want to win out of starters, it was much too much fun, but after a lot of places and trophies it was inevitable that she would.
We competed at novice and intermediate, doing teams and pairs, she was a reliable, but not fast, clear round dog
She now does veterans, with me or my grandson Fred.
Fly is, and has always been, my best friend and an extra special dog whom has changed the course of my life. She kept me sane when my children were teenagers.

Then came Rem (Star Sixty Nine)

Aka Remrauld

I wanted a second dog as Fly was getting older. So we went to Devon to look at some litters.
We bought Remy from a farm, both of his parents were working sheepdogs and competing in trialling. There were eight in his litter, but on the morning I was there they had mislaid one! The pups were feeding on chicken feed and the farmhouse was an absolute tip, they had a fox tied up and a jack Russell with half a face from a badger attack.

      

I desperately wanted a bitch, but thought a dog would get on better with Fly. So I chose Remy. He had been born on 23rd September 2000.
Remy has been trained to do agility, will run with anyone, but dislikes people without dogs.
He did compete for a while but didn’t like the judge in the middle of the ring and bravely tried to scare him away by continuously running up to him and barking.
Even though he is the most stupid, soft dog I have I was concerned he was scaring people, so I stopped running him. He was competing at Grade 4.

With a complete lack of judgement I had bought another dog from the same litter….

And that was Snap (Snap Mark Five)

Aka That B*****d dog or Snippy Snaps

The bitch from hell!!! The one I would have chosen had I wanted a bitch, so I conned my dad into having her. 
                                                                               

She is a difficult dog, very independent, wont do a thing she is told and has to be walked with a long line on otherwise she stays just out of reach.
She is extremely fast, will chase anything and will happily stay out all night if she escapes. This means sleepless nights trying to lure her back in.
Unfortunately my dad had a spinal stroke in 2004 and could no longer look after Snap so she came to live with us. Most of the time you would not know she was there, she just curls up in the corner behind the table. So with Rem not competing I still needed another dog for agility.
I thought I would have better luck getting a puppy from agility lines.

Kes (Magic Murmur) joined us.

Aka Keswick or Kessy Wessy

Kes is a handsome tri-colour boy born mid December 2002. He was bred locally and I was very excited about getting him, I had actually seen him being born! There were five puppies in the litter and they all went to agility homes.


My vet believes that he has hip displasia but needs to x-ray to confirm.
I had wanted a small bitch but he turned out to be a large dog. Away from agility he is very laid back and a lovely dog to have around.
Kes was quite strong willed and I never managed to train him to jump properly, he jumps really high and appears to hang in the air, rather than long and fluid.
He lost his wait at the beginning of a course and then his contacts, then he decided he didn’t know how to weave any more. I still run him but only in jumping classes. He is Grade 3.
So I was still looking for my small bitch!

Wiz (Alsorts Magic Monster)

Aka Wizzy Woo or Woo Bag the Poo Bag

I desperately wanted a puppy from Bess as her previous litter had been fantastic, I also wanted a red and white collie and there had been one in that litter.
So I asked Sam and Rob Davies to be put on their list when I heard they were doing a repeat mating. They had loads of people wanting one so I was told there was no chance. Luckily for me people dropped out and just after Christmas 2004 I had a phone call telling me that there was a red pup for me.




S**T, I hadn’t told Martin about the litter!
So Wiz joined us. What a dog, I swear he came ready trained. Apart from having to release him from the dishwasher with a hacksaw, he didn’t chew or mess in the house. Everything I asked him to do over the equipment, he just did it, as though he had done it before….the dog’s smarter than me!
Wiz competes at Grade 7. He qualified for the Olympia Semis’ at Stoneleigh as a 2 year old…pretty amazing. His sister from the previous litter, Diz, won Olympia this year (2008) and the International at Crufts....... what a fantastic dog!