In Your Own Time - The Brown's

We did have a dog previously in our former life back in God’s own country, (Bonnie Scotland). He was a cross between a Jack Russel Terrier (sire) and a Norwegian Bohund (dam) and as the kids were asked to choose a name for him he was known as SNUFFY (from a character in one of their infants’ books). He was a beautiful dog, as dogs go. Lovely colouring, long legs and and a wonderful temperament. Andrew used to ride on his back (he was a baby at the time) and Scott made a chariot and harnessed “Snuffy” to pull him around the house. Snuffy complained not a jot! Sadly he eventually had to be re-homed to a farm due to an illness which was not compatible with having young children crawling around the house. For those of you who understand my meaning, Snuffy was given the run of the house. As expected we were all totally dejected at the enforced decision but in the end of the day we feel it was the only decision to take.

Anyway, back to “April”. When we collected her from the farm she was just 8 weeks old and it was a family occasion. I remember stopping at the ice cream van on Birkrigg Common and buying ice cream for everyone, as it was a really hot day. Being big softies at heart we let this eight week old pup have a couple of licks from the end of a cone which had the effect of making her terribly sick in the back of the car. Even this could not deter us from loving this pup from the minute we saw her.

Once again her name, “APRIL”, came from Scott’s favourite toys / TV series at the time which was “Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles”. (I did say we are big softies at heart).

We took April to the vet for the once over and were asked if we had ever owned a Border Collie / Working Sheepdog before. When we said “no” he explained to us that a sheepdog had to be excercised, not only physically but mentally as well. This single statement is really what has guided us to follow the path of AGILITY with all our dogs since then.

As I was a wandering seafarer at the time most of Aprils early training was carried out by Ann with the help of Ken Ayrton of Pennington. He ran a dog obedience class which was really directed mainly at German Shepherds Dogs as he was a GSD specialist. Poor weather training was carried out indoors but when the sun came out and, the nights were long, they ventured outdoors. Ken kept an old caravan which was full of small scale agility equipment which was used purely for fun. The equipment was of a non-standard, home made type as there was never, at that time, any intention of competing at the sport.

From the very beginning, back in 1993, April showed a natural affinity to agility and one sunny weekend at the amphi-theatre we saw an agility display run by “Barrow-in-Furness Dog Training Club”. We contacted BIFDTC and eventually succceeded in becoming members. In those hazy days the club trained at the John Dunn Centre behind the ‘Ferry’ pub on Walney. These were good days for the club when it was relatively small as were the shows which we attended.

It was back then in the mid nineties when the club ventured to hold our very first Agility Show at the “Gas Fields”, by the Brown Cow, in Dalton. Ann, Scott, Andrew & I were all very much involved in the setting up and organising of that first show. To let you understand the setting up of that first show involved shovelling muck and cutting grass / nettles with domestic lawn mowers before setting up the rings, and continuously chasing the cows from the camping field each and every time someone left the gate open, and those were too numerous to mention. Ask Keith Warwick about someone firing a shotgun!!!! over the field the day we set up our own tents while also setting up the rings. It seemed like a mountainous task back then but each and every member of the club pulled together and from that little acorn a massive ‘Great Oak’ has evolved.

By this time Ann & I had also been invited to become committee members of the club, which we duly accepted, and through this we became even more involved in the day to day decision making of the club.

Ann and April came on like a house on fire, picking up the tricks of the trade as they progressed. By summer 1994 it was deemed Ann & April were ready to compete in their first show. The Ribble club were holding a show at WINDY Southport (that is another story). As a family we went out and purchased a 6 berth tent with all the associated camping gear, tied it to the roof of a Ford Sierra and with April in the hatchback we headed off to our fist show. We followed Norman & Chris (who were old hands by this time) like shadows for fear of getting lost.

Ann & April did well for their first attempt, a couple of clear rounds if our memories serve us well but alas no rosettes. The bug had bitten and we were in, hook, line and sinker. We began attending as many shows as we could, work commitments permitting. Over the years, doing our rounds, we have made (and lost) some very good friends some of whom are still very much on the scene.

As expected I got very frustrated watching Ann train & compete with April so I got my own dog from the Wainwright Centre in Kendal. Toby was a rescued sheepdog who it would appear had been badly treated prior to being rescued. He was terrified of his own shadow when we got him and particularly jittery when he heard a bouncing ball. Who knows what he had been through. We loved him and nurtured him and introduced him, with great difficulty, to the fun and excitement of agility. Dawn was instrumental in showing Toby what fun agility actually was. It was obvious we were making progress and bringing him out of his shell but with his new found confidence he actually began showing signs of aggression. Initially we managed this well and continued to work with him on his agility, which he was beginning to enjoy. Alas one day my brother was visiting with his young family and unfortunately Toby bit my niece on the face. With confidence Toby’s utter dislike for young children also came to the fore and we had to return him to the Wainwright Centre who I might add were fully understanding. They accepted him back again graciously for re-homing to a home where he would not come up against kids.

After a spell we became acquainted with a couple from Richmond who were active members of Border Collie Rescue. Gordon & Nina regularly brought their charges to shows in an attempt to re-home them and we fell for a small four month old tricolour dog. We paid Gordon & Nina a visit at their Richmond home and came away with Ben. That was his rescue name and we tried to change his name to Skye but quickly learnt that he did not like his new name and more or less told us he preferred the name BEN and so it came to pass.

I tried hard for a few years under the instruction, direction and hard work of Jane Holland and due to

her perseverance I actually progressed to become a novice handler. Thanks Jane. I also realised very quickly that I was putting myself through more stress in the agility ring, in the name of fun, than I was getting at work. You see, I just could not get my head round courses and no matter how many times I walked a course, telling myself I would do it this way and I would go that way, when it came to my run, I would inevitably get myself lost and never ran the course as I predicted I would. Being of the determined type (ha ha) I gave up running Ben at shows and Ann more or less took Ben under her wing and made a far better job of it than I ever could have done.

This actually fell in quite well with Andrew (our youngest) coming through to become a successful young handler. He, for a while, ran April in Juniors while Ann took over running Ben. Andrew also qualified for Crufts Junior Agility Obedience / Flyball (tri-athalon) competition four years on the trot for which he has many various rosettes to accompany his many trophies / rosettes which he has won on the agility circuit.

Ann, also having progressed to novice handler with April, (and even went on to attain the prestige of running April in the Seniors), did very well with Ben albeit he was diagnosed as having severe hip displasia. The arrangement worked well for a while until Andrew got a bit older and after him and his mother putting serious pressure on to Dad we decided to get Andrew his own dog. At this time Norman H was doing Border Collie Rescue and arrived at our house one night with a young six month old leggy, coffee & cream dog. Who can resist any dog at that age and lo and behold we became a family with three dogs (much against Dad’s better judgement).

At this time we were attending shows regularly during the summers months. One incident I remember clearly occurred at “Dogs in Need” way down in Ipswich. Our eldest son Scott, who used to get dragged along to every show, was having a bit of friendly rivalry with Steve Murray (Glynnis’s husband) who also did not run a dog. They agreed to enter the ‘Helping Hands’ class at the show and although they both did very well Scott pipped Steve at the post. He has never let him forget it.

Andrew trained and competed solely with Skye in the early days and also attained the giddy heights of novice handler. That achievement was at a Wigan show which Ann, due to family commitments, could not attend. Andrew hurt his back on that successful run and could not run his dog for the rest of the weekend. That was also the weekend when Ben escaped from our awning and went to the place where he would most likely expect to find his Dad. He was found sitting outside the pub across the road patiently waiting on his Dad coming out. (I hasten to add at this juncture that I was not actually in the pub at the time, but Ben didn’t know that).

Andrew’s agility career also came to an early end when his scholastic commitments and part time money making ventures, prevented him from attending weekend shows. This did not deter Ann in any way whatsoever. She now had three dogs to train and run at shows. Mind you by this time April was getting a bit long in the doggy tooth and Ann was entering her in fewer classes as time went by.

Sadly April and then Ben were both taken from us,, within six months of each other, by that apparently very common doggy ailment, “The Big ‘C’”. Being robbed of two very good, pets firstly and agility dogs secondly was, to say the least, life shattering. From three dogs we were once again back to one.

Poor old Skye didn’t know what to do with himself. After a short time we were put in touch with a

breeder, over in Barnard Castle, by Jaqui Tarn, who had a two litters of Border Collie pups for sale. We called the breeder and arranged a visit and found ourselves the proud parents of another eight week old bitch who we named Becky. There you go – from bottom of the pack to top dog with this little ‘whippersnapper’ continually in his face. Is it any surprise that on Becky’s first day in the house Skye very nearly swallowed her when he had her entire head in his mouth. It says a lot for him that he didn’t actually bite down at the time.

Now comes the bombshell – Skye was then diagnosed as having severe hip displasia. We had suspected something was wrong for a long time as he has always had difficulty in getting into the back of the car. Regularly we would have to lift his back end in to the car, but initially we put it down to laziness possibly combined with his long gangly legs. More recently he was showing signs of being reluctant to jump full height hurdles. We paid a visit to our local vet and the diagnosis was made. Ann slowed down a bit with him at first, entering him in fewer classes, as with Ben, but it soon became apparent that his hip displasia was quite far advanced. He has now been retired from competition agility.

Can we say fortunately (or was it meant to be), that Becky has now come of age and is now competing fully. Initial signs are promising and hopefully Ann and little Becks will go on to win many a class and possibly progress through the ranks and maybe, just maybe, reach the giddy heights of Senior Handler and Dog. Whatever way it goes she is already an integral part of our family and we would not be without her.

If I can end this saga with an all encompassing statement which Norman H said, in the middle of that John Dunn Centre training field one cold wintry Sunday afternoon,

“WHEN AGILITY STOPS BEING FUN, STOP DOING IT!”

As an onlooker nowadays I can see more and more evidence of this statement being lost in the endeavor to win at all costs.

Dogs, as I have already stated, are pets first and if they come good at agility then treat that as a bonus!

Allan Brown