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A view of the world from the eyes of a border collie...
Reporting in from recent Sledding, Skijoring, Agility Events and Flyball Tournaments
around the area we welcome "Piper" and her handler extraordinaire, Tiffany
Salmon.
Introduction:
Name: Piper: a.k.a. Pippeaire, Pup
Official Handle: Piper (how original!)
Current titles:
ATChC Piper FMX CCGC DD NA NAJ
Breed: Border Collie
Date of Birth: October 20, 1999
Location: Shepperd's Crook Farm, Lorenville ON
Favorite toys: Frisbee. Frisbee. Frisbee. Tennis balls are good too.
Anything that squeaks.
Favorite activities: Playing frisbee, going to the dog park and playing
frisbee & riding in the car.
Activities that her parents make her do: Flyball, agility, skijoring
& dog sledding.
Siblings: Kramer & Bailey, her siamese cat brothers.
Dislikes: The vacuum cleaner. Her older brother Bailey who likes to
"slap" her nose and chomp on her tail.
Adventures in Sledding, Skijoring, Agility, Flyball, Frisbee and much much more
-- let's read what Piper, the busy Border Collie, has been up to these
days:
I have no idea where I left off! I guess I'll start
with my Spring.
In May I started off my agility season at the Guides
Canins trial in St. Lazare--the same trial where I earned my Advanced Agility
Dog title the year before. We ran 3 events--Masters Gamblers, Standard &
Jumpers. I finally figured out that in Gamblers you aren't supposed to stand
and bark at your handler when she tells you "Away! Tunnel!" and I earned my
second Gamblers leg in a row and a top score overall. Mom was thrilled! We've
tried
gambling a lot! In the Standard I knocked down a bar (they should really
make those bars so that they don't fall!). In Jumpers, mom ran me really
cautiously so that I'd keep all the bars up and we ran clean to earn our 4th
Masters title--Master Jumper Dog of Canada (MJDC). We then competed in the
Single Disc event at the Disc Dog trial and earned ourselves our first leg, a
first place, a Disc Dog (DD) title and the best score so far this year in all of
Canada!
The next day, with our swelled head, we went out to
train--we had Regionals coming up in 2 weeks and a trial at All Dogs Sports Club
in North Gower that weekend. Mom put me through the tire and I landed but
started walking on 3 paws. Eeep! My foot instantly became bloody and mom
panicked. It turned out that I had ripped my entire toenail off and had
completely exposed the quick. A quick trip to the vet and I was told that I'd
be fine to run the following weekend providing I didn't use it for a week. Good
news!
At the All Dogs trial, we ran our first event with our
exuberant friends Bob and his little Border Collie, Pistache in Team Relay.
They only needed this leg to earn their Agility Trial Champion (ATChC) and we
did it and managed to earn ourselves a first place finish. My frisbee buddy,
Norton the border collie, also earned his final leg in the same event, and he
along with his handler John earned their Veteran Agility Trial Champion. The
next event was Gamblers--we just needed this last leg for our ATChC. To add to
the stress, bratty Miss Rio was running in the other ring at almost the exact
same time and her run was for her Agility Dog Canada (ADC) title. Anyway, I ran
really well for mom (I did scare her once by skipping a contact) and I did the
gamble with no barking--we got our ATChC!!! I also ended up with a completely
bloody toenail again so mom made me go home and I wasn't allowed to do any more
celebratory runs.
With the Regional Championships coming up, we had to
make a decision about what to do. We were told that I could have my nail crazy
glued so we decided to attempt it and it worked beautifully! I got to go to
Regionals at Q-Seekers near Barrie. The fields were extremely wet and I was a
little out of control, so we didn't do as well as we would have liked. I did
come in first in one of the Standard runs (I was competing against sixty five
22" regular dogs!), but I had some problems gambling and mom slid all over the
place on the muddy jumpers courses (she actually got 5 faults for falling on a
tunnel!). We qualified for Nationals, with a score of 460pts (you need 300 to
qualify for Nationals), but decided we weren't quite ready to be competing in
that field, so we decided to wait until next year to make our National debut in
Montreal.
We then rested for a month to let our toenail
completely heal. Finally I was given the okay to work again in July--just in
time for the Capital Classic Horse & Dog Relay, but it was not to be--I
ended up pulling a hamstring in the opposite leg and came up limping on a
different hind foot!
After two months of rest and
physio, I couldn't take it
any more. Mom finally allowed me to go back to agility. We went down to
Binghamton NY for an AKC trial. I was absolutely wild! What fun! Agility! I
forgot how to stay at the start line and proceeded to give mom several heart
attacks when I'd be over 3 jumps before she even could start running. We did
get our last Novice Standard and Jumpers with Weaves legs and earned ourselves
some new letters to put at the end of our name--NA & NAJ.
Mom decided it was safe to take me back to class
the next week. I came up lame in the other hind leg. She threatened to shoot
me. Now I need a chiropractor--my back is out. So it's back to resting for
me. I hate resting. Border Collies weren't meant to rest!
~ATChC Piper FMX CCGC DD NA NAJ
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