Country Livin’ Blog

As you already know if you read my first post, I have nine dogs. Now your question might be, why? The answer is simple; we didn’t mean to get so many. It just sorta happened. We have our really old dog, Chelsea, and she wasn’t so old when we got our Labrador, Paige. Paige was so full of Labrador energy that we started looking for outlets for all that energy. I took her to obedience school and then to Agility classes. Well, I didn’t do so well at Agility. Not only does the dog need to be agile, so does the human. I’m just not very agile. I would mean for my dog to go one way, but my shoulders weren’t twisted in that direction so my dog would go off course and then just look at me like, “What was that about?” So I gave up Agility.

One day I was walking through our family room when we were living in Montgomery and the TV was on Animal Planet. There was a show about a dog getting an award for playing a game called Flyball. The dog was a Labrador! I called my husband into the room and said, “Check this out! It’s a ball fetching game that looks like drag racing! It’s so cool! Check the internet and see if you can find a team for Paige!” The only team even close to the area was in Birmingham. I was actually glad I wouldn’t have to drive to Atlanta! I contacted the team owner and went to a team practice. I was at the point of thinking I wouldn’t be able to teach my lovely black dog how to play this game. I had been at it for about 6 weeks and she still needed me to run down and back to the box with her. I had made a lot of trips up and down one evening when I just couldn’t do it again. I squatted down next to her and spoke in her ear. “Paige, go get the ball for me. I know you know what I’m saying, just go get me the ball.” The light bulb over Paige’s head turned on. Her ears perked up and she ran over the hurdles triggered the box and brought me the ball! I was squealing with delight! She was jumping around wagging her tail! We never looked back. Paige was a Flyball dog.

My husband who had been accompanying Paige and me on our jaunts to Birmingham was watching when this monumental moment occurred. He was (a) impressed that the dog was now playing and (b) ready to get a Border collie. We contacted a breeder in Hope Hull, Alabama who breeds stock dogs. We purchased our first Border collie from Wayne Butler. (Thanks Mr. Butler!) His name is Casey and he is awesome. Casey knew how to play Flyball without ever being taught. He watched from the time he was a puppy. He knew how to play the game and would chew through his leash to get out there and play. Shortly before his first birthday he was out there playing the game!

And now a disclaimer: Border collies are high energy, highly intelligent animals. If you don’t have space, if you don’t have a job for the dog to do, you will have an animal you don’t know what to do with. They will find a way to amuse themselves if you don’t take the time to work with them. The way they amuse themselves might not be amusing to you. Casey ate our sofa when he was six months old. Waiting to be old enough to play the game was just too boring for such a high energy dog.

As time went on the team was becoming competitive. The need for a “height dog” was evident. I was talking to another dog owner and she said she knew someone who had rescue Jack Russell terriers. A gleam lit in my eye. While sitting in the deli waiting for a sandwich I called the person who had the rescue dogs. She said she had a dog that was one of her breedings that was turned back because his bite was off. He couldn’t be shown in the conformation ring because his teeth needed to be prefect. His name was Edge, but I just couldn’t shout that name in the Flyball lane so I shortened it to Ed. He is an excellent height dog.

As the team needed dogs we would get dogs. Our Paige is now retired and we have a few young dogs, a few middle aged dogs, and some older dogs. There are two dogs in our house that probably will never play the game. Our very old Chelsea and a dog that was in a shelter and was soon to be put down. My husband saw his picture on the internet and couldn’t bear to see such a handsome dog destroyed. His name is Chance (because he deserved one) and he is not the sharpest knife in the drawer. Sweet and very grateful to be alive, but not too bright.

There will be more to come on ‘life with dogs’ so stay tuned! If you would like to see pictures of our dogs you can look at our team website, Rogues Gallery.

Y’all come back!

Fay

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