I have been surrounded by animals my whole life. I grew up raising rabbits, goats and chickens and had a plethora of other pets. While I do love animals in general, I have found there is something incredibly special about the relationship between a human and a dog. My very first dog was a Maltese named Katie. Oh the things I did wrong in training her! I will never forget the night I was eaves dropping on my parents discussion about whether or not I should have a puppy. I really wanted a puppy of my own (my family had a dog already) but I was very young. I remember listening to my mom telling my dad that this puppy was something I needed, a relationship that couldn't be duplicated any other way. Needless to say, I got her (thanks mom!) and I loved her for 13 short years.
After Katie passed on, I was heart broken. My mom encouraged me to look for a puppy, but I resisted, insisting I wasn't ready. Knowing better, my mom decided it was time and found me a Cavalier puppy. I had talked about liking the breed before, but I didn't think my mom would go and pick out a puppy! And the perfect puppy she picked, even though I didn't think so at first. Sadie came to us scared, dirty, flea and lice infested. But Sadie became my angel, my confidant, the best friend I could've ever imagined! Sadie wants nothing more than to please and be loved. She has taught me so much about dog training and I continue to learn from her every day.
A couple years after I got Sadie, my little brother decided he wanted a dog. My parents put me in charge of finding him a Cavalier of his own, and a breeder with a lovely, energetic, ruby female puppy was found. He named her Lucy and he did love her, but the problem was she loved me! I'm not really sure how it happened, but it did, Lucy became mine. And she is ALL mine! I always say that if I were to die, Lucy would jump in the grave with me! She is headstrong and often lacks impulse control, but she has shown me what true unconditional love really is.
Lucy and I entered a brief stint in the conformation ring (dog shows) before I realized it wasn't really for me. Lucy was bought under a breeding contract and we bred her to a male owned by her breeder. Wanting to keep a female for myself, I was all nerves as Lucy gave birth to 5 male puppies only to save the best for last, my little Gracie. Gracie, or more often Grae (like Gray) was born with not so perfect markings on her face, making showing her in the conformation ring unlikely. Still, I loved her more than anything the very second she came out. When she was about 6 months old we started our first agility class and have been hooked ever since. I love to look at her sweet face and tell her how much I love every freckle, every brown hair on it! It’s those freckles that lead me to find agility, my passion, a passion which not only pushes me as a dog trainer to achieve my goals, but has taught me more about the relationship between human and dog than one could imagine!
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