Sandrine Farr
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Registered: 09-2008
Posts: 38
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Sandrine's PROFILE
Hi
I am Sandrine.
I joined UPANDOVER in 2000 and been addicted to Agility ever since the first day! I love Agility, and I love our club, and Mark and Karen are good friends.
My first Agility dog is LASKA, a very laid back Working Sheepdog. When I joined Mark and Karen, she was 5 years old. We both took to Agility straight away, like ducks to water!
We didn't compete in 2001 due to the Foot & Mouth. We started competing in 2002, and first KC show ( in those days UKA didn't exist! ), aged 7, she won out of Elementary ( that was in the day before the grades! ). After 6 months of competing, she also won out of Starters. We had a brilliant first season consistently top 10 and placed at just about every show. She wasn't the fastest, but not slow either, and very reliable and she always gave me 100%.
Winter 2002 she had an Agility-related injury ( hurt her neck hitting the hard old-style tyre ). She came back to competition in 2004 but we had to take it a bit easier. During those months when Laska was resting, I competed with one of Chantal's collie BRECK, and also trained Karen's CHRISTIE. I needed my Agility fix!!
In 2003 I got a new puppy. As I was busy training my young dog, my husband Grahame trained Laska at club a few months, and even competed with her a little bit whilst she was still fit and sound - we did a few Pairs classes together, great fun. Laska is nearly 14 now, body slowing down a bit, but still very bright and cheerful ! She is a lovely lovely girl and very loyal.
So in 2003 I got my 2nd dog - another girl and I called her Pepper. She is a beautiful red & white BC.
I saw someone run a Woodsorrel on the Agility circuit, and was so impressed, I put my name down for a puppy from this line. I was on a waiting list with the breeder for nearly 2 years!!
She was worth the wait. What I love about the Woodsorrels is their affectionate nature, and workability.
Pepper is the most special little girl. Karen always says she is the Princess of our house. She is so affectionate, it is impossible not to adore her!
She is also ever so bright. When she was 4 or 5 months old, I joined our local Obedience club. I had never done competitive Obedience before, but i needed to keep my little girl's brain busy whilst she was too young for Agility. After 6 months training, at our first KC Obedience show, she won her first class. For a few months, we competed in Obedience, and she won several classes. Out of Beginners, and a Novice win.
I also did Heelwork to Music when she was a year old. First show she won her class.
She is amazing, and we have such a bond, she works beautifully for me.
We started Agility just before her 1st birthday, we had done a few Agility puppy classes at club too. She was brilliant at Agility too!! Unfortunately luck was not on our side, and aged 1 year and a half she had a collision with Laska and took all the impact. She was lame, and X-rayed, etc... She had to rest a couple of months. However back to work, and she kept being lame on and off... Vets couldn't find anything wrong. I took her to physio / chiropractor... It was puzzling us. However with the vets' go-ahead ( looking back, I should have pushed for a referral to a specialist ) I carried on working her when she was sound. Her Agility career was short but brilliant - only 6 months - and her cruciate ligament ruptured. Finally I knew why she had been lame on and off, it had been weakened during the collision. It was heartbreaking. She had to have an operation, she was so miserable. It took months to get her walking again.
She's fit now, but she'll always be a bit slower due to her injury, plus I do want to take things easy with her. Some dogs hurt the other cruciate after they've had one side done. I was very careful, and touch wood, the other one didn't go. However, I am still careful now, despite her getting the all clear from the specialist last year.
So she does a little bit of Agility now and again, she is the best! I'll be doing a couple of shows with her this winter.
With all this misery, I decided to get a 3rd dog ( 3rd time lucky ? ) and at the time I was looking, there was a litter of Comebyanaways... So I went to see them in the summer of 2005 and JJ picked me. I didn't even want a boy. But he fought all the other puppies off, and would climb on me. I didn't have much of a chance to even look at the others, he was all over me the whole time. Very strong little man at 4 weeks already!!!! They say if a puppy chooses you, you should have it?
He is from VERY strong working lines, and word of advice to anyone else looking to get a Collie for Agility, choose the line carefully !! I thought with my training skills I would be OK. Mmmmmmmm !!!! Perhaps over-confident there! I will certainly be more careful next time I select a dog for Agility.
Jay is an amazing little dog, very clever, VERY fast, keen, very driven. No danger of him getting flat !! He will work until DEATH. He is also very strong-willed, and sometimes too keen. He is a nightmare at shows, he wants to chase, to herd, he will scream and lunge. I have to work so hard just to walk him round the rings. Of course, I don't tolerate the lunging, etc, but it's a battle of will. It's been a battle of wills between me and him ever since we got him home at 8 weeks. He is something else!!! Our relationship has not been an easy one!
Last year, a month before his first agility show, due to his over-keeness again, he tripped as he was running at 200 miles an hour, and hurt a disc in his back. MRI Scan, specialist visits, physio, swimming. Instead of competing with him, I spent last year getting him better!
I suppose it did get us closer, and I wouldn't be without him, he can be the biggest pain in the AXX but i love him to bits. This year finally we started competing ( he turned 3 end of June ), and he's had about 7 wins at UKA, and 2 Jumping wins at KC. We've also had loads of runs with poles down, but we are working on his jumping style. It's not easy running such a fast over-keen dog! We're getting there though. Mark and Karen are always giving me so much support, they're brilliant.
Finally onto Dog No 4 " BLISS ". She belongs to my friend Sharon. Actually we call her OUR dog now. She lives with me during the competion season ( March to October ), and back to her real mother in the winter!
Our arrangement started last March when JJ got injured. Such bad luck, so Sharon, my life saver, who had too many dogs to train and compete with, and was having problems with Bliss ( thinking of giving up with her )offered me to train Bliss for a while. Bliss was being a little madam. So I took her home with me ... to BOOTCAMP! No messing about at Bootcamp.
Bootcamp did her real good, and at first show we won a jumping class! We had a good year, and won G3 Agility last September. This year has been even better. At UKA we moved to Senior levels in June, and are only points away from CHAMP. This summer we've been on fire!!! Getting more and more consistent, and faster. We recently moved to the Advanced Group Mark trains on a Tuesday, and it's really been good for us.
At KC, this year we moved from Grade 4 to Grade 5. This last week-end was our first show as G5, and she came second in her Agility class, beaten by only 0.15 of a second ! ( If we'd won we could have gone straight to Grade 6!!! It wasn't to be, but what a good feeling to know we nearly did it ).
Running her feels so good, she works brilliantly for me, we have a great partnership. I am very grateful to Sharon!
About me :
I work as Department Manager in the village of Wherwell.
Full-time and long hours every single day of the week 9-6pm! However we are in a lovely country estate, and the dogs come to work with me! That's why I am still here after 14 years. I am lucky I can take the dogs to work, and there are great walks I can do in my lunch hour. Dogs always come first!
Ask My husband... The lovely Grahame, who is not into Agility, his hobby or should I say his passion is music. He currently plays in the TORN OFF STRIPS.
http://www.tornoffstrips.com/
In my spare time ( which I don't get much of ! ) I do the CLUB newsletter. I always welcome your stories, and your pictures!
c u soon
Sandrine
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