The agility life of
a complex collie...
 One
day Shellie Smith had a frantic phone call from a friend who knew how much she
liked red collies. There was a little collie bitch who needed a home. She had
been allocated to someone but had let the breeder down. At the time, Shellie
owned the pup's half brother so she knew the line. What could go wrong? Ahhh…
where to start.
For updates on Kodi's progress
go to Tail End
In my head I was having
a thousand thoughts... my partner needed an agility dog... I already had her
half-brother. Not a problem.
I picked up what I
thought was a confident little reddish brown pup and brought her home. Kodi
strolled into the house of five other dogs with the attitude of 'I am here,
gang. What's occurring?
Yep, I thought. She was
going to be just fine. She had the right attitude to be an agility dog and, if
she was anything like her half-brother who is a Ferrari of the collie world, my
partner is going to have such fun. A little competitive streak might probably
occur in the household but nothing we couldn't handle. How wrong could I have
been?
When my partner started
to training Kodi all went well. Then one day I was walking the dogs and it all
changed. Kodi ran into the back of my collie. It was a pure accident, but my
speed freak Riko ended up with a perforated disc in his spine and had to have
surgery to put it right. Unfortunately this ended his career as an agility dog.
 I
was heartbroken as he was only four years old. It left me with my little terrier
Marli who is actually an amazing little dog, but he is getting on in age. I
started to panic a little, as between us, my partner and I had half a dozen dogs
and didn't feel I could get another one. My agility world was rocked. At the
same time, I wanted to support my partner in her agility career.
Kodi's initial training
with my partner went really well. My lovely partner knew how much I wanted to
run a collie at agility, however, and kindly passed her on to me. I was elated.
Now I had a collie to train!
A
massive learning curve
It was always going to take a
little time for Kodi to go from my partner to me, but I was prepared for that.
But, as time went on, I realised that this little girl was just a little complex
than I thought. The confident pup that strolled into our house wasn't actually
all that confident without her pack. She very cleverly sucked the energy and
confidence from the others and tricked us into thinking that she was super
confident. At training, however, when she was alone without her the back up of
her pack, you could see the sheer horror on her face. She stuck to me like glue,
her tail between her legs. She didn't even want to play tug.
I spent weeks trying to
get her to socialise with the others, but she wasn't having any off it. I just
couldn't understand why she was like this with me and not with my partner. Then
it dawned on me. I was training with her brother up at the other end of the
school, so she was happy. At least part of her pack was there.
I found that I had now
had gone from Riko, a Mercedes of the collie world who sometimes drove me mad -
if I gave him an inch he would take a mile and do what he pleased - to a
complex, insecure and super sensitive girl. Three times I had to change my
training techniques, and each time I learned something new that I could put into
'Agility Training Rucksack' and pull out when needed.
 Kodi
now has the ability to do every piece of equipment well. She isn't the fastest
of dogs, but she has a fab wait which I never had with her brother. She got her
contacts really quickly and she can jump full height Large, do tunnels and
weave. Perfect you would think, wouldn't you?
People were constantly
telling me not to worry about the speed. We could work on that and make it all
better. Nope, not with Kodi. There are training nights when I literally can't
get her to do three or four pieces of equipment in a row. We have even gone
through the 'I can't possibly do a tunnel today as that's far too scary' stage.
At the moment, she has a see saw issue despite the fact that we have done
thousands of them. Right now she can't even go near it, so we are stripping it
right back.
Why I can't tell you.
There just isn't an answer. I try to be patient and work with what I get at that
training session. The following week she can be a trouper and blast a course
away. I can only stand there and think 'Why couldn't you do that last week?'
 A
total U-turn
Now I am actually someone who only ever wanted to do KC shows for progression
and get to the dizzy heights of Champ. By default, Kodi is in Grade 3. In
reality, is she isn't a Grade 3 dog. I wouldn't possibly consider running her in
a competition without a fenced ring.
Last year at Dogs In
Need she panicked and ran across four rings. No one could stop her. Somehow she
managed to find my tent, jumped the 4 foot fence and put herself as far in the
back of the van as she could possibly go. Up to that point she was running the
course really well.
I now look for shows
that are fenced even if they are not KC. Her first show was Bits 'n' Bobs where
she ran two courses beautifully and then for whatever reason, she freaked in the
third. I took her out and gave a huge cuddle. We then we went and had a play in
the exercise area and went home. I was super pleased that she managed to do two
lovely courses and would have got a clear round had it not been handler error,
only picking up 5 faults.
What was I going to do?
In the beginning, I was completely frantic about her behaviour. I was pulling my
hair out. What was I going to do with this erratic young collie. I just didn't
know what she was going to do from one training session or competition to
another.
 This
is what I did.
I learnt from her.
Yep, that little brown
collie whom I thought I was teaching was actually teaching me. A really good
friend of mine who trains horses and is in our training class has seen Kodi from
the start. She seen her on both her good days and bad days. One night after a
particularly challenging lesson, she sent me message as she knew I was feeling a
little down about it. I will never forget these words and I will build on them.
This is what she said.
'We go and buy an animal and, of course, we write a lists of hopes, but it's
often not as simple as that. We don't often end up with the animal we were
after, but perhaps - for whatever reason that we don't understand - we get the
one we need. They teach us things that we didn't know we needed to learn and it
can be them that needed someone like us.
Kodi is a very sensitive
girl. Handling her has taught me things that I otherwise would never have learnt
especially about myself. And I like to think that Kodi needs someone like me.
Another handler/owner might never get out of her what I do.
My message to anyone out
there who has similar problems is to keep going. Go over that mountain instead
of around it. No doubt the journey will be harder and can be challenging, but
believe me it's so much more rewarding in the end.
Tail end...
A little while back I
did this write up about my Kodi and the struggles I have had with her. Since
then I have so far had an amazing season with her - 8 shows with 8 places which
includes a trip to the dog Vegas Final. Unfortunately I have had to withdraw as
she had to have surgery for a mammory tumour which turned out not to be cancer.
Good luck to everyone
who has qualified for the Final , I wish I was there but alas not this year, I
have to say I made the Final with a dog that I never thought I would ever get in
the ring makes me proud so plug on guys. I never gave up on her.
(24th July 2019)
I wrote this piece about my young
Collie Kodi for Agilitynet last year - on how spooky and difficult she has been
to train as she changes the goal posts all the time, She is sensitive and
reactive - not nasty but she just freaks out and runs. So I have been training
with her, working with her issues with sensitivity and patience.
I am pleased to say that
it’s finally paying off. At training she is doing brilliant, even started to
bark and be happy. She is now tugging which I couldn’t get her to do.
A couple of weeks ago, I
bit the bullet and entered her into Vyne Allsort special. I was a nervous wreck
for sure as the rings were unfenced. I jumped her on Medium which she is comfy
with. Well OMG. She only pulled out a clear round! She didn’t leg it and she
came back at the end of her run... but wait... we ended up with a 13th place. I
could of cried. She was an amazing little brown dog!
I couldn’t be prouder of Little Brown Kodi de Lina.(23rd
May 2018)
Then yesterday at BATS I
entered her into an Anysize. Although she didn’t get clear ( handler error)
she didn’t bugger off. She was focused and focused on me as well and she came
back to me when she crossed the finish line. Mind you she didn't want the Bonio biscuit at the end.
It was 'What’s this you poisoning me with?' Yeah she is
a funny girl.
 About
the author...
Shellie Smith has been around dogs all her life. She's had all sorts of
breeds. She currently has six dogs with a seventh on the way.
She did her first dog
activities with her terrier Marli, starting off with Obedience. Then she
discovered Agility and Rally.
Dogs are her life and
she is always up for learning about them and their behaviour. While not an
expert, she is always keen to learn new things
First published 23
May 2017
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