A curious extraordinary journey...

Mark Duggan and his wife Gill had been dog lovers all their lives, but due to shift work, they always felt it would be unfair to leave a dog alone in the house over several hours at a time. Then came the dog walkers tidal wave and they decided to take the plunge. Where better to go than Discover Dogs at Crufts? They did a lot of research and narrowed it down to a Havanese or a Husky - both breeds being hard work, one way or another. After visiting Crufts, nothing really clicked with either breed and they came back home with their tails between their legs. And then they spotted the Kooikerhondje in a dog breed book and it was like a eureka moment. They had finally found what they were looking for.

For those of you not familiar with the breed, the Kooikerhondje looks a bit like - and is sometimes confused as - a cross between a Collie and Spaniel. It is recognised by it's big bushy tail and black earrings. The breed was developed in The Netherlands sometime prior to the Sixteenth Century to lure ducks into traps. They are easy to train, cheerful, very affectionate, always on alert and need a lot of socialization and exercise.

Although it is a very rare breed, we were in luck and we found a breeder with a litter due in April 2015, allbeit in Essex. We exchanged details with the breeder and photos and agreed not to rush should we not be completely happy. We travelled down from Scotland on the Friday night and stayed overnight outside London and then first thing in the morning travelled to the breeder's house. Thankfully everything clicked and the puppy was perfect. As we left I promised her mum Bunny, I would look after her.

After a nine hours journey and three stops at motorway services, we got her home to find a lengthy email from the breeder explaining everything about the breed, exercise food etc and the importance of socialising at a young age. Growing up, I'd had a Yorkshire Terrier and Cairn Terrier and I was determined to learn from any mistakes I'd made with previous dogs  with diet and toilet training etc. and I was planning on doing proper obedience training and take lots of exercise including walking and having fun at parks.

We had narrowed down a few Dutch bitch names and once we got her official Kennel Club Millhanger Ballycasey, it was natural that she would be Millie.

We attended a local training class and socialised her there and everywhere else we could with other dogs and people in our area.

Fast forward a year...
We noticed that Millie was starting to become a bit reactive to new people and other dogs which was quite frustrating as we had thought we had done enough to avoid this happening. Don't get me wrong. She is very obedient and the most affectionate breed we know, but this was becoming a bit of concern.

I kept focusing on the training and I noticed one day out our back garden she was good at darting left and right. I remembered the dogs at Crufts darting through the weaves and I thought to myself, Millie could be good at this, Maybe we could try and give it a go.

I had no idea how big - or small - the Dog Agility world is nor how it would change our lives forever.

We started basic agility training with a Lanarkshire dog training school where we met a lovely lady who recognised Millie's breed straight away. It turned out she used to breed Kooikers and coincidently recommended our breeder to Kooikers. Now it was turning into a small dog world. At the time of the meeting, Millie was her doing usual barking at all new dogs and people, and I thought this lady would be the best person to ask 'Are Kooikers supposed to be like this?'

The reply came, 'Yes, very rarely that they are not like this.'

The penny had dropped. Kooikers can a bit of a challenge as they can be very nervous with new people and other dogs, but their affection and devotion for their family make up for it. It was something we would have to try and manage and learn to live with.

As we learned agility, Millie became more focused on me which was really useful during walks and helped to avoid confrontations with other people/dogs. It burned up more energy and, of course, the mental side made her work really hard and made her behaviour much better.

In many ways Agility has saved us
Millie has taken to agility like a duck to water. Excuse the pun.

We have become a great team and built the best possible bond.

To be honest, training Millie has not been difficult. Once she understands what you want and give her the clear cue and clear actions, she gets it and it sticks. She has a very long memory and she is very intelligent. For instance, if we are going out for walk, she remembers that she will be thirsty and will go for a drink before we go out.

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