The fabulous
Fandabidozi sisters...
 This
is the tale of two sibling sisters who took very individual journeys on their
way to becoming Agility Champions in the Medium and Large height categories.
Their breeder and owner Alayne Lamerton shares the story of
their amazing rise to the very top of agility.
Munchy and Clippy are
sisters. They are from different litters but share a mother. Naturally there are
many similarities between them but there are many differences as well.
Munchy winning through against the odds
First there's Ag.Ch. Fandabidozi Munchykin Jive
(aka Munchy) who is the older but smaller sister and competes in
Medium.
She was born at home on the 29th December 2015 in a litter of
seven out of Linda Hutchinson's Brook (Borderpaws Dark Secret) x Alayne
Lamerton's Dust (Fandabidozi Star Light.)
Munchy
was born last. She was
small and had complications.
Six years ago, as a family, we
decided to take a risk
on this young puppy that we had bred even though we had been advised it would be
best to let her go.
Nature did not quite put
her insides together right. She had an ectopic ureter, an abnormality in the
tubular tissue that connects the kidney to the urinary bladder. She only had one
kidney and her bladder was in her pelvis. Subsequently, it was moved up together
with her only ureter which also then had to be moved higher into her newly
positioned bladder. There was more but you get the picture!
In her short life, as though this was not enough, she followed
this with a closed infected pyometra at just 12 months which nearly killed her
as it was not properly diagnosed for nearly two weeks.
Even after an operation to correct things, Munchy did not have a
straightforward journey back to health, and things were very touch and go for
the first two years of her life.
Her training was very stop/start up to the age of 15 months, and
it continued to be affected by way of her debilitating repeated urine
infections. Happily these were fixed by a pioneering procedure by her specialist
vet. The bottom line was that up to the age of two years old, it was unsure as
to whether Munchy would 'make it.'
 Enter
Dalt & Steph Agility
Dalton Meredith took on Munchy knowing her medical history. We all agreed that
Munchy should continue a 'normal' life and enjoy herself to the full. In this
respect, she has done both agility and flyball. Her training is very much based
on a 'have fun, live now' approach.
The
uncertainty of her life expectancy is reflected in her training programme. This,
for example, has been particularly noticeable in her dogwalk contacts which
started as 'stops only' but, as she continued to thrive and excel at agility,
were changed to add on 'runnings' - not the easiest thing to retrain as Munchy
has sometimes demonstrated by way of a leap of excitement.
Being the first to be trained, there
were some mistakes and lessons to be learned. She has an emotional side and can
be more sensitive than her sister, so she requires a gentler approach to
training.
In general, Munchy is a
very vocal dog, especially when she is doing agility. She loves to 'run with
Dalt' and this does often mean she is the easier dog to run of the two.
Munchy became an Agility Champion (Ag.Ch.) on the 21st July 2019.
Since then, this amazing little dog has won nine tickets with Dalt. They also
qualified for the WAOs in May 2022 in The Netherlands where she did not let us
down let us down with one Gold and one Silver in the 400 group. For Dalt, it was
a dream come true.
There
has to be special thanks to the amazing people without whom, Munchy would not
have survived, including Wayne and Alison O'Rourke of Jets Flyball Team and the
agility folk who set up a fund raising page and made a donation of goods to
assist with Munchy's burgeoning health bills. The very real downside of breeding
your own dog is that Munchy could not be insured.
Munchy is a survivor. She smiles her way through life. Despite
all the difficulties she has encountered along the way, she has achieved the
ultimate goal for an agility dog in the UK.
Clippy is one of a kind
Then there is
Ag.Ch. Fandabidozi Eclipse of Dust
(aka Clippy) who competes in Large
though she
is also on the smaller side, measuring in at only 45.9cms. She
was born at home on the 24th April 2018 in a litter of five out of Heidi
Clelland's DJ (Gunran Too Hot to Handle) x Alayne Lamerton's Dust (Fandabidozi
Star Light.)
 She
is very much the product of two trainers, partners Dalton Meredith and Stephanie
Best. Steph did Clippy's foundations to a very high standard, thus making it
easier for Dalt to build on them for all her later training.
She is a mixture of happiness, enthusiasm, brilliance and
stubbornness.
She's much more of a 'free spirit' than her sister
but she also has a stubborn side. Although she learns quickly, she is equally
capable of questioning what
she is supposed to be doing. Once she understands and approves, she is onboard
with you and tries very hard to get it right.
She loves to run anywhere and everywhere, and her favourite place
to do this is with her brother, sisters, mum and granny in the New Forest.
Teamwork made the dream work. She has definitely benefited from
the mistakes learned from training Munchy. Sadly, the lack of competitions due
to Covid did hamper her progress being any quicker.
Once competitions were up and running again, Clippy progressed
from G2 to G7 very quickly.
She became an Agility Champion just before her fourth birthday at Scunthorpe on
the 9th April 2022, and she has been given the amazing opportunity to compete on
the big stages at European Open in July and then at FCI World Agility
Championships in September.
Clippy is the happiest of dogs, full of enthusiasm, and we can't
wait to see her in action competing against the big international guns.
 Agility
Champions
So, there we have it - two siblings who became Agility Champions, albeit via
very different paths.
Both dogs have an
affectionate side to them, but Munchy is the kind of dog that tweaks your heart
strings as she has been through so much in her life. Clippy, on the other hand,
is full of zest and is 'ever ready' for the next walk, bit of agility or
anything that involves her running.
They have been very fortunate to have two families - one living
at home with Alayne, Cliff, Carly and Kaydee and the other with Dalt and Steph.
They are both very happy and successful
dogs and we are lucky to have them in our lives.
 About
the author...
Alayne
Lamerton was introduced to agility later on in life after her family had
grown up and there was more time.
She started training
with Sue White at Whirlwind around 2004 with her second Border Collie Trix. It
wasn't long until she got hooked on both agility and flyball as amazing past
times to enjoy with her dogs.
Her Fandabidozi line
began when she bred her Star (Darian Living on the Edge) with Callum (Bekwey
Muchacho). From that litter, they kept Dust (Fandabidozi Star Light) and the
rest is history. When looking for prefixes for her pups, Alayne wanted something
positive whatever happened along the agility journey. She and her husband had
happy memories of watching the Krankies on television as children.
In 2006 she and her
family moved to Ringwood
where she met and trained with Dalt Meredith and Stephanie Best of Dalt and
Steph Agility.
She has four
competing dogs - three in G7 and one in G6, but these days she would much rather
watch than participate as it gives her enormous pleasure seeing all her dogs'
journeys and successes.
First published
30th June 2022
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