The Real Stars...

This is Charlie. He's a kelpie cross border collie that I adopted from the AWL on the twelfth of December 2007 when he was just nine weeks old. Along with his nine brothers and sisters, he'd been dropped off there the week before I brought him home. The exact two breeds I'd been looking for combined into an irrestible bundle of chocolate and white fluff, I couldn't resist him.

We went through the usual puppy trials and tribulations- I slept on the couch for six weeks because, with no crate and a loft bunk in the same room as my brothers, doing anything else wouldn't have a practical way to potty train. No crate also meant he was tied to my bed on a lead, which he proceeded to chew through almost every night. I must have gone through a hundred bucks just on leads in his first year.

But we got through it and he started at puppy preschool a bit later than I anticipated because of dog training club having a break over Christmas and then a string of wet weather days that resulted in training sessions being cancelled. It was during these first classes that I realise Charlie had serious issues with fear aggression, to the point of full on attacking other dogs when he was on lead. Off lead he turned into this crying mess that would hide behind my legs. It took nearly eighteen months, but we got to a good point where he almost looks forward to greeting other dogs- so long as they're not German shepherds.

We've explored different training techniques through our forays into obedience, rally obedience, tricks and agility, and we've both decided that the clicker is our favourite. So we use that for pretty much everything behaviour related. Charlie's been through obedience and rally obedience classes of varying levels since graduating from puppy preschool, and started foundation agility training at six months, which was basically just tunnels and flat work, but all still very important.

We started trialling in agility and jumpers in the middle of 2009 with the CCCQ. Charlie, being a mixed breed, is on the Associate Register. We got our first title- JD -in July 2010, and need just one more qualie to get JDO after his name.

I absolutely love Charlie, even though he can be a complete pain to work sometimes and has annoying little quirks that tick me off. He's a blast to run and when he's switched on he's a dream to train. We have a lot of fun together and I'm looking forward to seeing what the future years have in store for us.

__________________________________________

I will also be getting my first purebred dog from a breeder hopefully within the next six to twelve months. After so much research and decision making I thought my head might explode all over my desk, I've decided on a shetland sheepdog. I will be doing much the same with my new pup as I have done and continue to do with Charlie- obedience, agility, tricks- and may, depending on the dog, get into canine freestyle as well and start trialling in obedience or rally obedience. I would also like to do herding and flyball with both dogs later on down the track.

More information on my future pup will be posted whenever I have it as well as her own introduction section when I get her. I'm so ridiculously excited XD