Maggie

Click on the thumbnail to see the course maps for Maggie's first trial:

We rescued Maggie in December of 2005. When she came to us she was a wild and crazy, very fearful 5 month old Border Collie puppy who was biting and fighting with almost everything and everyone in sight! Her owner's had deemed her aggressive and untrainable. Unfortunately, she was just in the wrong home and had been practicing some very "undesirable" habits!

At the request of a local Veterinarian, I went to visit Maggie and her owners to see if I could be of any help. The first time I saw her, I had a feeling that she was going to end up with me, but that's not why I was there! Her elderly owners agreed to try Puppy classes as they really did love Maggie and wanted to keep her. They did well at my first class, but

Baby Maggie!

5 Months old...

The look that stole Debra's heart!

Not everything came quite so easy though.

Maggie had a big long list of things that

she was afraid of. She was very reactive

and would try to attack anything that she

was scared of.... this would include, but was not limited to: brooms, dusters, hair brushes, hair dryers, nail clippers, cameras, toothbrushes, vacuum cleaners, rakes, tv remotes, snow-blowers, lawn mowers, other dogs, other people, and the one thing that scared me the most - cars! Maggie was a "tire-biter". When she would see a car, she would go crazy at the end of her leash; she would try to chase the car and bite at the tires. This terrified me as I was so afraid she would get loose one day, chase a car and get killed. I spoke to a number of my Border Collie friends, and got some great advice from my friend Gayle Avery who had worked through a similar problem with one of her Border Collies. Gayle suggested that I teach Maggie to lie down everytime she sees a car. This seemed like an insurmountable challenge with the amount of reactivity I was dealing with, but, I gave it a go! Out came the clicker again, and slowly I started to see improvement. Now, whenever Maggie sees a car, she automatically drops to a down. Often, she will be in a down before I even see or hear the car! Many thanks to Gayle for this wonderful advice and support!!!

One of my next challenges was to stop Maggie from displaying inappropriate herding behavior. While it seemed appropriate to her because as a Border Collie herding is instinctive, it wasn't appropriate to my feet, roller bladers, joggers, cyclists, children running, squirrels, etc! When I was attending a behavior seminar presented by Dr. Pamela Reid, I had a chance to chat with her on a break and asked her for suggestions to help Maggie. Pam suggested herding, so, lots more work to do and off we go for herding lessons.

The first time Maggie went herding I was

terrified that she would attack and kill

a sheep! Apparently, this is a common

concern for a lot of first-timers. Our

herding instructor, Sue Jewell, told me

not to worry as she thought Maggie

would be just fine. Well, trusted her

I did and off went Maggie into a pen

with four sheep. The next few minutes

brought tears to my eyes as I watched

Maggie work the flock of sheep with Sue.

It was incredibly beautiful and

breath-taking to watch a dog do what

they had been bred to do for hundreds

of years. On her first experience with

sheep, Maggie passed her Herding Instinct Test that day, December 12, 2006 and the title of HIC (Herding Instinct Certified) was added to her name! I couldn't have been prouder!

Taking Maggie for herding lessons seemed to help Maggie find her confidence. All of a sudden I found she was much easier to deal with and live with. Pam was right, Maggie was learning to channel her herding instinct appropriately!

Maggie's Story . . .

unfortunately, after a few days felt that they couldn't manage the training and decided that they did not want to keep her after all. I asked them not to send her to the local SPCA as a dog labeled "aggressive" doesn't have much chance of finding a forever home! So, back I went for a second time to visit and this time to pick up Maggie in hopes of finding her the right home. My friend Cindy at Border Collie Rescue Ontario offered to take her into their rescue care, but, as it turns out, her forever home was with me! I guess it really was love at first sight and that little voice that told me the first time that she would end up with me was right! I mean, really.... who could turn away this little face???

Well, actually, my husband could have! He wasn't quite as "enamoured" with Maggie as I was, .... especially when upon their first meeting she promptly rolled over on her back in fear and peed all over his feet!!! Hmmm, not the best of introductions!

It was definitely better with the children, but her favorite new family member, was actually Tango, my then 9 year old big black male Standard Poodle! The first time that Maggie saw Tango, she threw her front paws around his neck as if to give him a big bear hug and promptly started licking and kissing him all over his face. This "love at first sight behavior" continued on for months and months. Everytime Maggie would see Tango it was as if she had found a long-lost friend and the hugging and kissing would start all over again, even if she had only seen him a few minutes earlier. Poor Tango, he wasn't very impressed, but being the good sport and bomb-proof dog that he was, he certainly endured, albeit with that look of, "Oh geez, here we go again!"...

My first challenge with Maggie was to convince my husband to let me keep her! At first I told him, "she'll just be with us a couple of days until I can find her a home." Yeah, right. After just one evening of having her, I called him at work the next day and asked if there were any chance at all he would agree to me keeping her. He said, well, we'll see how it goes.... That's all I needed to hear, and that moment, got out my clicker and started to train Maggie. By the time he got home from work that night Maggie would go into her house on cue, sit, lie down and bow. Talk about power training!!! But, it worked.... Maggie's impressive learning ability was starting to win over my husband!!!! (And she was very cute!!!)

Starter Standard

Nov 30/07

Socialization was an ongoing concern with Maggie so I made sure that she had lots of exposure to as many different situations as possible. She has attended every agility trial that her "big sister" Kali did. At first, Maggie was so reactive that she wasn't able to be near any dogs other than the ones that she lived with, so we just viewed the whole agility experience from a distance. Slowly, as her confidence built, she was able to meet quiet and unflappable dogs. Her first agility friend was Rachael, a beautiful German Short Haired Pointer, owned by my good friend Julie. Rachael would let Maggie play with her ball and they quickly learnt to share treats together. Soon Maggie's range of doggie-friends increased as we slowly built her confidence with lots of positive rewards for displaying the correct behaviors. Eventually, Maggie was able to quietly sit ring-side and watch all the other dogs play Agility. I promised her that one day she would have a turn, but we still had some work to do before that day would come!

Maggie also did lots of foundation work with me at home and she attended many of the obedience classes that I taught. Maggie was quickly learning to walk politely on a leash, to come when called, to stay in position and to target. She also learned a few tricks... such as bowing, crawling, waving and playing dead! Now Maggie is my "demo dog" for both my Obedience and Agility classes. She's always willing to show off her skills!

Maggie is really a very lucky little Border Collie, as she has an entire ring of Agility equipment in her backyard. Since every Border Collie needs a job, Maggie's job is now to play Agility with me! I started Maggie's foundation Agility training the first summer, but took my time to build her confidence. She took to it quickly, but I was in no hurry to put her into competition as I wanted to be sure that she was ready.

In the summer of 2007, the time was right for Maggie to begin her competitive Agility training. I started to take her with me when Kali and I would go for training with our coach, Kathy Keats. Having Kathy's expertise really "excel-erated" our learning and Maggie was soon working some very advanced drills. It took no time at all for Maggie to learn to weave. In fact, we really surprised Kathy as within a week we went from having no weave poles to 12 weave poles at a distance! It was the same with our contact training. Maggie quickly learned to perform all the contact equipment with a consistent target, with me totally out of the picture for her. All that foundation work certainly paid off!

Maggie made her debut in the world of Agility competitions on Friday, November 30, 2007 at the Acton Agility trial, near Hamilton, Ontario. I was competing with Kali and decided on the spur of the moment to enter Maggie in Starter Gamble as the trial secretary was still accepting entries that day. Maggie had a stellar run and came in First Place, completing the main gamble with 6 seconds to spare and racking up 62 points! This "Q" (Qualifying Run) moved her up to the next level of Advanced Gamble after only having 54 seconds of trial experience!!!

While Maggie shows great promise in the Agility ring, she is first and foremost a treasured family member who is loved very dearly by the whole family!

Maggie was obviously enjoying herself in the ring and she was also very confident outside of the ring, maintaining her composure in a tight space with all the other high-drive agility dogs around her. I took all of this into account, and decided that Maggie deserved another chance to play, since she had done so well in her first run. Maggie's next class was Starter Standard.

Well, it was definitely the right decision! Maggie held a perfect start line, staying until released and she executed a flawless run. I was especially proud of her brilliant contacts, speedy weave poles and controlled table performance. Maggie's course time was 48.88 seconds and the Standard Course Time allotted by the judge was 65 seconds.

Maggie won the class again and received a Qualifying Run towards her Agility Dog of Canada title!

Two First place finishes and two Qualifying runs in her first trial was more than I could have asked her for. Time, patience and alot of love have brought us from our humble beginnings to this point! I am very proud of her and the future looks very bright for Maggie!

Maggie has earned the extra special title in our house of the "Border Collie Wake Up Crew", as she feels her job is to jump on my children's bed and wake them up by covering them with kisses. No point in trying to hide under the covers and catch a few extra winks, as Maggie will just dig out her intended victim and then the fun begins.

Her favorite bedtime ritual is snuggling with our youngest son Devon, until she gets kicked out of his room because she keeps him awake by kissing him tooooo much! Then she puts on her sad face.