Saturday marked Skyline Farm's first and hopefully annual Dog Day. With me was Charlee, Finney and my 10 year old daughter, who by the way is today's guest photographer.

My Freestyle demo to the song Locomotion at 12:30 was more than a bit sketchy in parts, but considering that Charlee has been out of work since mid July with a neck injury, and a badly cut ped,

she was more focused than I probably deserved. It was a lesson for fellow trainer Jenny Yasi and I on how to work our dogs under less than perfect conditions.

The very small ring was surrounded by dogs in very close proximity (always a challenge for my reactive dog) , and there were tons of treats littered on the ground where training sessions had been going on throughout the morning. Oh and did I mention the two horses that were ridden through the field that set off all the dogs barking mid way through my performance? Charlee kept her cool, but she was far from her peak. Me, I just had to laugh. What else could I do?

Recently I have begun to look at my Smooth Collie Finney in a new light. Some of you may know that I never thought the dog was very bright. Ok, I admit it, we all called him Forest Gump. Well I would like to amend that and offer a public apology to Finney. It was Jenny Yasi who pointed out to me that Finney is very much like a chemistry professor. He is methodical and maybe even a bit odd, but

there are lots of smarts under the nerdy exterior. Finney got his first 15 seconds of fame in the demo ring yesterday, where he was surprisingly flawless in a very short "How to get started in Freestyle demo". He breezed through target heeling, and several types of spins, and he even managed a bow at the end while offering total attention the entire time. Good boy Finney! Until very recently I didn't see him as a Freestyle prospect, but he is a gorgeous mover and his happy springy step makes him look like he is floating above the ground. Of course he is a much slower thinker than Charlee but I am (slowly) learning to adjust to that. He has a calm and cool disposition and is a very likable dog both with people and other dogs. Finn started his life with me very fearful, but we seem to have worked through most of that.
My dogs are like the tortoise and the hare and we all know that slow and steady won that race.

There were quite a few dogs who got to try agility for the very first time and I think a new crop of agility fanatics was born yesterday at Starline Farm.

Cudo's to Diana Logan CPDT for putting it all together.

H. Smith photos

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