| Noah JD DOB:14/10/97 Breed: Blue & White Border Collie Loves : Agility, TugToys, Running, Swimming Hates : Fireworks |
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| Noah came to us from a sheep farm near Maitland. His Mum was a Blue working dog and his Dad was a Black dog from show lines. He is not a particularly affectionate nor biddable dog but has always had a heap of drive and has certainly come a long way, as I've progressed in my handling of him over time. After raising Zeus, who was always eager to be with me and eager to please, Noah presented quite a challenge. At 9 months, I realised that hours of running & chasing birds every day was not at all what he needed and I started to engage his mind. He spent 3 months on a long line and the bird chasing stopped. Noah was very quick to learn, once I worked out how to get him to work. He is a very smart dog, which as we know can make an easy to train dog as well as a mischief maker. At the age of 4, I started him in agility. The first 4 sessions, he had no interest whatsoever & I considered just doing agility (by now I was addicted) with Zeus. I gave Noah 6 weeks off, before I tried again...well he never looked back and became just as obsessed with it as I was. Again, I made mistakes with him, letting go wild, barking, spinning, off course & total disregard for contacts (remember I was just starting out myself & didn't really understand the implications of letting a hard headed driven dog do what he wanted). I was just so happy that he was enjoying it. I tried to train him using food rewards, which worked to an extent, but he did & still will, ignore the food, finding the next obstacle a far greater reward. It wasn't until Zeus was ready to start trialling that I realised just how out of control he really was & naturally I wanted to trial them both. Over time we progressed to "not too embarrassing" performances in the ring. Obviously hindsight tells me that he never ever should have been in the ring in the first place. Noah's first real success in the ring happened after I had spent a long weekend with Deb Kelly from Blue Moon Border Collies. She changed everything about Me & Noah & Agility. For the first time he realised that the game didn't exist without me & he started to really listen. Of course it was not only my attitude that changed, my handling improved significantly too. Nowadays he is running in Open & while he still has an occasional off course or a dropped bar, I usually feel happy with his performance in the ring. He is fast and furious & as someone who recently ran him for me said "Nothing else exists when you're in the ring with that dog!". Every dog you have teaches you something...Noah has taught me a lifetime of lessons. I love him for that & I love him for who he is! He is a dog!!! A stubborn one, but one with no real insecurities, who can deal with other dogs in an appropriate manner and one who has become incredibly loyal and easy to live with. He's my "Little Boudgie" |
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