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LEARNING TO FLY WITH KATIEBIRD
Katiebird, aka Katie, aka MACH2 Beartooth Mountain
Sapphire CD MX MXJ AJP EAC EJC OCC TN-O WV-N BSCA Ag-HOF CGC was born on
8-23-98. Katie’s sire is
Ch Johnsondale’s Folero UD ‘B’ SchH I WD-C TT CGC. Her dam is Ch Anduril’s Raven Celeste whose sire was Ch
OTCh U-CD Czequet's Charfire Charon HT,TT, HOF WD-X Am SchH I CGC TDI. She comes from a great line of performance dogs and was a Montana
girl too. But my story with
Katie really started with Rosie back in 1995. My agility career started at the Idaho Humane Society where
I found Rosie in 1995. I
didn’t know about Belgians at the time and thought Rosie was a Border
Collie mix. I was a
volunteer adoption assistant and I helped people “pick out pooches”
so they would have a high likelihood of having successful and rewarding
matches. Rosie was about
eight months old and when I saw her, she had already been dumped at the
shelter twice. She was
desperate to find a loving home. She
was affectionate and beautiful, and I couldn’t get her out of my mind. I told myself that Rosie wouldn’t fit through my doggie doors,
and she was fearful and overprotective. It took me three visits to finally decide to take her home. Well, Rosie did indeed fit through my doggie doors after all. And she still bears the emotional scars that leave her fearful of kids, especially those carrying sticks. But she tried very hard to please and grew even more beautiful and sweet by the day. Then in September 1997, I took Rosie to an Idaho Capital City Kennel Club match to watch the dogs compete. That is when I discovered that she was a purebred Belgian Sheepdog and that I could get limited privilege papers (ILP) from the American Kennel Club which would allow me to compete with her in performance events. For Christmas that year, we got her ILP and Third Hand Rose and I began training for obedience competition.
Rosie loved obedience training and we competed in our first
show in April 1998 in Lewiston, Idaho. I actually pulled her from the first class thinking she might
bite the judge because she had been showing off her teeth to people
shortly before the show. The
next day I mustered my courage and Rosie went in the ring and performed
beautifully for the next three days. We won two firsts and a second at our first show! That is when I first met Tami Worley who inspired me to continue
to develop my dog-training skills and show how great my dog could be. Then we were really fired up to go on to open obedience and
we started training for that in May and competed in August and October,
again taking two firsts and a second. We even scored high enough to be invited to compete in the Pupperoni
Regionals which were held in various regions throughout the country. Ours was in Portland and we competed there in 1999. We were way
over our heads in the Pupperoni competition but we had a great time. I am sure there weren’t too many $50 shelter dogs in the
competition. In 1998, agility lessons and practices had begun in Boise
and I found myself getting hooked on the thrill of running through
obstacles with my partner. We
practiced in the city parks on Saturday mornings and I took lessons one
evening a week. Rosie is a
smart girl so we were soon competing in Oregon, Utah, and Idaho. And I was invited to get involved with the Idaho Capital City
Kennel Club’s agility committee and we put on our first agility trial
that fall. But it didn’t take long to see that Rosie’s preference
was obedience and not agility. She
dutifully went through the courses with me but she didn’t have a fire
in her belly for the sport. Or,
maybe I didn’t know how to make it fun for her.
In any case, she earned her novice and open standard and jumpers
titles with few faults. By
fall, I knew I wanted what I called a “performance bred” Belgian
Sheepdog. But I was very naïve
and knew not what I was asking for. Katiebird lay in wait, ready to let me know what a challenge a
high drive dog could be to the unsuspecting. That fall, I got to know Jen McCandless through
correspondence on Belg-L. She
sold a puppy to someone in Boise and I agreed to help with information
about Belgians and dog training. She
also asked me if I might be interested in Katie, who went by the name of
Phyre at that time. Katie
was an intense pup and Jen was wanting her to go to a performance home. Well, I had a rescue Belgian here in addition to my two dogs so
it wasn’t good timing for me. But
I stayed in touch with Jen and continued to ask about Phyre almost
weekly. Phyre went to live with Elaine Havens in Orange, California
for about six weeks. In the meantime, I found a home for the rescue dog
and when I asked the rescue coordinator about possible performance bred
Belgians or breeders, she sent me to Cara Greger who sent me to Jen
McCandless and Phyre! I
couldn’t believe that the same puppy would be brought to my attention. So I felt it was fate and contacted Jen again, but this time I
was serious about getting Phyre. So Katie arrived by plane at Thanksgiving in 1998 and my life changed forever. Before Katie, I had lived with three different dogs beginning in 1980 with only Rosie becoming a show dog. None of them had the passion and drive that Katie had so I had no idea what I was getting into! Katie had tremendous focus and threw herself into whatever she was doing. I was totally unprepared for this “performance bred” Belgian. While she was very trainable, she also had a lot of prey drive and was very focused on chasing anything, especially other dogs. I had to learn fast how to deal with all of her drive, and I wasn’t always successful. But my skills improved thanks to Katiebird. I started training her for agility when she was six months old
and since we trained in unfenced parks, she was never off leash. We could only master three obstacles at a time because I
couldn’t keep up with her and I didn’t want to slow her down by
restraining her with the leash. I trained for rock solid stops on the ends of contact
obstacles because I wanted her to be successful and I wanted some chance
of keeping up with her. This
was time well spent because she made it from novice through her MACH
title without ever being called for a missed contact!
We competed in our first agility trial in Utah in 2000 when
Katie was 1 1/2 years old. She
flew through the courses with Jen crying in the background as Katie
soared over the jumps and gobbled up the yards.
Four months later, Katie had earned her novice and open titles
and started competing on the excellent level courses where we hit a
brick wall as so many agility competitors do with their first fast dog.
I had a very steep learning curve to master running such a fast
dog. I couldn’t match her
speed and neither of us had the skills to master courses at a distance.
I never knew how little I knew about agility until I met Katie.
As for getting a good instructor, well I was one of the
four instructors teaching here in Boise. I went to seminars and I studied the FCI World Championship tapes
to see how the top handlers ran their dogs.
I studied Guy Blancke’s runs and emulated his style.
I strove for smoothness in handling that helped us look like such
a great team.
In 2001, Katie convinced me that she had great potential,
but she couldn’t utilize her full potential with us living on a hill. She clearly needed access to flat ground on which to hone her
agility skills. And I was
turning 50 with the mid-life crisis looming. I was driven to consider how I wanted to spend the rest of my
life. Katie won out and we
went shopping for a one-acre place on which I could train Katie and
train others to be successful in agility competition.
And that is how Dogs A’ Flying got started. It has been a wonderful experience and I have greatly enjoyed
helping others develop their agility skills, to help them dance with
their dog and master the course. But
even more rewarding than that is seeing people and their dogs develop
stronger bonds and commitment to each other.
In May 2003, Jen notified me that Katie was nationally
ranked the top Belgian Sheepdog in AKC agility. That was such a surprise as I had never even looked for such
a ranking. We finished the
year as Top Dog and in 2004, Katie was the top Belgian Sheepdog for
lifetime achievement in AKC agility. She also earned her Belgian Sheepdog Club of America’s Agility
Hall of Fame in 2003.
On May 28, 2004, Katie earned her master agility
championship (MACH) title in Eugene, Oregon. This coveted title requires competition at the Excellent B
level earning 750 speed points and 20 days of Katie's breeder, Jennifer McCandless, wrote a wonderful poem in tribute to Katie. Go to Katie's Poem. Then on July 3, 2005, Katie earned her MACH2 in Moscow
Idaho. It’s funny how
when you are just one step from reaching your goal, that little stuff
keeps getting in the way. We
trialed for months in search But age was catching up with Katie.
She had some structural issues that cause excess wear especially
on a big dog jumping 24 inches for years. Her times were great because she was so efficient. But it was time to move to the preferred classes.
Katie also lost confidence on the dogwalk for some reason so we
just entered jumpers classes. Then in October 2006, Katie got invited to the AKC’s
first Agility Invitational as one of the top Belgian Sheepdogs in the
country. So we went to work
preparing. We hiked in the
hills to get us both more fit. We
went back to jumping 24 inches and brushed up on the contacts including
the dratted dogwalk. We
started competing in the regular classes rather than preferred classes.
And Katie still refused the dogwalk in trials despite huge
rewards for doing it at home. We drove from Idaho to San Diego for the Invitational in
December 2006 with Karen Kessler as my much appreciated helper. We ran 4 times at the Invitational and finished as the Top
Belgian Sheepdog! She did
the dogwalk on both standard courses but I know she wasn’t wanting to
take it. Her courage under
fire is what made us successful. I
willed her over and was right with her.
And she rose to the cause. I
was so proud of her. Although
she was past her prime in agility, she gave it her all and it was our
greatest success. She also
finished 20th out of over 100 dogs in the 24 inch jump height
at the Invitational. Katie stopped competing in agility in the spring of 2007.
She was getting too sore. But
she still shows off at home and will be competing in canine freestyle
soon. Katie was the creator of Dogs A’ Flying because she drove me to rise to her levels of skill and passion. Katie has enriched my life in so many ways and taught me more than I ever thought a dog could teach a human. Agility has been the foundation upon which Katie and I have become great partners. I love the partnership that we have established as we challenged the courses together. When I was very stressed at AKC Nationals, she was solid as a rock in her performance. What a joy to have such a partner. While my sport has been agility, no matter what the sport, the reward is the powerful bond that develops between dog and handler when you work and train together toward a goal. |
qualifying on both the
standard and jumpers runs.
of the last double Q.