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June 2006 and my beautiful old dog Suzy was put to sleep. I had another little old terrier, Kim, so I decided not to get another dog but to just keep Kim and when she eventually died I'd go on holidays abroad with my friends. Yes, well, four weeks later I had Purple Ronnie from the Dogs Trust at Roden! He's half Lhasa Apso and half JRT - he was at Roden as a puppy and was then returned to them at fifteen months old, so I was lucky to have him. We went straight into obedience classes and soon signed up for an introductory agility course for a bit of fun, with Kay and Robin. I didn't have a clue what agility was (nothing's changed there then!) Ronnie wouldn't do the tunnel at any price. I remember Robin at one end encouraging him to go in and me at the other end on my hands and knees, head in the tunnel, bum in the air, trying to coax him through. We joined the Pads Club after this and with the TLC and expertise of the wonderful trainers (Kay, Robin, Dave Deaville, Pat Bray, Andy Jones), Ronnie's become a great little agility dog and I've turned into an agility obsessive, (e.g. I blew my ISA on a caravan so that we could go to aglity shows).
Our first show was the Pads 2007 show and after a few spectacular E's, we managed to get a 2nd place in Grade 1 Aglity. Tragically shortly after that show, Ronnie ruptured a cruciate ligament. He had a synthetic ligament implanted but after a couple of months this irritated him so it was removed. The surgeon advised that his leg was stable and to try him out. We came back to agility in 2008 and although Ronnie's a bit hoppity when he walks, he seems to be ok at agility. We did a few shows in 2008 and had a fantastic time, managing to get clears or placed in every show and four 1sts in agility at the Dashin Dogs summer show. 2009 is our first full year of shows and we've just moved up to Grade 4. Ronnie's such a sweet handsome little dog and gets lots of admiring looks. I've still got Kim and last year I bought a puppy, Rosie Posie (Border Terrier X Springer) who has just hit the agility circuit. Watch this space for tales of Rosie.
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