SKYE - Friendship Skys The Limit

While volunteering for Rocky Mountain Border Collie Rescue, I received Skye - he had been abandoned in a park near Denver. Skye took an instant liking to me, and ultimately I decided to keep him. I had not done agility prior to this point, and decided to try it with Skye. As they say, the rest is history as I was hooked!

After training for about a year, we entered our first competition, a NADAC trial, in the summer of 2007. We had good success and I decided to try AKC agility later that fall, and in January I added USDAA to our venues of competition. Skye was very consistent and we found ourselves moving quickly up to the Excellent/Masters level of competition by the summer of 2008.

We qualified for the AKC Nationals in 2010 and travelled to Tulsa, Oklahoma, in March of 2010. Though we did not quite perform up to our potential, it was an exciting experience.

In the summer of 2010, I got that last Double Q to complete Skye's AKC MACH title. We also qualified for the 2011 AKC Nationals, though we are not planning on attending because it's being held 1500 miles away in Virginia.

Also in the summer of 2010, we got the last Gamble needed to complete Skye's USDAA APD title, and we are now working on getting to the Bronze level for all the events. We are planning on attending the 2011 USDAA Cynosport Championships in October, which will be held in Kentucky.

RIP - Friendships Now You See Me

I decided to start another dog in agility, and the logical choice was another of our RMBCR fosters. I went through 3 of our fosters and for various reasons, they decided agility was not for them. I tried Kaylen, but she has a fear of loud noises and thunderstorms, and would run and hide under cars and chairs all the time. I tried Joey, a deaf border collie, and after more than a year of training, I stopped as he just wasn't "getting it" and was careless with his body - I was afraid he was going to hurt himself. For a short while, I tried Kakua who wanted to leave 10 minutes into a class.

So, after these continued failed attempts with our rescues, I thought I should get a puppy from a breeder. We had one of those twists of fate occur - the brother of our 9 month old border collie Rush became available, as his owner decided she could not use him in her breeding program as originally intended. I decided to get him, and had him flown here from Pennsylvania in July 2008. His name was Rhett, which I changed to Rip. He is a sweet boy with a goofy, silly personality.

Our training started shortly after he arrived, and in Sept. 2009 I entered him in his first AKC and USDAA trials. We have earned all of our Novice/Starters level titles and many Open/Advanced titles as well. I am working on getting him qualified for the 2011 USDAA Cynosport games in Kentucky in October 2011.

Skye and Rip's Blog

If you'd like to follow along with Rip and Skye's agility progress, I often post our trial results, pictures and videos to their blog at:

Skye & Rip's Blog