Maggie was my young phenom Shetland Sheepdog. She had 18 Qualifying runs and her Agility Dog of Canada title after only 4 trials. Unfortunately, in April 2011, at the age of 23 months, during her fourth trial she shut down and started running out of the ring. She loved training at home, but the stress of a trial was too much for her.

 

Part of that stress came from me. I never realized how sensitive Maggie was to my reactions and responses in the ring. When I became frustrated or disappointed with myself, Maggie couldn't tell the difference and thought I was frustrated or disappointed with her. The more she ran out of the ring or didn't want to play at a trial the more anxious I became. I was worried that I was asking her to play with me and she simply didn't want to. I couldn't have been more wrong. Maggie adored playing with me, but it had stopped being fun for her. I finally stopped trying to compete with her and continued to train at home. Maggie would ask to train every day and most of the time tried to convince me that a second session would be fun.

 

A friend of mine suggested that I start running Maggie FEO (with a leash on). We did this a few times and Maggie was gradually regaining her confidence. I had learned to hide my disappointment with myself and cheer on every success, no matter how small.

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In 2014, I was competing with my older Shetland Sheepdog Bear at the Canadian National Agility Championships in New Brunswick. For fun, I decided to enter Maggie in the Steeplechase FEO (For Experience Only). She loves Steeplechase because its fast and exciting. Little did I know that they hadn't registered us as FEO and Maggie placed 9th in her height category. That was the end of Maggie running FEO. She was happy to compete again.

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What did I learn? Well, when I wasn't feeling the pressure of running for "Qs" Qualifying Scores, I was more relaxed. And, because Maggie was so attuned to my feelings, she was more relaxed. My cheering her on and praising her in the ring made it more fun for her. Her confidence began to sore. 

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When we go back from New Brunswick, I entered Maggie in a few trials throughout the Fall. In her second trial and third trial back, she completed her Starter Games Dog Canada title, her Advanced Games title and her Advanced Dog of Canada title.

 

Fortunately, in the Fall of the following year 2015, I found Canadian Agility World Team member and gold medalist Jessica Martin, who helped us gain the confidence together to compete in pressure situations again.

Maggie, now 7 years old, and I competed at the Ontario Championships in 2016 and came 10th, we Qualified for the Canadian Championships in Montreal where Maggie placed 4th overall with 562 points. She also got her Agility Trial Champion of Canada title in the fall of 2016. While she qualified for the Canadian Championships every year after that, I didn’t want to add the stress of flying her out West. We only competed when the Canadian Championships were held in Ontario or Quebec. She went on to place 4th in 2018 in Maxville and 6th in Ontario in 2019. She placed 2nd twice at the Ontario Championships.

 

Due to Covid Maggie would never get another chance to compete at Nationals. Maggie retired from competing in 2021 after falling off the dog walk. In August of 2023, 2 days before the Canadian Championships where I was competing with my 3 year old Katie, Maggie left us at the age of 14. I miss her everyday.