Maggie's story

Maggie placed 4th at 2018 Canadian National Agility Championships in Montreal

Maggie was my young phenom Shetland Sheepdog. She had 18 Qualifying runs and her Starter Agility Dog of Canada title after only 4 trials. Unfortunately, in April 2011, at the age of 23 months, she shut down after her fourth trial 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. All of this just compounded her anxiety in the ring.

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 when we competed because of the pressure I was putting on myself. She only understand that I was anxious and therefore became more anxious. There is nothing more heartbreaking than knowing your dog is feeling nervous and scared. I finally stopped trying to competing 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.

I was at my wits end. Trying to figure out what was wrong. Understanding my background was a clue to what was going on. I came from the equestrian world where I trained and coached at the international level in Dressage. My coaches growing up were either Polish (former Master of the Spanish Riding School in Vienna), or German. All of them demanded perfection. Praise was only given when you achieved perfection (this did not happen very often lol). So, I learned a training ethic that demanded perfection of myself, and I learned to be disciplined in everything that I did. So, it never dawned on me that I needed to learn to play for the pure joy of playing. Maggie just wanted to play.

While I was on the journey of learning to just "play". A friend of mine suggested that I start running Maggie FEO (with a leash on). Maggie was 5 at this point. 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. I learned to laugh at myself when I goofed up -- which we all do while trialing. Who hasn't stepped on the Gamble Line during the final gamble? Who hasn't forgotten the course or called out the wrong obstacle? Who hasn't been blown off their Snooker run after the first obstacle lol?

Our dogs are out there to have fun. They have no idea whether they have Q'd or not. They are just so happy to run around the ring playing with us. Don't get me wrong, many. many, many dogs are highly competitive and know when they are competing. They thrive on competition. But first and foremost they thrive on pleasing us and playing with us.

In 2014, I was competing with my older Shetland Sheepdog Bear at the Canadian National 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 overall in her height category.

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 once again. Jess also helped me understand that engagement (fun) was critical to success.

Maggie and I competed at the Ontario Championships in 2016 and Qualified for the Canadian Championships in Montreal. At the age of 7, Maggie placed 4th overall with 562 points. She also got her Agility Trial Champion of Canada title shortly after the Canadian Championships. While she qualified for the Canadian Champions 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 Alexandria 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 will never forget the lessons that Maggie taught me and I thank her every day for teaching me the pure joy of playing with my best fur friends and just having fun!