I
first met Taffy as a 5 month old pup (called Lloyd)
when I visited his breeder in Tasmania. He sat on my
knee and gazed into my face but the breeder was quick
to say he wasn’t for sale. About nine months later
she contacted me and Taffy arrived aged about 15 months.
From the first, he was pretty laid
back, meeting on his first day in Alice Springs not
only his two established Border Collie siblings, Bonnie
and Hamish, but three other Borders at a friends barbeque.
He was not fazed and ran with the five of them until
he was exhausted. I wonder if he thought they were just
large Cavs. Anyway it must have been heaven to exchange
a kennel situation for life in and around Alice even
with nine or ten Border Collie companions.
Taffy and I have had fun with dog pursuits. He loved
Agility and soon had his Novice Agility and Novice Jumping
titles, and then his CCD. He also competed in A.S.O.D.C.’s
second endurance trial and gained his ET. He enjoys
the obedience classes but really doesn’t enjoy
trials so we have had no passes in novice although he
is capable of doing the work.
When
I changed Taffy’s name from Lloyd little did I
know how apt it would be. The nursery rhyme says Taffy
was a Welshman Taffy was a thief…. One day I accidentally
shut him inside while I went to the local shop after
I had had visitors, leaving the remains of the afternoon
tea on the table. When I returned all that was left
was some chewed silver paper. He had polished off the
leftovers, scones, grapes, melon slices skin and all,
the milk from the jug and a quite large Easter egg!
He had no ill effects but was shocked to find he didn’t
get fed with the others that night!
The lessons from that experience didn’t help
when Taffy stayed with a friend while I packed to leave
Alice. She came home one night to find him on the kitchen
sink eating the thawing dog food. He had managed to
find a way up via chair, chest, servery hatch and kitchen
bench.
When
I moved into my house in Mount Clear, Taffy decided
that the opportunities for exploring the area were great
and I spent many hours “fencing” till one
day I happened to see him run along the top of a retaining
wall, jump, catch his front paws on the top rail of
the fence, run his back legs up and he was over. When
I yelled for him to come back he popped over the fence
at a different spot. Perhaps it was a mistake to take
him to agility!
Taffy is now almost six and Hamish almost 13. Sadly
Bonnie left us 12 months ago but the boys are good companions
and we enjoy our daily walks and look forward to perhaps
joining in NADAC and or tracking next year.
oooOOOooo
STOP PRESS
