Hi Everybody,

This is kind of delinquent, but better late than never, right?

My name is Becky, and I am one of your classmates. I have two dogs: Gus, an Australian Shepherd, almost 8 years old, and Freddie, a Border Collie, 16 months old.

Gus is my first agility dog. He is a happy guy who lives up to his name of Gusto in everything he does. He is big for an Aussie, just under 25” at the withers. He competes at the Excellent level in AKC, and the Masters level in USDAA. We have recently dropped him to 20”, a decision that he is very happy with!

Freddie is a super sweet little guy (little, as compared to Gus, anyway!), measuring right around 20” I think. He is just about perfect – he loves to curl up on my lap on the sofa, just as much as he loves to run and to work. We’ve been working on foundation training since he was 8 weeks old. It is very exciting that we are actually putting the pieces together and running sequences now. I’m not sure who has the bigger smile – me or Freddie! Running a Border Collie is completely different, though! Although I have learned so much with Gus, my timing needs a lot of work to run a BC. But we are getting it!

A few words about Olga…almost 5 years ago, after some life events forced me to take a long break from agility, a friend introduced me to Olga (thank you Mia!), thinking she might be able to help Gus and I with some of our tough issues when we were ready to start up again. It was the best thing that could have happened, and the end result was that Gus and I enjoyed doing agility together again. With Freddie, the journey has been different, but challenging in its own way. With Olga's help, we are learning more than just how to train and perform the obstacles, or to get around a course, but to really work together as a team. I’m having a blast, and look forward to many years of fun runs with my little Fred-dog!

Work is super busy for me right now so I don’t have much spare time, but hopefully after the first of the year I can participate more in the on-line classwork. In the meantime, I enjoy reading how everyone is doing.

Happy Holidays!

Becky, Gus & Freddie