Borderiver Gin and Tonic BAAD
aka - GT
GT was born on 23/5/06 at Borderiver Kennels in Morayfield QLD by Marion & Neville Allen... Her parents both actively compete in Agility and have great temperaments...
She was chosen as a companion for me and my other two dogs Buddy and Coco, but will also be training and competing in the various dog sports we love to do...
She has a wonderful temperament is a very social girl... she is my social butterfly... She loves people and dogs, and i believe she thinks they were all created and put on this earth just for her to say hello to and get pats and cuddles from... GT like Buddy and Coco will be training and competing in Agility/Canine Disc...
AGILITY
Things got off to a slow start with GT's Agility training, our focus for the first few months was tug play and relationship building exercises, i had just started a new job a few weeks before picking up my sweet little girl, and she had quickly decided the other two dogs were far more fun than me... So lots of short tug play sessions, and chase games in the backyard... She loves to play shaping games, although i still need alot more practise in this department. She learnt her crate games real quickly, but at 6 months our main focus for her training was still relationship building and tug play exercises...
We started training at Suncoast Fundogs, when Gt was at the tender age of almost 7 months, in the Pre Ag 1 class, she was doing very well.. she learned to love tunnels as i had one at home and it was a favorite game, her nose touches were good, but she had decided it was far more fun to plant her two front feet at my hand rather than a nose touch... she still loves to use her feet when playing shaping games, so we have to make sure her nails are trimmed always...
We attended a 2 day Puppy Camp with Susan Garrett when she was 11months old, she was a very good girlie over the two days considering the heat in Ipswich was around 40 deg... we learnt ways to hone our skills as a team, and i learnt how to not let her sheep dog me when practising recalls and shadow handling...
Things have progressed with GT's Agility training and at the tender age of 19months seen us enter her in our first competition, at BAD... we had been doing well at training, i have also been attending training on and off at the Fraser Coast Agility Dog Club in maryborough to help Gt with her being easily distracted by people...Well things went ok... she got rather distracted, so i knew we had a lot of work to do before she would compete again...
Lynda Orton Hill... came for a visit to aus in march/april 2008, a very inspirational time for me, and helped me to realise where my training with GT was lacking... Circle Work and Maintaining the Connection were my 
main focus of her tarining for the 3 weeks after Lynda's visit to see us enter her back into competition at SCFD on 25/26th April...
GT's Competition Highlights
25-4-08: SCFD, Clear round and 1st place Starters Midi Agility Test
Clear round and 2nd place Elementary Midi Agility Test
26-4-08: SCFD., Clear round and 1st place Starters Midi Agility Test just 2 sec over time for a qualifying pass
26-7-08: SCFD, 2nd Place Starters Midi Agility test
Clear Round and 1st place Elementary Jumping Test
9-8-08: ADCQ, 2nd place Starters Midi Agility Test
10-8-08: ADCQ,3rd Place Elementary Midi Jumping Test
20-9-08:SCFD, 2nd Place Starters Agility Test
3rd place Starters Jumping Test
2nd Place and Clear Round Elementary Agility Test
18-10-08: FCAD, 2nd Place Intermediate Agility Test
2nd Place Starters Agility Test
2nd Place Starters Jumping Test
3rd Place Intermediate Jumping Test
2nd Place and Clear Round Open Maxi pairs(1st leg of her AATD title)
25-10-08: PADS: Beginner Australian Agility Dog (BAAD) TITLE
2nd Place and Clear Round Elementary Midi Agility Test
CANINE DISC
Gt was first introduced to the disc at 6 months of age, learning her retrieve as well as overs exercises...
Out of all the things we do together this is her favourite sport, she will do amazing stuff when there is a disc around... Her training is progressing very well, she was entered into her first Disc Competition at just over 12 months of age... she hadn't been taught to catch the disc so all our throws were rollers, but at this stage our main focus was for her to retreive the disc well and not get distracted by the crowd...
She was entered into the Canine Disc events held at Dogmania 2008, had a couple of very spectacular catches in each of her rounds, the crowd cheered as she soared for her disc each and every time, just mistiming her leaps... We will continue her training and maybe next time those spectacular aerial jumps will be catches as well...
Canine Disc Competition Highlights
27th July 2008 Brisbane City Disc Championships - Gt earned her first Qualifying Card with a 10 point score and her first leg towards her FDA title...
HERDING
GT has also been started on Sheep she is very enthusiastic and her training is progressing well, we have been working on her stop which she was taught whilst playing disc, we now have to implement it whilst she is working her sheep... Her herding will continue throughout 2008, and we will see if she will be ready for a trial by the end of the year...
SOME PICS OF GT AS SHE GROWS
GT and her sister Blitz 7 months old
14 Months
18 Months
