(and obedience, showmanship, rally, hunting, herding, and whatever else ends up striking our fancy...)
Spring Forth is just the personal website for a dog-crazy girl and her sport-crazy dogs. We don't sell dogs, or anything else for that matter, or breed, or offer any training services (yet, that is). We're just entertaining -- we hope. Enjoy your stay!
My name's Cat, and I was introduced to dog agility through Animal Planet when I was but a wee munchkin in elementary school. I distinctly remember doing a poster on agility for something while I was in the 4th grade. I started out on jumps made of everything and anything, cardboard box tunnels, toilet plunger weave poles, and chute-blankets with my English Springer Spaniel, Tessie. From there we spent two years working our way up to a competitive level obedience class and learning all of the requirements for a Novice level obedience title. But we got bored with that, and we wanted more! So we delved into the world of agility and have never looked back. Tessie currently competes at the Advanced level in USDAA and we have now come full-circle and are preparing for our AKC obedience debut in early 2008.
Pleased with Tessie's level of training, in 2007 we brought home Strata, a black tricolor Shetland Sheepdog puppy. And so the process begins over again! Strata amuses us daily with his small repetoire of tricks and his ability to escape from any situation (or room) unscathed. We have very high hopes for this little boy! For now he is learning the puppy-safe portions of agility, like tunnels, jump bars on the ground, and wobble boards, but our main focus is socialization and basic obedience. An agility dog is worthless if you can't live with it, since 99% of your time with your dogs is not spent on an agility course, but in a home.
Dogs are my whole life, and in turn, they make my life whole. I love the experience of training a dog, to push the limits and to make people ask, "HOW did you teach her to do that?!" I love the power that dogs hold over us, in that they can help us to meet people we'd never normally meet, and to make the most mundane parts of our days -- like waking up in the morning -- a lot more pleasant and entertaining. Dogs are great! After a stint as kennel help in a board/train/daycare facility and working as an assistant for agility classes, I know that dogs are where my future career resides. I want to help people learn to enjoy their dogs and to help dogs learn to put up with the things people ask of them. I believe training is a two-way street; we train each other, and if we're not both learning, we're not doing it right.