Spinnu

Looking for a Dog to Do Sports

Spinnu is the result of two years of searching for a potential friend with whom to do agility, obedience and virtually any other dogsport that I can think of. For such versatility, a dog should have a good health and sound physical structure, be driven by strong instincts and have energy and enthusiasm to work. While Shelties make absolutely fantastic sport dogs they, nonetheless, tend to be quite soft. Therefore, I began studying a number of other breeds including Belgian Shepherd Dog and Australian Kelpie but finally chose Border Collie.

There are only few Border Collie kennels in Finland that are breeding the kind of dogs that I was particularly interested in. When I noticed that there is a promising litter planned at Cabaroo I immediately contacted the breeder, Ms Katja Tamminen.

I was lucky to have a chance meet Spinnu's mother, Nevada, in September 2007. It was a grey, rainy and foggy day which was immediately brightened by the enthusiastic spark of Nevada's energy when Ms Tamminen began training obedience with her. I immediately realised that she is exactly the kind of dog I want. When Casey, Spin's father, turned out to be equally charming I was sold. Hence, Spin moved in on 4th January 2008.

The Dog

A year has gone since Spinnu moved in with us. Physically he has matured and looks like a young adult already. Nonetheless, he still behaves like a young pup every now and then. An amazing feature in him is his ability to concentrate on work at paw but, understandably, he still requires more practice to become a reliable performer.

Spin is superbly enthusiastic, always ready to go out and do things. I would like to believe that working with me is pretty much the best thing he knows. Although, to be honest, I do think that playing with Penni gets close. He is quite passive when uncertain of what I want but once he has a hunch, he is all speed and sparkling energy. Absolutely fantastic!

Spin has quite a strong instinct to herd that can be clearly noticed when he is out with other dogs: he just stands still or lays down and stares at them, or makes short sprints in an attempt to keep them together. He is also strong-willed and has outranked Fanny long time ago. Penni, on the other hand, keeps him in line when required.

The Sports

Most of the training effort so far has gone to competitive obedience. I have prepared a training programme for Spin that includes all the aspects and exercises of competitive obedience in Finland. Naturally, we have concentrated on the very basics that will form a solid foundation to more complex exercises later on.

Spin also began his career in agility in mid-November. Our group practises regularly once a week. Those group times, however, are mostly for me to learn and we do our best to practise in private once or twice a week. Due to his young age Spin has only recently been allowed to jump over full height obstacles and practise physically strenuous objects like the A frame. There is a lot of ground to cover before we are anywhere near our first agility competition. But we will get there!

Miikka