Billy Woof came home two years ago today! (Jan 2007) Happy "gotcha day", gorgeous! He was a sad, worried and untidy boy. He is a collie x flatcoat retriever and is now about 5 years old. His love of toys, especially balls, helped him to come out of his shell, as did starting agility ... Now, we can't say Billy's rather brief agility career was a success in ordinary terms, but it did help to build his self-confidence and our bond, and got him out and about, and realising that other dogs weren't all out to get him, and he certainly enjoyed it - just a little too much for anyone's safety and sanity! It also very much pointed to the fact that he would be better off channelling his energy into something else, and so we found flyball ... He now runs regularly in training and tournaments with his team - Greetland Grasshoppers - and he sooooo loves it. Billy is a big, soft, lovely, gentle, kind lad. His favourite things are tennis balls, tuggy toys, cheese, carrots, and his human - listed in no particular order?!
Maisie Mouse then arrived on the scene in September 2007. She was a very scrawny, extremely frightened little girl, about 6 months old. To cut a long story short ... she has slowly blossomed into a lovely, happy, sunny, funny, young dog who does agility. Her breed ancestry has been the subject of much debate, but she is probably half GSD, probably crossed with a whippety-terrier-ish-thingy - the result is something a little like a collie, but not! Maisie started attending agility training from a young age, to watch and socialise, and then she began training not long before her first birthday, and she proved to be a bit of a natural. Some obstacles were really scarey, especially the seesaw and the cloth tunnel, but we gradually worked through her fears and now these are two of her faves. She "came out" just 4 days after her 18-month "birthday" in Sept '08, and gained a clear round rosette at her first show! (BAA at Selby) Since then she has done very well at her first few shows - quite a few (steady but speeding up) clears, and the highlight so far has been a 5th place at Wyre KC show in Dec '08. Maisie's interests also include mud, murdering small wildlife, playing madly with other dogs, destroying toys, and teasing Billy - who she adores. She is also exceptionally fluffy and often filthy.
Their blog title kind of comes from their KC names - 'Amazing Maisie Mouse' & 'Thunderpaws Billy Woof'.
