Poppy
Poppy is a six year old lurcher, who was rescued from Tia Greyhound Rescue in 2001. She was my first agility/flyball dog and she is usually a good girl. Her KC name is Tiger Pops, she runs at grade 1 at Kennel Club and Primary at BAA.
We started agility in 2002 after seeing it at a local agricultural event. Although at first Poppy wasn't too sure, everything seemed to click into place and she realised she was actually having fun. She's a bit of a lunatic sometimes, but other times she can poddle around a course looking so fed up. She's a bit of an odd bod, but she's obsessed with tunnels and works brilliantly ahead of me. She's lovely to run, but it's always a bit of a gamble as to which "Poppy-head" you'll get. Her contacts are terrible, we've tried retraining 2o2o and she hates me for it, but she's a great jumping dog and in 2007 she was promoted to Primary at BAA shows after finishing in the top 10% of intro dogs. She competed at Crufts in 2007, in YKC team agility where they came 7th (3clears, and 2Es - Poppy had a clear).
Poppy started BFA flyball in 2003, and it took her a good while to get used to what was going on. She started off super speedy and made her debut in starters at Cholmondeley Castle in 2005 where the team came 4th. She then went onto open competition in 2006, and reached her flyball dog award. In 2007, we joined the amazing Leeds 'Owlers, and after half a season in the top team she decided she was bored of flyball so we pulled her out for a few months. She still does some training and might start back in open tournaments in 2008 - watch this space. She also dabbled in Crufts flyball, running at Crufts in 2007 and coming 4th.
Poppt has a very strange personality! She is first and foremost ball obsessed, often mistaking any spherical object for one, be it an apple, paperweight, orange or football. Second on
Poppy's guilty pleasures list are bananas, she thinks these are wonderful for some reason and will hassle you for one if she can see it in the fruit bowl, or if you're eating one. On the other
hand to Poppy's crazy habits, and on a more serious note, is that she's not too sociable with other dogs on lead and gets very stressed if she's sniffed. She also hates the vets to the point
of urinating on and trying to maul our lovely vet, poor Rene. She's a sweetheart really, and when she's not getting mad with the professionals of this world, she enjoys
playing frisbee and trying to sit on your knee in a camping chair (note to Poppy - it's not happening!).