Agility Dog Association of Australia Ltd

Handler Profile (June 2006) ~ Sam Jones

Name: Samantha Jones. I am 17. Most people get a big surprise when I tell them my age. If I speak to them over the phone, when they meet me they are surprised that I am so young, but if they meet me face to face they are surprised that I am 17.

Where do you live? Brisbane

Occupation: Student, bird breeder and hand-raiser, vet nurse aid, dog trainer.

Describe yourself in 25 words or less: Animal mad, hardworking, persevering, and willing to help anyone with anything. Absolutely 100% dedicated to my Club.

Describe your Agility vehicle: I don’t have one yet; my parents take me, either in my Dad’s Toyota Hiace van or our Holden Commodore.

Dogs and their achievements:

Gromit Blue Heeler X, 8 years old when we had to put her down 7 weeks ago. She slipped a disc in her neck and we could not afford to get the surgery done. We buried her on my aunt’s horse farm.  Her achievement is the only one that counts: The best dog ever I have ever had, and the smartest.

Swazi, is purebred Border collie puppy. Swazi is 14 weeks old, and we have just started obedience at PADS. She has not achieved any titles yet.

Gromit	Swazi

Where do you train your dogs? I train at PADS on the North Side. Everyone in my club is like a big family to me, since I left my family back in South Africa. I have never missed helping with an open day or demo for my club since I started with Gromit.

What do you like about Agility? I love being with my dog and gaining a better relationship with her. Also being outside with like-minded people, learning new things, making friends, and getting exercise.

When did you start in agility? I only Started in March last year with Gromit.  Gromit was 7 at the time, who said you can’t teach an old dog new tricks!

What is your favourite Agility event? I have only done Agility and jumping tests. My Favourite is the Agility, as I really like contacts, well not me, Gromit loved contacts.

What is the most important piece of advice that you have been given about Agility? All advice I have received has been very helpful as I have not been training for very long.

What was the most difficult training problem that you have had to overcome? I have not had any problems with Swazi yet. With Gromit I had a really hard time with weave poles and seesaws. Gromit also loved the A-Frame so much that she always decided to back jump them in competitions. I completely retrained the weaves and that helped a lot, but we still had trouble with entries. Gromit had almost, ALMOST perfected weave poles just before she slipped the disc. We worked hard on seesaws at training but I always had to remind her that that was the one that moved. If I didn’t she would fall off the other side when it started to move.

What are your most memorable moments in agility? EASY! When Gromit and I competed in the BAD comp in December last year. We had an intermediate jumping test, which was only Gromit’s 5th run in competition. She only got 1 fault, but that was because she found a moth in the tunnel, and when she had finished trying to catch it she was too close to jump the second last hurdle. I was so proud of her for doing so well with only 9 months of training and in her second comp.

What will your next dog be and when do you think you will get it? Since I only just got Swazi 9 weeks ago, I don’t think I’ll get another dog for a long time. I am going to breed with Swazi later, so I may keep one of her puppies.

What is your favourite training game and how do you play it? I like to play “Wait up”, a game I invented in the park one day. I let my dog off lead and let her run, telling her to “go out”. When she gets too far ahead I ask her to “wait up.” She stops and waits until I get to her. I ask her to sit or drop and then I say, “I’m Gonna Smoke Ya” and run away giving a release word as I go.

What is your next goal in agility? To train Swazi as well as possible, and to get her titles. I am trying not to make the same mistakes that I did with Gromit.

Any other interesting information about you that you would like to share with the members: Not interesting but it might be helpful to some people in understanding me. I have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, and have had it for 2 ½ years. Some people might think that I am lazy or just stupid, because I sometimes miss, forget or use the wrong words in conversation. I have a very hard time lasting through competitions and sometimes training. I also have a bit of a hard time concentrating for a long time, but I do my best. Most of the time I feel really sick, but I still come to agility because I’m obsessed with it and I can’t do much else in the week.

Sam with her Dad

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