To begin Mac’s story I have to start at the VERY beginning and introduce Emma. This is a dog who will happily nudge ahead of you while you’re greeting new guests and introduce herself (vocally). “You can play with me … throw the ball, throw the ball.”
An “Empty nest syndrome dog”, all of R250 from nowhere really. Date of birth 20/01/1997. Being a “bit’ (just a bit) of a control freak I decided on a Border Collie because I wanted to train obedience. Cape Province Dog Club became our training ground for many years. Emma competed in obedience with ease and grace, did well at Field Trials and Fly Ball and then concentrated on agility and jumping. (This is also where I met Lindsay, my agility partner and also trained to be an agility trainer). Training was very different at that time and Emma was known as a “Velcro dog”. She never took an obstacle without being told; “Not the dog’s fault” was never more obvious. Emma does not consider herself to be a “canine-dog” but rather a “people-dog”. Preferring adult or children company, she is aloof and does not even acknowledge other dogs. Ascii, Lindsay’s GSD adored her but she didn’t give the poor boy the slightest recognition. Because of her “people skills”, Animal Tails gave her various modelling opportunities and she featured as the hero dog in The Story of an African Farm. Her agility career was steady and consistent. She won overalls and placed in the top 3 a few times at SADAA Regionals. She earned her KUSA Western Province Agility colours when she was 10. My highlight of her career was most likely her final run when I had decided it was to be her last competition and she won it to make her a dual KUSA Champion.
(Yesterday Emma managed her 3rd CC in non-contact agility to make her the first NC Agility Champion in WP. Well done to Debbie, who manages to keep up with Emma sometimes. Emma has been trying to get Debbie to championship status, before retiring. But some humans are just more difficult to train than others - notice local website).
She was 11 years old!
Miss Priss has always behaved herself and is and has been an extremely easy Border Collie to have around. Emma is now 15 and a half years old. Hand signals learned while making the movie are now a bonus because she is stone deaf. Her eyesight is fading but her sense of smell is still totally intact and she retains her reputation to ferret out any unattended treats. The bane of her life is laminated flooring and her ultimate embarrassment because she has to wear sticky paws. She still doesn’t give any dog the time of day – not
even Mac!
Just Me
C’est la vie
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