| Date of birth: |
February 16, 1996
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Height:
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20.75 inches
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Weight:
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38 pounds
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Favorite toy:
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frisbee
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Favorite activity:
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flyball
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Most recent accomplishment:
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Joy is MAD!! Finally. Joy's agility career has been hampered by my lack of time to train and trial her -- I got her between my first and second year of veterinary school, so needless to say, our first couple of years we worked primarily on foundation, and mostly on our own. Unfortunately there is nobody in my area who has experience running a fast, enthuasiastic dog, so we've had a steep learning curve. Add a few months off for maternity leave to the year or so off that we didn't trial when I was in my last year of veterinary school, and it makes perfect sense that we only just finished her MAD title in February 2004. It was a fantastic way to celebrate her 8th birthday which was just a few days previous.
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Next most recent accomplishment:
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Fortunately flyball is a lot easier to train and handle "on your own", and Joy finished her FGDCH (Flyball Grand Championship, 30,000 points) in February of 2003. We traveled up to Philadelphia the weekend of the horrible blizzard on the east coast, and the whole team got stuck in Pennsylvania on the way home -- but it was worth it. We all got tired of Bob Evans' limited menu, but the dogs had a fabulous time playing in the 3 feet of snow in the parking lot. And we all eventually made it home safely.
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| This is a picture of Joy from the Sirius USDAA trial in February where she earned her MAD title. I'd like to think this was from our standard run that day (which is the run that finished the title), but I honestly don't know. No matter what, she's still poetry in motion and grace in action. |
| Joy showing her more serious, pensive nature. Yeah, right. | 
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| Joy's halloween costume. In case you can't recognize it, she's dressed as a fairy princess. |
| Joy is a consumate snuggler, but this surprised even me. Here she is snuggling with one of my cats, Cringer. Sadly, we had to put Cringer to sleep in January of 2000. She had a tumor that was caused by a type of vaccination, and it came back despite two different attempts to remove it surgically. | 
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| This is Joy at Camp Gone to the Dogs, June 1997. Her rear legs are held in a relaxed back-tuck position to enable her to be ready to turn when she hits the ground. This is her typical position when jumping. |
| Joy didn't have much exposure to sheep as a youngster, and subsequently she doesn't always "turn on" when she has an opportunity to work them. She's often too busy watching me for directions -- a skill I worked hard to develop in agility. Here she is actually paying more attention to the sheep, and she looks pretty good to my untrained eye. | 
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| Joy as a puppy -- nothing could keep her out of the kiddy wading pool. No matter how dirty, muddy, wet, stinky she is ... she’s just plain cute. |
| Learning how to weave. Weave poles are perhaps the hardest agility obstacle to teach a dog; dogs must slalom through 12 poles placed about 2 feet apart. If you look very closely, you'll see how she learned. | 
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| Joy learning how to trigger the flyball box. |
| Joy at her first ever flyball tournament. Flyball jump heights are between 8 and 16" and are based on the shortest dog on the team. At this tournament, we had to jump 15". Fortunately we have some smaller height dogs now. If you would like more information on the New River Express Flyball team, please contact me. | 
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| The one with the most toys wins. |
| BONZAI!! | 
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