Debbie Owens - Austin
Austin AKA Oz, Ozzie, Ozstar, Boofhead.
From the very beginning I knew Austin (AKA Oz, Ozzie, Ozstar, Boofhead....) was special. He stood out of the litter because he was marked differently and has continued to stand out in life since (not always for good reasons though!) Austin is my first dog and I began training him straight away but not really knowing what I was doing. I gleaned as much as I could from the Internet and library books. After attending Puppy Pre-school, we were advised to continue on with training at COCT. We progressed steadily through the classes and made it to class five at around 11 months of age. We accidentally stumbled on to the agility world at the show trial when I turned up for class not knowing there was a trial taking place. After watching how excited and happy the dogs were running around the course it was love at first sight!!! I couldn’t wait to start training.
Unfortunately I had to go on a course down in East Sale, Victoria for 3 months just after Oz turned 12 months. There was no way I was going to be separated from Oz for that long so he travelled down with me. We joined the local Obedience Club and learnt all the basics from a very good instructor. So back to Townsville in April 2003, lots more training and our first trial in August. We only had one fault in Novice Agility but got a Qual in Novice Jumping. Very pleasing for our first ever trial. Shortly afterwards I was deployed overseas with the Air Force so Austin went to stay with Michael Warren. Michael ran Austin in 3 trials and achieved 3 Quals in Novice Agility and 2 in Novice Jumping to obtain Austin’s Novice Titles. At that success rate, maybe I should have stayed away for longer!! I returned to Australia early 2004 and continued to trial Austin. We gained our Open Jumpers title in July and our Open Agility title in September. So far we have 2 Masters Jumpers quals but as Austin is a non-papered dog, we’ll be back in Novice next year However the biggest challenge Austin has thrown at me this year is his aggressive tendencies which developed after I returned home to Australia. He lunges at large dominant dogs and any other dogs he doesn’t like. He also likes to chase dogs running around an agility course. Trying to control this has been very difficult, bewildering and at times upsetting. Hopefully with lots of hard work and patience we will be able to work through it and return Austin to his normal lovely self.
Next year we look forward to competing under the associate register and with a bit of luck gaining our Masters titles. We’ll also begin trialing in obedience, continue working on Austin’s tricks (we’re perfecting getting a drink out of the fridge and putting rubbish in the bin) and reducing his aggression.
Debbie Owens