Peaceful River Earns the Highest Agility Title

One day watching Dillon play with Shieba I decided he needed a playmate more his age. I had been thinking a Tervuren would be a great dog for Dillon. I inquired with a breeder and was told I could only get a pet quality dog from her kennel. I figured, if I couldn’t get the best structure from a breeder I might as well look into rescue. I entered Tervuren into www.petfinders.com and there was River. Her puppy picture was so beautiful I had to inquire about her. Here is what was written about her.

"River, we do know she’s as sharp as a Shepherd and soft as a Collie and so far, she’s a real sweetie pie. She also has a beautiful herding dog smile! She seems to be getting along with our 4 dogs and the cat so far. She’s even had her butt kicked by our 17lb Westie and backed down. I think she is going to do fine with other animals."

(She always has been good with all animals even guarding a couple roosters from Dillon).

"She's already sitting for attention, but jumps occasionally. She's afraid of men, but her foster pop is working with her on that."

(She ran away from Jim every time he stood up for about a year.)

"She's shy of everyone, but warms up quicker to women."

(She now loves all my 'doggin' friends). "She has also submissively urinated a couple of times (when she met new people), but we think that might pass."

(It did several years later).

"Don't let the timid face fool ya'. She's a wild child. She already knows how to play fetch and has a high ball drive. We say 'The Force' is strong with this one."

(Fetch is the one thing she has always loved).

After many emails and phone calls with Wayward Canine Rescue in Missouri, I drove out there and took her for a week. The first time I met her it took me about 2 hours for her to let me pet her. She was beautiful!! She was also afraid of everything. I was thinking about taking her back after our trial week. After an agonizing night and phones calls to Jim, I decided to keep her. Linda (her rescuer and foster mom had great concerns adopting out of state and it took lots of convincing to get her to trust me (just like River.) I now consider Linda to be a great friend and have left her contact info on River’s ID chip. I know she would move heaven and earth to go get her if anything ever happened to me.

River at 10 months old

She was best friends with Dillon and Shieba right from the start. She loves her pack. She always considered the cats as part of her pack too. She has never had a problem with any dog!! She has been attacked several times, but has never once tried to fight back.

She would panic in any new situation or around strangers. I decided to take her to agility classes. I never dreamed she would ever really be able to do it especially in front of PEOPLE! The first few rounds of classes she wouldn't come out from under the chairs. I'd ask Lynne or Sonya (my agility teachers) to come outside to greet River because I knew she would submissive pee on the floor if they didn't come outside and let her do it there. As time went on, she learned to relax and have fun in classes. I could not get her to practice at home, not even obedience; she would always go belly up on me.(She still doesn't like to practice at home!)

As time went on I decided to enter her in an agility trial. Oh my gosh, I was afraid she was going to have a heart attack. She was so frightened! She did as I asked and performed well, but did it all in a crouch position and with her tongue hanging out of her mouth in fear; I thought she would just fall over in a faint. Some one jokingly asked if she was a Border Collie because of the crouch position. For one full year, I kept her in Beginners. For another year I kept her in Intermediate. The third year I moved her to Advanced. She always did as I asked and would always Q as long as something didn’t spook her during her run. She earned her Advanced titles and then her Master titles, but had a hard time making the time requirement. I decided to move her into the preferred class where her height for jumping was lowered and she was allowed 5 extra seconds over the standard course time. She had to go back through the ranks of Beginners, Intermediate, Advanced, and Masters and in February of 2009 she earned the highest title. The highest title she can earn in her class. My little girl did it!!!