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Agility Highlights Believe it or not, my dog competition career started at the young age of six. When I became interested in dogs, my parents thought it would be best to test my responsibility by giving me my moms retired obedience sheltie. I immediately started showing her in non-regular obedience classes and began training her myself in agility and earned her Novice Agility title. Once I proved I could handle a dog, I got my very own sheltie, Skittles. I got involved in training her and by the time she was 8 she had over 30 titles that covered obedience, agility and herding. The best part was that she had been trained and shown exclusively by me. In 1998, I bred Skittles and kept a puppy, Guess. With Guess I started my extreme addiction to the sport of agility. In the last 6 years, I have shown and trained 5 shelties in agility and have received five Master Agility Championships on three different dogs that have been trained and shown exclusively by myself. I attended collie and sheltie national specialties and competed in junior showmanship, obedience, herding and agility. In 2002, I was recognized as a 4-H Champion at the Ohio State Fair due to my involvement in showing dogs. I have competed in five AKC Agility Nationals with my first being in 2000. Last year I was a top 10 finalist at the AKC National Agility competition in Long Beach, California and was lucky enough to be interviewed and my final run shown on Animal Planet. My highlight in dogs occurred in May 2004, when Guess and I were selected as one of 12 people in the United States to travel to Italy and represent the USA at the World Agility Championships. I am the only junior handler from the AKC/USA team to ever compete at this world event. I have achieved one of my biggest lifetime goals at the age of 17 by being selected to the team and competing in the world championships in Italy. I worked hard training my dogs, attending practice, seminars and lessons, and gave up personal activities such as being with friends and attending social activities in order to achieve this goal. I am very proud of this accomplishment. While attending high school, I am a volunteer instructor at Wild Weavers Dog Training Center and teach agility class once a week and have been doing so for over four years. My plans for the future include attending college to major in veterinarian medicine, specializing in canine sports medicine. I plan to eventually own my own practice while also being self-employed as a dog trainer giving private agility lessons and seminars. I will continue my involvement in agility and AKC activities by pursuing a second year as a member of the AKC/USA world team. My dream is to one day be a member of a gold medallist team and coach others in the sport of agility. To date my dogs and titles include:
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