MIRACLE dog Scooby never ceases to amaze.
In August last year she became the first South African three-way small dog champion, and qualified to represent South Africa at the world championships in October 2013 where she was placed third in the team event.
She was also the first small dog in South Africa to become a three-way grand champion.
Her owner and handler Gaby Frey of Hibiscus Kennel Club was understandably proud.
“I will never, ever achieve this again with any other dog. No other dog in SA has achieved it yet,” she said.
Scooby is currently number two in the country in the small dog category after all the qualifying rounds for this year’s SA champs, which will be held in Pietermaritzburg on May 30 and 31.
She is the only dog from KwaZulu-Natal to have qualified.
The top four dogs, in terms of highest points after the finals, will represent South Africa at the world champs in Luxembourg in September.
Dynamite certainly does seem to come in small packages.
Scooby’s in good shape, too.
She travelled to Johannesburg with Gaby recently to take part in a bumper four days of shows including 24 competitions.
“At the ripe old age of 10 years, she showed the youngsters that she still has the pace and won the best overall small dog in dog jumping and agility and non contact, despite the altitude, with yours truly puffing and panting, trying to catch her breath after each round,” laughed Gaby.
Gaby became interested in training poodles for agility after watching the Russians do so at the world champs in Finland many moons ago.
This was two years before she acquired Scooby and shortly after she had lost her bearded collie Misty to sickness.
“Up until that point I had only seen poodles at shows, all puffed and fluffy, but in cages,” said Gaby.
Although being told poodles were ‘lap dogs’ she persisted and finally found a breeder in Johannesburg. As a result of Scooby’s success, the breeder went on to sell at least a dozen poodles to agility homes.
What makes Scooby’s recent success all the more remarkable is that she recovered from being savagely attacked by a pack of roaming dogs on the Port Shepstone Borough Grounds in March 2012.
She had severe internal injuries as well as a dislocated hip. After a series of operations, including a blood transfusion and being fed through her nose, Scooby embarked upon the long road to recovery, albeit with only one-quarter of her spleen.
Five months later, after learning to walk again, she started jumping over jumps while Gaby was setting up one day.
By October that year she was back in competition action, winning titles.
And they’ll be hoping for more of the same in Pietermaritzburg this weekend.
