Sometimes, we focus so hard on highlighting our wonderful, amazing clients, that we forget to talk about how incredible our staff is! To remedy this tragedy, I would like to introduce the first of (hopefully) many staff highlights. I reached out to all of our fantastic pet care professionals and asked them to write a blurb about themselves, so our lovely readers can get to know them a bit better. So, with no further ado, I am ecstatic to introduce: Christine T!
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When my husband, daughter and I moved from NYC to Alexandria some years ago I
found myself with some extra time on my hands and thought I’d take our Labrador
Brownie to an agility-for-fun class. Meet new people, keep the dog busy …. Little did
I know what I was in for. For anyone who has seen “Best in Show” – agility is all that
and then some.
By the time I got home from that first class I was completely hooked. I’d been told
that Brownie, more couch potato than lean, mean, agility machine, needed to lose
15 pounds – no easy feat for a food-worshiping Lab! But little by little, he lost the
weight, we became more proficient on the obstacles, and we were gearing up to do
our first competition. The night before I was incredibly nervous; my daughter was
just as excited and had been scouring the internet for ‘first agility trial checklists’ –
Dogcrate, check. Fancy running shoes, check. Special treats, check. We got our first
ribbon, a blue to boot, and that was that! Soon after I ordered my first piece of
equipment, a tunnel. My husband called me, quite bewildered – “Chris, we just had a
very large plastic tube delivered. Do we want that ??” Well, yes, yes, we do !
After a year of competing I decided that we would add to our pack. We were going
to get a Border Collie. Agility folks call this ‘joining the dark side’… Whereas Brownie
tackled agility courses in the manner of a MAC truck, slow and steady does the trick,
I now found myself behind the wheel of a Ferrari. I realized I might be in trouble
when the 4 month old pup, Jack, started taking up the tile in the bathroom. HGTV tells me
taking up tile is an extremely difficult job requiring specialized tools and hard labor.
Jack said, nah, just give him 2 minutes unsupervised – Maybe I should have rented him out
to demolition crews! Neurotic and high strung with a tendency towards obsessive-
compulsive behavior, Jack is also completely and utterly devoted to me. As I am to him.
The faster Border Collies break 7 yards a second on course, which is pretty incredible.
They are canine athletes and are treated as such – chiropractic adjustments, massages,
underwater treadmills for conditioning, magnetic back-on-track coats and a holistic
diet. The dogs at the top LOVE agility, they scream to get into the ring and the worst
possible ‘correction’ for a dog is to be picked up and carried out mid-run. Handlers
obsessively track points and clean runs (also known as “Qs”) and celebrate a big title
like the Master Agility Champion (the coveted ‘MACH’) with an elaborate cake to be
shared at the next competition.
Jack and I have done well enough to attend multiple Nationals, Westminster and
several World Team Tryouts. We have competed in Europe and made multiple Finals.
But at the end of the day, he is still also ‘just’ a pet, snuggling up under the covers at night
and begging for pizza crusts.
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So there ya have it! The amazing Christine T. and the equally incredible Jack. I don’t know about you, but I feel inspired to go out and try something new with my dog!
