I can remember it as if it were yesterday.
It was 6.30 in the morning, and I was sitting on the cold pavement outside Battersea Dogs Home, London’s most famous animal shelter. Today was the day the puppy I had chosen became available for re-homing, and I was up - about three hours earlier than usual! - to be sure of getting her.
I was the first there, and I looked anxiously at the others waiting in line. We talked to each other and said which dog we wanted. Nobody else wanted “my” puppy, so I relaxed and focused on keeping warm.
Eventually 9 o’clock came round and I and the handful of other dedicated dogseekers were let in. Everyone rushed to the area they knew “their” dog was in, anxious to be there first. I reached the puppy pens and there she was, sweet and beautiful and ready for the adventure.
A few forms later, and I was out on the street again, this time clutching my precious new puppy to me. Precious, but not materially. She cost all of £9.80, including the collar and lead!
That was how I came to have Poppy. And that’s where my adventure began! There had been dogs at home where I grew up, but Poppy was the first I could call mine.
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Life with Poppy
Fresh from the streets … thin and anxious
Poppy nearly died over the next few days, having caught some nasty puppy disease, probably on the streets before the Home picked her up. But, showing the spirit for which she would become known, she pulled through and we started our 16-year love affair. The adoration was mutual.
A few months later when I moved from London to rural Ireland, Poppy helped me make new friends. In fact her bright and endearing nature and endlessly-wagging tail got her talent-spotted by a dog training club instructor.
Now a whole new world opened up before us - Obedience, Working Trials, Agility. Oh, the miles we travelled - all over the British Isles - the friends we made, the rosettes we won, the fun we had!
Poppy flies over the 6 foot scale!
The high point of our competition career was when my little Battersea stray became Working Trials Champion Flower of Battersea, CDEx, UDEx, WDEx, TDEx. Why, she had more letters after her name than I did!
Here she is scaling a 6 foot barrier in terrific style! She also held the Irish High Jump record at one stage, clearing 3 foot 6 inches.
What a long way from those London pavements! As one Obedience Judge put it: “Such grace and elegance from humble beginnings as shown by her name.”
Poppy loved everybody
… adults, children, dogs, puppies, cats, chickens, geese, goats, sheep, cows, donkeys - everyone she came across. She “didn’t have a bad bone in her body,” as my Irish neighbours would say.
Of course I don’t think any dogs have bad bones in their body, but that was rather forward-thinking in a time when blaming the dog for the owner’s shortcomings was the standard. And sadly still is, for many folk.
So I tried one dog, then I got another … and another - the story of addiction! There was no stopping me.
Since then I have had many dogs. Mostly Border Collies, but also others including Whippets - linking back to Poppy: one of her 57 varieties was definitely Whippet!
And for many years I competed with all of them - largely in Working Trials (that’s based on nosework and tracking), but also Obedience, Agility, Heelwork to Music. And we carried on the learning - scent discrimination, searching, lots of different types of retrieving, tricks …
But how did Poppy influence Brilliant Family Dog?
I decided to put pen to paper, or rather fingers to keyboard, because I wanted other people to experience some of the immense pleasure I have had from sharing my life with dogs. I started with Good for Dogs, which also served my dog school students in Worcestershire. Then graduated to Brilliant Family Dog, with all its online courses, books, audiobooks, and over 300 articles! Check the navigation bar above.
This site is more than a dog-training resource, it’s a dog-living and dog-loving site - a dog-celebration, you may say!
And it all started with my little Battersea waif, who introduced me to a new world.
