Gracie & Jean S. Thorkildsen
With special thanks to Linda Zimmerman for the interview.
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I know Jean is grateful to Annie Raker - affectionately known as Grannie Annie – of New England Old English Sheepdog Rescue (www.neoesr.org ) for finding Gracie for her. Finally, a big thank you to Jean’s agility teammate, Gracie, for leaving Jean in peace long enough to allow her to share some of her experiences.
Find Me an Agility OES, Please…
How did you and Gracie get together?
When my last OES, Woody, had been gone about six months, I missed having an OES so much I sent an e-mail to Grannie Annie. She put me in touch with a family in Vermont who had to move overseas and needed to place their dogs, even though they would miss them very much.
How old was Gracie when you got her?
Gracie was two years old, and she had spent her first two years living on a mountainside with woods all around, and she was pretty much used to doing whatever she wanted.
How long have you been involved in owning and training OES?
Good question. When I was a little girl, in the 1930’s, my mother acquired a rescue OES named Limey. Barbara Foster put a picture of him in her book, Companions, Competitors, Clowns. He was a wonderful dog, and when I grew up and had my own family, I bought a bitch from one of Unnesta Pim’s first US litters. She had a dark head like her sire, and although she was dysplastic she had a correct rear and lots of spirit, and ended up going BW at the National, in about 1968. At that point she already had a CD, because I had gotten into obedience training with my previous dog (an unruly Great Dane.)
I never bred Marcy because of her hips, so I bought Iris, a Rivermist bitch whose dam was one of the famous Ceiling Zero/Baroness of Duroya litter. Iris finished at 13 months with 4 majors. When bred to her cousin, Dan Tatters, she produced Aragorn’s Irresistible (Tasha). I always tried to have a Ch and a CD on a bitch before breeding her, but Tasha’s daughter, Crumpet, went to a home that was happy to campaign her rather than do obedience training. Like her dam, she was a beautiful mover, and became top OES bitch in the US in 1976.
Around that time I became single and between budget restrictions and lack of enthusiasm for conformation, I just got CD’s on my next two bitches. I never had the patience and determination to get a CDX, though Iris was trained through Open, and retired after she developed a back problem.
Is this your first OES rescue dog?
Gracie is my second rescue dog. Woody was a wild and crazy 6-month old puppy when his owner’s employee got so upset about the way he was neglected she managed to get him rescued. He ran into my house and galloped over the top of the couch and both end tables, and right into my heart. He needed an outlet for his energy, and an agility school was just starting up in my area so we enrolled. He loved it, but insisted on designing his own courses, and never got a Q till he was 5 years old. He finally finished his NA and NAJ when he was nine! Liver failure claimed his life two years later.
How and when did you decide to do agility and/or any other performance activities with her? What makes Gracie suited to performance activities? What would you say has been the result of doing these activities together with Gracie?
By the time Woody died I was hooked on agility, an activity that is totally positive and fun for both dog and handler. The only dog I had left was Parker, the Cardigan, who is happy to go to agility class but not enthusiastic enough to make time in trials. I wanted another dog with the speed and enthusiasm Woody had, so I contacted Annie.
Like Woody, Gracie has beautiful hips and an eager, tireless temperament. When I first got her I thought she was a flaky airhead with no self-control, but now she settles down pretty quickly and LOVES to work. (The two hardest things for her in obedience class are waiting while the teacher talks, and sitting quietly next to the post in the Figure 8.) The stationary exercises are hard too; we’re working on duration. Also heel position, which is NOT walking sideways two feet in front of me!
How long have you been training Gracie?
Thirteen months. She earned her first CPE title after 12 months of classes. Woody’s first titles took 5 years, but then, those were in NADAC as we didn’t have CPE then. Maybe he too would have Q’d in CPE, where the clock doesn’t stop till the dog jumps the last jump even if he goes around it first.
How long have you been training OES?
About 40 years. (Reminds me of a cartoon that used to run on the funny page in the Boston Herald when I was a kid, titled “Born 40 Years Too Soon.”)
Which venues to you participate in?
CPE, DOCNA and AKC. I like the rules in DOCNA, which are sympathetic to older handlers, but there aren’t many DOCNA trials around yet. I also hope to get AKC obedience and Rally titles on Gracie. We did Novice Rally once at a match and got a Q (just barely) without ever going to a Rally class.
I would like to try UKC agility and obedience too, but it isn’t available in my area. I don’t like to travel too far because of the expense of hiring a goat sitter, not to mention a motel. I am taking both dogs to a herding clinic soon, however.