3 Legged Dog Wins Agility Contest

Update: Looks like Amy is going down to New Orleans to work the Hurricane relief. Wish her luck and safety, please.

One of my best friends, Amy Breton trains her dogs to compete in agility trials. She's also a veterinary technician. She is very well respected in her field, has published articles and contributed to books. She is very sought after in her field too.  She is also a VMAT member, which is the organization responsible for responding to emergencies when animals are involved. Amy was one of the veterinarian technicians that went to NYC after 9-11. She took care of the search and rescue dogs that were there. (Someday, hopefully she'll publish her memoirs from that. She is an amazing writer and the stories and photos she has from her experience are inspiring.) She's also been called to duty for other disasters that she is not allowed to talk about. The only reason I know is because she tells me that she is going away and can't talk about it. Long story short: She rocks. She brings a new level to her profession.

She also adopted a dog awhile ago that was brought into her clinic in very bad shape. She not only nursed it back to health, but trained Serena to compete in agility trials, which is like the Olympics for dogs. They go through obstacle courses that I know I couldn't make it through. It is very impressive if you haven't seen it.

Recently, Serena grew a large tumor in her leg which rendered it useless. Their only option was to amputate her leg.  So, I was surprised to hear that Serena was competiting in agility meets again. But, not only did she compete with 3 legs. She won! Here is Amy's email: (published with permission)

What a day!!  It was just awesome to be running again with Serena and it was a lot of fun to run with Meeko for the first time.  Serena was officially the only 3 legged dog there.  Joe video taped the event and it's so funny to hear people in the background suddenly exclaiming that "that dog only has 3 legs!"  Serena was the only dog to have the entire arena applauding and cheering for her.  It was definately one of the loudest post-run celebrations of any dog I've ever heard.  Serena had a blast and was so excited to get out and run that she was literally running in circles waiting for her turn.
So...how did we do?

Serena came in FIRST place during both events and qualified once out of her
2 events.  (In agility a qualifying run means a PERFECT run and with so many perfect runs you get to move up to higher and higher levels.  So, the "Q"
run is what you want in agility).  So, we took one "Q"!

Meeko was a super star...no I'm not kidding.  She took first and qualified in BOTH of her events!  GO MEEKO!  In fact, she had some tough competition. 
On the first run she had 12 dogs in her group and 4 of them qualified.  On the second run she had 14 dogs and 5 qualified.  So, she did super!  She was even 17 seconds below time during one of them!  Her runs were absolutely perfect!  Go Meeko!

So, we are very happy today.  A big special thanks to my parents who drove all the way up from PA to support Serena during her first competition as a 3 legged dog.  Hopefully there are many more to come!  Joe and I are going to put together the footage of the video tape we shot today of Serena along with some video of her running in the yard and give it to the veterinary clinic I work at.  There are many owners who decide to euthanise or not amputate because they feel their dogs will have a bad quality of life. 
Hopefully, seeing Serena on video will show them that anything is possible and that 3 legged dogs have a great quality of life.  After all, Serena also has a plate on her femur besides the missing front leg!

And a picture of Serena and Meeko after their meet:

Notice who's still standing. Yes, Serena, the one on the right with the hair where her leg used to be.

Dogs are awesome. Especially Serena!

Comments

[Jen Madrid]

I believe I've seen Serena at a CPE trial in the Albany NY area. I'm pretty sure we even ran against this dog back in December or January since we run in the same "Specialist" class. :)

I keep telling people I saw a 3-legged dog running agility and few people believe me.

[Jay]

it is nice to here that CPE allows 3 legged dogs to run. I recently got a tripod my self and found out that AKC as well as several other organizations do not allow handicapped dogs to run.

[viagra online]

So why did we hear rhat the bomb/flashlight was powerful enough to kill a person and creat large amount of damage. I bet the Barista is feeling a little ambaressed but they did the right thing by reporting it. Hey and I bet they well get alot of bussiness.

[supra sale shoes]

Thank you for your articles on you blog. They are useful to me. Your information resources make those spam blog shamed.

[Jonny Bill]

Great read. I observed your internet site from a google search, and was glad i did. The data has helped me immensely.

[DEKARONデカロン-RMT]

RMT rmt とはis currently constructing the Kahuku Wind facility located on the island of Oahu in Hawaii. リネージュ2 rmtThe 30-MW facility will feature 12 wind turbines and will generate enough clean energy to power about 7,700 homes each year. アトランティカ RMT RMT is providing engineering, procurement,Atlantica RMT and construction of the civil and electrical infrastructure, rmt ff14including roads, crane walks and pads, turbine foundations, tower erection,aion rmt a 23-kV underground collector system, a 23/46-kV step-up substation, and a 7,000-square-foot operations and maintenance buildingrmt リネージュ2.

[DEKARONデカロン-RMT]

RMT rmt とはis currently constructing the Kahuku Wind facility located on the island of Oahu in Hawaii. リネージュ2 rmtThe 30-MW facility will feature 12 wind turbines and will generate enough clean energy to power about 7,700 homes each year. アトランティカ RMT RMT is providing engineering, procurement,Atlantica RMT and construction of the civil and electrical infrastructure, rmt ff14including roads, crane walks and pads, turbine foundations, tower erection,aion rmt a 23-kV underground collector system, a 23/46-kV step-up substation, and a 7,000-square-foot operations and maintenance buildingrmt リネージュ2.

[Cialis Online]

I want to know something, what kind of training have do a dog to become a contest dog? I ask this because my aunt gave me a german shephered puppy, and I want to educate it in the best way.

[apcalis jelly]

I liked this blog, i think is very interesting, most of all for the new ideas that this blog talk.

[supra shoes]

I like the writing structure of your blog and it does a pretty decent job of presenting the material.