Obedience career

When Decker was about 6 months old Paula Ackary (breeder of Stillmoor Border Collies and herself a Crufts winner) commented, "that dog is ticket material because he is never bored either watching everybody else or finding something to do." I have to admit that I didn't believe you could tell at that age but Paula was definitely right and I was grateful for her help and for transporting us to many shows in the early years. I was also very pleased when Sue Ellis used Paula's Kapia Skeet of Stillmoor on her Gilda 'Melnola Golden Guinea of Retcoll' (Decker's daughter), as Skeet had always been one of my favourite collies.

Out of Novice by a year old, had a slight stutter in 'A' because scent was then on articles supplied by the judge and there certainly were some wierd and wonderful articles. However he was still out of 'A' by seventeen months and was already getting placed in 'B'. Won one 'B' very quickly and then got the sillies on sendaway and wouldn't stop, causing great hilarity but also losing many points. This reluctance to stop carried on throughout his career but the sendaways were always very fast and straight and he rarely missed any. The only way I had any chance of stopping him was to get the command absolutely right and to ensure I did this I had to pretend there was a 60ft drop behind the markers! Still no dog is perfect and he absolutely loved to work for me. At just over 2 he was 'C' and a few months later he was qualified for ticket.

Now Decker hated traveling and would never rest no matter how long the journey, so at first I would only do the local ticket shows. Eventually I was persuaded to travel further and of course it paid off with us qualifying for Crufts '91, but I'm afraid I only really travelled for one more year and then it was back to the local shows. Some people say he never reached his full potential but I was very happy with him no matter what he did. I retired him at ten years old and we had a lovely party with Decker having an absolutely wonderful time. In ten years of competing, Decker won 251 rosettes in obedience - not a bad average and he had some wonderful reports from the judges.

Midlands Team Decker was chosen to represent the Midlands Team three times in the Inter regional C competition at Crufts prior to winning the individual championship in 1991.

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