I swore I would not walk around some
ring, without a dog, twirling around, and pointing with my hand at
things that were not there.
I did not foresee, that one
year in Enumclaw, by watching Barb Benner’s Malinois do a tremendous
send and 90 degree left turn into a set of weave poles then wrap her
body around it and come out the other end just as excited as when she
went in, I was hooked.
Before my life with dog’s…less than perfect.
There have been several trainers
that encouraged me in the early days: Gloria McGrath, Ann Marie
Silverton, Janice De Mello, Sylvia Bishop, Patty Russo, Mary Gutknecht,
Lisa Bowers, Jill Crawford and many others who I have yet to meet and
work with. In more recent years Daisy Peel thru the Awesome Paws
Handling System.
Many principles from the above still influence training decisions today.
Blynns’s joy for training animals started back before the 1980’s with her Morgan Quarter horse cross -
Cinnabar. She says that she enjoyed the games classes more than the
pleasure classes. They earned High state Gymkhana and Games awards.
She and Cinnabar enjoyed trail rides in the hills and pastures of
Alaska along the China Hot Springs road.
As a teenager she enjoyed
the company of shelties which Blynn says are not the same drivey and
adventuresome shelties of today. She trained her companions, Shadow and
Shady, in obedience at the local fair grounds. She said “Shady and I
went on to compete in competition obedience for a few years with many
HIT awards along with top 25 in the breed nationally a few times.
WIOC was an achievement to
be reached for back then and we were on the state team at each level,
Nov, Open, Utility. With a Runner up in Novice for overall states. Open 6th overall and Utility I think was a 4th place over all. We had never competed in Utility but, there we were on the team!
In the mid 1980’s she and
her Mom moved to CA after her fathers sudden passing. Her mom had
always wanted to be in warmer weather so off they went with a few
shelties in tow. There she played in obedience again with her sheltie
Loni and earned her CD (Loni is her sheltie version of Kitt, dear and
sweet and loyal).
Blynn’s current youngster is
a “blue” male border collie named Ray (DOB: Feb 2010). He is a super
boy, growing up and having fun chasing Gem in the fields. Blynn
explains” Gem was not too happy when the day came that Ray could out run
her and she told him so.”
“Ray and I were Teamwork
from the start. He is the type that wants to be right 100%...okay 98% of
the time. He has a soul made for me and is a great joy to live, train
and compete with. He is a soft dog and has taken me time to work thru
the differences between him and Gem (to be mentioned later ).”
“Along with other agility
accomplishments, (see Ray’s bio) he is also a nice herding dog and has a
PT and ASCA STD title….time is a challenge to come by for more training
and competing - someday though.”
Blynn competes in AKC, yet
feels most at home in USDAA. She is looking forward to attending the AKC
nationals in Pennsylvania in March 2014 and plans to attend the AKC
World Team Tryouts in May.
AKC Portland Rose Classic - Jan 2012 2nd overall ISC classes, Jan 2013 2nd in Standard ISC.
World Team Tryouts - May 2012, 2013 placed well.
Ray earned his MACH in July 2013 at age 3.
AKC Nationals 2013 – placed well in Jumpers and T2B.