About Daisy
Champions aren’t made in gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them-a desire, a dream, a vision. They have to have last-minute stamina, they have to be a little faster, they have to have the skill and the will. But the will must be stronger than the skill.
~Muhammed Ali
I am thirty-three years old. About twelve years ago, while living in the dorms completing my chemistry degree at Oregon State University, I saw dog agility on Animal Planet. I didn’t have a dog, and knew nothing about dog agility, but I said to myself right then and there, “I am going to be on Animal Planet someday”. A short while after that, after moving off campus in to an apartment, I adopted Gonzo, a red and white border collie, and got started taking obedience classes, and later, agility classes.
A year later, when I had graduated from college and was moving to the Portland, OR area with my then boyfriend, now husband, David, I rescued another dog, Fly, to keep Gonzo company and satisfy my growing desire to do more dog training and more agility. Fly and I did end up on Animal Planet, when we made the AKC National Agility Championship Finals just a few years later. Fly really got me hooked; his zest for the sport and willingness to keep going well beyond what was safe or prudent taught me a lot.
During this time, I was a high school chemistry teacher in the Portland, OR area. My husband and I bought some property and I got my own agility arena. I started teaching a few classes in addition to teaching high school – my agility classes were dimly lit events, held in the evenings, and not very many people came. But I wasn’t in it for the money or the fame or fortune, I just wanted to see as much agility as possible. By that time, I had a new idea – I wanted to be on the USA World Team of dog agility and compete at the World Championships!
The importance of mental management became more and more clear to me, and I spent a lot of time trying to improve not only my handling skills, but my mental management skills. I had the good fortune to be able to attend a very small multiple day seminar with Lanny Bassham, one of the foremost mental management coaches around. I worked hard at becoming a more sportsmanlike competitor, and at improving my focus on and off the course.
