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A speed maniac who goes over any obstacle you decide to put in front of her. A real athletic who was born to run! :) Her feet are a lot quicker than her brains so that creates problems now and then.. She can be demanding and frustrating and full of fire... my pleasure and my pain! She has a wonderful temperament with people but treats other dogs with a certain reserve (she likes to keep some distance). She does not pick up a fight but always stands her ground. The only one she ever fancied was Eetu, a BC X (and castrated!!). And well, at 10 yrs old she must be a bit demented as she thinks her grandson is rather handsome, too!
Anyway, it was in 1992 that I started looking for a bitch so that I could mate her to Tris later and start my own line of BCs. Easier said than done! There were not many British bred BCs in Finland so I looked a bit further away — England. I would have wanted a red&white with some obedience dogs in her pedigree. Two things were difficult, one; it was hard to find registered BCs from obedience (they were all WSDs!!), and two; parents were not hipscored.
However, Roo was born in December 1994 so my search paid off, finally.
Roo was to be my obedience dog and that's what I mostly did with her, plus some other things. I remember her being a horrible pup, straight from Hell.. nooo, it was Nottingham. ;) I think that if she had a 'motto' it would be 'Why be difficult when with little effort you can be totally impossible.' :D
Roo was not easy to train as she didn't think, she just did it! The most important thing to her was to be as quick as possible. Wave your arm accidentally and she'd thought it was a command and you saw her on top of some impossible-looking 2-metre high stone or half-way to a tree...! :0 So it's been a rocky way with her. I know she can do it all, but every time I let her go and do some exercise it's like releasing a rocket, you can only hope it goes to the right direction...:)
Her other hobby was Working Trials where she wasa good messenger dog as she just loved to run. Does not matter who was at the other end, she'd go. It's just that I'm no WT person...
She did Agility when I managed to take her to training..:)
Roo also loves to swimm and is amazingly (well perhaps not..) fast at it. She often slams her paw at the water while swimming (deep!) and catches the water drops.. She can throw a ball in the air and catch it.
Roo jumps so much she's always in the dizzy heights! HA-HA! As said, it's been hard work.. When we were trying for that 3rd qualification to get the coveted title of ObCh I felt like I was asking for the moon from the sky!!
And quite unbelievably we got the moon from the sky on my birthday in March 2002!! What a present! Thanks, Roo.
Every time we've done well together I have felt so proud of her. :) But of course the highlight was when she became a Champion.
Roo is a dam to 16 puppies from two litters. One of them is the first Finnish BC to become an INT AgCh, 'Pilli', she's also Fin & S AgCh BH. Another daughter is ObWW-Runner-up 2006 and European ObWinner 2007, Nordic, Fin S N ObCh BH JK3 'Pihka'. There's one other ObCh and others competing. She has one DK ObCh granddaughter, a Fin ObCh grandson and a Fin ObCh great granddaughter.
I had semi-retired Roo after she became a champion but fate took hand and she moved in with her grandson Retu, their 'boss' being Tiltu. They did some competitions together. Then Tiltu's mum's old dachshund died and Roo stepped in. She's now keeping herself busy by herding two cats and sometimes flirting with Retu.. ;)
I held an Ob Training Course in Estonia in March 2005 and took Roo with me to be my demonstration dog. So out from the retirement... And she was brilliant! We practised a couple of times before the big day and she remembered things well. She can do everything time and time again. Anything for a game of ball!! :D We had a whale of a time. The only thing that bothered me was that she snores when she sleeps.. :0 Other than that, no-one would ever believe she was 10+ years old.
Spring 2007 she seems to be losing a bit of her hearing (or is it just selectiveness?) but has no illnesses. She does not run like she used to but does still have a bit of bounciness in her legs. I guess she could have been called Tigger as well.. Bouncy bouncy!! And not great deal of brain...! Sorry, I'm mean now, Roo was no fool, she just had different priorities than Tris, my first BC, which made the training a bit difficult for me... Then I did not know how to handle all the speed she had. I know now. :)
These days we call her Mega-Granny Roo, she's the matriarch of the Cabaroo Border Collies and we all love her dearly.
The End
Roo was given sleep to save further suffering on 25th October 2007. It came as a bit of a suprise, I honestly had thought she'd go on forever.. But, she had a cancer on her stomach and other lumps here and there. We miss her, and we are grateful for having her kids and grandkids to cheer us up.
Thanks, Roo, for being the loonie, fast, and funny dog, life sure was never dull with you!! Watch out, you guys in doggy Heaven...!!
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