was this Border Collie, Free-N-Bold Jessie. Her father was Heelalong Trevwen Rock, and 20 plus years ago, when Jessie would have been a pup, Rock was the most winning obedience dog of all time. Kay Guetzloff, of Palatine Illinois was his trainer, and she was an amazing trainer. Rock fell playing frisbee at 6 years old, and ruined a hip joint, ending his career.... so who knows what other records he would have broken. He had herding titles, obedience titles, tracking too. He was an obedience OTCH in USA, Canada and England. Jessie's Mom was from Free-N-Bold kennel in Texas, who had some of Guetzloff's dogs they started their kennel with. Her mom, Meg, had multiple titles too, including OTCH (OTCH is Obedience Trial Champion). Meg turned on Jessie when she was 3 weeks old, injuring her in the head and mouth area.... and they hand raised her from then on. As Jessie grew, a severe underbite was becoming an issue. They had her evaluated when she was 7 weeks, and they could not fully say if it was injury, or congenital defect, which may have caused Meg to turn on the pup.... so Jessie would have to go to a home where she would be spayed. At the level of these dogs, they are valuable breeders, and not normally spayed. I happened to call and said that I would have spayed anyway, never interested in pups.... so after a long phone interview, and providing many written recommendations, I was "allowed" to purchase her. As an adult, her bottom jaw fit completely up inside her top jaw.
Jessie was an AMAZING dog. So very intense. Absolutely devoted to me. Very very fast to learn. I wanted to get a "Dog World Award" with her, and, even better to try to get her obedience title with 3 straight perfect scores. This is very hard to do! I had her completely trained through the Utility Dog level before ever showing her in any "real" shows. I went each weekend to "match" shows, and then to UKC (United Kennel Club) shows. We got best in show consistently at these match shows. Finally, it was time to go to an AKC show and try for her first AKC title. It takes 3 scores of a certain number to get a title. If you don't get a high enough score, you can keep showing the dog, over and over, until you finally get three shows with a high enough score. Well, at our one AKC show, we did get that perfect 200. After coming out of that show, when I was going back to my chair to wait for the rest of the people to show, Jessie attacked another dog. A Golden Retriever. All the dog did was get a little to close to me. I caught her in time, no damage was done.... but it did something to her, and I could never trust her again around any other dogs. I never went to any other shows. That was the last time I showed any dog.
