Britches attended her first all-breed match at the age of 4 months.  She was Best Puppy In Match with my friend JoAnne Hawkins handling her.  I was handling her littermate, Annie.

Britches aged well and enjoyed working well into her teens.  Her distractability made her an indifferent obedience dog, but she was a great tracker.  She once followed a track right under the nose of a curious horse without giving any indication that she knew the horse was there.  She was fun to train.  On one occasion she was following a track, and was distracted by a discarded box with the remains of Kentucky Fried Chicken a few feet to the side of the track.  She went over and investigated the box, and I directed her back to the track.  She went right back to the box, and I took her back to the track again.  It was becoming apparent to her that I didn't realize the importance of Kentucky Fried Chicken.  The third time she went back to the box, she looked up at me and very deliberately sat, which was her article indication.  She clearly though that I needed to know how important a find this was!   My first TD dog, Britches started her tracking training at the age of nine, and was over 12 when she passed her TDX test.  She was only the 28th Sheltie to earn a TDX.
 

Britches passed her TDX test on April 21, 1996, on her second try.  The Oakland Dog Training Club test was the last test of the season, and I really didn't know if I could keep her tracking for another year, as she was 12 years old.  It took her nearly an hour to work through the track.  She had considerable difficulty at the last turn, as some bird watchers had tromped through the area earlier in the morning.  She got her picture taken for her trouble.  I got poison oak.
 

Britches never competed in agility.  She was a senior citizen when I first built some agility obstacles.  But she insisted that if the other dogs could do it, she could do it too.  She was 13 1/2 years old when we took this shot of her going over a lowered A-frame.