Buddy The Dog Becomes an Agility Champion After Being Rescued From a Shelter

In 2019, a North Jackson woman went in search of a new four-legged companion to adopt. She visited the Trumball Country Dog Warden, who had recently picked up a stray dog find on the streets. Gaynor Ibbotson quickly fell in love with and adopted her new best friend, Buddy, from the dog warden and took him home.

Initial upon choosing to adopt Buddy, she had thought that he was a terrier mix breed – as there was no history or DNA available to know for sure. After taking him home and having him checked over with her veterinarian, Ibbotson learned that her new canine companion was a Pyrenean Shepherd Dog.

Pyrenean Shepherd Dogs are french herding dogs. This makes them extremely active, athletic, intelligent, responsive, and practically inexhaustible. The ideal dog breed for agility competitions.

After taking Buddy to her local dog agility classes, Ibbotson quickly discovered that Buddy had a natural talent for agility work. This will be owing to his shepherding roots. After attending his first competition, Buddy blew his competitors out of the water and won an award thanks to his natural ability to learn and adapt to agility tasks.

Ibbotson spoke with WKBN27 on adopting Buddy saying that is she is a ”great believer in giving dogs a second chance”. This explains why she had chosen to search for her new pooch at the dog warden’s shelter. She also says that she feels all dogs require a lot of exercise, training, and attention to get the best response from them. She feels that their intelligence is a big factor in their need to be exercised properly and thoroughly.

Buddy is now lined up to compete on a larger agility course based which is based in Cleveland. This next competition should take place in the summer of 2021. Ibbotson has also made plans to further his agility training, by putting him in a more advanced class.

Ibbotson aims to try Buddy with more challenging agility trials in order to get a sense of what he can do at this moment in time. She plans to then use the result from these more difficult agility tests to plan a better training routine that can help him to expand and perfect his talents. In doing so she hopes it will help him to continue his advancement through the agility competition world.