JEN The Super Dog: Guess Post by Sterling

Hi everyone its Sterling,

 Many of you read my Mother's blog post on Jen. When my Mom wrote the post we had only had my sweet Jen for ten days. So I thought I should give everyone a follow up on what the Lord has been doing with me and Jen in the last year and a half. We are now on our second year with Jen, and time has flown. Just weeks after adopting Jen I started training with Beth Wilingham, just off of two eighty (she is the lady who introduced me to Jen). To my surprise there were no other children in my class. I was the only person there under twenty five. However there were several other people in my class to train with. I noticed one person in particular. Her name is Viveka Rosenburger. She has been such an inspiration to me in the past year and a half. If I ever have a question I know Viveka has an answer.

Jen and I attended our first Trial on February 25, 2017. 

                                  

After several months of training with Beth, we realized it was just too far of a drive, and the money I had saved had dwindled. I love my team and miss them very much. Something that has been a real blessing is that the B.A.D (Beth's Agility Dogs) team has really tried their best to still include me even though I no longer train with them. So as I started looking for a new trainer the first thing I did was pray. Soon enough Sharon Tyra (Jen's foster mom) volunteered to train me. FOR FREE!!!! not to mention she lived in Oneonta which is so much closer than where I was going before. The Lord sent me Jen and then a trainer, he works in mysterious ways. I really was shocked. Mrs Sharon has since had surgery and had to stop training me, but Jen and I are getting along fine so far and hope to find another trainer. 

We did a couple more shows that year. As I became closer to Jen I realized I knew nothing about this dog! I didn't know where she was born, who raised her, why she was given up five different times (so I thought), what did her parents look like were they still alive? It hit me all at once. I had so many questions and no one to answer them. So I decided I was going to answer my own questions. I started out by looking at her papers, there I found the name of her breeder, and the link to her page . What was I going to I find, if I found any thing at all? Sure enough the front page came up WELCOME TO SOUNDTRACK FARMS! (Jen's registered name is Soundtracks Somthin Bout a Truck if that helps any;). As I explored the web page I found a link entitled Soundtrack's foundation. There I found pictures of Jen's sire and dam. 

Jen's Sire and dam                                                         

               

After finding the pictures of Jen's parents I decided to message the breeder. I basically told her how I received Jen and asked her if she could help me answer any more of my questions. She soon responded by saying "Oh, how nice to meet you it is so good to know she is taken care of". I was kind of disappointed but the Lord had helped me so much already on my little investigation, I thought it was enough. But little did I know The Lord had something much bigger planned for my "little" investigation. In October of last year we were preparing for Journey's Make-A-wish. One day we were watching videos about Disney World when mom started crying we had no idea why, so I got up and asked her what was wrong, she said nothing, she just simply handed me her phone. As I looked at the screen and read the typing, I realized this email was for me. As I read, I realized this message was from Jen's first owner. The lady (Mrs. Sally) explained that Jen was not given up five times she also explained why they had let her go. Mrs. Sally's son and Jen were BFFS. and when he went to collage she was devastated and stayed depressed for several weeks. When She finally came out of it she never bonded with anyone in her family. She was unhappy. She explained that it was because they loved her so much they gave her way. She told me Jen had been the number one dog in the country in Rally (another sport kind of like obedience), and that she was a frisbee champion. She told me that Mrs. Sharon was fostering Jen to see if she could be a companion for her dog but it didn't work so Mrs. Sharon began trying to find Jen a home down here and thats when I came along. She told me Jen could take me anywhere I wanted and we were the perfect match. Mrs. Lori (Jen's breeder) was the one who gave Mrs. Sally my number, and to think I was disappointed. 

The Lord is so good He sends you encouragement just when you need it. when I received that message I was kind of depressed my self. Jen and I had not been doing good at our trials lately, but that was all I needed to get me back on track.  We just got home from a trial in Franklin Tennessee and we did fabulous. Jen made three scores of 100. We also passed our CGC (canine good citizen test).   

There really aren't a lot of juniors at all in the sport. It is mostly adults.  Only about 175 in the whole country.  I also thought this would be a great time to share some very exciting news. Me, Jen, and the whole family are planning to attend the official AKC JUNIOR SHOW IN ORLANDO THIS DECEMBER! (Lord willing)  This is a really big deal because if I place first through fourth I am formaly invited to the Agility invitational.   

We have a couple of shows in the next couple months. In the mean time please be praying for us on this great new adventure!

                                                                                   
                                                                    Amazed by the Lord,

Sterling