Dog Tales – Maggie, The Cairn Terrier

DOG TALES: Maggi – The Cairn Terrier

– Debi Kampaklis “Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.” (Dorothy – 1939 Wizard of Oz film)

Dressed as Dorothy and dancing in red rhinestone shoes in swirling winds with my Cairn Terrier called Maggie to music from Wizard of Oz in October last year was surreal. Maggie’s dancing debut in the Dances With Dogs Trial ring at the age of 10 was wild.

As my first sporting dog had long retired from Agility, Obedience and Rally, Maggie (Joymont Maggie CCD RN JD AD SD GD TK.S HTM.S FS.S) had been left home couch-surfing with my husband for many years. A series of dog attacks had resulted in damage to both Maggie’s cruciates. Roll forward to the year of Covid 2020 where I worked from home, – bereft of Dog Trials for my two sporting Papillons – I kept sane with Trick Training. One day I spotted Maggie with her nose pressed up against the screen door, moving her head up and down with occasional sighs. On a whim I started to train her tricks – eventually earning a Starters title with her early in 2021. But that’s where Maggie’s story stops for a while, as I decided to change dog sports and take up Dances With Dogs with my Papillons.

With our inaugural season of Dancing With Dogs Trials almost over with my Team Dream Papillons, my husband dared me to dance with Maggie at the last competition of 2021 with music from the Wizard of Oz (given she was a Cairn Terrier – Toto’s long distant cousin). Loving a challenge I had only 4 weeks to sort a costume, props and choreography let alone adding Maggie into the mix. The jury was out for me as she was still quite reactive to large dogs and possibly undisciplined for the dance ring. Only time would tell.

So on a hot windy October day last year as we made our way to the DWD ring as Dorothy literally swept up in a tornado with Toto at her side, I wondered if the audience would get to see what I see in my beautiful, mad Maggie. Self-doubts melted as she leapt into her basket mid ring, posed, poised and ready for action. It was a super special moment for just us, from her being my fifth and last Cairn, her exuberant work ethic and grunts of excitement to making our way in dog sport together. I struggled with tears throughout our 4 routines as she revelled in our every second together in the dance ring. Toto nonchalantly danced her little heart out to Somewhere over the Rainbow and Follow the Yellow Brick Road, earning 4 quals for her 4 routines which left me speechless. Roll forward to February 2022: this storm trooping, tenacious Cairn Terrier graced the DWD ring in more gale force winds to not only qualify but snag dance titles in both Heelwork and Freestyle. Recently returned from competing in Victoria and the ACT in March, Maggie hit the dance floor with a new routine earning a few laughs with ‘Ding Dong the Witch is Dead’ and continues to qualify in both Dancing and Tricks with further titles ahead. At heart my Maggie is a typical Cairn Terrier always front and centre of the action – whether that be searching for fish on the water’s edge, hunting geckos in the garden to dancing and tricking. Tripping the light fantastic in her older years, Maggie has shown me age is just a number and life is for living for this wee Cairn of mine.