Canadian agility lost one of it’s very special dogs yesterday with the passing of Sarah Mairs’ brilliant Golden Retriever “Gabby”. She was only 10 1/2 years old. Gabby was an amazing flyball dog, one of the fastest “non-Border Collies” of her day and brilliantly represented Canada at both the FCI and the IFCS world agility championships. She had a great career that included both field titles and regularly modeling for TV commercials. Just last fall the two of them won the Canadian Nationals Agility Championships in the veterans class. Of course more importantly than that, in the home in which she lived , Gabby was a very well loved family pet.

Sarah comes from an agility family where both of her parents and her sister are all involved with the sport. Today the entire Mairs family and Sarah’s husband Brent, will all be sharing the same feelings of loss because of how together they all proudly shared in the joy with each of Sarah and Gabby’s accomplishments. After winning that National Championship last fall Sarah put together this video tribute to her dog as she had decided to let Gabby retire from the sport. I know we all live busy lives and to sit down and watch a 7 minute video of a dog you may not have even known may not seem worth your while, but trust me it is, you will have gained something by the experience. Watch not only the great teamwork these two had in agility, but the obvious close bond they shared as a team off of the field. No one knew when this video was posted on Youtube that Gabby was sick as her cancer diagnosis only came on January 15th a short few weeks ago. The point I am trying to make is to watch this video as it was put together not by someone that was facing losing their great dog, but rather by someone that was celebrating how much they loved their great dog.

Today I am grateful for Sarah who shows us all how to enjoy the “times of our lives” with our dogs for the brief time we get to enjoy them here on earth.