Voodoo Powers Through to LAA
Golden Retriever overcame health issues and other setbacks.
Originally published in the August 2026 OVERview digital magazine. Congratulations to the latest group of Lifetime Achievement Award recipients!
Cindy Gray and her 8-year-old Golden Retriever, Voodoo, have not had an easy journey to earn their Bronze Lifetime Achievement Award.
Cindy bred, whelped and raised Voodoo from her other Golden Retriever, Joy, who stood on the podium at nearly every regional, made it to the Cynosport® Steeplechase® Finals and earned a bronze medal in the Cynosport BiathlonSM years ago. Voodoo likewise started strong in her training, but once she started having health problems, her obstacles just kept coming.
“This Lifetime Achievement Award is a very special award for my girl,” Cindy said. “Early on, I was told by her internal medicine specialist, rehab veterinarian and veterinary behaviorist that she would never be able to compete due to fear issues, multiple orthopedic problems and two types of irritable bowel disease. We had a lot of setbacks over the years, and many times I thought we’d have to quit. But with much love and patience, diet, medicine, conditioning and a TPLO surgery, her entire life turned around, and she showed them all!”
Voodoo
Cindy kept chasing the sources of Voodoo’s pain despite multiple veterinary opinions saying it was the stress of competing that set Voodoo off. Cindy started home-cooking her meals to help with her IBD and worked with not one but five rehab veterinarians to fix her knee. Although 40% of dogs don’t return to agility after a CCL tear, Voodoo came back from her TPLO surgery to earn her PDCH, then her ADCH.
“Then she put the cherry on top of the cake we were told we could never have, and she finished her Lifetime Achievement Award,” Cindy said. “She’s been on the podium at regionals in both Grand Prix® and Biathlon, ran in the Grand Prix Finals at Cynosport, and just missed Steeplechase Finals at Cynosport by a heartbreaking 0.19 seconds. But her real victory is that she has overcome so much and has so much more confidence now that she feels better.
"For me, this Lifetime Achievement Award celebrates not just what she’s accomplished in agility, but in life!”