Maluko's SPAM - Rally Advanced Excellent (RAE) title and 7th year old birthday updated 11/28/2012)
Today Maluko turns 6 years old and I created this short video to celebrate our journey together so far.
We did not do anything special today as every day together is a special day. I have learned so much over the past 15 months and I hope we have many more happy years ahead of us.
We did not do anything special today as every day together is a special day. I have learned so much over the past 15 months and I hope we have many more happy years ahead of us.
Comments
I'll cross my paws that you get 6 more years like this
I'm glad you both found each other and are enjoying life. These moments are most precious.
Maluko (San Jo Chaka Khan RE) got 2 Qs in Novice B Jumper with Weaves and 1 Q in Novice Standard with 1st placements. 3 Qs out of 4 runs for her first AKC Agility trial weekend. Not too shabby for my sweet girl, who will be 7 years old in November. This girl has taught me so much about dog training and developing a deep bond with a canine companion. She has amazed me with her potential ever since she came into my life a little over 2 years ago.
Her housemate Koji (San Jo Kumi Rock N Roll Banjo Boy RE, CAA, AX, AXJ, NF) got 3 Qs, including his first double Q in Excellent B and some nice points.
Both Shibas ran happily and we had a blast at the Yakima trial.
I got Maluko when she was 4 years and 9 months old from a local breeder. As a first-time dog owner, I was open to getting an adult dog and not necessarily want a puppy. The breeder showed me 2 female dogs - one is Maluko, who honestly looked terrible right after having her 3rd and last litter and the other female was younger, about 1.5 years old and pretty. For some reason, I chose the ugly ducklings over the pretty girl and after several visits, I took her home.
We both have grown and learned so much from each other for the past 2 years. Agility is something that I do with her, because I want to keep her physically more active. She is a couch potato and I want her to keep moving, hence the Agility classes. She has shown a lot more interests in Agility ever since we switched to the same instructor as Koji and made great progress. So I thought I would start trialing with her.
She is a great little dog and has great attitudes in the ring and runs happily. I expect we will stay in the OPEN class for a while as there are quite a few things we need to work on before she can advance to Excellent A class.
This is her first qualifying OPEN Jumper with Weaves (JWW) run.
She had a ton of fun searching in all 4 elements - interior, exterior, container and vehicle. She is also making good progress in Agility classes, being able to find some tricky weave entries on her own. She is one great little red dog, who is calm, very easy to live with and can be taken anywhere.
On Sunday at the Whidbey Island Kennel Club Show, both dogs qualified in both Rally Obedience Excellent B and Advanced B with scores in the 90s.
Maluko (San Jo Chaka Khan RAE, NA, NAJ, CGC, NW1) earned her Rally Advanced Excellent (RAE) title with the 10th QQ leg and became the 9th Shiba that earned this title. Koji earned his 8th QQ leg and needs 2 more RAE legs to title.
It was exactly a year ago at the same show I started trialing in Rally with Maluko - it opened the door for us into many different doggie sports - Rally, Agility and Nosework.
Maluko turned 7 year old yesterday. I pledge to give her a fun and enriching life and I think I hold up my end of the bargain. Thank you for being my friend, my sweet girl.
She also managed to get her first Open FAST leg and needs one more leg to finish her Open Agility (OA) title. I guess I underestimated how fast she could progress out of the Open class.