April 14, 2012

She was never an easy dog.

I got Acacia in 1998. She was going to be my project dog. As a new trainer, I was going to prove that you could do anything with a dog without using any choke chains or prong collars. In the end, I was right.

I took her to Carolyn Clark in Ottawa, Canada, where I lived. She told me I had a Maserati. She was right.

She got her breed Championship at age 13 months. They loved her in Canada. We had a great time showing.

Then I moved back here to the USA after a divorce. She and Montana were a great source of comfort for me during a very difficult time. With them, I didn’t feel so alone. Because of them, I made new friends.

I continued to show her here, but she wasn’t ‘typy’ enough, so after 4 points, I stopped and had her spayed. I didn’t really like her temperament, I wasn’t in a position to breed her, and she had some faults that I didn’t think would be great to pass on.

As soon as I spayed her, she became reactive. She really put me through the ringer for quite a few years. Many of you know the result of that, though. Two books, two DVDs, countless seminars in multiple countries, thousands of dogs and their humans helped. Small price to pay.

Along the way, we did herding, obedience, Therapy Dogs, agility, rally, Nosework, Freestyle. In some sports she got titles; in others, we either realized it just wasn’t for us, or something happened to prevent us from continuing. As a Therapy Dog, she only liked the preschool age (and really liked Cyan a lot). We trialed in obedience for 5 years and got 2 legs, but just before she went in for her third leg and title, she was stolen for a few minutes a by a woman who was trying to bait her own dog, who had gotten loose. Perhaps no harm was done, but I promised her she’d never have to do obedience again and I kept my promise. In agility, by the time we really had a clue, we had to stop because I got pregnant and she was getting too old. So she got one leg and first place and that was it. She was good at everything but she always had a bit of a mulish attitude. As a matter of fact, there were times when I’d call her The Mule. But she excelled in Rally. We trialed in Rally for 9 years and gained many, many titles. She was the Rally Queen!

A few weeks ago, I spoke to an animal communicator about Acacia. She told me that Acacia is actually a ‘big time teacher on the other side’, that she is fine with moving on because she has a lot of work to do, and may not come back for a long time, if ever. Well, Acacia was a ‘big time teacher’ here, too. Without her, I would not be the trainer I have become. I would not have been able to help so many people the way I have. There would be many more dogs with reactivity issues that went un-helped. She taught me all about patience, too (remember the Mule?)

She helped me to explore many things to do with dogs, not just the sports I mentioned above, but also hiking and camping, travelling across country. She was a great demo dog in classes, and in schools, too.

She was fastidious, usually pretty serious about what she was doing, and liked to work but usually questioned whether she really needed to do what I asked her to do. She took squirrel chasing seriously, and loved to take Bing down at the shoulder, roll him over and spin him around on the ground like a mop. She definitely had a weird sense of humor.

She had lots of doggie friends as a youngster, but once she became reactive, she was very selective about her friends. I was so happy that as she got older that she decided, over time, that just about all dogs were her friends.

She had an ongoing war with postal workers and delivery men. As a reactive dog, she was astute at nipping at people with laser precision. Given the opportunity, she would go after someone she didn’t approve of and nip the tiniest edge of their clothing with no harm to the person. It was inappropriate and scary but so precise that it became sort of oddly funny.

Of course she mellowed as she aged. She questioned fewer people, but we always had to be on guard…we never knew when someone would offend her, LOL.

Acacia was by no means perfect, but she was mine, and she taught me more than any one dog should teach a person.

We went through a lot in our nearly 14 years. We lived in two countries and six houses together. She lived with three other dogs and travelled most of the 50 states with me. She watched over me through a divorce and the loss of my father, remarriage and the birth of a child. And she knew that I would support her and love her and care for her, no matter what.

She wasn’t easy, but we were a good team. I will miss her.

 

Ali

Can CH Bellsha Borae Prairie Fire, Acacia (Belgian Sheepdog), HIC, CGC, TDI, RA, RL1X3, RL2X3, RL3X2, RLVX, ARCHEX

 

 

Acacia's Tribute