13 yrs old and still going strong. Rayn enjoys retirement in our home. She has full run of the house and sleeps on her own bed. Rayn has done it all. Conformation, obedience and agility. I must say though obedience and agility had their challenges. Oh, that's not to say she wasn't good. When she was hot, she was hot, when she was not, she was not. And it was never that she couldn't do it. Some days she just choose not to do it. Those were usually the the days when I had her entered in a trial. She could work 190 points at a fun match but when it really counted she was a ham. "Oh you're calling me" she'd say, on a recall. "I don't feel like coming today" and she would sit there looking right at me. "Oh you're calling me, how fast would you like me to come? Oh and you want me to stop too? I don't think I'll stop today, I feel like spinning donuts instead." I remember one time (at our first trial) my friend Debbi (Rayn's breeder) was watching us warm up outside the ring. Rayn was sitting perfect every time. When I went in the ring and the judge asked me to stop, Rayn came out in front of me and flipped my hand looking for a treat. I wasn't there. She backed up into the heel position and refused to sit for the whole test. I couldn't believe it. I had been working without treats during training so she was weaned from them. She had looked at me as if to say "What's in it for me?" "Oh nothing, ok then, I'll give you half of what you want." When I walked out of the ring Debbi was laughing and said, "take that dog home and teach her to sit." Boy did we have a good laugh as we both knew what she was more than capable of doing. Debbi has put an obedience title on a couple of Siberian Huskys as well so she knew exactly what was going on in the ring. Rayn did agility as well when she was younger. She was really good at it too if she wasn't tearing off around the grounds instead of running the set course. My youngest daughter Jamie trained her for agility and took her to the fun days. I don't know how many times I would see Jamie standing alone on the course while Rayn was out checking out the scenery.
Despite all these little antics of Rayn's she has been a wonderful dog. For all the bad things she has done while we had her she has ten folded them with good things. Our family would never have been complete with out her. She taught me that competition isn't about winning, it's about having fun. At 13 years of age, Rayn is still having fun. I often get comments on how young she looks. With her bounding energy and love of life she seems to fool everybody, including vets. Thank you Debbi for allowing us to share our life with this wonderful dog. |
