| Ch. Rockytop Mountain Moonshine, CDX |
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Shine was born at Rockytop on April 17, 1989. He soon
picked me out as his special person and we quickly
became inseperable. He did everything I ever asked of
him. He was always a hit with the public. He was a bit
soft natured and if he thought he was in trouble, he would
lift his lips into a doggie grin. I was soon able to
tell him, "Shine smile!" in a certain tone of voice and
he would grin for me. He finished his Championship and
earned a Group II out of the classes under Council Parker.
His obedience career was a lesson in patience for me. I was used to training females and the males tend to think more for themselves. One time in Little Rock he decided that he was having too much fun to heel properly and he was in the process of leaving me. I was so surprised that I not only gave a second command, "Shine, heel!" but I did it so loudly that the judge disqualified us on that exercise. When we got to Open, I really discovered what a challenge was. Once I called Shine, he decided that he was not supposed to have to stop. Getting him to do the Drop On Recall was a difficult task. He hated the drop so much that I could tell whether he planned to drop or not by the heeling performance he gave me. If he gave me his best heeling performance I could bet that he would not drop. So I had a choice between a really nice heeling score and a disqualification or a poor heeling score and a qualifying score. It was much easier once we got to Utility. Shine did not mind dropping from a stand since once I called him he was allowed to come as quickly as he wanted to. His favorite Utility exercise was the Directed Jumping. He soon learned that this was the last exercise. Besides, it was fun!! He always ran to the other side of the ring, turned and sat on command and then took the correct jump. He was always so proud of himself that people loved watching him work. Shine never got his U.D. as he pulled a muscle while getting ready to show in Utility at our National in Perry, Georgia. I decided that he did not owe me one thing and that another title was not worth one day of his life so I retired him. I was working him in Agility about 1 year later when he died of liver cancer. On Saturday I worked him in agility class and he felt great and on Sunday he was dead. It broke my heart but I know that my best friend did not suffer and was active and happy right up to the end. |