It is with a sad heart we tell you about Shea going to wait for us at the Rainbow Bridge.
She was a special girl that had a remarkable life and she will be missed and remembered by the many friends who knew and loved her.
Suzanne
ATCh. Reigate's Shades of Grace CDX: Shea, March 2, 1997 - October 6, 2012
Shea came to us in 1998 at the age of 11 months... a vivacious package of
poodle energy, we called her 'tigger' cause she was bouncy like Pooh's
friend. She could bounce 4 feet in the air without any effort. We'd made
a deliberate decision to find a poodle ... after many years of bull
terriers, I wanted a dog that didn't shed and would actually be interested
in learning something with me (the bullies... love them as I did, only
wanted me to learn how to keep them amused!). Shea and her sister Tiffany,
who we lost to torsion in 2006, did more than learn. They showed me that
dogs can make up their own fun and even invent complex games. Shea and Tiff
used t o play hide and seek with their toys. They would play tug with a toy
until Shea would let go and sit back to watch Tiff take the toy out of the
room to another spot in the house. When Tiff returned, Shea would take
off, find the toy and return to start another game. This could go on for a
very long time before one or the other bored of the game .
We started obedience lessons and quickly progressed through her CD and
CDX.. a joy to work with, she had a work ethic that kept 'work and play' in
separate packages. She would never have functioned in the 'new training'
reality where we say work=play and play=work. When she was 'training' she
ignored everything else including Gary, no ball playing allowed, but when
she was 'playing', the tennis ball was her 'god' and Gary was her
transportation to that 'god'. & nbsp; We started working on her UD
exercises and she loved the 'seek back' and would find her glove no matter
where it was dropped; even in a huge field. Suppose her games of hide and
seek with Tiff helped prepare her for this exercise. She completed all the
other exercises with ease except for the signal exercise which became our
nemesis. She would drop, sit and come from 30 feet away if I had a line on
the ground extended between us but take that line away and she'd stand and
stare at me like I was invisible. Never did manage to get beyond 15 feet
if that line wasn't present! Training began to become less 'fun' and we
needed something to change our relationship, that's when we found agility.
All of sudden the 'fun' was back.. she loved running, jumping and just being
with me in the agility ring. We entered one last obedience trial, as I
starte d to trust her to do even her signal exercises. It was at this trial
that I learned what it was like to have a dog that could out think me. We
were completing the scent article exercise: it was at the time when we
still had three articles to collect. She had picked up each of the wood and
the leather in its turn and was going out to pick up the metal article. She
worked the pile and went right to the correct item. She nosed it, looked at
me then nosed it again looked at the judge and lay down beside the pile.
It was like she was saying, you want it, here it is, you get it.
Nothing to do but laugh. The judge said he'd never seen a dog that gave the
message so clearly. I figured it was time to throw in the towel and stick
to agility!
Shea was the second poodle in Canada to achieve her ATCH but it didn't
come easily. We sailed through
Starters and Advanced but got stuck on Master's Gamblers. She didn't like
to move too far away from me. We also struggled with time and ran 12 clean
standard runs before she completed her third Q; some of those time faults
were less than .01 secs. Shea was a 21 inch dog jumping 26 inches and
completed her Atch 2 years after achieving her starters title at the age of
7. We immediately moved her into Veterans and at 22 inches she started
running times she'd never accomplished at 26. At 7, she found new energy
and started enjoying the game even more. Another lesson learned... I won't
ever demand a dog jump higher than necessary again.
.
Shea maintained the 'work vs play' attitude and we could train in an off
leash dog park where she would ignore all the other dogs that came around
and just kept on doing her ag ility. In 2007, the morning before Regionals
in Nanaimo, we noticed that Shea was 'not herself', on examining her we
quickly realized that she had bloat and rushed her to the vet's office. She
was on the surgical table by 8 AM and recovered to give us five more years
of joy. Our experience with Tiffany, the year before, helped us to get her
quick attention and saved her life.
Although she's been out of agility for several years now she maintained
her love of the tennis ball and yesterday she had her last game of fetch.
Her spirit was strong but her back legs just couldn't support her any longer
and when we got home from our outing, it was obvious that she just wasn't
going to be able to stand any longer. This morning we helped her to go to
the Rainbow Bridge where I'm convinced she's running with Tiffany and
meeting my bullies for the first ti me. I just know she'll have them
organized while waiting for us to appear.
Shea, my darling girl, you will be truly missed.
Barb and Gary
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