Here is your introduction to Tasha, our oldest. She is technically my wife’s dog; she is half Husky and half Black Lab. We got her from a person down the street. She was the alpha dog for many years, but now, at 13+ years, she is giving up that role. Here she is as a puppy:
Sad Puppy
Tasha as a puppy
Tasha was cute as could be, but she was Trouble! She would terrorize the old dogs we had at the time. She was the reason we got into formal dog training – the normal do-it-yourself repetitions weren’t cutting it. So my wife took her off to class. Since she was a mixed-breed, there was only so much obedience work we could do before she got bored – the AKC didn’t allow mixed-breed dogs to compete in Obedience. Our instructor recommended Agility, a new dog sport that was catching on, and had an organization (USDAA) that allowed all dogs. My wife starts training Tasha to do this, and next thing I know, Voila!, here we are at an Agility competition (called Trials). Here’s an early picture of Tasha waiting at the start line for my wife to release her:
Waiting for clearance to take off
This dog was athletic! She could clear the jumps easily – my wife made her jump at a higher jump height than the dog had to just to slow her down. She was a beautiful runner – smooth and graceful. She had no problem with the other dogs (there are a lot! at a show), and she seemed to enjoy it. She wasn’t always the most focused dog, but in less than a year, she had earned her first title:
Tasha's first Title!
BTW, the above picture shows the wonderful blue eyes she has.
Tasha competed for several years before retiring. She earned several titles, and taught us a lot. She now is mostly a couch potato, but still likes to play with little kids and flirt with intact male dogs.
Try to keep up... 