Happy Birthday, Ian!

Ian is now 7 years old! He's still goofy. He still celebrates each morning in his bouncy way (which is why he sleeps in the dog room). But the little bit of white frosting on his chin has now moved up to his muzzle.

Ian has had a remarkable performance career. He was the second Belgian Sheepdog to earn an RAE title, and he has 7 (out of 10) double Qs towards his RAE2.

He is an incredible agility dog, about as consistent as they come. He has 43 career double Qs and 1,098 MACH points. Even more important he has qualified for two AKC Agility Invitationals and two AKC Agility Nationals. He's the only Belgian Sheepdog to ever make the Finals of the AKC Agility Invitational.

All this is remarkable because he's a bit people shy. I was able to work him out of most of this, but not all of it. I'm very good at predicting what Ian will react to: a man walking by with his toddler on his shoulders appears to be a two headed alien to Ian. Julie (Ian's breeder) tells me I'm good at thinking like a Belgian. I'm not sure that's a compliment!

I remember when Ian was 6 months old I was so frustrated with his "issues" I decided he'd make a decent pet, and that's what he was for a few months. But I couldn't help myself. I had to train him. Every dog in my house gets trained and gets titles, so I forged ahead.

And when I moved to Indiana and he decided all contact obstacles were evil, I continued to train him. I've had a lot of people tell me how remarkable I am as a trainer to have the patience to work him through that even though it took a year. But I have to admit that at the time Reece had blown out his ACL, and Connor wasn't doing agility at all. Ian was the only dog I had left to run, so I really stuck with him because not running him meant not running anyone.

In spite of his insecurities (and they are many), he's trusted me to lead him through everything. For that I am grateful. He turned into a remarkable performance dog who accomplished so much and gave me memories for a lifetime.

Now that I have two girls with incredible potential and a more limited budget, Ian's active career has ended. It's a bittersweet thing to know he's moving into retirement. And while he loves to work with me, I must admit there weren't many "new" goals for him to accomplish.

So now Ian runs agility in the backyard and occasionally at the kennel club. He's become an avid ball chaser and occasional farm dog with my Dad. He's still happy and still has a great joy for life. I guess now he's that great pet I said he'd be 6.5 years ago!