2003-2011

It is with sadness that we say "goodbye" to John Kinney's companion, Jewel.  Please read about Jewel on our In Remembrance page. We will all miss her.

Maverick - Bernese Mountain Dog

Owner Handler - Marti Simon



Maverick is a 6 year old Bernese Mountain Dog.  He is a perpetual puppy.   He has been called "special" by many people, he is my Novice A dog and my heart dog.  Some dogs are easy.  Easy to train, easy to live with, easy to compete with.  Not Mav!   Maverick is the dog that was sent to me to teach me patience, to teach me that success isn't about the ribbons and the q's.  I have learned to appreciate the day to day journey, to live in the moment and enjoy the everyday lessons that our dogs teach us.   I can only hope he is with me for another 6 years, we may end up with an agility title!

The Maverick FAQ
He weighs 110 pounds, he is 32 inches at the withers.
He is extremely tall for a berner, 4 inches over the standard.  He is very light for his height.
He eats 3 cups of kibble a day in addition to about 4 pieces of string cheese.
He loves doing agility as long as he doesn't have to do too many tunnels or dogwalks.
We also compete in obedience, rally, and draft.   Mav has tried herding, earthdog, lure-coursing.  He is a champion counter-surfer.  Sigh.
His nicknames are Ricky, Big Rick, Big Butt, Butthead, and Mav Man.

Jasper, Chihuahua

Owner/Handler: Deborah Ward

Photographer: Gary Dickinson

Jasper is a two-year old Chihuahua who earned his first agility title in May, 2011.

Finding Jasper was a long process. I was looking for a Chihuahua with scores in the performance dog range on the Volhard Puppy Aptitude Test. Plus, the dog had to meet structure criteria that I picked up a Pat Hastings seminar, Puppy Puzzle: The Hastings Approach to Evaluating the Structural Quality of Puppies. I looked at over 50 Chihuahuas before I found Jasper. Surprisingly, I had a harder time finding a Chihuahua with good knees than one who would retrieve a piece of crumpled paper.

Jasper FAQ for inquiring minds

How much does he weigh?
He weighs 3 pounds, 12 ounces. (He has a tendency to beef up a couple of ounces.)

How much does he eat?
Two tablespoons of kibble a day.

Can he do the teeter?
On a really good day, yes. He's got to run all the way to the down. The teeter is Jasper's nemesis. We've been working on it for a long time. We will continue to work on it until he's confident.

Does he like agility?
He loves to play. He loves to run. He loves the extra teaspoon of treats he gets on training days. Agility is the highlight of his week.

(Ziggy, PP Chinese Crested)

Owner/Handler: Estelle Robinson

Ziggy was a rotund little Chinese Crested puppy when he bounded into our
house at 8 weeks.  Born on 7/1/08, he came from Patty Wiedeman's well
established China Road line that dates all the way back to Gypsy Rose Lee.
Gypsy Rose Lee was a breeder and collector of hairless dogs.  Ziggy's
parents are both hairless Cresteds.  Ziggy is a Powder Puff, the variety of
Crested with hair.  

Right after Ziggy opened his eyes for the first time, he ran across the
room.  He had his eyes set on agility the day he opened them!  At 5 months
he startled and fell out of our arms to have a terrible fall on his left
rear leg, breaking both his tibia and fibula.  He had a pin inserted in the
bones and a splint on his whole leg for healing.  Fortunately he healed well
and was a real sport through rehab.

Ziggy really enjoys the games he gets to play with the Momma  He has shown
his love for a fast run around the course time and time again.  He is also
one of the first Cresteds in California to have a leg in lure coursing.
Ziggy currently holds the spot for #1 AKC Agility Chinese Crested in the
country and will be invited to The Invitational in December of 2011. 

9 year old - Mixed Breed

Owner/Handler: Vicky Lovejoy

Belle came to our family in the spring of 2002 when I found her on the LA pet adoption site.  She and her sister were at the Downey shelter (a high-kill shelter at that time and maybe still).  The best guess estimate of her age was about 10 weeks.  As soon as I saw her and met her bounding out of the filthy kennel with enthusiasm and spunk, I knew she was for me!  If her sister had not already been adopted we would certainly have taken her as well!

Belle came home to our two aging German Shepherds - two male brothers who, in their prime, weighed in at 115 and 105 lbs!!  The picture here is my favorite and was of her initial introduction to Bully (who did not live up to his name!)

From the start, Belle has been one solid dog.  She respected, but was not intimidated by the boys.  I can remember them chewing on a bone and growling at her, she would inch her way over and literally end up licking their teeth as they growled and continued chewing on their bones.  That should have clued me into how food motivated she is!!!  She had her counter surfing days as a youngster and once managed to lift an entire tri-tip steak off the counter and over some utensils that were on the edge without making a sound.  That is skill!!  She is much better behaved now but still would not refuse the opportunity to enjoy a meal if it was within easy reach.  A few years ago, I had baked some muffins which were left cooling on the counter.  I then went to get ready for work.  As I was dressing, Belle came in wiggling her body and with something in her mouth.  I asked for it and she deposited one of the muffins into my hand.  I went into the kitchen to discover that she had already eaten the rest but could not quite get the last one down.  Perhaps she wanted me to save it for later??

I started agility with Belle when I consulted Terry Long of DogPact for some help with another rescue.  She met Belle and said to me, "why not do something fun with Belle who does not have any issues and just wants to please?"  Belle has done phenomenally well in a sport that is better suited for less stocky and more flexible dogs.  She will never be the fastest on the course but she is so incredibly reliable that any mistakes we have are all mine! We've only been seriously competing for a little over year and came into the sport late.  I don't know how long Belle will go but I hope to earn one of those big titles somewhere with her!!  The main thing for me, however, is that she have fun and feel good about doing it!

Vicky

"John's Crown Jewel of Diamonds"

7 year old Australian Shepherd 
Owner - John Kinney

Photo by PhotographybyM

This is Jewel's second time as the honored DASH Dog.  With 50+ DASH members you'd think this would only come around once every two years - so get your photos and bios to our Webmaster pronto.
Since late March, Jewel has been collecting CPE Q's like crazy - 16 in all.  She needs just one more Q in Jackpot and one in Snooker for her Champion title (C-ATCH), and with two of each of those games at DASH's June 18-19 trial, we should accomplish it there.  It will be great to share this accomplishment with all of you who have supported us during our agility career.  Since our first CPE Q in June 2007, we will have accomplished 110 Q's to obtain this title - and let's not forget the countless "oops" runs, all my fault of course.
 
Considering Jewel has less than 30 hours of professional training and the only practice has been the DASH club practices, her accomplishments are truly amazing.  She's proven that agility may not require significant investment of time and effort to have fun and earn those Q's.  Her health challenges remain and we will continue to play as long as she is able.



Photo by PhotographybyM

Kubi has had an uncertain start to what we still hope will be his agility "career."  He came to the Lovejoy household at 6 months of age and has always been a sweet-tempered, loveable character.  With a lot of walks on 2nd street and exposure to all kinds of situations, he seemed to be coming out of what appeared to be some general shyness.  Kubi was a good student in foundation skills for agility and learned quickly.  He was also being shown in conformation and earned his Championship title in August of 2010. His agility career did not go so smoothly.

Kubi started competing in agility in the fall of 2009 when he was 20 months.  He did well in his first show and easily Q'd at the Novice level.  After only a few shows, however, he became more reluctant to train and ultimately started to show some slight lameness.  Over a period of a few months we started and stopped pain/NSAIDS meds periodically just to find that the underlying cause was not being addressed.

We finally took him to Advanced Veterinary Specialists in Tustin and were lucky to get Dr. Sebastyen.  Lucky, because although the tests and x-rayed implied Kubi might have bone cancer, Dr. Sebastyen had experience with something less common in California but capable of causing the same symptoms.  Kubi had a large mass that completely penetrated and traversed the entire diameter of his right humerus with a second mass in a rib on the left side.  To all appearances, he had bone cancer with not much of a prognosis that would not involve amputation.  Dr. Sebastyen had completed his internship in Arizona where he saw a lot of cases of Valley Fever, also called coccidiomycosis.  As Kubi came originally from Arizona, he thought it worth running a blood titer to see if that might be the cause.  Indeed that was it!  It took a solid 6 months of treatment with anti-fungal meds to see retreat of the two masses but Kubi is now physically sound again.  He will stay on the medicine for his lifetime as the fungus never truly leaves the body.

In March of 2011, after more than a year away from the field, I started competing Kubi again.  He definitely has the ability but still is shy in the ring.  We sometimes wonder if he bears an association of pain with his agility as we kept training him before we knew about the disease, and he likely had it for many months or even a year before he was diagnosed.  Nevertheless, we feel fortunate to have him with us and hope that he will eventually realize his potential on the agility field!

"John's Crown Jewel of Diamonds"

7 year old Australian Shepherd 
Owner - John Kinney

Photo by PhotographybyM

Jewel began her agility career in November 2004, completing a Parks and Recreation Agility training program, thinking it might be a good outlet for her energy and intelligence.  John joined DASH (known as SCAT back then) in December 2004 at the club's Holiday party.  Jewel and John consider their agility "career" to be part-time, going to about 12-15 trials per year, mostly CPE, AKC and ASCA.  Considering that Jewel (and handler John) have less than 30 hours of formal training (and that includes one seminar), and the lack of equipment at home, they have been extremely successful in her agility events.  They do take advantage of the 8-10 DASH club practices each year, but other than that, they show up at trials, do their runs and take the ribbons home.  Jewel has obtained Master Agility and Master Jumpers titles (AKC), Good Canine Citizen, competes in Level 5 for all CPE games and will probably obtain her champion C-ATCH at DASH's CPE trial in June 2011.  Jewel really loves the ASCA events (Australian Shepherd Club of America) and despite going to only 1-2 ASCA trials each year, she has earned her Elite titles for Agility, Jumpers and needs only 1 more Gamblers for her Elite Gamblers title.  In 2010, she took "High in Trial" for the Open Class (ASCA).

 Jewel loves to play tag with John and her doggie friends, tug toys around the house and enjoys trips to dog beach where she can chase the other dogs, frolic in the waves and see lots of people.  Sadly, Jewel suffers from kidney disease that was discovered when she was only 4 years old.  The first two years, slight diet changes were sufficient, but the past year has been a battle as we watched her BUN and Creatinine levels soar to Stage 4 failure.  Drastic measures in her diet were taken in January , 2011 and we are starting to see progress in lowering the toxins in her body. The good news is Jewel doesn't know she is sick and we celebrate each day, each trial and each run as a blessing and opportunity to show off, and both John and Jewel are thankful for the support of their DASH friends.

 Jewel will continue to enter local CPE and ASCA trials as long her health allows it, but has retired from all but DASH's AKC events.  Many daily walks in the neighborhood have made her the community unofficial mascot.  Many folks now have cookie jars in their garage so if they are home as we cruise by, Jewel may just get a treat.