This is not the blog post I wanted to write this morning, but here goes. We lost Harley this morning to old age. He had been progressively getting worse with his balance and his coordination, and even though we were feeding him three to four times a day, he was loosing weight, and just not doing well mentally. We knew the time was coming and we knew we were probably going to have to make the decision, which is always super tough. In true Harley fashion, he decided it was time, and while I was out running this morning and the family was sleeping, he quietly passed.
In some ways it breaks my heart into a million pieces that the original red aussie 3 is no longer. He was the last of my original aussies and the first puppy that Tony and I got together. We were honestly just learning how to be good dog trainers and how to be good agility dog trainers, and we screwed him up a bit with our inconsistencies, but he always gave it his all in his quirky style.
He was always very naughty and very smart and gave us a run for our money. He wasn't a huge lover of people, but he loved HIS people. He endured us trying to teach him agility, with his style of running contacts, which was more like super man over the yellow every.single.time. He went through a period of time where he refused to do anything on the table and wouldn't even look at tony or I while on that damn obstacle. The few times he and Tony qualified, it was always a blue because he was smoking fast.
I tried to do competition obedience with him and he had quite a bit of training under his belt, but he hated the stand for exam no matter how much value I gave the "judge". We never competed because growling in the ring is just not allowed. We also did Rally and got his RN title, but he just didn't think it was all that fun and at the time, you had to travel to find rally shows and I only traveled for agility. He was incredibly smart and even though I was learning how to train a dog in competition obedience, he had so much grace and patience and seemed to read the manuals and some how get it even before I did.
He LOVED tracking to the point where he would shake with delight when I got his tracking harness out. I took multiple classes with him and practiced a ton. My biggest regret is that we never actually tried to get his TD or TDX. He was trained up through VST, but we just never had the time or money to compete, and I wished we would have because he would have been a star!
We attempted herding a few times and again, he loved it. I remember working the pens at an ASCA show in Colorado and he got to help. We had a very nasty ewe that kept giving us troubles when it was her turn to be in the take pen. At one point, she got so pissy she came at me and him in an attempt to get back to the rest of the sheep that were resting. She ran both of us over in the process, and i just knew he would never do herding again. Instead, he jumped up, went and herded her back to the take pen group, and then checked on me still on the ground. He even cut his leg in the process, but just didn't care, he loved herding sheepies that much.
I was so worried that my crew of Miller and Berry would not want him, but from the minute I brought him home, they loved him and accepted him. They let him keep his puppy card way longer than I would have thought that they should. I think berry thought of him as her baby.
One of my other favorite harley memories is going to the kid's camp and doing disc dog demos for them. They would line up and throw the frisbee over and over and over to him. He didn't care who threw the frisbee, as long as it was for him. Even in his older age he would try and catch the disc. He did many demos both agility and disc for many kiddos and adults alike through the kennel club.
He helped us foster many foster dogs through ARPH. While he always had to make sure they knew who was the top (and he was certainly not the top, but tried to play it that way), he generally got along with most if not all of our foster dogs.
He was the first dog I clicker trained and the first dog I ever had that loved to be brushed and have his nails trimmed.
Another fun memory of Harley is the time he got sprayed point blank by a skunk in the chest. We tried everything to get that stench and stain out and nothing worked. He smelled like skunk for at least a year. He didn't seem to care at all and seem to enjoy his skunk perfume!
He was known for sneaking out of the yard to go on little walk abouts. We have a gate that if not closed exactly right, can be pushed open and he knew it. I always said he was like a velociraptor in Jurassic Park, always testing the gates and fence to see what he could do. Even as a young dog, we had a nice shaded concrete kennel run for them to be in during the day while we were at work, that had a 10 foot panel fence and a roof. He would find a way to climb up and out no matter how we fastened the roof to the panels. He was a naughty x 100.
I moved to Colorado for a year to work in industry post grad school, and my then boyfriend, now hubby had to stay back in KS until he was done with school. Bless his heart, Tony would make the 8 hour drive on the weekends to see me, basically driving all day Friday, spending the day Saturday, and then leaving again on Sunday. He would load up the crew and bring them with. Of course I was living in a one bed room hole in the wall apartment, because that was all I could afford at the time. One weekend Tony came up and brought the crew and we went out to eat. We left all the dogs loose (big mistake), and Harley decided that the door frame needed to be remodeled. Needless to say I spent whatever hard earned money I had left over from my paycheck that week on sanding paper, paint, and wood putty. They never noticed or said anything when I moved out, so I guess we were golden!
Harley helped me raise two puppies, Deuce and Stella. He and Deuce were best friends until Stella came along. He was always so patient with them and let Stella assume the role of alpha after Miller left us. He and Miller had remained best buds until the day Miller passed. He preferred to be crated with Miller, probably because when he was a puppy and we traveled to shows, we just put them in a crate together.
This was a picture from his 14th birthday. He made it to 15 and was still running around in the back yard in his old man manner and eating with gusto a week before his death.
This is my all time favorite photo of Harley man and where i will end this post. To my dearest Harley, please go find Strawberry and Miller and watch over us as the Red Aussie Crew at the rainbow bridge. We miss you so much, but are so happy you are whole again and back to your young quirky self, catching discs and escaping fences. We miss you, we love you, and we will forever be grateful that you blessed us with your presence as you taught us SO much. Thank you for putting up with us and giving us 15 years of your crazy little red headed self. Love, your momma and daddy Tony and Michelle. Till we meet again.......................................................................................
No comments:
Post a Comment