KIRBY

Kirby is a 3yo black tri Australian Shepherd. I adopted him from Aussie Rescue when he was about 10 months old. The intent was only to foster him.

Okay, that's a lie. A big fat lie!  The intent was mostly just to foster him, with a little part of me wanting to keep him. Only a tiny little part!

Okay, maybe a big part. I mean I may have had like one or two daydreams about me jamming on the disc field with this sexy black Aussie dog.

(What? Look at this picture and tell me that the word sexy didn't come to mind. Do it)  He's a stud and you know it!

So I pick him up from the rescue and before even getting him home, I decide to take him hiking in the prairie just to wear him out a bit before bringing him back home. He does great, he's tired. As a disc dogger, I dont always carry bowls around, I just use frisbees for water. I offered him water in a frisbee. He drank it up, and when it was empty, he picked up the frisbee and carried it around until I took it from him.

Really?  Did you really have to go and do that? 

Okay, so he likes frisbees. That doesn't necessarily make him a disc dog. The long and short of it is that yes, it actually did make him a disc dog and that combined with the fact that he was the most hilarious dog I'd probably ever encountered, I fell in love and wanted to keep him.

One day about a month after his arrival, the rescue called me to tell me they had an application come in on Kirby. My response? I believe it was "Shit" . There was no way I could let him go. After some pleading with my hubby, we officially made Kirby a member of our family October of 2009.

Kirby is a great training dog for me. He constantly challenges me, and he's consistantly inconsistant. I've learned that if I don't do what I'm supposed to as his human, that Kirby won't last an entire disc dog season. The 2010 season was his 'debut' season and he did well his first few times out of the gate. But he burned out quickly and I had to take frisbee away for an entire winter with the hopes it would rekindle his interest. He started the 2011 season out on fire after his long winter break, but by August he was already putting the breaks on.  Sure I was a little bummed. But Kirby kind of has a knack for everything. He's not a super dog, but he does very well in a lot of different things. He's gone through 3 agility classes and advanced with little trouble. He's fun to trick train and he will shut down if I start getting impatient or screw up. He's been a fabulous addition to our family, and he's good to me.

Kirby doesn't take life too seriously. He loves to clown around and make a game of everything. It's such a change for me, because Frankie is such a workoholic. She takes everything too seriously. But not Kirby. Wait, there is one thing. He takes the vacuum cleaner pretty seriously. Either he's trying to eat it or he's high tailing it in the other direction.

In 2012, we'll still spend time playing frisbee. He really does enjoy it. But I've got other ideas in mind for Kirby. I'd like to continue his agility training, and over the summer there is a nosework seminar that I'm attending with Kirby in mind. He's actually pretty incredible with his nose I've noticed, this could be another fun thing for us.