Now Officially a Malinois

Dottie's ILP- now called PAL, purebred alternative listing- came back and she was accepted. I never had a doubt she would be. Her name is Dottie von V(insert last name, removed to protect some family members.) In the SchH world, many people who breed their dogs use their last name in some form for the kennel name and add haus or some other such designation to make it sound more German. Our last name is German enough. Sure, it is a bit silly to name her as if I bred her, and not only bred her, but as if it is my fourth litter because another thing SchH breeders do is letter designations. Your first litter all the names must start with A, second litter B and so on. By using my last name, it appears she is from my fourth litter, with D names. People who know about ILPs will also know that us weirdo's make up official sounding names to help us blend in and because it is fun. So no harm done.

In the SchH club, USA, if your dog does not have papers it is listed as a mix, even if it is not. When listed as a mix they only record your call name- probably to stop people from pretending they bred the dog when they did not. Hence, again, no harm done with Dottie's new AKC name.

I am traveling to AZ in Nov to visit ffluffy. We will go to an agility show and I decided to enter Dottie. Then again the following Thanksgiving weekend in Camarillo. I did serpentines and threadles with her last night for the first time and she was great- except for at first when she kept going under the first bar. (NDTB!) I'm thinking as she came out of the tunnel towards me she felt crowded and thought it was safer for both of us if she didn't attempt to clear the jump and land in the space I left her. I appreciate her concern. Eventually I convinced her to go over the jump.

Speaking of jumping, Dottie did the full sized SchH hurdle last night with ease. She is a very nice jumper.

Dottie's biggest challenge to her performance career is she is very heat sensitive. Way more so than Pie, who also slows down when it is hot. And overall her stamina is not what is should be for such a young, well taken care of Malinois. I think I saw there will be a cardio clinic at the Regional in Dixon? I think I will have her heart tested. In agility class this week (her first full length class) she did three runs spaced over 1.5 hrs. By her third run she was noticeably tired- and it was not hot outside. There are many wonderful things about rescue dogs, but one of the negatives is unknown health issues.