The recent question asked by vtirgari about how to help their child deal with the loss of their dog hit pretty close to home with me.
Back on July 7th Dave and I had made the decision to take both Jive and Dancer in to be put down. They each had their aging issues and we felt keeping them with us was just selfish. Jive (12 1/2 yrs old) was in physical pain from prostate cancer and even though he was a very stoic dog we knew he was having fewer and fewer comfortable days. Dancer (almost 14)was going down hill fast due to what we think was a form of dementia. She seemed to not hear or maybe not understand us when we called her. She wanted to wander off every chance she'd get, and the worst part for us was that she seemed to be afraid of us if we approached her to guide her into the house after being outside for a bit.
I have written something here to say good bye to all of our dogs as we've lost them, but I couldn't do it right away with these two. So I put it off 'til the mood would strike me." It never did and yesterday I had a melt down because of it. Dave was pushing me to help hang dog pictures in our newly remodeled office area. I wasn't interested. I snapped at him a couple of times and finally it hit me. I was avoiding it just like I was avoiding writing this goodbye note. So I told him why I didn't want to help with the photos and cried over losing them all over again.
HRCH UH Run-N-Gun's I've Got Rhythm, MH (Dancer) Dancer was our 3rd HRCH-MH. She was the only female pup in a litter of 12 all fox-red puppies from the breeding of GRHRCH Rhythm and Blues, MH (Jiv) and our first lab, Buddy's Nugget. Dancer was steady, quiet, consistant, & loved to run blinds. She made it to the 5th series in the only Grand she was entered in, and had we known at the time how to run an upland, she'd have passed because she was steady on that flush but Dave blew the whistle after he fired his gun and was told to put her on lead for the honor.
We had 3 litters of pups from her, each one had 8 pups. She was a great mother keeping the pups all well fed and clean. But she had a lot of wild instincts in her. Before she delivered, she would try every chance she'd get to dig a den to have those pups in. I guess she didn't care for the whelping area I had ready for her in the house. After the pups arrived, she would turn her food dish upside down to "bury" the remaining food when she was finished eating. She also "buried" the pups under the layers of towels etc. in the whelping area when she planned to leave them for a bit.
Dancer had a funny way of dealing with stress in the holding blinds, she would poke Dave and mess with his hands to get him to wrestle with her. He'd play with her a bit and say, "Ok, that's enough, now settle down." and she would sit very still again waiting... but if the wait got to be too long and she sensed that Dave was getting tense or if she was getting nervous she'd start the pushing-playing again.
We think she would have been a good hunting dog, but never really found out because every time Dave took her on a hunt they got skunked...seemed there were never any birds if Dave took Dancer with him. Didn't matter if the area was normally all covered up with birds. Dancer and Dave saw no birds.... Even with that bad luck, Dancer enjoyed her trips out to walk to a blind, to sit and watch the sun come up with her buddy, Dave.
As old as she was, she was always physically healthy and even at 12 yrs old would leap up onto the flat top of her dog house to nap. We removed to top about then to keep her from accidently hurting herself.
Dancer wasn't the prettiest dog we ever owned. Her ears were very small and her coat on her neck was thick and looked almost like a lion's mane in winter. But' I'd say that she was one of the easiest dog's we've owned. she was easy to train, force fetched in a matter of days and was one of those dog you just have to show her once and she got the lesson. We have one of her grandaughters (by her son GRHRCH Run-N-Gun's Samson, MH) that we have hopes that she will have some of Dancer in her.
HRCH UH Run-N-Gun's Rhythm and Blues, MH (Jive, Jr) Jive our 4th HRCH MH) was born 2nd in his litter of 12 out of our 1st HRCH MH Dusty's first litter by GRHRCH Rhythm and Blues, MH (Jiv). When he was born he looked the spitting image of his sire, so I started calling him Jive, Jr. Bart Hege (Jiv's Owner) had said he wanted a pup from this breeding and wanted a red male. The litter had 2 red males and a very light male to choose from. Long story short Bart ended up with the lightest male and Jive stayed with me since he and I had bonded.
Jive loved doing everything. He loved snuggling on the bed, going for walks, and he loved hunt tests. But what he loved most was pheasant hunting....and the day he discovered that there might be pheasants at a hunt test was at the 5th series of that same Grand that Dancer didn't pass.
We had entered both dogs in our first Grand in hopes that one would make it through the 2nd series - that is when they award a big black and white ribbon. Dave had already run Dancer and was highly disappointed in the way that went as he took Jive to the holding blind. The wind was blowing in from the field and suddenly we saw Jive's nose rise to sniff the air and then his tail went up and started wagging so hard it moved his whole body as he walked at heel. It was as if he said, "Oh boy...I've been so good all week that Dave has taken me to Kansas!" The walk up bird was a live flyer and as it was launched and it sailed.... so did my big red boy! He nearly caught it as it dropped a good 75 yards away. Never expected him to do anything different since he had been pheasant hunting every year and knew you didn't get birds if you waited.
After that, our club put on some upland tests and he learned to sit to the flush, and got his UH title. There was also a very interesting Master test where they used pheasants for the land test and a mixed bag for the combo. The land test was taking it's toll on some really great Master level dogs. They were having big hunts and there were pick ups, etc...Jive came up towards the end of the running order, heard the pheasant calls, got happy, and proceeded to nail each of his birds. That was his MH title run and we were so proud that he did so well.
Saying good bye to Jive has been probably the hardest thing I've had to do so far. I know all of our dogs have loved me as puppies but most have really loved Dave more after they were grown up. Jive though always chose me over Dave. He was truly my dog. I felt like he could look into my soul with his big brown eyes. If I was sad, he would try to comfort me. His coat was so soft. I sure need him now.
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Back on July 7th Dave and I had made the decision to take both Jive and Dancer in to be put down. They each had their aging issues and we felt keeping them with us was just selfish. Jive (12 1/2 yrs old) was in physical pain from prostate cancer and even though he was a very stoic dog we knew he was having fewer and fewer comfortable days. Dancer (almost 14)was going down hill fast due to what we think was a form of dementia. She seemed to not hear or maybe not understand us when we called her. She wanted to wander off every chance she'd get, and the worst part for us was that she seemed to be afraid of us if we approached her to guide her into the house after being outside for a bit.
I have written something here to say good bye to all of our dogs as we've lost them, but I couldn't do it right away with these two. So I put it off 'til the mood would strike me." It never did and yesterday I had a melt down because of it. Dave was pushing me to help hang dog pictures in our newly remodeled office area. I wasn't interested. I snapped at him a couple of times and finally it hit me. I was avoiding it just like I was avoiding writing this goodbye note. So I told him why I didn't want to help with the photos and cried over losing them all over again.
HRCH UH Run-N-Gun's I've Got Rhythm, MH (Dancer) Dancer was our 3rd HRCH-MH. She was the only female pup in a litter of 12 all fox-red puppies from the breeding of GRHRCH Rhythm and Blues, MH (Jiv) and our first lab, Buddy's Nugget. Dancer was steady, quiet, consistant, & loved to run blinds. She made it to the 5th series in the only Grand she was entered in, and had we known at the time how to run an upland, she'd have passed because she was steady on that flush but Dave blew the whistle after he fired his gun and was told to put her on lead for the honor.
We had 3 litters of pups from her, each one had 8 pups. She was a great mother keeping the pups all well fed and clean. But she had a lot of wild instincts in her. Before she delivered, she would try every chance she'd get to dig a den to have those pups in. I guess she didn't care for the whelping area I had ready for her in the house. After the pups arrived, she would turn her food dish upside down to "bury" the remaining food when she was finished eating. She also "buried" the pups under the layers of towels etc. in the whelping area when she planned to leave them for a bit.
Dancer had a funny way of dealing with stress in the holding blinds, she would poke Dave and mess with his hands to get him to wrestle with her. He'd play with her a bit and say, "Ok, that's enough, now settle down." and she would sit very still again waiting... but if the wait got to be too long and she sensed that Dave was getting tense or if she was getting nervous she'd start the pushing-playing again.
We think she would have been a good hunting dog, but never really found out because every time Dave took her on a hunt they got skunked...seemed there were never any birds if Dave took Dancer with him. Didn't matter if the area was normally all covered up with birds. Dancer and Dave saw no birds.... Even with that bad luck, Dancer enjoyed her trips out to walk to a blind, to sit and watch the sun come up with her buddy, Dave.
As old as she was, she was always physically healthy and even at 12 yrs old would leap up onto the flat top of her dog house to nap. We removed to top about then to keep her from accidently hurting herself.
Dancer wasn't the prettiest dog we ever owned. Her ears were very small and her coat on her neck was thick and looked almost like a lion's mane in winter. But' I'd say that she was one of the easiest dog's we've owned. she was easy to train, force fetched in a matter of days and was one of those dog you just have to show her once and she got the lesson. We have one of her grandaughters (by her son GRHRCH Run-N-Gun's Samson, MH) that we have hopes that she will have some of Dancer in her.
HRCH UH Run-N-Gun's Rhythm and Blues, MH (Jive, Jr) Jive our 4th HRCH MH) was born 2nd in his litter of 12 out of our 1st HRCH MH Dusty's first litter by GRHRCH Rhythm and Blues, MH (Jiv). When he was born he looked the spitting image of his sire, so I started calling him Jive, Jr. Bart Hege (Jiv's Owner) had said he wanted a pup from this breeding and wanted a red male. The litter had 2 red males and a very light male to choose from. Long story short Bart ended up with the lightest male and Jive stayed with me since he and I had bonded.
Jive loved doing everything. He loved snuggling on the bed, going for walks, and he loved hunt tests. But what he loved most was pheasant hunting....and the day he discovered that there might be pheasants at a hunt test was at the 5th series of that same Grand that Dancer didn't pass.
We had entered both dogs in our first Grand in hopes that one would make it through the 2nd series - that is when they award a big black and white ribbon. Dave had already run Dancer and was highly disappointed in the way that went as he took Jive to the holding blind. The wind was blowing in from the field and suddenly we saw Jive's nose rise to sniff the air and then his tail went up and started wagging so hard it moved his whole body as he walked at heel. It was as if he said, "Oh boy...I've been so good all week that Dave has taken me to Kansas!" The walk up bird was a live flyer and as it was launched and it sailed.... so did my big red boy! He nearly caught it as it dropped a good 75 yards away. Never expected him to do anything different since he had been pheasant hunting every year and knew you didn't get birds if you waited.
After that, our club put on some upland tests and he learned to sit to the flush, and got his UH title. There was also a very interesting Master test where they used pheasants for the land test and a mixed bag for the combo. The land test was taking it's toll on some really great Master level dogs. They were having big hunts and there were pick ups, etc...Jive came up towards the end of the running order, heard the pheasant calls, got happy, and proceeded to nail each of his birds. That was his MH title run and we were so proud that he did so well.
Saying good bye to Jive has been probably the hardest thing I've had to do so far. I know all of our dogs have loved me as puppies but most have really loved Dave more after they were grown up. Jive though always chose me over Dave. He was truly my dog. I felt like he could look into my soul with his big brown eyes. If I was sad, he would try to comfort me. His coat was so soft. I sure need him now.
