Legacy Lane Antique Diamond, ASCA CD, HC, CGC - Di
Pepper's Pipe Smoke (Ch. Coppertone's East of the Sun, CD x Pepper's Kiss Me Kate, CD)
x Piper's Dynasty Queen (Ch. Topnotch Trampus, CD, ATDds, OTDc x Piper's Red Ruby)
December 7, 1983 - March 12, 1999
Di at 10 weeks old. |
Di was our second Aussie. After working with Lucky, I knew I wanted an Aussie of our own. At the time, I thought Lucky would be going back to my friend Vicki. Lorna Ludwig and her daughter Pepper had Aussies, and had a 6 month old bitch that needed a home. We went to see her, and took her home on a trial basis. Naturally, she stayed! Di had been living with a friend of Pepper's in an apartment. When their apartment was robbed, the family was held on the floor at gunpoint. Di was running around spastically barking at the intruder (those that knew Di, will be able to easily picture this!) The thief told the family that if they didn't make the dog shut up right then, she would be shot. Fortunately, they grabbed her and held onto her. After this awful experience, the family moved, and gave Di back to Pepper. And so we had another dog. |
Frisbee Dog!
Di was a very active girl. Some might even say neurotic or spastic. Her greatist passion and love was playing Frisbee. When she wasn't actively playing, she spent the rest of the time WANTING to play. I didn't start out throwing a Frisbee very well, but I got better really quick with all the practice! We competed several times in local Frisbee competitions, placing 3rd or 4th each time. We never made it to the regionals, which was fine, as she was fanatical about getting the ONE Frisbee thrown. She wouldn't do any routines with multiple discs, so we were limited to the simple throw and catch competitions. It was lots of fun! |
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Di herding in her first trial at Rolla, MO, before the ewe nailed her. |
Di was also very, very smart, and had the biggest vocabulary of any dog I have owned. I would say it was time to "brush the dogs" and she would run to the basement door to be let down to the brushing area. She also learned to spell! She very quickly learned what "Frisbee" meant, so I started spelling it. It wasn't long before she reacted as wildly to the spelled word as to the spoken word. So we tried calling it "play", then "p-l-a-y" with the same results. We finally decided to call playing Frisbee the "F Thing". Fortunately, she didn't ever quite figure that one out. Di had a strong herding instinct, and was fairly tractable on sheep, even though we only attended a couple clinics and didn't have much experience. She earned her Herding Instinct Certificate easily, and is the only dog so far that I have entered in a stock trial. Unfortunately, she had a rather bad experience the first day when an ornary sheep head-butted her into the paneling in the arena. The next day the sheep refused to be moved anywhere. It was an interesting experience, and I hope to eventually get a dog to qualify on stock! |
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Di's intelligence carried over to learning obedience exercises. She was right there on the heeling, and loved the jumping and retrieving in Open. She was trained through most of the Utility exercies as well, and enjoyed putting her quick mind to figuring everything out. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of teaching her the basic Novice exercies while using her as my demo-dog for the obedience classes I was teaching. She enjoyed the learning, but quickly came to dislike being in front of the audience. Sadly, this carried over to her performances in the obedience ring. We managed to get her ASCA CD, but never qualified in Open. This wildly enthusiastic, exuberant dog would drag through her heeling, plod out to get her dumbbell, and look pitiful because I had asked her to jump that 24" high jump in the ring. (She could easily jump 5 feet high after the Frisbee!) And she made tip-toeing through the broad jump into a real art. I even asked my friend Mary Spillman to show her to see if that would make a difference. Mary worked her before hand, calmly telling me she was doing great, no problem! When it came time to show, there was Di, dragging around the ring with Mary, too. After that, I decided it was time to retire her from obedience competition.
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Over! |
Di playing Tug with Baby Andy in April 1989 |
Di was also shown in conformation, though we never got any points, and she was spayed at 5 years old. My son Michael showed her in Junior Showmanship, earning consistent class placements and even a Best Junior award. Di was always very patient with children and puppies. She was devoted to both of my children, and kept both Andy and Duncan occupied as puppies. |
Mike (about 4) and Di after showing in Juniors |
Di in the Snow |
At times Di would drive me crazy with her constant desire to play Frisbee, and habit of whining, but we loved her anyway. In 1996 Di developed cataracts. They covered her eyes completely, but she managed to navigate through the house with no problems. That did put an end to her Frisbee playing, however. Fortunately, she didn't seem to mind when the boys would play, as long as she couldn't see them. In August 1998, she suffered an inner ear problem that left her disoriented and dizzy. She eventually recovered from that, but never quite got her full navigation skills back - she would miss doorways, etc. Then in Dec. of 1998, Di was diagnosed with lymphoma, or cancer of the lymph nodes. Rather than put her through radiation and other unpleasant experiences, we chose to make her as comfortable as possible, for as long as possible. On March 12, 1999, it was time to let her go. Her ashes rest on the shelf near me now, along with Ginger, Lucky and Andy. We miss her still. |
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1993 ASCA National, Puyallup, WA
This was our very first ASCA National. We sure had loads of fun! Di and Lucky placed 3rd in Brace Obedience (Di DID enjoy showing in Brace, and used to drive poor Lucky crazy with bouncing around on the other end of the coupler, correcting HIM every time she jumped!) What a great week.
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