Sargeant First Class, CDX, TD, NA, NAJ, FD

Sargeant is my first Dalmatian that I have owned he was born around September 1996.  I received him from an ex-boyfriend who friend could not keep him any more but we did not get his AKC papers so I did what the AKC call ILP.  He was about 9 months old when I got him.  At this time I lived in Oklahoma and had horses Sarge took to them instantly and we became riding partners after that.  We attended obedience classes while in Oklahoma and my interest in show started to come out.  I Then Move back home to Ohio in June1997 with Sage and my 2 other dogs which were Papillion's.  Sarge being a young dog still needed obedience classes which we attended at Kinley training center in Leroy Ohio.  Through the Kinley's I meet Greta Marchus who taught Open obedience classes and agility.  I entered Sarge in Greta's agility class in the spring of 1998 and he was doing well.  I then noticed one day he was limping and I called around to different vets since I just moved home I didn't have a vet yet.  The only place that had an appointment available was Big Creek Hospital I took sarge their and they determined he had a torn ligament and would need a $700 sugary to repair it.  At this time since I just moved home I didn't have the money.  Just by the grace of God Greta shared the same vet that I went to at that time she was taking one of her golden's in for a check up and the Dr. was telling her that he has the nicest Dalmatian in the back who was hurt. And Greta said she had the nicest Dalmatian in agility class and of course they found out it was sarge.  Greta found out that I could not afford the sugary and ask me if I would object to having a fund raiser for Sarge's sugary. I accepted with great gratitude. They raised over $700 for the sugary and I took $500 of it toward the sugary we put the rest in a fund for other hurt dogs in need. He had sugary in August of 1998.  He had to be crated for 2 months with limited mobility. I began physical therapy on him about 4 days after sugary we walked on the cement driveway very very slowly for many weeks.  As his mobility increased we would walk longer times.  He slowly recovered and was allowed to more things we all began taking slow short walks which quickly turned into miles.  We the vet ok it we began to bike to build his muscles back.  I was no time at all we were doing 10 miles and loving every minute of it.  This recovery time was from august 1998 till about June 0f 1999.  We then began to do our obedience again and quickly went for getting our Companion dog title from the AKC in 3 shows the shows were   

We then went on work for our CDX title I got to work with Greta and she opened my world up to so much more in training a dog than I ever thought.  As life moved along Sarge got his CDX his scores were not the greatest but he did pass and I am the proudest of that.  

We then took sarge to a lady who specializes in animal therapy and we check his range of motion to see if he could compete in agility she told me he had full range and could not see any reason he couldn't do agility.  So we ventured out to the agility courses.  Now these two titles took me along time to get. We got are NA May 2003 and our NAJ October 2003.  We decided to stop there with Agility because I did want to risk injuring his leg again.

As we work on our agility titles we also were working on getting ready for our Tracking tests.  Sarge took 3 times to get his tracking certificate. The certificate allows you to enter a tracking test. It says that a judge has laid a track and the dog can track.  We cont our certificate in September 2001 we tried for our title Nov 4 2001 but sarge did not pass.  We tried again on March 31 2002 and sarge did his track in 4 minutes.  What a great day!  It was hard but thanks to Greta for teaching me about tracking And Janet who endured all the mornings tracking no matter what the weather and she put up with all my whining.  The Tracking title by far is the greatest title I have ever gotten so far.  Maybe I will find the time to work on the TDX I sure hope so I miss my track layer Janet we don't see too much of each other since I got the new puppy and am working him.

Currently Sarge is working on his utility title and his flyball dog title. If we seemed to find the maybe we could get these. I have been working with Greta who has opened a Training center of her own.  I teach obedience and agility with Greta a few nights a week.  Well hope you enjoyed this story I will continue to add to it as the years go by!

Well we when to our first flyball tournament.  It was so fun sarge seemed to love it.  Here I was taking this dog who in class is lucky to get a 8 second run our team was lucky to get a 28 second time.  We thought we were just going to get a few point.  And on Saturday sarge was so excited and so was his team the energy at the tournament is tremendous.  There first run out was amazing the team was getting times in the 26 second area.  It was amazing.  We even won house bragging rights against the other Giblet team who we had to race and we won against them both day!!!  I think we found a new sport.....

Well it has been forever that I have written about sarge.  He is now 10 years old and very happy to stay at home but loves to still play ball.  He got me started in so many things I can't imagine life with out him he will always be the first dog I did so much with.......

well it's October of 2007 and sarge is now 11 and doing great.  we changed to a raw diet back in march  and its the best thing I could done.   Sarge's overall health has improved so much.  We competed in obedience at the Dalmatian national in April and sarge did great.  He got 2nd place in veterans and him and lance got 2nd place in brace sarge also competed in rally novice and got his second leg. Sarge has tag along with lance now at his show and is mainly retired it did try to see if he would dock dive but was not interested he loves to swim but not jump in well for now sarge is sleeping on the couch until next time..