Litter A
“A” Litter: Avasara and Avatar.
I trained Avasara “Ava” to SchH 2. She was my best friend, travel companion, teammate, and just a wonderful ambassador of the breed. When we went to California to train with Dean Calderon for 6 months, our club there dubbed her “Ava Jean, The Tracking Machine!” I wanted to brush her up after her first and only litter (Bahnhof’s famous “C” Litter with Bismark vom Donautal, SchH3, IPO3) and complete her SchH3. However, she was killed in an accident at a veterinarian’s office, just after her litter was approximately 16 weeks old. I never thought I would recover from her unexpected loss. She was my first Schutzhund dog and I learned so very much from her. She was an excellent working dog who loved to track anyone anywhere.
I trained Avatar to a SchH 2. He was returned to me when he was approximately 3-years-old because he was “too aggressive.” Poor handling had created a handler aggressive monster that had to be double lined to be trained for several months when he returned home to me. Due to the training of the day being based on the philosophy of “teach him a who is alpha,” he was often strung between two of us, because he loved to fight. Probably because of the many chokings he received, he developed an aneurism in an artery in his spinal column. To this day, I regret what I did to this dog. After we discovered the aneurism, every time he took a bite, there was danger this aneurism would explode. Thus, I chose to not finish his SchH 3, although he knew all the exercises for the SchH3.
Amazingly, after he became my “house pet,” and the pressure to perform was off me and him, he became a great companion. He ran free in the house most of the time, although he did have to be “put up” when some people came to visit. He would go to Petsmart to get his monthly shampoo and nail clipping. Often, when I would show up to get him, the girls were on the floor with him, hugging him. He never murdered a neighbor child, but when their basketball would fly over our fence, he would kill it, but he would always return what was left of it to them.
Lots of knowledgeable people such as Dean Calderon and Cindy Rhodes thought very highly of Avatar, even though he never attained a SchH 3. Again, don’t believe me, check out objective references such as the Leerburg Working Dog Forum
