|
Caijan |
|
Scallywags Flyball Team |
|
Breed: Smooth Fox Terrier
Gender: Female
Flyball title: Flyball Dog Champion—Silver
Other dog sports: Agility, Obedience, K9 Nose Work
|
|
Caijan….pronounced KAY-JUN….is a black and white Smooth Fox Terrier that was adopted in July of 2007 by Betty Gardner. She was found in a shelter down in Louisiana….possibly a victim of Hurricane Katrina? She will be 8 years old in July of 2011. She is practically tailless….the result of a poor tail-docking job. She does have a small nub about an inch long not the quivering, three inch tail that a Fox Terrier should have! She is a bit timid but very sweet! Caijan’s owner is no stranger to flyball. She trained Vixen, another SFT, with NSL (No Speed Limit, ODTC’s first flyball team), to an FDCH-S title. Vixen crossed the Rainbow Bridge on Mother’s Day Weekend back in 2007 and Caijan was adopted a couple of months later because Betty just HAD to have another Smooth in the house! Caijan had to be taught to retrieve a tennis ball since she is not a natural retriever like Vixen was. Because of that, she does not think much about the sport although she loves the jumping part and the food that comes after she gets her ball! As of February of 2011, after more than two years in training, she is almost ready to run in a lineup of dogs! Besides Flyball, Caijan is also being worked in Agility and a NEW canine sport called Nose Work. Caijan prefers Agility over Flyball. We are competing in agility trials now and she has recently started to qualify in some of her classes. She has earned two titles in CPE Agility and a few other Qs in that venue. She also has earned three Qs in the AKC venue and one Q in the NADAC venue. No titles yet in those last two venues but we are progressing! Caijan’s favorite sport is Nose Work! In nose work, she gets to do what she truly LOVES more than anything else in this world! She gets to actually search for food WITHOUT being corrected for doing so! The food is paired with the scent of Birch after the dog gets the idea of searching. Eventually, they will search for the Birch scent only. After they find the source of the odor and can alert their owner that they have found it, they are rewarded with food……even in a trial! Caijan has passed her ORT….Odor Recognition Test….on Birch so she soon should be ready to enter a trial sometime in the near future. In a trial, the dogs must do a box search, an indoor AND outdoor search and a vehicle search. It is a very fun sport and the dogs simply LOVE doing it! Caijan recommends this sport to ALL of the food motivated dogs out there! Come and watch Caijan at an upcoming tournament in the near future….I HOPE! |
