Daserbe Valaraukar At Anadune CD AX AXJ CGC

Bilbo

9 January 2002 — 29 September 2016

Bilbo was an incredibly clever dog — the sort of dog who, when you switch on the hose for his favourite game of getting drenched in the garden, first checks that he really couldn't switch the tap on himself next time! His intelligence meant that he learnt new things very fast. Of course, he also tended to get bored with them fairly quickly — he was doing very reliable "B" scent within a couple of weeks, but another month later he became more interested in the smells on the ground...

Being a Schnauzer meant that he absolutely loved showing off! He loved his time in the breed ring, although due to his unexpected castration in 2006, he was retired from the show rings quite early. We then focused on his agility which he really enjoyed, his contacts were often his downfall, but if he made them, he frequently got a place in agility. He was surprisingly fast for a non collie, and boy is it different running a Schnauzer to a Border Collie! He loved the lower jump height in the US, I'd never seen him run that fast, and every run was a bit of a surprise for me as I didn't know how far I'll manage to get anymore! We started entering Standard with Bilbo — he'd had two years of getting every single contact (as we only did them in training and he never competed in Standard), so we were keeping our fingers crossed that that will transfer. And it did! He Q'd in his first three Standard runs for his NA title (his fourth run, he decided that it was time to demonstrate that he can really do those contacts and he did all four sets ... on a course that was only supposed to have three sets of them!).

Bilbo competed in obedience in the UK, retiring when he got his first trophy (as life was never going to get better ☺), but he got to compete again in the US with his best friend Bri. Despite pulling out a few surprises ("what, no food in the ring? And you expect me to do what?"), he got his CD in three shows ☺

My Beard, my Boo, my Blob, my Beep-Beep — he has left a huge hole, and I still can't believe I'll never see his stump wag again.