Farewell Dakota

photo by http://www.pet-personalities.com/

I received an email from a friend, Maxine, that she had to say goodbye to her sweetheart German Short-haired Pointer, Dakota, on Tuesday.

It is with tremendous sadness that I say goodbye to a terrific dog.  I nabbed a picture of him from about 5 years ago in a gamblers run with the appropriate pose, mouth open and barking.

The first agility classes I took were up in Mundelein with MacDuff.  Dakota and Maxine were part of the class.  They were a great team to watch.

The problem, for Maxine, was that after running in class with MacDuff for awhile, Dakota learned that maybe it was more fun to run and bark like Duff did.  The only trouble was, the bark he chose was falsetto and could bend steel almost like Duff's could.

So, we had the barking duo at any agility trial.

Dakota was a typical boy, dedicated to Mom and very affectionate.  I know I adored seeing him at trials and would always take time out to rub him down with affection.

I started to see him less and less as Dakota was focused more in NADAC agility trials where he could jump 16", instead of 24".  I narrowed my agility towards AKC as NADAC started to change their program too much and too frequently, making it too diverse from the AKC courses I would run.

Regardless, the memories I have of Dakota are cherished and bring a smile to my face every time.

We all know we have only a certain amount of time with our dogs, but are never quite ready to say goodbye.  Hugs to Maxine (and Jim).