6/24/04
From Linda and Mark Glaman
For the first 10 years of his life, he was
a perfect companion. With him we learned the joys of Confirmation
Showing, Competition Obedience, Agility, Herding and were starting
in on Rally. He introduced us to the wonderful world of Beardiedom
and all of our friends there-in.
Together we earned:
2 herding instinct certificates, one from the BCCA
and one from AHBA
2 agility titles; Novice Standard and Novice Jumpers,
placing in the ribbons on a couple of his legs
A breed championship; owner-handled for all except
one of his points, including both majors, a 4th in Open Dog at
the 1997 National, and a Best of Breed at the Fort Dodge Kennel
Club show in 1999
A Canine Good Citizen certificate
A Companion Dog title; including 2 High Scoring Bearded
Collie Trophies and a 2nd Place ribbon.
And a Versatility Certificate from the BCCA.
The really sad part is he was healthy physically, but slipping
mentally. It was like he had Alzheimers. Some times he was there
and some times he wasn't. The bad part was, when he wasn't there
we were never sure what he would do. We ran the whole battery
of tests: blood panel, full thyroid panel, stim test, ACT test
- all came back within the "normal range"; with the
exception of the stim test, which was normal unstimulated but
high when stimulated. We also did an ultra-sound; he had the
"innerds of a five-year-old", and had an autopsy done
but nothing was found.all organs healthy, no sign of advanced
arthritis or anything that would be causing pain, etc. So we don't
really know what was the problem, only that there was "probably
something neurological, but too small to see".
It manifested itself as a steady increase in sound sensitivity
- to the point that in the end a normal car (no boom-boom bass
or loud muffler) would drive by and startle him out of a sound
sleep, and the ability to stress over anything, or nothing, or
the fact that he had nothing to stress over. Towards the end,
I now think he had a couple of slight seizures. At the time I
thought they were hic-ups, but looking back I'm pretty sure they
were seizures. After that he lost interest in playing ball, food,
and basically life in general became cause for concern. He only
seemed happy when he was
asleep. It wasn't fair to him, to Jazz or Halley, or to us to
continue in that fashion, none of us - especially Sagan - had
quality of life; so we made the decision.
He continues on in his daughter, Halley, and in our memories and
hearts.
Linda and Mark Glaman
Lanark Bearded Collies
Beardiesrus.com
9/26/97 Novice A 20" Leg 1 100 1st/14 45.91'/75' 8/30/98 Novice A 20" Leg 2 95 7th/18 57.64'/68' 8/26/00 Novice A 20" Leg 3 88 2nd/9 75.39'/76' NA
9/04/99 Novice A 24" Leg 1 96 1st/1 42.06'/38' 7/01/00 Novice A 20" Leg 2 85 2nd/3 45.99'/35' 8/27/00 Novice A 20" Leg 3 91 2nd/6 40.73'/36' NAJ
