Spirit (Celhaus In Love with Life) CGC, ATD, THDN, PTN, PTA, PTS, PTM, PTE, AE, NI, IAC, ICC, I-TNG
Spirit is from the ii Litter (Lively bred to Quasi) and was whelped 1/22/15.
See Spirit training in nosework, August – November, 2024
(9 years 6 – 9 months old)
Here’s one photo.
Spirit is a therapy dog, registered with Alliance for Therapy Dogs (ATD). She visits the nursing homes and participates in Reading Dog at Tongue River Elementary School in Ranchester, WY (about 10 miles from here) and at Holy Name Catholic School here in Sheridan. She has her AKC Therapy Dog Novice title (THDN, which requires 10 verified therapy dog visits; her AKC Therapy Dog title (THD), which requires 50 verified therapy dog visits; her AKC Therapy Dog Advanced title (THDA), which requires 100 visits; and her AKC Therapy Dog Excellent title, which requires 200 visits.
As of 12/1/24, she has done 257 visits. Unfortunately, the next AKC title requires 400 visits, so she’ll probably have to retire before earning it.
Spirit has been very busy with the Kindergarteners at Holy Name School this fall. See all kinds of photos
Here she is in her Thanksgiving costume. She was a turkey.
Spirit at 6 years 3 months
See the 2024 Trading Cards with Spirit and the Holy Name School Kindergarteners
See the 2023 Trading Cards with Spirit and the Holy Name School Kindergarteners
See Spirit (7 years 8 month) doing Reading Dog at Tongue River Elementary School
see Spirit at 5 years 1 month
See Spirit celebrating her 8th birthday at Reading Dog
See Spirit’s Trading Cards
Spirit is the mother of the MM litter of July 2017 and the PP litter of October, 2018.
Spirit carries the black recessive. She does not carry the long coat recessive.
UKC Nosework titles: PTE (all five pretrial titles), Master Exteriors, Novice Vehicles, Master Interiors, Master Containers and Advanced Handler Discrimination.
NADAC Agility Titles: Spirit competed in her first NADAC agility trial in July 2019. She blew everything Friday, being overexcited and distracted and making tiny mistakes. On Saturday she qualified all six runs. On Sunday she qualified in 4 of 6 runs. She got two titles (Intro Regular & Intro Chances) and legs towards three other titles: She has 2 legs towards her Intro Touch N Go title and one leg each towards her Intro Jumpers and Intro Tunnelers titles. What a great experience at her first trial.
On our next trial in April 2021 (we lost a year due to covid), I put her in Novice. She earned her NAC title (Novice Regular) and got legs in other classes as well. Unfortunately, I had to quit agility due to foot problems. All of us really miss it.
Spirit is competing and doing very well in nosework. In limited showing, she has her Advanced Exteriors and Novice Interiors titles. Berakah and Spirit searching vehicles
She also has her AKC Canine Good Citizen title
pedigree
See Spirit’s temperament test results (7 weeks)
Spirit is DM (degenerative myelopathy) free: GS-DM5614/13F-PI
OFA Eyes: GS-EYES362/40F-VPI
OFA Elbows: GS-EL35226F24-VPI
OFA Fair Hips: GS-99353F38F-VPI
PennHip: .26 left & .31 right (They no longer give percentile ratings unless both hips rate .30 or less.)
OFA Thyroid: GS-TH801/47F-VPI (2017)
Spirit insisted from the beginning that I had to keep her. I hadn’t planned to, because I was already committed to get a pup from East German/Czech lines (Hesed) and was due to get a replacement for a pup who hadn’t turned out breeding quality (Faith). However, Lively had trouble whelping and ended up being rushed to the vet for a C-section, resulting in only two live pups: Spirit and a male. Both pups thrived and showed great promise, and I ended up deciding I’d better keep the female in case Lively was unable to have more pups. Lively had produced extremely well when bred to Chaos (FF, GG & HH litters). I kept a female from the GG litter, GloryToo. Lively was the last breeding female from my original brood bitch, Glory, and I didn’t want to take a chance on losing the bloodline, so I decided to keep the female pup from the ii litter and somehow survive raising, socializing and training three puppies at the same time. I was only able to do this because I was recently retired.
Spirit has turned out to be a lot of fun and lives up to both her registered and call names. She has incredible booty drive (the desire to possess the toy) and our daily retrieve sessions for months were fascinating as she debated with each throw whether she can possibly give me the ball for another throw and chase or if she must chew on it for a while. Eventually she decided she was a two-ball dog and will willingly give up the one she has for the one I’m ready to throw. She has a great nose and loves to use it, showing a marked intensity in nose work training from puppyhood. She has an absolute ball whatever we’re doing. She approaches all training with great enthusiasm, and I had a lot of fun gently shaping that enthusiasm for competition.