Dog Stories Part V - Morgan

Morgan was a replacement puppy for Haven. The breeder I got Haven from felt badly that Haven could not be shown and so she offered Morgan to me as sort of a replacement. We didn’t have to give Haven back (We never would have under any circumstances) and I would still get to dip my toe into showing dogs. Five dogs was our limit. Man the house was staring to get full and boy were we going through the dog food.

Morgan and Haven’s pedigrees are nearly identical, but they are very different dogs in conformation and personality. Now that both dogs are in pet trim, we have a difficult time telling them apart so Morgan has to wear a bandana around her neck.

Morgan is catlike in her personality. She is stuck up, and will only give you the time of day if she feels like it. She is a terrible eater. While showing her, I had to force feed her to keep weight on her. She hated that and hated me for doing it to her. She detested spending hours on the grooming table getting ready for show. She just plain hated being a show dog. She was sullen, and never showed spark in the ring.

I really wanted her to have her championship and thought she would do better with someone else at the end of the lead so I sent her down to a professional handler in Kentucky. Handlers are very costly. To have Morgan with her for a month cost me nearly $1500! Besides the costs, I hated having her gone. I missed her terribly and hated the idea of her being in a kennel. The handler put 3 points on her in that month. I had already put 3 points on her before she went to Kentucky and I put another point on her when I got her back. So she ended up with 7 of the 15 points required for an AKC championship.

After June, I cut all of her show coat off and am just letting her be a dog. Now she does greet me when I come home from work and eats like there is no tomorrow. I wouldn’t go so far as to say she likes me, but she is warming up to me. Morgan turned 3 years old in May of this year.