Am/Can CH OTCH MACH UCDX UAg2
Loteki Denzel Spread The Word
UDX TD RN MX MXJ AXP MJP,
AD PDII, EAC-V EJC-V OAC OJC NGC
TN-N TG-N WV-N, CL4-RFH CL3-S

January 8, 1994 - October 31, 2006

2006 was a year I would not want to repeat, as I lost my mother in February, her little dog Tish in July, my sweet pap Rudy in August, and then my last pap Rumor in October. This story is about Rumor, Am/Can CH OTCH MACH UCDX UAg2 Loteki Denzel Spread The Word UDX TD RN MX MXJ AXP MJP, AD PDII, EAC-V EJC-V OAC OJC NGC TN-N TG-N WV-N, CL4-RFH CL3-S.

The first time I heard of Rumor was when his breeder said to me “I’ve got a special pup, you need to come see him!” I first saw Rumor at the age of eight weeks in early 1994. I walked in to the room, and Rumor looked up at me as I looked down at him. “When can I take him home?” I asked the breeder, meaning that it took me all of five seconds to scientifically test and select him!

Rumor came home at the age of 14 weeks. The following weekend I took him to a local obedience seminar for some socialization. The first thing Rumor did was go after a Border Collie, which was my introduction to having a singleton puppy! I have since read that singleton puppies tend to not relate well to other dogs, and Rumor seemed to be a classic singleton puppy all of his life. He did NOT like other dogs, and though he learned to live with his own housemates just fine, he never cared for strange dogs. He did make my male Border Collies quake in fear when he would walk in to the room; when he came in, they went out!

Rumor’s first title was his TD at nine months of age. I traveled to the Chicago area, and the cover was way over his head, and sometimes mine as well, but he finished his track very nicely on his first try. We then turned our attention to the breed ring, and he finished his American and Canadian Championships. I showed him to the Canadian CH myself, and it took him just four shows to finish, with a Group One and a Group Four.

I got involved with the sport of agility when Rumor was just a baby. At the time I was training my two older paps, Zack and Rudy, and I decided to make all of my agility mistakes on them and wait to start Rumor until he was older. But for whatever reason, one day when Rumor was about a year old he took off at a dead run and ran up the full height teeter. He had one of the most spectacular flyoffs that I have ever seen, and thus started a problem that plagued us off and on throughout his entire agility career. He would be fine for eight or ten shows, and then he would refuse both the teeter and the dogwalk.

I started training Rumor in agility and competitive obedience shortly after his teeter incident, and as luck would have it, he was ready to show in both venues at the same time. Rumor’s first time in the obedience ring was the 1997 Papillon Club of America National Specialty. The specialty was held in Reno, Nevada, and obedience and agility were outside on dirt. Somebody had a thermometer at ground level, and the temp was in the 110 degree range during obedience in the afternoon! Rumor finished his NA in the morning with a First Place, and in the afternoon he earned the first leg of his CD with a 198 1/2 and High in Trial. I was thrilled!

Rumor’s obedience and agility showing paralleled each other throughout his entire career. He earned his CD, NA, and OA in 1997, his CDX, AX, and AXJ in 1998, his UD, MX, and MXJ in 1999, and then his UDX, OTCH, and MACH in 2000. Rumor was the 42nd dog to earn a MACH and the second dog (first toy) to earn the titles of CH OTCH MACH. Rumor was the Papillon Club of America’s Top Obedience Achievement Dog for 2000, and a highlight of his agility career was placing Fourth out of 78 twelve-inch dogs at the 1998 AKC Agility Nationals in Atlanta. I look back on that as one of the most exciting weekends of my entire dog showing career. Rumor was also a terrific therapy dog, and he spent many hours at local hospitals with his buddy Rudy.

Rumor was a hoot to show in obedience. I think I had more fun showing Rumor in obedience than any other dog I’ve ever shown. He wasn’t my highest scoring dog, and he certainly wasn’t my most consistent dog, but he could make people smile, even laugh, at the things he would do in the ring. It was fun getting him wound up and leaping around when we showed.

That said, Rumor also battled an occasional fear problem in both obedience and agility. It started when I was showing him in a USDAA agility trial when he was a young dog. He ran most of the course with his head swiveled backwards looking at the judge. I don’t think Rumor had ever noticed before that there was somebody else in the ring with us. The following weekend I showed him at the Border Collie National Specialty where he was the only little dog entered, and he literally went and hid under the dogwalk! I ruled out any physical problems, and had his eyes checked, and all was proclaimed fine. I even contacted an animal communicator, who told me that the judge who was officiating that day at the USDAA trial had an “evil aura” that only Rumor could see, and that Rumor now associated all judges with that evil aura. I couldn’t say I agreed with her assessment, but I sure got a lot of mileage out of telling that story the next several years! Rumor’s fear also sometimes extended to obedience, especially on heeling, and especially with a man judge. One time I was showing in Florida, and I was doing an agility/obedience seminar on the Monday after the show. Rumor not only refused both the teeter and the dogwalk, he quit heeling in Open B on Sunday. At the seminar I said “For those of you who watched me show this weekend, and still came to hear what I have to say, I thank you!”. Despite his occasional fear problems, Rumor’s OTCH was quite respectable, and he finished under Dan Herald in December of 2000. It was a great Christmas present!

From the end of 2000 to the beginning of 2003, Rumor and I played around with UKC obedience, CPE and NADAC agility, and AKC regular and preferred agility while we prepared for his TDX. Rumor was an accurate little tracker, and we really enjoyed our work together. The first test we were in, he took a crosstrack on what I considered to be a poorly designed track, and he then went on to finish the rest of the track in high style in horrible weather. The following week I met a friend to go tracking, and Rumor literally refused to track. I knew in my heart something was wrong with him, and in March of 2003 Rumor was diagnosed with glaucoma. After dealing with this horrible and painful eye disease with my wonderful pap, Zack (Rumor’s uncle), I was so discouraged to know that I once again had to travel down that long, sad, and expensive road with Rumor. At the time of his diagnosis, Rumor was working on his MACH2 and was very close to passing his TDX. He was just ten, which for a pap is not old, and I felt cheated out of the last two years of his career, not to mention I had to deal with the devastating knowledge that Rumor, too, would eventually go blind just like my beloved Zack did.

Rumor’s glaucoma progressed slower than Zack’s did, and he was able to adjust to his eventual blindness better than Zack was able to, but it was still excruciating to watch him deteriorate. In April of 2006 Rumor was diagnosed with congestive heart failure, which eventually took his life this past October, at the age of just 12 years and 9 months, an age where I would just be thinking about retiring most paps from competition.

After a rocky start when she was a pup, my oldest Border Collie and Rumor became very good friends in his senior years. When Rumor would be out in the yard and get lost, I would tell Riva “Go find Rumor”, and just like Lassie, she would take me right to him. She and Rumor would lie together in my office while I worked, and she became his eyes in many ways.

For all of Rumor’s problems, he was without a doubt the most fiercely devoted dog I have ever had. The sun rose and set on me in Rumor’s world. He was a total gas to show, always up and always raring to go, and he was also as cute as a button. He made me smile every day of his life, and I miss him very much. His death closed a chapter in my life, at least temporarily. For the first time in almost 23 years there are no little dogs in my house. Right now I am really involved with my Border Collies, but “some day” there WILL be another Papillon in the Darnell home. Take it to the bank...

Hopefully, Rumor’s death closes this painful chapter in my life, and you won’t have to read about any more of my losses for a long time to come!