Zack's Story

This is a story I wrote about Zack for "Front and Finish"

UNSUNG HEROES

I have been editing “Unsung Heroes” for three and a half years. I have brought you the stories of many different people in the world of dogs: those who have accomplished extraordinary things, those who have helped others chase their dreams, and those who have overcome hardships and handicaps to make it to the top.

This month I am going to selfishly tell you about a very special dog. This happens to be a story about one of my dogs, and I hope that you find his story interesting. I want to tell you about my dog of a lifetime. Yes, “Dog of a Lifetime”. People use those words so often to describe a special dog in their lives. I am going to tell you about mine.

His name was Zack. He was a Papillon. His “fancy” name was Am/Can CH & Am/Can OTCH UOCH UACHX Loteki Sudden Impulse UDX TDX MX MXJ, AD VAD, EAC-V EJC-V NGC-V NAC, CL4-FR CL3-HS, Can UDT. That’s a mouthful for a little dog, isn’t it?

I first saw Zack in April of 1988 when he was eight weeks old. At the time, I had just put a UD on my first Papillon, Zipper, and I wasn’t sure I was ready for another puppy. I could see that Zack was a neat pup, but he had this black spot on the side of his nose. I decided, oh, I don’t like that spot, so I decided to pass on him and continue to concentrate on Zipper’s obedience career. When Zack was 12 weeks old, Zack’s breeder Lou Ann King brought Zack and some other puppies to my house, where she met another Papillon breeder who had brought along her own dogs and puppies. We had a passle of paps at my house that weekend! Lou Ann decided to work on leash-breaking some of the pups.  She’d put on the show lead, and the puppies would display various behaviors: sitting down and refusing to move, fighting the lead, bucking like a bronco. And then she put the lead on Zack, and my life changed forever in that very instant. Zack started prancing along beside Lou Ann in perfect heel position, head straight up, showing all in attendance what he had been born to do. One of my friends who was there that night said, “You’re NUTS if you don’t take that puppy, in fact, if you don’t take him, I think I will!”

I fretted all night whether this huge tri-color pup should come and live at the Darnell’s. I couldn’t get the image out of my brain of that puppy prancing along in heel position. So, the next morning I knocked on the motor home door and said, “Lou Ann, I MUST have that puppy!” She tried to talk me out of it, saying he was too big to show in the conformation ring, and I should wait for something else. And I kept saying, no, there is something about that pup that just calls out to me. When I told my husband, who was sitting at the kitchen table reading the newspaper, that I had just gotten a new puppy, he just laughed and laughed. He didn’t find it so funny when he realized it was the truth!  Zack’s registered name was “Loteki Sudden Impulse”, as that is what he was. And, so it all began...

Zack’s tracking training began the very next day. I soon found out how incredibly FOOD oriented this puppy was, almost too much. Zack’s personal tracking method was fast and furious, not always the “ideal” way for a dog to track! When Zack would get to a corner, he would run in joyous circles; then he would be so tickled with himself when he would find the next direction that the track went.

Along with Zack’s tracking, I also started some conformation training. Although proclaimed to be “too big for the show ring”, Zack had that attitude about him that said, “Look at me! I’m incredibly special!” I have always thought that conformation training and classes are a great thing for a young pup: he gets to strut around in a matted and baby-gated environment, while nice strangers coo over him, and the extra treats are a wonderful bonus! I showed Zack in a few fun matches in the summer of 1988 and was delighted when he went “Best Puppy in Match” over a huge entry. I started thinking, well, heck, what’s the worst that could happen if we entered Zack in a real show? 

My good friend Linda Mattley put Zack’s first point on him at the age of six-and-a-half months. We went to several more shows, and at the age of eight months, all Zack needed was both majors to finish his conformation championship. Two times in his breed career another exhibitor would “call for the wicket”, since Zack was a BIG boy, and both times he just measured in and took the points. In November of 1988, I sent Zack out to my friend Tracy Halverson in Colorado, and three days later Tracy sent him back a finished Champion, at the age of 8 1/2 months! Our first title!

Zack earned his TD title in April of 1989, and his obedience training then began in earnest.  I was amazed and constantly delighted at his attitude and his heads up, prancing heeling style. I still have some old videos of some very early training sessions that I had with Zack, and the potential that I saw in that twelve-week-old puppy was certainly still evident. I had my first lesson with him as a nine-month-old pup with my obedience mentor, Kay Guetzloff, and she said “This is the greatest dog you will ever touch, now don’t screw it up!” No pressure, haha. The rest of that year, I polished Zack for novice and started his open and utility training while I finished the OTCH on Zipper.

By the spring of 1990, I was itching to get in the novice ring with Zack. I’ve always enjoyed showing in Canada, and I thought that would be a great place to find out where Zack and I were at as a team. Zack earned a 198 1/2 his first time in the ring. He won a run-off for High in Trial against the Number One obedience dog in Canada, and then he went Best of Breed and Group Three on the same day. Wow! I still remember every detail of the next day. Zack had another lovely, lovely run on his individual exercises.  “Stay” was never an exercise that Zack enjoyed or was comfortable with, he would actually VIBRATE through a stay, just sit there and shake. He wasn’t scared, he wasn’t worried, he was just very excited. When the judge that day asked “Are you ready?” Zack picked up a foot. I thought, oh, he can stay for one minute with his foot up. Wrong!  Zack laid down about ten seconds in to the sit stay, and I thought the judge was going to burst in to tears. Then he told me that Zack had a 200 going that day. I did have a good cry later in the motel room!

In the fall of 1990 Zack earned his CD, with his novice career spanning seven High in Trials and an average score of 198. We jumped right in to Open in the spring of 1991, and he delighted me by immediately being competitive in Open B, earning some of his CDX legs by going High in Trial in huge Open B classes with scores of 198 1/2. I’ve never been one to show much in Open before getting a dog’s UD, but Zack left about 100 OTCH points behind that spring because he was winning Open B classes, and he didn’t yet have a UD.

In the late spring of 1991, I was devastated when I suddenly lost my job of five years.  They say that when one door closes, another one opens. That summer, because I had no money and lots of time, I discovered my passion for perennial gardening. And when I wasn’t gardening, I was training Zack! Even though he had just earned his CDX title, Zack learned utility very, very quickly, and all of a sudden I was contemplating showing him in utility in the fall of 1991. He earned his UD in just four shows, and one of my most exciting weekends ever was the Des Moines Obedience Training Club show in the fall of 1991. Zack won the 88-dog Open B class on Saturday with a 198 1/2, finished his UD the next day, and on Monday he won a 24-dog Utility B class with a 197 1/2 for his first 24 OTCH points. 

The OTCH points came quickly that fall. Another memorable weekend was the Rapid City shows, one of my all-time favorite show circuits. Zack won all five classes he was entered in, all three High in Trials, and two High Combineds. 

Back in those days, we didn’t have any shows within reasonable driving distance between November and March. In 1992 the first shows of the year was again one of my favorite show weekends, the Greater Kansas City Dog Training Club, held the first weekend in March. Zack went in to the weekend with 60 OTCH points. On Saturday he won a large
Open B class, and was second in Utility, good for High in Trial and High Combined. On Sunday, I didn’t think his Open run was all that good, and the class was huge, as well as packed with lots of great dogs. When the Open class was over, I was still putzing around with Zipper, who was entered in veterans that day. There were some runoffs in the Open ring, and I didn’t pay all that much attention to what was going on. When I went back in for the awards, I remember moving to the back of the pack, as it was a large class of 35 dogs, and most had qualified. The judge was Sue Oviatt, and she called out the number of her first place dog. Nobody went forward, and she called the number again, and I glanced down at my number and was totally shocked that the number she called was us! Winning the class put us over the 100 points for Zack’s OTCH, and another High in Trial. A friend’s husband had videotaped the awards presentation, and it is fun to watch it and see me walk out of the back of the pack with my hand over my mouth! 

1992 was the biggest year of Zack’s obedience career. He started the year as a CH UDT dog and finished it as a CH OTCH TDX! That year he was the number nine OTCH dog in the country in points earned, was number ten in the All-breed Delaney rankings, and he also earned his TDX on his first try.

In 1993 Zack and I traveled up to Canada, where he already had his CD and CDX. I had always wanted to show a dog to a Canadian UD, and I had never had the opportunity to do it. We were entered in three shows, and I was hoping for two legs, so we could finish the title on our next trip. I guess Zack had other plans, as he earned his Canadian UD/OTCH in three shows with a Dog World Award. Another exciting event in 1993 was Zack winning Open B, Utility B, High in Trial and High Combined at the Papillon Club of America National Specialty.

A new obedience title was offered by the AKC in 1994: UDX. Of course we had to go after that! I think the UDX is a difficult title, and it took Zack three more shows (20) to earn his UDX that year than it did two years earlier when he went for his OTCH (17).

In the spring of 1994 I put Zack on a waiting list for a beginning agility class at the local dog sports club, Go Dogs! Inc., in Omaha. The AKC had just approved this new sport for titling, and I wanted to give it a try. I viewed it as a lark, as a place to get a few more titles on a 6 1/2 year old dog, certainly nothing serious! Ack! I remember that very first class quite clearly. I patiently explained to the instructors that Zack was an OTCH dog, therefore, working him on my right side was not going to happen. They smiled, nodded, and were very nice to me. Of course it took me all of about two weeks to find out that trying to run Zack only on my left side just wasn’t going to be an option! I’m not sure how it happened, but the next thing I knew, I had a yard full of agility equipment and a brand new obsession. Zack showed in AKC Novice A agility before that first beginning class was even over. Looking back on it, I can’t believe that I did that but go figure, he got his NA in three shows, was the first Papillon to earn an AKC agility title, and then he quickly earned his OA in five shows and his AX in four shows. Those are numbers that I look at longingly now with my MACH dogs of today! Back in those days, there might be six or eight excellent dogs as the entire entry. Certainly different from our packed excellent walk-throughs of today.

Zack was a super little agility dog. He was efficient, moderately fast, and very accurate.  He earned his MX in just 12 shows, becoming the fifth dog and first Toy to earn the title, and also the first dog of any breed to earn the MX that started out from Novice A (the first four dogs were all grandfathered in at a higher level.) He was one of very, very few dogs to compete in both the first AKC Obedience Invitational in 1995 and the first AKC Agility National Championship in 1996. Because back then there was nowhere to go in AKC agility beyond the MX, I then showed Zack in USDAA, NADAC, UKC, and later, CPE agility. He earned many, many titles. As I recall, he finished his elite NADAC titles in jumpers and regular without ever flunking! He was just incredibly reliable. When the AKC jumpers titles began in 1998, I started him out in excellent jumpers, and he flew through both his AXJ and then his MXJ at the age of eleven. Zack was also the first (and I think he may still be the only) dog to earn the AKC titles of CH OTCH UDX TDX MX MXJ. Unfortunately, the MACH came along about a year too late for Zack and, sadly, the preferred titles were about a year too late for him as well. Zack earned his last agility title at the age of 14, a CPE games title. His first title came at the age of 8 months in 1988 (AKC CH), and his last title came at the age of 14 in 2002 (CPE game), meaning that he earned a title in each of FIFTEEN consecutive years, a feat I find just incredible, and one I doubt any other dog has duplicated. But that word - incredible - always keeps coming up when I think of Zack.

Zack and I also enjoyed competing in UKC events. He was the first dog of any breed to earn both the UACHX and UOCH titles. It was very interesting, the day that Zack finished his UOCH in 1997 was the first time that Zack told me, you know, I don’t believe I care to do obedience any more. At the time he had 39 High in Trials and 25 High Combineds for his career, and I thought it would be neat to get one more High in Trial for an even 40. But I decided to defer to his wishes, and that was the last time he was shown in obedience. While browsing the AKC website one day, I decided to look up Zack’s obedience statistics. I discovered that he had qualified 120 times in Open B! And even more amazing, he won 30 of those classes. Therefore, 25% of the time that he qualified, he won the class. His record was even more impressive in Utility, he qualified 75 times, winning the class 27 times. Zack earned 789 OTCH points in his career, and he still holds the all-time OTCH point record for the Toy Group. He never lost his fire for agility and tracking, and we enjoyed those sports for many years after he retired from the obedience
ring. 

Zack’s most favorite thing to do in the entire world was to track. I remember the day he got his TDX, on his first try. When I went to get him out of his crate he was SCREAMING. The judges were quite amused. I look back on the day of his TDX track as the very best tracking performance he ever gave me. Zack and I spent several years playing with the VST title. When we were traveling around for agility trials, we would always get a practice track or two in. That is the beauty of VST, you can do it anywhere!  We made the draw in to two VST tests, and both tests had absolutely horrendous weather, horizontal rain and heavy wind. The VST was the only title that Zack and I left undone, but I so cherish all of those hours that we spent working on it. I may never earn a VST title, but if I ever do, it will belong to Zack as well as the dog who earns it. Training VST with Zack changed the way I looked at tracking forever; I learned that I could track anywhere, and I never worried about a track being fouled. Zack was the kind of dog who would have tracked every day if I could have found the time, that’s how much he loved it.

All of Zack’s titles and awards pale next to his personality. He had an amazing personality; he was probably the smartest and most confident dog I have ever owned. Zack wasn’t overly fond of people. In fact, there were only three people in the world that he ever truly liked: me, my mom, and his breeder. But, your average person on the street would have never known that, as Zack viewed each human as a possible food source. He could be ever so charming and adorable, so that any human he may have encountered would give him a treat, or even better, throw a ball for him. We have wood floors in our home, and I’ve never let the dogs play ball in the house, and of course Zack was well aware of the rule. But the FIRST thing he would do is take a ball to a visitor, drop it in their lap, and then back away, tail wagging, eyes bright, begging the person to throw the ball, which of course the person would then do. If my husband was eating something, then Zack was his very best buddy. He always conned my husband out of a taste of whatever he was eating. If my husband didn’t have any food, Zack really didn’t have a lot of use for him. Zack was definitely a one-woman dog. And woe be it to the person that reached for him, or tried to pick him up, as he wasn’t afraid to express his displeasure.  My friend Jill Morstad was holding him for me before he won that big Open class in Des Moines, and he bit her right on the thumb. I told her she should hold him for me before every class!

One of the things that made Zack such a fabulous performance dog was his great self-confidence. He never worried about anything, and he was never afraid to make a mistake. If he did make a mistake, you could see him just mentally shrug it off and say, hey, that’s no big deal, let’s do it again. He loved to train, and he was the only dog I’ve ever shown who was the EXACT same dog in the ring that he was in practice. You can watch video of Zack, especially in open, and each performance would look very much like the next one. Heeling and fronts were his forte, and his perfect go outs with a quick spin and sit at the end were to die for. Zack also loved to go for walks, which we tried to do every day, and he spent the rest of his time under my computer desk and following me from room to room. He kept an eye on me just in case any food would magically appear!  We have always had a routine at my house, the dogs get up very early to eat and go potty, and then we all go back to bed. Zack tried over the years to move that time up from 5:30 AM, to 4:30 AM, and once he tried to get me to feed him at 1:00 AM! Although I indulged him throughout his 15 1/2 years of life, that is one time I did not give in! After the dogs went outside and it was time to go back to bed, Zack always insisted on five minutes of ear scratching before he would curl up next to me and let me go back to sleep.  I always dutifully complied.

My last time in the ring with Zack was at the 2002 Papillon National Specialty.  I entered him in the Veterans Sweepstakes, and he was by far the oldest dog in the ring.  When I put him up on the table, the judge asked me how old Zack was. When I told him that Zack was over 14, he said he was amazed at how fit and full of life he was.  Zack flew around the ring like a youngster, and the crowd was thrilled to see him. Zack won his class, beating a Best in Show dog, to huge applause from the audience.  The judge turned and said to the crowd, “We should all hope to be in as good of shape as this dog when we are that old!”

Zack had a terrific old age until about 14 1/2. He lost one eye, and then the other, to glaucoma. The eye specialist assured me that Zack would eventually adjust to his blindness, but he never did. For the next year, I carried him out every time he had to potty. He did learn to navigate quite well around the yard, and I could set him down and he would go off on his own to do his thing. But he never could go out the door again on his own, and I think it really bothered him to be so dependent. The only thing that made him happy was to be with ME, and I indulged him all I could. He still spent his days under the computer desk while I worked, and in the evenings he would lay beside me on the couch. He would be sound asleep next to me when all of a sudden he would awake and reach out to sniff me to be sure that I was still there. Then, contented, he would sigh and go back to sleep.

Food was a huge, huge part of Zack’s life. He made SURE that dinner time was remembered and remarked upon every night of his life. I knew that when the day came that Zack no longer ate his dinner with gusto, I would know that the end was near. In early August of 2003 he started to eat a little slower, although still finishing all of his dinner. By mid-August, he started leaving a few bites, and in the next week, eating became hit and miss. He seemed more confused, and I was horrified one morning to wake up and discover that he had peed all over my bed in the middle of the night. Always a clean dog, this would have been the ultimate degradation for Zack. In the last week of his life he was no longer continent in his crate, a condition that I know he found abhorrent. I went to a show in Kansas City late in August, and on the way home I called my husband to see how Zack was doing. My husband said, you MUST do something about Zack in the next 24 hours, you just can’t wait any longer. When I got home that afternoon, my husband and I made the decision to put Zack down the next morning (my husband is a veterinarian, so at least this unhappy occasion can always happen in familiar surroundings for my dogs.) I was crying and crying that night, and I couldn’t sleep, so I decided to sit up with Zack all night. I just held him and told him how much I loved him, and that I knew it was time for me to let him go. My husband came downstairs about 3:30 AM and said, would you like to just do this now? And I said yes. We gave him a tranquilizer, and then I laid Zack in his little cuddler bed on the kitchen table. George then gave him the shot. It was a peaceful experience, and I knew I had done the right thing for my wonderful old friend. We had Zack cremated, and his ashes sit on the shelf of my desk, so he is still with me as I write.

I received many e-mail messages and cards from people all over the country after Zack’s passing. He touched many people in so many ways. A week ago, I was sorting the mail at the kitchen counter, and all of a sudden there was Zack staring up at me from the cover of “Pap Talk”, the publication for the Papillon Club of America. Zack’s breeder and friend, Lou Ann King, had purchased the cover of the magazine, and she wrote a lovely tribute to Zack. I cried and cried when I saw it. Zack’s death has been the most difficult of all of my dogs to accept. I do feel fortunate that I knew from the very beginning that I had something so extremely special on my hands, and that I was able to “do right” by him all of his life. But none of that lessened the pain and depth of despair I felt, and still feel, after his death. I would give back every title, award, and ribbon to have my Zack again as a two-year-old, so we could do it all over again. I was recently talking about my grief with my friend Jan Berger, who also recently lost a wonderful old Papillon. I told her I wondered if the stories about the “rainbow bridge” were really true, and that it would comfort me so much to know that I would some day see Zack again. Jan reminded me of the book “The Lovely Bones”, by Alice Sebold, which tells us that heaven is a personal thing for each person, that all of the things that were important to each of us is what we will eventually find in heaven. So, if that is true, Zack is waiting for me somewhere.

In closing, I recently read a poem on the Internet that really struck me, and I’d like to share it all with you:

"They say memories are golden. Well, maybe that is true.
I never wanted memories, I only wanted you.
In life I loved you dearly, in death I love you still.
In my heart you hold a place, no one could ever fill.
If tears could build a stairway and heartache make a lane,
I'd walk the path to heaven and bring you back again..."

Good-bye my wonderful Zack dog. I will never, ever forget you.