joy and determination, was the best win I could imagine. We prepared to leave the ring. But then— the judge pointed to Pepe! Pepe won Select Dog (runner-up male)! The win was worth five points. He needed only three more to reach 800! A month later he was strutting around the ring again, as if to say, “You thought a little paralysis could keep me down?” This day, at 12, following a 99 percent total paralysis, Pepe won his final Best of Breed, earning the points he needed to become the first amateur- handled Platinum Grand Champion Saluki. At one time, that title had been my goal. In the end, it marked only another milestone. At a time in Pepe’s life when he had no titles left to train for, when he was expected to retire and let the youngsters take his place, we were thrust back into the most intense training of his life—training literally for his life. And of all the titles he’d previously won, it turned out to be his training for the Trick Dog titles—the titles we’d thought were kind of silly compared to the others—that saved his life. Oddly, his rehab was perhaps the best bonding period of our 12 years together. The paralysis
wasn’t so much a roadblock as a chance to take a better detour. For Pepe, he found himself once again the center of my universe. For me, I found true satisfaction lay not in the destination, but in the journey. This article originally appeared in the award-winning AKC Family Dog magazine. Reprinted from AKC Expert Advice / AKC Family Dog at https:// www.akc.org/expert-advice/family-dog/trick-dog-training-saved-a- paralyzed-saluki/ Rachel Rehberg, Courtesy Author Take a Bow: It’s good for stretching and building strength.
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