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Classic's Story:
Classic was my first Golden and my first "red
dog". I had raised a Golden puppy for the Seeing Eye and decided
I wanted one of my own to train and show. Classic was to be the start
of my Golden Retriever kennels. Unfortunately, she was diagnosed with
hip dysplasia at 2 and I had her spayed. I had taken Classic to obedience
training classes starting when she was 8 weeks old. I had dreams of
making Classic an OTCh. Well, she did finish her CD in 3 straight shows
from the Novice A class and then we moved on to Open. She was fully
trained through Open and part of Utility when I started showing her
in Open at trials. I began to realize something was wrong when she refused
to jump at every single trial we entered. She was notorious for going
around jumps. I knew she was trained so off to the vet's we went to
look to see if something was wrong. This time she was diagnosed with
arthritis of the elbows and she was only 4 years old. She also became
very sick with pneumonia which left scars on her lungs that hampered
her stamina. So, her obedience career ended there. She didn't mind.
She loved retirement and lived for playing fetch with her beloved tennis
balls. She was an avid retriever and loved to swim. However, due to
her lung problems, swimming also had to become part of the past. We
compensated for that with a baby pool, where she would love to lie on
the hottest days. She lived a good, full life in retirement and I lost
to her osteosarcoma, 6 weeks after being diagnosed, on December 22,
1999. She was 11.5.
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