Facts:

Called: Tira, Tiramisu, Tiralou, Lille Pille, Pille-My

Born: 02.06.2003

HD: Clear (A/A)

ED: Clear (A/A)

Eyes: Clear (22.10.2006), DNA Carrier (B)

Owner: Marit Fossgaard, kennel Copperdream

Breeder: Unni Solberg, Kennel Sunlit

Merits:

The story of Tira

Little Tiramisu is the duckling that became a swan - sweet as candy, wild like the wind and mommy's little girl...

I hadn't been a toller owner for long when I started dreaming about a second toller. One could believe that the first months with Patrick was enough to cure any puppy craving, but that wasn't so. Luckily I was wise enough to understand that having two toller puppies at one time was not a good idea, so I decided to wait until Patrick was at least two years old before he was to get a sister. The yearning for a little toller girl was strong, and everything was perfect in August 2003 when Tira came into our lives.

Getting a bitch puppy from the combination between Patrick's mother Pia and the outstanding and big winning Lauvstuas Mascot Keehnu was a dream coming true. I was (and am) extremely pleased with my Patrick, so I kinda knew what I could expect - lots of energy, but at the same time a very cool and outgoing temper. I told Unni that I wanted the wildest and craziest pup she had, and that's how I ended up with Tira! ;-) Tira was indeed the wildest puppy in the bunch, but at the same time she was so relaxed in new enviroments and very calm when passive. A perfect working dog! And the fact that she even was a real cutiepie didn't exactly make it a difficult choice.

Life has its mysterious ways, and things don't always go as planned. When I got Tira, I planned to do a lot of traning with her and do even better with her than with Patrick. But then it turned out that my work situation made it difficult to do anything more than going for walks those first months, and Tira was 8 months old before she learned her first trick - "sit". So we didn't do much obedience training, but I used all occations to reward Tira for having full focus on me. With Patrick I had focused to little on the contact training, and I wasn't going to do that again! And to this day, Tira has great contact with me both during training and during our walks.

Tira's first competition was a tracking competition in the working dog programme at 12 months of age. Even though we lacked some of the exercises, Tira did well - won her class and was moved up to the next level. Our first obedience competitions wasn't all good, the first one was very nice but we lacked 7 points, and the next one was a disaster. I decided to leave the obedience for a while, and the next time we competed we got an excellent score and won the class. Nowadays we're training towards competitions in class C tracking and class II obedience, and hopefully we'll do some competing in those classes in the spring.

My plan was to make Tira an agility dog, but we missed her beginner's course because she got her first heat just before that weekend. Patrick got to attend that course instead, and since then we've been sold, and it has been mostly agility all over! :-) In February 2005 it was finally Tira's turn to enter the agility course, and she has been a true natural. Only 10 months after starting training, Tira was in class II agility, having done 4 races, winning three 1st prizes and one 2nd prize. She managed just at easily in class II and class III, and on the 10th of June 2007 Tira became Norwegian Agility Champion, an achievement only one other toller as made before her. Needless to say, it was one of our proudest moments ever... :-)

Tira has been a "slow grower", and has needed time to develop both her head and her body. As a junior she was very long-legged and looked more like a whippet, but now she is a beautiful, well-built bitch. The big changed happened when she was about 15 months old, suddenly she wasn't a pup anymore, and she started doing very well at shows. She easily gained her championtitle on her first attempt, and she is the only toller that has beaten brother Patrick in the fight for the BOB/BOS this year! :-) Tira's pros are a beautiful, feminine head, excellent rear angulations and extraordinary movements. She really flies in the ring, and judges have always praised the way she floats about in the ring.

We have lots of plans for the years to come. Tira will hopefully have her first litter spring 2006, and we also plan lots of competitions in agility, obedience and tracking. We do not expect things to be as easy as in the lower classes, but we're hoping to make new great achievements! :-)