              
Mickthea Yukon Dragonfire
SS, SR, PJ1, SJ, NA, NAJ, NJC, TG-N, TN-N, FD, FDX 2/10/02-
I flew down to Texas to pick out Riki from breeder Dorthea Robinson DVM,
Mickthea Kennels, in April of 2002. When I arrived at her house, I was greeted by
the three pups I had to choose from. I was only staying
the one night and by the time I was just about to leave, I still had not decided
which pup I wanted. Riki sold himself to me then, when we were out in
her yard. He was the one who was in the garden, splashing in the tortoise
water, barking and pawing at those same tortoises, running through the hollow
logs the tortoises hung out in. He was so inquisitive, so bold, so busy,
that I had to take him home. He had everything that I felt an agility dog should
have. He has a mind of his own and a temper. He is a blast to work with.
It took me awhile to name him, I could not decide on the right name and as I
watched him ricochet off the dogs, furniture and zip around the house, I had to
name him Riki.
He fits in just fine here. He and Carmen were best buddies. They played all the
time, making lots of noise, sounding like hive of bees. Riki does have a special circle of
doggie friends, Cassie, the Weim, PJ, the Boxer and Harvey, the Collie. Does this
tell you he likes his friends bigger than he?
***News
flash!*** Riki was in his first
ever agility trial, the OTRAG NADAC trial in Wrentham, MA on April 10 & 11,
2004. He was a good boy, he stayed in the ring, worked and jumped his
little heart out. He is a
different dog to run than the BC and Carmen, he has such nice long legs and
covers a lot of ground as he runs. He does
not look like he is going fast, but he gets out of
the tunnel sooner than I expected. That was obvious in Tunnelers on
Sunday, he came out ahead of me, crossed over my path and as I tried to avoid
him, I believe we had a bit of contact. Did not bother him at all, he got
up, shook himself off and finished the course. What a man!
Riki entered his first AKC agility trial
the weekend of May 22 and
23, 2004. For his first outing in standard he did a very good job.
He got a Novice Standard leg and two Novice Jumpers legs, all three with first
places. Wow! I am so pleased with him.
Riki and I have done more agility, he now has Starters Relay, Jumpers and
Snooker titles in USDAA. He got his first leg in Advanced Jumpers at the
Agile Dogs trial in January 2006.
I taught him some tricks using the clicker and he loves that! He has
learned to flip open the lid of a picnic basket, go in and let the top close
over him. He bows on command, which I transferred to the bottom of
the a-frame and dog walk . He loves to learn new behaviors and I think he will
have an extensive repertoire of tricks in his bag.
Riki's
was awesome in Flyball! He did a great job, and had super box turns. All of this is
because of his two Flyball instructors Jessica and Valerie Stier. They
have taken my two boys, Riki and Kane,  worked wonders with them in this
exciting new sport, the boys love it! He is a member of the
new Flyball team, Long Island Road Rage! Riki's favorite thing was getting
cheese for his work in flyball and I was able to transfer that
love and desire for the dairy food to his weaves! Riki is the first
Papillon on Long Island to have any flyball titles and he proudly tells everyone
just that wonderful accomplishment!
Riki is now retired from competition, he can no longer do
agility or flyball. However he has a great life, he keeps my pillow warm
at night, he is still the boy with the biggest and loudest opinion. He
still plays with his ball, lives for cheese, chases the other dogs around and loves to wrestle
with the new Kelpie pup Raven. The two of them are good friends and she is
careful to play nicely with him, she does not get too exuberant and physical
with the small boy.
Other
photos of Riki
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