Today, my buddy, Satchmo turns 10 years old. Some of you have seen him performing flyball, agility or herding but you may not know much about him. So I thought it would be fun – today – to talk about the unsung hero, Satchie or officially known as “Satchmo Hits A High Note”.
We don’t know too much about Satchmo’s former life but he originated somewhere in Florida and was bought by an “over the road” truck driver to serve as his traveling partner. The first 6 months of his life was spent with this driver as they traveled throughout the United States in their big rig. He had “vet” stops in the Dakota’s, Iowa and Florida, so who really knows where he’s been. His owner lost his rig and money luckily here in Wisconsin and Satchmo was turned over to the Humane Society as his owner had no place to live. Herding Rescue was contacted and he was placed in foster care.
It took us about 6 months to finally get him and he was welcomed home by his new brother and sister, Duncan & Meg. Meg is a pretty hard judge of character and she took to Satchmo right away – long lost pals.
In the 9 years he has shared our lives, he has learned flyball, herding, swimming, agility and the art of shaking a toy till it goes flying off into the distant field. In flyball, Satchmo has earned his Onyx Title, which is 20,000 points and has been a consistent team member for years. In agility – he was a late bloomer as it wasn’t until about 2 years ago did he “decide” to weave. Since then he has earned multiple titles including:
NADAC: NAC, TG-O, TN-O, NCC, NJC
AKC: NAP, NJP, NFP, OAP
USDAA: PS1 & 2, PJ1, PK1, PD1, qualified for Grand Prix and Team Performance
Now on to the real part of the story… His first exposure to stock came at Merrily Steffan’s where we were going for herding lessons. All of the coaxing and happy voices I could make was not going to get him to look at those sheep or even fake an interest. When I had given up and was standing around chatting, Merrily’s guard donkey came strolling by. After it had passed us, Satchmo ran up to it and bit it in the, uh, behind… Such a brave boy, ha, ha!
I clipped him to the fence to watch as I brought out Duncan to work for his lesson. I’m out in the field working and Merrily called to me. Apparently, Satchmo need an example to follow. He had a big, herding, light bulb turn on in his head and he has been awesome ever since. It wasn’t until we moved from our small, city lot in Des Plaines, IL to our 8 acres in Wisconsin that we decided to get some ducks for herding. They were actually a “present” for Meg since she wasn’t too mobile and we thought she would like to push the duckies around. After several months or even a year, we thought to try Satch on them. He had a history of gripping when under pressure, so we weren’t too keen on putting him on fragile little ducks. To our amazement, he is an awesome duck dog. Working ducks took the pressure away of the larger stock and he has done very, very well working his feathered friends. He has even earned a High In Trial score on ducks. We don’t trial much but he has earned the following titles in herding.
AKC: HSa-SD, HIb-D, High in Trial in his first trial on B-course ducks and recently got Reserve High in Trial in Intermediate B-course ducks
AHBA: JHD-S/G, HTD I/II-D, HTD I-S, HTAD I-D
Satchmo is such a wonderful companion and addition to our family. He is very loving and enjoys his massages every morning. He is always doing something goofy to make us laugh. His agility class members chuckle as he’s in his crate just banging around with his Frisbee “Satchmo, party of 1” they say. He looks out for his ailing friend Meg and sorely misses his good old pal, Duncan. He continues to amaze me with his young at heart attitude as we enter event after event and the common question people always ask is “How old is your puppy?” Truly confused when I say, “He’s 10.”
Satchmo has hit a high note for sure.