Phoenix came to us in 2015 from our good friend Martina Gandert at Hotoz Aussies. She is a Great Granddaughter of our original Aussies Dakota and Montana. Phoenix is an excellent family dog, accompanying us on camping trips and beach outings. She is an easy dog to live with, can be aloof with strangers but never shy or aggressive, she takes her job of guarding the house seriously until we open the door then she turns back into Miss Cool, Calm & Collected. 

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Phoenix has rekindled my love of Obedience and Agility and introduced me to Rally, she gained 4 titles across three disciplines in her first 12 months of trialling and backed it up with another Obedience, Rally and Agility title in 2018. She is fun and enthusiastic to train and is focused and dedicated on her work. She always gives it her all whether in competition or practice. She has placed with all her qualifying scores and finished off her Rally Excellent with 5 first places a perfect score of 100/100. 

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2019 began with us trying out Herding, it was a steep learning curve for me taking on something new but it has been amazing watching Phoenix use her natural herding instinct. We gained her Herding and Pretrial Tests and followed them with her Rally Masters and CDX Title again with 3 first places. 

 

In the second half of 2019 Phoenix took a maternal break and raised 7 gorgeous puppies. You will see them on the Litters page. 

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2020 was a quiet year in the dog training community but Phoenix was awarded Dogs Victoria's "Top Obedience Dog of the Year" for Open Obedience, winning the Golden Dumb Bell, a very respected award. 

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2021 has started with a Bang with Phoenix taking out the Australian Shepherd Club of Victoria's "Most Versatile Aussie" Award. This is a prestigious perpetual award that is won across several sporting disciplines. We competed in Conformation, Herding, Rally Obedience and Agility over a two day weekend to win the award. Phoenix's name will now be displayed on the award alongside her Great Grandfather Dakota who won the award in 1999 and 2002. Mid year Phoenix gained her Rally Advanced Excellent and Rally Obedience Champion Titles and earned her way into the Top Ten Rally Dogs of the year, where we placed 3rd on the day. 

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2022 has seen me enter the UD ring for the very first time in my trialling history. I trained my very first dog Ranji to this level but unfortunately never had a chance to compete with him. I feel very proud and excited to be working with Phoenix at this level together and we have been having a ball! We also completed our JDX Title late in the year and will be entering Masters Jumping together.