Introducing
The Rescue Dog Of The Year
PAM Princess Bella CD RN CGC TT HSAs AX AXJ OAP OJP
Meet Bella, who was honored
as the Rescue dog of the Year presented by the American German Shepherd Rescue Association, Inc and the German Shepherd Dog Club of
America, Inc at the National in Nov 2008 in Beaumont, TX.
Kathy and Bob have fostered multiple GSDs for Tampa Bay German Shepherd
Rescue, working with dogs needing behavior training, housebreaking and
manners to get them adopted. We love Kathy and Bob and Bella!
Bella was found in a local shelter here in the Tampa Bay area.
Kathy writes, "When I first saw her, she was sitting quietly in the corner of her cage. I read her bio
and it said "Landlord said No" a typical excuse that is often heard in
rescue. Her Birthday was the next day; she was going to turn 1, so the lush
I am, I couldn't have this dog spend her first birthday in a shelter so I
adopted her without having any knowledge of the breed.
I was told she was to be the only dog due to her dominance issues, however,
I did have a cat that she got along with and was best of friends with it.
Bella did not have any manners and had not been socialized. On our walks,
she would bark at signs, billboards, try to chase cars and had no form of
recall or obedience training.
She was very unruly and alpha and was kicked out of doggie daycare. So I
knew there was going to be some training ahead of us. Bella started her
training at the shelter's 3-week obedience training for adopted dogs. After
attending this course she went on to train at a dog club where she started
to assert her dominance toward other dogs and we were asked to work away
from others. So that was our six weeks there and she did do very well and
graduated then we continued on to other clubs doing the same training and
introducing her to new dogs and situation.
She always did very well in her training with a lot of work. We were then
introduced to agility. Bella seemed to like that so I continued on with
her. She loved to run and jump and climb. Her favorite obstacle being the
A Frame. We joined an agility club where Bella received excellent
training and really excelled and we became a team. I soon got her an ILP
and called her Princess Bella. The one problem I had with her is that I had
to frequent agility trials for almost 2 years with her just to get her use
to the environment and being around other dogs. She wanted to be the only
dog.
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Another one of Bella's great accomplishments was The Dog Agility Competition
of Florida (DACOF) in 2005 where her team competed against 39 other Florida
dog club teams. Bella competed in Open Standard and Open Jumpers and
assisted her team in placing first. She was high in trial for her division
and won a trophy.
Bella always loves the attention. Thinking people are here just for her.
Loves kids and adults; just wants to be the center of attention, but I
always had to be cautious with her around other dogs as she wanted to be the
boss. We attended a volunteer responsible dog ownership event last year and
Bella loved all the attention. She was so well mannered. In fact, she
seemed to think the event was held on her behalf. |
Pictured - Bella, Kathy and Bob
(in red) represent our breed rescue at a local area Responsible
Dog Ownership event.
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Bella had come along way in her performance career. She was a challenge, no
doubt about that and I did learn quickly about the breed. I never gave up
on her and was very patient with her because I saw something there. She is
a great dog and I couldn't ask for any more loyalty. I believe a rescue knows you gave
them their 2nd chance at life and they will
be forever grateful to you for that.
Bella is now 9 yrs old and still going strong, she is still very fit and
athletic. She now lives with 5 other dogs and is OK but lets them know she
is the boss. I don't ask much of her now but we will still do some agility
competition in preferred. Maybe we will try our hand in tracking in the
near future."
You can see Bella competing in Preferred Agility at this years National and
maybe some other Veterans events.
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Home
They
were living in filthy pens, in urine and feces... multiple dogs to
a pen. The animals were staying on a vacant property. The
owner would come and put down entire bags of dog food so that the
dogs would have food for a few days.
Both Deputy Matt Williams and his
K9 partner DiOgi
died in the line of duty on September 28th, 2006. It is with deep regret that we join the community in mourning the
death of two heroes and friends. 
