Calia Ruffian
- Ruffi's story
Ruffian was named after the famous race horse, and we joked that we weren't sure if it was because she was as big as a horse, or because she liked to run so fast! Ruffi stood nearly 27 inches at the withers (the breed standard for Malinois states females over the maximum height of 25 inches are disqualified from consideration) and weighed a very lean 72 pounds of pure muscle. For those of you not familiar with this breed-that's HUGE! She had a presence about her that dominated any group of dogs (and most people) as soon as she walked in the room. However, in no way does this mean Ruffi was agressive or unfriendly. Good breeding (which Ruffi clearly had) and early socialization produced a wonderful dog of calm demeanor, confidence and intelligence. She is known as the Agility Queen because of her regal demeanor and fantastic agility abilities. For many years, Ruffi served as a demo dog for students of agility at the Canine Academy and was the first dog that launched me into the wonderful world of agility.
Some of Ruffi's highlights include obtaining advanced agility titles in AKC, NADAC and USDAA organizations, as well as earning an invitation to complete in the USDAA World Championships Grand Prix and also as a member of a USDAA DAM team member. Ruffi started as a protection trained Schutzhund dog, and having her by my side when I was single and living alone gave me a sense of freedom and protection that few females get to enjoy. I would take her with me at night in my car, and know I only needed to call and she would come to my aid-through the window, a wall or anyone standing in her way if necessary!
She was a natural hunter. I once saw her catch a bird-in flight! She leaped up out of the water and caught a seagull by it's wing. She also caught a variety of other animals-jackrabbits, ground squirrels, tree squirrels, sheep when she could, a wild turkey and once an unfortunate cat. Knowing this about her, I kept a sharp eye on her around animals she might consider "prey". For being so large, she was blazingly fast and amazingly nimble-able to turn on a dime (or maybe chasing those jackrabbits and squirrels taught her how to make sharp turns) which served us so well in the Agility arenas.
When doing Agility, or flyball, you could see the concentration on her face (just look at some of those jumping pictures!). She never doubted for a minute that it was her JOB to tackle every obstacle out there. She wasn't "playing" at agility-she was hard at work, and a Malinois focused on an objective is almost impossible to distract. As our skills advanced, she outpaced me as a handler, and grew impatient if I got lost or was too slow giving her directions. Sometimes she would "woof" at me if she felt I wasn't giving her directions in time! At one show she did all the obstacles in our ring, jumped the ring rope and began to do all the obstacles in the next ring, too. She hit the tunnels so hard, she frequently unstaked them and moved them, and the same with the weaves. It took her awhile to learn that if she didn't pay attention to me, and do only the obstacles that I wanted her to do, I would take her off the course and run another dog instead of her, which caused her to ramp up even harder to please me.
2006 was Ruffi's last year amongst us. I can barely write how wonderful she was, and how much I miss her still. Carole Eklund gave her to me as a gift, and she remains truely the greatest gift I've ever been given, and my once-in-a-lifetime dog.