Mia

Welcome, from Jennifer & Tom Brightbill

Located in Carver, Oregon

Mia

"MIA" a.k.a. "Mia-Mia", " Mia-shmia" "Mia-mouth"

Brechbuhler's All About Me

DOB: 3-13-2005 AKC#: WS12366301 Berner-Garde #: 24902
DNA#: V417853

Mia's Complete Health Information

Sire: Zack Van't Stokerybos Dam: Ebnet's X-Caliente

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Mia is our from our first litter. She is out of Calli and AKC/CKC CH Zack Van't Stokerybos. Mia was one of eight pups and was known as the purple girl until she became the one we chose to have stay and live with us. The puppy's seem easier to raise now that we have so much more experience and Mia certainly was. I take all the dogs for car rides from an early age and by five months of age Mia was ready for a long trip. A good friend and myself loaded up the car and took Calli and Mia to Colorado. We were gone for 10 days and Mia had a great time.

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She met new friends, both human and canine and got to spend five days playing with Marshall, the sire of Calli's next litter. At seven months old, Mia became a big sister of sorts and soon became a nurse maid to the litter of eleven pups. It was fun to watch her play and help clean the pups. She always wanted to be with them and from that time on we never wondered if she was maternal!

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With more dogs to play with and train we haven't moved along as quickly as we did with the older dogs but Mia is in agility and obedience training. I've also started her in carting but so far her competing has only been in the conformation ring.

Mia is our fun girl, life is all about having fun, just ask her! We've been surprised by a few phone calls, the ones about Mia off visiting the neighbors. She was finding places to jump over the fence, go play for a while and then jump back in. After perfecting this she found other easy places to jump out and started visiting other neighbors, often leaving toys behind. It was the toys that gave her away........

One day I got a phone call from a neighbor, asking what I'd like her to do with Mia's toys? My question was "how did she get Mia's toys?" That's when I found out that the reason Mia took longer to come up the hill was because she wasn't on the inside of the fence and had to get back in before she could run back up the hill to the house !

As we tried to find all of Mia's escape routes, and bought lots of extra tall fencing, Mia went on restricted outdoor time. I would let her out and five minutes later call and have her come back so I could see her. Then I'd let her play for a while longer before it was time to come in.

Another day, when I called she didn't come back quickly and fearing she'd escaped again, I went outside to see if I could get her to come back. Just as I got outside, Mia came running and went right in to the garage and laid down, no barking or playing, not usual behavior for Mia.

When I looked at her I could tell she had something in her mouth, it looked like a big ball of some sort. On closer inspection it looked like a chunk of meat, turned out it was, a large roast! The roast was still in it's packaging with the Styrofoam tray and store label on it. I called the neighbors that Mia most often visited and none of them had recently bought a roast or were missing one. Then I called the neighbor who happened to have gone grocery shopping early that morning and found they had bought a roast. But........ they didn't think they were missing the roast till they checked their freezer to find it wasn't there. Seemed that Mia went into their garage and helped herself to the roast as they were packing other groceries into the house.

Mia is extremely friendly with people and dogs. It's hard to convince her that the other dog may not be her friend but with people she gets right in there and is generally welcomed. Mia loves her trips to Home Depot, Storables and other dog friendly shopping. But the best is running wild, barking or playing tug with the other dogs! We have seen a certain maturity emerging and I notice it the most during training sessions. Suddenly Mia understands that listening and doing things "right" means she gets to do more things and have more fun.

In limited showing Mia has seen her share of Reserve Winners and showed nicely at the BMDCA 2006 Nationals. Mia placed 2nd in Puppy Sweeps and made the cut in the Bred By competition during regular breed showing.