AIKEN

(Aiken Medvidek Severu,  11.12.1990 – 12.6.2006)

Aiken is my very first dog, a result of years and years of crying, trying to get my parents to allow me a dog… I got him when I was eleven and he was master in using it, growing up as a very typical Samoyed, disobedient, stubborn and bold… In dog-school, they told me to just give up on him and don’t even bother training him since Samoyeds can’t be trained anyway. Of course they can’t – by methods that were in use in that time… So I went home and invented another method, a method that made him believe that it’s not me that wants something from him, that made him believe that everything is up to him and he can do whatever he wants.

We came back to dog-school just to do obedience exam with flying colours – he was the only not-GSD/RW dog in a class and first Samoyed in Slovenia ever to pass it. Then, we went on with agility, were again told that Samoyeds can’t work, but already knew better as listening to others.

He was the first Samoyed that has ever run in World Agility Championship (1997 & 1998), best placed northern dog in WC (Copenhagen 1997: 23rd place) and National Champion of Slovenia 1998 what makes Slovenia for the only country in the world with a Samoyed for national champion - and him for the most successful agility Samoyed ever... And more importantly: he always impressed everyone with his smile and proved that Samoyeds CAN work.

And even more importantly: he taught me everything there is to know about dogs, dog training and in fact  - life in general. He taught me that if you believe in something, you can do it and you should do it, no matter what other people think. He taught me to follow my dream and not let anybody take it from me. He taught me to think about problems, but to react by intuition when it’s telling me something. He taught me to trust myself, but to respect others on their way to their dreams that might not be mine. He taught me dogs do best when they do it for themselves and he made me fight for the rights of other dogs, living with people that think they’re their masters. He made me discover a world of dog-friendly dog-training and by that helped to make lives of thousands dog in Slovenia better, when their owners were reading my articles or came to train with me.

If I didn’t get him, you would never hear for my name. Everything I know, I owe it to him. Thank you Aiken. Thank you for being such a trouble dog. When people ask what makes me so good, I always tell that if you want to be good, you need a bad dog. So bad, that nobody could help you. That’s when you have to think. And that’s when you learn. Thank you Aiken for making me think.