Rupert - who thinks he is a black Flat Coated Retrieiver.

27th December 1996 to 18th March 2010

In January 97, I went up to Geraldton (400 Km north of Perth) to visit my sister Beverley and family for a week. Little did I know I was going to come home with 2 new additions to my family.

We went shopping one day and my nieces Rebekah and Renee took me to check out the animals in the pet shop. Here was these very cute Lab X puppies and I got talked into not only buying a puppy but a kitten as well. My neices choose the name for the puppy - Rupert and the cat is called Crackers.

Rupert is a absolute joy to own and play with, loves nothing more than a cuddle and I am sure he still thinks he is a puppy because he likes nothing more than to try and sit on your nap for a cuddle.

I decided to go along to the local obedience dog club more to socialise him and do a bit of basic pet obedience, but a couple of years down the track saw us entered in our first ever obedience trial, boy was I nervous but to my surprise we passed. In 5 trials Ruper got his 3 passes required for our first ever obedience title of Companion Dog.  However, he was not happy doing heel work and I decided to give up trialing but kept going to the club for fun.  I was still there years later involved on the comittee etc.

Rupert did try his paws at tracking, but very frustrating when all he wanted to do was to check every tree (and there were lots) to see if there was a person hiding behind it.  If he saw the cars parked on the road, all he wanted to do was head off to the car. So as you can imagine, we did not trial.

When he was about 4, I arrived home with my first Flat Coat , Selsdon and it was love at first sight, they got on so well together, at last someone to play with.  A year after that along came Taylor, bossy boots that she is, but once again Rupert took it all in his stride and I am sure that is what has kepted him so young, trying to keep up with them.  Which he done very well, except for the last few years when bad arthristis has slowed him down a bit, however he still enjoys the long walks after tracking, trips to the shops and the oval for a play.

Rupert has learned many tricks, a beautiful beg, spins, shake hands, back up, bow to name a few.  However, even with my sister Beverley rolling around on the floor to demonstrate, he will still not do "Roll Over", well thats is unless he is having a play with Selsdon, then he can roll over.

He however, does play a fabulous game of soccer, extremely clever when handling a soccer ball with his paws, seen to be beleived. In his younger years has been known to leap up to head the ball, nearly giving me a heart attack so we keep the ball on the ground.

He still enjoys the odd bit of group obedience training with the others, think its the treats really.

A truely wonderful dog, definately this women's best friend.

After being ill for sometime, Rupert is now at rest, put to sleep tonight at 6.30 pm on 18th March 2010. While my heart is breaking I shall remember all the fun times we had together.  RIP Rupert.