Semper Fi Boxers
Fayetteville, Georgia
Sometimes, with your first glimpse of a person or an animal, you think to yourself. “This one is special!” And then, they actually turn out to be special indeed. Such was Libby, AM CH Semper Fi Hue City Liberator MX/MXJ/CD/CGC/TDI/HIC/Youngest Obedience Titled Boxer Ever.
How did we know Libby was special? I don’t really know for sure. But, for starters, she was too small. Libby was the proverbial “runt” in the litter. She couldn’t compete with the other puppies in the litter for milk. So, we had to supplement her with extra hand feedings. Her muzzle was too narrow as a young pup. But, we just knew for some reason that it would catch up with the rest of her tiny body though. And as a potential show puppy buyer remarked, “Her tail is too short to show!”
I started to see the ability of this young bitch to think when she was about three weeks old. I watched one afternoon as she wobbled across the whelping box over to two of her sleeping littermates. When she got close enough, she bit one of the sleeping puppies very hard on the ear. Then, to my total amazement, her body went limp as she dropped to the floor as if asleep. The puppy, which she had bitten, suddenly awoke. He looked at the other sleeping puppy, which surely must have been the one that had bitten him, and bit him. Libby had started a puppy fight. I watched this scene repeat itself a dozen times in the coming weeks.
For quite a long time, we had our home equipped with baby gates. They worked well for keeping the dogs in the rooms where we wanted them to stay. Then, along came Libby. Rather than jump the gates, which she never did, she learned how to open them! And shortly afterwards, every dog in the house knew how to slide open the baby gates!
Because of her eagerness to please and her apparent ability to learn, we started her in formal obedience training when she turned 12 weeks old. In eight weeks, she knew all of the American Kennel Club’s Novice Obedience exercises. I had trained her and I couldn’t believe it myself. At five months of age, she was solid enough that I felt like she was ready to compete at the Novice level. But she wasn’t eligible to compete for another month!
Libby was six months and six days old on the day she competed in her first conformation show AND obedience trial. She placed in conformation and qualified in obedience while literally running with me from one ring to the next. She repeated this performance the next two days. At six months and eight days of age, Libby finished her AKC Novice Obedience Title, becoming the youngest obedience titled Boxer ever. The following month she placed third (lost the runoff for second) in the Novice B class at the American Boxer Club’s National Specialty at seven months of age.
For the next year and a half, emphasis was placed on finishing her conformation Championship. She finished in grand style with a four point major win over more than 40 other bitches.
Except for a break of just over four months to recover from an eye injury, the next two and a half years were a blur as Libby learned to run Agility, herd sheep and a little about tracking. Libby learned what she needed to do as therapy dog visiting the elderly. She happily went to fund raisers for the Humane Society and Boxer Rescue. She once spent hours searching through woods and swamps for another Boxer that was lost and subsequently found.
Libby ran Agility like she had wings, yet would not even jumps simple baby gates at home. On Thursday, October 25, 2001 at around 9:30 pm, Libby leapt over a five-foot high fence to stop a burglary in progress at a neighbor’s home. A grandmother, her daughter and two grandchildren occupied the home at the time. Moments later, we found Libby’s lifeless body, struck and killed by a vehicle. Quite possibly the one belonging to the burglars which she stopped.
In her two and a half year Agility career, Libby earned every AKC Agility Title from Novice through Masters. She was and still is, the only American Conformation Champion to earn both AKC Master Agility Titles. At the time of her death, she had earned 230 of the 750 points needed towards becoming the only American Boxer Conformation Champion to also earn a Performance Championship. She earned these 230 points in only 10 weekends.
In her final moments, she showed her true character not in a show ring or performance field, but in selfless sacrifice when it counted the most.
Copyright
2003
Semper
Fi Boxers
Michael
& Claudia Clifton
All
Rights Reserved
Not
to be reprinted or copied in any format without express written approval.