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Owner Ignores Advice that Dog Can’t Compete and Takes Her All the Way to Rally Nationals

Owner Ignores Advice that Dog Can’t Compete and Takes Her All the Way to Rally Nationals

When Lorena Padron spotted Tinker Bell in the Houston Humane Society shelter, the little dog immediately stood out. She was wagging her tail and doing her best to say “Look at me. I am so cute!” Lorena adopted Tinker and eventually took her to obedience class, where they definitely had their ups and downs. But Lorena kept working and today, Tinker Bell not only has her AKC Canine Good Citizen title and AKC Rally Advanced title, she qualified for and competed in the 2016 AKC Rally National Championship in Tulsa, OK. Lorena, a resident of Houston, TX, tells their story:

We adopted Tinker Bell from the Houston Humane Society in June 2013. We were looking for a companion dog for our Border Collie, Bela – a dog that could bring Bela out of her shell.

Tinker was a little black Chihuahua mix who stood out from the bunch in her kennel, jumping and wagging her tail like no tomorrow. We adopted her and took her home. She knew exactly what to do with our dog Bela and helped us in having a happy pack.

We started training at an obedience school, and my dear Tinker would not even do a “down” under any circumstance. A trainer told me that some dogs are just meant to be pets. Well, I didn’t settle with that, and after a lot of work we even decided to start competing.

In May 2015 we participated in our first AKC Rally trial. Tinker not only did a good job, but she was really happy to work with me so we continued to compete and even qualified to participate in this year’s AKC Rally Nationals in the Advanced class.

Tinker and I got to Tulsa with a lot of nerves to compete against the best in the country. But we not only passed the test, but we were able to get a good cumulative score from our two runs.

We are really proud to be one of the 28 All American Dogs that participated in this AKC National competition.

Tinker competes through the AKC Canine Partners program for all dogs, including mixed-breeds and rescues.