My story with Angel started four and half years ago, I had just moved to the suburb of Chicago and decided to adopt an adult dog from a shelter. After the third unsuccessful attempt, I ended up in a pet shop to pick up food for my hamster. The pet shop happen to have puppies for sales, so I just had a look and my eyes immediately got drawn to a cute puppy sheltie. Her name was Angel, and she really looked like an angel with that cute and innocent face! There were a lot of other cute dogs and two other puppy shelties but Angel was the one who got my attention! And without any more reflection, I bought her.

As a first time dog owner, I was not too much prepared for a smart puppy, and after a couple of days I was exhausted and overwhelm by the ‘little demon’ (I really though of changing her name at that time) who was barking and nipping at me constantly. One of my roommates felt really bad for me and got me a book ‘the perfect puppy’. After reading the part on ‘leading the pack’, I finally understood that Angel was just acting like an alpha dog, so after changing the habits at home, things got better and Angel become the greatest dog!

What I love the most about Angel is her personality, she is confident and she knows what she wants and is also very good to make you understand what she wants! She loves to learn tricks, her favorite one is ‘bang’ where she plays dead! Like all shelties she has a lot of energy and loves to go for long walks or to play with her frisbee. We took some obedience classes and she got her CGC but that was not enough fun for her, so we started agility and she loved it right away. We started competing a year and half ago and she just got her MXJ and we’re hoping to get the last leg of her MX in the spring, and hopefully one day we’ll get her MACH (we just need 16 more double Q!). We’ve also tried sheep and duck herding, she loves it but is quite rough and she still need to understand that herding is a team work not a fun chasing game! We’ll give it another shot one of these days.

I think sometimes things happen for a reason and while I would never have looked for

a dog in a pet shop, I’m so happy that my path crossed Angel’s on that day because I don’t think I could have found a better companion. Since Angel arrived in my life, I feel so much happier and not as lonely. Thanks to her I also meet a lot of great people!