CH RedRiver's Travellin' Man CD RE AX AXJ OAP OJP NF CGC

Owners:  Irwin Linker & Mike & Maggie Marion

Breeder: Pam Theis & Mark Theis (RedRiver Siberians) & Jeanette Lamphere & Cindy Geertsema (Micast Siberians)

Trained & Handled, Loved & Missed by Irwin Linker

July 14, 2003 - March 29, 2016

My God, how do we handle this? It is with incredible sadness that I write this.

Tuesday morning when I went out to the kennel Travis greeted me with his good morning woowoowoos & then ran out into the yard, me following him as usual with the pooper scooper. I was doing my thing and all the dogs were busy doing theirs. A few hours later he refused to get out of his dog house for his noontime golden paste. I finally got him into the house, but he was very lethargic. We used the stethoscope to listen to his heart & it was very faint, plus his breathing was becoming labored. We rushed him to our vet where she told us the possibilities, none of which was good.. She took an x-ray and we saw a massive sac around his heart. It was a hemangiosarcoma  that was choking his heart. We made the only correct choice we could and helped him cross to the Rainbow Bridge.

Travis was a handsome man. He would woo woo me whenever I went outside to spend time with him and the dogs. He was truly his father Frankie's son. Right up until this morning he moved as purely and smoothly as he did when he was being shown in the breed ring. He had several "important" wins such as BOB in the 2005 Morris & Sussex show over 10 Specials, 5 of which were ranked in the top 10 that year. He was invited to the SHCA National Top 20 for 3 consecutive years (2011-2013). But he really liked obedience & agility. He gave me eye contact on heeling without me asking for it -- WOW was that ever great. He had 2 CDX legs when I retired him because he developed arthritis and it became painful, or at least uncomfortable, for him to hold a sit stay. No big deal. He went after agility like a madman. He loved it, all except those darn weave poles because they slowed him down.

All in all, Travis and I had a wonderful journey together. This last part was/is shockingly unexpected. Travis was happy doing whatever with me. He just wanted to please me, and I could not ask for more than that. He was my friend, my pal, my buddy who took another piece of my heart with him. Rest in peace Travis. Run free with your dad, with JR and Spenser. God speed Travis. One day we will meet again.

Start of Another Puppy

Travis is Siberian Husky number 7 in our pack.  He is the son of our boy Frankie, out of Frankie's first breeding.  If you can tell anything from Travis' puppy antics, he is going to be someone to be reckoned with.  He is fearless, has that Siberian independent streak, and picks up on things pretty quickly.  For example, at 10 weeks he took to the agility seesaw like a pro, knowing when to stop for the weight change; and he was taught by two children who had only just met him.  Same for the tunnel -- no fear of the darkness in there.

Travis' show career has begun in fine style.  His first time in the ring was at the Lehigh Valley KC Match Puppy Sweeps.  He came away with a Group 3 in the Working Group, followed the next day by a 3rd place in the 6-9 month puppy dog class.  He is on his way!

His first point show was the Connecticut Valley SHC Specialty in February 2004.  Travis had a respectable showing by placing 3rd in 6-9 month Puppy Dog Sweeps and 2nd in 6-9 month Puppy Dog regular class.

Travis got his first taste of obedience competition in September 2006 in the Rally Novice B class.  He qualified in 3 consecutive trials, including a 4th place, for his Rally Novice (RN) title.  He is currently getting ready for the Novice Obedience ring.  After getting his first CD leg in January 2007, we decided some fine tuning work was needed before continuing on.  So we went back tot he drawing board and came back out in January 2008 to compete in Novice B; getting the CD title in March.  Travis has trained hard for Open and in his first attempt at it in February 2009 he placed 3rd in Open A with a score of 184.5.

Travis has been training for agility since fall of 2005.  He is making great progress and began competing in late Fall 2006, qualifying his 1st time in Novice B Standard.  He finally broke through and obtained both Novice titles, NA and NAJ, in one weekend in August 2007.  Since his weave poles weren't quite up to par for going directly to Open, we went over to Novice Preferred for a little more real time practice and he Qd twice in Jumpers and once in Standard before the 2007 Fall season ended.  However, his weave poles were not solid so we moved to Novice Preferred to remain in the ring and work on his weaves; he earned his NJP title in March 2008.  Travis has made great progress in agility and things have started to click.  He earned his OAJ title during the Spring of 2008 with two 2nd places and a 1st place.  And he earned his OA title in November 2008, also with two 2nd places and a 1st place.  Now it's on to Excellent A Standard and JWW.  Travis got his Excellent A JWW Q in early 2009.  He also started to compete in FAST and earned his Novice FAST (NF) title in April 2009.

Much more to come!

Travis broke the ice with a 3 point major by going WD at the Mason & Dixon KC in April 2004 and he added 2 more point with a WD, BOW at the Pocono Mountain KC in May (both of these wins were out of the Puppy Class).  Since this, Travis has had 4 consecutive RWDs surrounding a BOS Puppy Sweeps at the GSSHC Specialty Match in June 2004.

Travis then went on to win more points.  He capped things off with a 5 point major at the April 2005 Chesapeake SHC Specialty and followed that a week later with a 2 point win for his Championship!

In October 2005 Travis went BOB for the very first time at the prestigious Morris & Essex KC show (pictured left) under Judge Mrs. Nina Schaefer.  He did it in style by winning over male specials ranked 4th, 6th, 10th and 21st in the Eukanuba Invitational rankings.