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1991 - 2006
Gunner
PR Nix' Born to be a Wild Child
I picked Gunner up from the airport when she was eight weeks old. She was sent to me by Victor Nix. From day one Gunner was a handful. At first, I wanted to name her Gunny, from Guns N Roses. (I had originally wanted to register her as Nix Sweet Child O Mine, after the Gun's and Roses song, Sweet Child of Mine.)tBut Gunner was NOT a "Gunny" nor was she a "Sweet Child o'mine". She was a monster! She would tear through the house with her mouth open and chew on anything that fell into it. If I dared to tell her "no" or "leave it" she would roar at me and keep going. What a brat. I just loved her.
Gunner has done just about everything. She is a true American Pit Bull Terrier that will try anything, a real asset to the breed. We started in the protection sports together, Schutzhund. She was great. I left her ears natural and they would fold and stand as she did her bark and holds. It cracked many a decoy up to see her ears flopping around. She weighs between 50 and 55lbs and isn't very tall, but it wasn't until her 13th birthday that she needed the sleeve held down for her - She'd just stand on the decoy's legs and hold on.
At one point when she was a baby, I wasn't paying close enough attention to what was going on and a man playing with her pinned her on her back and blew in her face repeatedly. I heard her making some nasty sounds and turned around to find a VERY angry puppy trying to rip this guy apart while he laughed and held her down. To this day, if you blow in her face you will get a reaction from her. Now she usually punches you in the face with her muzzle, but when she was younger she would add a little pinch of the teeth along with it. In fact, I told a decoy about this incident and he tried it on her in the blind during a bark and hold. He said he wanted to see her more intense in the blind. He still has the scar on his cheek from that. Later, he would tell people he got "mauled by a pit bull and deserved it" about that scar.
Every kitten that's ever come in the house has been raised by Gunner. She even lactated for a few. She'd clean them and herd them around just like they were her babies. She mommied Opus, Iylsa and Circe. She was too old to bother with the wild man Knute and Georgia wasn't going to be mommied by anyone. The old Nurse Maid's Dog tales could have been written about Gunner. She's a great dog and I'm a better trainer for having her around.
October, 2006 - It was a beautiful late fall day. She lived through losing an eye the year before to tumors. When they came back in her 16th year, this time in her belly, we let her go. Words can not describe how much she is missed by our family.
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