SHAKTI, CGC, Advanced Trick Dog
("Dayspring's Spirit of SHAKTI")

The Search for the World's Most Amazing Dog contest on ZooToo has ended. The Winner was announced on the Natural Balance website on December 1st, 2008.

Nope - we didn't win this time, but here's a big surprise! Shakti's movie was 2nd!!!  YAY!!!! We just noticed that yesterday and were very surprised, but it was a very nice surprise!

There was a lot of controversy and arguments during this contest that we felt was really too bad and unnecessary. To us, it was about having fun and sharing the joy of our dog with fellow ZooTooers and about always following "fair play rules". The winning is not everything....We were happy to get the messages from our Friends telling us that Shakti's movie made them smile. Sometimes we got emails saying that they had a hard day and after watching Shakti's movie they felt better. That's always been the biggest reward for us and we always keep saying that.

THANK you again to all of you who voted for Shakti's movie, cheered for us and send us so many kind emails, etc. We feel like winners with Friends and Fans like you!

Also, in the dog owners' eyes their own dog is always the most amazing dog in the world. To us it's always going to be Shakti and to you it's your own beloved doggie and that's natural.  There's nothing wrong about that - that's the beauty about the human and canine bond: every single bond is VERY, VERY unique and special. Whatever inspires us, dog owners, to become better pack leaders to our dogs and whatever makes us creative about ensuring that our dogs live up to their potential, develop their skills and lead a happy life is a WONDERFUL thing because our dogs benefit from that.

To us this contest was a wonderful way to share the joy Shakti gives us every day with others.

As far as the doggie skills go, we're working all the time on adding more and more to Shakti's repertoire and a few days ago we posted a movie with some of her tricks she already knows (26 tricks in this movie out of over 93 commands, skills, tricks, expressions she knows and understand).

If you haven't seen her latest Trick Movie yet - please view it here:

HUGS to you all and have FUN with your dogs!