Montwood's Born to Run (Bruiser)
WAC, TFP-I, ONYX

Bruiser is Kari's full brother and littermate. I got him when he was 18 months old. He had a difficult first and second home, was having trouble being placed, and when I got him, he had been in a kennel for eight months. I was asked to foster him for a month or so while Kari was being shown out of state. Yes - she is a recovering show dog! His name at that time was Gunner and believe me, he was very full of extreme energy. I did decide to keep him, much to his sister's chagrin.

After a few months, it was suggested that I take him to flyball to maybe work off some of this energy. At our first lesson, while on a flexi-lead, he inadvertently (in his zest for life and the ball), drug our instructor (Eunice) to the ground. There she stayed for about 20 minutes - I thought he had broken her back. She did get up and said that we should change his name to "Bruiser" and that is how the legend began.

It was upwards of two years of weekly training before he ran in his first tournament. His very first race, he twisted around and my finger got wrapped in his collar and broke. His second race, he reared his head up and gave me a split and very swollen top lip. However, for the last two years, his beloved Peg has been running him and earning title after title. Now he will run for anyone as long as he can go and get his ball and when he returns to his handler of the day, a cookie. (Bruiser's favorite thing in the entire world is the BALL, followed very closely by cookies.) Yes, I could go on and on about this big red guy - you really have to know him to love him.

There are times when no words can describe the look Bruiser gets in his eyes. That look could possibly bore holes through you. Bruiser even has a book that was written about and for just him, it's called "The Book of Bruiser". The Team uses him as a "training dog" for new members to practice with and as usually happens, he teaches new folks how to hold onto and run a really powerful dog, hopefully, without too many "bruises".

Bruiser earned his ONYX on January 30, 2005 at Touch N Go's tournament in Logandale, NV.

aka: Boo