Welcome To The Main Stage... Tito!

And I said I'd never be a small dog person.

I wasn't looking for another dog, but the universe had other plans apparently. It was October 26, 2023 and I was at work when I looked out the window to find two dogs running around the courtyard. I watched a handful of people try to wrangle them before I decided to offer my assistance, because once I get involved I can't stop until it's done. There was a very small black and white chihuahua mix and then a medium sized bully mix. It became pretty clear that they were not buddies as the bully mix wanted nothing to do with the teeny tiny dog. The little chihuahua mix decided instantly to be my friend.

Once I had him in my arms I looked at my boss and asked, "Now what?" He told me to take the dog outside the school gates and tell it to go home, so I did. I made it all the way back onto campus and then turned around just in time to see my tiny friend squeeze through the bars to follow me around. After a traumatizing experience with a custodian and a broom, he ran up to me and insisted I pick him up. So we tried taking him out a different gate with a tighter fit. I felt this horrible pull in my gut to keep him close, but it's not uncommon in the town where I work for dogs to roam during the day and go home at night.

I was passing a group of students when they yelled out to me, "Hey miss, your dog is back." When I turned around, there was my tiny little friend sprinting to me. I guess he'd decided, so I smuggled him to my classroom and took him home to meet the rest of the pack. The plan was to clean him up and hold onto him until one of my students told me they knew where he lived. I waited weeks, but no one claimed him and he had no chip.

I couldn't decide on a name. I tried Gordon Ramsay names, spooky names, mythological names, just all kinds of names, but nothing stuck. He didn't come when I called, so I yelled for him in the yard by saying perrito (little dog in Spanish). He came to that, but I refused to yell that every day, so Tito he became.

Officially, Tito's AKC name is Absolut Tiny Terror BCAT CGC TKN.

Somehow this tiny little dog became my sports dog. We started off just going to FastCAT events and doing fun runs. Then Tito quickly earned his Canine Good Citizen title and his Trick Dog Novice title. After he was neutered in July he was able to start running FastCAT for points, and so we did. As of right now Tito has earned his BCAT, and is four or five runs away from earning his DCAT. We've also started dabbling in Rally through our local dog club's classes. My friend Beth swears Tito will be ready to trial by February's trial with our club, so we'll see how it all shakes out. We might mess around and find out about trying to get his AKC Fetch titles as well. For now, we'll just keep trying things and see what sticks.

Tito and I have managed to develop a very deep connection in a pretty short amount of time. I look forward to each of my dogs when I get home, but the way Tito stays inside with me while the rest of the pack tears through the backyard is priceless. He wants to jump into my arms and kiss the chaos of the day away. He's a world class cuddler, and can hold his own against the rest of the pack. He's obsessed with any and all toys, especially the one someone else is playing with.

We discovered Tito has a grade two medial luxating patella. Essentially this means Tito's knee can pop out of the joint at random. Being a grade two means it still can go back into place on its own or with manipulation from me. I talked about it at length with my vet team and we agreed that doing any kind of surgery to attempt to correct this would ultimately be more trouble than it's worth at this point in time because he's so young and the luxations aren't very frequent. We agreed that surgery at this point would probably lead to an early onset of arthritis and trying to keep him relaxed during recovery would be a nightmare (as we learned after his neuter). It's something I keep an eye on, and try to mitigate as much as possible, which is why you won't see us trying agility any time soon.

Thanks for learning about Tito, and if you want to see more of him and our journey into dog sports, check us out on Instagram and TikTok @HerRunningTails, and follow our hashtag #herrunningtails.

Thanks for reading this tail, and hopefully many more!

Danielle & Tito