Maltese Dog: Stella Bella Barbarello Supergirl RN
Stella is our SuperGirl and that is her theme song!Exuberant means "joyously unrestrained and enthusiastic" and "extreme or excessive in degree or extent." That's Stella! She's a devil-may-care, fun loving sweetheart. She can never run too fast, jump too high, or play too much. And she never runs short of kisses! What Stella lacks in size, she more than makes up for in energy. Stella is a true California girl!
Stella was born in Southern California on April 18th, 2009. At three months of age, she bravely climbed into a pet carrier, was carefully stowed under the seat, and flew to Calgary (with a short layover in Las Vegas, one of the few places that can almost match her energy). She'd never seen stairs before, but despite our efforts to keep her away from them, she quickly and happily learned to climb them. This is no small feat, for she's the same height as a step! We reacted promptly by teaching her how to safely descend the stairs and now she goes up and down as she pleases, sometimes just for the experience, it seems.
She's extremely cute and could probably get away with anything. However, she's eager for the interaction of training and really enjoys it. Her cleverness, playfulness, and love of treats has made her obedience training easy. She's already following Harry through the weave poles and hoop, so she'll start agility training just as soon as she's old enough (it's not considered safe to be jumping before the bones are fully grown, and a little wisdom is required to temper youthful enthusiasm when leaping off equipment the wrong way could result in injury).
Stella wakes the household with great excitement and impatience every morning, often hours before the alarm clock is set to go off. But it can't be helped, after a few hours of sleep, she's fully recharged and ready to start her busy day. She's more than a match for the rest of us!
Bringing another dog into a home is always a tense experience because you don't know how they're all going to react. Fortunately, prim and proper Harry is a puppy at heart and they quickly became best friends. They charge around the house, chasing toys and each other, playing tug-o-war and wrestling. Then they snuggle together to snooze. You'd think it would be hard to love someone so much when she wakes you up to play by pulling your ears, but Harry truly does love Stella. Stella is less than half Harry's size, so she can crawl underneath him, but she can also jump over him! It's great fun to watch them together.
This is a video of Stella's dad, Cash. He struts his stuff about 3/4 of the way through:
http://www.akc.org/2006277104/2006277104TOY.htm
Update (Aug. 2011): Stella enjoys rally obedience and agility training very much. She received her rally obedience novice (RN) title in August 2011.
This is Stella's video for her Dog of Hamann - Canine Lifestyle Fashion Award Nomination.