Senior Sam Bergquist has taken the responsibility to rescue a six week old puppy.

“We were going home and we saw my neighbor walking two puppies, Loki and his sister. Apparently, one of her son’s friends had this litter and he told her that they were going to shoot them. So she took two and when she went back for the rest, they said that they were gone. We think that they shot the rest,” Sam said. Even though Sam’s neighbor was giving the puppies for free, Sam gave her fifty dollars.

Loki (named after his grandmother’s maiden name) is a now a 12 week old black lab that will begin obedience training in January in hopes to begin hunt test training.

The retrievers (labs, goldens, flat coats, etc.) were bred with the purpose to be hunting companions. Retriever clubs and owners still engage their dogs’ skills in training. By going to hunt training the dogs swim through water and run on land to bring the duck (or any other hunted bird) back to it’s handler (the owner or who trained the dog). Then by going to hunt tests the dog earns titles; first a Junior Hunt Title (JH), then Senior Hunt Title (SH), and then Master Hunt Title (MH). In order to receive a title, the dog must gain four legs for JH & SH and five legs for MH  (4 or 5 JH, SH or MH test passes). Cindy Bergquist, Sam’s Mother, hopes to begin this training in the future.  

“My father raised bird hunting dogs (pointers and english setters) and always said ‘The runt is the pick of the litter.’ Loki is the runt of his litter and I think my dad was right,” Cindy said. In order to start, the Bergquist family must register Loki in either AKC (American Kennel Club) or obtain an AKC Evaluation. They are unable to do this now because the family is in the process of moving.

“We are in the middle of moving so I haven’t looked over it well. I feel we probably will,” Cindy said. The Bergquist’s are taking Loki to Love on a Leash for obedience classes in January. Depending on how the classes go, they may go into hunt training at Weyer’s Cave if things go well.

With great dogs, comes great responsibility. According to Cindy, Sam has shown much responsibility.

“He [Loki] has taught Sam a lot of responsibility. He gets up every night taking care of his [Loki] needs, of course I do the mornings,” Cindy said. On top of taking care of Loki and getting ready to take him to Love on a Leash, Sam has taken the responsibility of also joining TSA  (Technology Student Association) again. He started in sixth grade and is now picking it up again.

“TSA isn’t really demanding, we meet a few times every month, so it’s easy to do it and take care of Loki,” Sam said. Sam would also be doing wrestling, for the first time, but due to a concussion he won’t be able to at his mother’s request.

“I was walking Loki and he started running, so I ran with him because he needs the exercise and I ran into a branch and got a concussion. Because of my concussion, my mom doesn’t want me to do wrestling,” Sam said.

Loki is the Bergquist’s little miracle.

“The day we pulled in the driveway and saw him and his sister running around in the neighbor’s yard we never said a word to each other, we just knew he was ours,” Cindy said.