Baebea – MACH 2 Wyndem’s Brain Storm UD GN RAE MXS MJG MXP MJP MXF XFP WAE CGC
May 7, 1999 – October 26, 2011
Baebea was 12 ½ when she passed away on October 26, 2011. She had been managing cancer for nearly three years and battling it for two months.
In July 2011 at Central Point, Oregon, she earned first place and her 33rd AKC title when she won her Excellent FAST class. A year earlier at the age of 11 years, Baebea became the most AKC titled Doberman in U.S. history. At her passing, she had 5 more titles than the previous Doberman that held the record.
Baebea came to my house at the age of seven weeks from Mary Leahy’s kennel. Her parents were Ch. Wyndem’s Storm Watch x Hicalibur’s Petala V Wyndem.
I started her training immediately. By the end of that first day, she was able to sit and stay. By three months old, she had a reliable recall with straight fronts.
At the age of 5 months, Baebea started her acting career. She modeled a dog bed for a local company. I specifically withheld her age from the producer because the client equated lack of maturity with lack of training. But, they were so impressed with her, they rehired her for multiple jobs.
She went on to appear in two movies. She worked on numerous photo shoots and appeared in television commercials for NW Natural Gas, Hewlett Packard, Eukanuba, Nike, Fred Meyer, and many others. One director said she was the only dog he worked with that had power steering. Her favorite job was when she worked as Benecio Del Toro’s pin-up partner. She laid in his lap while he pet her and fed her hot dogs and cheese. Life couldn’t get any better than that. At the age of 7 ½ months, Baebea earned her first AKC title – a CD, making her the youngest Doberman in history to earn a CD. She earned multiple High In Trials in both obedience and agility, and multiple High Combines in obedience. All but three of her Rally legs were perfect 100 point scores and all but two were first places.
Baebea’s Mach2 plus twelve more performance titles were earned after she turned ten years old. At the time of her passing, she had points and qualifying legs towards seven more AKC titles. The only negative in Baebea’s performance career was when she was the fastest Doberman with no faults in the Top Twenty Agility competition at the 2005 Doberman Nationals. Because of an admitted error made by the judge, she was not declared the winner.
When she wasn’t performing, Baebea was my service dog and protector. While at a Southern California airport, she alerted me to someone trying to steal my luggage. But, I wasn’t the only one she took care of. At one of my obedience classes, she chased a man away who was attempting to lead a student’s child from the class. But, mostly, she spent her time in class conning people out of the treats they brought for their dog.
With Baebea, it was all about the food. During an agility trial, she jumped on the score table and sucked up as many M & M’s as she could before continuing the course and leaving a trail of candy. At an obedience trial, she jumped on the table of the obedience chairperson and self-served an offered donut. At most trials, she would get her share, and then some, of samples from the vendors. Baebea lived by the biblical rule “God helps those who help themselves.”
Even though a little bit of Baebea was left behind in each of her pups that I kept, she will be greatly missed.
Baebea – owned, trained, handled, and loved by Paula Ratoza.