# A late obituary



## draggar (Jul 11, 2008)

But worth it.










Last year, the working GSD world lost one of it's top dogs, Zion Van De Hildewaerde SchH3. In 2005 he ranked #25 in the WUSV world championship, SchH1 & SchH2 were both over 290 (including a 100 point tracking), SchH3 he scored 288. At the age of seven he was still lighting up the schutzhund field while also impressing everyone with his intelligence, wisdom, stability, loyalty, and affection. Also, he was a beautiful dog.

He was brought down here to one of my wife's good friends where they both quickly decided that he would be the perfect sire for Kiri's first litter.

Fate had other plans.

January 2007 he started to favor one of his legs, limping a little. He still performed routines with surgical precision and jackrabbit speed. He was still on his game.

The owner didn't hesitate to take him to a vet, but the vet didn't see what was wrong. Maybe he stubbed a toe, tore a paw, or something. Give him some rest and he should be fine.

It didn't happen.

It continued to get worse, even at times he would have difficult walking. His owner and my wife took him to several vets trying to isolate the issue. It was the same symptoms as DM, but DM takes its hold on a dog over a span of years, not weeks. They even went up to see a specialist at the University of Florida. The owner spent thousands of dollars on tests and treatments for him but nothing prevailed.

Sadly, two years after being crowned #25 in the world in Schutzhund, Zion had to be put down because he could barely move, let alone live an active and happy life. The owner destroyed the sperm that she had collected for Kiri's breeding, she would never want to see another dog to go though what Zion went though. We were all devastated at the loss. Vets even admitted they had never seen DM go though any dog this quickly and were still puzzled by it.

June 18, 2007 is the day the Schutzhund and GSD worlds lost one of their top dogs (no pun intended). Zion has been, and will be, missed. The owner was devastated for months. She loved him more than I've seen any person love a dog. Our club loved him just as much and I can say the love he got wasn't even 1% of the love that he gave out.

http://www.ziongsd.com/


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## Amaruq (Aug 29, 2001)

I am sorry to hear about Zion. Did he have a flash test done? I had a male that was dignosed in April of last year with DM and lost him less than 6 months later.


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## draggar (Jul 11, 2008)

Honestly, I don't know what they did. His owner did the care for him and my wife helped her with information (who to see, what to ask, even came along for some of the trips).

Considering how thorough his owner and my wife are, I wouldn't dount that the flash test was done.


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## elsie (Aug 22, 2001)

how incredibly sad he had to loose his life to this condition.


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## kathyb (May 16, 2007)

Yes I lost my Yogi to DM, did everthing I could for him. Flordia U. has also done a study on DM so you took him to a great place.


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