In the words of Amanda Rodieck, “Dogs are my life.”
Add in work, her husband, and her endurance horseback riding and you have a picture of how Amanda Rodieck spends her days.
While she grew up around German Shepherds, she’s had a special interest in German Shorthairs for a while. When she was in high school, her band director had a German Shorthair named Lady and would ask Amanda to take care of Lady when she had to go out of town. Amanda soon fell in love with Lady and hoped to have her own Shorthair one day. This dream came true, as she has two, an older dog named Enzo that she unexpectedly got when she was living in San Diego, and her dog Kimber that she and her husband picked out together. Kimber is an exceptional dog and uses her talents in multiple arenas.
Amanda was working as a vet tech a few years ago when she got to know Eddie and Lynn Chocklett and their dogs CoCo and E.T. She was so impressed with the two dogs and told the Chocklett’s that if they ever bred them, she wanted a puppy. Competitive field trialers in the National Shoot to Retrieve Association, CoCo, and E.T. are part of the Chocklett’s string of Shorthairs at Whiskey River Kennels. When they had a litter, they let Amanda know and she and her husband went to see the puppies. Kimber was the female pick-of-the-litter puppy that came home with Amanda, although she ironically remembers she had her eye on another puppy and her husband picked Kimber out.
When Amanda brought Kimber to her Youngsville, NC home, she knew she wanted her to be an all-around sporting dog. She began consulting with Shorthair trainers and working on her abilities (she was a full-time dog trainer then) to help bring Kimber to her full potential.
Amanda’s idea was that they would try everything and see what Kimber seemed to enjoy the most. On their journey together, Kimber has participated in dock diving, barn hunts, tracking, agility, and confirmation shows, and has earned all three of her canine good citizen certifications. During these experiences, she discovered Kimber loved to work and would do anything asked of her, do so gladly, and do so well. In fact, at just a year and a half old, Kimber was invited to compete at Westminster in dock diving after being ranked first in the nation in her division. Being so young, it was an adjustment for Kimber as she adapted to taking in the crowd, TV cameras, and movable docks, but she learned and did her job.
Kimber has continued to excel in other venues and has taken best of breed in several different UKC dog shows while also participating in AKC-related activities. Kimber is building up her AKC titles and will hopefully add Junior Hunter this fall.
Her amiable personality suits her eagerness to please. She’s very sociable and able to match the play style of other dogs, which was an asset while Amanda was training full-time and had other dogs in and out. Amanda is now back to working as a vet tech, this time as a rehab vet tech, a passion she developed through the care of her aging German Shepherd years ago and in guiding Kimber through conditioning activities.
While she and Kimber haven’t given upland a try yet, she knows Kimber has the heart, speed, and breeding for it and is looking forward to observing some field trials this fall, likely with the Chockletts at the National Shoot to Retrieve (NSTRA) club they participate in.
When not pursuing one of her talents, Kimber tags along for Amanda’s other passion: endurance horseback riding. Amanda has three horses: Angie, a 30-year-old paint mare, Scarlett, a 20-year-old Thoroughbred, and an 11-year-old Arab mix. Amanda’s aunt has endurance ridden all her life and Amanda has found it to be a fun sport. She’s done 25-mile rides, a 50-mile ride, and ride and ties where she dismounts and has to run part of it herself.
While there aren’t a ton of endurance riding events in NC, there is an annual Biltmore ride. There are also several rides in SC and VA. Events like the Equathon where you ride 15 miles and then run 5 miles are perfect for Amanda as she loves working out and has a home gym set up for just that.
With her dogs and her horses, she keeps a schedule of what she wants them to learn together each season and what they will participate in. From keeping the horses in shape to taking Kimber to her next adventure, Amanda makes the most of life with her animals and has seen them thrive in living out their potential. She feels extra lucky to have the steadfast support of her husband, Anthony, and says she couldn’t do any of it without him.
And sometimes, you get an extra special dog like Kimber who carries you on great adventures.
All photo credit to respective photographers.
