Supersonic Xai

“The first time I saw an ETT, was in the stable, I was riding my horse and my trainer came out of the barn with her horse and a little black and tan dog with pointy ears and an elegant gate, his name was Lotus, he was an English toy terrier NOT a miniature pinscher.

After a few years i decided bring home Xai. I got Xai in June 2013.

Of all the puppies in the litter Xai was the restless one, the puppy who woke up first, made lots of noise and stole my shoes. I decided that this was my dog, and he came home with me.

It wasn’t a surprise that he was indeed quite a handful.

We started going to dog shows as it was what people in our Ett community did with their dogs. Xai won Best in show puppy in his first ever dog show and later became Norwegian Champion.

After Xai got his champion title I retired him from the dog shows, after all Ett’s are more than just beautiful, their very athletic and trainable.

We started training agility and we both loved it, unfortunately I didn’t train as much as I wanted to, due to my working schedule, so we never competed.

As I mentioned before Xai was a handful, so when it was time for me to start studying canine rehabilitation I had my doubts about bringing him along.

I ended up bringing him and he ended up as the teachers favorite demo dog, he was such a good boy, so patient so understanding.

I owe a lot of my understanding of canine anatomy to him.

Later on as I finished school and became a rehabilitation therapist Xai was still my go-to demo dog, he loved demonstrating different exercises on balance equipment, show correct use of a swimming pool or underwater treadmill, he’d let students examine him, patient as ever. My cheeky monkey, the handful, the puppy who was always up to no good, had turned into this patient energetic being who just understood what was needed of him in the moment.

On our free time we would go hiking in the mountains, sometimes Xai would carry a doggie pack with his treats in it. Not a heavy load but he was always very excited when I’d get his pack out, it usually meant, were going on a longer hike.

As we live in Norway, we deal with a lot of cold and wet weather, not ideal for an ETT.

But since it’s Norway, and the weather is bad for most of the year, we just have to cope.

Xai has so many coats, a colleague even made him a thick woollen one-piece, in Norway Etts need bacelayer under their coats.

Xai also has an eye condition, KCS and he’s also sensitive to bright light, so he wears goggles to protect his eyes.

The goggles also help in windy, snowy or otherwise crappy weather conditions and makes for a more pleasant hike for him.

Xai turned Eight years old in April, he’s still going strong, he still goes on all our hikes, still does his exercises and he’s still very playful and happy even if he’s no longer my demo dog except for special occasions.

In 2019 Teeny, a working cocker spaniel joined our family, she and Xai get along well.

Teeny will hopefully take over Xai’s demo dog job, whereas Xai will enjoy being retired (for the most part anyway).

He’s such a special dog and I owe him so very much.”

Sarah M. Arnesen

Sarah M. Arnesen

@supersonicxai

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