Atama, our AtaMAN, was our second born male in the A-Litter. The only puppy not named after his canine family...and instead named for his HUMAN family! My husband, Kroyler Gracie is a black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and grandson of the late martial arts hero, the father of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu..the one and only, Helio Gracie!! I always remember Kroyler saying that his grandfather said that "real serious practitioners ONLY WEAR WHITE!" How fitting that our black collar boy, who cannot help but be dressed in white, should take a martial art black belt name? Atama is the name of a famous Jiu-Jitsu uniform company located in Brasil where my husband is from:) I knew he was the one I hoped to stay from just 2 days old. His beautiful, big head and gorgeous black pigmentation absolutely blinded me from the very beginning. At barely 48 hours old, I was sitting in the whelping box on the phone with a friend talking about our litters (she had puppies too!)...Atama crawled all the way from the ground to my chest on his own and snuggled into me to sleep for the remainder of our talk...I mean come on...I think we both knew he was meant to stay! 

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This big boy is full of charisma and energy. NEVER a dull moment. He is typically the clown of the group making us all laugh. Atama has super drives that are currently being put to good use in a variety of training including obedience, dock diving and swimming, and protection obedience. He was introduced to the IGP field at 13 weeks old, and the show rings at just 5 months. By 7 months, he had completed his first show champion title with only 2 weekends of previous shows.

He boasts a long, thick white coat, dark black pigment, lovely movement and structure for his young age. To me, he is the perfect blend of his Russian parents and I feel so grateful to be able to call myself his breeder and call this boy my own. 

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>> Fun facts..."atama" in Japanese translates to "head," "prime" or "top" and "ataman" translates to "chieftain" in Russian. This were not considered when we named him. Just a happy coincidence that his name fits his position here perfectly!

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