Exploring the vast prairie of the Washita National Wildlife Refuge
Hi Everyone,
This as an early Friday post because, we are off to Wichita Falls Dog Show until Sunday. There will be no post on Saturday and I do not post on Sundays. If you need any supplies, Spencer will be running the Supply Store and puppy sales.
I will provide the results of this weekends show, Monday morning. This weekend, we have a chance at majors and to finish two Grand Championships on Champion Heidelberg’s Nashville v Oklahoman and Champion Heidelberg’s Kelsey Queridad.
Exploring the vast prairie of the Washita National Wildlife Refuge
Hi Everyone,
Today I’m going to discuss the best and what I believe is the correct convention for naming and registering your German Shepherd Dog puppies. You should start with your kennel name or German Shepherd Dog type or title name as we do at Keystone German Shepherds. For example, we use the title name Heidelberg, therefore, our dogs’ names begin with “Heidelberg’s”.
Champion Heidelberg’s Genny Heatherh
Next you should have a litter letter for each litter. We started with “A”, and work through the alphabet. For example, every German Shepherd Dog puppy in the litter will have their first name begin with “A”, such as Heidelberg’s Allen, Heidelberg’s Alvin, and Heidelberg’s Alice.
To complete the name, we use mom’s litter letter name with the maternal Grandmother litter letter at the end of mom’s name. Continuing with the above example, mom is registered as Heidelberg’s Missy Angelq. Therefore, her puppies would be registered as Heidelberg’s Allen v Missya and Heidelberg’s Alice Missya. We use the v to denote males.
Champion Heidelberg’s Zeke v Gennyh
If you follow this convention or a similar one, you will find that it is much easier to remember the breeding or lines of each dog. In addition, it becomes a record keeping tool that makes life a little easier for considering breeding matches and for looking up lineages several years from now.
Exploring the vast prairie of the Washita National Wildlife Refuge
Hi Everyone,
Today we are going to discuss Two German Shepherd Dogs that are true heroes. In 1999, we moved from Daphne, Alabama to Tulsa, Oklahoma. While our kennel was small, we still had several German Shepherd Dogs that we had to mete out to family members until we could purchase property and build kennels in Oklahoma. Two of our shepherds, Heidelberg’s Oregon v Burmak (Bismarck) and Heidelberg’s Winsome Umberb stayed with us in our hotel. In the mornings, Patty, my wife would take the two dogs to my parents’ house while we were at work and then pick them up after work.
During these trips, Patty started to notice that every time she had high or low blood sugar Bismarck would lean over the car seat and incessantly lick her face. Patty has had juvenile diabetes since she was 18-years-old. The entire family learned to trust Bismarck newly discovered ability. Whenever Bismarck alerted to sugar problems by licking Patty’s face, we made sure that she received proper treatment. Sometimes with high or low sugar blood levels diabetics will not help themselves because they become mentally confused. Therefore, family members may have to force the diabetic to test and treat their sugar blood level.
A Four-Year-Old Champion Heidelberg’s Bismark
Bismarck’s talents were discovered well before the use of Service Dogs was made into law. So the use of Bismarck’s medical alert talent was not utilized outside the home and dog events. After the new Service Dog Law came into effect, Patty wanted to train a full time Diabetic Alert Service Dog, but he had to come through Champion Heidelberg’s Oregon v Burmak (Bismarck). Unfortunately Bismarck had passed, so we bred his son Champion Heidelberg’s Amazon v Whispe to Champion Heidelberg’s Querida Diamond. This litter produced Patty’s new Service Dog, Grand Champion Champion (GCh. Ch.) Heidelberg’s Kodiak v Queridad (Kodi).
Before this breeding Patty’s diabetes had progressed to the point that she was having incidents of blacking-out on regular basis, and even having diabetic events while she was driving. One day my daughter and I had just started to watch a movie, when Patty said that she was going to Wal-Mart. Two hours later, Ashley walked outside to find Patty hanging halfway out the door of her vehicle passed out and almost in a diabetic coma.
Kodi’s Service Dog training began at 6 weeks. Patty would check her sugar in the evenings and if it was high or low, she would then bring the Kodi puppy into the house and love on him until her sugar returned to normal levels.
Kodi Puppy Bonding With Patty
Within time Kodi, began to react to Patty’s low or high blood sugar levels by pawing at her and basically being a complete nuisance until she checks and treats her blood sugar levels.
Kodi Puppy Alerting to High or Low Sugar Blood Levels
Kodi goes everywhere with Patty including work, restaurants, when she travels, etc. In the four years that Kodi has been a full-time Service Dog, the only serious diabetic event Patty has had is when she left Kodi at home to do some Christmas shopping in 2012. Patty had disappeared for several hours and the entire family began calling her. When she answered the phone it was obvious that her blood sugar was low and that she did not know where she was while driving her car. We finally got her to park in a parking lot and through a lot of questioning, we pinpointed her general location. Her sister found her and got her to eat dinner, and Patty recovered. The next shopping trip, Kodi went with Patty.
Kodi sleeps on the floor next to Patty and wakes her up in the middle of the night if her sugar is high or low. This is a great relief to the entire family because most diabetics slip into diabetic comas or even die while asleep. This nighttime risk for diabetics is probably because nobody is around to know they are in trouble.
There is no doubt that Kodi has saved Patty’s life on several occasions. He is our hero!
GrCh. Ch. Kodiak v Queirdad (Kodi) DNA, OFA Excellent
Exploring the vast prairie of the Washita National Wildlife Refuge
Hi Everyone,
We have all seen the guy standing at the street corner holding the sign “Vietnam vet”, even though that war ended when he was 5-years-old or my favorite, “Will Work for Food”, although, they will not work for food or anything else.
Well the good news is your German Shepherd Dog, puppy or adult will work for food and they will work hard. Therefore, we should use food treats as rewards while training our German Shepherd Dog, puppy or adult. However, we should not give them a treat without having them earn it.
German Shepherd Dogs are a lot like people and if you give them rewards without earning them, like people, they can become lazy and spoiled. Even though, I know it is not good for my German Shepherd Dogs to be given snacks without earning them, I am guilty of giving out free treats. I should stop being lazy, and if I want to give them a treat, I should ask my German Shepherd Dog to work for it.
So the next time you want to treat your German Shepherd Dog to a snack, ask them to sit and stay or lay down, it does not matter what, just ask them to earn the snack. You will find by doing so that your German shepherd will be more engaged and will bond much closer to you.
Exploring the vast prairie of the Washita National Wildlife Refuge
Hi Everyone,
Today I am going to discuss one of my favorite basic obedience exercises to socialize German Shepherd Dogs puppy and adults to strangers and strange dogs. I call this exercise “Leap Dog”.
After a new basic obedience class has become fairly competent in heeling and sitting in a stay position next to their owners, I will line up my German Shepherd Dog class in a row with German Shepherd Dogs approximately three feet apart and facing the same direction and placed in a sit Stay. Our average class is 15, but this exercise can be accomplished with as little as five participants.
Lining up for Leap Dog exercise
One at a time, I have each owner and their German Shepherd Dog heel by weaving through the line of owners and dogs. It is important that the owners of the German Shepherd Dogs that are on a sit stay during this exercise maintain a tight leash in case there is aggression shown by one or two German Shepherd Dogs as the person is heeling through the line.
Preparing for a stranger and strange dog as they approach
I also make sure everyone in the class understands the proper procedure to separate two dogs that get into a ruckus. This is done by each owner of the aggressive German Shepherd Dogs to turn and walk in opposite directions to separate the two aggressivors. Never stick any part of your body in between two dogs that are showing aggression.
This exercise serves several purposes, first for those dogs in the sit stay position, they learn to remain in the sit stay position even when a stranger and strange dog are walking around them in close proximity. In addition, it teaches the heeling German Shepherd Dog to concentrate on heeling and their owner and to ignore distractions of strangers and strange dogs.
More importantly, it teaches passive and/or insecure German Shepherd Dogs to develop confidence around strangers and strange dogs. Most importantly for those German Shepherd Dogs that are people or dog aggressive, it teaches them to be under control when in close proximity to strangers or strange dogs.
Try this exercise or ask your trainer to incorporate this exercise into your basic obedience class and you will be pleasantly surprised about how quickly your German Shepherd Dog will improve their social skills around strangers and strange dogs.
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