This is a great video reminder to respect working dogs.  Enjoy!

Don’t Disturb the ones working

Poor Bear.

He’s been holding up pretty well living in a household of females.  We’re a ten being household: four female dogs, two female cats and me; Bear and two geriatric male cats.

We knew Nellie was supposed to go into heat in January and we were THRILLED when she didn’t (what with one thing and another, this was a very crazed January and a female in heat would have been that one bridge too far), but we had no idea when Phoenix might go into heat.

So is it any surprise that Phoenix went into her second heat last Thursday (that’d be about 8 months – not as long a cycle as I’d prefer but pretty average) and then MONDAY Nellie followed her into heat?

Bear spends a lot of time at work suddenly.  I expect he’ll re-emerge in three weeks, once everyone is done with all this girly-girl stuff.

I haven’t checked with Jan, but this is a slightly longer than expected interval for Nellie so I’m tentatively saying we’ll be looking at Nellie & <insert mystery dog’s name here> puppies in early 2012 (oooo – magic 2012 puppies!).

Phoenix will be 2 in July and we plan to breed her at her next heat which SHOULD be October.  We’ve been daydreaming about possible mates, now it’s time to really look at genetics, as well as local dogs that we (Jan, Dia and the Miracle family) want added in to the Miracle lines and start talking to some folks out here.

You can bet some of these puppies will be winging their way back to beautiful Canada, and we’re thrilled to be collaborating with Jan to introduce size, movement and bone that might otherwise be difficult to integrate, considering the distances involved.

If you’re interested in one of these special puppies, it’s not too early to get in touch to start the dialogue.

And any of the guys out there that can relate to poor, overwhelmed Bear, he’d LOVE to hear from you.

So, I’ve run across another person who says that they are ethically against the breeding of dogs.  As a newly minted dog person, I haven’t had to consider this idea before.

 Are you against people living with dogs altogether?  That boat sailed more than 15,000 years ago.  Check out the Wikipedia article on dogs, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog . 

Both dogs and humans are highly social.  The packs of wolves and bands of early humans that learned to live together both benefited hugely.  The wolves got a steady supply of food and protection, and humans benefited from the wolves’ much better senses for warning and hunting.  The point is that wolves and people evolved into this relationship over generations, people did not go out to enslave wolves. 

Dogs have certainly evolved to interact with people.  There’s a lot of fascinating research on how dogs can read people in ways that no other animal can.  But you can equally argue that people have evolved to live with dogs.  Research is also showing that dogs give significant emotional and physical health benefits to the people they live with.  As a new dog owner, I’ve learned a lot about handling my emotions in “training” my dog (which is really training myself).  My dog communicates with emotion and I’ve had to learn to loosen up, be enthusiastic, be calm, be reassuring, basically be more aware of myself.  We are a two-species team and there is no going back.  Studies of feral dogs show that they do not recover the complex social structure of wolf packs.  We are simply better off together.

 If you allow that dogs and people are better off with each other, are you against dogs being bred into different breeds? 

I’ll agree that developing breeds that aren’t healthy simply for looks is wrong, but that makes it all the more important for people with good intentions to breed dogs for health.  I find it amazing how the different dog breeds have very different personality traits.  Cats are cats, but a dog’s energy level, prey drive, protectiveness, etc. are very dependent on genetics.  More recent research shows that dogs have a very flexible genetic code, with sections that can easily swap, or lengthen and shorten, which explains how breeds have become so different in relatively few generations.  Cats, not so much. 

Large dogs are powerful animals with instincts to defend their pack.  Having stable personalities that integrate well into human families is very important and something good breeders seek.  Also, since dogs are very social, they can be socially damaged by bad experiences as they are growing up, just like children.  Dogs raised by large scale commercial breeders and sold through stores are badly socialized.  Dogs raised by individuals who love them and know their personalities can be matched much better  to the home environment of their new families.  While rescuing dogs from pounds can be tremendously rewarding, my own dog is a rescue, they are often not as well adjusted as a dog raised by a committed breeder.

I’m really looking forward to breeding dogs and especially being part of the Shiloh Shepherd community, who are reversing some of the health and personality problems introduced by breeding German Shepherds for fads.  I know that my life is much more rich for having my companion dog, Topaz, in it. 

Right now our youngest dog is  licking my hand and wiggling because I’m a little upset at a guy who’s acting like a jerk on a reality show.  More research (it’s what I do) is showing that dogs help people with conflict resolution.  People are better people with dogs.  Humans have long, rich relationship with dogs and I don’t understand people who want to turn their back on that.  More to the point, dogs can’t turn their back, they have evolved to be part of our families and we’re the better for it.

How about a book giveaway.  C’mon, you know you take books out into the yard (or back 40 or whatever) and sit down and read whilst the dogs frolic.  Here’s a contest worth entering, even if all it does is make you go out and buy the books.  Fairy Tales Retold Giveaway.  Go now, enter.  Then grab a book and take the dogs out somewhere, settle down iwth them and enjoy your read.

Aren’t dogs supposed to be loaded with instincts?  Not so little Dragon.

After mumblemumblemumble dollars of x-rays and IVs and, as we were bringing her home last night, a laxative (gee – thanks, really, thanks!) it turns out Ms Thang had EATEN – TOO – MUCH.

Yep, that’s right, she’d powered down too much food.  Got her little mouth around some dropped big girl kibble and added that to her normal meal and, well, it was too much.

She was miserable and listless and uninterested in food Monday afternoon and night, erped up the little bit she HAD consumed and generally was just pathetic.  And no one does pathetic better than a tiny tiny dog.  So Tuesday morning Bear took her to the vet.  Dr Gayle (a living GODDESS!) palpated and said “Hmmm” and all those doctorly things that are good to say when you’re the practitioner and terrible to hear when you’re the patient (or the anxious human caretaker of a sick critter) and whisked Dragon out of the treatment room to do tests.  It turns out they were just x-rays but poor Bear was sitting on the edge of his seat waiting.

(Where was I?  Certainly not kicking back.  I had an appointment of my own or I’d have been in the hot seat)

When Dr. Gayle came back with Dragon and the x-rays, she showed Bear.  Dragon’s stomach was crammed full of something and was twice the size of her heart.  So they kept Dragon, gave her drugs and fluids and walked her to try to get her to poop (nope) and pee (yep).  And did more x-rays throughout the day, watching the stomach SLOWLY empty of this whatever-it-was.

We thought she must have eaten something foolish, like a sponge.  She was sent home to be watched overnight by her loving family (and washed after the laxative had some effect).  She seemed more normal, a little clingy, but she’d just spent a day in the veterinary hospital so that wasn’t unexpected.

At dinner time, though, she didn’t even look up for food – which is NOT normal for her.  The shepherds may eschew food for meals, or even days, at a time, but not little Dragon.  Last night, she was like a little tiny shepherd, turning her nose up at the thought of food.  Which was good on the one hand, because she was not allowed to have food, but worrisome on the other hand as she is normally such a chow hound.

She slept like a champ, and woke up cranky, but didn’t seem particularly hungry.  She WAS barking and romping a bit, so we were encouraged.  Then we all trooped in to see Dr. Gayle this morning, and got GREAT news.  The x-ray showed that whatever had been in her stomach was now all the way into her colon.  Phew.

Dragon’s on a day of special low residue food, then tomorrow she gets to add a little kibble in to the mix, but only a little.  And maybe she’s learnt her lesson – maybe now she’ll stop being a doggie hoover cleaning up everything that drops on the floor.

Seriously, you would think I’d just announced I was a serial killer.  But in modern Los Angeles, being a dog breeder is pretty much paramount to being a criminal.  Really?  Huh…

I will only breed animals that I and my breeding mentors believe will further the health and soundness of the breed.  Why is this a bad thing?

I don’t breed dogs to make money (heavens no, the opposite is more true).  I breed dogs because I want there to continue to be amazing, trustworthy, healthy dogs available for the dog lovers who are growing up now.  I breed because I believe in the breed, because I have lived with these dogs for the past 15 years and I know what would be missing from the world if they disappeared.  I breed because I know what is missing from the city as agriculture becomes something quaint and forgotten and because I don’t want to think of a world where the amazing majestic animals are also gone.

In my lifetime, in my neighbourhood, I’ve seen horse pastures paved over and the chickens, ducks, goats, sheep and horses that used to be so common become something that children only see at the petting zoo at Disneyland or the LA County Fair.  Large, magnificent animals like the Shiloh Shepherd would be easy to dismiss in a city environment as extraneous but I stand here saying they’re as relevant in the city as they ever were in the rural life that’s disappeared.

The intelligence, gentleness and grace they bring with them, generation to generation, makes them a wonderful family companion.  Yes, they’re large.  Unlike their high-energy cousins, the German Shepherd Dog, Shilohs generally require less high energy exercise and can often be “exercised” through training and play rather than flat out running.

Beyond that, they have the capacity for service work, therapy work, search and rescue and any other “career”.   Their structural soundness, and the strict breeding code we follow, means fewer sick or crippled individuals.  And a breeder willing to take the heat means we will continue to weed out the undesirable lines, bringing the best of the best forward.

I breed Shiloh Shepherd dogs.  And I’m proud of it.

Today, July 24th, is Phoenix’s first birthday.  She’s grown more and more beutiful each and every day and this is only the first of many happy birthdays we look forward to sharing with her, but turning onei s ALWAYS a big deal! 

Happy First Sweet Phoenix!

Last year, when Phoenix arrived, this is the annoucement we put up on her site.  Just a little bit of history.

The Phoenix has landed!

We are thrilled to welcome Jade’s niece to our home and kennel.  Through the miracle of frozen semen, Jade’s father GV abirCH Desert Windsong’s Ebony Angel, CGC, OFA, ROM aka Angel sired a litter two years ago and Phoenix’s dam was one of those puppies.

Now a beautiful young “lady” in her own right, Miracle-Angel’s Eternal Light aka Nellie gave birth to five gorgeous puppies on July 24th, two females and three males.  Phoenix made the long plane flight from Prince Edward Island, Canada to Los Angeles on September 21st and has settled in magnificently.

We have high hopes for this very special little girl.  We will begin with dog shows this fall and expect she will follow in her illustrious family’s footsteps, er, pawprints, soon showing she’s a champion through and through.  But we know this girl will be more than a pretty face and she will also be working as a therapy dog.