Our Surprise for the October Show!

When our local Shiloh Chapter, the CSSC, arranged a regional Shiloh Specialty at the Oklahoma City IABCA show, we knew we would need to put together a basket for the fundraiser auction. I thought that a special treat basket would be nice, something no one could get around here. Luckily, my husband flies to Indianapolis every week, and north of Indy in Carmel, IN, they have a DOG BAKERY!


There are all sorts of different biscuits and treats that they make by hand! There are cheese and bacon and even venison-flavored ones!


I was out shopping for a container for our biscuits to go in and then I thought, "Well, why not give a bunch of samples of other treats that our dogs like, too?" So then a buying spree ensued, and I had all these treats and a couple of containers. And then I thought, "Hmmm, I could make up little sample trick or treat bags for EACH DOG!" Thus followed a Hobby Lobby shopping spree hard on the heels of the treat-buying one. At the end of the day as I sat down at 10 p.m. to construct everything I had six different kinds of treats plus all the flavors of biscuits, two fancy containers and a bunch of gift bags. Here is a shot of all the treats and also the little ziplock packages for the little bags. Each ziplock has six different types of treats, just a few of each. They are sealed with autumn stickers. (I failed to resist the urge to be cute. Just wait. It gets worse.)


While at the Hobby Lobby I was struck by a mad urge to go crazy. This happens to me often at Hobby Lobby. The result was several spools of Halloween ribbon, black and orange pipe cleaners, yellow and orange tissue paper, a bunch of stickers, and small wooden pumpkins. Too cute? Too silly? Too orange??? Will Ken want to die when I hand him one of these for Big Jake??

Absolutely! But did I care, at midnight when I finished this? Heck no! Following you can see samples. Below the assembly has just started.


Below you can see several wooden pumpkins with the names of Shilohs (and others!) written on them, some attached to bags and some still waiting for their pipe cleaners!


The bags are growing in number...almost done now!!


And finally, had to put this one in--my black cat, Pan (Panther) snuck into the photo and I didn't even notice as I shot it! Very seasonal of him, I've got to say.


Well the bags are done and I'm going to post a link to this on the forum and hit bed...gotta get up early tomorrow to pack the Element (also orange, yes, are you noticing a theme?) and get up to Oklahoma! Wish us luck at the show, folks--more photos when we get back!!

New Kyrie Photos!

I put these up on our Facebook gallery but forgot to update the blog...silly me! Here are some photos of Kyrie at a year and a half old. :) The one up top is my all-time favorite stacked photo of her--it would be perfect, if only I weren't in the picture!!



We just got back from our Shiloh Shepherd National Specialty show last week, and Kyrie won TWO ribbons! Soon I'll be putting up photos of her with them and also pictures of another one of her brothers we hadn't seen before...Maxx! Stay tuned!

May and June Happenings!

In May, we had a booth at our local Canine festival, Dog Days of Denton! Dog Days gets over 9,000 people every year and is full of fun events, demonstrations, contests, and booths featuring doggy stuff of every kind! Here's a photo of our booth with my handsome husband Zak manning it before the show:


The festival was a great success for us!! We gave out around a hundred trifolds (thanks to the parents of the splendid Cody for bringing more!) and bunches of business cards! Two other Shilohs came to visit--Cody from Texas and Kaiser from Oklahoma! You can see pictures of them in our Picasa Albums gallery (click here). All in all it was a lot of fun and we will definitely do it again next year!!

Here is a purebred German Shepherd we met at the show--one of the very rare few who have the "Hobo dog" markings just like Kyrie! Proof that the coloration is still lurking in the GSD lines too, and isn't just due to the Malamute behind the Shilohs.


Those of you who have followed our blog for Leo know that we LOVE to take photos of our dogs playing! Well a couple weeks back Zak ordered them a huge soccer ball (I think it's from Orbee). We weren't sure they would like it because it was so big...but it was a great hit! I thought I would put the playtime pics up on Kyrie's blog for a change. Here is one right off the bat, as Kyrie grabs the ball before Leo!


She had to put on some pretty fancy moves to keep it away from Leo!!


Kyrie decided to lie down with it, but with the lurking Leo her respite didn't last long...


She did get it a couple more times...


But then Leo became Lord of the Ball!!



We hope you enjoyed the photos! If you're interested in taking a look at Leo's blog, click here! This weekend we'll be headed down to Hutto, Texas, for a dog show and Shiloh get-together with NINE of our fellow ISSR Shiloh Shepherds--stay tuned for photos when we get back!!

Kyrie -- All Grown Up!

Let the obligatory "Dog With Pants" pictures begin!


The big news for this month is that Kyrie has officially entered her first heat! Shiloh shepherds often come into their first heat a little later than smaller breeds, and Kyrie was a perfect example of this, going into heat at 15 months.

Now there are a few things we need to do. In order for Kyrie to pass muster for breeding so she can help in our genepool expansion, we must take her in for her height and weight assessment, we must have her hips x-rayed (and while we do that we will probably also do as many other health tests as possible), and she must pass her Temperament Test. Then all her paperwork must be updated accordingly. So we have a lot to do within the next four to six months if we want to have a chance at Kyrie/Leo puppies at the end of this year or the beginning of next!


So far Kyrie's heat has been no sweat. We bought her two sets of pants (thankfully we were able to find the denim ones so Kyr was not forced to wear a set of hot pink "hot pants") and have been using normal human sanitary pads in them (much cheaper than the ones made for them!). The heat started on the 16th of April. We noticed some blood drips on the floor and Zak made an emergency "pants run"! Now, thirteen days later, her bleeding is tapering off and becoming a straw color, pinkish/light tan. Here is Zak puttin' on the pants while Kyrie is a good girl and stands nicely!


Our boy Leo (you can see his blog here) has been very good during this whole thing! He lays outside of Kyrie's crate and whines a bit, and obviously wants to be with her, but he has been very well-behaved. We'll see if that lasts now that she is entering the "standing heat" period! We have laid pretty good groundwork for this period by spending a lot of individual time with our pups, so they are very used to one of them being in a kennel while the other is out. Since they are so used to it being this way, we have had no problem separating them during this period. They do miss running and playing together, though!!

Below you can see a back shot of Kyr. The sanitary pads we are using are up on the table behind her, if you are wondering what size fits the pants!


Many dogs lose their appetites when there is a bitch in heat nearby, but so far Leo is eating well, though he picks at the food a bit more before eating and it takes him longer to finish. Kyrie's appetite remains good! We have upped her food intake just a little, perhaps 5%, in accordance with the advice in a book recommended to us by Laura Kathryn of Solace Shilohs, one of our awesome ISSR Licensed Breeders. Kyrie is such a Skinny Minnie that I figured the extra calories couldn't hurt too much, even if she doesn't need them with all the changes in her body right now!

Finally, we bought Kyrie a new toy to celebrate. You can see how much she likes it in the following picture:


We hope you enjoyed Kyrie's latest blog update and we'll try to do another post soon!

Ear Brace Correction!

Just a quick post, here--my attention was drawn to the fact that I had named the wrong product in my ear-bracing post, The War of the Ear! I have now corrected that post to read "moleskin" instead of "molefoam". The foam is too thick and puts too much weight on the ear! The exact product we used was CVS pharmacy's "Moleskin Plus".

Thanks all! Kyrie says aroo-squeak to all her readers!

--Anne :)

A Day in the Sun!

Welcome back to Kyrie's blog! It was such a nice spring day we went outside to take some new pictures of Kyrie. :) We are very proud of our girl as this past month she graduated from her Basic Obedience class. We had "home-schooled" her up to that point but decided to do the class for socialization and testing with distractions. It has worked wonders for her confidence levels with people and dogs! Now we are in a beginning Rally class because our teacher decided we were advanced enough to skip intermediate obedience, and Kyrie is the youngest dog in the class. :)



Here are some pictures of Kyrie from today. I was lucky enough to catch her in a GREAT flying trot!



Is this Kyrie looking for her ball or Kyrie about to eat a dandelion?



This one was taken from far away but it is a good shot of her structure from the side so I kept it. :)



Kyrie caught in a rare moment of non-motion!



We hope you enjoyed our pictures, we will close with another one taken recently of Kyr with one of her favorite chew-toys!



Next up, I'm hoping to publish some discussion about Kyrie's obedience class and our thoughts on it, comparing it to other methods we have experienced or read about. Stay tuned!!

Kyrie and London, Take 2!

I just had to snag a second and post another double-shot of our girl Kyrie next to her ancestor, London the Littlest Hobo! She has a more feminine head and the photos are not perfectly matched, but I think she has come along since the last one!!

The old photo:



The new photo:



We love our Hobo girl!!

The Hutto IABCA Show!

At the end of January Zak and I took Leo and Kyrie down to Hutto, TX, a few hours south, for the IABCA Winter Sieger show! This is held at the Triple Crown canine events facility, which is INCREDIBLE! Here is Kyrie looking at everything before she gets out of the Element:



Kyrie only participated in Show 3 this weekend, because we were a little short on cash this time. She came in third behind Leo and Christi Tanon's beautiful Bruno, who is growing up into a gorgeous dog! Following are the judge's comments:

"Developing well, slow maturing. Needs self confidence in ring. Coat: Good Texture! Head still developing, scissor bite, dark eyes, ears erect, deep chest with moderate bone. Back angulation: Well Angulated. Topline near level with slight slope. Well set tail, movement a little close in front. Rating: SG-1." The SG-1 rating means Kyrie will get a young adult Champion title from the IABCA if she gets another two of those ratings! We will need to be sure to show her in June and see how she does!

This place was so amazing that I made time between shows to take pictures! I wish we lived closer to Austin, I swear I would be here every weekend! Here is the front of the main building, where the rings were set up. Every weekend there is some sort of dog show, obedience or agility trial, or other canine event!



They had a big yard for all the dogs to do their business off to the left of the entrance, complete with handy pooper scoopers. Further beyond that were rows of at least six kennel buildings--I assumed for when people had their dogs stay at the facility for training. There was also a big Grooming Center just down the row from where we were parked:




To the right was a playground for kids, to keep the little ones busy while their parents and dogs were being trained! Off to the left of the playground was the Pro Shop, which was not open while we were there but which carries all sorts of dog equipment and supplies.



There were kids playing at the playground on Sunday, while their parents participated in Schutzhund events in the HUGE outdoor events field!



Here is the beautiful driveway, leading off toward the main road. In the other direction is the entrance to a "Dog Adventure Trail" for members only. They looked to have more than a few acres of fenced woods, hills and trails for the dogs and their people to explore!



Finally we close with the beautiful sunset over the hill Saturday evening. Thanks for sharing your wonderful facility with us, Hutto!



For more details from the show--including how our other Shiloh, Leo, did--step on over to Leo's blog!!

Kyrie at Work!

Around October we noticed that Kyrie's personality was changing, moving away from the happy-go-lucky frenetic puppy we were used to. Tina had always said that Kyrie was the more cautious type, more inclined to watch and figure things out, less like Leo who was just a rambunctious people-lover. Sure enough, Kyrie was growing up!

One of the side effects of this very alert and reactive period--some people call it a fear period, but it's really just the dog growing out of the oblivious puppy phase--was that Kyrie started to display a more aloof and sometimes outright shy nature. We didn't want to encourage the shyness, so we launched a triple-pronged socialization plan! Phase one of the plan was for me to take Kyrie to work more often, to remove her from her "safe" home environment and expose her to new people. So I took one of our extra baby gates to work, and Kyrie accompanied me a couple days a week for a few weeks in a row. During that time we did notice that she became better about meeting new people, though she was still a very submissive girl and did not like people to "loom" over her (she is much more likely to approach when they kneel down to her level) and she preferred to have me greet the people with her. When we were not encouraging my co-workers to visit, she would park herself next to my chair, just like in the picture!



At one point later on I was talking to Jessica of Strauss Haus Shiloh Shepherds, one of our excellent ISSR Licensed Breeders. She told me about her own aloof, high-energy girls. It turned out that Jessica's girls had gone through this same phase that Kyrie was going through, at the same age! I was very relieved when I found that out. Jessica encouraged us to keep working with Kyrie and said that if we continued to socialize it would all work out just fine!

Our two other socialization methods included attending a big dog show in Hutto and enrolling Kyrie in Obedience class! Read on...next up: the Hutto IABCA Show!

Kyrie's Family, Continued!

While I'm at it I wanted to put up some pictures of Kyrie's parents and some of her grandparents. Once again, these are property of New Zion Shilohs, Denise Harden (owner of Maya and Scout), Ti Amo Desert Mountain Shilohs and Wolf Creek Shilohs (Mike owns Kyrie's very famous Grand Victor granddad, Storm!).

Here are Kyrie's parents. Scout is a gorgeous buff smooth who tested out as an excellent Search-and-Rescue prospect, and Maya is a dark sable smooth who comes from good (non-attack) working lines (I know Denise does herding with her). Apologies for the very dark pic of Maya, we really should have taken pictures of her at Homecoming last year but we were so busy we forgot! The pic of Scout, though, is one we took while he was in the show ring.




I don't have pictures of Kyrie's grandparents on her father's side, but I did find some of her grandma and grandpa on Maya's side! Both beautiful dogs, and both breed Champions and Grand Victors, they are Storm of Wolf Creek Shilohs and Tang of Ti Amo Desert Mountain Shilohs! For Tang's page on their website, with more pictures, follow this link. For more pictures of Storm (and Kyrie's new cousins from the Sadie/Storm litter!), click on the link for Wolf Creek Shilohs.

Storm:



Tang:


Many ISSR Shiloh breeders make it their project to try to put together a picture pedigree for their dogs. As Zak and I are finishing up our paperwork to enter the ISSR Licensed Breeder in Training program, I was thinking of this when I started putting these pictures together! We hope you enjoyed them. :)

Kyrie's Family!

Kyrie turned one year old on January 13th, 2009! We love her dearly and are very happy with her sweet temperament and incredible intelligence. For her first birthday I wanted to do what I did with Leo's blog (you can see his if you follow this link) and put up some pictures of her littermates! Unfortunately, unlike Leo's Holly/Acer '07 litter, we could not stay in contact with most of the pups' families as they grew. The pictures I have are mostly cobbled together and taken at many different ages, but we hope that you will enjoy them anyway! I would like to also give credit where it is due--these pictures are property of New Zion Shilohs and Silver Run Shilohs, except for the ones of Kyrie which of course are ours. ;)


Here is Kyrie at just before one year (it was a lousy day but we wanted to get some pics anyway!).



If you would like to see pictures of Kyrie and her siblings when they were only nine weeks old, follow this link to Tina Barber's New Zion Shiloh Shepherds website! Kyrie's littermates were nicknamed Tank, Twin (that's Kyrie), Happy, Toes, Tug, Wookie, and Diva! Wookie and Diva were Kyrie's sisters. Both of them were plush golden sables! The one we still know about is now named Mya after her mother. Here is a picture of her as an older pup--what a sweet face!



Next are Kyrie's two twin golden sable brothers! Happy is now called Moose, and boy did he clean up some awards at Homecoming last year! He was only seven months old in this picture:



And then there is Toes, now called Clancy! This picture was taken at around ten months old I think? He looks a lot like Kyrie in body style, and Moose in color!



We don't have any pictures of Kyrie's brother Tug, who was the only plush male, except for this one from his eight weeks LER. He looks kind of like a plush version of Kyrie and Tank (now called Tucker)!



And speaking of Tucker...what a gorgeous boy! He not only won awards at Homecoming, he did great with his young handler in the Junior Handlers class, too! I really love Tucker and once his owner Debbie has his page up at http://shepherdsridge.com I will be sure to drop the link in here for you to see some better pictures of him! For now, here's a pic at Homecoming, when he was seven months old. You can really see how he and Kyrie resemble each other!