Catching Up - Homecoming, August '09 Part 1!

All right, last real "catching up" post and then I can actually get to stuff we did THIS year!! In August of 2009 we rented an RV for the first time ever and road-tripped to Homecoming in style--you can see Kyrie lounging on the couch as we drove, below! We got to camp out on the grounds at Willard's, and decided that we loved cooking and camping out with Shiloh friends (even better when you have air conditioning...yay for the RV!). We learned a lot at the Licensed Breeder meeting and took a TON of photos...of everyone ELSE'S dogs!! The photo above was taken by Jolanda and she kindly sent me a copy. Thanks so much for catching Leo and Zak accepting Best Plush Male of 2009 AND Leo's National Select award, Jolanda!!


Without further ado, here are our photos of everyone else's lovely Shilohs. I tried hard this year to get as many photos as I could. Often I am saddened that there are not more photos of dogs whose names I find in our ISSR pedigrees. They were very well-known when they were showing, but now it is very hard to find photos. So I resolved to take as many as I could, and I managed to get quite a few for the first couple days, at least. It always seems that you run out of steam--or get way too distracted!--later on. I'll try to label all of the dogs in the photos when I can, and I'll do it in two batches. Here we go!

We usually try to go to New Zion for the tour early on, before everything gets so busy! This year I had the presence of mind to take photos of some of my favorite dogs. :) Below, Blue was nice enough to let me get a great profile shot of him in his run:


And Acer was out front, very disgruntled that we'd intruded on his latest "date":


THIS time I even remembered to get a shot of Leo's mom!! Here is Holly, who was such a sweet girl. She was unsure about my hat but let me get a marvelous profile shot of her beautiful face. :)


And finally, that beautiful little pup from the previous year has grown into a lovely lady!! I think this is Grizzla, out in a private run in the garage. I think she was a Gem/Acer pup? All of us were lusting after her in her puppy photos!

Zeus, below, is Holly's brother--which makes him our Leo's uncle!


On the subject of handsome smooth boys, here is the amazing Buckshot, giving us a smile:


Earlier I had a photo of Blue. Here is his daughter, Ella "Boots", in the ring:


And here she is, asking if she really has to go back and run AGAIN:


And on the subject of hot Shiloh guys, Kyrie informs me that I had better put up this photo of Leo's half-brother, Iso. Apparently he's on Kyrie's "hunk" list. I wouldn't be surprised if she's printing out this photo in poster form to put up in her crate right now!


And a head shot (can't tell I really like Iso either, huh?):


Here is Sheila with the lovely Joy, who has won so many awards that I, slacker that I am, can't even recite them all:


Here is our friend Carla with the always-handsome Ender in the ring! Ender is Leo's half-brother:


A few more in-the-ring photos, from Friday I think:




And we will close this entry with a gorgeous upstate sunset!



We hope you enjoyed our photos—check back soon for another Leo update!

Catching Up - CSSC Meet 'n' Greet, October 2009

Once again I have been the laziest blogger ever, and Leo and Kyrie are sick of me not putting up all of my photos of them and their friends! So in a grand attempt to catch up I'll be posting a metric ton of photos of "what we did between June '09 and March '10" here on Leo's blog. Don't worry--Kyrie and Thorn's blogs will get updates, too!!


In October of '09 we arranged to have a local Shiloh Shepherd Specialty Show at the Oklahoma City IABCA show. The evening before, we all met at the Riverwind kennels farm (Deb and Mel's place) for pup playtime, drinks and dinner, conversation, photos, and an auction to benefit our new local chapter of the Shiloh Shepherd Dog Club of America: the CSSC!

Once again we had a great turnout, with people coming from as far away as Arizona and California to visit! Most of my photos are of other peoples' dogs (well heck, I can photo my own any time I want, you know!). I'll give a running "who's who" commentary for those keeping score! For those who want to see photos of the show itself, please head on over to our Picasa Album: 2009 OKC Sooner Sieger and CSSC Specialty!

And now, on to the photos! One of the great things about this gather was that several puppies from the Katie/Big Jake litter got to see each other again--with their mom and dad!! Katie lives at the farm, of course, and here is a lovely photo of her being obligingly beautiful:

And another of her COMPLAINING! "Mom, what are all these people and dogs doing in MY YARD???"

And here is Katie with a bunch of her pups--now a lot bigger!

Big Jake showed up and glared at me every time I tried to take a photo of him. What can I say, the big guy knows he's good-looking, he doesn't need to mug for the camera!


Who on earth could have spawned all these gorgeous bi-color dogs? Could it have been...Katie and Big Jake? ;)

Some more specific photos of a couple of the Katie/Big Jake littermates! Here is the lovely Moriah, sitting:

And standing:

And flirting with Leo! Doesn't he look bashful?

And here are a couple of the handsome Batman!


Other Shilohs attending were Ender from Arizona, Kyrie's brother Chester from Texas, and Ken's Sako, who provided the puppy antics for the gather (SO CUTE!). Here are some photos of them. First, Chester:


Now, Ender:




Ender kept trying to drink from everything. Apparently living in Arizona makes you really thirsty!! The fountain:

And apparently he thought that dogs should be able to get a drink from this as well as humans!

And here are my photos of Sako, who was all legs and tongue and ears and was just about the cutest thing you'll ever see!





In the midst of all this, Mel grilled us all some tasty dinner! Thanks so much for being our hosts, Deb and Mel!

I tried to get a lot of photos of the long view on the back lawn, so you could see all the people talking and Shilohs running amuck! Deb and Mel's back lawn is fenced so we could let the dogs run loose. They loved it!






I hope you've enjoyed the update--stay tuned!! Next up: Homecoming photos!!

Catching Up - Hutto IABCA June 2009

Well I have been lax beyond belief with the blog entries but it's time to catch up! There is a lot of ground to cover, so I'll just jump right in with the pictures (I know that's why you guys read these dog blogs anyhow!). ;)

We had a great turnout for Hutto--especially considering that the first time we went we were the only Shilohs!! Deb and Mel from Riverwind kennel brought their girl, BJ, from the Katie/Big Jake litter. She was just a little pup in these photos but she tore up the ring with all her wins!! Between winning multiple best Bred-by-Exhibitor awards AND winning in the standard shows, she ended up taking Best Smooth Bitch Puppy of the Year, awarded at the 2009 Shiloh Shepherd National Specialty!!

BJ looking up at her human mom, Deb: "Do I really have to go run around the ring again?"


BJ enjoying a Frosty Paws treat. It was so hot inside the building that Zak brought all the pups Frosty Paws!


BJ stacked pretty! I tried to get stacked photos of all of the dogs, though I missed a few. One of these days I will learn that it is impossible to find the time later in the show, so I need to get my photos early!!


And finally, we decided that BJ can sleep anywhere!! She spent most of the two days of the show snoozing in her crate, even with all the barking and hubbub and noise!


Kyrie's "little" brother, Chester, also attended the show! I neglected to get a stacked shot but I did get a couple of good head shots. You can see how much he and Kyrie look alike, with the eye markings and the white "bib" on the front of the neck!




Carla brought Ender all the way from Arizona for the show to get some more points toward his Puppy Championship!! Ender is from New Zion's Angie/Acer breeding.

Here is Ender getting a drink from a squirty bottle:

Ender in a nice show stack:

And Ender relaxing in his PUP tent between shows!!


Ender's littermate Neiko was also at the show! What a handsome gray sable boy. This was his first show and he behaved like a pro! Here he is with his human dad:

And here is a great stacked photo of Neiko:


BJ's brother Kaiser was also at the show. Here he is being stacked (well, mostly) by his adoring human mom, Sheryl!


Christina Tanon and her dad brought their boy, Bruno! Bruno is out of the New Zion Stacie/Warba litter. Here he is in a lovely stack:

And looking at the camera, wondering what I'm doing:

And a great close-up profile of his head (I think that Bruno is very handsome, just in case you couldn't tell!):

And finally Bruno lying down, relaxing between shows.


At the end of it all tons of fun were had and plans were laid for Homecoming in New York for some of us, and a gather in October for the OKC IABCA show for others! More on that in the next entries--but for now, I leave you with a photo of pooped post-show pups!