So Back in April...

Nothing like a new puppy to distract a woman from blogging, but we'll get to that in a moment...

The weekend of April 18th we went to a local UKC (United Kennel Club) dog show right here in Denton, TX! It was sponsored by the local American Pit Bull Terrier Club and the show organizer, Patricia, was awesome enough to offer us the chance to do a small exhibition of our Shilohs even though we aren't a recognized breed yet! We jumped at the chance!

I think it was back around the New Year when Zak found out about the show. He also found out that Mr. Fred Lanting, "Mr. GSD" was actually going to be judging there!! We were very excited because Fred was a longtime friend of our breeder and the Shiloh shepherd Breed Founder, Tina Barber, and probably ranks as one of the most knowledgeable people on earth about dogs in general and German shepherds in particular! Even though Shilohs aren't GSD's, they are similar, and we were looking forward to getting Fred's opinion of our pup!

We got all we bargained for and more. We got an awesome introduction to the UKC, met a ton of fantastic people--breeders, exhibitors, and organizers--and Fred gave a structure and movement seminar and actually trotted our Leo around the ring!! Here is Fred elegantly moving our Leo:



And here is me, not-so-elegantly moving our Leo:



So it was tremendously exciting, we had a great time and learned a LOT!!

Leo of the Rings!

This was too funny and we had to get some pictures. We got Leo a new toy, a stuffed ultra-durable chewing ring...but he was a little bit confused as to how to pick it up. When he finally did, the above was how he decided it was easiest to carry!

Click here for more gallery pics of Leo and his ring...in the first one you can REALLY see how dark his face is getting!!

Leo at Five Months!

The puppy parents on the Holly/Acer '07 litter have mostly been keeping in touch, and we have been sending pictures around to each other to celebrate each month of our pups! Click here to go to the gallery of photos of Leo at five months old. The pic above is the one I call "My Best Smile"--we love it because he is the toothless wonder after losing most of his baby teeth! It is his silly "Wanna play?" smile. :) As you'll see in the gallery pics, our boy is darkening up a bit, especially in his face. Wait 'till you see the newest pics--coming soon!

Older Park Pics

Had to put up a quick post with some older pics of Leo at our local park--especially since I liked one enough to use it as my avatar on the ISSR Shiloh Shepherd forums!. He's around four and a half months in these pics. They were taken on one of the nature trails at the park, which is huge and really nice--and only about three miles from our house! For the photos click here--enjoy!

Leo the Cone-head

A few weeks ago we noticed our boy had an umbilical hernia. He hadn't had it before; it just popped out! The opinion seemed to be that since he had had several weeks of loose poops that the straining had done it. :( Poor pup! So we took him in for surgery to get it fixed two weeks back, and to keep him from bothering it he had to wear this Elizabethan collar for a week. It was so fashionable we decided to take a picture before we took it off last weekend!

Leo's Snow Day

So at the end of February we got an unheard-of amount of snow here in Denton, TX--around six inches!! Leo was VERY excited as he hadn't been able to play in the snow since he was a nine-week-old pup at New Zion Shilohs in New York state. He barrelled around the yard, plowing through the snow like a wild thing!

I have never quite figured out how to stuff a bunch of pics onto this blog, but I know enough basic HTML to set up a separate page for you to view all of our Snow Day pics: HERE! Enjoy and more to come soon!

Leo Turns 16 Weeks!

Welcome back to our blog everyone! Leo turned 16 weeks old on February 1st. We did a little photo shoot and you can see the result above. Isn't he a handsome devil? :) For more pics, go ahead and click this link to go to his 14 and 16 weeks photo album!

I have a scary and proud Leo story to share from last week, a scary thing that happened on his lunchtime walk. He's getting better, but still wrestles and wants to play when I am trying to get his leash on. It turns out that I apparently hooked the leash through the ID tag ring instead of the D ring when we were getting ready for his walk. That wire ring that holds his dog name tag on is not very strong at all! We were past the halfway point on the walk (he starts to pull a bit when it is obvious we are going home, and I have to correct more). Suddenly, the tag ring snapped and Leo shot ahead, off-lead!!

I said "Uh oh!" and stopped, had a quick panic attack, and Leo stopped and looked back at me. I said, "Leo, Come!" and gave our obedience hand signal for "come". And Leo came right back, right away!!! GOOD DOG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh boy was I proud! I swear he can screw around being the wild dingo dog and ignoring me all he wants when we are out in the backyard from now on, as long as he always acts like he did today when we are out in strange places!! And only four months old!!

Today Zak and I were out in our backyard, which is about 75 feet wide. Zak stood on one side and I stood on the other, and we took turns calling Leo to "come!" back and forth. He did about eight 75-foot recalls, and off-lead! Shilohs really are awesome!!