Wish Us Luck!

I wanted to make a quick update to ask everyone to wish Leo luck--we are going down to Hutto, TX, for an IABCA dog show this weekend! Above is the professional photo taken at his last show, when he won the Rare Breed Best in Show puppy award. I finally got around to making it digital so we could put it up on here! ;)

Leo is on his way to becoming an ISSR Shiloh Shepherd stud! We had hip x-rays taken at just after one year and sent them in to the OFA for their preliminary rating. Leo came back "Good"! So we are very pleased and now we need to wait until he is two years old to get his adult rating for OFA and his rating from Penn Hip as well. We are considering which other health certifications we would like to do so we can get it all done at once. Leo passed his temperament test at Homecoming last year, so he is on track and looking good!

Check back after this weekend--I will try to have new pics up and a show report next week!

Leo and Littermates!

One of the things I wanted to do for Leo's first birthday was collect pictures (past and present) of all of his littermates. Fortunately we are blessed with a fantastic circle of puppy parents, and almost all of us have kept in touch and traded pictures and information over the months! My profound thanks must go out to Anne, Liz, Karen, and most definitely Michelle for getting new pics of Kai, who we have not seen pictures of since she was quite small!

First let's look at the girls! Below we have Ginger and Kai at around three weeks, eight weeks, and one year! Sadly I couldn't find the original LER pic of Ginger so I settled for a different one.











Here we have Sunny and Nana, again at three weeks, seven or eight weeks, and one year (technically Nana is ten and a half months in the oldest pic, but it's the most recent I have). Sunny is the dark-faced girl on the left and Nana is on the right. Nana was the only smooth pup in our litter.









And, finally, here are Leo and MC! MC, of course, is the dark pup in the pic, and Leo the light one on the left. :)










I hope you enjoyed seeing the pictures of all of Leo's littermates as much as I have collecting them!!

Leo's First IABCA Show!

This past weekend, October 4th and 5th, Zak, Leo, Kyrie and I attended our first IABCA dog show in Oklahoma City, the 2008 Sooner Sieger. But what is an IABCA show?


The International All-Breed Canine Association was founded in order to provide American and Canadian dogs with the chance to earn an International Championship title without having to travel overseas. IABCA partnered with an organization in Germany (UCI) to make this possible, and the shows are run in the format of a German Sieger show. What this means is that every dog that shows gets a personal critique and rating from the judge after they show--so you actually know *why* your dog placed the way he did!


Leo did incredibly well--you can see him in his flying trot, above--and obtained an SG-1 rating in every one of four shows (from four different judges). SG-1 is the highest rating possible for a puppy to get! Because Leo got four, he has earned both his National and International Puppy Championships with the IABCA in only four shows!

Because Shilohs are a giant breed and take a long time to mature, Leo will be in the Puppy class (9 months to 14 months) until December, and then in the Youth class (14 months to 18 months) until next year April. After that, he gets to compete against the big dogs at the IABCA shows! Kyrie, unfortunately, could not compete as her ear is in a brace and that is not legal at dog shows. I will put more about that when I catch up in her blog!


Here is a picture of Leo and Zak and Christi and Brandy just after they've come out of the ring! Christi and her whole family came up just for the second show on Saturday. She did very well her first time in the show ring, earning an SG-1 rating as well! Congratulations, Brandy!

Little Bruno came along too! Unfortunately he could not compete, as he turned three months the day AFTER the show! We just know he will be knocking judges' socks off in no time, though--what a lover boy! Below are pics of Bruno, one being ultra-cute and one with Leo--he crawled up to touch noses with Leo through his X-Pen!




We hope you are enjoying Leo's blog, and you can expect a lot more dog show pictures in the future! Leo's next IABCA show is in November in Houston. Wish us luck!!

Let's Play TUG!

Lately I have been exercising my camera skills taking pictures of Leo and Kyrie playing. :) I know there will be days when I will want to look back at photos of them when they were younger and still growing up! So here are some pictures of our latest playtime session. :)

Leo: "Oh, Kyyyyyrie...look what IIIIIIII have...you want it, you know you do!"


Kyrie: "Yeah, right. I'm not falling for that again...really...awww, heck, I want that tug!"


Kyrie: "I know I can do it! I'm bigger now! Look out Leo, I'm gonna get that tug!"


Leo gives a tug and WHOOPS! Kyrie's paws have left the ground! What a moose that Leo is! Maybe next time, Kyr...


Hope you enjoyed them as much as the pups did producing them!!

Shilohs at the UKC Show!

The North Texas American Pit Bull Terrier Club hosts a twice-annual UKC show here in Denton. We are always impressed with how nice and friendly the people are and it is great to introduce a couple of new people to the Shiloh Shepherd every time we show up! This time Zak was out of town and I could only take one dog, so Leo and I hopped in the car and zoomed out to the fairgrounds. I was glad I took Leo because all while we were there people were stopping over who remembered when Leo visited back in the spring! I have taught Leo to look at the camera when I say "Movie Star!" so here he is with his movie-star face:



We also had other Shiloh friends come for a visit! Christi and her family with Brandy, who was only ten weeks old at the last show, and their brand-new puppy Bruno came to the show as well! Brandy is such a sweetie, she is in training to be a Therapy Dog and she got lots of great practice meeting people! Bruno is an amazing pup, what a personality! Here is my favorite picture, with Leo looking back at the camera as if to say "Awww, aren't they cute?"



Usually when I'm the one taking pictures I never get any of my own dog, but Christi's dad was nice enough to take this one of me, Leo, Christi, and Brandy. Thanks for a great time, guys!

Fall Playtime!

Leo and Kyrie got some serious playtime in on and around the first day of autumn! I decided that it would be nice to get some new pics, so here we go!

We love our pillow...wait, did Mom just say "Outside"??


Can I have that?


Time to play!!


We used to do this when you were a lot littler, remember Kyrie?


Oh, did you want this??


Shilohs in Motion!


We are a BLUR!


Oh now we are tired...where's that pillow?


I hope you enjoyed our pictures!

HOMECOMING!

Isn't he gorgeous?? Here is Leo in a show stack. We managed to get him to stand in it for all of five seconds...LOL! Famous dog guy Fred Lanting (remember Fred from the dog show in Denton back in the spring?) was a judge at Homecoming in New York state and helped us stack him. But I'm getting ahead of myself...

In August, Zak and I decided that the craziest thing we could do would be to take our vacation time, load a ton of clothing, food, toys, dog utensils, and both dogs into the new car (my new Honda Element!) and take off for New York state!! Our breeder and breed founder, Tina Barber, holds an annual extravaganza appropriately called Homecoming. All of the Shilohs who can manage it try to return to New York for this awesome event! It's held at a campground in the beautiful hills of western New York state. Camping, food, Rally exhibitions, show handling lessons, a structure and gait seminar, dog evaluations by experts on the breed...it's all there! Not to mention there are so many FANTASTIC dogs and people to meet and get to know better!



Some of those people we got to know better are above--some of Leo's littermates returned for Homecoming!! There is MC on the left, being silly and not looking at the camera. He is Leo's only brother. :) His owner Anne is standing. Then there is Fred, who thought our litter was so awesome he wanted a picture of himself with them! Isn't that fantastic??? Next up are Michelle and Ginger, Leo's lookalike sister! Ginger and Leo got to play a lot over those four days! Their pavilion was set up next to ours. :) Then there is my handsome Zak and handsome Leo, hamming for the camera as usual. And finally there is Karen with her beautiful Nana, the only smooth coat pup from the litter! Nana is truly a gorgeous dog and won Puppy Best in Show on Saturday. Below is her stacked picture:



We have an amazing litter, I only wish we could have gotten stacked pictures of ALL Leo's siblings!

Finally, our big news...at the Specialty show on Sunday, LEO took Puppy Best in Show! In the Saturday show he took Winner's Dog Plush Puppy, and also Best of Opposites Plush. :)

Hope you enjoyed the pics!

--Anne :)