New Odinn Photos from Alberta

Good Morning Folks

Well, its a fine winter day with a light dusting of snow, mild weather at only minus 8 this morning and the flock of little bottle lambs and one goat kid are doing well in their spot in the kitchen. Another week and they are going out to their own pen in the little barn with a heat lamp.. but for now they are in easy reach for feedings and they are about like having a litter of puppies in the house in terms of clean up, so I have had practise on this :)

So got some new photos of Odinn from mom again and this time, he has his tail up and I love the moving away shot of him as it shows a bit of his structure, which is nice. He is truly becoming a very spoiled ISD at mom's from what I can tell, he is still very much ken's special boy and he knows it, and struts his stuff when Ken comes home, but he is very much mom shadow dog for the whole day.

I realized with a start this week that my wonderful Tobba is going to be seven in a matter of days.. where has the time flown, I still remember picking her up in norway and flying home with her, so am thinking of getting a new photo portait done of her, she certainly is in her prime adult look, and she loves to be bathed, blowdried and brushed, she will do the diva flip of her head and go.. "of course I AM BEAUTIFUL" now take my picture LOL so watch for that coming soon..

I will have to go to the dollar store and the clothing store to get the props I want, and then set up the photo lights etc, and start working on getting that perfect picture, then into photo shop and then to the store to print it.. I love this new age.. its so cool..

I saw another ISD owner had made a one of those photo books of your photos for 15 dollars and it looked great, so I think I might do that as well, was thinking maybe I would do one for my new litter and send it to each owner.. how cool would that be..

Well, otherwise, Runa continues to look like she is expecting and given that her belly is growing daily at this point, I think its safe to say that she does indeed appear to be expecting, so that is very cool. Talked to monika on the phone and it does not appear that little Hofi is expectin, which is to bad, I am holding out hope that she will have one or two puppies.Max's sister is indeed expecting and due next week, so sending her all my best, love this litter and think its going to make some amazing puppies!

Well, had better get my day started.. hope to have some new photos for you later today..

Barks

Greenstone Voodoo Child Photos

Hello Folks

Ton's new, where do I start..

Well first, here are some wonderful photos of Greenstone Voodoo Child, he is a year and half old, and doing very well, has been getting lots of time out on the trails with his family, and I just love the photo of him at the beach.. what amazing photo, I think I will have to make it into a mug for my morning coffee.

Runa is doing well, she already starting to get bigger by the day, I am very excited about her coming litter.. I expect that considering that she is already starting to show, that its going to be a full litter indeed.

New CERF Exam results for 2008, I had Runa, Folda and Vaskur all redone already for the year 2008.

Odinn is still settling in at mom's and is doing very well.. still very much a love and very much a typical shadow ISD, and both mom and ken's buddy.

Duchess is coming with us this weekend to a winterfest, and will get to hang with the crowds and practise show training in a busy place, and then her first Fun match is Feb 16th, with her first major show being the weekend after.

I will try and get new photos of her when I am out..

Greenstone Mystic Moon starts her first Agility trials in Feb, so everyone send a Cheer, Don and Maggies way for the best of luck on her first trials. I promise to update as soon as I have results.

Well, that at least gives a basic update.

Have a good day Folks

Val

Odinn Black Tri Stud -Imported from Iceland

Hello Folks

Here is a update on Odinn, he is settling in very well at the Hickford home, He does not like to have his photo taken, but mom is still working on more photos, this is what we have so far, so as you can see, he is a lovely full pigmented black/tan and white male, he is a total sweetheart, and does very well with the grandchildren, is very close friends with the other dog of the house, little Tessa May, and has now even made friends with the two house cats.

He is a very smart and willing working dog, he learns what is allowed and not allowed within one or two times explained to him, a good watch dog that is friendly when folk come to the house, this is perfect to breed standard.

He is a very clean male (no leg liftings in the house) and travels very well in the car/truck or camper van, his favorite food in the whole world is Bacon, to which he will sit and shake while waiting for his little treat. He also loves his dried lamb treats and loves his new doggy bed.

Odinn is available for stud to approved females and will be used with Freyja for her first litter in 2008, what a exciting litter that will be, Both parents have CERF normal, Odinn has very good Pennhip scores at .44 both hips, and Freyja has a Good Prelim and we expect a OFA Good as an adult (test to be preformed before breeding of course), and we will be expecting all Black Tri's, in both med and long coat. Odinn has very strong heavy dewclaws, including a double dewclaw on his one front leg, Freyja has Doubles on the front, but we are very hopeful that Odinn will add much stronger dewclaws on the puppies.

Barks

Show Update on New "Ch" Belglen Riddari

Hello Folks

New win photo of Ch Belglen Riddari coming soon, till it arrives, I am using the win photo from Ontario taking two weeks before the first National Booster event for the CISC and Icelandics.

Riddari was finished in very limited shows, three weekends in total, taking Best of Breed Five out of eight days of shows entered. Ch Belglen Riddari had earned six points in ontario, and finished his Championship in style in Calgary at the first Canadian Icelandic Sheepdog Booster, by taking Best of Breed for a five point win. Congrats to Sharon at Belglen Kennels for showing him in Calgary as Breeder/Owner/Handler.

He went on to take Best of Breed on Sunday of the show, and also on Sunday his Litter sister Belglen Risna took BOS, and they are both Littermates to Ch Belglen Runa of Greenstone, the first female CKC Champion in Canada. Risna is a international Champion as well. It is fair to say that the litter has done very well indeed. For those interested in the bloodline, Ch Belglen Riddari is the father to the two current Greenstone litters on the ground and Ch Belglen Runa of Greenstone is going to be breed this winter for a coming litter. Two puppies are still available for reservations at this time, and we are taking reservations on Runa's planned litter to be.

He was not at the AKC show on Monday, as Sharon needed to head home, but with two Best of Breeds over the weekend and high placement on Friday, he had a very good weekend indeed.

Barks

CERF Update Results, and coming litters plus New Ch Tofra Lagsi of Greenstone photos

Hello Folks

Welcome to this fine raining monday morning at Greenstone Kennel. Well its been a bit since I wrote so will break up a few things into different areas of news.

Lets start with the amazing photos of Ch Tofra Lagsi of Greenstone Kennel, Grandma Sharp outdid herself on these photos, the first one of Lagsi curling himself up for a sleep in Northpole Sherman's bed, nice big bed for a nice big old Ragdoll boy, but not so big when a Icelandic Sheepdog is trying to fit as well :) Show's off Lagsi sweet and snuggly side and his wonderful depth of color in his markings.. I love that Lagsi is such a pretty boy, one of the nicest show marked red/white/black pieds, I have seen over the years.

The second picture cracks me up, this shows Lagsi playful side, he is with string in his mouth convincing Ticky Boo that playing with him is the "BEST" fun LOL..

Thank you so much Grandma Verla for the wonderful photos of Lagsi but also the wonderful happy photos of Ticky -Boo and that handsome Sherman! Everyone looks so very happy and health.

Ch Tofra Lagsi was born in Norway, imported in to the US, where he had two litters under the Aldebaren Kennel Name, and then was imported into Canada and into the Greenstone Kennel at the age of two, and he has been living with Grandma Sharp ever since.

CERF Updates: Tofra Dalla and Greenstone Ada, (upcoming momma dogs) have gotten their CERF Renewals for 2007, for more information on Greenstone CERF results for the past seven years please check out this link. If you have a Greenstone Puppy and it is over the age of two and if you would like to consider getting a CERF exam so I can continue to track the eye health of the breeding lines, I would be grateful. I will look up and find you the nearest CERF vet or CERF clinic in your area to help in this if you are interested.

http://icelandsheepdog.blogspot.com/2007/04/greenstone-cerf-resuls-2001-2007.html

Puppy news:

Dalla is huge!!! I never seen a female this big this early, and the puppies can be felt moving, I was laying with her, she is being a very sucky female, and so both Jason and myself find ourselves stopping many times during the day to just snuggle her.. she seems to need it, but it does not help the work LOL but whatever Dalla needs she gets.. and who could resist her brown eyes and soft muzzle resting on you to see if you might like to stop and give her a snuggle, and she wants a full body hug/snuggle on the coach and then she sighs and closes her eyes in contentment while I give her a very! gentle massage.. spoiled baby she is LOL

I don't know, either the puppies are going to be big, or she has a Big Litter, the most puppies ever born at Greenstone was six, but only five lived.. and I have a feeling that she is going to break that record this time round.

Ada is starting to show now as well, she is the normal size for a female at her stage in the game..

So in keeping with the dogs and their puppies.. I have as always been doing research and found that there was two things that were wonderful for developing smarter puppies in the womb, one is found in the trace minerals in Seaweed, second is found in farm fresh eggs( found in regular eggs to, but at a much reduced rate) and so I have created my expecting mother cookies, well more like a big breakfast snack.

I don't know if you can make this recipe without a farm but you can try if you have a good health food store?

Expecting Cookies and or making smarter puppies

6 Farm Fresh Eggs (I perfer Ducks, as it givens me double the yolk to white, and what I am after is in the yolk)

1 cup whole fresh (just milked) Goats milk

I Tablespoon Fresh Ground Flax seed

1/2 Teaspoon of fresh top of the line Norway ground Kelp

1/2 Traces Gold/Silver/Copper water

The eggs, Milk are beaten together and then the flour is added I start with two cups, and then add the extra's on top and mix together then start adding about half a cup or less till it is a stiff dough, and then I roll it out and place on cookie sheet (make one large sheet, about half an inch high) and I cut it with Pizza cutter into big sqaures and cook for ten min at 350 and then turn oven off and leave all day if possable or over night to harden, the females have been getting this since breeding- 3 cookies per day as snacks.. everyone else gets one cookie per day only.

I got the Flax, Norway Kelpt and Mineral trace water at the health store.

So we will see if it helps, I had read a paper, once I see if I get the effects I am after I will let you know the link to the paper and see if anyone else wants to try it as well.

Well otherwise, life is busy but good, regular farm chores, and lots of work to do, thrilled to have the rain over the weekend and they say rain off and on all week, we can use it, the gardens can use it, the well can use it etc.. but it means can't mow the lawn right now either and it could use it, o well its always a give an take on these things.

Garden is coming along well, enjoying it very much this year..

Spent a great deal of time Grooming dogs this weekend, and a bit of time on runs and training.. Looking forward to the show in Kar's on the 21st, 22nd, and 23rd.. I think the dogs will do very well at it..

So that is about it, everyone have a great day.

Barks

Happy Canada Day!

Happy Canada Day Everyone!

The Greenstone Crew wishes you the very best this weekend.

Greenstone Alexander the Great showing off his Canadian Pride at the lake!

Ch Greenstone Ajay -TOP Iceland Sheepdog in Canada 2006 CKC

Hello Folks

I have some wonderful and exciting news

Ch Greenstone Ajay, bred and owned by Valerie Sharp of Greenstone Kennesl goes into the history books today.

He is the first Iceland Sheepdog to earn the CKC Top Dog Awards for the year.

Ch Greenstone Ajay is the TOP Iceland Sheepdog for 2006! The first Icelandic in Canada to ever earn this award!

A huge thank you to his handler, Linda Thompson, we could not have done it without you!

A huge thank you to the breeders of Ajay's parents, Tofra Dalla (Tofra Kennel, Iceland, Monika K) and Pineridge Vaskur (Jill Fike and Norm Fox, Pineridge Kennels B.C.).

A huge thank you to my husband Jason for supporting me in my efforts and for all the times you have gotten up at 4 in the morning to help me load the truck and stayed home to look after the farm so that I can "go to the shows" It means a lot to me!

And last but certainly not least, to all my friends, and family and to all my puppy owners! You are the best! Now I am going to ask that you all hug your dogs! Cuz mine has had lots of extra hugs and kisses today!

Barks Val

Judges Seminar over the weekend.

Good Morning Folks,

I love this photo of the crew, with myself and Monika Karlsdottir visiting from Iceland. The dogs look sooo young, hard to believe that this was taken two years ago, I think I will have to try and get some group photos of the dogs this summer for the albums.

What a good long weekend, Jason took Friday off work, and stayed home to work on one of the new inside Dog pens that has a pop out door to their own private 20 by 8 by 6 doggy run. I still need to paint and do the finishing touchs but I am thrilled to have it come up for the girls heats, as I will be able to safely keep everyone inside, without having to use very much to almost no crate time, instead they will have large indoor pens in the attached dog room, and their own outdoor pen to hang in.

We have plans to set up three more in the same area so that will be a wonderful help in being able to manage the dogs while the females are in heat and the males can't be with them etc.

Otherwise, we worked outside on friday a bit, and got some more scrubs planted, we are creating a flower bed and garden with bushes to help provide shade in front of the dogs pens, will give the dogs more shade, and will make it look nicer for everyone.

So Friday night was getting ready to go Saturday for the judges seminar, so up bright and early on saturday and off we went, good drive, lots of rain but still it was a good drive, and we arrived on time, and the hosts where wonderful..

I loved their dog training area!, I want one LOL, they have a huge covered areana, half is smooth cement, with ring mats down, for show/obedance training, and the back half, a full size agiltiy training center, sweet! It was a great set up, and I would love to someday have something simular for my own dogs to train in on property.

So the semianar itself went very well, we gave out the Standard with drawings, and we have the DIF video, and many other books and four ISD's for the judges to see. We had two males, two females, two long hair, two med coated, Black tri's and yellow gene dogs. lots of white, and little white, so a good cross section of the breed in these terms.

The judges where interested and very kind to us, they asked lots of questions and seemed quite interested in the breed. All in all a wonderful way to spend a few hours, everyone who knows me, knows get me talking about ISD's and I can go forever LOL

However last week, we had those very bad wind storm (knocked the rabbit hutch over) and I was outside in it a bit, and got wind in my ears, and so over the week, my ears and throat just kept getting worse and worse, by Saturday, I was on full meds to appear normal :) and when done, got in the truck and my head felt like it would explode, so took some more meds and had a nap on the way home, thank goodness for willing hubbies that help in these things, Went to bed early saturday and most of sunday morning, was spent getting some extra sleep, Jason was in charge upstairs and the dogs seemed to think that is fine, but most of them piled on the bed with me and gave me much needed cuddles and kisses to make me feel better, nothing much better then a living, loving furry hot water bottle ;)

So after I got up, worked outside in my gardens for a few hours and then was tired again, so went to bed early last night and am a bit better today, and have started my normal chores, so far so good.

The dogs a fab, everyone is doing great, training is good, we are all loving the extra time outside, and they are all getting much more one on one time taking turns hanging out in the yard with me while I am working outside.. I try and switch them off, so they all get time out of the dog yard and out with me. and they all run and run and then they come back and hang with us.. and stick their noses into the ground, or boxes or whatever we are doing.. with this sweet, "What are you doing? look and a few of them know the word dig, and so we have to have a talk about, no digging in my gardens LOL

Otherwise found a stash of eggs in the barn, I knew those hens had found a place, tons of eggs, most of them fresh and good so that is great, barn critters are doing well..loving the new green grass, but today they are going to have to stay inside, I am not up to being out in the winds today to help graze them.

Hope everyone had a great weekend, and my goals for the week, painting, planting, gardening, cleaning the outside chicken area, getting better, dog training classes, (advanced agility starts tomorrow night) and getting packed and ready for my harris semianar in toronto this coming weekend.

Barks

Greenstone Voodoo Child "Pika" Update

Hello Folks

I got the most wonderful update from Pika's owners tonight and wanted to say THANK You to them and share their update with all the fellow puppies owners and friends :)

Pika is one of those very lucky pups who's owners not only have a great home but they also have a cabin, and his family has informed me that he loves his time outside with them, Sent a wonderful photo, but will have get permission to include on the website, (love! his curly tail but it has mom in it, and I don't post photo with family, without express permission) Ah, I cropped him in the photo, and I just have to share, he is STUNNING....WOW, I know that he is one of my babies, but I really like him..

So he is starting to learn to wade up to chest high and I have no doubt will be swimming well by the end of the summer, everyone that has a greenstone pup and cabin, tend to tell me that they have dogs that love to swim..

So Pika has done well in school, finishing Puppy Kindergarden and taking a " obility" class with is a combo of obedance and what sounds like puppy agility training.. what a great idea.. I have had some folks also talk to me about their schools offering family dog training or puppy agility, always interesting to see what is offered across the different parts of the country.

It sounds like Pika will be having lots of fun in "home study" for the next while, and that is great, I am sure he is going to enjoy his summer at both home and at the cabin, can't wait to see photos of him out in such a beautiful area for the photos backdrop.

I have to say, I was truly moved to see the photo of Pika on the sofa sleeping, he is his daddy! and he looks so much like him that it pulled my heart strings, when he is standing out in the snow, I can see his momma in him, but O my goodness he looks like his daddy.. and he is such a "macho boy" What a little powerhouse.. can't wait to see him as a fully grown adult.

Thanks again for sending new photos and the lovely update..

Barks

Greenstone Sharp Dressed Man

Hello Folks

Ok, time for the doggy updates, First the dogs are good, lots of runs and starting to shed more, so lots of grooming and a few baths given in the past week, plus lots of show grooming on the two that are getting prep work done.

On the agilty front, we have Freyja at Dream Fields Puppy building blocks, which has very nice instructors and really sweet class mates but Freyja was bored, and I can't say I blame her, she is used to doing full contacts and two on and two offs, and we are working on the T-totter at low height, and Aframe a 3/4 height at home, as well as ten foot outruns and auto downs on the table, and we spend last night doing clicker intro, touch our hands, and clicks for putting feet on the foot high straight board.. There was challanges for me, like trying to make Frejya understand that the instuctor wants her to pause on each step though the ladder, when normally I am working though the same type of pole set up for show training and she is always to move at a trot and never touch the poles..

Great place dream fields, lovely looking set up but its is a hour and 3/4 with good traffic, and with even a simple slow down it will be a two hour drive each way, so all I have to say is this!! thank goodness that Best Friends starts these outside training classes in May!! where its only a 45 min drive each way, and that I have my own private field to work on as well.. soon it will be dry enough that we can get a few things outside.

Zander is in Agiltiy on Sunday nights, and we are still picking up privates for different dogs twice a month at this time, ranging from an hour to hour and half depending on what we are working and how many dogs.

Zander starts his obedance/Rally training on April 3rd, I want him ready for trials in Aug in Calgary, and a whole host of dogs will be starting outside agiltiy training, also have one tracking class coming up in the next month..

So got some lovely new photos of Greenstone Sharp Dressed Man last night and just had to share, this lovely intact young man just finished his level one obedance and is starting in his agility training in med april, can't wait to see him rock the ring in the near future! A big Thank you goes out to his family for all their hard work and thanks for sending photos and updates!

Otherwise, we have confirmed puppies, and movement is felt daily!! Momma dog is getting big! and I am very excited about having new puppies the first part of April, due April 11th, photo updates as soon as they are here!

Well had better run,

Barks

Greenstone Alaxander The Great-more photos

Hello Folks

Ok, I took the cameria with me on the dogs run/walks this morning, and tried to get a few new ones of Zander, now these are plain jane, causal photos taken in deepish snow and I promise that within half a second of me taking the photo he was on the move again.. I had to put the very cute, leaping right at me, snow nose photo in..

While I might have found it cold, the dogs loved it, anyway, as most of you know, Zander is expecting his first litter of puppies in April! I am very excited , and I know that a number of folks on the waiting lists have asked to see new photos of this lovely med coated black tri boy.

For the show folks, you will have to wait for a proper show stack photo coming in the future no doubt as I will be working to finish him in the next few shows. Zander was shown twice and took Best of Breed once and Best of Opposite Sex once, so he is already got a two point major on him.

Barks

Greenstone Alexander the Great

Hello Folks,

Had some requests to get a new updated photo of Greenstone Alexander the Great up, its an ok photo, and shows that he is starting to mature out at this time.. Better photos soon.. Keep the questions and comments coming and I will always do my best to try and answer them.

Barks

Icelandics Sheepdogs and when Come means! COME

Hello folks

We are trying to still unpack boxes from our move and get settled in, as some of you know, it took a year to get our house from Iqaluit, Nunavut after we moved down, and by that time, in truth we were used to living with the min look..

Anyway, Last night we found a box of photos, and among the treasures where these two photos, I had this up on the old website, and just had to share them all with you, I figure there are lots of new folks that have never seen them.

So this is the story, we always took the dogs out for their runs on the tundra behind our house, we were right at the edge of town, and so you just crossed the road and you had a couple thousand km of open goverment owned land to camp on, hike on, and at the local sandpit, do Agility at (it was the only place that we could find that was safe for the dogs to jump and land on), so in the tundra, its all valley's and hills, and one of the games that J and I have always planned is fine mom or dad, and or to call the dogs back and forth with their names and come.. its great for teaching a good recall right from puppyhood.

Ok, so we are out hiking, with Lily of the Tundra (our lovely purebred yellow lab), Bella (our Yellowknife all canadian northern Rescue pound puppy) Pineridge Vaskur (Black Tri) and Tofra Tobba (who I had flown to Norway to get the year before), and I am on one side of the valley, hiking the top and Jason had been hiking the bottom, and then came up the trail on the side of the valley, and he realized that he had lily with him but not the other three, so called their names and come.. I was taking pictures of the local area, and just happened to have the camera in my hand, and was able to snap these two photos,

The first one is Vaskur, leaping straight up the side of the valley to go to Jason, and of course this did not work so well, as it was a fairly stiff large cliff, and so, he comes down at a run, does a big circle, and head straight back up, I was so surprised but was able to get one more photo of him 3/4 of the way to the top, and yes, he pulled and scrabbled himself all the way to the top for his pat and cookie from Dad. Bella and Oppa, went to the trail and followed it up to the top..

I am going to put these up at the largest photos setting so that hopefully you can see him in some detail. I have always thought, that surely he used his double dewclaws that day, and showed just how agile the Icelandic would be in Iceland, as the landscape is very much the same between Iceland and Nunvut, Canada.

Barks

Pineridge Vaskur of Greenstone Kennel

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Hello Folks

I am pleased to bring you Pineridge Vaskur of Greenstone, Vaskur is a Long Hair Black Tri, Double Dewclaws in Back, Singles in Front. Vaskur is a Chincilla carrier, and carries a full black mask. Pattern wise, he carries both of the higher levels of the spotting factor. Vaskur has had his Hips Certified HD Free, by Pennhip and by OFA prelims, Vaskur has Five CERF Normals, and has had his heart checked by a Board Certified Cardo vet.

Vaskur has proven his weight in Gold within the Greenstone Kennel Breeding program, he has not only helped improve Hip rates in his offspring, but he is the father to the first CKC Champion Iceland Sheepdog in Canada, and the Father to the first Multi -Group placing CKC Icelandic Sheepdog. He has four more CKC pointed Offspring at this time and we will update as more finish. He has not just one Therapy Dog offspring but in fact has three offspring that either work as therapy dogs or a combo of a service/Therapy dog. He is the father to the first Icelandic Sheepdog in the United States to earn herding titles, and point in fact has three offspring in N.A. with herding titles. Vaskur has both offspring and grandpuppies active in Agility, and we look forward to see how they continue to do in the future.

Now, I know what you are thinking, you are thinking, but he has most likely had lots of litters, well think again, he has only had four litters and out of them, he is father to seventeen puppies at this time, out of three different females.

And if that is not enough, Vaskur himself is a exploration dog, he has traveled the artic of Canada with his favorite Geologist, you will get to see him meeting some local inuit, and hanging out on his twice daily helicopter trips to go out into the tundra, he has ridden in all kinds of boats, helicopters, float planes, Quads and Skidoo's, and then when he comes home, he has been bathed and fluffed and taken to dog shows by his favorite mom :) and done the breed proud, he has been used at breed booths and in schools to introduce a bit of Iceland to the children in the north.

This is well rounded boy, and he is much loved by everyone that meets him.. If you are looking for a stud that comes from two directly imported from Iceland Parents, A stud that has passed all his health checks, and has produced some of the top winning Icelandics in Canada, and has proven himself in temperment time and time again then Vaskur is a Icelandic to look at!!

I will consider using him at stud for approved females at this time. If interested in Vaskur for stud or to get on the waiting list for his next litter, contact me at isdpuppies@hotmail.com

Barks