Icelandic Sheepdog Puppy Available

Hello Folks

Well this update is going to be mismash of info, so first, a art type photo of a Greenstone Pup on the run in the fields and the camera got the pup no quite blurry but blurred the background.. I love it personally, so wanted to share..

Training news: Zander is in Rally-O training, doing ok at it, but mom can't figure out where her feet are to go.. I can see that it will be me that has more problems then him.. was that a turn left or a turn right.. o ya, read the sign again.

I have a handling class once a week, and I will be moving who is going around, but mainly Freyja and Duchess will be going..

Puppy Classes: Well at this time, Duke and Duchess are going.. with puppy Privates for Olof and Cleo.. everyone is coming along very well in term of housebreaking and training time.

New Call Name annoucement- So Greenstone DuchessofYork new call name is Aron, and so from now on, when writing about her in a non-formal way, I will refer to her as Aron.

Maria went to her new home on the weekend, and what a lovely couple and their other dog is very beautiful and well trained, I think that Maria is a very lucky young lady, Maria's new call name is Rowen.

Show Updates and Info

Well, As most of you have seen from the blog, I have been out of touch for awhile, Man, what a busy late summer/Fall.. between the first National CISC Booster in Calgary, my Family reunion in Aug, then getting the moterhome ready and driving it out late Aug/First of Sept, then Mother-in-law visits, Mother visits, and then late fall work (garden/canning/preserves) hit hard.. and on top of that, two litter of puppies that require and demand a great deal of time, so shows kind of went to the side.. but don't worry, we have plans to get out and about in 2008.

We are planning on starting our Showing again in Feb of next year, our year goals are:

Finish Ada to her CKC Championship - Needs four points

Finish Freyja to her CKC Championship - Needs one points

Finish Aron to her CKC Championship - Needs all ten points :)

and work towards having Top ISD in Canada with either Freyja or Aron.

As far as I know, Greenstone Black Pearl Aka Freyja is Canada's # 1 Top Icelandic Sheepdog for 2007. I believe she is also Top Icelandic Sheepdog Puppy for 2007. I could not be more proud of her.

Aron's father Ch Belglen Riddari, who I believe is Canada's #2 Top Icelandic Sheepdog for 2007, and her mother is Tofra Dalla, Mother to Ch. Greenstone AJay, #1 Top Icelandic Sheepdog for 2006.. I am expecting great things from Greenstone DuchessofYork akc Aron in the show rings for 2008.

Show information and updates to follow as it gets closer.

Hip Information:

Greenstone DuchessofYork has had her Puppy X-ray Prelims on her Hips, and they look wonderful! She is starting of life with very clean hips, now we just keep on looking forward and it will be interesting to see what her adult HD rates turn out like.

This year will be the first year that we will have adult two year old results to go up against Greenstone Puppy Prelims, and I am greatly looking forward to seeing how well they match up, but am fully aware that it will take many more years of tests (at puppy and adult) to confirm and create a databank of information.

Chocolate Gene: Exciting news, I love a good proper chocolate Tri, my goodess they are good looking Icelandic Sheepdogs, Now I will admit that I don't like Dilute Chocolate tri's or Brown pigmented dogs or even cream dogs with brown pigments..

But I do believe that the "real" Chocolate Tri in our breed is important and worth preserving, so in keeping with that, I am taking the proactive step of having all my orginal import dogs tested by VetGen for the chocolate gene, (this is a recessive gene, and now can be tested with a simple genetic test) and if any of my orginal import/Foundation stock dogs come back postive, I will then start testing their offspring that are in kennel or co-owned with me.

So stay tune in the future to see all the dogs results posted, and if we have a boy and girl pop back postive, you can expect to see a breeding in the future, and maybe a full pigmented, stunning dark Chocolate Tri Greenstone Icelandic in a show ring near you!

Well in other news, Hnuks Putti aka Ulli is going to committee on Dec 5th and so we will be able to get Greenstone Born in A storm done after that, and then his litter and offspring soon afterwards.. so that is good news, but still going to take some time to get that last grandfather's paperwork done.

Planned Coming Litters- Always a good idea to get on the reservation list if you are interested in a Greenstone Puppy, most of the time when it comes to pet puppies, most of them are reserved before being born, or very shortly afterwards.

If you are looking for a Possable Show/Breeder Qaulity Icelandic Sheepdog, then Greenstone Kennel is one of the best to look at, we stand by our show record. We would be happy to send you a complete list of our Canadian Success.

Runa is due to come into heat at the end of Dec/07, and we are planning a breeding between her and Vaskur, for chincilla (cream) and Black Silver Tri, med and long coated puppies.

Folda is Due to come into heat in March/08, and we are planning a breeding with her as well. Stud to be annouced.

Then much to my amazement, Freyja is old enough and will be ready to be breed, it will depend on how she is doing in the show rings, but if she is to be breed, we are hoping to breed her to Greenstone Josey Wales.

Then comes Dalla again in late 2008/2009, and we are hoping to take her to Greenstone Voodoo Child, and for Greenstone Ada, we have our eyes on Greenstone Sharp Dressed Man.

Its going to be a couple very exciting and busy years ahead of us.. My older girls are on their last litters, and my younger girls are just starting to have their firsts.. I guess its just going to be a few years of crossovers.

Available Icelandic Sheepdog Puppies.

One Red Pied Long coated Male Puppy available for co-own, I would really like to see this guy grown out and maybe shown in the future. Please contact me if you would like more informaton.

isdpuppies@hotmail.com

Barks

Great workout for the dogs yesterday

Hello Folks

Well, its one tired and sore owner today but I feel better then I could I guess, LOL

What a great day yesterday was, the weather was amazing, a bit hotter then I would have liked, given that the dogs had to spend parts of the day in the truck, but, we were able to keep all windows open and to make sure a bucket of water was available at all times, plus I check the temp, there was a nice cool breeze, but its clearly time to crack out the crate fans..

So morning was spent getting thing ready for me to be gone from the farm for the afternoon/evening, and the truck was loaded with four dogs by noon and we were on the road..

So Zander had obedance class at 1pm, and he did really good, his heeling and recalls where right on, still a bit weak on the far sit stay, he wants to be with me so badly, and I was losing my voice at the time, which so didn't help matters. Still it was a good class and lots of great work done.

Then came my privates, so one of the issues we had at the last show with Freyja was she was great with Linda until she had to work behind myself and Zander in the ring, and then she was focused on myself to much, and wanted to work with me instead.. so this was one of the thing we practised in privates was working the dogs, me in front with Zander and Freyja and Kim directly behind etc..

Then I noticed that Freyja didn't seem to be having as good of reach and drive as normal.. so we started gaiting her and realize that although so very minor that walking around, you can't see it, that she was just the tinyest bit lame on the front right leg.. so we stopped there, and no agility training for her, so in truth by now, I am totally fried, so Kim says well lets train Freyja's brain.. and she goes and get her bell..

Well, I love watching kim work, she is so amazing.. now some of the credit goes to Freyja for being a very smart cookie, and some goes to me, for clicker training her since she could walk :) but within ten minutes Kim had her trained to walk over and ring the bell with her foot, and was up to two rings by the end :) What a team!!

Now I am going to have to go buy my own bell to keep the practise up LOL but its a very cute trick for children.

So for the next two weeks, no agility training, no real major runs etc, so it will be all about trick training for Freyja while we make sure that leg heals well. I admit that I am hoping that it will be healed enough that she can still be shown this weekend, that gives her four days.. before the first show.. should work..

So I was to have supper with Nat and Jason, and I decided that I really need to rest, not doing my walmart shopping as planned before picking up Jason at the bus stop, and heading out for dinner with Nat as well.. So showed up a extra hour and half at Nat's and we moved all the dogs into the backyard to hang out with us, well company just kept arriving( it was game night) and we ordered in Pizza, so it was a nice visit with friends, and the dogs worked the deck from person to person :)

So on to advanced Agiltiy training at 6:30 and it was both good and bad.. I honestly don't know what happened to Dalla last night, she was a nut!, when focused and working, great as always but I don't know if it was me or Dalla or a combo of both, but we had a hard time with it.. Not my best night, and while I would like to place all blame on myself, Dalla for the first time in years, decided to not have a solid come recall, and ring zoomies, now to a point if she had not just had lose time for three hours in the backyard, I might have cut slack on been in the truck all afternoon but that was not the case.. I truly don't know what got into her, but by about half way though class, we had worked out a number of the issues, but still didn't really hit our groove..

Jason and Ada on the other hand, other then a break in start line stay's, where grooving right along, they did really well, and I had to laugh at Jason, he does not work the dogs at home, that is my job, and so he had not really worked with Ada for awhile, (since the last class) and she has come along way since then in both inhome and private training and so she has a great deal more speed, and he was needing to RUN to get to the ends to say, "spot" which is great, I want that speed to keep coming up..

So then off to walmart for the required items (including new flipflops as my old ones, ended up in a game of puppy keep away last week and came out the worse for it), and then home, last of the chores that I could not do before leaving and bed.. ah, heavenly soft, comfy bed..until 3 am, when for some unknown reason, (we were both sound alseep) CRASH! and SMASH, and the lamp got knocked over, and we were up for the next ten min cleaning and vacooming so that no little pieces of glass where left behind and then back to bed..

Hope you guys all had a great day as well

Barks

Training your Icelandic Sheepdog and the Feeding Bowl

Hello Folks

I got asked, how do you feed the dogs, and do you ever have any issues? As you can see, some of my dogs truly love each other, best buddy's Dalla and Lily sharing one of the dog chairs together.

Well I do feed all the dogs together, but each has their own bowl and we have a routine.

So the dogs do tend to get excited when the food is being prepared, I feed in steel bowls(if at all possable avoid feeding food or water in any plastic) and I put the food bowls down in order of the pack.

So if you can picture it, I say, Back, and then call the dogs name that I want out, Oppa, and then the rest back up knowing that if their name was not said that they will not get to eat out of that bowl, then I move over a couple feet and call the next dog out.. I continue doing this until all the dogs are eating, Now my labby girl always gets feed last, not because she is low on rank, point in fact she is top dog of the house but because she is the faster eater in the group. I always pour something over the food, most of the time, I have some leftover veg water or dripping, and then I add enough warm water to be able to flavor and fill each bowl, I only let the water sit long enough to start a tiny bit of softening to the food, its point is not to make the food soft as to help slow down the eating, and help make sure everyone is getting water into themselves.

So then I just stand in the middle of the group and as each dog finishes, I take their bowls up, and just keep standing, now with me there, if someone looks at a lower Ranked dog, I will say their name.. and they know that means back away.. once everyone is finished, then all the dogs go outside for bathroom time..

This works for me, one because its routine and the dogs are use to it, althought with each new dog, the training start all over again, two because I respect my own dogs ranking and make sure to feed the top ranking dogs first, and third because as the TOP DOG, I stand watch to make sure no one forgets that I have the final say.

But before we get to that point, each dog goes though "feeding Bowl" training.. This starts as a puppy, the first lession is that food comes from peaple, and peaple control the food, but we are always kind to you..

I do this one, by never free feeding, they learn that I make the food, and that I give the food, but they also learn that there is enough food to go around.. no one goes hungry and that is important.

So the second thing is that you need to sit before the bowl goes down on the floor, this is a matter of me very calmly and nicely letting the dogs know that I am top dog, if they have to sit before the bowl goes down it helps teach them manners, control of their own bodies and that humans are in control, this works great once the puppies are eat out of their own bowls, when they are babies, and getting feed altogether, that is the time to teach the "Puppy/Come" command.

So once they are eating on their own bowls, when they start out with the litter, they all share fairly nice with each other, so I try to use that to advantage for when they start on their own bowls, I pet them, touch feet, ears, very gently tug on tails, all while still letting them eat and telling them what a good puppy, this gets them use to the fact that I can and will touch them while eating.

Second is to teach them that I can take their bowl away, and that goes like this, put their feed in a cup and put down a quarter of their feed in their bowl, and let them eat it, just before they are finished, down to the the last two or three bites, say, "Give" and take it away, and put another 1/4 in the bowl and put down again, and repeat until you have given all the food.. now with a litter, I might only do this once per puppy but with my own puppy or dog, I will divide into four, this teachs, two main things, Which, I can always give up my bowl to mom, but its ok, because she is always going to give me something back for it, and something I will slip a little something special on the return of the bowl, a piece of carrot, or meat etc.

This is important, as you want a dog that if a child reaches down and touches them while eating or takes their bowl away, that they will just stand there wagging their tails waiting for "what comes next"

Now, sometimes, you get some growls and hovering over the bowl, MY FOOD, MY BOWL, now some folks then start feeding the dog in a crate, in a different room, at a different time from the other dog or dogs.. I personally think that this is not a good idea, I say, don't take the easy way out, work though the issues, and that means hand feeding your dog.. take the bowl of food, and make your dog sit and nicely take the food one handful at a time.. over and over again.. this many take a couple days/weeks.. but at some point the dog is going to go.. ok I have to behave and I will always get my food.. Once you have good hand feeding happening, and yes, you have to make them do something to get that food, Sit, down, shake a paw, sit pretty, stay, but something, NO free lunches in this house.. :)

Once you have good hand feeding then put his bowl down in front of him, and say, his name, the command sit/stay, then put a handful of kibble in his bowl, and then release him.. then repeat until you have control and once you have that kind of control of each dog and each bowl, then you can feed the dogs together in the same room, and make sure you stand there and be the Ref, so that each dog knows and feels that you will be there for them, and that they don't need to be tough themselves because the rules are in effect.

Hope this helps a bit

Barks

Training ideas for your Icelandics Sheepdogs

Hello Folks

Wow, I was reading Sharon S of Belglen's Kennels training article in the Canadian Icelandic Sheepdog Clubs newsletter and she had gone to a Sue Ailsby Seminar and is doing a two article write up and its a very good overview of the seminar, but she also included a link to Sue's website for a training program with clicker that she has free for anyone that would like to download, so last night I read though it, and I love it, what a wonderful training tool.. I printed it all off and did lots of extra work sheets for some of my dogs. I love that it understands that you need to have progress and the check off sheet as your dog learns each new step is so! helpful, in the training part, she also addresses some of the most common issues or behaviours that the puppy or dog might do and gives some advice for each one..

I will keep you posted in the future on how well the training sheets and the check off sheets work, but considering that I run a speadsheet on my training, so I can keep track of where everyone is and what has been done, the odds are for me at least, I will quite like it.

Anyway, if you have some time to devote to learning, I highly recommend that you check out Sue's website, and if you are short on time, and lets face it , most of us are, print the lessions out, and start at lession one and work your way thought it,and please let me know how the training goes if you would like, or feel free to send photos and I will post some training photos.

www.dragonflyllama.com

Barks from the greenstone doggy crew, bring on the hotdogs mom!!! and lets get training..