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OMEGA SHEPHERDS
Adventures on the Ranch

4 wheelin adventures!

Photo Above : Leah and Zeus

-----I hope you all had a great Christmas and New Years. The rush is over now and things are slowly returning to normal - well as close to normal as anything ever gets here! We had 2 new litters of pups - Tracy had hers on Christmas Eve - she kept me up all night - but has 6 beautiful babies! Natalie had her on January 3. All the babies are doing excellent. Tracys pups are about 14 days old now, their eyes are mostly open and they can hear, they lift their heads up and look at me when I talk to them - but then fall right back asleep. Still babies!! Wait another week though and they will come running when they hear me ! That's when the fun begins!
-----This winter started out threatening to be a bad one with lots of snow and cold. But after the first few snow storms in November and December it's been a pretty mild winter. Up in the 40's to 50's during the day and high 20's at night. Not bad, not bad at all. About a week ago we had a big RAIN storm - it rained heavy all night long. That is the first time I can ever remember rain in January!! Unfortunately, thought rain in January only makes lots of ice - so I would much rather have snow than rain - but mother nature doesn't listen to me ! and just does what she wants.
-----Oh well, without any snow I had to get creative if I wanted to go "dog sledding". We recently got 2 ATV's - so now I can hook up 8 dogs and go dog Atving! The dogs love it as much as dog sledding - personally I would rather be on a dog sled - but it's still fun and great exercise for them. Going down hill I put it in neutral and they can pull it without a second thought. Coming back up hill though I kick the engine in gear so they are just running and not pulling. So right now I am going to the mail box with them pretty much everyday, our driveway is about 2 miles long ONE WAY and is a typical mountain road with 2 very tight switch backs. The name "Elk Trail" isn't a mistake - in fact a couple days ago I saw tracks crossing the road of about 15 elk including 3 bulls, which judging from the tracks a couple of them were really big bulls!
-----Other than "Atving" - I am in full gear with Agility Training. AKC trials don't start here until the end of April but I have 2 new, young dogs I am training. Zeus is about 10 months old, he is an Uzi - Zena son. I kept him as a personal dog for me and to do agility with because with his breeding he should be a TOP agility dog. He is also the last son of Uzi as Uzi passed away this fall - so that makes him even more special to me. He is doing excellent in agility and tries so hard to please me and if he messes up you can tell he gets frustrated with himself and tries even harder! When I first started training him on the tunnel I would say tunnel and he would run to the tunnel (he figured that out right away) - but he didn't know what to do with it so he would make a big circle around the whole tunnel and come back to me - he would do that over and over like he thought that is what he was supposed to do. After several times of having him go THROUGH the tunnel on lead he got the idea. But it was so funny how he knew he was supposed to do something with this long snaky thing, he couldn't figure out WHAT to do but was going to do his best! Now he has that down pat. He loves the dog walk and A frame and FLIES over them. The teeter totter is down as low as it can go to the ground so that is easy for him but it still tips and he can feel it move under him. He is also doing well with the jumps and is learning to turn tighter and follows my body language very well. I have learned so much this past year - with Tess and Rhett. I knew NOTHING and just got in there and did my best with them but Zeus and Buddy have a much better advantage now because I actually know something about agility!! Buddy is a Border Collie pup I got - he is about 6 months old so I am just starting to train him. I got him because I wanted a dog to compete in the 20 inch class - because all the Shepherds have to run the 24 inch class. So I just wanted a smaller dog to run too.... well it's just my luck Buddy isn't turning out to be small and it looks like he may very well run the 24 inch class too. Oh well....... I like him and will run him in whatever class he fits into. But amazingly Zeus is every bit as fast as Buddy right now...... everyone in the club that has seen Zeus work says he is the fastest German Shepherd they have ever seen!!! And he is just getting started! But even though he is high drive and fast in agility - he is super calm and settled in the house. I am still training Rhett and Tess and plan to run them this year as well...... it's going to be a busy summer but I am looking forward to it!
-----Till Next Time,
-----Leah and Everyone at Omega Shepherds

 

Leah and Zeus

 

Leah and Buddy (getting a ride!)

 

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