Shepherd Sight

Johnny got bit by a copperhead!

I let Johnny and Jane out after eating last night, and a copperhead must have been right at the door. Johnny had gone out first, and I grabbed Jane and yanked her back in as I saw the snake. That left Johnny outside with the snake. I called him back inside, yelling loudly because he is losing his hearing. He came, and the snake went past him, slithering wildly into the grass.

I secured the dogs inside, and went back out (barefoot, I later realized) and grabbed the shovel. The snake had darted into a clump of high grass at the edge of the patio which had evaded my lawnmower a few days before.

I chopped blindly at the grass with the heavy, long handled shovel until I saw movement, then focused there until I was sure I had done damage. Only then did I get off the patio and finish it off.

**I was standing near the water bowl and chopping down into the weeds**

My sister heard it all via speaker phone! I had been talking to her when I let the dogs out, and she heard some cussing!

I did not realize until this morning that Johnny had actually been bitten. It must have happened as he was going outside. His foot is really swollen, but he’s acting okay and eating. I gave him Benadryl and found the wound and cleaned it. He’s resting comfortably. He can walk on the foot, and it doesn’t seem to hurt much, despite the swelling.

The day before this happened, I had surgery, so I really was “chopping blindly.” My eyes were swollen half shut, plus it was dark out, with just the porch light on. Due to reduced field of vision, I had this type of surgery: https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/treatments/8409-eyelid-surgery-blepharoplasty

My visual field should be much better in a few days, but the day after surgery is not the day to be out killing snakes. I do not recommend it!

Happy 4th of July!

Daphne’s 2nd Major win, Best of Breed over specials!

Daphne beat ALL the other German Shepherds at the show in West Friendship today! She got Winners Bitch, Best of Winners, and Best of Breed, beating 3 champions! I’m so proud of her!

**Me and Daphne, back at home with our ribbons**

Many many thanks to Kevin Brown who stepped up to handle her to the big win! I was in the same ring with Clyde as Kevin beat us with Daphne! And Kevin also did the driving, carrying crates, and kept me company. Kevin has heart!

And special thanks to judge Joy Brewster, who gave Daphne the win today. This same judge also gave my Johnny his first major win in 2019.

Before and after pictures of ear taping

A friend brought a nearly 5 month old puppy over for ear taping. A veterinarian had attempted to glue pre-made inserts into the ears. The puppy scratched the inserts out by the time they got home. Unfortunately, the glue had to be cleaned out before we could do the taping. Cleaning it out caused some minor inflammation, which delayed the taping for a few days.

You can see that she is comfortable with them and not scratching at them at all

Comfort is key to getting the puppy tolerant of the tape and the taping process.

Her owner will come back if the tape comes off. Otherwise, we’ll recheck them in a couple of weeks.

Two dumb things I did

If you’ve been reading my blog, you’ve probably seen Winston and Clyde together and happy. I generally had been letting Winston, Clyde, and SeeSee out together. They got along reasonably well as long as there was nothing to fight over.

Recently, Daphne was in heat when I took her, SeeSee, and Roz to a dog show. I made an effort to always put Daphne in the same crate so her scent would not be distributed among the other dogs. But I must have made a mistake and put SeeSee in Daphne’s crate, or maybe it was just using the same grooming tools on both of them.

Whatever I did, Daphne’s scent must have gotten on SeeSee because as soon as I put SeeSee and Clyde and Winston out together when we got home, Winston and Clyde started fighting over SeeSee. I had to break up a dog fight between two 90lb plus dogs. That is a recipe for a disaster. It’s really easy to get yourself bit or hurt doing that. I was really lucky I did not get hurt.

I ended up denting a stainless steel water bucket on Clyde’s head. Luckily, they did not seriously hurt each other. I checked them out thoroughly, and I only found superficial marks on them and some sore areas. No vet visit was needed. But here is a picture of the bucket:

After giving it a lot of thought, I decided to get Winston neutered. The only way I can keep him is to put him in with the girls. I don’t have a way to keep them intact and separated long-term. I’ve been keeping him upstairs, but I need to use that space when there is a female in heat.

So now Winston is neutered, and he is getting used to being with Roz and Daphne.

It’s never the dogs’ fault.

Clyde and SeeSee playing in the backyard without Winston. Winston is heard on audio.

Winston with Daphne, letting her build confidence

The other stupid thing I did was to allow SeeSee to get too hot playing fetch. (This happened last year with Clyde, too.) On a day that was unseasonably warm and very humid, when she hadn’t had time to acclimate yet, I was playing fetch with SeeSee, and I caught an odd look in her eye and decided to quit. She was panting too hard, so I put her outside with a cold bowl of fresh water. She didn’t drink. This is a huge red flag.

She couldn’t think straight. She began panting so hard I couldn’t count her breaths. I got ice packs, and that did not help fast enough, so I put her in the shower and sprayed her down with cold water for 20 minutes, but she kept panting really hard, and worse, having difficulty standing.

I finally put shampoo on her to help get the cool water down to her skin. German Shepherds tend to shed water easily, so the shampoo actually helped her cool down, getting the coolness of the water where it needed to go.

This did the trick, and we avoided the final stages of heatstroke, which can be fatal. At least she got a bath and got to air dry. (And so did myself, my clothes, and shoes.)

How stupid of me. I need to be more careful with exercising the dogs in the heat. Be careful everyone, it’s going to be a hot summer.

**SeeSee, wanting to be groomed. She is shedding out, soon to be in heat.**

**Winston is doing his “Flat Stanley” impersonation, fully recovered from the neutering**

Are you interested in rescuing a young dog?

I participated again in a leg of a transport journey from an overcrowded shelter in the South to more welcoming shelters in the north. Here are some of the dogs I transported:

**She has freckles, like an English setter**

If you are interested in any of these dogs, please contact Charlotte Tran at www.animalsanctuarysociety.org in Mt. Laurel, NJ.

All are young and healthy, vet checked. Sweet temperaments. Easy to transport, they settled down after a few minutes of yipping.

Daphne Moon Out of Sight and Roz Doyle Out of Sight pro pics from latest wins!

**Daphne Moon Out of Sight won Best of Breed for a 5 point major under judge Lloyd Graser**

**Roz Doyle Out of Sight won a 3pt major under judge Raymond Filbur**n

See See’s Win Photo

I can’t believe how great See See looks in this picture! I’m so proud of her! I’m also proud of the fact that I put all the points on her myself, which is hard to do with all the really good competition and professionals out there. But I had a lot of support from my friends!

Thank you Vera Symonds for allowing me to breed my Jane to your Cash to get my beautiful See See and my Clyde.

Thank you AKC judge Brian Meyer for this major win!

See See is a champion! And her daughters are winning too!

We had two four-day dog show weekends in a row in Doswell, Virginia. The first weekend we did not do well at all. But we hung in there, and it paid off big time!

The second weekend we could not have done better. I entered all three of my girls again, and each one got a major, and Roz got an extra point. We literally got winners bitch* every day! I could not have been happier or more proud of my girls. SeeSee’s major makes her a champion now!

Here are some candid pics from ringside after our wins. I will post professional pics when I get them. Thank you Vera and Keith for taking pics!

Because I had more than one bitch to show, I needed to have a handler, so Adrienne Isham handled Daphne while I had Roz and See See. On Thursday, Daphne not only won winners bitch*, she also got best of breed! Because she beat the boys and specials too, she got a five-point major, her first points. Adrienne did an absolutely fantastic job! Thank you, AKC judge Lloyd Graser!

**Daphne Moon Out of Sight with me and handler Adrienne Isham** **(age 14m)**

**Daphne strutting her stuff in the ring (photo by Kevin Brown)**

On Friday, SeeSee got winners bitch* for a three-point major to finish her championship title! I am particularly proud that I put all her points on her myself. Thank you, AKC judge Brian Meyer!

**Ch. Tennessee Walker Out of Sight (age 4)**

On Saturday, Roz got winners bitch* for a three-point major, her first major win. Thank you, AKC judge Raymond Filburn!

On Sunday, Roz got winners bitch* earning one more point. (It was not a major because some dogs did not show up.) Roz now has a total of 6 points towards her championship title. Thank you, AKC judge Elizabeth Muthard!

Special thanks to Adrienne Isham for handling Daphne, and to Kai Degner for stepping in to take in Roz and SeeSee when needed. Also, many thanks to all my friends who are encouraging and supportive in my little German Shepherd/dog show world. Vera Symonds, Kevin Brown, Patricia Ray, Ron Webb, Kaitlyn Hollinger, Charlotte Larosa, Grace Bakeman, Barbara Friedman, Tom Dowell, Keith Cousins, Lisa Reynoldson, this means you!

* in case you are not familiar with dog show lingo, “winners bitch” means a female who has beaten all of the other females of that breed in the classes. There are different classes depending on age and experience in the show ring. The winner of each class competes for winners bitch. Only Winners bitch gets points towards her championship title.

The number of points depends on the number of entries. The more competition there is, the more points the winner receives. One, two, three, four, or five points can be earned. Three to five points is a major win. Each year the AKC determines how much competition is needed for major wins in each gender of each breed depending on numbers of registration and entries the previous year in each region.

Of the 15 points needed for a championship title, there must be two major wins under two different judges, plus at least one more judge.

Males are called dogs. So they compete for “winners dog”.

Here is a link to a more complicated explanation by AKC:

Counting Points

Happy birthday to Winston!

Ch. Sir Winston Churchill Out of Sight, BCAT, CD is 6 years old today. When he was born, he had a big fat head. My husband thought he looked like Winston Churchill. After his nose grew out, he didn’t look so much like his namesake, but he still has that same air of importance.

Here are a couple of pics and a video from today, his 6th birthday.

Happy birthday to Jane’s puppies born February 6th, 2021!

Clydesdale

Four year old pic:

**Jane with her 11** **puppies, one day old**

Missing are current pics from Pony, Appaloosa, Filly, Quarterhorse, Dressage, and Percheron! As you can tell from the names, this was my “horse” litter. The last I heard, they were all doing well, and most new owners ended up changing their names. I’d love to know they are living their best lives!

If any are having any problems, I’d like to know that too. I need to know for my breeding program, and I might have some insight on what’s going on. And I will always take a puppy back, no matter how much time has passed, with no questions asked. That is my guarantee to all my puppies: they can always come home to me.