A Beautiful Shiloh Guy In Need Of A New Home !

My name is Remington! I am 19 months old and looking for a very special forever home. I've been to some dog shows and I'm told I'm a "champion", but I already knew I was special!

I am loved by my family very much. But I've had a problem with one of my neighbors kids, so they need to find me a new family to live with. I'm a very good boy with everyone, but they think I'd do best in a home with teenagers or just adults. I currently live with 5 kids and I love my family and like to protect them. Someone can tell you the details if you're interested in adopting me.

I'm up to date on my shots and I have no health issues. I will have to be neutered though. I live in Woodstock, Ontario.

Thanks for reading about me! Send your email to rescue@issdc.com if you'd like to offer me a new home.

Sincerely,

Remington (Karma/Gunner '08)

UPDATE: Remington has found a new forever home ! Many happy years to him and his new owner. :)

After the Big Rain

We went to Great Falls Park today. Due to flooding, they only opened the small parking lot and it was surprising how many people showed up to see the waterfalls. What waterfalls ? The water was apparently receding, but it was still all the way up to where it almost reached the viewing platforms:

We did see first signs of spring. Some fresh green was trying to infiltrate the brown, or sometimes white colors of winter:

I took some weird angle pictures of Tessa. I kind of like them. They are different:


These pictures are more about the background and don't focus so much on the dog. (Even though I'm biased and I do think she is very pretty. )

What made me real sad though: With all the water going down, I was able to see the dirt and debris, mankind has left behind in this beautiful river:The picture doesn't do the amount of trash justice that was piled up there. And this is just a very tiny part of the river's bank. It's sad, real sad.............. Why can't people dispose of waste properly ? I remember the banks of the river Lech in Germany last year. People were swimming in the river and it was clear and clean as can be. The Europeans are really ten steps ahead of the US in terms of the protection of their environment. It's about time, we catch up over here.
Here's the Lech - just for comparison:
Mind you - this is not the exception. It's the norm !

Is Spring Really Coming ?

Ask the Budelheimers ! They would know. At least Mrs. Budelheimer would.

Veterinarians want to live too

We are convinced that somewhere in Virgina there's a vet who put a plaque with our name engraved on it on the side of his swimming pool. Another vet may have financed his trip to the Bahamas courtesy of us, and maybe another vet is buying that Armani suit he always wanted and yes, it's no thanks to us and our dogs. I remember growing up with dogs and somehow they always seemed healthy, or so we thought. Veterinary medicine was by no means as advanced as it is today and hey - if you want to pay the bill, your dog could even have plastic surgery, if you wanted to straighten out those skin folds on your Shar-Pei.
Knock on wood: The Furgang has been pretty healthy and the vet only gets to see us when a health certificate is needed or the annual heartworm pill distribution needs to be renewed. I partially "blame" their healthy diet for this blessing and since we turned our backs on commercial foods, they seem less poisoned. I always try to explain to people that I wouldn't want to eat corn-flakes and cereal for the rest of my life either.
So we do like to see the vet on occasion - for social calls. :)

Bicalina did pull something yesterday and therefore didn't get to go on our almost three hour walk. She was comforted by some treats in a kong and was still working on it when we came home. I don't think she noticed that we were gone. Today she seemed fine again and since it is raining cats and dogs, I gave her another day off. Let's see how she is doing tomorrow.
After the "trauma" (she did hurt herself going down the stairs), I gave her 5 pellets of Arnica immediately and repeated that dosage five minutes later and when we got home. It seems to have helped, because today she's just her old bouncy self again.

Der Deutsche Schaeferhund in Wort und Bild

This is an online version of Rittmeister v. Stephanitz' original book about the German Shepherd. Even if you do not read German, it's well worth checking out all the illustrations depicted in it. If you compare the original German Shepherd with today's "model", you simply have to ask youself: What the heck happened ?

If you click on the headline above the book it will take you to a bigger version of the document.

Us And 10 000 Others

Yesterday morning. Blue sky, fresh air, happy birds, tips of tulips trying to stretch towards the sun - the general feeling of spring was in the air. The Humans took the furgang to their nice Sunday morning outing at Great Falls Park. We were out and about for nearly 2 hours and it felt wonderful to finally be able to enjoy walking on "terra firma" without any snowbanks and -drifts piling up as natural obstacles. Especially our short legged Budelheimers seemed utterly delighted about that new found footing. I actually enjoyed it so much that I didn't mind going there a second time.


After lunch I grabbed just Tessa (it was to be more of a recreational type walk...) and we met with Tessa's best friends Beau and Alle and of course their "humans' Barbara and Nancy, who are very dear friends of mine.


Aren't they a magnificent trio ? Despite their looks and maybe reputation, all three are the friendliest and gentlest dogs you will ever meet. Add the Budelheimers to the equation and there goes tranquility.
We hat planned on meeting around 3 pm and it turned out, that we had to wait in line for almost 40 minutes just to get into the park ! It was as if someone had opened imaginary city walls and set sun starving people free. We were prepared for the worst, but as it turned out, people were only interested in picnic areas and the waterfalls. Our hiking trails were almost abandoned and we only met the occasional nature lover enjoying the woods the way we did.

It felt great to breath fresh, clean air and to see first messengers of spring popping their green heads through the soil that had been covered in a thick blanket of snow just two weeks ago.
Another two hours later we got back to the parking lot and here are some impressions from our walk:

Snuggling up to Beau

Tessa and her friend Alle

It's still visible how far the Potomac has reached over its banks

Nature creates her own art


This goose seemed very content and happy with herself.

Tessa had a great day. Two almost two-hour walks with her best doggy friends and a good, raw meal for dinner. She fell on her bed and called it a day. She was still seen this morning all snuggled up to Mrs. Budelheimer:

It always amazes me, how she folds herself into this tiny ball to fit into the dachshund bed.

The Training Value Of A Cuz Ball.

Nice try, Rodney ! He is a Cuzball addict - I swear. He'll drop everything for the squealing, nerve busting sound of a squeaky cuz ball. For those of you not familiar with the object of interest: It's ball with little devil horns and legs on it. Quite suitable for dachshunds with the mindset of a Rodmonster. (a.k.a. Rodney, Monsi, Monster, Monstermeister...........etc.) As stated in a previous post, Monster's best defense is offense. He'll attack before he thinks and one of these days it will get him in distress again as it did on numerous occasions before.
Today is a wonderful spring day and no, we were not the only ones at Great Falls Park this morning. I had the marvellous idea of taking the cuz ball on our outing as a supporting tool for Monster behavior modification. So here I am again, equipped to survive a day in the wild. Left pocket bulging with the cuz ball, and right pocket bulging with dog treats we went on our merry way. I am so blessed that the girls are neither people nor dog aggressive and so I can mostly fully concentrate on making a fool out of myself in trying to calm the raging Monsterman.
And aaaaaaaaaah - the first "enemy" in form of a big, fat Labrador retriever rolls our way. A lot of people really do like that breed, but for those of us who have reactive Rover on the leash, they are a nightmare ! Wiggle-woggleing their way toward us and mouth with open with bouncing tongue, ears and tail, a Labrador usually doesn't understand the concept of "not friendly". My best offense is mostly letting my canine ambassador Tessa off leash to calm the situation. While Tessa is busy putting a barrier between the oncoming dog and the upset Monster, I find time to either dart in the ditch or try to calm down those 20 pounds of rage and fury bouncing up and down besides me. Mind you - there is nobody home in Monsterland once he declared war on his opposition ! As much as he likes treats, they become second nature at that moment and no filet mignon in this world is going to change his mind. (For those of you thinking, that maybe I should be having tastier morsels in my coat pocket.)
New strategy: The beloved cuz ball, which cast its magic spell on Monster a long time ago and which in his book needs to be hunted down and killed much more than any filet mignon or deer, bunny or skunk ever will. If not distracted, a mellow shy little squeak will make his head fly around and come running. Oh well - what can I say. The cuz ball lost out to the big, fat Labrador...........

Gotta rethink my strategy ! :))

That Old Macho Image Again

Rain - who needs it !?

Yesterday, the Budelheimers put me - yet again - into a dilemma. They wanted to go for a walk and pointed that out by going to the door. "Okay", I explained to them, "if you don't mind walking in the rain - I'm game !". I opened the door, they stuck their fuzzy noses out and as the first rain drop hits them, retreat with utmost disgust in their faces. Alright - the back door didn't work. Let's try the front door. Same scenario.......... open door ........... look outside..........yuck !! Aaaaaah - but there's always the way out through the garage ! !
That kind of behavior is too much to grasp for the simple human mind. In the mind of a dachshund however, the thought process unfolds as follows: If it rains in the backyard, doesn't mean it necessarily has to rain in front of the house, and who knows - if it rains in the front of the house too, that can only mean that going out the garage door in the basement makes perfect sense and keeps one's fur dry. Go figure !
You get the idea: They drove me nuts ! ! ! After going through that spiel for about twenty minutes I decided it's time to make an executive decision and just grab the delinquents and sentence them to a walk in the rain. EXCITEMENT ! Tessa, needless to say, will walk in any weather and the more refreshing it gets, the more she likes it. Heat isn't her thing, but walking in rain and snow very much so.
Said and done: The Budelheimers were outfitted with their harnesses and off we went.........hesitantly. Mrs. Budelheimer, a.k.a. Bica, peed right in front of the garage, turned around and considered the purpose of her walk achieved. Mr. Budelheimer managed to drag me to the nearest tree, turned around and proclaimed victory.
Hu-woman and Tessa on the other hand laid down the law and off we went for our 1 and a half hour neighborhood walk. Mind you: A walk in the neighborhood is booooooo-ring. The Furgang is a spoiled bunch and demands their daily outing in the forest. The asphalt jungle is despicable and not fit to suit a dachshund's nose. Shepherd noses don't discriminate - they love it everywhere ! Hu-woman was utterly unimpressed and so we were seen in a rather heart-wrenching constellation: First the bouncing shepherd.........then hu-woman.........nothing..........still nothing.......... aaaaaaaaaaaaaah - the morose looking Budelheimer bunch.
I'm lucky that most of my neighborhood pet owners don't believe in walking their dogs in the rain and therefore we weren't seen by any fellow animal lovers. Otherwise somebody would have called animal control and hu-woman would have been arrested for animal abuse. Shocks !!!

On a happier note: Today the sun is shining. It's still muddy, but they'll get to go to their beloved woods. Hu-woman is sure she'll get a place in heaven some day. She's okay with that, as long as it's doggy-heaven. :)))

The Bodylanguage Of Dogs

I just finished watching Sarah Kalnajs DVD "The Language of Dogs", and even though I basically know what makes a dog tick, it was a fascinating study about the subtlest of cues our dogs give us in their efforts to communicate.
I really don't want to promote anybody's work, but this DVD is really worth seeing. It features a lively presentation and most extensive footage of a variety breeds showing hundreds of examples of canine behavior and body language.

What is your dog saying to you and to other dogs ?

How can you tell when play turns into aggression ?

How do dogs show friendliness, fear, or stress ?

This DVD is for anyone interested in trying to understand dogs and their actions/reactions.
The Mclean Furgang gives this DVD the "two paws up" ! Available at Amazon.com

Even though not related to Sarah Kalnajs' DVD, this is a short movie about dog expressions:

Reading Skills