Kleinen Wiese German Shepherds

Posted By Sandy Wilson on June 29, 2009

While Arla is taking care of her pups, Aiko has the job of tending to the flock.  It has been raining alot here in PA and so we have not had the sheep out alot.  Now the weather is finally getting nice, so it’s time to herd those sheep.  We have nice lush grass for the sheep to graze and a dog who is eager to work!

Aiko von der Kleinen Wiese - Tending to the flock!

Aiko is just out and the sheep have not spread out yet, but he goes around the entire graze to make sure that all the sheep are accounted for and everyone is inside the boundary.  You can just see by this picture that his full attention is on his sheep, counting and watching their movement in the graze.

Aiko is a dog full of pride and now that he is off leash working, there is no turning back. He has earned his freedom and our trust.  

Now on the other side of the road, inside the house is Arla – she is busy feeding her little pack of pups!

Arla with her hungry pack of pups!

Arla is busy feeding these puppies night and day, but when their little bellies are full and they are sleeping, it gives her great joy to go up to the barn and help me give them hay and water.  I still let her enjoy working a little bit, even though her main responsibility is raising her pups right now.  Arla’s eyes just light up when I say, “Let’s go feed the sheep!”  She jumps up and away we go to the barn.

Everyday I watch these pups, I can see they are changing and growing.  In a few days their eyes will be open and then they will begin to hear some time after that.  The pups are just over a week now and I have already had to change their ribbons around their necks.  These little critters are growing fast!

Here are some photo’s of the little pupsters – so cute when sleeping!

They all lay together in a nice little pack!

They look so comfortable!

These pups have a variety of colors and markings already.  They will all be black and tan when they get older, but some are lighter than others.  So I think some are going to resemble Arla’s color markings and those that are much darker may turn out looking like the sire.  I can’t wait to see as they change daily!  I am handling them quite alot right now and they are really getting used to being held and snuggling in my arms.  The boys also help me weigh them and they lay in the box and have the puppies crawling all over them. 

I can’t wait for their little eyes to open!

Category: Herding - HGH, Puppies | No Comments »
Tags: D-Litter, Herding - HGH, Puppies

Posted By Sandy Wilson on June 28, 2009

Hard to believe, but one week ago the “D” pups were born.  All have almost doubled in weight and look so much bigger.  We have little ribbons on all of them now so we can tell them apart and watch them closely.  It’s also easier to keep track of trimming nails and weighing them too.

Red Girl - she is the biggest gal!

I think this is the gal that my son has his eye on for a future tracking star.  He calls her “Delta”. 

Red Boy - weighs in at nearly 2 lbs. in less than a week.

These two puppies pictured above are the heavy weight champions of the litter.

Purple Girl

Purple Boy

Blue Boy

Neon Green Girl

Neon Green Boy

Yellow Girl

Yellow Boy

That’s all of the puppies.  The pictures don’t really show them all that well, but at least you can see the colors and how different they are. 

Arla and the gang - Picture of a feeding frenzy!

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Posted By Sandy Wilson on June 26, 2009

Here are just a few pictures of the pups that I took today.  They are eating constantly and almost all our 1 1/2 lbs. already.  Hard to believe they were born just days ago.  These little critters can really move around the whelping box to find mom even though they can’t see or hear yet.  All I can say is they must have good noses because they certainly can find their mother quickly and sniff out the milk!

Delta - she is my son's favorite female!

This is a good size female.  My son says she’ll make an excellent tracking dog since she is always the first one to the milk and goes right for the exact spot while the others are nosing around.  Who knows, but he has his eyes on her at this time.  Let’s hope she makes a great herding dog and a great tracking dog!

Large Male - Beautiful pigment and head.

They are just so cute when they are sleeping and the only way I can keep them still to take a picture! 

Female Puppy - we call her squeaker!

Pretty little female puppy – she seems to squeak all the time when she wants to find mom.  She is already getting a little lighter over the eyes and cheeks.

Later I’ll get individual shots and have ribbons on all of them soon.  They are just so small at this time, but definitely growing like weeds!

Category: Puppies, Uncategorized | No Comments »
Tags: D Litter Pups

Posted By Sandy Wilson on June 25, 2009

My son Will is anxiously awaiting to keep a puppy from the “D” litter.  In the past, he has wanted to keep a pup, but we just couldn’t keep one more dog.  So this time, we are going to let Will keep a puppy.  Will is only 11 years old, but really loves the dogs and likes to teach them tricks and obedience.  He has decided that he would like to learn some tracking so he can teach his young pup tracking too.

I think this is a super great idea to teach puppies since it is totally motivational and it’s natural for dogs to smell different scents.  It’s also great fun for kids to teach dogs fun things they enjoy.  My kids have been raised with dogs since they were born and training dogs to do little tricks or obedience is just part of life for them.  So tracking will be new to them and so much fun with a new puppy.

Will learning to track with Aiko - doing a nice nose down track.

I decided it best for Will to learn with a more experienced dog, so I would take him out with our Aiko (4 years old now), who loves to track.  Aiko is a good dog for Will to learn with because he loves children, but also is very high drive and loves to work, so I know he wouldn’t be put off by having someone else working him.  Aiko seems to just know who is at the end of his leash and is so good with the kids.  He is also a very forgiving dog!

So we had a plan.  Firstly, I showed Will how to lay a track.   We set up a little marker post to mark our starting point.   I had him put down a scent pad first for Aiko, then he laid a simple straight line track with one corner for Aiko to follow his footsteps and Will dispersed food here in there in his footsteps to reinforce Aiko following  his scent.  At the end of the track, we had a nice jackpot of biscuits awaiting Aiko for his reward.  It’s not how I would start a puppy, but Aiko has been tracking for a bit now and needs little food to be motivated to track, but this would give Will a good idea of what goes on when a track is laid for learning purposes and how to teach a dog to follow footsteps.

Will - sets up marker post and starts laying his track for Aiko.

Aiko loves to track, but has always followed my scent, so this would be interesting to see how Aiko would do following another person’s scent.  Some dogs are funny about being handled by other people and are sensitive to that.  We brought Aiko over to  a field, across from our farm, where we laid the track and when we reached the scent pad, Will said, “Such” meaning seek or trail.  “Such” is used as a command in schutzhund tracking to tell the dog to search and start the track.  Right away, Aiko took his time really sniffing the scent pad.  I could tell he detected that it was a different smell from mine since he could smell both my foots steps and Will’s on the way over when we had first laid the track.  But he quickly figured it out and was on his way to follow Will’s track.

Will starting Aiko on the track - Aiko is nose down from the start!

Will following along and letting out the line.

Will letting Aiko sniff out a turn - he just went over a cross track.

Will praising and petting Aiko at the end of the track - Aiko hits the jackpot.

I think Will is doing a great job and learning so much – Will and Aiko are making a nice team together!   He is learning positive motivation training and is so good with the dogs.  It’s all about working together – I just love seeing this pair – it kinda brings tears to my eyes because I am just proud of my son and Aiko for being such a good boy!

I ordered Will a few books and so we will read them also, but for now, just play and work Aiko a bit so they get the idea and some basic tracking concepts down keeping the motivation of tracking going.  I want them to enjoy tracking and also feel like they are working the dogs themselves.  It excites them to see just what a dog can do if asked to follow a scent.

I just want to give Donna Brinkworth of Spiritdance a special thanks for all her tips and motivation to track.  I am enjoying this new journey!  She has inspired me and my son!  And certainly, she has been giving me some wonderful insight in to tracking and training ideas for me to work my dogs.  Thank you Donna!

More on tracking progress later. . .

Category: Tracking | No Comments »
Tags: Aiko vd. Kleinen Wiese

Posted By Sandy Wilson on June 24, 2009

Wow, the boys are really growing and so are the girls!  It is amazing how quickly they actually put on weight in just 24 hours, but they do grow rather rapidly when this young.

Today was their official Day 3 – Nail clipping Day!  Oh my, what a chore to clip the nails for 9 wiggling pups!  I can’t tell you how difficult that was – but it took me several hours since I had to wait till they were kinda sleepy and had their bellies full.

Here are some of the babies!

Little babe sleeping on mom's paw.

I was trying to capture some precious moments of these puppies with their mother.  Arla is so tender and loving and boy does she keep them clean.

Arla taking care of her little one!

My goodness, these dogs get a tongue bath every 10 minutes it seems.  But that is natures way of taking care of  “business”.  It is amazing to see such a tight bond between mother and pups.  It is very difficult to keep mom away long enough to change the bedding in the whelping box before she wants to jump back in and feed her babies.

Puppy Love!

This is one of my favorite pictures with my son.  He loves to surround himself with puppies and they seem to cuddle right up to him.  I love the little one by his neck – too cute!  Looks like they are quite comfortable!

Hopefully soon, I’ll be able to take some individual pictures as each one takes on their own identity.  We have quite a few squeakers in the bunch, but some are more verbal than others – even at 3 days old!

Category: Puppies, Uncategorized | No Comments »
Tags: D Litter Pups