Kleinen Wiese German Shepherds

Posted By Sandy Wilson on October 20, 2009

This past weekend we added some new sheep to our flock for the coming lambing season.  I went to Rhineback, NY this past weekend and picked up a new ram for my flock and two ewes with the help of some friends.  It was a long trip, but the sheep made it just fine. 

Ram from Maybe Tomorrow Farm - "Bubba Jr."

Here is our new ram, Bubba Jr.  He arrived late Saturday night and helped lead two ewes to the barn.  Bubba is a really beautiful Border Leicester with tight curls that are just lovely and uniform around the whole body – just wonderful!  He is also very sweet and has had quite a positive introduction to the dogs. 

Our Aiko met Bubba Jr. the first day by sniffing him and then licking him right on the nose.  Bubba just stood there calm and very interested in this new animal that he has  never seen.  Aiko too, noticed this was a new sheep added to the group and he wanted to check him out as well.

Aiko von der Kleinen Wiese - hanging out in the barn.

Aiko is such an honest dog.  He is really great with the sheep and knows he is in there to help the shepherd.  He loves to go help out with barn chores and is also very gentle with the lambs when lambing season comes along.

Ewe from "Seldom Seen Farm" in Chepachet, Rhode Island

All three sheep we brought to the farm are just lovely with beautiful lusterous fleeces.  They came all the way from Chepachet, RI, to Rhineback, NY, and then to their final destination of Perkiomenville, PA to Little Meadow Sheep Farm.  What a trip and adventure they  had.  They are all doing well and adjusting to our dogs well also.  Most farms have Border Collies to herd their sheep or other various upright breeds, but in our case, these sheep are now going to be worked by German Shepherds and I think they are going to make that transition just fine. 

All the sheep that we have on our farm now have been born here and so they have naturally become dog broke very quickly as they see dogs every waking day of their life, but the new sheep usually take a little time to get used to dogs moving around them.  I am looking forward to a wonderful lambing season this coming year!  The dogs are looking forward to the work that will come in the Spring when the lambs and ewes need to be taken out to pasture.

We’ll have more on the lambing season as it approaches this Winter!  Also just want to add a note of special thanks to Kristen and Carole for helping me transport these sheep to our farm.  THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!

All gathered in the barn!

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Posted By Sandy Wilson on October 10, 2009

We started Delta on a scent pad when she was just 7 1/2 weeks old to build a solid foundation for tracking.  We did over 20 scents pads since then and Delta is now very solid in distinguishing the scent pad from the grass around it.  She looks forward to tracking with such enthusiasm.  As soon as she sees me with the long line and the marker flag, she gets so excited because she knows she is going to look for goodies, but not only that, she loves to work.

Delta is now 15 weeks old and is just so excited to track now, pulling me along very strongly for a very young pup.   Nothing has ever been forced on her – it has all been positive motivation, praise, and when she would make a mistake, we were quiet and let her figure things out for herself.   Once she had the scent pads down perfect, we moved on to a simple straight track first.

Delta von der Kleinen Wiese - 15 Weeks Old

We started with several tracks about 15-20 steps long and she was able to follow the tracks without difficulty, but with praise to let her know she was doing the right thing and boy did she catch on quickly.

Today was really a major marker in her tracking training because she showed me some really dedicated work – all nose down and deep (this was her 4th of 5th track).  I put a smaller scent pad down with just 2 or 3 pieces of food and then placed 30 paces out from the scent pad with steps still touching and food in each step at the toe (straight track).   She only looked up once briefly as my husband was video taping her and then right back to work.  This was the first time she really pulled me so hard along the track, such that her body was arching up.  Below is a little video of her working.

Above:  Delta von der Kleinen Wiese (Arla v.d. Kleinen Wiese X Hawk v. Eichenluft)

We are so proud of our little Delta as she is learning so much.  My son is working on clicker training with her and has taught her some tricks along with very basic obedience commands and already she is doing so much.  She is a joy to train and so smart – she catches on so quickly!

We will start increasing the length of the tracks and I think I am going to start playing with some articles too and teach her to “Platz” when she sees them.  I will put lots of goodies on top of the article to make it extremely appealing!   I can’t wait – so many things to teach her and she is amazingly absorbing it all – puppies are like sponges at this age, you can really teach them so much at such a young age.

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Tags: D Litter Pups, Delta, German Shepherd, Tracking

Posted By Sandy Wilson on October 9, 2009

Dana & Lucy

We were so pleased to place Dana in a wonderful home where she’ll follow her mentor, GSD Lucy!  Lucy is a therapy dog and is teaching Dana the ropes.  When Dana first met Lucy, they didn’t want to have anything to do with each other – now, they are buddies for life.  Lucy watches over Dana and is setting a great example for her.  Although I must say, little Dana seems to be quite a strong personality herself.  She is learning so much and the family she is with is thrilled with her.  She goes for long walks everyday with a group of dogs and Dana is learning how much fun it can be to run with her new friends.   

Lucky & Dana relaxing!

GSD's having some fun!

Good luck Dana in your new home!  We know you’ll make us proud!  I am so happy to have placed these pups in such great homes where they will be doing so many things.  We have pups that will be doing all kinds of work such as herding, schutzhund, tracking, obedience, agility & therapy dog work – I wish them all the best with their new owners!

We’ll be following this litter as they get older to see how they develop and see what they are doing!  Very exciting for me to see these pups and I do have some close by that I can keep my eye on and see what potential they truly have!

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Tags: D Litter Pups, D-Litter

Posted By Sandy Wilson on October 8, 2009

Delta is now 16 weeks old – hard to believe and she knows so much already.   She started Puppy kindergarten and also a class in puppy training using the clicker and she is doing very well. 

Delta in a stand.

Delta is learning many commands, but my son is teaching her tricks to make things fun for her and add some variety to what she can do.  It is amazing how much you can teach these little pups in such a short time.

She is doing very well in tracking too, but we’ll have more on that in another post as she has progressed from the scent pad to actually tracking a straight line and doing well – very committed, focused and enthusiastic.

We have been using all praise and food to train her and its a good thing she is a “food” hound because she’ll do anything for a treat.   Her Sitz, Platz, Heir, and Such are solid and she is working on the Stand command now.  We have also taught her the command to “Watch” which is very valuable when you want your dog to focus on only you.  It only took her a few seconds to figure that one out!

Several nights ago she had a blast with her other puppy friends  at class and actually had to walk on some agility equipment and other various objects that were new to her.  She didn’t blink an eye – she could do both a sitz and platz on most of the equipment.  I think her favorite was the mini trampoline.  She loved it!    I’ll have some pictures of class too so you can see what these dogs are doing.  It is so much fun!

Besides class though, there is always something exciting to play with on the farm.  Yesterday she was very intriqued with one of our tarps blowing around in the wind and decided it looked like something fun to jump on and play with.

Delta pulling the tarp around the yard.

Delta had a blast playing with this big plastic tarp.  And of course, the bigger dogs had to join in the fun too.

Delta & Arla playing!

Investigating!

Delta von der Kleinen Wiese - she is really growing up!

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