Yellow Eyes and a Blue Sky

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7 months update for Wahya ;)

Finally - with some delay ;) - here comes the story about Wahya you are all waiting for!

"Here is a little story about Wahya.
Wahya is our first Saarloos wolfhound and the day we got her, a wish of many years came true.
We have been breeding Golden Retrievers and Labradors for many years and have owned Irish wolfhounds for many years as well, but Wahya is quite different from any of the dogs we have had through the years.
From day one when she entered our house and our dog family, we knew she was very special.
She walked around in the house, like she had lived here all her life. She greeted our leader Easy with a little kiss and walked on to meet the other dogs. The first evening she entered our bed and placed herself between me and Lars for the night.
Tacy one of the Golden Retrievers became her aunt and teacher. Among other things she taught Wahya how to climb the stairs to our bedroom. Tacy took a few steps and waited for Wahya, then she took a few steps more and waited and as Wahya followed, they reached the top of the staircase. Then Wahya ran all the way down the stairs and up again like she was saying “look I can do it myself!”
During the months we have lived with her she has developed a very strong personality.
She is very observant. She looks and learns and she only needs to see something one time to know how it is done. She is able to open our dustbins. They have an electronic opener and you need to lead your hand across the sensor and then it opens. Wahya saw me doing this one time, and then she put her nose on the sensor and the dustbin opened.

Wahya is not a dog – she is a wolf – no doubt about that. She is made of wolf and German Sheppard and one should think that there will be some wolf and some German Sheppard in her, but I can´t find the German Sheppard in her. I have been training German Sheppards on the Royal Danish Air force dog school, where I worked and I believe that I know these dogs and their minds.
A German Sheppard is in fact one of the most easy dogs to train. They love to obey their trainer, and they love to do the same exercise over and over again.
It is fairly easy to teach a German Sheppard how not to bite in furniture, other dogs, walls, beds and clothes.
It is nearly impossible to teach Wahya anything, except the things she can see the meaning in. She have her own mind, and if she is told “NO” for biting in the furniture, she looks up – stare at you with her beautiful yellow eyes, and continue to bite in the table.
She loves her walks with the other dogs in our big field, and she is a very skilled mouse catcher.
She is the most charming dog, we have ever seen. It is impossible to get mad at her, because she know exactly how to turn on the charm, and make us laugh. She seems to have a way of looking into your soul, when you talk to her. She looks firmly into your eyes and talks loudly with a deep growl or a high pitched tone. She is very special to us.
We DO love her very much."

Lars and Merete
Denmark

Reinstate Federal Protections for Northern Rockies Wolves

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/165659664

Please sign this petition!

6 moths update part IV

Today it is time for Roffe:

When the First Brown male was born, i had an immediate connexion with him. I already said when there is a brown male in this litter, I want a pup.

And there was Roffe, he is a great dog. He is curious but has a strong character. When the pups were little he was the quiet one of the gang. He was always sleeping a lot when we visited the pups. Now he is a real strong-minded pup, he likes to do things his way. And if it is not going the way he wants, he don’t want to do it. He reminds me a lot of Thunga (his grandmother), she has the same strong-minded character. You see a lot of things coming back when you look at Roffe.

We go to the dog school with him and he is doing very well over there, there is also an other saarloospup in the school, Elanka, She is his best friend and they really like each other very much.

His best friend at home is Inca, they can really play like mad dogs and they are both loving it. Kamatz doesn’t like to play, he is really lazy and he is a little grumpy when Roffe wants to play with him, but Roffe don’t care, he tries every time again.

Then we have his grandmother, Thunga, and he can play with here, but he also has a lot of respect for her. They look quite simular and now Roffe Is getting bigger it’s sometimes very difficult to see if it’s him or Thunga. And that is sometimes quite funny.

And then there is Asco, he is a hovawart and he is the big boss in here. So Roffe really has a lot of respect for him. But he can do a lot with Asco, pull his ears, his tail, stand on top of him, it is all ok. But when Asco says enough, he stops immediately.

He is a really great pup and we really love him very much. He still has a lot of things to learn and I’ve noticed that he is getting a little bit more reserved in some situations, but that’s quite normal on this age of course.

His biggest hobby is eating. I think that it was already from the day he was born. He really loves food a lot. We are really happy to have him in our pack.

Bigg hugs from Katrien en Peter and of course the other pack members; Thunga, Asco, Kamatz, Inca and last but not least, Roffe

6 months update part III

Let's look at our own little lady tonight - yeah, it's time for Tova (nickname "Angelwitch")
Well, she isn't actually that little anymore, but the youngest one is always considred the little one I guess.
She is truly our dreamdog's incarnation - her temper is exactly the mixture between a wild beast and a sweet and lovely pet you would expect from a young Saarlooswolfhond.
Being in contact with all the owners of her siblings I can say, that she is quite the same in her whole behaviour. She is very playful and cheeky and really has a mind of her own. However, compared to her mother, she loves to play with us and wants to involve us in any of her rampages and malpratices. Skadi always acted more discreetly when commiting her crimes. Nevertheless Tova is very obedient most of the time, at least in comparison to her adult pack members at that young age ;) The bond between us and her is so unbelievable strong...

When it comes to her behaviour in odd situations or towards unknown people, she is quite more open minded and stable than her mother was when she was younger. With Skadi it was hard work to get her as calm as she is today, Tova seems to be born with this doughty attitude towards the strange things in life. I suppose she got that trait for her father.

During the last few weeks we had different totally strange people in our house - one time two very nice women from the swedish Kennel Club who did a regular Kennel inspection (which was btw. without any negative annotation) and another time a chimney sweeper.
While the two SKK-ladies were not of a threatening appearance, the sweep looked quite suspicious with his black clothes and face and all his weird and loud tools.
At least Skadi seemed to have this opinion and met the workman with a healthy wariness. Tova on the other hand overwhelmed him with the same wild and curious fondness as any other visitor. His pursuit to clean our chimney was simply to exciting...
It seems we were successful with our socialisation.

Unfortunately we still have serious problems between our two adult bitches, Tova however loves both of them and shows the pronounced and varying social behaviour of a sane wolfdog-temper.

to be continued...

6 moths update part II

... Arn/Washita

Washita with his brother Tjalve

The "pups" are 6 months now

After a while without any update (sorry, but there's a lot going on right now with almost no time for internet-activities) we want to celebrate the puppies becoming six months old today.
To celebrate this, we will post a short text about every one of the litter written by the pups owners.
Let's start with Tjalve:

Tjalve 6 months!

Since the day he was born I fell in love with this small brown new life!

Kiowa, Tjalve’s dad was my first Saarlooswolfdog and I always had the dream to welcome his son one day…

Of course I felt really proud when the pups were born. All of them beautiful pups with their own character and temperament.

Kiowa and Skadi had become a wonderful couple together and now they have their offspring.

Tjalve was from the beginning a very curious and open-minded pup with a strong character.

He likes to do things “his” way ;-)

From the first day her in Holland he saw his dad as his big idol

His auntie Kaoni as his best friend

His uncle Timber as his big teddy bear

Together a pack of four in nice harmony!

Well, back to Mr. Tjalve himself…

During my daily work ( Grooming Studio) Tjalve is my best assistant.

He likes it a lot and this way he gets to know a lot of different dog breeds. He likes them all, big or small…

Except for one old English Bulldog…In Tjalve’s mind this dog makes strange noises and has a funny face ;-)

Of course we go for nice walks in the forest…into town…the beach…

At the beach we mostly walk with other Saarlooswolfdogs, a lot of fun for dogs and humans with afterwards all together at a nice beach-restaurant.

Today Tjalve weighs 24,5 kg and with his longer hair a very handsome young fellow ;-)

He still is very curious about everything and everybody, still open-minded but with a healthy doses of reservation.

He is the clown of the family and makes a lot of people laugh. When he wants he can be very cuddly too.

He also thinks of himself as the tough guy and knows all about the world already.

Lately he is trying to be a bit dominant over his dad, but of course dad laughs about him, or ignores him, or punishes him (the Saarloos way). It all depends on the way Tjalve has mis-behaved.

Well, Tjalve is just a healthy young male with nice puppy behaviour…

Everybody who lives with a Saaorloos will know what I mean ;-)

Now at the age of 6 months he still is my little red Viking who makes me laugh all the time…

To be continued…

Marleen and Tjalve

One of the most passionate and warm-hearted people we ever knew has passed away. The gap that she leaves as a person, breeder and animal lover won't be possible to fill!
Martina - We are grateful that we became acquainted with you and even if we did not spend as much time with you as we wished to we wouldn't hesitate to call you a real friend!
It is for people like you, that I wish there may be an afterlife - May you rest in peaceful pleasure - reunited with Tilla, Clyde and Ayasha!

The long awaited update!

Well, it has been a very long time since my last entry even though I wanted to post something all the time. But there were a thousand reasons keeping me away from my computer.
First of all I had to get my buisness running again after dedicating all my time to the dogs under the first months of this year. So I was working a lot and used the computer/internet for this purpose almost exclusively. Furthermore the weather was great and I prefered to spend some more time outdoors.

Then something happend which forced me again to give all my attention to the dogs again - Skadi and Isa had a fight!

Everyone who owns multiple dogs of the same sex knows and fears this problem, being one of the most terrible things that can happen and menace the peaceful continuity of the pack.
Fortunately Skadi and Isa have a very deep and special connection which couldn't be destroyed by one single occasion like this. However it shows that something was going wrong and that some work is needed to put their relationship and with it the order of our pack back on the track.
A lot of motion is always a helpful first step, so we spent very much time into the forest these days!
Now the pack is at peace again and there are no visible tensions between the two adults, however we have become very careful now.

Little Tova isn't that little anymore - actually she is already quite big and heavy. She has about 22 kg and it wont take very long until she is as big as her mother.
Her set of teeth is almost completely changed at this point.

Tova is a real nice dog, not shy at all, she is very curious and active, loving to be outside in nature. She likes new people and wants to play with everyone. She is also a lot more cuddly than her mother. With a few exceptions her urge for destruction is limited to her toys - at least inside the house ;)
She loves her mother and auntie Isa very much, however she is occasionally still a bit to wild for them.
Additional to the fotos above a little slideshow with some pictures from the last weeks:

Wahya in a good shape again...

Wahya is totally recovered and she is back in her old shape - if I look at the pictures I see a lot of similarities between Tova and her favourite occupations.
Biting into furniture:
Biting into other dogs:
Actually biting into everything:But she is beautiful!

Great picture of Tjalve

Arn visiting his birthplace

Unfortunately I did not have the time to drive up to Värmland again last week. But instead Arn and his family visited us yesterday on their way back home to Germany.
They had a wonderful time in the midst of a wolf-territory (yes, they even heard them howl!), but only one week in Sweden is always to short...
So the last bigger stop in Sweden was a certain highlight for the dogs again - Arn enjoyed being on known territory, playing with his sister and his fellow Kaya... The videos show how much fun they had:



But also Skadi was involved in this rampage around our house - no matter if with her offspring or youngster Kaya - she was behaving almost like a pup herself.Skadi looks a bit terrible at the moment - after the stress with the rearing of the pups and especially the Tova-Monster she lost a huge part of her coat - the summer heat is doing on last thing... She has nearly no black or darker colored dorsal hair left which makes her kind of strange looking unicolored.For us it was a weird feeling to see our Arn in this familiar surrounding again - the following picture is a good example - I remember him like yesterday, standing there with 4 or 5 weeks...
And now he stands at the same place, in the same pose but a lot bigger - strange and beautiful feeling!
Stefan and Annika, it was really a pleasure that you visited us - Thank you!!!

Update on Wahya

Wahya is now entirely convalesced, recent blood samples show normal values again. The terrible disease which threathened her young life was a case of a Klebsiella infection. Klebsiella is a bacterium which usually can be found in the gastro intestinal system. If it's quantity explodes (for whatever reason) it causes this serious infection in the stomach and the the guts.
She is very hungry now and devours between 1 and 1 1/2kg daily!
Wahya is very active again and plays a lot with her Retriever-friends.
The picture above shows her sleeping in the office of her owner and was taken yesterday.
We are pretty eased to know that she is fine again!

In the footsteps of his parents - Tjalve the digger

Our pups are very aware of traditions it seems. At least Tjalve is following in the footsteps of his parents and obviously aspires a career as a digger!

Tova's first night away from home... Camping in Värmland

For our visit in Värmland we had to stay one night up there and we chose a camping place with small huts for this purpose. This was the first time for Tova that we didn't sleep at home - so a completely new experience for her. But actually she seemed to like it after a short time of wariness. The next morning I even had the feeling that she would love to stay there for a whole holiday... But we had to leave to meet her brother Arn and that's another story.

Arn visiting Sweden

Arn and his new family is in Sweden right now, they stay for one week in a little cabin in northern Värmland. This is of course absolutely great for us and we took the chance to visit him yesterday. We spent the whole day there and it was a big fun for us and the dogs who also enjoyed the reunion a lot!
I will probably go up to Värmland again this week and take only Tova with me. Then there will be more pics!
Arn has become a very,very nice dog - my breeder's heart is full of pride I must admit. He looks great and has a wonderful character as well. A very charming and open dog that everyone has to fall in love with immediately!


More pictures can you find here: Arn visiting Sweden - a small family reunion in the north

New pictures of Arn

New pictures of Tova

I thought to post some more pictures of Tova today, so I decided to do it as a small slideshow.
Enjoy it!

Back to the Beach

Another nice walk at the beach we missed... Tjalve and Roffe, Daddy Kiowa and Grandma Thunga - a real family excursion. Furthermore they were joined by a half-sister of Thunga called Ciranoush and of course some human killjoys ;)
But here are some fotos which show how much fun it must have been:








Here can you find more pictures of this trip: Back to the Beach