Sunny goes to her first show

March 7th and 8th the IABCA hosted a show in Tucson, AZ - a very long drive away from west central Colorado! Motivated by Anne and Leo (Sunny's litermate brother) driving all the way from Dallas/Fort Worth area in TX and by Michelle, Sunny's littermate sister's (human) mom staying in Tucson and offering to host...well the whole family packed up for a whirlwind road trip and headed to Tucson.
We were lucky that the weather was mild - almost cool - high 60's, low 70's, as the drive and the show were much easier on our winterized Colorado dogs!
Other than one fun match, this was a first real show for Sunny and me. I was very proud of how attentive and obedient she was in the ring. She couldn't have done better, but the competition was stiff. Ender was also entered in all 4 shows, a 3-month old Shiloh pup from Phoenix, who took 3 out of 4 best in breed. Quite the impressive pup.
We only entered in three shows and in the third show, it came down to Sunny and her brother. The judge put them both thru their paces - three times around the ring, twice diagonally and two physical exams on each dog. As she did her second exam on Sunny, she told me "They are both really nice dogs," but gave the Best in Breed win to Leo.
Sunny did get three SG-1 cards, which means the judges felt she was an excellent representation of the breed judged against the breed standard, and those three cards gave Sunny a National Puppy Championship with IABCA - yea! (IABCA considers the large and giant breeds puppy until 18 months.)
It was great meeting Michelle, Anne and Ender's mom, Carla, as well as Leo and Ender. 1650 miles later, it was a great trip and a great experience and I'm already excited about the Loveland, CO show coming up in May :-)

Sunny's busy winter

Sunny has a pretty busy social calendar this winter. We have continued with the Read to a Dog program at the local elementary school, started our orientation at the hospital as a registered Delta therapy team, and are doing another obedience class.
We hopefully have some IABCA shows coming up over the next couple of months but, to practice up, we participated in a local "fun match". This was our first time ever in a show or obedience ring and she took a first in obedience, fourth in rally, third in conformation (with many handler errors) and a first in showmanship (well, only because there were only 2 of us and the other team were first timers too!). They also had Canine Good Citizen testing at the match, and Sunny passed with flying colors!
She also went on a trip to Colorado Springs in February and enjoyed playing ball in the park with my mom's Border Collie.

Fall Update

Late October brought Halloween. I let the girls go to the door with me and both were very good with the kids and the costumes and parade of people down the sidewalk. Wish I could have gotten pictures, but not enough hands. The end of Oct also brought the last of the late season rides in the mountains.

In November the annual ISSR Shiloh Shepherd calander competition took place and we found out a puppy picture of hers from last spring will make Sunny 'Miss May' for 2009. -grin- Sunny got her annual physical about this time too and was confirmed to be a happy, healthy one year old. She was even happier in mid-December when my winter layoff started!

In December winter started in earnest on the Western Slopes of Colorado, and really kicked in the week after my layoff began right as we were moving to our new house (about 45 min west). Our older dog, Cupcake, was nervous about the move, but Sunny loves both the snow and new things to see so had a great December!

(No, she doesn't have an underbite - she just makes funny faces for the camera sometimes!)

Now it is January and we are all settled in the new house. We start a new obedience class this week, and there are a couple of IABCA shows within traveling distace in the next couple of months, so looking forward to showing her in conformation.

Sunny's Delta Pet Partners registration became official just as we arrived at the new house. I contacted the local Pet Partners group and we were set up right away in the Read to a Dog program at a local elementary school. Last week was our first visit to the school and I was so proud of my girl! Only a year old and such a new setting for her, and she did SO great. She was calm and relaxed the whole time. She settled on the dog bed set out for her after greeting the other 2 volunteer teams, and lay quietly for over an hour while different children came in every 15 minutes to read to the 3 dogs. She enjoyed meeting them and gave kisses to the ones who got their faces close enough :-)The kids were very sweet and enjoy reading to the dogs (the children with reading problems sign up to be in the program if they want to participate and there is a waiting list of kids wanting to join.) The purpose of the program is that chilren with reading problems can read out loud to a non-judgemental doggy audience and be motivated by the unique setting for reading. The program is nation-wide and has shown to be effective at improving reading skills.
We are doing the orientation for the hospital next and hope to be doing hospital visits soon too.

Sunny is one year old!

Wow, how time flies! I'm so behind in updating Sunny's blog that suddenly she is a year old today. So much has happened in the last few months and so many things not caught on camera - riding on a jam-packed tour bus and acting as well as any service dog, going to crowded, noisy farmer's markets and walking at heel past all the people and dogs, letting people and kids pet and hug her. She also started going on trail rides with the horses, moved to a new house where she loves her big yard, and for her fist birthday, passed her Delta Society Pet Partners exam with high marks in every category so she can do therapy work this winter!

Stats at one year are 26.5" tall and 75 lbs.

So a big, happy birthday to my wonderful, sweet girl.
To see her first year in pictures click
here
To see the whole litter grow from 3 weeks to one year old, see the 'sibling' links at the top left of the blog.

Howling

Another landmark that my baby is growing up. Yesterday Greg left the house with Cupcake to feed the horse. Sunny came running to me whining, wanting to go with them. She ran to the window and back a couple of times, whining when she got to me. Knowing wolves howl when they are first separated, I howled to her. She whined more and yipped like a wolf cub (not the first time she's done this), then to my surprise broke into a full-throated howl. Skye had the most amazing musical wolfie howl, so it was fun to see that Sunny has it in her genes too.

7 Months Old

In the past couple of weeks Sunny has graduated from her intermediate obedience (as a star pupil!). I was happy that she did so well, calm around the other dogs, patient throughout class and the best one there in all around obedience (at least in my opinion!). We are continuing to work on our own on down-stays, and other behaviors she has a foundation in, but always a work in progress (like not jumping up).

She also got to go to her first therapy dog play day May 11th. It was her first play day with big dogs and her first try at the agility course. During play time my heart was in my mouth when they ran and cut flat out! - especially as she had her first boo boo playing too rough with Cupcake just the weekend before and had a sore right leg for the rest of the morning (play between them has been toned down a lot by me now). I don't have any agility goals for Sunny and don't really want her jumping, but it was a fun new thing to do for both of us.
Also this week was the first time I am having her dog walker take her out of the kennel mid-day for her walk, then leave her loose in the house/yard until I get home in the evening. The first few days were perfect, but yesterday she must have had a burst of energy and played a bit with a runner rug and some rag towels, but otherwise is very good for 7 months old. I feel I'm pushing the limits a bit and would rather progress her more slowly, but now that heat and thunderstorm season is here I sure feel better if she is good enough to have the freedom to go inside.

At 7 months old she was only 24" at the shoulder and 65 lbs, a little small for her age for an Acer daughter, and seems so small compared to Skye as an adult, but think she may grow slowly over a longer period of time, which is probably better in the long run anyway.

More socializing

April 17th - I realized today I've been a little remiss on socializing lately - except for obedience class Sunny hasn't been getting off the property much lately, so off we went downtown today. Traffic, schools letting out, a loud motercycle, and she walked at a nice loose lead heel. Then off to the grocery store where I stood by the electric doors with people going in and out with carts - she just sat at heel and took it all in, though she'd never been out of the car at the store before. She was obviously out of her element but trusted me. Last I walked her in the parking lot while pushing a cart - nothing.
April 27th - Today it was back to the grocery store. Surprisingly only a couple of people stopped to pet her, but I was pleased that she again sat quietly with people walking inches from her without getting up or pulling to sniff and greet the people who didn't want to meet her. After the store we went to the skate park where she watched the kids on skateboards and bikes and a whiney motorized car on the dirt track (which I didn't give her time to spook at, so she didn't). Next was another park near home that she is familiar with but there was a big multifamily picnic going on. As we walked in that area people were coming and going and a couple of children came over to say hi to her. She has not had much practice at greeting new people, so I had her sit before they petted her, but for a dog who has very rarely seen children she did great at having 3 around her at once petting her, while a toddler of about 2 yrs old (one of identical twins) lunged for her then fell back afraid and screamed, then lunged forward again another 2 or 3 times. I was so proud of how quietly she sat through it all!
This has been my first week back at work since getting Sunny in December. I was very relieved to finally get a dog walker lined up at the last minute (after a month of looking for one) as she'll spend 10 hrs or more in her kennel each day that we both work. The dog walker will give her a mid-day run in the pastures for 1/2 hr, and she seemed to be doing well when I got home each day. I think I probably have more seperation anxiety than she does!