Hello Wonderful Puppy Families and Friends,
First, thank you all for your heart warming
and precious notes about Max. You carried me through that first
difficult week. I appreciate you so much!
We’ve been busy with puppies. In both of our most recent litters, our
veterinarian commented that their heart rates are slower than other puppies
he sees, which he explains, shows that these puppies are stable, more
comfortable in new surroundings, and to put it simply, they are fantastic
puppies. They are able to focus, settle, and think. I am most
impressed with the litter of Hero and Legend for good balance and working
ability as well as companionship.
Here are three of the four puppies remaining. We would like to place
at least one more and don’t mind at all keeping the rest for the possibility
of training and adding to our breeding program, such is their quality.
They are crate trained, dry through the night, and as you can see they have
started in our Puppy Foundation Program.
One professional dog handler who has a male from this litter writes,
"Elizabeth,
All goes well at the Hendrix house. "Otto" (as my family
has decided) will be his call name and we are still working on his
registered name, is doing VERY well. He is quickly adapting to southern
Idaho through inclusion in everywhere we go. He slept through most of the
night last night in our bedroom. The first couple of nights were somewhat
noisy. He is eating well, going on regular walks and interacting great with
our older dog. We are happy with his progress. Listed below are some random
observations from another dog guy.
*Strong attachment to new owners.
*Easily trainable with good food motivation and ball drive.
Outside of that, he is a vocal guy with almost a
melodic sense. We will continue to expose him to our world and insure he has
the right development. Our youngest daughter is coming home from college
tomorrow with 9 friends. He will absolutely be the center of attention.
We are happy with him and will send pictures in the
next few weeks.
Talk to you soon."
Kelly
This little pup appears to already be taking on his guardian role.
Schatzi from Hero and Legend, 2011, has joined the family of Tonto, from
Hero and Daila 2009.
Now get ready for the picture of Piper and Drago’s last puppy still looking
for a home, because she is adorable beyond words. This litter too,
has the qualities we like both in focus and trainability. This little
girl has the long coat that we have come to especially appreciate.
This fuzzy puppy is only seven weeks old. Her littermates will be
going home this week.
We are very excited about the coming year as many of our plans will be
coming to fruition with some of the best dogs yet joining the breeding
program. Among these is
Macho,
the pup I imported two years ago. His OFA hip and elbow certifications
came in recently with a solid rating of Good for hips and normal for elbows.
We are also testing for DM (Degenerative Myelopathy) to make sure that none
of our puppies are likely to be affected by the disease. Here is
Macho, just last week.
He carries many of the qualities we strive for from beautiful temperament,
strong yet settled, affectionate, big, large bone, powerful, full grips,
intense, yet loving, trainable, deep red pigment, and excellent health.
Be looking for puppies from him next year.
I’m continually thankful for each of you. Your emails and insights are
incredibly valuable as we shape our breeding program. One of you, who
traveled cross country to visit this summer, wrote this very dear note which
has encouraged me greatly and again helped to set my sites on what we are
seeking,
“Chris and I didn't choose you and your dogs randomly. We did internet
searches. (Note: searches.)
Chris has wanted to get a GSD for a long time, and I did look into the breed
myself through the internet, as well as books, learning about the traits of
the breed and the characteristics to be expected. Chris, as you know, has
had personal experience owning and raising a GSD. So, we decided that was
the next kind of dog we want to have.
ANYWAY... I went on the internet and googled German shepherd dogs, as well
as looking around locally. Then I started sifting through the pages of
breeders. Wow! There are lots of breeders of GSDs (and presumably other
breeds, as well.) Some of them are very slick websites, and some are kind of
rangy looking websites. The slick ones often have page after page of
breeding dogs, with photo after photo of those same dogs. So many of those
dogs look deformed! Their hind legs are crabbed under them in a way that
makes me want to look away. They are bred that way, not just posed that way.
I know that because there are videos of the dogs in action, attacking a guy
in a padded suit, which is okay but they crouch throughout the whole thing.
They look like they are always ready to spring, but they rarely ever have
to, if you think about it. The puppies don't even look puppy-ish, just there
in a non-descript way. No joy in any of the animals. The rangy looking web
sites maybe have their hearts in the right place, but don't seem to have
consistent results. Which is okay, but wasn't for us.
So, keep it up.
Thanks,
Donna”
Happy, healthy, purposeful dogs, able to bond and focus, that’s what we want
and are working towards, that and the connection that we value most of all
with you, the people who started as puppy buyers and became so much more as
friends.
Some updates on the webpage that you may want to check out include the
Homepage, the
Proven Health page, and of course the
Current Litters page. We have a little bit of a breather here
before we have puppies again, so check the webpage frequently as we have
time to update it. Keep in mind your puppy updates and be sure to set
aside some time if you haven’t already to take pictures of your dog and send
them in. For those of you who have sent in pictures, Thank you!
We plan to be busy posting them over the winter months.
Be sure to keep in touch and we will do the same,
Elizabeth
208-818-3099