1 year in pyrshep land

Well, not exactly a year since I got him the day he turned 2 months… 10 months it is. It feels like a life time. I just realized that I never even introduced him in a blog post, so there we go. 

Shaggy was born on april 19th, 2016. At 12 months his hight is 46,5 cm and he weights 11.2kg.

He is the most adorable little thing in my universe. But after having a pyr shep in my life I think I need to write a blog post about them, more specifically about Shaggy, since nothing is a rule when it comes to dogs. They are all different individuals that have different upbringings and different personalities. 

Before getting a pyr shep I did the research, don't get me wrong, I read all the texts and blog posts. I talked to so many breeders and pyr shep owners, and at the end of the day I felt so ready to have my own crazy unstoppable furry thing. To be honest I always thought that they were over exaggerating things. I was wrong, lol, so so wrong. I think no one is ready to have a pyr shep… if you'r up for it you'll have to face all the craziness that will enter your life at once like a hurricane. They are real tasmanian devils, they can eat everything that is around the house, destroy all your things, climb the tables, window ceiling, make your other dogs crazy, all at once!

Definition of happiness

When Shaggy got here, just a little furry ball, so cute, so sweet, so adorable <3 but already a force of nature, lol. We all know puppies love to bite, I've been there and done that time and time again. I always spoiled all my puppies and never cared for destroyed clothes or shoes. Shaggy was never satisfied with only the clothes or shoes, he wanted my arms, feet, hands. If it really hurts and I complained he would just bite stronger and shake his head, it was so exciting for him. My arms were a mess, so red and full of bite marks, everyone I knew was mad at me for letting him bite me like that. But he was so funny, and would stop at nothing to get to play with me. Also, I learned very soon that pyr sheps hate to be told what to do, things should be sooo much fun that they really want to do it, or you have to convince them that it was their idea. I prayed everyday that he could please please please, lose his puppy teeth very soon. 

A tip for those getting a pyr shep, things should not be on the floor. Nothing. Really, they can eat just about anything! Shaggy's poop was always a thing of art, so colorful and full of surprises, lol. Pieces of paper, clothespin, flip-flops, pajamas (right Susan :P), any kind of plastic container, shoes, books, plants, sunglasses, key charms, lettuce, entire socks, well you got the idea. If you want to keep something out of reach, make sure it is somewhere that a cat wouldn't reach. Or a monkey... Shaggy is half monkey, I'm quite sure. Once, when he was about 4 months, I put him on the service room, while I trained some tricks with Mike. I'm telling you, it didn't take more than 5 minutes. I came back, and it was Shaggy's turn to train some tricks, when I gave him the kibbles as reward he wanted to eat but was crying and acting weird, so I touched his belly just to be shocked by an *extremely* swollen and hard belly. Back at the room he found the dog food on top of a table, ate a bit of the plastic and a ton of food. We rushed to the vet, where ultrasound showed food, a lot of gasses and something that the vet though was some kind of bone, but I was pretty sure it was mountain apple seed since we have a tree in the garden and he absolutely loves this fruit! Another thing my other dogs never even cared about. 

Shaggy is a genius of trick training. He love it <3 Probably I owe 60 percent of our relationship to trick training. Everything comes so easy, and even when he is so crazy that I think he can not possibly understand something while doing so many things at once, he always understands… That's one of the most exciting things for him. I started agility as a trick for him, some straight tunnels, some cik/cap, some bang games. So much fun! He was making me believe everything would be so easy. Then it was that time of the year, finals at university, not much time, so many things to do. Shaggy was progressing faster than I expected, so the little time I had we trained agility. Agility was no fun for him. Pyr Sheps only have time for fun things in life. Shaggy was frustrated, he would run away, lie down and stare at me. Good luck calling him back! He would not run off, just stare in frustration. I was frustrated too, and didn't know what to do. So many times I thought that we were not having fun with this… So I let it go, and focused on the fun again. Tricks, straight tunnels, cik/caps, running contacts. If you focus on your goals with a pyr shep everything will fall apart. Focus on the small things, trick training, night cuddles, laugh at their mischief, let them be as goofy as they want, play, remember to have fun. Now we are having fun in agility. So far from perfect or ready, but so much fun! 

In my experience with Shaggy he was way more stubborn than fearful. As a puppy he never liked people to get him, no one but me and my sister. He always loved to run and jump on my lap, sleep in my lap during competitions or seminars, sleep in my pillow at night. If someone else wanted to get him he would stretch his looong legs and put as much distance between them as he could, until he found an opportunity to jump off. He never cared about falling, as long as he could avoid contact with other people. I must say that he is so much better now. He loves everyone, and shows love to everyone. Dogs and people alike. Fear was always something that he solved by jumping on me, or asking me to hold him, just like a baby. My 46 cm lap dog <3 

There's so much to say about him! How he annoys High all day long, running after him to steal a ball while there are other 10 balls around the house. How he hates me when I blow on his face (he gets so offended!), how he tries to eat flies all day long. How he jumps in the swimming pool 20 time a day, and we probably will have to make a fence to keep him from swimming all day everyday. How he loves the Manner's Minder more than he loves me. But it would take me a life time to write it all.

 I just felt like I had to share a bit of my puppy with the world, and I don't mean to say that pyr sheps are horrible dogs and you should never have one. I absolutely adore Shaggy and I wouldn't change a single thing about him (maybe make him 3.5cm shorter :P) . He is crazy, stubborn, spoiled, unstoppable, but he is so perfect for me. I only mean to say that if you make the decision to have a pyr shep, prepare yourself for whatever comes. Make sure your relationship comes first no matter what, and remember to smile even when you want to kill him for destroying yet another thing. At the end of the ride I'm sure we will all have learned how to dance and laugh in a storm. 

                   Happy 1st birthday Grinch. Stay the same goofy thing forever <3 

8 million kisses

Thant's about how many kisses Mike gave me in this past months! I can't believe that my puppy is turning 8 months today. I look at him and he looks like an adult already… at least until he looks into my eyes and his soul giggles and dances like a child.

No dog will ever be perfect, in fact nothing will ever be perfect, but Mike is the closest I've seen! He never met someone that he couldn't charm, never met someone that he felt didn't deserve a kiss. He truly believes that he is a lap dog… if you'r a stranger or someone he really likes, doesn't matter because he will kiss you, jump on you, sit on your feet/legs/belly (depends if your sitting, standing or laying down lol). 

He is still loving every place we go, every dog he meets and he lives and breaths for cuddles. I believe that the only thing he ever tried and didn't like was "pitanga", but from deworming pills to carrots and papaya he will eat everything with a huge smile on his face! 

Mike is getting a bit braver every day, sometimes he just needs a leap of courage to do things like jump in the swimming pool or sniff a weird animal (turtles are weird in his opinion! haha). When training he is crazy, if we stop to breath for a second he will do 5 jumps and 2 tunnel by himself and look at us like "come on, follow my lead!". He loves his running contacts and don't you dare try to give him food instead of his precious ball. 

In the rest he is still enjoying his goofy puppy moments, and we are trying to make the best of it. I could never wish for a better puppy, but again I am a bit bias in this matter, as all my boys are perfect in my eyes :) 

Keep the fun coming and happy 8 months little fellow! We love you to the moon and back. 

Mike - 5 months

Oh time is flying! Baby boy is already 5 months…

Seriously there is no way in earth that he could be more perfect than he is, so playful and so much fun. He adores to give kisses, is very loud to voice his opinion about staying outside, loves all the dogs in the universe, is still getting used to lakes and all those scary waters, hates bath time with all his heart, has the funniest look any dog could have at this age, and is all heart and love! He is very passionate about agility and tricks, to be true he is very passionate about everything!

All I know is that time is passing too fast! Hope it keeps bringing amazing days, and that the crazy dude stays just as wonderful as he is!

Happy unbirthday to my little one and his sisters <3

Mike - 3 months

Heey, I told you it wouldn't take so long for me to write again!

I planned to come here sooner to introduce the new guy, but he sure is keeping me busy haha. His name is Mike and he will be 3 months tomorrow (although I'm sure that this isn't true, he is too smart for such an young dog!), he has only been here for a month but has already captivated everyone's hearts! Mike is not my dog, but he stays at my place some days a week and I take the time to teach him some things that his owner is too lazy to do himself (by the way, his owner is my boyfriend =P).

So far I can see that this is going to be a bullet train ride lol, this kid is special in so many ways! He is funny, crazy, super playful, really smart, crazy, fast, did I mention crazy?

He loves ice-cream; gets really frustrated when we all go into the sea and he reaaally doesn't want go, then he goes anyway hehe; he loves to pull Koda's tail; still tries to find milk in our fingers; already pees lifting his rear leg; destroyed two books, my bed sheets, my flip-flops, and one specially selected plant in the garden…

The tricks are coming along very nicely, that's my favorite thing to do even with my grown up boys, but puppies are so fun! It's hilarious when he doesn't get something right and starts to try his own ideas haha. On the other hand he is really the easiest puppy I ever trained! Once I jackpot something: it's done! he gets it super fast, and has not yet started to challenge me with any trick. Right now he is obsessed with lifting his side legs, he does it 20 times a day in the most unexpected places lol. He is so much fun!

I'll leave a video here so you can see for yourselves what I'm trying to say! The video of the side legs is a bonus for those that read the blog ;)

See you next month with the 4 months video!
Enjoy

2015.1 just the beginning

This year has been amazing so far! From all the things I planned to do, some actually happened and some didn't.

I went to the AyC with Koda, and I already made a post about it… so if you haven't seen it yet I'll leave a link to the post here. :) In short we need to compete more often hehe. Koda was very insecure, waiting for me and passing by several obstacles, something that is not common in our trainings. But we are both ready for more! It was fun!

My plans regarding college changed a lot since december. I was accepted in my first choice, nevertheless, I decided not to go (actually I postponed my acceptance to fall 2016 only so my parents could calm down a little lol). It's not an academic decision, my heart just belongs here! I love everything that I have here and I'm not ready to let go of it.

Besides, remember the tattoo I mentioned on the last post? the one that my parents weren't very fond of… well I did it with my sister! For the ones that don't know, we are twins! Guess it will explain the tattoo <3

In agility, the boys are doing fantastic!! I love it more and more by the second! We have been doing A LOT of RC this year, but when we get to run a course they do great. I'm very happy! We are not quite done with RC but I never thought we would come this far, so I'm very pleased already. I won't post a video of it tough haha, will leave it for latter when we finish it.



If I have one regret this semester is that I didn't attend Tobias Wust and Daniel Schroder's seminar, only because I would loose too many classes… but it's my only regret. I've loved the year so far and it will only get better and better!

Here is a sum up of this semester, hope you like it!

Americas and Caribbean championship

Yes, it came and is already gone. Today I was doing a classification essay for my english class, and since it was free topic I decided to write about dogs. More specifically, about types of agility handlers. The difficult part was that I could't write about my type of handler, because I was ashamed of it. The truth is that I am from the kind of handler that doesn't  fight. I practice agility because I love it, my dogs love it! So why can't I try harder when it comes the time? I'm disappointed, not because I didn't end up on a podium, but because I didn't even try. I could've run more, I could've been a better handler for Koda; but I did't try, I was frozen. By what? I don't know, it just happens.

Despite my disappointment with myself the trip was amazing! my little boy handled everything nicely, it was our second competition in A1 and he had his first non disqualified run (not quite a clean run but we will get there lol). His contacts where a disaster, but I tried on some old and forgotten stopped contacts a week before the competition, because I didn't want to stop his running contacts just for a competition. I was afraid it would fall apart, and I didn't try it since we got back so I don't know how it will be. Oh well, I will see it done eventually. He doesn't know weave entries as well, but his speed is quite nice, so I'm happy with it! We will train some entries and work on start line stays. I promise to myself that I will discover my inner warrior, I really want to get in the course like I do in trainings or better, I want to watch a video from a competition and say "I really tried hard to be there for my boys."

I also saw many friends that I hadn't seen for so long! It was amazing to see each one of you. I made many new friends as well, and I promise I'll try to talk more next time lol, I'm really shy and quite in a group conversation, but I can be talkative sometimes (believe it or not). By the way, I loooooved to see Finwe! the first pyr shep I've seen and he is just amazing!!

So sad I couldn't stay for Tobias and Daniel's seminar. I'm sure it was amazing and it would be grate to learn from them, but  it would be too expensive to stay one more week at the hotel, and it was too much time away from school (I don't want to fails school due to absences when it is so close to the end lol). But I hope we have the opportunity again and next time I won't miss it.

I made a video with our runs, hope you enjoy it.

Happy holidays

Yes, it's been a while. The reason is that my posts are getting to boring and repetitive… Koda is still perfect, High is still my perfect beast, life is normal! hahaha

This semester was crazy. Life wise, I applied to college in the US, and I was accepted in one college already! it's not my first choice but I only receive the other decisions latter, so when I decide where I'm     going I'll make sure to tell you guys. Sure the boys are going with me, or else I wouldn't go, but I'm scared. All of this is scary. I'll be leaving home, going to college, moving to a new country, wow! Hope I can deal with all that. Also, I just turned 18… nothing changed lol, except that now my mom lets me drive; and although my parents don't like the idea I plan to get a tattoo. 

Well, agility is still my thing. The boys are amazing, Koda surprises me in every run, and High bites; that's his thing, I guess he just likes my taste. Contacts are not our thing, they both do the see-saw, they both don't know what the hell are they supposed to do in the dog walk nor in the A-frame, so we are back to Running Contacts class and this time with both boys; let's hope it works! 

Another exciting new is that next year I'll be going to the Americas and Caribbean championship with Koda, no expectations. It is very likely that he'll be perfect and I'll ruin all our runs. No problem, I'll get over it eventually. It will be amazing, I really miss my friends from other parts of Brazil, I want to meet some new dogs and it will be my first agility trip with my boyfriend. After the championship we will attend a seminar with Tobias Wust and Daniel Schroder. I can't wait, I'm sure that the entire trip will be unforgettable. 

As usual I made a video of the year, and it's nice, hope you like it. Next year I think that I won't make a birthday video for the boys, simply because I never remember to film things; I used to film Koda's every footstep when he was a puppy but a year ago the camera got heavier therefore more difficult to carry it around. Still I'll try to make two videos of the year, since I'll be in Brazil in the first semester, and in the US in the second semester, fun adventures ahead. 

I mentioned on the last post that High had some puppies, and I get to see some of them very often. I love them, seriously they couldn't be more perfect. The owner of the female - Eva- is keeping two puppies, the big brown boy is named Juca, the big black girl used to be called Highzinha because she is just like High in every way, now she is called Stella, God bless her owner lol she's a little beast like her daddy. 

And just to explain why Ellie don't appear much on the video, she had a tiny pup <3 Her pregnancy was not the easiest, and she didn't have much milk, it was hard for both Ellie and her puppy but thankfully they are marvelous now. Just not much agility for her on the last months; She knows many many new tricks, such a smart ass! I didn't get to film her tricks but I promise I will. 

Well, the post is really random. I actually came to wish you all merry christmas and a wonderful new year! May 2015 bring you the best adventures.