Nikon found his sister at the park!
First, Nikon demonstrates how you sit still and pose
“I won’t eat you, I promise!”
Now, he helps Willa pose (sort of)
“That boy is soooo weird.”
“Nuh-uh, *you’re* the weird one.”
“That photo lady is weird.” “I agree”
Everyone can be friends whilst chewing (Willa is chewing on my bite sleeve keychain)
“Your mouth tastes like…..rubber”
Can’t have a GSD puppy around and not play with the head tilts
Willa worked a scent pad
Nikon worked an air scent
In other news, Nikon and Pan are training for the AD. Nikon will be handled by me and Pan by a friend who owns his half-brother. Nikon is actually loving this which surprises me because he can be quite lazy (he is not a hyper dog, perfectly content to sleep at my feet for a week straight if I’m home sick). I think his conformation contributes to his enjoyment. When he is gaiting next to the bike it looks effortless. He does not have the extreme angles, reach, or rear drive of many show line dogs but in my humblest of opinions he’s quite balanced and his movement is very efficient. When I stop to check his feet he wags his tail and whines to continue. Once we have the AD we can complete the breed survey.
Also Nikon has made some improvements in flyball. He’s learning to pass and now that he is racing head-to-head his speed is getting much better. He takes it seriously when it’s a competition. At the last tournament we clocked him at 5.2 running by himself. When he’s racing he’s more like 4.5. I have new video but haven’t got it on YouTube yet.
Nikon is also pre-entered in two days of competition at the UKC Premier, which happens to be the highlight of my life.
You got to meet Willa! I love that girl. I missed her last weekend, but this has got to be a great experience for her.
Best of luck at the UKC Premier, I’m sure Nikon will be his usual awesome self!
Willa! I miss my baby girl. Did you give her some extra hugs and kisses? Lies I really miss your pictures and captions. No one else has your style when it comes to captioning pictures.
I am not surprised by Nikon chilling with you when you are sick for a week. Kira is the same, she can chill with the best of them but everyone that knows her knows she can go and go and go. Plus he is from herding lines and those dogs run marathon a day with those sheep. The sheep do not run marathons the dogs do keeping the boundary for the sheep.
His flyball times are awesome! Super cool!
What did you enter in the Premier?
I have entered a bunch of things so far. Planning on entering Willa in conformation.
Do you think it worth entering the dock diving if you have never done it?
I enter “fun” stuff at the Premier. Since I enjoy it so much I don’t want to get stressed out doing more difficult stuff so we do lure coursing and dock diving, and then I have plenty of time to watch other things and SHOP! Julie, Nikon entered dock diving last year at the Premier and he’d never jumped in the pool before. He earned a title and one jump into the next division. Pan is doing the same thing this year, he’s never jumped into the pool and is already entered 5 times. I typically don’t pre-enter the Thursday splashes but I go down in the afternoon and use the practice dock. If they jump well right away, you can usually enter splashes the day-of. Otherwise I’ve pre-entered for Fri and Sat and use Thursday as practice. There are some UAD events between now and then if you want to see if they’ll allow for practice. Both my dogs had practice playing on the platform and loading in/out of the pool on the ramp, just never went off the platform into the pool. Pan was actually terrified of water until I literally threw him off the dock at the cottage last summer and after that moment I couldn’t keep him *out* of the water so I’m assuming that come June, he will jump. Since he already knows the platform and the ramp, I won’t do any fussy introduction, just rev him up like we do for flyball and toss his toy in. He’s dumb enough to jump without checking first. Nikon was not that dumb and wouldn’t jump straight in but I pushed him a little while no one was looking and he realized that pool water is the same as lake water and loved it ever since. UAD is pretty adamant about the dogs understanding the exit ramp before they start jumping. Last year the exit ramp was on opposite sides between the practice pool and the competition pool so in Nikon’s first competition he kept swimming to the wrong side.
I love these pictures Nikon is one of my favorites, he is so mature looking in his face , his color is fantastic, I would steal him from you in a heartbeat :). I LOVE Willa, she is exactly what I am looking for in my next female, if she’s missing Julie I didnt do it!!! :0
If Willa goes missing I didn’t do it either… 🙂
Well if she disappears to Lorie or lee at least she would be in a great home!
I agree — Nikon has always been one of my favorites, too!
Added a few more pics for good measure.
I was surprised at how not alike they were, not in a bad way but they have different looks and Willa has a different temperament than Nikon did at that age. Willa is more social and people-oriented; Nikon has always been super aloof (I remember when he was a puppy and all the other AT puppies would always run and tackle Julie like their long-lost mom and Nikon would look at her like she was a stranger!). Like Nikon though, her red is RED. I put her paw next to Nikon and she is more red than Nikon, who gets accused of being dyed! Falon has a red sable male puppy and we were joking about how washed out his red looks next to a dog like Willa.
The W-litter was a very nice breeding. The temperament, drive, and character is exactly what I want. The W-litter will not be repeated as I made the decision to spay Kira. She had difficulties whelping her last two litters so I decided it was time. However, all the Kira daughters will be bred to Gavin, who is producing some really, really nice puppies.
Gavin is producing some GREAT puppies. I’ve learned that the best way to get Max to give me those silly head tilts is to sing to him. Now either he loves my singing or its so bad he feels sorry for me and tries to lick my mouth to shut me up!
-Jackie
Jackie, it’s the exactly the same with Batman! Whenever I sing to him, his head tilts so much, it’s practically upside down. Head tilt is paired with a very concerned expression on his face — he is clearly worrying what happened to me to make me sound like that!
LOLOLOLOL Do your dogs have their own song? One of my old dogs song was the theme from Batman, it would make him all happy.
Batman’s song is “Pennies From Heaven.” I started singing it once while I was tossing treats at him during a down-stay, and now I just sing it to him randomly.
The Batman theme song probably would have been a better choice…
Great pictures — and I love the captions, too! I also miss your posts, Lies.
I love this series, Lies! Nikon is so handsome, and Willa is growing into a stunning girl. This is another excellent example of secondary sex characteristics. Nikon’s head is really nice. I love how dark his coloring is.
Great photos! I love seeing pix of Nikon—he looks so mature.
Lies,
Nikon has matured into such a stunning boy. Great to see the new pictures of him.
What great bone Willa has. She’s a beauty.
Good luck to everyone at the Premier. Please let us know how you do…and take lots of pictures/videos.