Time flies … two years have passed since our Adventurers came into the world. Some of our puppies went to their homes abroad and some stayed closer to home, but all are in working homes and living active lives.

Asha, Alpha & Athos are following in their mothers footsteps and preparing for search & rescue.

Aura is on her way to become a certified mantrailing dog and training FCI
Obedience.

Asti is training in Danish Police Ring.

Asia is preparing for Mondioring.

Arwen is training in IGP and Anil has already passed IGP 1 (at only 22 months old) and is training for further titles and competitions.

Many of them have also grown up to be excellent athletes, like their mother Saga.
Between them they are active in canicross, bikejoring & skijoring.

Not only are all the dogs showing great working abilities, they also have excellent health results. All xrayed puppies have certified HD A hips and ED 0 elbows and are free of spondylosis.

In short, our Adventurers have become everything we wished them to be. All the preparation that went into planing and the time & energy that was spent with the litter was well worth it.

Now, after two years, we are ready for a new adventure – the Bandits. The sire of our B litter will stay a secret for a little time yet. But rest assured, he is as amazing as Saga, in pedigree, working abilities and health.

 

 

We are nearing the end of our fifth week together. I am in love and I dreading the time that my awesome pups will be going to their new homes. But when they go, they will be prepared for anything that awaits them in the big big world outside our house and garden. 

We did Biosensor exercises from their third to sixteenth day. The program is concerned with early neurological stimulation in order to give the dog a superior advantage. It utilises five exercises which are designed to stimulate the neurological system in a way which doesn’t occur naturally during this early period of life. They impact the neurological system by kicking it into action earlier than would be normally expected, the result being an increased capacity that later will help to make the difference in its performance.

When the Adventurers ears opened, they first started to listening to classical music and later to different music and sound effects. Still in the whelping box, I added different materials and stuffed animals for them to crawl on. Now they live in a larger puppy pen, enriched with toys, balance cushions and different hanging objects. All with the purpose of habituating them to many different stimuli. In their outdoor play pen, they have many obstacles to climb on, materials to walk on and toys to “kill” 😀

They are an inquisitive, courageous, agile group of puppies. They love to explore anything new, are open to new people and don’t get nervous of loud, sudden sounds. Soon we will also see how they are with new animals, when we make an outing to a friends farm. 

Preparing my Adventurers for the outside world is the part of breeding I have been looking forward to most. It is an exciting and interesting journey we are taking together. Watching them grow and develop different characters is a beautiful thing to see. I am also busy assessing them to see, which pup will be suitable for what activity and which one will stay with me ❤

 

Sometimes I joke, that I prepare more thoroughly for a new puppy, than most people do for a baby 😉

Finally, after ten years of dreaming, waiting for the right dog, searching for the right male, learning everything I could about the birth and litter care, preparing all possible equipment and planning their socialisation, they have finally arrived. Our A litter. THE ADVENTURERS.

I named them Adventurers because they’re our (Saga’s and mine) biggest adventure and also because we have an extensive socialisation planed, which is going to be quite an adventure for them.

Five black & rust females and three black & rust males. Born on August 14th. Healthy and strong. There was a fourth male but sadly he was not quite developed enough and we needed to say good bye to him.

But the other eight are growing and developing incredibly fast. We are already through our Bio Sensor excercises. And onto environmental enrichment in the form of new materials, stuffed toys and classical music. 

The adventure continues and will get even more exciting as they grow up enough to start exploring outside. So please stay tuned 😉

 

We have had a busy couple of weeks…

Only 18 months after our very first protection training, we passed our IGP (IPO) 3 trial. We also managed to pass the first requirement to qualify for IDC WC 2020.

Again the weather was not on our side, as we had to work all three disciplines in scorching afternoon sun and all in three hours time. Another factor was that Saga was on the verge of starting her heat cycle, so our performance really was not what we were aiming for. Still we managed to achieve a “good” grade, with 83-81-89.

 

Just 6 days after IGP 3, we took a preliminary test for search & rescue tracking (RH-F V). This was not such a big deal, because it is only a condition to start the real s&r tracking work. But still the track was harder than in IPO as it ran over water and even some manure. The second discipline of the trial consists of some easy obedience and obstacles like a tunnel, a moving plank and traversing unpleasant material. The main problem was the heat again but we passed with an ok grade of 91-81 (out of 100-100).

 

These were our last two trials for a while. Hopefully summer will bring puppies and all the work & joy that comes with them. In October we plan to start training again, to qualify for the IDC WC and to pass the real s&r tracking tests (RH-F A & B).

But most importantly, hopefully we will be adding a new member to our pack … Saga’s little mini-me, Varangian Asha ❤

 

Another testing event is successfully behind us. This time it was IGP or IPO 2. It was quite a hard trial. We had to work all three disciplines in two hours and all in the hot spring sun.

Despite the circumstances, Saga did her best and showed very good work. There is still room for improvement… She moves too fast in tracking and in obedience she is a bit imprecise and slow in some positions. Protection is by far our best discipline and the points lost were mostly due to heat and tiredness. All in all I am very happy with our score, which was 90 – 91 – 91.

The focus now is IGP 3. If all goes as planned we will be taking the trial at the end of May. It is very soon, but we are mostly ready and the goal is to get her last title before the mating and PUPPIES ❤

If you are interested in Saga’s protection work on the trial, check out the following video…

From search & rescue to canicross and finally IPO (IGP), Saga is a true canine athlete. Her preparations includes one or two, sometimes even three training sessions a day. She is a dedicated worker and always gives everything she’s got. Just like human athletes, canines need proper nutrition, physical conditioning and health checks, to stay fit and avoid injuries.

This week Saga had a check up at Dogs4motion physiotherapy centre. So far she hasn’t shown any signs of injuries but I wanted to make double sure before trial season starts.

After the initial interview, where we were reminded that my crazy girl needs to have a rest day at least once a week, she was examined and had her muscles measured. According to her therapist, she shows no signs of injuries, has perfectly symmetrical muscles and is very well muscled over her WHOLE body.

Why is this important? If you only do one sport or activity, only certain muscles develop and there is a greater probability for injuries in other parts of the body. But if your dog is active in many different sports, their whole body is fit and conditioned against injuries. SO, whatever your sport of choice is, make sure your four legged athlete does other activities as well, even if it is just for relaxation and fun.

As for my Saga, she showed some tension in muscles of her neck and back. Which was to be expected after three protection sessions she has had last week. So on Monday we are going back to Dogs4motion for a massage treatment and hydrotherapy.

I only wish I afforded myself half as much luxury as I do her 😉

 

 

 

Starting my own line of working doberman has been a dream of mine for nearly ten years.

With Saga, I finally got a female with the best possible pedigree. After two years of working with her, she has proved herself to be a truly all-around excellent working dog. We flew through our search & rescue trials after only a year of training. After another 11 months, she passed her IPO 1 trial with 91 points for protection. We competed in Hard Dog Races, won one and always made the top twenty.
She is a high energy, high drive dog. Agile & fast, with strong bites, steady nerves and a healthy ego. A perfect watch dog for the home, obedient companion in sport and every day life and a workaholic on the training field. Great with other dogs and people but she doesn’t much like cats 🙂 The only real down side to her is that her incredible energy for work and affection for me can get quite exhausting.

After passing the trials and doing all the health checks, it was time to find her a suitable male for breeding. I took my time, did extensive research and looked at many bloodlines, titles and results. As I am new to breeding, I needed a lot of advice and guidance from Lisa Poppelvig, Saga’s breeder. For which I thank her very much.

This weekend at last Saga and me drove to Germany, to meet Ataraxie’s Erwin and see him work. Our own IPO helper & instructor went with us, because I wanted a realistic picture of the males abilities.
We found Ataraxie’s Erwin or Thore to be a stable, friendly dog. In protection he works with a good combination of prey and defence drive. He has great love for work, strong & steady bites, good speed and to cap it all, he is very beautiful.

In short, we have found our puppy daddy! So in May we will be driving to Germany again to mate Saga to Thore and in July hopefully our home will be full of puppies ❤

To see the pedigree, working titles and health checks of Saga & Thore, check them out on Working Dog … https://us.working-dog.com/breed/Varangian-32993/planning

If you are interested in seeing Thore work, please watch the following video…

After only 11 months of training, we passed IPO 1 today. My girl showed all of her temperament at the trial – all of the good and the bad.

She was a little too fast in tracking and overexcited in obedience & protection. But she still showed solid, well trained work. On her first trial (with a novice handler) she got 91 points in protection and nothing but praise from the judge. He says it’s up to me to take all that drive, energy and talent and square it away into perfection 🙂

To see her work, watch the video below…

 

 

The next step toward Saga’s role as a mother is done. We passed the Slovenian equivalent of ZTP yesterday. We were both a little tired form the HDR race and the long drive the day before but Saga still worked beautifully in the temperament test.
To see her work, please watch the video below…