Astor von St. Georg (Collie male, 1990 - 2001)
A dog has long been the desire of my children and I had become as a child, also great with dogs. But for me was just a big dog in question, and before that my wife had too much respect. That changed when our circle of friends extended around a pair that possessed a Beautiful Collie bitch named Lady and they wanted get it fertilized once. They searched buyers for their future puppy quickly and my wife was on fire. Unfortunately, the bitch get ill and couldn't get puppies. But we walked in mind already with Lassie by the Schmölderpark, so we searched the newspaper for relevant ads and were successful. In Amern a Hobby-breeder had two puppies from the first litter of his breeding pair and sold one of them. The second he kept.
Astor was already housebroken when it became the center of our family. It developed into a picturesque and quite dominant male, that possessed obstinacy also a good deal. In the week before its Begleithunde examination it drove me to despair but on the day of examination it was the favorite dog in the world to be and cut off as valedictorian. At Astor the Begleithunde examination was important because it could be dominant over other males and had a strong hunting instinct and by then it was helpful that a loud "place" made it in 50m distance itself fall in the middle of running like a wet sack to leave. And it was nice that you could put it in Rheydt before Karstadt (at that time there was no dog regulations yet), half an hour after the CD could rummage's and was sure that Astor afterwards was exactly where you had dropped it. The breeder who was a member in IRJGV was sake we took Astor also participate in several exhibitions and it also won some trophies, but the hustle and bustle meant stress for dog and family, so we refrained. For a while, I also worked as a dog trainer in the team of the breeder, with Astor me was on hand to help.
Since my son at the time, as Astor joined us, played in the D-youth football and I coached the team, it was inevitable that Astor accompanied us every now and then. This love developed at Astor to soccer balls and it was the best training partner of my son. When René then became older and stronger and hit the ball so cleverly shielded that Astor did not come to the ball, it was found that the dog had learned the fouling and the ball conquered by pressing from behind against René's knees and it so did stumble. The love for games was also responsible for ensuring that Astor was a water rat. When it was young, we went with a group, the time to prepare met on the Begleithunde examination every week in Hardter forest to a nearby lake for swimming. All dogs accompanied their masters into the water, only the water-shy Collies that ran excitedly back and forth on the shore. Then my son took a ball into the water - that was too much for Astor. It overcame its fear and it came to us. As it tried to cling to me, I was later scratched right, but Astor felt since that day in the water well what many photos and videos testify.
Collies are, inter alia, Descendants of greyhounds, therefore good runners, so it was no problem for Astor to accompany me every morning during my runs - mostly 6km, but every now and then sometimes even 10km or 12km. And if it sometimes did not feel like it just took a shortcut and waited at the bakery by feeding on an delicious bun on me.
Astor had a heart condition, but which we learned only half a year before its death, despite the regular vet visits. Friday it had accompanied me with no visible problems while running, Saturdays it would not boot. We initially typed on hip problems in the clinic but the vets diagnosed heart failure and water in its lungs. With medication adjusted correctly, we spent a good half a year with it. On a hot summer day we had to euthanize it because it would otherwise dies of suffocation.
Dexter - four months of age
The first day in its new home was very tiring for Dexter, but it found itself quite at home, and became friends quickly, especially with the dogs of my children.
Of course, it is lots of fun to track our little darling with the camera. But photos and videos do not reveal everything about Dexter.
First of all, it was amazing how quickly Dexter accepted its new home as its own. We live in a quite place close to the forest, need to cross not any roads, so we can give Dexter a lot of freedom. When we got back on the 1st night of a short walk and turned onto the footpath that leads to our house (100m), Dexter suddenly sprinted off, lay before our entrance and waited there for us.
Dexter is very docile. The command "Dexter, come here!" and "Dexter, seat!" followed it very well. In "Come here," one must occasionally help out a bit, so it sits down. Of course, the sound must be slightly sharper when other dogs are in the game, but it is not even two weeks with us.
Fetch is in its blood. However, one must not exaggerate, after three or four passes it still gets bored.
"Down!" or "Lie down!" or "Stop!" are commands it does not like. The leash is it not innate, but we train every time we encounter cyclists, more commonly due to its proximity to Holland:-)
All in all, it's fun to watch its progress.
It provides also a lot of nonsense, so there is little pictures of the walks. Since we are too busy watching, because Dexter is fast and constantly looking. Here it finds a stick, a piece of bark or grass (we have nothing against outside), but just as much as it collects stones, cherries and feces and we do not like that. The command "Ugh!" when it does not yet have the prohibited item in its mouth, it respects quite well. On "Off!" unfortunately, only sometimes leads to immediate success, usually you have to take it the stone out of its mouth.
On a leash it goes quite well with foot, without a leash works only partially. Retrieving succeeds already really good as the video below shows:
Dexter after 5 weeks
Dexter is now 5 months old and for 5 weeks with us. Until yesterday we thought Dexter would become housebroken. Then showed a puddle in the dining room that this was not so. However, I have interpreted its signals wrong. Pounce is usually Invitation to play. Here it was probably the call to walking and the consequence of the fact that I did not respond as desired, then, was the puddle. Normally, Dexter uses strange sounds (no barking, Junken or the like, rather a kind of speech trial) and we will respond immediately with nearly 100% success.
Impressions from the forest walk or whatever else you should know about puppies from Bergerhof:
Dexter is now six months old
Dexter is now six months old already and is thriving. Meanwhile, its is house trained with certainty except the times already described, there was no further.
Dexter obeys well so far. It is best to be on "Come here!". Walking by foot with and without a leash its doing well and it remains laying, but the pain threshold is still at about 50m and visual contact. To lay down it does not like, you would have to strongly insist on it. And not to jump on someone it is still difficult, but also here has been progress. Dexter has not yet destroyed much. A few houseplants have left leaves and a little Deco of my wife Dexter has redecorated.
The following video contains three things that are important to Dexter: Dexter is always looking for the water, it is constantly on the lookout for any piece of wood and it likes to animate the old lady Kiwi, even though it usually brings a dissipation.
Dexter is now seven months old
In an autumn forest walk around the pond Raky in Dalheim, Dexter makes its first swimming experience.
Dexter (Golden Retriever male), 9 months old
In so far failed winter there was little fun to take the camera with us on our walks. Now in January the weather became a little bit better. I was lucky: in this walk met Dexter, now 9 months old, on a 1 1/2 year old mastiff. Highly visible Dexter is getting sexual maturity.
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