He's doing great!

Khan is doing great. He's getting better at listening and I think he's learning his name. He plays great with Hank. That's my Yellow Labrador in the picture. He's great with the other guys too. That's Blitz, the full size GSP in the picture.

We have our second vet appointment on Monday. I'm moving everyone to Maple Leaf Veterinary. I'm bringing Nadia, Hank and Khan all at the same time. My bill will be crazy, I just know it. :( But that's ok. They all need to be seen and taken cared of. They are all insured anyway so I better start using it.

I can't wait for Khan to be done with his vaccinations. It's still super cold outside but he has sweaters and jackets. I can't wait to start walking them and then start riding the bike with them. :) That will be awesome once they are both well trained.

Oh, there are conformation classes at the daycare I will be taking them to. I'm really happy about that. They also have Rally and Agility classes. I'm not sure what Rally is but it's something to consider to keep us busy for now, until hunt training starts next year sometime.

It really has been fun. He still pees inside without asking to go outside. :( I'm trying to do my best to get us outside before that happens but I do miss the timing sometimes. :/ I hope he stops that habit soon.

He's soooo CUTE!

Oh my god he is so adorable. He's in his pen right now, keeping himself entertained with a chew toy. We are still pen and crate training of course but he's gotten so much better just by me ignoring the cries. He will complain in the pen when I put him in it at first but after maybe 5 - 10 minutes he calms down. Last night he was not stopping because I was responding to it.

I'm telling you, ignore the crying. It totally works. He is so much more calm about the pen now. I think he is really working it out with himself that it's ok to be in the pen and in the crate. It really is so much better to let them calm themselves down. Actually, the last two days he hasn't cried when I put him in the crate when I went to work. It's just the pen that needs improving.

Hey! He even played fetch with me today for a couple of tosses with the tennis ball. Instead of pulling the ball out of his mouth, I pinch his front toe. Not hard at all, just enough for him to let go of the tennis ball on his own. It totally works!! He's doing really well.

We can't go for walks yet so we hang out in the back yard and he watches me and Hank play fetch and sometimes he chases Hank for the toy. He explores the back yard too. It's been fun.

I've learned to always have an MP3 player with me for the crying and whining but I don't think it should last very long if I stick to my guns and not give in to schedules or his cute cries. He's so adorable when he's crying. It's a houndy barky howly sound. It's pretty adorable but darn loud. We have to curb it ASAP.


Today I made the mistake of getting ready without taking him out first. I figured he could wait because we were all outside just an hour ago. So, he was pretty much hysterical by the time I was ready to take him out of the crate (like 5 minutes). Wont do that again. We had slept and I forgot the rule on after every nap. We both have to learn the rules and follow them better. :)

Khan is here!! :)

Khan is super tired right now and whining because he doesn't like to be in his pen. I have to put him there for now because I want to write in this blog. Can't keep an eye on him and focus on this so, in the pen he goes. Silly pup, always complaining.

Aside from being a pee and poop machine he's been a very good puppy. He has been great overnight. I have been sleeping at about 4 hour intervals. He hasn't made a mess in his crate overnight. The larger crate he is in while I'm at work is different story. The wee-wee pads in that crate gets soaked every day. I think it's because I let him drink as much as he wants during the day.

If he can hold for 4 hours overnight then he should be able to hold during the day for the same amount of time, I would think. I'll have to work something out. I'll work on our schedule this week and practice it starting next week.

He is a great pup, totally observant. He will sit and examine and analyze things. He's completely intelligent. He's really cute to watch. He was watching tv today, for a little while. He watches me play fetch with Hank. He was retrieving his miniature toy turkey that Raven's Mom got him. That toy rocks. He attacks it when I toss it for him and he was actually retrieving back to the dog bed for a while. So fun.


He learns quickly and remembers things pretty well. I'm teaching him a few rules.


Khan's rules:
1 - No rushing the door.
He's the last one through. First me, then Nadia if she's around, then Hank and then last is Khan. He's been pretty good about it! I have to remind him sometimes but repetition is key! Practice makes perfect and I try and make it a positive thing every time!

2 - No rushing the food.
I've been using "woah" to keep him from rushing the food dish. I wasn't sure if I should but oh well. It seems to be working. I don't set it down unless he's calm. Now he tries his best to stay in a sit position and doesn't go for the food until I give the ok. I don't tell him to sit, I just want him calm.

3 - No jumping on people.
We are still working on this one but it's going ok. He loves to get in a running start and jump paws first right to your face. It's super cute now but I'd hate to have a grown GSP doing that to me. I am trying curb this habit of his. Not exactly sure how but I side step or get up so he doesn't land on me. There's probably a better way, I'll have to find out.

4 - No biting or mouthing people.
He's a wee bit mouthy. I need this to stop it ASAP. I try to communicate by "biting" him back with my hand and finger tips and expressing my disapproval. No one wants a mouthy dog and it can become a serious problem in the future.

My rules:
1 - No responding to whining or crying.
This is more a rule for me than Khan. Well, ok, it's a rule for both of us. I try not to "rescue" him from the crate or the pen until he's done calmed down. I don't want him to relate the crying to freedom. He has to learn to stay calm in the crate and pen.

2 - No letting him rush out of the crate.
Once he has calmed down, he tends to get excited when I approach the crate or pen. Once I see him getting excited I stop and I wait until he calms down again. Sometimes I even step back until he settles down again. He gets the point if he hasn't gone balistic so I really go slowly so I can see his reaction.

Once he is calm I approach again and continue to open the door or come closer to the pen and if he continues to be calm, I proceed with either petting him in the pen or the process of letting him out of the crate. I slowly open the door. If he makes a move for the opening, I close it again, pushing him back in. He gets it pretty quick and settles down again. Eventually we get to having the door is wide open and he waits until I say it's ok to come out of the crate. He's gotten very good about this now.

3 - Potty Schedule:
We head for the outdoors 20 minutes after every meal or big drink, every hour, and after every nap. In essence we are in and out of the house during the waking hours and even with that schedule he still messes up on the floor (only pee) so I think we might have to instill a drinking schedule along with the eating schedule.

Khan is fed 3 times a day but he poops a whole lot more times than that. He goes at least at the crack of dawn, later morning, mid-day and evening, and a few times more in between. The boy is a poop and pee machine.


Oh, I took home #3. He didn't take the best pic but I've liked him for being so confident and easy going from the very beginning. Man, you have to see the pups in person. I compared him to #7 and his arms and shoulders are impressive. His bone is massive.

I liked him at 3 weeks because he was the one attacking him momma's head. I also liked him because he is the breeder's favorite. How could I go wrong with the breeder's favorite? He is a thick, heavy, massive, stout pup. Sarah called him the powerhouse. I love thick dogs. Although, GSPs are not supposed to be thick, Sarah says not to worry about it. He will grow into his bones be able to show. I hope so. I hope he wins Best in Show!

When we all came down to choose the pup it was sooooo hard. Raven and her mom loved #7 and I really liked him too. In fact he's still available and I soooo want to get him, but, I can't do that. I'd like to get a house first then I can have as many dogs as the county allows. For now 2 is good.

He was so easy to stack. He holds still for me and he doesn't have any markings that would cause an optical illusion for the judges. Sarah was really cool and let me see the difference with the dogs. #7 had the spot on his back which could be mistaken for a sway back and #5 had the patch on the shoulder. Both dogs can champion with a good handler but I'm a total beginner. I need a super easy dog to champion and easy dog for my lifestyle. Khan is about as easy as GSPs can get. He's learned so much already. He's totally my kind of dog.

Almost Khan Day!

It's only 4 more days to Khan. Hurrikan-Krieg auf Vögeln. He's gonna be a handful. 5 out of 6 males are show and they all look very good. They each have different strengths. Number 2 seems to be the intelligent and curious one. He's figured out how to escape from the pen and is daring enough to explore and figure things out. Number 3 is the powerhouse. The best headset and the beefiest in bone of the litter. Number 5 is a handsome pup. He seems to have the most chest of the litter in ratio to his size. Number 7 is absolutely beautiful and perfect in his picture. Very, very well proportioned at 7 weeks. I'm actually liking him a lot but we will see how they look at 9 weeks. 9 has the longest legs, tallest of the litter. I am liking 7 at this point because he looks so perfect in his picture but any of them can champion. They all look great with something different to offer.

Sarah, West Kennel's owner and breeder, probably already knows who the people with first pick has chosen. She said they would be choosing Monday, which is today. I'll give her a call later tonight or tomorrow to see which 4 I have to choose from. I'm really happy about the pups in this litter. They turned out very well and about 80% are show which is a very high percentage. I am excited. :)

Khan is my first GSP. I'm interested in breeding but can't really get into it if I'm not involved in hunting so, I need to get going on that also. I'm signed up for the Basic Hunting class for a hunting permit and the guy teaching is the head instructor for the gun range close to my house. Oh, speaking of gun range I learned that I can use one shotgun for different kinds of loads. I will be able to shoot trap loads. That makes me glad because I didn't want to buy two separate guns. I thought I had to be a trap shotgun for trap shooting.

We looked at some shotguns the other day and I'm leaning towards an automatic and perhaps the Stoeger M2000. They have this "inertia driven system" on their automatic to absorb the recoil or kickback. There's also a mercury something or other in the butt of the gun you could add to absorb more of the recoil. I'm sure that will add to the weight. :/ But, apparently Benelli makes Stoeger and Benelli is one of the top rated guns. Remington, Mossberg and Charles Daly have come up as decent first shotguns also.


This is a Stoeger M2000. Doesn't look fancy at all. They only come in 12 gauge so... I guess that's what I'll go with but I hear I should really start with a 20 guage. It would be nice to try these guns out. My gun range has shotgun classes. :) That will be something I will want to take.



We went to a sports shop and asked this older fellow at the gun counter whether I should go for a 20 gauge or the 12 since I am a beginner. He said go straight for the 12 and handed me a Stoeger M2000 after mentioning that I was interested in a Benelli and interested in an all in one type of gun. I've never held a shotgun so it did feel heavy and certainly long. It was a camouflaged model so I wasn't as attracted to it but the Stoeger does come in black or the classic walnut wood.

I went online to see how it compared to the Remington SPR453, the Charles Daly Superior II and the Mossberg 930. I still have to learn a lot of the terms but so far I do like the Stoeger. Then again, they all have different things to offer. It would be best if I can actually test them all and also figure out what I'm actually going to hunt. The 12 guage in any gun is probably what I would get for an all around gun.

For upland birds, I'd probably want the lightest since it's a lot of up-swing shooting type of thing and I'll be carrying it all day. I wonder if 1 pound really makes a difference. I figure for ducks and turkey, there's a lot of waiting and a fair amount of aiming time so a heavier shotgun wouldn't be a big deal. Same goes for deer and lager game too. I don't know how deep I'll get with hunting but I know I'll be starting with upland birds. I'd like to progress to archery and deer and even Grizzly but.. I don't know. It's hard to imagine killing a big Grizz. I really love them.

Hunting points to ponder.

So, I was talking to a friend about getting into hunting and he brought up some good points to think about. Lead shot was used for many years and still used today in some areas. Why it is still legal I will never understand. Birds die of lead poisoning from the small pellets they end up eating. How each species is affected depends on the region and the amount of lead that is ingested.

"..diving ducks are more likely to swallow lead shot than dabbling ducks. Ducks that feed on plants and invertebrates in the water or on the surface are less likely to pick up lead shot that has settled into the bottom than ducks like pintails that may dig 4 or 5 inches into the bottom for tubers. Snow geese and swans can dig even deeper – as much as 12 to 15 inches."

Then, as far as deer goes, who will be dragging back a deer I wound? I, me, myself will have to track and drag that deer back and load it on the truck. :/ And, it's not like they run off on a cleared trail. Oh no, no. They go through bushes, trees, ravines, jump over huge logs, who knows where they will end up. I, me, myself will have to drag that deer out. Just something to really think about.

You know what else I hear? They don't allow dogs to track deer in Washington. It sure doesn't sound right but it could be true. I can see it not allowed in a national forest like Olympics and Mt Rainier, since there are no dogs allowed there at any time but they are allowed in the Cascades Mountain Range so I don't see why they couldn't be used for tracking.

Besides, why would anyone risk loosing or allowing a wounded deer to suffer? I would think people would want to have a dog handy that is good enough to be able to track so that the deer isn't lost and a wounded deer would not have to suffer. I will have to look that one up.

GSP male pups at 7th week

BISS CH West Star Cherokee Maiden Magpie (Mom, Maggie)


BIS CH Minado's Oxton Greif's Encore (Dad, Jake)



#2




#3






#5





#7


#8



#9


BIS Ch. Minado's I-M Precious Crystal (Grand-dam)




Gunnar, a few weeks older, pictured here.
This is to help show what a champion pup looks like. He has the same mother as the pups above. Gunnar only needs a couple more points to finish his championship in conformation. He is almost 1 year now.
His card fell over. He's not female :)

Back to Khan

OK, back to Khan. We have much work to do. Luckily for now it's only puppy growing time!! :) Fun puppy time with just the basic obedience to work on and playing fetch. He's gonna be so awesome! I'm having a hard time deciding on which of the puppies Khan will be.

Here is everyone just days after being born.

Evaluations will be done by the 8th of January. Sarah might go ahead and brind them up the weekend of the 9th but I would much rather have him spend more time with his litter mates and pick him up on the 17th. It might seem like days to us but it's really an important time for a puppy to spend as much time with the litter as possible.

"The New Complete German Shorthaired Pointer"
by Robert H. McKowen - 1998 Howell Book House

"Der Deutsch Kurzhaar" by Georgina Byrne - 1990
Austed Publishing Co., Western Australia

"The New German Shorthaired Pointer" - 4th Edition
by C. Bede Maxwell - 1982 - Howell Book House

"The New German Shorthaired Pointer" - 3rd Edition
by C. Bede Maxwell - 1975 - Howell Book House

"Your German Shorthaired Pointer"
by Gertrude Dapper - 1975 - Denlingers

"Memoirs of Hunting Big Game In North America"
by Roy L. Mondike - 1998 - Windsor Associates, San Diego