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Friday 11 December 2015

My New Youtube Channel!

My YouTube Channel is up and running!  It's called K9 Partnership.  It's has 4 videos up so far!  Woohoo!  It is going to be 2-4 minute video tips on everything dog!  It will cover absolutely everything from obedience to management and everything in between.  If you have a topic, I'm open to all suggestions.  You can either comment here with your topic ideas or in the comment section on my YouTube Channel.  So far I've come up with about 50 topics and I think of more on a daily basis. 

So now comes the part where I ask you to please be patient with my videoing skills.  This is my first foray into the world of videography.  And although I'm enjoying learning, I can see it is going to be a long procedure.  It took me 4 hours to do a 4 minute video!   I can guarantee you the content will be excellent; the presentation requires work.  So hang in there with me Guys.  I promise to get better every week!



Click on this link to check it out!

K9 Partnership Channel



And please subscribe!

Saturday 5 December 2015

Fresh Raw Dog Food

This is the scraps from a deer my husband shot. Weighed, measured and ready for grinding.

Monday 30 November 2015

Saturday 28 November 2015

Meet Nova!

Nova is now 20 months old. She came all the way from Belgium when she was 16 months. She is a high energy, high drive, purebred German Shepherd Dog. Believe it or not she has settled down since arriving 4 months ago!

She is incredibly happy all the time. All she wants to do is please. She will make an awesome competition dog.

She cleared her breeding survey while in Belgium which is really saying something for such a young dog. I am very grateful for the opportunity to add her to my breeding program.

Friday 20 November 2015

Fwd: Cheetah

I received this nice email today. 

Mary Ann

This msg was sent from my phone so please excuse the brevity & if there are any errors. Thank you. 

Begin forwarded message:

From: Sasha 
Date: November 19, 2015 at 12:29:17 PM MST
To: k9trainer@dogwhisperer.ca
Subject: Cheetah

Hi Mary Ann,

Hope all is well with you.

Just wanted to share a pic or two of Cheetah from not too long ago.  She's been with us for almost a year and a half and we cannot say enough good things about her.  She's truly perfect in every regard - loving, obedient and a quirky personality that always makes us smile or laugh.

Take care and sorry to hear about Kahlua.

Sasha's iPhone





Thursday 19 November 2015

News of the day!

I'm excited to start on my new adventure!  In case you're wondering, the dog wandering around in the background is Chloe.  She is a board/train dog I have here for about 10 more days.  Please comment on ideas you would like to see for tips.  I have about 25 ideas so far which will take me half way through the year if I post once a week.  I know I'll be able to come up with a lot more but what would YOU like to see?

Tuesday 27 October 2015

On Guard

I have video surveillance of my house/dogs so I can check things while I'm in town. Here's my big boy guarding the place while we are gone. I wouldn't go in!

Monday 26 October 2015

No room to work!

How's a person supposed to get anything done when you can't move!

Thursday 22 October 2015

Must be nice

Must be nice to be a Guardian Angel Shepherd! If you can't figure it out, it's Rommel asleep and upside down on his bed.

Thursday 8 October 2015

News - Good, Bad & In Between

I just received this from one of my puppy owners:

Diesel earned his keep last night. My car was broken into in the driveway. They took my garage door opener and opened the garage around 2am. Diesel flipped out and scared them away. Woke the whole house up. We looked but by then all was quiet didn't see anything until we woke up this morning to an open garage door. Nothing stolen though other than the opener is still missing. Disconnected it until we can get a tech to come change it. What a good boy! Had to make a police report as it's considered a home break in as the garage is attached to the house. The policeman who came said it's a good thing we had a dog and that he looked like one of the K-9 unit. Extra treats for Diesel today! :)

How cool is that!! Everyone needs a Guardian Angel! Way to go Diesel Jr! I don't want to think about what might have happened! The thieves were awfully brazen to come into the house when they were at home! Hip hip hooray Diesel Jr!

The bad news is there is still no puppies at Guardian Angel Shepherds. Try as we might Cruz is unable to stay pregnant. She was the only female of breeding age the past 2 years so all the eggs have been in one basket, so to speak. Fia is now 2 years old and will be bred to Rommel on her next heat and Nova will be able to breed in about 6 months from now. I will have to take Cruz to a breeding specialist to find out what is happening with her. She is such a sweet girl. Perfect for my breeding program.

My puppy/dog building is making all kinds of headway.

Sunday 27 September 2015

Disappointed but proud!

Yesterday I had been invited to a Search & Rescue Demonstration where one of my puppies was participating.  Of course he's not a puppy anymore!  But it was cancelled because they were called on a real search to help find a man that had gone missing.  Although I was disappointed not to be able to see my dog doing what he was bred for, I am incredibly proud that in some way I can help the family of the missing man.  It must be just horrible to have a family member go missing.  I can't even imagine!  So here's to all the dedicated SAR members who spend hundreds of hours practicing in the field, no matter the weather!  Thank you for all your time and effort!  You provide an invaluable service.  My hat goes off to you!
 
 
Mary Ann
Proud to Provide K9 Partners for Life
k9trainer@dogwhisperer.ca
www.myguardianangelshepherds.com



Monday 31 August 2015

Here's the pics

My New Puppy Building!

The dog doors are cut and waiting to go in! The building has been sitting dormant for many months but we are at it again! Just the dog doors cost $2400! Only the best for my furry family! We have the caulking, the interior paint, and the flooring. The floor will be cement grey as well as from the bottom of the windows down. A tan colour with some lighter orange for the upper walls & roof. It's called "tan peach". The flooring is that roll out garage flooring with the texture added for traction. It is also grey. The indoor kennels will be welded wire mesh with black powder coat. What a wonderful place it will be!

I'm so excited to get working on it again.

Mary Ann

This msg was sent from my phone so please excuse the brevity & if there are any errors. Thank you.

Thursday 27 August 2015

Nova's X-Rays

If you want to see text book x-rays, here's Nova's!  The best I've ever seen!  What a great girl to add to my breeding program!
 
 
This album has 6 photos and will be available on OneDrive until 25/11/2015.
 
 
 
Mary Ann
Proud to Provide K9 Partners for Life
k9trainer@dogwhisperer.ca
www.myguardianangelshepherds.com



Monday 17 August 2015

Guardian Angel Shepherd Stops Charging Bear - Saves 8 year old boy!!

I talked to  a very proud owner of a 2 year old Guardian Angel Shepherd today!!  The dog's name is Gemma and she saved an 8 year old boy from a full charging 350-400 pound bear!  During a wedding no less!  She was not in between the boy and the bear but actually behind the boy.  She had to deliberately run to put herself between the two.   I've asked Dan if he wouldn't mind writing a full account so I could put it up on my website.  I'll let him tell you the story so keep watch for more details.
 
And you know what is even more amazing?  The child was not her own family.  This child was a stranger! 
 
I AM SO PROUD!!!
 
 
 
 
Mary Ann
Proud to Provide K9 Partners for Life
k9trainer@dogwhisperer.ca
www.myguardianangelshepherds.com



Saturday 4 July 2015

German Shepherd Dog - Then and Now

Just happened on this video by mistake. But I like what it says!
 https://youtu.be/MQXTTar58Wc

https://youtu.be/MQXTTar58Wc

Wednesday 1 July 2015

Introducing Rommel!

He's here! Tyjak's Von Rommel Roy! My new stud dog! Many of you wanted a black & tan puppy and here's my new sire that will accommodate you! And he has no black genetics which means he will ALWAYS produce B/T puppies! I have been looking for just the right pedigree for two years & he's finally here! He has the most gorgeous red and black coat you've ever seen! He is absolutely stunning!

Things are finally looking up at Guardian Angel Shepherds! We've been going thru some really hard times & I'm so grateful to all of you who have persevered with me. Your patience means so much to me. It brings me to tears. Happy tears this time. There's been many sad but not anymore.

I have also purchased from Belgium a B/T female which hopefully will be here in the next few weeks. She's two years old and passed all of her health certifications and has two titles on her already. She is Black and Tan but also carries the black gene. What that means is if she is bred to a black or sable male she will have half black and tans and half blacks or sables. Either way we will be having black and tan puppies again! Yay!

I am now in the process of starting to integrate Rommel into the pack. He just arrived yesterday and today he was introduced to Cruz and everything went extremely well. Here are some pictures.

Monday 22 June 2015

Pictures of Nadia

 
 
 
 
Mary Ann
Proud to Provide K9 Partners for Life
k9trainer@dogwhisperer.ca
www.myguardianangelshepherds.com



I'm So Incredibly Sorry

I was hoping that even though Indy had not gained much weight, she was hiding 2-3 puppies in there somewhere.  I'm so incredibly sorry to say there were no puppies. 
 
I wish I didn't care about providing all you wonderful people with partners but I do.  I truly do.  Some people say I care about you too much.  This is not a business to me.  My passion is to help dogs locate lifetime families and lifetime families to locate forever partners.  I have fallen very short over the past few heat cycles.  And I am so upset by this.  I have met almost all of you and you are such good, good people.  So patient.  So caring.  I'm sorry.
 
I did not know until recently that the reason Cruz did not have puppies was because she had a uterine infection.  They very often don't show signs of problems until it is too late to help them.  They can very often die of pyometria if left too long.  The good news is I was attentive enough to figure it out before she became extremely ill.  After 4 vet visits and 3 sets of antibiotics we seem to have things under control.  Just a few days ago she was given a clean bill of health. 
 
Indy has been a wonderful dog and she has produced 3 litters of beautiful puppies that have grown up strong and healthy.  She has decided that that is the number she is going to stay with.  She will not be bred again.
 
Isis has started showing her age in the last year or so, so she has been retired.  She also gave me 3 beautiful litters. 
 
Fia is just about old enough to breed but hasn't been up until now, so she was out of the question.  Many breeders would have bred her anyways to try and make money as soon as possible.  I won't do that.  The dog's health comes first and foremost. 
 
Achilles was originally my puppy that was sold and bought back to be a stud due to the fact his father, Diesel, had an untimely early death when he broke his back going over a 7 foot fence.  Achilles turned out to have testicular problems (not genetic) and he cannot sire anything. We have had a myriad of bad luck following almost 20 years of problem free breeding.  I believe it is just bad luck because I've been doing everything in my power to get a litter on the ground.  There is nothing humanely possible that I haven't done.  But that doesn't help all of you and for that I sit here and cry at my keyboard.
 
On a more positive note, I have some transactions in process now to purchase additional dogs that will add some new blood to my lines.  I have been looking for over 2 years for just the right male and just the right female and it seems I may have found them.  In Belgium.  They are stunning dogs, especially the male.  The female is 20 months old so is still filling out.  The male (Rommel) has more titles than you can shake a stick at!  IPO 1, IPO 2, IPO 3, SchH 1, SchH 2, SchH 3 Breed surveyed in Germany and clear hips and elbows and tested for DM.   Here are some pictures.
 

















As you can imagine, these dogs are of the highest quality and pedigrees I can find.  Their particular pedigrees are perfect to enhance my lines.  Approximately every 5 years I add new blood to vary the lines.  I have always kept two distinct lines going and I breed one to the other so there are no close relatives. The deals are not set in concrete quite yet but things are looking good.  A new pair of unrelated dogs will give my breeding program the boost I need.  Fia will be old enough to clear her hips and elbows and breed on her next cycle so hopefully things will look up soon.  The worst thing is that the girls go into heat only every 6 months.  If something goes awry, the best you can hope for is a 6 month delay and more often than not it's longer.  At least that's what I'm finding out now.  I worked with my head in the clouds having never had these problems before.
 
My heart is very heavy and my keyboard is wet.  I wish I didn't care so much, but I do.  I am not giving up.  I am doing everything I can to re-establish my breeding program.  I don't expect anyone to be this patient.  I'm sorry.
 
 
Mary Ann
Proud to Provide K9 Partners for Life
k9trainer@dogwhisperer.ca
www.myguardianangelshepherds.com



Thursday 18 June 2015

Cruz at the vet

Don't you wish all dogs were this well behaved at the vets!

Grooming Time

Your dogs should always enjoy their grooming sessions. If they don't, your doing it wrong.

Take Achilles today. I was only able to complete 50% of what I wanted to accomplish. He started turning and putting his mouth on either my arm or the brush. Ever so gently he was telling me it didn't feel good anymore. So I gave him a good scratch all over his body to "erase" any places on his body that might feel overly sensitized and he was done for the day.

Your dog will always let you know. You just have to learn how to listen!

Tuesday 16 June 2015

Thunderstorms

It's that time of year again. Thunderstorms can be a daily event around here. Luckily (actually by design) I don't have dogs that are afraid of storms. However I know there are a lot of dogs out there who are!

Friday 12 June 2015

Groom Your Dog!

Not only does grooming feel good to your dog but it helps you locate things like this before they become a problem!

Thursday 9 April 2015

Good news for a change

Indy is in heat! This will be her last breeding and I will keep one of these pups for my breeding program. I have the "all clear" from the vet that Indy is 100%. She will be bred in approximately a weeks time which means pups will be due mid June! Yay!!

Mary Ann

This msg was sent from my phone so please excuse the brevity & if there are any errors. Thank you.

Sunday 5 April 2015

Un-Happy Easter 8-(

It is with great sadness I must tell you that Cruz has lost her entire litter of puppies.  She is quite ill and I’m very worried about her.  She has been “off” for the past 2-3 weeks and I was extremely worried so we went to the vet.  He said that she may be having either kidney or liver problems and put her on antibiotics, for the third time in six months.  He said at that time there was a small chance she may lose the litter.  I didn’t want to worry anyone needlessly so I decided to keep the news to myself.  As the days went on she had less and less energy and had trouble keeping her food down.  She couldn’t hold her bladder for more than a few hours at a time.  If I was too sound asleep to hear her, she would run down to the basement and pee.  She has lost a lot of weight and whines during our walks.  I have stopped including her and she seems to feel ok with that.  Now that her due date is past, I can take her in for testing to see what her problem is.  I am praying everyday that she will get better.

 

On another note, I am so, so sorry to disappoint everyone who is waiting for a puppy.  As I write this I feel sick to my stomach and have tears running down my cheeks knowing how many people are reading this with great sadness.  I can say with all my heart I did absolutely everything in my power to have a successful litter.  Before she was bred, she was updated on her shots, dewormed, transferred to puppy food for those extra calories and calcium, bathed and groomed and given extra exercise to tone her muscles.  From the 6th day of heat I collected vaginal swabs and blood samples and checked for the changes required to let me know she was ovulating.  And I did that 3 times a day for 10 days.  I prepared Merlin for his job by deworming, bathing & grooming and removing him from the pack several days before she was ready to be bred.  By keeping him in isolation for a few days, it saves up on energy he will need for breeding.  It is hard work and he’s starting to show his age a little.  When Cruz was ovulating she was bred every other day for 6 days until the swabs and blood showed she was no longer ovulating.  I breed every other day because the semen survives inside the bitch for at least 48 hours.  That way she is subjected to sperm for every single moment she was ovulating and it didn’t wear out Merlin in the process.  Each time she was bred she was put in a crate for 2 hours to prevent her from losing any ejaculate and therefore raising the chance of pregnancy.  During the early weeks of pregnancy I treat the females like Queens.  Extra food, extra walks, nothing to do with anything they perceive as unwanted.  For instance Cruz and Fia don’t get along so I make sure they don’t cross paths and cause any stress for each other.  I add extra kelp & salmon oil to the girls food as well as a supplement called “Missing Link”.  I do everything I can to be sure that both the dog and the puppies have the best possible chance.

 

In all honesty I have done the very best I know how to do.  But I still failed.  And I feel so incredibly bad.  More for you than for me, by far.  I feel like I’ve let so many people down.  I have been dreading writing this email for weeks.  I’ve been writing it in my head every day and every night.  Several times each day.  I can never get it right.  I can never describe how incredibly horrible I feel.  All I can say is I did the best I could and I’m very, very sorry to put you through this.

 

And I am sick with worry over my girl. 

 

Mary Ann

 

Thursday 19 March 2015

The First Signs

Today I saw the first signs. The first signs that tell me Cruz is pregnant. I'm afraid to get too excited, just in case. However! Her belly appeared to be a little larger so I took a measurement. Two weeks ago I measured her at 26 inches. Today she was 28!!

Mary Ann

This msg was sent from my phone so please excuse the brevity & if there are any errors. Thank you.

Thursday 12 February 2015

Crates are not cages! They're dens!

For those of you who are unsure about crate training your dog. Here are three pictures of 3 different dogs enjoying their den. Of course the den needs to be placed where they can be part of the family. Not in the basement boot room!

My dogs will even put themselves to bed at night if they feel we are staying up too late. We have crates in just about every room of the house & they can pick whichever one they'd like.

Mary Ann

Tuesday 10 February 2015

Puppies Due April 4th!!!

FINALLY!  Cruz came into heat on January 20th.  She and Merlin were put together on Jan. 26 and again Jan 29th but it just wasn't quite time yet.  Jan 30, Feb 1 & Feb 3 were successful matings.  Usually I breed only twice but I wanted to be absolutely sure of the timing so this time she was bred a third time. 


There are two scientific ways that I use to determine when the female is ovulating.  One is to collect saliva and let it dry without disturbing it.  After it dries, it will have a crystalline look thru the microscope.  It is called "ferning".  If there is no ferning yet, there is no point in breeding.  (This works for people to by the way!)


The other way I use, is to collect swabs off the vaginal wall.  By staining the blood cells on a microscope slide you can see if the cells are "cornified".  When they become flattened and jagged, and you can no longer see the nucleus, the female is ovulating. 


I collect samples both in the morning and evening to see how far things have progressed. It takes about an hour each time. I try to leave nothing to chance.  According to both tests, she was ovulating on all the days she was bred.  The sperm can last 2-3 days inside the body so essentially she had viable sperm from Jan 30 all the way thru until Feb.5.  That should cover all of our bases!


It will be 30-35 days at the earliest before we know if she caught.  I'm not going to bother ultrasounding her again because last time it was a waste of $150.  They told me they saw puppies and in hind sight I really wonder if they saw anything at all.  I think maybe they just wanted to see puppies.  Whatever the case, I will take her in to be palpated at 30-35 days and even then, it may be hard to tell. 


So wish us luck.  Pray for us.  Whatever your lifestyle is.  Please send your good thoughts to Cruz to have a healthy litter and a successful birthing process.  Maybe my dog building will have finished being constructed by then!  It's hard to find the time to work on it.


So after death, comes life.  Kahlua was Cruz's mother so she would have been a Grandma again.  I miss my old girl terribly but time marches on.  Hopefully I can spend my time with her Grandpuppies in a few months from now. 


PUPPIES DUE APRIL 4, 2015!



Tuesday 3 February 2015

This is not a pleasant post. Those with weak stomachs should stop reading now.

It has taken me 3 weeks before I could write to you about an incident that occurred on January 9th.  Our beautiful Kahlua has passed to the other side.  She would have been 16 years old shortly.  There was a terrible incident that happened.  One that I have a very difficult time talking about. 


Kahlua was attacked by a cougar.  In her own yard.  It makes me sick.  It makes me sad.  It makes me angry. Kahlua and her daughter Indy were outside in their yard.  It was a beautiful warm night so I left them outside.  As close as we can figure, Kahlua must have left the doghouse in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom.  She must have been attacked at the furthest end of the yard.  Mark heard a big commotion thru the night but he said it only lasted about 15 seconds and then everyone was quiet.  He listened for a few minutes but heard nothing else so went back to sleep.  When we started doing chores, I noticed that Kahlua hadn't come out of her doghouse yet.  That wasn't terribly unusual because she couldn't hear much anymore.  I've often thrown a few kibbles onto the wall so she could feel the vibrations.  When she emerged from the doorway I wasn't even sure what it was.  Her head was swollen twice its size and she had pieces of flesh hanging from her face.  I was in shock!  She stumbled out of the doghouse and I screamed for Mark.  He came running and just stopped cold in his tracks.  It was horrible.  Something that is emblazoned in my memory now and I wish I could forget it.


We believe that Indy was woken up by the noise and went running to the defense of her mother.  Luckily Indy was not hurt in the confrontation.  Kahlua managed to make it back to the doghouse where she lay waiting for us to discover her in the morning.  Mark carried her into the house and straight into the bathtub to start washing her off.  It was soon evident how devastating the injuries were.  I phoned Dr. Curt Luzi who dropped everything he was doing and came out to the ranch.  God bless Curt.  I knew before he got here that she would not recover from her wounds.  The kindest thing to do was to put her down.  She died on her favourite couch surrounded by people who loved her. 


As for the cougar, I have no ill feelings.  It was just doing what cougars do.  I've been lucky enough to raise many orphaned cougar kittens in my life and I know a fair amount about them.  I love them, as I love all animals.  Fish & Wildlife officers have come and we've discussed how to help prevent anything like that from happening again as well as why it might have happened in the first place.   As far as I'm concerned, as long as I don't see it's face anywhere even remotely close to my house, it can stay in the area.  However, if I see it close by, it will be a death sentence.  F&W said once they have discovered something as an easy food source, they will come back again and again.  In this case, it turned out not to be an easy food source so hopefully it will be on its way and never come back.  It is likely an 18-24 month old that has just been ousted by it's mother.  They lack the skill needed to take down big game and they are surviving on squirrels and mice.  The deer numbers are low and the cougar population has exploded.  Not a good combination.


One of the things I've missed is her exuberance at dinner time.  No matter the weather, every time we went out to feed, she would run a lap around the yard.  It's a large yard and there's obstacles like downed trees that cut across their paths.  Just like it would be if they lived in the wild.  But she would actually CANTER around the yard every time it was chore time.  Pretty darn good for a 16 year old German Shepherd.  It was always so cute...


So we say goodbye to dear Kahlua.  (I can't even see the screen thru the tears).  Her mother was bred in East Germany (DDR bloodlines) and the litter was born here in Alberta.  She added a great number of attributes to my breeding program.  She will live on in her daughters and sons.  Goodbye my sweet girl.