Search This Blog

Tuesday 31 January 2017

Monday 30 January 2017

Puppy Owners! I need some info!

Six month ago, my children, gave me an all expenses paid holiday to Disney World with them.  I had no idea that I would have puppies on the dates they picked.  Consequently I will be away from February 7th - 16th.  But fear not!  The puppies will be in good hands!  My husband is here full time and he is very knowledgeable in the rearing of the puppies.  He's been doing it with me for 14 years so he's had lots of practice.  I have also arranged for TWO friends to  help him out.  One is a breeder of Min Pins and Shelties, and the other is the lady who I get to take care of all my dogs when we go on holiday with all the family.  So both ladies are also very knowledgeable. 

What I need from you is the dates and times you will be here to pick up your little fur balls.  Anytime after February 20th is good.  If you could please send me TWO dates and times that would suit you, then I can get all this organized before I go away.  For example: "I can pick up my puppy on either Thursday Feb 23 at 3:00PM or Saturday Feb 26 at noon." 

After noon is always better for me as I do all the chores in the morning and get finished around lunch time.  If you need to come early in the day due to travelling issues, that's fine.  I will work around you.  Plan on spending 2 hours here.  There is a lot of info and paperwork.  It may not take that long, but...  plan on 2 hours.  I will need to be paid in full before the puppy leaves here.  A certified cheque, cash, email money transfer are all good.  Personally I like the email money transfer but not everyone is comfortable with that, and that's ok. 

Please email me at k9trainer@dogwhisperer.ca with PICK UP DATE in the subject line as soon as possible.

I will let you know which time you have when I have all people's dates and can schedule everyone.

Thanks,

Mary Ann





Some of the outakes!

Tuesday 24 January 2017

Individual Pup Pics Updated on Website

So I spent most of my day taking pictures, editing pictures, uploading pictures, publishing pictures (you get the idea!), so you can see how each pup is growing. They are all posted on the first page of my website. www.myguardianangelshepherds.com. And I'm really happy at how they came out. Except... for Mr Blue! He was the first to be photographed and our guinea pig on how we were going to do it. We spent twice as long with him then any of the others. Eventually we got everything set up and him still, for an 1/8th of a second. Then we were off and rolling. 136 pictures later we were done! I worked backwards when editing, putting Blue at the end. When I finally got there, I didn't have a single good picture of him! So, off I went to set up our picture area again. Lights, background, fuzzy balls, safety fences so he wouldn't fall off the table, etc. This time I was on my own so trying to set up a wiggling puppy and holding the camera and pushing the shutter button all at the same time was a lesson in patience. I FINALLY got ONE good photo! YAY! I took that one picture and downloaded it to a thumb drive then took that drive to my laptop (which is the only one I can update my website from) and downloaded it. I clicked on the thumbnail and there it was in all its glory! Upside down! No big deal. I'll just rotate it. Rotate right, rotate right. Done. Beautiful. I uploaded it to my website and voila!... Upside down! I tried for over an hour to get that picture the right way around but no matter what I did, when I uploaded to the website it was upside down. So. When you see Mr Blue staring at you from his upside down perch, remember how many hours I put in today trying to give you nice pictures, instead of chastising me for putting in a picture upside down. 😜

Enjoy the pictures Guys!

 Don't ask me why it worked here but not on the website! 

TTFN

Mary Ann

Monday 23 January 2017


 IMG_67161.3gp  

You've received a Message from a TELUS phone.

If you don't hear or see the file, download the Quick Time player.

  Vous avez reçu un Message d'un téléphone TELUS.

Si vous ne voyez ni n'entendez le fichier, veuillez télécharger QuickTime.

Thursday 19 January 2017

Wednesday 18 January 2017

It's Moving Day!

Moving out of the whelping box! A big day! Now we can add toys, bells and noisemakers!! What fun!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBZMcjyD9xE


Mary Ann

Tuesday 17 January 2017

Young then Old




First meal of the day! Then cleaned up by the old girls!

Please excuse the dirty mat but they make such a mess eating no point in putting a clean mat down for 10 minutes. They got cleaned up right after breakfast. ☺️

Mary Ann

Their First Meal

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n361Hzf6wEU


Mary Ann

Friday 6 January 2017

Puppy Conditioning

I don't like to brag, usually. But I want you to know that it's not myself that I'm bragging about, rather, it's my dogs. 

I can say without any reservation at all, that my German Shepherds are the BEST German Shepherds for your family. 

I can say this because I put so much time and effort into making sure that all my dogs are healthy, and that they have excellent pedigrees. I can say this because I put in hundreds of hours with each litter, that I match each puppy with each family, and I have the proper combination of working line confirmation and temperament that suits the average family and do not breed super driven working line dogs that are only suitable for police work or competition.

I pride myself on continuing my education almost on a daily basis. And this is one of the reasons why the dogs that I produce are far above my competitors.  Every single thing I do is done with a purpose. There is a reason why the whelping room has a south window. There's a reason why I have a full spectrum light bulb in that room. There's a reason why I have a pressure sensitive puppy heating mat under the whelping blankets rather than just a heating pad.  There's a reason why I spend an hour and a half making homemade puppy formula instead of buying the canned variety.  It's all these little things that can make such a great difference.  Then there's the big things like the Service Dog Puppy Program. I've been using this to raise my puppies for almost 20 years. I know of none of my competitors that do the same. The following is an excerpt from the beginning of the program. You will see how important it is to do all the things that I do with these puppies from day three on.

Puppy's First Night to First Year

Note: The purpose of the puppy program is to condition the puppy to learn, and that learning and doing things are fun. The program aims at preventing problems rather than correcting problems later. This purpose of "puppy program" must be fully understood. Therefore, DO NOT attempt to program any puppy until you are familiar with Clarence Pfaffenberger's "The New Knowledge of Dog Behavior".

Day 0: Puppies whelped

Day 3: Start taking puppies outside on a clean blanket for a couple of minutes a day, then take them inside again.

The First critical period, Days 1-21

Newborn puppies are undeveloped. They do not hear or see. Their senses of smell and touch are functioning. The puppies should be handled a little bit, like for weighing every day. Subject the puppies to small amount of stress, e.g. different undercovers, cold temperatures. Also, they can be conditioned to certain smells at this age.

EEG (Electroencephalograph) tracings show that the puppies waking brain-wave pattern is identical to their sleeping brain-wave pattern. This means that they do not have true consciousness - and they will remain so until the 20th day of their life. While their "conscious" brain cannot yet be programmed, this is not so with certain reflex pathways in their spinal cords (work researched since Pfaffenberger's book). The first reflex which can be conditioned is the pannus (or cutaneous) muscle reflex. Conditioning of this reflex, so that it becomes abolished, or inactive, or non-responsive to human touch, begins it critical period at Day 14 and finishes at Day 28. We call this "The Critical Period of Touch Conditioning".

Cutaneous muscle, under the skin, all over the body, will twitch (startle response) when skin is touched, throughout life, by human beings of whichever sex do not take part in touch conditioning. In adult dogs (over 4 months), we see this as a dog which will not stand still and be willingly touched (examined) by any men, or by any women, whichever it lacked in its conditioning in this period of 14-28 days. This is the dog (or bitch) which has to be shown "only under female judges" or "won't let a man touch him/her". No type of later "training" will reliablybring a touch-shy dog out of this too frequently seen behavior fault. So do not fail to program your puppies for both male and female touch! This is imperative for pets, show trials, guides, police, etc.

Take the puppies outside on a clean blanket for a couple of minutes each day.

Day 9 - Day 12: Eyes open during this period, but puppies cannot focus, nor is there any conscious awareness of anything "seen".

Day 11 - 13: Ear canals begin to open for function, but are not "hooked up" for conscious interpretation of sounds. No sound conditioning is possible until day 23.

Day 14: Begin touch conditioning. This is done by having a man and a woman each handle each puppy for 2-3 minutes twice daily. Handle head, muzzle, neck, body, legs, and tail. Touch and rub back against hair gently. Remember to wash hands first!

Day 15-21, week 3: The puppy goes through a lot of physical changes. The baby teeth erupt at about 15 days. Do touch conditioning and expose the puppy to mild stress. Take the puppies outside every day.

Day 20: On this day all puppies brains are slowly (some faster than others) awakening. Begin observing continuously. Note which of each sex "wakes up" first. Mark these two, for example by cutting a small patch of hair on their backs, or marking with nail polish.

Day 21: CONSCIOUS LIFE BEGINS NOW. Touch conditioning. When you do your touch conditioning on this most exciting day, watch the faces! For the first time they react consciously to your presence. You have looked at the puppies many times, but today you are seeing them as never before.


Im sorry if I have made this post too long. But I want you to know, that if you are lucky enough to get a Guardian Angel Shepherd, you are a privileged few.

I believe in my dogs and I believe in the families that I have picked to adopt them. I trust you to continue on with the puppies educations from eight weeks on and you will have a dog like no other. A dog that will be the one you compare all others too.

Best wishes for the New Year. 

Mary Ann


Wednesday 4 January 2017

German Shepherd Dogs Playing And Protecting Babies Compilation

https://youtu.be/9nXEV06xcgU


Mary Ann

Feeding Equipment


This is all the supplemental feeding equipment. Bottles, feeding tubes, feeding syringes, and mixing apparatus.

Mary Ann


I have about 3 square feet of old kitchen counter top and now I have 1 square foot thanks to puppies! But I don't mind. 😉❤

It's warm in here!




Mary Ann


The temperature ranges from 75-85F in the whelping box. Too hot for Mom sometimes. They also have the pressure sensitive puppy heater that covers half of the floor of the box. It is at 101F. The temperature of a dog.

I trimmed the puppies nails today. The first of a lifetime. The trick to nail clipping is simple. Mark it on your calendar once a month and you will never have a problem. It's when we, (which includes me) forget and leave it for several months. Your puppy will have no bad experiences here so it's up to you to continue!

Tuesday 3 January 2017

A little help




Mary Ann


With so many mouths to feed, Cruz appreciates a little help. Mr Lt Green drank approx 65 mls of home made formula. 65x8=520s. Over half a litre per feeding! And that's on top of what Cruz gives them. And they eat every 2 hours on average! It takes me about 2 hours to feed the litter, including burping. So if it wasn't for Cruz, I'd finish number 8 and just start again on 1!