The Floppy Shep

 
I may not ever have children, but we do have two fur babies.
Some of you laugh, asking, "Anna, aren't you allergic?"
To that I say, yes I am, badly.
I don't care though. I just clean a lot.

In both of our upbringings,
Husband and I have always had dogs that served more than one purpose.
Of course, they're companions and family members first,
but also needed to be good for hunting and/or protection.

Isn't she scary?

 My family has always been into hunting fowl, which meant I grew up with labradors.

Husband had many different dogs in his life, but learned to train working shepherds with his father,
so when he moved to his half acre in Lake LA, it made sense to get one for security.

These bitches are named Blitzunkriegen and Delmira.

Blitz, husband's dog, is named for her lineage as a pure-bred, 

gifted to Husband by his grandparents.

She's obviously recessive as fuck, with her arctic colors and floppy ears,

but luckily doesn't seem to have hip problems.

Don't worry, she had over 300 feet of chain to run with in our 1/2 acre.

Most of my photos of her involve what we call the "stupidity chain."

Since putting them in dog crates is fun (they like caves), 

we have to put them on a chain as time out when they're bad.

Blitz used to be bad a lot.

Notice Delmira being a bitch, sitting just outside the chain reach.

As she's aged, we've had to chain her less and less,

usually getting her to behave with positive reinforcement,

but as a smart pup at almost 6 feet "tall," 

she often jumped the fence, dug out, or barked needlessly at nothing.

I will tell you with my words!

She's also just really excitable and hard to photograph,

which is why I have hardly any pictures of her since she earned her freedom.

February snow, no fucks given.

She's pretty smart as far as dogs go.

Husband trained her as a puppy and taught her some cute commands.

She can shake hands, fetch, heel, and speak.

I'm pretty sure she thinks we actually understand her sometimes.

Not only is she smart, but she's impudent.

If she had people words, I'm pretty sure anytime I tell her to do something she'd say,

"Are you sure you mean that? You don't mean that."

Who lies down? Not me, that's who.

On top of her rebellious behavior, she actually seems to like roughhousing.

When I first moved in with Husband, I had not established dominance yet,

and Blitz, already grown, often jumped on me, thinking I was an equal and we should play.

I had pushed her off one day, and she fell and audibly hit her head on the hard tile patio.

I was terrified, thinking I'd hurt her, but she just popped right up and kept yipping to play!

She didn't even shake it off, and seemed to think it was a game.

Needless to say, I've been gentler since then, while impressed by her sturdiness.

Initially, we only had Blitz, but when she disappeared after an unexpected flash flood,

we took in Delmira as a rescue and new protector.

Obviously, we did get her back.

You'll hear more of that story, and about Delmira, in tomorrow's post.

Being cute before their walk.

Regardless how much she may grieve me, I love Blitz.

It's probably the closest I'll get to knowing what a step/adopted child is like.

I'm okay with that.