Mother and Daughter

Last year at that time we did not even know if Skadi will get puppies - and now she is on a par with her mother ;)

Some news from Tova

Yes, I know - first I do not write here for more than one month and then I do 3 entries at one day...
I just found the time today ;)

Bodily build
With her 9 months she has already grown as big as her mother and even bigger, however she still appears somehow small. Maybe because of the fact that she is still like a puppy - a very big puppy.
She has a very wonderful bodily frame and it is quite amazing to see her run, play and jump around. I think that is due to her slim but still somehow vigorous build. Even if she is very slim, she does not have that greyhound shape. If you look at her it simply seems that everything is on the right place.
I am really curious how she will develope in her further growth.

Temper
If I should describe Tova's character in one word, I would call her "extreme"!
She can be everything from extremely tender to extremely annoying ;)

Though I recognise some traits of her mother in Tova's temper, she is much more extreme in all respects. She shows a lot of that typical Saarlooswolfhond-behaviour serious breeders would warn you of ;)
Having 2 adult Saarloos-bitches I definetely wouldn't call us unexperienced, but Tova really showed us new dimensions of extreme thievery, destruction, omnivorousness and playful ferocity.
You can not leave her alone for more than a few seconds without having another part of your furnishings or household destroyed. Of course the fact that she is able to open doors and cupboards does not make it easier for us!
There's of course one exception to this rule - if she sleeps she usually don't destroys anything - but the point is, she does not need that much sleep!
She is a really active dog and needs a lot of attention.
On the other hand, she can be extremely nice and charming and even after her worst malpractices it is nearly impossible to get mad at her. She looks you in the eyes and you are under her spell!
She needs a lot of stroke units, much more than Skadi and Isa.
A very interesting fact is, that there are situations she listens quite good even if I definetely wouldn't speak of obedience in this regard.

She is not shy at all - every visitor gets a very warm welcome after two short barks - even total strangers are okay if they want to play or give her food.

HungerShe is also extremely hungry - all the time! Her main occupation is looking for food. If it is still on the stove it doesn't matter for her at all - this way we lost big parts of our dinner more than once.
Not only that she does everything to get food - she also eats everything, it does not matter to her what it is - if we eat something, she wants it too.
So not even vegetables or fruits are save when Tova is on a raid.
Last week I took her with me into the hen-house - she did not even look at the chickens more than a few seconds and started to eat the chickenfood instead...

Not necessery to add that we love her extremely for being exactly the kind of dog we wanted!
Never forget: You get the dogs you deserve!

Tova's siblings

It's time to show off some new pictures of our Alfa-litter.
The pictures were all taken in January 2010. We have no recent picture of Washita because his owners have no (working) camera - but I think this will come very soon.

RoffeWahyaTjalve

Winter in Brunnsberga

More than one month has passed since my last entry here - a month with a lot of snow!
We have a real swedish winter right now - the first one since 10 years in this region.
The dogs are enjoying the white fun outside day by day - lot's of possibilities for me to get great pictures.
Some of them I'd like to share with you:

Yellow Eyes and a Blue Sky

Some promotion...

...for my artworks.
I think a lot of people looking at this blog are certainly interested in Wolves, so I guess one of my recent works could be interesting for you:

More pictures and infos can you find on my other blog: http://varglya.blogspot.com/ or if you are interesting in purchasing this wolf-clock you can go straight to my webstore: http://www.etsy.com/shop/Wodenswolf

7 months update for Wahya ;)

Finally - with some delay ;) - here comes the story about Wahya you are all waiting for!

"Here is a little story about Wahya.
Wahya is our first Saarloos wolfhound and the day we got her, a wish of many years came true.
We have been breeding Golden Retrievers and Labradors for many years and have owned Irish wolfhounds for many years as well, but Wahya is quite different from any of the dogs we have had through the years.
From day one when she entered our house and our dog family, we knew she was very special.
She walked around in the house, like she had lived here all her life. She greeted our leader Easy with a little kiss and walked on to meet the other dogs. The first evening she entered our bed and placed herself between me and Lars for the night.
Tacy one of the Golden Retrievers became her aunt and teacher. Among other things she taught Wahya how to climb the stairs to our bedroom. Tacy took a few steps and waited for Wahya, then she took a few steps more and waited and as Wahya followed, they reached the top of the staircase. Then Wahya ran all the way down the stairs and up again like she was saying “look I can do it myself!”
During the months we have lived with her she has developed a very strong personality.
She is very observant. She looks and learns and she only needs to see something one time to know how it is done. She is able to open our dustbins. They have an electronic opener and you need to lead your hand across the sensor and then it opens. Wahya saw me doing this one time, and then she put her nose on the sensor and the dustbin opened.

Wahya is not a dog – she is a wolf – no doubt about that. She is made of wolf and German Sheppard and one should think that there will be some wolf and some German Sheppard in her, but I can´t find the German Sheppard in her. I have been training German Sheppards on the Royal Danish Air force dog school, where I worked and I believe that I know these dogs and their minds.
A German Sheppard is in fact one of the most easy dogs to train. They love to obey their trainer, and they love to do the same exercise over and over again.
It is fairly easy to teach a German Sheppard how not to bite in furniture, other dogs, walls, beds and clothes.
It is nearly impossible to teach Wahya anything, except the things she can see the meaning in. She have her own mind, and if she is told “NO” for biting in the furniture, she looks up – stare at you with her beautiful yellow eyes, and continue to bite in the table.
She loves her walks with the other dogs in our big field, and she is a very skilled mouse catcher.
She is the most charming dog, we have ever seen. It is impossible to get mad at her, because she know exactly how to turn on the charm, and make us laugh. She seems to have a way of looking into your soul, when you talk to her. She looks firmly into your eyes and talks loudly with a deep growl or a high pitched tone. She is very special to us.
We DO love her very much."

Lars and Merete
Denmark