Howling Northwind - Saarlooswolfhond Kennel: February 2010

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.

Hunger

She 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...