He is gorgeous! I love shepherds and will have one someday when we leave the city area. Nara looks like she is going to track him down and get him. I love Beowulf. The body language in these shots in really interesting, thanks for posting. They are all beautiful dogs.

Thanks for sharing! I love shepherds too. Looks like a big happy family already.

Beautiful pics and beautiful dogs! They do all look so happy together. I also love the facial expressions. I love how dogs will paw at each other like in the seventh pic down, like, "What are you? Play with me!"

Thanks everyone! It has been confirmed as of today that Ozi will be mine on 28 March. Fifteen days and counting...I'm restless.

Yay, congrats! It'll come soon enough. I'm sure Paw Paw, Nara and Beowulf can't wait, either.

counter wrote:

Thanks everyone! It has been confirmed as of today that Ozi will be mine on 28 March. Fifteen days and counting...I'm restless.

I bet you are. Will Ozi be a search dog?

wpskier222 wrote:

counter wrote:

Thanks everyone! It has been confirmed as of today that Ozi will be mine on 28 March. Fifteen days and counting...I'm restless.

I bet you are. Will Ozi be a search dog?

You guessed it! That's the plan. Ozi, who just turned 2, is the perfect age to begin SAR training. I'm starting to think my Nara is *sshhhh* over the hill going on 7 years old *don't tell her I said that though*...haha.

counter wrote:

wpskier222 wrote:

counter wrote:

Thanks everyone! It has been confirmed as of today that Ozi will be mine on 28 March. Fifteen days and counting...I'm restless.

I bet you are. Will Ozi be a search dog?

You guessed it! That's the plan. Ozi, who just turned 2, is the perfect age to begin SAR training. I'm starting to think my Nara is *sshhhh* over the hill going on 7 years old *don't tell her I said that though*...haha.

Well, your avatar kind of gave it away. I've always wanted to do SAR, but fell in love with the wrong breed ha ha. Someday I will have a shepherd though. Shepherds are my second dog love.

wpskier222 wrote:

counter wrote:

wpskier222 wrote:

counter wrote:

Thanks everyone! It has been confirmed as of today that Ozi will be mine on 28 March. Fifteen days and counting...I'm restless.

I bet you are. Will Ozi be a search dog?

You guessed it! That's the plan. Ozi, who just turned 2, is the perfect age to begin SAR training. I'm starting to think my Nara is *sshhhh* over the hill going on 7 years old *don't tell her I said that though*...haha.

Well, your avatar kind of gave it away. ;)I've always wanted to do SAR, but fell in love with the wrong breed ha ha. Someday I will have a shepherd though. Shepherds are my second dog love.

 
I've seen old pictures of Sibes used as avalanche dogs back in WWI. Not sure how they did it, but it seems like their short attention spans and desire to run, plus lack of recall if/when distracted, would not make it very probable. I work my Sibes in other ways: bikejoring. All of my dogs are trained to do a job daily, and they thrive on doing so.
 
SAR is amazing though. I doubt I will ever stop doing K9 SAR until I'm too old to handle the rough terrain and large dogs.

wpskier222 wrote:

He is gorgeous! I love shepherds and will have one someday when we leave the city area. Nara looks like she is going to track him down and get him. :)I love Beowulf. The body language in these shots in really interesting, thanks for posting. They are all beautiful dogs.

I'm so sorry but I pressed on bad advice by accident .. This touch screen really goes on my nerves sometimes..

Hollyfrost wrote:

wpskier222 wrote:

He is gorgeous! I love shepherds and will have one someday when we leave the city area. Nara looks like she is going to track him down and get him. :)I love Beowulf. The body language in these shots in really interesting, thanks for posting. They are all beautiful dogs.

I'm so sorry but I pressed on bad advice by accident .. This touch screen really goes on my nerves sometimes..

I'm sure an admin can fix/undo it, right?

So good news! I was able to get my Kaze early. He's been here with me for 3 days now, instead of waiting until March 28th. Anyways, I've been feeding him 3-4 times a day to help put some weight on. I measured him yesterday, and great news: I am not an owner of an oversized dog (yet)! Kaze measured 26" and 86 lbs. He probably needs to put on 5-10 lbs to get those ribs to stop showing. But he's right in the middle of the breed standard for height (24-28") and once he fills out with meat and muscle, he will be slightly over the breed standard for weight. He's laying here next to me while I type this. I'm about to take all 4 dogs out for another daily bikejoring adventure to help build that muscle mass, and then I'll take him with me on a run this afternoon. He's named KamiKAZE for a reason! He's a whirlwind of energy who bounces off the walls all day long, no matter how much exercise I provide him. Crazy boy! I love him so much already. I'll post new pics once I take some.

Yay, glad you were able to bring him home sooner than expected! Sounds like he's doing awesome so far. Can't wait for more pics!

counter wrote:

So good news! I was able to get my Kaze early. He's been here with me for 3 days now, instead of waiting until March 28th. Anyways, I've been feeding him 3-4 times a day to help put some weight on. I measured him yesterday, and great news: I am not an owner of an oversized dog (yet)! Kaze measured 26" and 86 lbs. He probably needs to put on 5-10 lbs to get those ribs to stop showing. But he's right in the middle of the breed standard for height (24-28") and once he fills out with meat and muscle, he will be slightly over the breed standard for weight. He's laying here next to me while I type this. I'm about to take all 4 dogs out for another daily bikejoring adventure to help build that muscle mass, and then I'll take him with me on a run this afternoon. He's named KamiKAZE for a reason! He's a whirlwind of energy who bounces off the walls all day long, no matter how much exercise I provide him. Crazy boy! I love him so much already. I'll post new pics once I take some.

I am super happy to hear how well he is doing. Fantastic pictures. So why do you start SAR at 2 years? I just know for sledding or agility you start younger so I was wondering why the age difference.

Playing with the Big Dogs wrote:

I am super happy to hear how well he is doing. Fantastic pictures. So why do you start SAR at 2 years? I just know for sledding or agility you start younger so I was wondering why the age difference.

You want to start SAR no later than around their 2nd birthday, so I'm in luck! It could take 2-3 years to get them certified, and you don't want to start them too old because then it would almost be time to retire. So yes, the younger the better, and with the time it takes to train and certify, if you start younger than 2, they'll more than likely be a fully grown adult and mature enough to handle the responsibility of "playing the game." If Kaze had been 3 or 4, then I might hesitate to start SAR with him. That's what I meant. I got him at the ripe ol' age of 2, so it's perfect! Haha.

Wow! That's so cool. I can't wait to see those new pix.