MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE

Imagine jogging on a sandy beach somewhere with your dog and seeing a bottle bobbing up and down in the water. You watch as the next wave washes the bottle up on shore. You pick the bottle up and notice that there is a folded piece of paper in it. Could this mean there�s a message on that piece of paper? Perhaps it�s a map showing you where a buried treasure lays waiting to be discovered. You don�t even recognize the bottle because it�s very old and it�s not even made any longer. Your dog is barking and jumping up on you looking for you to throw the bottle in a game of fetch. You push him away and instead pick up a stick and throw it in the opposite direction. You struggle to remove the rusty cap trying to avoid cutting your fingers. At last the cap turns and you wonder how you are going to grab hold of the paper without tearing it. You shake the bottle and turn it a few times until you position the paper at the neck opening. A corner of the paper lies in the narrow opening and you gently and slowly pull the fragile paper out of the bottle. You make sure the paper doesn�t get wet as your heart beats a little faster in excited anticipation as you unfold the aged worn note. You see it�s dated Saturday June 18, 1921. All the note says is that someday the German Shepherd Dog will be one of the most beloved and popular dogs on earth. You look at the date again and smile in bewilderment knowing this writer wasn�t wrong. You look at your own dog who you continue to throw the stick for and ask yourself if you were to write a message in a bottle about the German Shepherd Dog, what would it be?

So if you were to write that message about our breed, what would you want the reader to know? If like me, you would probably like your message to be floating around the ocean for many years before someone �rescued� it and scooped it up out of its watery home. What would the recipient of your note be reading, lets say one hundred years from now?

You might tell him about the heroics of this breed. You could share with him the comedic personalities this breed exhibits. You could tell him about the beauty, the nobility or just the pure joy of having ownership of this great breed of ours. You might tell him of how he rescued a child. Maybe he alerted you and woke you from a deep sleep when a fire broke out in your house. You could tell him how he visits your Aunt Gertrude in the nursing home and the spark of light it ignites in her eyes every time she sees him. You might even be as bold to tell him that by the time he reads your note, the German Shepherd will go from being the number two dog in the country to the number one dog in the country. And if you really get daring, you could put your message in one of those big soda bottles and include a few pictures to show the world what the breed looked like in 2010! Yeah, I think if you�re going to do it right, you might as well include a few pictures for everyone�s enjoyment.

Who knows by the time someone finds your message in the bottle, there may even be a new breed standard by then. Yeah, I�m sure there will be. I wonder if the person that receives your message owns a German Shepherd Dog and as he looks at your picture and looks at his dog, he marvels at how much they�ve changed. I wonder how the German Shepherd will look in another 100 years!

Will there be dog shows one hundred years from now you wonder. Will the German Shepherd Dog have his own reality show on Animal Planet? Will Animal Planet even be around then? Will shelters be a thing of the past? Will there still be lots of breeders or will there only be a select few? Will there even be an AKC to register them with? Will registration even be necessary? Will there be a National Specialty show to go to? Will the German Shepherd Dog Club of America still be in existence?

If there are shows yet, will there still be professional handlers or have the exhibitors decided to show their own dogs? Will another great book be written about the breed? Will there be a German Shepherd Dog Review to advertise in? Will there be something to replace the internet?

What would your message be about our breed that you would like someone to read many years from now? Mine would be: The German Shepherd Dog was born of greatness, it is right now as I write this and until the time that you read this message in a bottle it always will be. I may be gone, but the German Shepherd will live on as long as people continue to love and nurture them. Time will never change that. Pass it on......


My rating: The German Shepherd for all time: (4)!

IF YOU CAN'T BE WITH THE ONE YOU LOVE, LOVE THE ONE YOU'RE WITH!

Yup, that�s the title of another �oldie but goodie.� If you been in this breed for any length of time, many different dogs have come in and out of your life by now. You�ve owned all different types and personalities of the breed. Some were better than others. Some may have been �stars� or top producers of �stars.� Some may have been great show dogs and others had the potential to be, but maybe they lacked the �get up and go� needed to reach that potential. Maybe they just found running around in a circle a foolish waste of their time.

Some of the dogs that we have owned were more favored than others. Perhaps it was that one had a great personality while one was more laid back and content just lying around the house all day. Dogs are not that much different in personality than people are. And the same way that we are drawn to certain people, is the same way that we are drawn to certain dogs more than his kennel mate. It�s called chemistry.

Chemistry is not something that we can explain. It�s like the beautiful woman hanging off the arm of the not so attractive man. How many times have you asked yourself, �What does she see in him? How did he get so lucky?� We don�t get it. Beauty and the beast! It�s the same thing with our dogs. It doesn�t necessarily have to be the prettiest dog in our kennel that is our favorite one. There�s just something about this favored dog that might be familiar to us on a whole other sub-conscious level. Your friend might come to your house and notice the attention that you give to the favored dog. She might not see anything special about her at all, but it�s a connection that you have with the favored dog. You can�t explain it. It�s just there.

I own three dogs. My Amber is my house dog and then there are her two daughters Bu and Jess (that's them as babies in the above picture....Bu in the front and Jess following her like usual).  Amber is a great house dog. She�s extremely intelligent and learns very quickly. Amber lives for love��24 hours a day if she had her way. Then there�s her daughter Bu, who is my �heart� dog. It doesn�t make sense to me because she�s by far the �bad to the bone� dog that I�ve ever owned. Bu lives for Bu. She�s always happy. She�s always on display. She�s the alpha bitch although sometimes her mother will challenge her for that position. She could play 24 hours a day. Life is a party for Bu. Then there�s Jess. She�s built like an Ox, strong but gawky. She lives in the shadow of her exuberant sister Bu. She could eat 24 hours a day. Of the three, she�s my least favorite����.and she�s the reason that I�m writing this article today.

Jess is the one that wags her tail the most when she sees me looking out the back window. Oh Bu loves me too, but that�s because Bu knows I love her best. It�s not that any one of my dogs gets more attention than the other. They all get the same food and treats, and the same amount of attention. You know what I�m talking about though. Whether you admit it or not, you have a favored dog as well. Just notice how your voice changes when you speak to the favored dog. Notice how your eyes get all soft and �love sick� when you�re looking at the favored dog. It�s true. The favored dog is the one that we�re more tolerant of than the others. He does something bad and yeah we get mad at him and yell at him, but he really doesn�t� take us too seriously. He knows we�ll get over it quickly. Yeah he really does. He�s got us all figured out. He�s not too much different then the spoiled child in a family.

Oh I know there are those that are reading this saying �Not in my house. My dogs know better. I�m the alpha and they know better than to come up against me.� Well that may be true, but I bet you still have a favored one that even if you do get mad at her, it�s not too long before she softens you up a bit. It just seems like we can�t stay mad for too long at the favored child.

Do you find your patience is different with one of the less favored dogs? Do we tolerate less from them than the favored one?

How many times have you had a potential buyer for one of your puppies call you up and tell you they�d like to look at your litter, but they�re not ready to buy yet? They tell you that they�re just looking. They just lost a beloved dog and that no other dog can ever take their place in their heart. I remember one such instance years ago.

A husband called me to tell me that he and his wife would like to take a look at my puppies. He told me that they had just lost a beloved dog and that his wife is devastated over this loss. He said that she didn�t even want to come look at the puppies, but he convinced her to join him. He told me that he hopes she will change her mind once she sees the puppies. So they come to my house. I could see that although the lady was friendly, her mood was withdrawn and sad. They showed me pictures of there beloved German Shepherd and proceeded to tell me that no other dog could ever take the place of their �Sadie!� I wasn�t about to try to change the woman�s mind on my own. Instead, I brought the puppies in to the den and let them sell themselves. They ran happily in to the arms of the young couple. Kisses were plentiful from these fat little babies. I immediately saw a change in the woman�s body language. She was smiling from ear to ear. I didn�t have to saw a word. She was sold. But even so, she tried to convince me that no one could replace Sadie.

Well over the following weeks I heard from the woman that bought this puppy from me. She finally admitted to me, that although the puppy didn�t replace Sadie, she helped make much of her pains go away. She told me in time, she was convinced she would love this puppy just as much as Sadie. And she did. All the wonderful phone calls and pictures of the puppy growing up convinced me of that.

Is there perhaps one of our own dogs that may not be the favored dog that we might have overlooked? Have we been guilty of not developing this dog�s full potential? Does this dog sit in the kennel without the proper training and socialization that he needs to be the dog that he can become? Have we forgotten about the less favored one because we are too busy putting so much time in to the favored dog? We just might be surprised at what we might find locked away in that great old big heart from the dog that wags his tail at us the most!


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My rating:  favored dog: (4), not so favored dog: (4), love the one you're with: (4)