Shoes - The Life and Training of a German Shepherd Dog (TM)

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Welcome!

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Here you'll learn all about me:  the people in my family, my training and more.

  My name is Shoes and I am a German Shepherd. Well at least my mother was a German Shepherd I never met my father. I was born on Feb.1,2010.  My poor mother was dumped just before I was born. Lucky for her she found a nice family that cared for all of us until we were old enough to be on our own. I'll tell you more about them later.
  This site will follow my training and advantages. I was only seven weeks old when I  had my first big  advantage. Read on and get to know me....

The list of my training  words can be found under my photo on the right. Kat and I work on new words as soon as I master the old one. We practice the old words daily. Kat is a great teacher she gives lots of treats. At first she gave expensive store brought treats but I gained to much weight and the vet said I needed to lose some weight. Kat did not agree and we want to a different vet who agreed that for my bone structure I was just right but I should not get any fatter - so Kat divides my regular food out with a part of it placed in a treat bag. I get  some kibble in the morning with a microwaved egg, raw carrots and a bit of coconut oil; and  a mixture of two types of kibble at night; and more kibble during training  twice a day. So I get fed around four times a day with about four cups of kibble total. Mom feed me the good stuff Earthborn and Nutrisih ( I think that is what she calls it) all I know is that they are made in the USA and she says they have good stuff in them.  The carrots are for my teeth along with some dental cream that she puts on my special ball. ( She also brushes my teeth once a week) The egg and coconut oil are for my coat and skin. Kat also adds Dental Work to my drinking water.

Hard to believe I am over five now - seems like I was a puppy only yesterday - Kat still calls me her little puppy. LOL That's funny since I weigh 85 pounds and not little any more.

Me with my head harness on.
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Hello, This is Kat speaking.  I have always raised and trained animals. I can not remember not having animals, even in college I raised turtles in the dorm.  I  grew up on a working farm with cattle, pigs, horses, ponies, rough collies, beagles, cats, turkeys, ducks, chickens and a few sheep. My mother and I raised and trained  the rough collies and I raised and trained the show horses.  I took a little time off away from the farm to attend Purdue University and majored in Animal Science. Like most people I also got married and started a family which of course inclded animals. We started out with collies but soon stopped breeding them when our human family started growing and ended up keeping two of the collies as family pets. In case you don't know rough collies require daily brushing  and that became a chore as our famiy started growing.. The next 20 years or so - animals were on the back burner. I still had one horse, a few barn cats and always at least one dog (we went from long hair one to short hair  dogs). I believe that if you don't have the time to care for an animal correctly then it is best to have less animals. Now that I am retired from  the U.S.P.S. where I worked for 15 years as a letter carrier and the boys are grown I have gone back to the longer haired large dog. As well as other animals - in the past 10 years I have experimented with training and raising mice, rats and birds.  The mice ended up as food for my pet snake - they were not easy to work with and the cages needed cleaned every day or they smelled. The rats were wonderfully easy to train but again the cages needed cleaning way to often - expect  for Nibbles' cage because he was the smart one. Nibble's was potty trained, would come across the floor when called and would push a little ball around.  Another problem with rats is that they have short lives. 

 At the present I share my life with Shoes, a few barn cats: Furball, Fluffer - Nutter,Split-fire,and Garfield these have adopted us as well.Then there is my "pet" cat - Golden Rod who get special treatment as he is allowed to spend the night inside the garage, And then there is the animal that  I actually brought - Artemis, a ball python.

I also have rescued a parakeet named Tootsie Roll and a cockatiel named Sonny.
 When not working with the animals I am working on new agility equipement, gardening, crafting, outside shooting archery, gun target practice, working on the power point presentation, editing video for online presentations, working on the many websites,or doing maintance on our apartment building( KBC Apartments of Seymour, LLC). I also work one-on-one with clients as a personal dog training coach and sometimes I am just sitting out in the swing petting Shoes. :-)

Thanks for visiting with me.
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Shoes and Kat
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I am 2 1/2 years old in this photo.

What's New?

I know what the following words mean now:
1.   Ahoo!*
 
2    Attention
 
3    Back up or Back Off*
 
4.   Ball
 
5.   Bang!  (play dead)  *
 
6.   Bark  (once) *
 
7.   Bed  
 
8.   Beg*
 
9.   Bone
 
10.  Bowl
 
11  Brace   (means stand still while Kat leans on me)

12  Bring It   (means to take what I have with me)
 
13. Bring it  back  (means to bring my toy  back into the play zone)
 
14.  Close   (means to come closer to Kat)
 
15.  Close It  (means  to close a door)
 
16 . Come*
 
17.  Come to heel*   (means to circle around from the right side of Kat and  sit on her left side)
 
18.  Crawl*
 
19.  Down*
 
20.  Drop It  (means to drop wherever I have in my mouth now)
 
21.  Eat

22  Find  (hunt for what kat ask for) Usually Chris, Shawn or one of my  toys)
 
23.  Fitch  ( to bring back whatever she threw)
 
24 . Free Dog  (my time!!)
 
25.  Front  ( to come and sit in front of Kat)
 
26.  Get it  ( same as fitch)
 
27 . Give  ( to drop where I have into Kat's hand)
 
28.  Go on  ( to walk in front of Kat)
 
29  Hand it to me * - (means place it in kat's hand)
 
30  Heel  ( walk by Kat while watching her)
 
31.  Help *  (bark loud and more then once)
 

32  High five*
 
33  Home (go into a crate)
 
34  Hug*
 
35. Hup!  (means jump over poles or through loop or over boards)
 
36   In  (means go inside)
 
37 Inside voice * (means to mouth a bark without much sound)
 
38  Jump
 
39.  Lap* (means to  put both my frontpaws onto Kat's lap)
 
40  Leave It
 
41.  Let's go (to walk and look at things)
 
42  Limp*
 

43. Look Left *
 
44. Look right*
 
45.  Move  (to get out of people's way)
 
46.  No  ( usually followed with  leave it, usually means it is dangerous to me)
 
47.  No more * ( Kat's out of treats)
 
48. Off * ( to get my paws off from where they are)
 
49. Out  ( to go on through a doorway without Kat)
 
50. Outside ( to go to the front door to go into my yard)
 
51. Pause (jump onto the table and stop)
 
52. Paw * (left my right paw)
 
53. Phone *( bring Kat's  cell phone to her)
 

54 Plank  (run the dog walk)
 
55. Poop
 
56. Potty
 
57. Pray*
 
58. Quiet * (to stop barking/howling)
 
59. Rang bells      (means I need/want to go outside)
 
60. Roll Over* ( I do not like this and will only do it for the premium treats where fore Kat does not ask me to do this very often) Kat no longer ask me to perform this  since I yelp each time - she has had the vet check me out and they can find no reason for me yelping.
 
61. Settle ( relax and chill out)
 
62.  Shake hands *( use left paw to shake hands with)
 
63. Shame * (hide my head under a pillow)
 
64. Shoes ( my name)
 
65 Sit*
 
66. Slippers (Kat's footwear)
 
67. Spit it out ( drop it NOW or else Kat will remove it from my mouth)
 

68. Spin  Left*
 
69. Spin Right*
 
70. Stairs
 
71. Stand*
 
72.Stay*
 
73. Step In *(means to get my harness on)
 
74. Stop
 
75.  Swing *(come to kat's left side turn and sit)
 
76. Take It
 
77.  Tire ( jump through the tire)
 
78. Treats
 

79.Turn  Away ( means to turn away from Kat while walking)
 
80. Tug
 
81.  Tunnel
 
82. Wait (stay but not for long)
 
83. Walk (let's go)
 
84.  Water (drink now because it will be awhile before the next break)
 
85.  Weave (go around the poles)
 
86. Where's my dog ( peek - a -boo)* ( I love this one !)
 

 
 
I said I knew what they mean - not that I always obey yet. We are still working on that.
 The  * means I know the hand signel for that word. Kat has a bunch of other things to teach me. I will let you know what they are when she tells me.

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Copyright @2010 by Kathryn L. Jarvis
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce the text or pictures in any form whatsoever.