 |
|
|
Chapter One
|
 |
I
watched as the decoy went for a pass at Tammy. She ran out like a bolt
of lightning to jump him, growling, her teeth flying. Then, without
warning, my two-year-old son came out of nowhere. He ran up and grabbed
the dog.
It all happened so fast there was nothing I could have done to stop it.
There was no way a dog in that state of frenzy could be expected to do
anything but bite Johnny to death. I had seen dogs worked up to such a
pitch, that they would even turn and bite their handlers if they got too
close. |
|
But this dog Tammy
just stopped. She stopped in mid-air to avoid hurting my baby
Instinctively Tammy knew the difference between an enemy and a child,
and she knew how to switch gears in a fraction of a second. I hadn't
seen . . . .
Additional Topics
Introduction
Germany—the early days
America—a new frontier
Schutzhund – a “natural” is born
Teenage Years – the other side of the fence
“Teaching” instead of “Training”
The Southern Circuit
On My Own |
|
|
Chapter Two
|
|
I
would spend nearly a year raising and training one of my puppies for
someone, devoting at least two to three hours per day to active training
and socialization. Then, without warning, the dog would start limping.
At that point I would slow down the training procedures, hoping the
problem would correct itself, but often it did not. I lost a lot of my
training time, and a lot of money, to bad hips.
Canine hip dysplasia really motivated me to fight.
|
 |
|
When
those
excellent dogs would all of the sudden become too crippled to continue
the grueling work that Schutzhund demands, I finally saw that I had a
mission.
Additional Topics
Konigin Kennel
Holy Hill
Challenging Hip Dysplasia
Unexpected Changes
LMX
Mister
Lowest Moment
Miraculous Changes
The Shiloh Shepherd Is Born |
Chapter Three
|
 |
One morning, my mom had a
slight cold, and there was no school that day, so she thought she’d
sleep in. Mitzie could not understand why my mom was not getting up, so
she went into my mother’s room and stuck her wet nose into her ear. That
was not amusing, and my Mom told her to get lost!
Not wanting to miss out
on the fun of playing with the little children, Mitzie decided to be a
little more persistent. There was a nightstand and a metal magazine rack
between my Mom's bed and the wall, so Mitzie went into the kitchen and
got her |
|
stainless steel water
dish, then returned with it in her mouth and started banging it as hard
as she could against the metal rack. That got mom out of bed fast,
although not in the best of moods!
Additional Topics
The Shiloh
Shepherds Begin to Amaze
Lisa and Shep
Getting it Right
A Time to Decide
Common Sense Seminars
Genetic Inheritance Made Simple
Puppy Mills
Ursa—Another Life-Saving Shiloh |
|
|
Chapter Four
|
|
There’s a lot of heartbreak involved in dog breeding, and I thought I
was prepared to handle it, but that Parvo Virus was almost more than I
could take. Things had been riding high, and everything was looking
phenomenal, and then it crashed and burned so quickly. I lost nearly all
of what I cared about most. An epidemic like that is like dealing with
the Black Plague or a natural disaster, like a tornado or a flood, it
just happens. The odds of having to deal with several major disasters in
your lifetime are much higher if you choose to breed dogs for a living.
Parvo took me down a big hill and it took me a very |
 |
|
long time to build back up,
both financially and emotionally.
Additional Topics
Epidemic
Shearing Road—Full Force
Cancer
A Special Homecoming
My Kids Learn the Trade
Personal Protection
Dogs Are Changing
Letting Go of the AKC
Pondering a Split |
|
|
Chapter Five
|
 |
Once I brought in Samson, I knew that I needed to make
that jump away from the AKC. But how? I
spent a lot of time thinking about all my records. All that gene pool,
all those littermate x-rays, temperament, size, and recessives for each
and every dog--data going all the way back to the ‘60s! I had no idea
how to get all that into a computer program. |
| I talked to some computer
programmers who were capable of designing a program to do the basic
database job, but they were quoting me forty, fifty, sixty thousand
dollars for the level of complexity that I would require. That was out
of the question. I had an Apple IIE, where I kept address records of my
clients, I remember it had a green screen – very low tech! I was not
prepared to do the job myself. So I just prayed about it. I said, Lord
if you want me to make this break from the AKC, you're going to have to
provide a way.
Additional Topics
Looking for an Outcross
Samson and Sabrina
First Steps for a New Breed
The Final AKC Breakaway
Sharing My Testimony
Politcal Woes Begin
Enter the TCCP
Very Important Breeders
Breeders Lose Control
Cherry Blossom Classic
Tension Increases |
|
|
Chapter Six
|
| The biggest problem
that most dog clubs have is disagreements among their leaders. This
almost always ends with splinter groups breaking off. Throughout my
career I had witnessed this phenomenon practically destroy many breeds.
In 1996, it happened to me: three dissident Shiloh breeders started the
“United Shiloh Shepherd Dog Club,” and began outcrossing Shilohs to
German Shepherd dogs, but selling them as Shiloh Shepherds.
I was infuriated. |
 |
| We
weren’t with the AKC anymore, so technically the name was unprotected.
But for over twenty years “Shiloh Shepherd” had meant something -- and
it didn’t mean randomly-outcrossed dogs!
Additional Topics
Back in Court
Time and Money
Genetic Defect?
“New” Club
The Fish Symbol
New Registry and Response
Broken Hearted Breed Founder
Important Outcross
New Lessons Learned |
|
Chapter Seven
|
 |
Josh
was yelling at the fireman that his dog Izzy had run upstairs to hide.
The fireman looked at the burning house, and then he looked at Josh. He
said, `I’m sorry, but nobody’s going back into that house, the house is
ready to blow. I’m really sorry.’”
So
we lost Izzy.
The
cold was bone chilling. As evening came on, more and more firetrucks
arrived. The temperature dipped into the single digits. One of the
firefighters noticed that Josh was coughing heavily, and they ran all
the way to the house with the stretcher. He was already |
|
going into hypothermia.
He had just his house slippers on, and his jeans and his shirt, he
didn’t have a jacket on; he was just a little boy, shivering, and
scared. They wrapped him in a blanket and took him out on the stretcher
to the ambulance.
Additional Topics
Remodeling
Tuesday, January 25, 2000
After the Fire
Starting Again
Standing at the Crossroads
Recovering Our Records
The Barber Fund
New Lessons Learned
Renewed Hope |
|
|
Chapter Eight
|
| To get my mind back
into business, I started working on pedigree research on my donated
kitchen table at New Zion.
Back in the mid 90’s I had been seeking
the answer to why Esophageal Achalasia had mysteriously reemerged in our
gene pool, after it had been wiped out for nearly fifteen years. I had
not gotten very far with my pencil and calculator, and I had even called
an expert geneticist to look at the data with me. We both ran into dead
ends. |
 |
| After a
lot of effort, in the late 90s another expert geneticist recommended
that I try a commercially available computer program designed by the
late Larry Ritter of RCI Software to determine the Relationship
Coefficient. The RC program calculates exactly how closely related two
dogs in a breeding program are to each other.
Additional Topics
Walking without a
Flashlight
A Tense Homecoming
New Tools
Almost Famous
More Problems
The Last Battle – UKC Recognition |
|
|
Chapter Nine |
 |
The Shiloh Shepherd has
documentation like no other breed. Other breeds have pedigrees that tell
you a bunch of names; our pedigree tells you how tall the dog was, how
much he weighed at birth, what color he was, what kind of temperament he
had, what kind of coat he had, what his littermates looked like, his
health data, genetic data… We have a registry that is more complex and
more detailed than any other dog registry in the world.
Even more importantly, nearly forty years of
highly selective breeding has produced an amazing dog. |
|
Just as their
ancestors herded and protected their sheep, the Shilohs love and protect
their family members, especially the children. They are highly
intelligent animals, and possess no limitations in their ability to
perform as search and rescue dogs, in herding, as STM competition dogs,
or as therapy dogs. They excel in any and all obedience competitions,
and love to strut their stuff at dog shows!
Additional Topics
Triumph
New Zion Shilohs
Final Steps
My Biggest Regret
Lisa Barber—Heir Apparent
Full Circle
Back to the Future |
|
| |
|
The Shiloh Shepherd Story: Order Form |
The Shiloh Shepherd Story Blog |
|
