Hello everyone, my name is Marsha and I've been lurking for a while. I've been on a mission to learn more about my Dutchie and ended up here on this board. I'm very impressed with the collective knowledge and am excited to learn some new and interesting tidbits. I have a (roughly) 14 month old female named Chaos and she lives up to her name. I got her when my husband and I signed the papers to buy a 36 acre ranch in desperate need of TLC.
I was looking for a dog that would be good with the step-kids, protect the people and property, livestock and be happy with the active lifestyle that we lead (or used to lead before we started remodeling. Now we just do manual labor all the time.) Years ago, I had met some Dutch Shepherds at a horse breeding facility that we frequented and I loved them. The owners told me a story of how their long hair DS woke them up one night to warn them that a mare was having problems while foaling. That same dog used to run alongside the young stallions in the field and was absolutely joyous. I was hooked, so the second I had a lifestyle that would support that kind of dog, I got one.
In retrospect, I should have learned a little more about what kind of dog to choose but I think I might not have understood if I didn't already own one. I should have read between the lines when the trainer I bought her from said she would be a "challenging dog." I wanted a dog I could do some sort of competition event with. I am really interested in protection work but I would have settled for agility or even lure coursing. Chaos would have none of that. She's high energy, even for a DS and has a hard time focusing but I think maturity is helping that. at 9 months old when I got her, she would get out of control when other dogs were around. She's beyond social. She's started her bite work and was showing up the GSD's that were purchased for police work but she just didn't seem mature enough to continue down that road if we were all going to live comfortably in the house together. I'm not far from Dave Deleissegues and have heard good things about him so I'm thinking of checking him out, now that she's older.
The biggest problem: I absolutely adore her and while she likes me just fine, she loves my husband best. When he is around, she takes orders from only him. She breaks my heart. I keep threatening to get another DS but my husband made me promise to wait until we move to the ranch full time. He's right of course but I've been cruising all the links I've found in this forum and checking out the dogs and puppies for sale. You know, just window shopping but if I found the right dog...
Anyway, enough about me. I'm going back to reading older posts about all of you.
I tried to post a photo of Chaos but apparently the files are too big. I'm not sure how to make it smaller but when I do, I'll put up some photos.
Cheers,
Marsha
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Hello From Sunny Santa Cruz, CA
- Aztechalo
- Puppy
- Posts: 58
- Joined: Fri Oct 15, 2010 4:01 am
- Tell us about yourself: I live in North Monterey County, CA with my husband, three step kids, one gorgeous and wonderful Dutch Shepherd and a whole bunch of livestock type animals. The humans are into sustainable farming, the dog is into chasing deer and digging up gophers. My day job is an Operations Supervisor at Santa Cruz Regional 911. One of these days, I'm going to get another DS.
- Contact:
Hello From Sunny Santa Cruz, CA
Marsha and Chaos (4 yo, DS)
In all Chaos there is a cosmos, in all disorder a secret order.
-Carl Jung
In all Chaos there is a cosmos, in all disorder a secret order.
-Carl Jung
- Aztechalo
- Puppy
- Posts: 58
- Joined: Fri Oct 15, 2010 4:01 am
- Tell us about yourself: I live in North Monterey County, CA with my husband, three step kids, one gorgeous and wonderful Dutch Shepherd and a whole bunch of livestock type animals. The humans are into sustainable farming, the dog is into chasing deer and digging up gophers. My day job is an Operations Supervisor at Santa Cruz Regional 911. One of these days, I'm going to get another DS.
- Contact:
Re: Hello From Sunny Santa Cruz, CA
I think I figured out the photo thing. This is chaos younger photos to older photos. I Think the photos will post newest to oldest. I got her at 9 months and the oldest shot is her sale photo from the trainers web site. The top photo is the newest but the perspective is off and makes her look like she has a really small back end.
Cheers,
Marsha
Cheers,
Marsha
- Attachments
Marsha and Chaos (4 yo, DS)
In all Chaos there is a cosmos, in all disorder a secret order.
-Carl Jung
In all Chaos there is a cosmos, in all disorder a secret order.
-Carl Jung
-
- Green Dog
- Posts: 108
- Joined: Sat Feb 06, 2010 1:52 am
- Tell us about yourself: I am/have been involved in Dock Jumping, Agility, Rally, Tracking, Flyball and Search and Rescue and Schutzhund :-)
- Location: Michigan
Re: Hello From Sunny Santa Cruz, CA
She is beautiful!!! I'm jealous you get to think about getting a puppy!! I'm looking forward to what you decide and more stories on your Chaos. Are you thinking a male or female?
- icvanstra
- Working Dog
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- Joined: Fri Aug 22, 2008 1:33 am
- Tell us about yourself: .
- Location: Broad Ripple - the coolest part of Indianapolis - sometimes Amersfoort
Re: Hello From Sunny Santa Cruz, CA
Marsha,
Welcome to the Forum!
Welcome to the Forum!
Eric
- - Cino vom Foxtal
- Abigail NORML de Weijer (over the bridge)
- Hannah the DS wanna be (over the bridge)
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- Working Dog
- Posts: 1960
- Joined: Wed Jun 30, 2010 3:20 pm
- Tell us about yourself: Had a GSD, am getting a DS puppy in a few weeks. Compete in agility, obedience, and cross train in tons of stuff. Found out about this site from the DS Rescue yahoo list.
Re: Hello From Sunny Santa Cruz, CA
Hi Marsha, and welcome!
That's a bummer about how Chaos prefers your husband, but I guess you can't control how that bonding goes sometimes.
Glad you came out and introduced yourself! (BTW, you can resize your photos very easily on photobucket, which is what I do, tho I had no problems viewing yours when I clicked on them.)
Beautiful dog!
That's a bummer about how Chaos prefers your husband, but I guess you can't control how that bonding goes sometimes.
Glad you came out and introduced yourself! (BTW, you can resize your photos very easily on photobucket, which is what I do, tho I had no problems viewing yours when I clicked on them.)
Beautiful dog!
leih merigian
Vrijheid's H'Geyser
Zodiac vom Younghaus (over the bridge)
Central VA (near Charlottesville)
It's never too late to have a happy childhood...
Vrijheid's H'Geyser
Zodiac vom Younghaus (over the bridge)
Central VA (near Charlottesville)
It's never too late to have a happy childhood...
- Marjolein
- Working Dog
- Posts: 2078
- Joined: Sun Jul 11, 2010 7:17 pm
- Tell us about yourself: I'm a Dutchie myself ;-) but live in Germany with Johan and my two DS's Cobber-Dingo and Knivil (Dingo and Ivil to friends...)
- Location: Warbeyen, Germany
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- vneerland
- Global Moderator
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- Joined: Sat Jun 19, 2010 10:10 pm
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- Location: Tex@s
Re: Hello From Sunny Santa Cruz, CA
Welcome here.
I know what you mean about those darn brindles picking their person, and it not always being the intended one. I keep ending up with the dogs that were intended for my husband and the only way to fix that, is totally back off from them, or they will never fully become his. So if you get another pup, go ahead and be possessive. Tell him that the next one is yours only.
I know what you mean about those darn brindles picking their person, and it not always being the intended one. I keep ending up with the dogs that were intended for my husband and the only way to fix that, is totally back off from them, or they will never fully become his. So if you get another pup, go ahead and be possessive. Tell him that the next one is yours only.
Judith Van Neerland Dutch Shepherds
- Aztechalo
- Puppy
- Posts: 58
- Joined: Fri Oct 15, 2010 4:01 am
- Tell us about yourself: I live in North Monterey County, CA with my husband, three step kids, one gorgeous and wonderful Dutch Shepherd and a whole bunch of livestock type animals. The humans are into sustainable farming, the dog is into chasing deer and digging up gophers. My day job is an Operations Supervisor at Santa Cruz Regional 911. One of these days, I'm going to get another DS.
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Re: Hello From Sunny Santa Cruz, CA
I'm not sure If my next will be a male or female. I don't think I'm partial but I've heard (possibly an urban legend) that male dogs tend to respond to female owners better. Chaos was raised an trained solely by men, i don't know if that made a difference in her choosing my husband. But you're right, if I get a puppy, I'm going to keep it all to myself and take it everywhere with me. I'll have to get a young one though, so I can keep it in my purse. I'll be like Paris Hilton with a 60 lb Chihuahua in my handbag
Glad to get to know you all. I better go check on Chaos, I haven't heard toe nails on wood floor for a while, which can't be good.
Cheers,
Marsha
Glad to get to know you all. I better go check on Chaos, I haven't heard toe nails on wood floor for a while, which can't be good.
Cheers,
Marsha
Marsha and Chaos (4 yo, DS)
In all Chaos there is a cosmos, in all disorder a secret order.
-Carl Jung
In all Chaos there is a cosmos, in all disorder a secret order.
-Carl Jung
- vneerland
- Global Moderator
- Posts: 1547
- Joined: Sat Jun 19, 2010 10:10 pm
- Tell us about yourself: *
- Location: Tex@s
- Aztechalo
- Puppy
- Posts: 58
- Joined: Fri Oct 15, 2010 4:01 am
- Tell us about yourself: I live in North Monterey County, CA with my husband, three step kids, one gorgeous and wonderful Dutch Shepherd and a whole bunch of livestock type animals. The humans are into sustainable farming, the dog is into chasing deer and digging up gophers. My day job is an Operations Supervisor at Santa Cruz Regional 911. One of these days, I'm going to get another DS.
- Contact:
Re: Hello From Sunny Santa Cruz, CA
I figured but I was hoping there might be a grain of truth to the matter. In that case, I don't care if it's male or female. I won't be rushed into the next one and I'll hopefully have a lot more knowledge when i set out to make the big purchase.
Marsha and Chaos (4 yo, DS)
In all Chaos there is a cosmos, in all disorder a secret order.
-Carl Jung
In all Chaos there is a cosmos, in all disorder a secret order.
-Carl Jung