Celhaus A Litter (Chaos - Quinta) was whelped November 25th: 3 boys and 2 girls, although one male died at 3 days
We're starting through the alphabet again.
I'm expecting very richly pigmented, outgoing, confident, high retrieve drive and athletic pups from this combination. These pups should be able to do anything a person asked--very versatile, easy to train, athletic and of course fun to live with. We should get some dark sables like Quinta and some black & reds or black & tans. Sable, of course, is dominant in German Shepherds so we should get mostly sables.
Sire: Jagerstadt Chaos von Celhaus
whelped 3/23/06
NADAC Agility titles: Novice Weavers Outstanding, Novice Regular, Novice Tunnelers, Novice Chances, 2 legs towards his Novice TouchNGo title, 2 legs towards his Novice Jumpers title and 2 legs towards his Novice Hoopers title
OFA hip prelims "good", OFA Elbows, OFA Cardiac, OFA Thyroid, CERF, von Willebrand's and hemophilia free
Chaos' hips were beautiful at 1 year and received a "good" rating on his prelims from OFA. Unfortunately, he began leaping my 5' perimeter fence in August 2007, to go play with the neighbor's dog. I saw him one time and couldn't believe it. He jumped the 5' fence from a standing start and didn't touch it. I had to raise the fence another two feet to keep him on my place. That's a lot of fencing! Once he figured out he had to stay on my property, he began leaping the cross fences breaking my two acres into four large areas. He must have gotten bored with his playmate and needed to jump into someone else's area to play with them until I got home from work. Chaos' hips at 24 months were borderline, according to OFA, and they said to redo in 6 months. It took me until May 2008 to get the fence raised two feet on both the perimeter AND cross fences, so I could keep him where I put him. After he realized he had to stay in the area where I left him, he began leaping into the air and catching birds in flight. He figured out that robins are slow on takeoff and targeted them. He is just too athletic for his own good! We redid his hips in September and they looked pretty good the the vets and me. Both Quinta and Joyful came in heat over a month early, before we got the results from OFA (Quinta came in heat the day after we x-rayed him, the pest), and I bred them to Chaos since we expected the hips to pass. However, OFA flunked him. I sincerely believe the changes in his hips are caused by the impacts from all that jumping over the past year, so I had a Penn Hip evaluation done in Billings on October 16. Penn Hip x-rays look beautiful! Left hip gorgeous. She sees why OFA didn't like the right hip but from her x-rays, done differently, she sees there's no problem and thinks he will pass PennHip. She said on the last x-ray she really cranked up the compression and there was no laxity. In PennHip they first take the standard view, then they place the anesthetized dog with his hips in some kind of a fulcrum brace that allows them to pull the hip and put pressure on it in a certain way that reveals joint laxity. The x-rays go to the creator of the method and he does a bunch of measurements. If a hip rates less than .3 it's nearly 100% sure that it won't get arthritis. If it measures .7 or over, there's too much laxity and the dog will probably develop crippling arthritis (hip dysplasia). They rate both hips separately, then give a percentile rating. 98% means the dog has hips better than 98% of the GSD's they've evaluated, etc. The higher the percentile the better the hips. Quinta's older sister in Sioux Falls, Rogue, is the only dog I know personally that has been PenHipped and she rated 90%. It was so fascinating talking a little bit to the PennHip vet and seeing the x-rays. Just having her say that she sees on the standard view why OFA flunked him (mild dysplasia was their rating), but on the PennHip x-rays it was more defined and actually is not a reforming of the joint, made me quite happy. The people at the clinic were absolutely in love with him. Said he was so calm, not bothered when I left, very cooperative, beautiful, etc. I gave them my card and mentioned I do agility and one of the receptionists got all excited. She loves agility. They got right on the website and oohed and aahed on Chaos' photos and how beautiful all my dogs are. When I didn't receive his rating after the usual three week wait, I called the vet. Evidently they occasionally are unable to get enough compression on joints if the dog is a German shepherd because they have long rather than thick muscling in their legs. Naturally, Chaos is extremely long and lean muscled even for a GSD, so I have to take him back to redo the x-rays. Unfortunately, by the time the PennHip vet told me that, I was on puppy watch and couldn't leave town for two hours driving each way and about two more hours for the x-rays and recovery from anesthesia. I hoped to sneak there once the pups were a couple of weeks old and strong, but the weather became frigid. I won't leave when there's a possibility of trouble on the roads that would prevent my being back in time to let moms out for potty breaks and to care for pups. I'll have to just play it by ear and go when I can safely leave and the vet is there--hard during the holidays.
Chaos has a rock-solid temperament and steady nerves. He's very social with all ages of people and is an excellent Therapy Dog. Chaos comes from herding lines. Both his parents are working stock dogs on farms in North Carolina. I like to incorporate dogs from herding lines in my breeding programs because of their high bidability. They truly want to work with the handler, and Chaos is no exception. He is extremely fun to train because he checks constantly to be sure he's doing what I want.
photos and more information on Chaos
Dam: Celhaus Quintessence
NADAC Agility titles: Novice Jumpers Superior, Novice Regular, Novice Tunnelers Outstanding, Novice Chances, 2 legs towards her Open Jumpers title, 2 legs towards her Novice TouchNGo title, 2 legs towards her Novice Weavers title and 1 leg towards her Novice Hoopers title
AKC agility titles: one leg in each of Standard, Jumpers with Weaves & FAST
OFA hips (good), OFA Elbows, OFA Thyroid, OFA Cardiac, CERF, von Willebrand's and hemophilia free
Quinta, commonly known as "Wild Thing", is the character of the family. She loves to work, begs to train, and gets into all kinds of trouble when we're don't. She is crazy about agility. Her biggest problem is remembering to listen to me and go the direction I indicate, rather than attack every obstacle in sight. When she does remember, she is extremely intense and concentrated, a joy to work, and nearly always takes 1st place. She is definitely one that I'll take on to advanced competition. She has also done extremely well in obedience classes and eventually we'll probably try for some titles there. We'll also resume tracking, at which she was quite good in her puppy introduction. Quinta is very much like her mother, Jubilee, and grandmother, Glory. She is quite dramatic, very fast and athletic, loves to tease, and has trouble being a "good" girl.
more information & photos of Quinta
information about Quinta's first litter, the X Litter
Grandsire: Bianko vom Leerburg ("Comanche")
OFA GOOD hips, OFA elbows
Janet Wilt's Comanche was a Search & Rescue dog, certified in Avalanche, Water, Tracking, Wilderness Rescue and Cadaver. He was also certified as a narcotics dog (4 odors), evidence and building search.
Janet's Search & Rescue group has a website: http://www.wyomingk9sar.org. Go to "Members" and look for Janet Wilts. If you click on the members' names you'll go to a profile and more photos.
Granddam: Celhaus Jubilee CGC CD NA NAP TDInc
OFA GOOD hips, OFA elbows, OFA cardiac, OFA thyroid, von Willebrand’s free, CERFTherapy Dog
She has her Companion Dog title and her AKC Novice Agility titles and only needed one more qualifying score to finish her Novice Jumpers title, but she developed spurs on her back (from being such an athletic, body-slamming, hard-playing dog all her life), so her jumping and competing days are over.
Jubilee is the most athletic GSD I've ever known--unless it's her daughter, Quinta. When she was just a pup she would jump into the back of a 3/4 ton pickup from which I was shoveling wood shavings, trudge to the top of the shavings pile, and get on top of the cab. She will climb, jump, drill through incredible obstacles to retrieve her toys (the favorite of which is the Frisbee). She loves obedience, tracking and agility. Her tracking is very intense and only needed proofing to be ready to try for her Tracking Dog title.
See photos of Jubilee's other pups