So many new folks!

[ortegah]

I'm Heather. I'm a animal freak by nature. I wasn't allowed pets as a child when we lived in an apartment and I was obsessed with animals. When I was 11 we moved into our house and for Christmas my parents bought me a Mini Poodle/Scottie mix. Because I had asthma my parents wouldn't let her in my room to sleep with me. She essentially became my dog only when she pooped in the backyard I loved her but she was very attached to my parents because she slept with them. I always said when my husband and I got our own place I was gonna have whatever animals I wanted.

We got our first Sheltie by chance. We moved out of his mother's house and into a rental townhome. We had agreed when we went to the Maryland SPCA that we wanted a smaller dog that had short hair and didn't shed much and was quiet We got there and there were all these crazy barking dogs and my husband Will went up to Smokey who was a 2 year old 16"(which was big to me) Blue Merle Sheltie and said "that's the one!" I was confused because he didn't fit what I thought we had agreed with. He was terrified of us and even as we were signing the paperwork he wouldn't come near us. He warmed up to us quickly though. A few months later we were watching a USDAA competition on tv and I thought it looked interesting, so I called the number on the screen to inquire about classes and they referred me to my trainer who I've been with ever since. I've been going to classes almost every week for 11 years now!

Now Smokey is 13 and almost blind and sleeps a lot but I tell him he'll always be my number 1 <sniff sniff>

Now we have 3 Shelties and 6 parrots and I also keep saltwater tanks. I've had iguanas and bearded dragons and snakes, but my first love is, was and always will be Shelties

Edited to add a pic of me http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4140/4890422355_b5dfa74f42_z.jpg
Hard to find since I'm always the one taking pics.

 

[David]

Hi I'm David: 72 years to condense!
I have been retired for 17 years having spent 32 years serving in our Embassies in Arab countries.
Cally, my wife, and I settled in Devon on the southern edge of Dartmoor in 1983. Claire (eldest daughter) lives high on Dartmoor with three daughters and three Labrador cousins for our lovely shelties, Tara and Pia.
Our lives are devoted to our family, our shelties, travelling thru’ Cornwall, Wales and Ireland – plus Dartmoor of course. I mess with my computer, Cally makes Torchon lace and we look after the garden. Our two pups fill the rest of our lives to the limit. Changes in the future, I hope not!
Tara came to us from a breeder when she had had all her KC litters, Pia came from the same breeder, I think because the breeder has too many bitches who are ‘better show dogs’ – both now family pets and companions.
Cally with Tara

Really close friends

How they should be

How they usually are

(L to R) Lulu, Inca, Archie, Pia and Tara

Me kneeling before the shelties!

 

[Calliesmom]

Hi I'm David: 72 years to condense!
I have been retired for 17 years having spent 32 years serving in our Embassies in Arab countries.
Cally, my wife, and I settled in Devon on the southern edge of Dartmoor in 1983. Claire (eldest daughter) lives high on Dartmoor with three daughters and three Labrador cousins for our lovely shelties, Tara and Pia.
Our lives are devoted to our family, our shelties, travelling thru’ Cornwall, Wales and Ireland – plus Dartmoor of course. I mess with my computer, Cally makes Torchon lace and we look after the garden. Our two pups fill the rest of our lives to the limit. Changes in the future, I hope not!
Tara came to us from a breeder when she had had all her KC litters, Pia came from the same breeder, I think because the breeder has too many bitches who are ‘better show dogs’ – both now family pets and companions.
Cally with Tara

Really close friends

How they should be

How they usually are

(L to R) Lulu, Inca, Archie, Pia and Tara

Me kneeling before the shelties!

someone has the lab rainbow

 

[mbfrench]

I know it..it was the first thing we noticed! All of the pups are gorgeous.At one time with Kasey being here,all we lacked was a black lab...

Thank you David for sharing the wonderful pictures~

 

[labgirl]

someone has the lab rainbow

Exactly what I thought, lol! I am so tempted to do the same at some point, but probably I'll stick with chocolates! I've already got the name for choccie no. 2

 

[Caro]

Its like reading a Sheltie dating site! Hello to everyone.

As for me - well I've lived just about everywhere in Australia, including next door to a sheltie breeder who I got my first sheltie from. I now live in the 'bush capital' where I spend many hours dodging poisonous snakes, spiders, kangaroos and echidnas on bush walks around my neighbourhood.

I am a semi-retired senior public servant, having suffered a debilitating injury coming home from work. So I traded in an obsessive work ethic for a much healthier obsession for shelties and now do agility, flyball, tracking, obedience and doggie dancing, in between being secretary of the dog club, sheltie-forum-holic and social butterfly at the neighbourhood dog-friendly oval.

 

[Chris]

Hi I'm David: 72 years to condense!
I have been retired for 17 years having spent 32 years serving in our Embassies in Arab countries.
Cally, my wife, and I settled in Devon on the southern edge of Dartmoor in 1983. Claire (eldest daughter) lives high on Dartmoor with three daughters and three Labrador cousins for our lovely shelties, Tara and Pia.
Our lives are devoted to our family, our shelties, travelling thru’ Cornwall, Wales and Ireland – plus Dartmoor of course. I mess with my computer, Cally makes Torchon lace and we look after the garden. Our two pups fill the rest of our lives to the limit. Changes in the future, I hope not!
Tara came to us from a breeder when she had had all her KC litters, Pia came from the same breeder, I think because the breeder has too many bitches who are ‘better show dogs’ – both now family pets and companions.
Cally with Tara

Really close friends

How they should be

How they usually are

(L to R) Lulu, Inca, Archie, Pia and Tara

Me kneeling before the shelties!

David, that picture of you, Pia and Tara is just fabulous!!!! I may just print that one, it's so cool!

 

[Chris]

Well here goes, try not to get too bored. I was born in Medford, New York...my father was transfered to St. Louis and we moved when I was 4 years old. When I was 18 I joined the Army and when I was 19 I was blinded by a mortar explosion in Viet Nam. I came home and sat around for about 2 years and then decided to give college a try. I attended Northwestern University in Illinois and graduated with my degree in psychology..After that I worked for the Veterans Admin. trying to help guys who came back from the war with mind problems and spending my weekends at the Childrens Hospital working with the handicapped children. When I got Boo, he would go every weekend with me and play with the kids. I had 7 operations trying to restore my sight and nothing worked until a month and a half ago when they tried a new procedure on me and after 40 years I got 90% of my vison back. Wow, how the world has changed and I get to drive wearing glasses....and now I live with Boo, 4 mini schnauzers ( I adopted from my sister) Katy, Harley, Sara, & Tea'...and also my kitten..Travis. And that's the end of that story :0)

David, you're our miracle man!!!!

 

[SheltieChe]

my name is Ellen and I was born and raised in former Soviet Union. I had my first hemostat and lab tubes somewhere around same time as my first doll. My brother built entire blood system from paper mache using anatomy atlas when he was 11 ... sometimes we joke we did not know there was a choice of occupations...
We like to think that we live a healthier lifestyle, grow our own veggies, the only meat eaters in the house are dogs and tofu is not a nasty word in our household... we do not have TV and try as much to go to bed with sunset and get up with sunrise...
Since we are on the brink of becoming empty nesters, hence the dogs- Che is my first dog ever and since I have a habit of jumping in with both feet Leo came a year later. I feel very lucky to have Che in my life as he is incredible dog and pleasure to live with, very intuitive, easy to train, smart and capable.
He is equally DH dog and mine- hubby takes him to pooch parks and obedience training and I take him for walks and agility. Leo is still unknown quality although he shows himself as very sweet puppy.

 

[Justicemom]

I just catching up but here is mine.

I'm Shelli. I grew up in Rapid City SD, the gateway to the Black Hills and 20 miles from Mt Rushmore. I have always been dog crazy and finally talked my parents into a house dog, a lab, when I was 13 provided I paid for her. So I delivered papers and saved until I could afford her. When my pup was 9 months old she jumped the fence and was standing in the front yard when I went to get her. I called her and she started to come to me but then saw my neighbor across the street and she turn and got hit by a car. Luckily it was only going about 5 mph.

Several things happened that day. 1. Jo lost her tail but was otherwise fine. 2. I became obsessed with dog training. I never wanted my dog to not come to me again and 3. I worked working for my veternarian to pay off my vet bill(yeah small towns). Been working in a vet clinic ever since.

That year, my mom took me to the Rapid City dog show(25yrs ago last weekend) and I saw obedience for the first time. I was in awe and went home and taught Jo the drop on recall. I vowed someday I would compete. I trained every dog, I could get my hands on(for my friends, family, anyone) and read everything I could on training.

For 4 yrs in undergrad I couldn't have a dog were I was living. Finally, I moved to Minnesota for vet school and into a house. I brought Jo with me and was planning on getting another dog to full fill my dream of doing obedience. Jo was good but 11at the time. I was planning on getting a purebred so I could do AKC obedience but this little JRT/beagle mix rescue Jazz who stole my heart and stayed. Oh well. I took her to obedience school anyways worked though her tons of behavior issues and totally changed up my training philsophy. A lot had changed since the 80's. I eventually trained her though Open and then move back to S. Dak. I worked there a couple years and then moved back to minnesota and met this lady though work who bred shelties and was a UKC obedience judge. She told me Jazz was really well trained and gave me 3 handling lessons and then entered me in the next UKC show in sub novice. I didn't even know mixes could compete in UKC. Jazz got 1st place and I was hooked. I got my first Sheltie from her, Justice, 2 yrs later and the rest is history.