newspaper loving Raga

Catch  me to get the paper

this german shepherd is more into the business of retrieving- or shall we say is fond of reading the newspaper?

but this is actually what happens to the newspaper after she has ran around with it, needless to say, one can only run after her incase it is the paper-reading day for it. thankfully, my paper is delivered in the letterbox outside my house and i only let a free paper come to it. But imagine what would have happened in days when I had not yet worked out the letterbox...I was quite close to this scene on a daily basis. Maybe I did not teach her the 'get it' command properly enough OR maybe maybe I just pamper them a bit and let them have a go at the newspaper, which is hardly newsworthy in any case.

posing with my girls this once-

Here I am posing with Raga and Nikki in two separate pictures. Raga the german shepherd and Nikki the labrador and me of course the homo sapien. the other dogs are also around on the front lawn

Nikki, mind you, is quite a handful and a real pleasure to hug. I call her my blood-pressure dog because when you hug her she gives herself so fully into the hug that you really feel the hug-warm, present in the moment and loving.

effusiveness

Raga is known to be very loving and for showing her love too-in a very mouth-oriented way...without regard for the size of the person to whom the love is directed, or the comfort with which the recipient receives her love. See how it looks in this picture here as my closest friend and her child are subjected to her canine kiss.

nocturnal activity

activity nay action never stops in our canine household. can you imagine what time this must be happening? well the time is well past ten in the evening, we are typically faced with a powercut situation and since sleeping is really tricky in the summer heat inside for us...we are all out in the back lawn- me with the camera and the dogs with a lizard, garden lizard or some such reptile to catch their fancy.

As you can see in this picture here (picture is disturbed due to the artificial lighting from CFL bulbs and the movement of the dogs) they are looking very eagerly in this brick-heap to trace any sort of motion of those reptilian adversaries. In view of the night, Dash is taking the liberty to use his size to the best of his advantage leaving Raga a bit confused!

murderous aunt

aunt tony has desigs on these dogs and they are wondering what to make of it!!!
with a cake in one hand
and a knife in one hand
what does my aunt want me to understand?
tis my gran's birthday i am told
she goes on to become so much and so old
but why do these cakes etc leave me by
oh i sadly sigh and how much i want to cry...

shepherd meets sheep

yesterday (19th Jan 2008) Raga and me had a very curious adventure...not a very long one though. how i wish i could take the camera with me when i go out. i usually dont and this was one occasion i really regret it.

i was out with raga on a stroll. as i turned one corner i saw a flock of sheep coming towards us. now a flock of sheep with a hundred odd sheep is an unlikely thing in urban india with at least three or four shepherd shepherding them. but then i had the real german shepherd by the leash.

my little girl just saw the sheep (it was her first chance of seeing them. and that too all in such a big flock)she froze. i looked at her. she just crouched on the metalled road. and she sat her all animated, all bated breath wondering what sight she beheld. but not even for a second she took a step backwards. wow! i also got excited. i could easily have gone back but decided against it. i waited to see how it would be.

the sheep were proceeding towards us. suddenly they sensed the dog. raga also stood up. they simply changed their course and took an angle and moved on a tangent. but raga my brave little shepherd just lunged at them. i was really surprised at her instinct. i absolutely fell in love with her spirit a second time around. she did not cower for a second even and all the sheep turned their course becuase of one german shepherd girl. imagine. if she were to be seriously employed in this business so many of these men would have nothing to do!

my shepherd girl is worth so many of them men...ha ha ha!

new kid on the block...my new kids i meant

i shot this video accidentally. i hope to upload it more mindfully though. not sure i did a good job but at least its a first for me. others will follow soon. please click to see the picture. as you see, the dogs were in the lawn of the house. this is the front lawn that overlooks the street. all the girls are running around objecting to the presence of certain other street cousins of theirs. all their aggression is towards dogs, mind you. if anyone would believe any of these is a guard dog...err... no comments on that one. why should i say anything about my own pack? now for a few days the pack is not allowed on this lawn or the other one either - simply because they are quite a handful when they start digging the nascent grass and merrily stomp in with their muddy feet. as you can well imagine, for a single hand to manage those 12 little feet, by either washing them or dusting them is another chore added...i decided the best way is to let them run around in the driveway till the grass grew properly. i do ofcourse allow them on their own lawn (the back lawn) under 'supervision'!!!- obviously my own only. i love them running there. hopefully if all goes well with this video excercise, will make another video of that too and share with you. now over to the front lawn again where you see them now. for now they cannot even enter the lawn AT ALL for i have planted my own flowering plants there. i decided i want to keep this lawn for me and the other one for them. but on second thoughts, even within this lawn only certain areas need to be demarcated as those where dogs need not go and i think those are the two corners of the lawn where you see these people right now. what i am going to do is have a wooden/bamboo 'jafri' done over there and the rest of the lawn is open to them. i think that would be ok. why should i forbid them from any part of the house completely and what fun is it for me to sit alone on my lawn, without my family being there with me?!

canine welcome

if you dare to come into our home and profess your love for the pack and are not exactly afraid incase they did the same, well...er..r...r.r..
this could be you!

ofcourse milder variants are possible too...the young man and the dogs are all at their extreme and extremely flexible behaviour. it needn't get that ...much/bad/expressive!:)

raga and the sisters

Nothing but pictures to start with...

let me call them

Raga- then and now

a little puppy and a grown up puppy

with both her retriever sisters- ginger and nikki respectively

and how the tribe thrives.