Australian Kelpie in Holland!
CH. Yirr-ma Bashyr of the Two Chestnuts
Introduction of Bashyr
August '05
Hiya! I’m Bashyr!
My mistress says that I’m a very social, friendly, happy, clever and very eager to work young dog. She’s right! I love to play with other dogs. My specialty is to seduce people to throw things, like balls or sticks, for me. My passion is to lick people, preferably until they’re totally wet!
Lately I've learned how to do the agility poles within 1 week (and we didn't even train every day!)... Ain't I clever?!
I’ve been told that I’m a working dog. That’s very true, working is my life!That’s why my mistress and I do loads of activities together every week. A few examples of things we do (at least) weekly:
* Dog shows, or training for them.
* Obedience training (I’ve even competed at 1 match already!)
* Agility training (running together with my mistress…. GREAT!)
* Tracking (just following my nose!)
* Cuddle-dog project (I love all the attention!)
* Bicycle training (finally a walk at my speed!)
* We go for a lovely big walk every day (and usually I'm allowed to go for a swim too!).
If you’d ask me what I like doing best, I couldn’t give you an answer…. I just love to work together with my mistress!
You might think that with all these activities, I might get exhausted…. But after a 30 minute nap, I’m all set and ready to go again!
Ever since I was a small puppy, I was allowed to go to a nursing home as a cuddle dog. Both the residents and I really enjoy these weekly meetings. The residents have a very special way of moving. I can observe them for hours, they totally intrigue me!
Naturally I always assist with picking things off the floor. If someone asks me to bring them something, I’m prepared to bring them ANYTHING they’d like!
My favourite pastime during the walks is: to carry and retrieve objects, like sticks (preferably BIG trees!), balls or (small) plastic bottles!
Friends
When my owners came to collect me as a tiny pup, it turned out that they already had two very big dogs! One, named Zia, is a Basenji; the other is my aunty (my mum's sister) named Guinam, she’s a 'brownie' just like me.
Our first meeting, which took place outdoors, was very thrilling for me. Fortunately the eldest (Zia) took me under her wing immediately. If there were dogs that scared me or dogs who wanted to harm me, she took care of them. Because of the actions of Zia, I’m her #1 fan!
After a while I found out that Zia has a few oddities e.g.: she demands that all dogs at home should be dry and clean. If you don’t clean yourself immediately, she’ll do it for you. This on its own isn’t very strange, but when she starts cleaning you, you’re not allowed to assist her in any way! Zia can also be quite moody, something which is an unknown concept to us Kelpies!
In the early days Guinam thought I was a tiny, scary nuisance, which made no sense to me at all! I’m a fabulous dog!
As I grew bigger and faster, Guinam finally discovered that I’m a fantastic dog and that we can have lots of fun playing together. We’ve become great pals ever since.
We love to race together and we can have very sweet frolics with one another.
Guinam obeys Zia very well, and she often tries to assist Zia. So Zia turned out to be the boss of the two big dogs.
Fortunately Zia and Guinam are best friends. One would almost think that Guinam is Zia’s daughter….
When we arrived at my new home, the ladies told me very clearly that I wouldn’t have any say whatsoever (and I still don’t)! Clever as I am, I immediately bowed to the inevitable…. what was I to do against 2 huge ladies?
Now, after months of longing, I’m sometimes allowed to wash their ears!
In my new neighbourhood I quickly made a lot of friends. Even their owners are very taken with me. The reason is that I’ll play very gently with small dogs and I can frolic and run a bit more wildly with the bigger dogs. If there’s a dog who wants to play with me, I’m always game!
Fortunately my mistress usually allows me to play with other dogs, because no matter what I’m doing I’ll always obey to her!
Now that I’m getting a bit older, the world has started to change a bit…
I still love puppies! It is a shame that one has to be careful with those fragile little creatures, but besides that they’re great fun! I definitely am their #1 fan!
Some ladies can smell very interesting… I’d wish to do something else but play with them! I can get totally smitten with them! I’ll turn on all my charms (in a friendly and non-offending way)! Unfortunately this strategy his only given me a good play, but nothing more….
Other male dogs can be great to play with, if they treat me nicely. Unfortunately I’ve met some dogs that are plain thugs and there are some dogs that start threatening me straightaway! As you probably can imagine, I despise types like that! Fortunately my mistress usually gets me out of those awful situations, before things get ugly.
Holidays
This year me and my pack moved all the way to Denmark for our holidays. I always love our holidays, because we’ll get to walk in exciting new surroundings and we’ll get to meet loads of nice new people and dogs.
This year we didn’t get to meet and greet many dogs. We did see quite a few dogs, but their bosses wouldn’t let us meet. I really couldn’t understand why!
Fortunately I did get to know quite a few lovely people and children.
Especially the children I met were great: they wanted to play with me all the time! We played ball and they learned which tricks I’m very good at. As long as they’ve got my ball, I’ll do just about anything for them! The kids seemed to really enjoy me walking backwards... so I’ve put quite a few miles in!
By the time I got overheated or even exhausted (yes, you’ve read it right!), the kids found out that I’m very pettable too and that I do love to eat treats... I just love kids!!!
On one occasion we did get to meet 2 Danish Kelpies: Andy and Bellis. They’re brownies just like Guinam and me. Bellis and I became great friends. We even invented our own game: watch trough glass! That was a very exciting game. Our bosses didn’t quite get our game: they kept sending us to each other, but the glass inbetween us gave the game an extra dimension!
One day we went looking for a new home (Friland Museum).
We saw so many houses, that I lost track of the amount! I liked them all, but unfortunately they didn’t seem to like them enough... ;-)