SHAKTI, CGC, Advanced Trick Dog ("Dayspring's Spirit of SHAKTI")

Stories

Welcome to my storytelling dogmain! I love storytelling and I'd like to share some of my canine thoughts about my life, my observations, experiences, etc. These are the original canine stories that describe the world the way I see it.

Sit back, relax and enjoy the reading! :)

Intelligence

My pack says that I think on my own, have my own ideas and that I am great at problem solving and connecting things together. It took no time to train me and in most cases my mom and papa have to show me something once or twice and I get it right away. I really enjoy training and learning and always want to know more and more.

By the way…you wouldn’t think that an unintelligent dog could create their own website, would you?

How my pack found me…The signs that were coming…

Mom and papa told me this story from years before I was born so let’s go back in time to the year 2003…

In May 2003 my parents went for a long trip around the US. When they stopped in Asheville, North Carolina, they saw some beautiful pictures of a woman accompanied by a wolf. Now, I am a Shiloh Shepherd and I’m not a wolf or any wolf-hybrid. They loved the pictures and bought 2 of them. One of the pictures is entitled “Power Within” (artist: Detha Wilson) and another one “One Spirit” (artist: Patrizia Ahlers-Johnson). After the trip was over the pictures were hung in my parent’s den (they call it a bedroom) and they’ve been there since then. My parents went through a lot of sadness and disappointment while looking for a puppy, but they had these quiet reminders on the bedroom walls – the pictures of a young woman and a wolf…

One day, after a few attempts at getting a Giant Schnauzer puppy, my mom looked at the pictures in the bedroom and thought to herself that there must be a reason that those pictures depict a dog that resembles a wolf…She shared her thought with my papa who was very surprised and upset at first and said: “A Shiloh Shepherd? Are we going to go back and forth about deciding what breed we want?”

Well…my mama is very stubborn (papa says I take after her) and once she had her realization she was not going to give up the idea of a Shiloh Shepherd puppy. Everything seemed to fit now and at that point my mom contacted a lot of breeders and asked them TONS of questions about their breeding policies, available puppies, ethics, etc. This is how my mom found the place where I was born – the “Dayspring Shilohs” kennel in Maryville, TN run by the most wonderful breeder Lilli Anglin. My parents really like Lilli and they consider her a pack member and always make sure to send pictures of me and keep her updated about my achievements.

So the images of wolves with their regal, noble bearing, enormous strength, pride and intelligence were signs that had been shown by some higher force to my pack members. Now, it is pretty obvious that my mom and I are “One Spirit” just as is depicted in one of the pictures…I personify my pack's power and my name, Shakti, means “power”. I am my pack's “Power Within”…

Arrival (quiet peeing in a car)

Well…that’s a nasty little story. When my pack picked me up from my breeder (her name is Lilli and she’s very sweet and nice) they put me to a big four wheeled creature. We had a long trip ahead of us. First we were going from Tennessee to Charleston, SC. We were to make a stop there on the way down to my new home in southwest Florida (Naples, FL to be exact). I was also to take a rest in Charleston, SC and see my grandma..

Now, my parents knew that I was a little baby and that I needed a lot of attention and understanding especially about my lack of bladder control at this point. Because my parents thought that I might have some accidents inside this big four-wheeled creature, they brought special puppy pads. My mom placed some pads right next to her legs on the floor. My mom kept me on her lap for some time and for the rest of time I had my little place on the pads so I could lie down there and stretch my legs if I wanted to.

We made frequent stops and I had a few potty breaks outside on the grass. My mom and papa were already very proud and they couldn’t believe how well behaved I was. It looked as if I was already potty trained!

I was very quiet and I never cried when we were traveling. My new pack praised me for that a number of times. I was already their “brilliant girl”, their “prodigious puppy”. I remained a genius in my new parents’ eyes until my papa wanted to remove the potty pads and discovered that they were quite…wet!

My mom had been so excited and happy about getting me that when she placed those potty pads on the floor she put them upside down. All the “surprise” was leaking very quietly because I was not sure where it should go. It went right on the floor because the absorbent part was face down. That was my first “quiet peeing” adventure….My pack always laughs about it now.

Four-wheeled creatures

I would like to share with you my observations about this big, crippled creature that has no tail or legs but has wheels…

When you get inside this creature the pictures around you start moving faster and faster…I guess humans love those creatures and are quite addicted to them…They don’t go anywhere without them…I think they call it “a car”…

I have observed that there are a lot of different breeds of cars because they come in all kind of colors, shapes and sizes… There are even humans that are “car breeders” and sell the young puppy cars, or in some cases cars that have had previous owners, to other humans. I can tell that because I have seen places that had identical cars that were to be adopted. I don’t think there are any stray cars and I think they all have their pack leaders.

Humans spend a lot of time with their cars and the cars get grooming just like I do! They even go to a car vet sometimes. My papa doesn’t really like this car vet, and anytime he has to deal with this car vet, he is pretty upset.

Oh…they are not “potty trained”…I noticed that they pee wherever they stop. I have noticed puddles underneath the cars very often.

I know that there is a sporting group of cars and they are like greyhounds. They run very fast, but they get better treatment than greyhounds. They bark a little, especially when there are a lot of them in the same spot and they all want to move. Their barking sounds very strange… They have a huge prey drive because they always run after one another. People try to train them but occasionally these cars jump on each other….It’s not a pretty sight when they do that…Some of those cars like digging and they are never scolded for that.

Poem

There once was a dog on vacation,
Who sat on a crabby crustacean.
She let out a howl,
Kangarooed off her towel,
And hightailed it straight to the ocean.

Author: Michael Hayden