The Wonderful Past

It has been quite awhile since I sent you an update and so much has been happening! Almost all good.Zephyr is doing great. She has become a beautiful and well balanced girl.She passed her AKC Canine Good Citizen test with flying colors. I was more nervous than she was! 

 Her protection instincts have really kicked in, but she shows tremendous good sense. Overall, she is just very friendly to everyone unless they give her a good reason not to be. Like the termite guy that swatted her with his metal detector thingy. It was an unprovoked attack on his part, but Zephyr would have none of that on her turf. If I had not been there watching through a window, I don't want to think about what she might have done. But once again, she had the good sense to back down on my very firm verbal command and she then just watched him VERY carefully until he left. I didn't like him either!!! 

She is proving herself to be an outstanding narcotics detection dog. What a nose! And she seems to love having a job to do. When we are working she just becomes a totally different animal. Focused and relentless! She is virtually 100% on marijuana and cocaine. I can't seem to stump her. My long range plans for her are to pursue her Therapy Dog title. Then, once that is done, I would like to train her for protection work just for fun. I have no doubt that she will excel at either or both. She seems to just put on a different hat depending on what I ask her to do. When children are around, she lays her ears down and becomes a big wet tongue. When drugs are around, she turns into a hyperactive maniac with a one track mind and when a stranger wielding long, beeping tools swats at her... Well... You know....Of course we will continue our narcotics work. We both enjoy that. As you can see from the attached photo, she is beautiful. She looks so much like the pictures of her daddy in color and shape of her head and body style. She moves with smooth fluid grace, and her coat is shiny and very soft for a shepherd. She is not especially large. Only 65 pounds. Everywhere I take her, people ask where I got her, and I am happy to tell them about you. You do wonderful work!!!! I hope you are as happy with your girl as we have been with Zephyr.

//SIGNED//

October 19, 2008 

Hi Cynthia –

Today is B-Zack and Beauty’s 4^th birthday!  We were one happy, thankful couple four years ago today!  We came to see him a week from yesterday – four years ago.

He is doing absolutely great!  God gave us a perfect family member!  B-Zack is very loyal to us and is so happy.  He loves his home.  We built a covered patio on the back which extends the roof line.  One of his favorite things to do – after working & playing – is lying on the patio with us.  His temperament is awesome.  He still has all the toys we brought with us when we picked him up.  He has not destroyed or injured anything in our home.  He never gets on furniture.  I cannot tell you enough good things about him.

B-Zack is truly our companion and we love him so much.  Thank you for making all this JOY possible for us.

Love you,

Lillie

Hi Cynthia!
Zephyr continues to do very well She graduated from Intermediate Obedience two weeks ago and has all of her hand signals down pat. She was the only dog in the class to perform the long distance recall perfectly without voice. I was so proud! Best of all is she seems to have so much fun performing and knows when she does something just right.  She's a real show-off and moves beautifully. I have had a number of people ask me where she came from and I am always thrilled to pass your website on to them with rave reviews for the quality of your GSDs.

Zephyr is also progressing very well with her drug detection work. It was so satisfying to watch her learn to use her nose. I am running out of hiding spots she can't figure out. I even hid it in a pile of really stinky laundry and she keyed right in on it! Amazing! It's just a fun game for her!  I am not sure what official title, if any is conveyed for drug searching, but I will find out.  These are private lessons with Angel Soriano at his K9 University. He is an outstanding and well known trainer here in Oklahoma City.  Finally, I have my girl enrolled in Canine Good Citizen class starting on Friday. This should be pretty easy for her since she is very well socialized. We just have so much fun in these classes, I can't resist!

The only thing that Zephyr has not been enthusiastic about is agility. And I think that may be because we started it during that really hot spell we went through this summer. We decided to quit that until it cools off this fall. 

Hope all is going well with you!

//SIGNED//
Lt Col Carol A. Collins

   Beauty X Cody Daughter                   

experimenting a lot on Samantha and will send you better ones. Hope everything is going well with you. Have you gone to any shows lately? How is Cinder? Sam is doing great. I think she is full grown now, but probably will gain more weight. She is 64 pounds now. She is getting less shy, but still is a baby. We passed a lady in a wheel chair during our walk today and she wanted so bad to bark at her. She made little barks, but I kept her from her all out barking. She is just protective and had never seen a wheel chair before. She has a darling personality though. 

TERRA X DRYKER SON

Tidmores Rising Star Caleb - aka (Gunther) - What a gorgeous head!!

Our boys name is Hahns----he was Alvin for about 2 days and it just didn't match his personality.  He seems to like his name ---I don't know why Will has such a problem deciding on a name----he wants it to be perfect so Hahns it is. Hahns is so handsome---he is very social and we get so many complements on him---e-mail me your mailing address and I will mail you a picture----you will be proud.

Tidmores Rising Star Crew & Tidmores Rising Star B The One

aka "Kaiser" & "Gracie"

Tidmores Rising Star Eldorado "aka" Bruno & Tidmores Rising Star Crusso

 March 6, 2008

Hi Cynthia-

All is well.  I think I have sort of become Sergeant’s “person”.  He comes to work with me several days a week, and Gabriel has been sick a lot.  So Serg has been going to class with me.  Our teacher says he has a calling for agility – but he gets bored quickly and requires a constant challenge.  I think he could have easily been a police dog – I have never been around such a protective puppy before – but there is no way I’d let anyone else have him!  Everyone in class is amazed at his devotion to his family.  He never takes us out of his sight – and our teacher is amazed with his concentration.  She said she has never seen a puppy that is able to concentrate like this.

We graduate Kindergarten this weekend.  I will send some pictures of Serg with his hat and tassel.  We start Beginners in a couple of weeks and then on to Novice!

TERRA x DRYKER SON (1-13-07)

January 21, 2008 - Tidmores Rising Star Ruby

Hi Cynthia,

Ruby is doing great and she is much more than I had hoped. Her loyalty and willingness/wanting to please me just amazes me constantly. I was a little concerned about socialization with just me being there and living in the middle of nowhere with her not meeting other people very often. She has handled it very well though. When she meets new people she has never shown any signs of aggression or fear but is very alert and sticks by my side to watch for my cues.

I have been doing basic obedience and I admit I taught her a few tricks. She learns very quickly. I think she learns so quick because of her intelligence and wanting to please. She still LOVES to track so I have been making that more and more challenging for her and she just never gives up. To this day she has never not found something she was tracking. I still plan on doing some agility with her; I think she would be great at it.

I attached a picture.

Thanks for checking in,

Troy