|
 |
|
|
Esta came to us
in November 2008 when she was 15 months old. We had been to the
kennels at Tollgate to meet her a few times and my husband fell in
love with her straight away. We had a bit of a shaky start the
weekend she arrived, as for some reason Esta kept barking at me. I
had decided I would just let her be, so that she could get used to
her new surroundings, but Esta had other plans. It was not until I
started to make a fuss of her and she had had a few cuddles that she
stopped barking. So she trained me to stroke her from day one!
Esta went through all the usual ‘teenage’ behaviours from chasing
birds to barking at other dogs and if anybody dare look into the
car. But she very soon stopped all that, as Esta only wants to
please, so if she knows you are not happy about her behaviour, she
stops doing it. She is one of these wonderful dogs that make any
trainer look good as she is so obedient.
As well as affectionate Esta is extremely intelligent and she
notices everything. She is very aware of her surroundings and where
most of my Shepherds have held their nose to the ground, Esta
carries her head up most of the time and watches the squirrels and
birds in our trees. She comes on training sessions with Copper, my
Cocker Spaniel and has learned to look for birds. Whilst I have been
training Copper to ignore the birds, Esta has learned where they are
hiding and flushes them out gently with her nose and watches them
take off. We meet lots of deer in the woods and whereas at one time
she would have chased them, she will now watch them run away from
us.
Because Copper is deaf Esta has learned to go and find him for me if
he ever does a ‘runner’. Last summer she flushed him out of a large
wheat field and brought him back to me. She has also flushed him out
of our woods and the paddock and she always seems to know where he
is.
Esta is a fantastic mother and loves her pups and she seems to know
just how much time to spend with them as they get older. She loves
to sleep with them and when outside their pen she keeps an eye on
them. She is protective but never to the extend that she is
aggressive towards strangers. She always welcomes any visitors and
allows them to handle her pups.
We feel extremely lucky to be able to foster such a lovely Brood
Bitch and to be able to enjoy the litters with her. And of course we
learn something new with each litter (see 'My
Notes').
|
|
