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 Susan Casey, the Editor of the GSD Review, writes an editorial each month for the magazine. She includes information on upcoming events, commentary on recent GSDCA events and shows, and sometimes shares stories about her German Shepherds.
One important reason people join the German Shepherd Dog Club of America is to receive the GSD Review. We hope sharing some of the features of the magazine will help convice you to join us as members of the GSDCA.
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Fun Times in Oklahoma!
At long last it is show season. We’ve reached that time of the year when there is a specialty show somewhere in this country almost every weekend, when vacation days are used for Friday and Monday travel and the various Internet lists are busy with reports of points won and championships completed.
In some parts of the country, those that seldom experience the rigors of winter, there are specialty shows nearly year round. But for those of us who have four distinct seasons, the specialty season is significantly shorter. Not only do we not have shows in our area, but travel to more moderate climates in significantly restricted.
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Frosty
Recent discussions about the status of the White German Shepherd made me think back to my teenage years and the first dog that ever owned me. Her call name was Frosty and she was a white. She was smart, loving, empathetic, with beautiful dark eyes, ears perfectly placed atop a strong but feminine head and a long coat that was full and plush. She attracted attention wherever she went. She was a registered dog from one of the top breeders in Colorado; she was a thing of beauty and I loved her dearly.
Frosty wasn't really my dog, although she didn't know it. She just thought I lived in the big house across the alley instead of with her and Arnie and Betty Anderson, her actual owners. From the day the young couple moved in, I was fascinated by their dog. It started with chatting across the fence and petting the dog, quickly moved on to playing with her in their backyard and before long Frosty and I were taking long walks together.
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Are Three Enough, Are Six Too Many?
That question is an old one, dating back several decades to a commercial for, of all things, prunes. Over the years it has been repeated, with some modifications, and applied to a variety of situations. It popped into my head again recently, not about prunes but puppies.
Numbers have been running through my head for four months now, right after the puppies were born. In mid-November Music delivered nine babies and that's when I started counting from one to nine multiple times each day.
Music and her babies took over the kitchen, which is where babies are always raised at my house. It is a wonderful room filled with sunlight and lots of different noises for growing puppies to hear. The only drawback is that I have an open floor plan - living room, dining room and kitchen all flow into each other. That's not a problem until the kids start toddling, and then I've devised a system of barricades that has worked pretty well. When we've had other litters I usually move them out to the "puppy barn" at seven or eight weeks. There is a separate fenced yard there for the puppies and mom. My normal routine is to put a clean carpet remnant inside the barn, making for a great sleeping and play area. By keeping the sliding barn door open a few inches, mom and puppies can go out in the yard and get plenty of sunshine. Mom also goes out to potty and the kids quickly learn to do the same. It is really a great set-up, not fancy but it works.
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If We Really Love Our Dogs
We hear it all the time, people professing their great love for their dogs. It is a wonderful thing, the bond between humans and canines. Dogs, particularly German Shepherd Dogs, have an amazing ability to connect with the person in their lives which often makes their humans love them even more.
Our love for our dogs often exceeds our ability to express the fullness of that emotion; words are not sufficient to the task. Being human, we search for other ways to show the world and our dogs just how much we love them. Some will buy the best, the softest, the shiniest or just the most expensive collars, beds, crates, dishes, boots, sweaters and the like for Bowser. It is human nature to show everyone how much we love our dogs by the things that we buy for them. That must be why we do it, because our dogs surely do not care if their collar has the most bling, or their bed is stuffed with pure down.
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The Power of the Written Word
From the time I learned to read, I have loved the written word. It came as no surprise to anyone when the twists and turns of life led me to a job as a reporter after I retired from the military. I'd done a lot of writing while I was in the Army, but there wasn’t a lot of art or creativity involved in writing op plans, regulations and military lesson plans. The job of staff writer on a newspaper challenged me on a different level. In the news business it was imperative that the writer present both sides of an issue without obvious prejudice. The more I wrote, the more I came to appreciate just how critical it was to report not “just the facts” but to put them in context as well.
These days it seems that the standards for journalism, at least in some venues, are slipping. Writers for every Internet service seem to have turned to writing headlines that are more titillating than they are accurate. Headlines such as "Was It Suicide?" or "Dog Mauls Man" may be attention-grabbers, but they can be extremely misleading and in many cases that is no accident. A sub-head to the suicide headline might say "Officials investigate death of (insert famous person's name)." Those two lines taken individually seemingly are innocuous, but used together leave the reader believing someone suspects that the famous person actually killed himself. In fact there may be no reason to suspect suicide, but the artful phrasing of the headlines likely will start a lot of unnecessary and often hurtful speculation.
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