I hope this Blog proves to be both fun and educational for anyone interested in Showing and/or Breeding Dogs. Spend some time with us and you will really understand the time and effort and emotions that goes into this hobby. Join me here for the good times and bad times, the joys and sorrows, the wins and losses. Welcome to life at Vista Dei!

Hi! My name is Decker and I am the only Blue Merle Sheltie at Vista Dei.  I am the snazzy, jazzy guy, all the other dogs are just "plain brown wrapper" kinda shelties.  When we go places, everyone is drawn to me and says ohhhhhh look at that COLOR!?!?!  I was born to be a show doggie, but the life of a show doggie is pretty hectic.  I was born in sunny California at Miz Vickie's house and I lived there for about 4 or 5 months.  Then I got on an airplane and went for a huge long ride to Huston Texas where I lived for a while with Miz Lisa.  Then one day, I thought I was just going for a ride in the car, but noooo I got on another airplane and had a big flight up north to Pennsylvania where I met Miz Crystal and her daughter Ashley at the Pittsburgh airport.  I have lived here for about a year and a half now, and I like the snow in PA alot.  For a while this summer tho, I went to Virginia Beach to live with Miz Crystal's friend Miz Wanda, and while I was there I lived with lots of other shelties and went to dog shows every weekend.  I had fun, but was sure glad to get back home to sleep in my own bed, and what did I find when I got home??  RICKI had come to live here and HE was sleeping in my bed!!!  I got a new bed tho, and Ricki is a good buddy of mine, now.  I am a good boy, at least most of the time, but the funny thing is, whenever you might hear Miz Crystal actually raise her voice and YELL she is saying "no Decker, No Decker"  well that is because of my hobby.  See, these other dogs see a fence as simple a perimeter, a definition of  space.  Not ME.. I see a fence as a Personal Challange!  See those 3 busted pickets on the stockade fence over there.. yup.. that was me, this week alone!  I love to body slam the fence, and I like to run as fast as I can and see how much of my body I can get up over the top too.  If there are cross rungs, I can climb a fence if I want to, and if there are any good looking girl dogs around I WANT TO!!  My other hobby is School Busses.  I hate 'um.. just hate 'um  don't know why but I feel compeled to chase them away. Now that might not seem to be much of an issue to YOU, but I live about 300 yards from a high school/elementry school complex, so School Busses occupy much of my daily duties.  In the summer when there are no School busses, motercycles are a good substitute.  These fences get a good work out all year round as I attempt to protect society from the evils of school busses.

Posted by: Vistadei at 08:23 | link | comments (2)

Hi! My name is Destiny, and I am the YOUNGEST and SMALLEST of the dogs here at Vista Dei. Actually, I do not consider myself part of this hoard, I perfer to live as an only child with Miz Crystal's Daughter Ashley and her fience Adam.  Adam is my REAL dad, I love him so very much.  When I am at his house, I follow him everywhere and stack myself up in my perfect show dog stance and look at him with loving attention.  He is going to show me this summer in dog shows, Miz Crystal and Ashley are teaching him how to handle in the ring, tho I think he will leave the hair puffing to them!  You know what the very, very best thing about Adam is?  His work boots! When he comes home from work and takes off his boots I jam my head right down in the boots and inhale! The smell is the most wonderful thing ever, some type of a twist between sweating underarms, talcum powder and road kill! Oh my oh my, if you could smell those boots, you too would want to live here.. HEAVEN.. it is just HEAVEN!  Every once in a while a boot will stick on my head, and everyone laughs at me trying to walk around with it on my head, but then Adam pops it off, and lets me get in bed and eat some of his breakfast while we watch TV.  I am loving life, and I will be one year old in February.  Hoping for a Birthday party, yes I am!

 

Posted by: Vistadei at 08:21 | link | comments

Hi, my name is Ricki and I am the newest dog here at Vista Dei.  When I first came here, my new mom said I wasn't "housebroken".  Well I have worked really really hard at this "housebreaking" thing, and I found that DIDN'T mean I was supposed to break everything on the end tables, it ment I was supposed to stop peeing in the house. huh.. stupid name for not peeing in the house, but what ever, I aim to please.  (I also aim at the vacume cleaner and the corner of the bathroom door and.. but I digress!) Anyhoo.. I have been doing a great job at not peeing in the house for the last several months I have not had any accidents at all!  I even slept out in the livingroom some nights, and I didn't have any accidents.  Then a couple weeks ago, my new mom got me the greatest thing! She put up a nice 6 foot pine tree in the corner of the living room so that I didn't have to go outside in that cold snow and ice to go pee, I now had my very own tree to pee on, right here in the house!  For some reason tho, every time I lift my leg at the tree, mom yells NOOOOOOO and swoops me up and puts me out in the snow! I just don't get it, isn't she silly?  Well today after she hollared about me peeing on the Christmas tree, I went ahead and just went on the vacume cleaner, but she got a bit miffed at that too. Now the whole house smells like pine sol and carpet cleaner and I am wearing my silly looking belly band again, and mom keeps saying something like "Thank Godness for the Hoover Steam Vac" whatever that is supposed to mean.  It is just crazy around here!

Posted by: Vistadei at 18:22 | link | comments

Christmas was a very good time this year for all the dogs at our home.  Dusty, being the oldest had the most experience at opening gifts, so he would help the others who were carrying around wrapped toys.  The leather gloves went over really well, tho Dusty completely ate a finger off one, we can't find the finger so are hoping he passes it with ease!  Diana horded the chewie rawhide, we passed out one chewie to each dog, and they all laid in the living room working on them, but we noticed Diana was missing.  She had gone to the bedroom and was on the bed chewing hers, ok.. fine.  Then we started noticing as a dog would leave their chewie to play with a toy, or get petted, Diana would be right there, take the chewie and run away with it.  By afternoon, we discovered she had snatched 6 of the chewies and took them to the bedroom and hid them under pillows on the bed!!!  Destiny prevented theft of her chewie by hiding behind her new "dad" Adam, and work on hers while wedged behind him on the couch.  She figured he would keep her safe.  Ricki's favorite toy was a Squeakie pig with a big rope tail, he has been dragging that about.  Dew-oh took one of the new gloves outside with her for the bathroom break this morning, and has hidden it somewhere in the yard for the future.  We still have a few presents wrapped and in their bag, but they each got 2 toys a piece, as well as 2 chewies each, a glove and a bag of snacks, so they were getting overwhelmed and cranky before they got everything opened, and we will keep a few of the presents for when the stuffing is all out of these!  Now they have to go through the toy basket and toss the worn out toys that are in there, so we can fit all these new ones in. 

Posted by: Vistadei at 11:44 | link | comments

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Posted by: Vistadei at 09:27 | link | comments

Part of the fun of Christmas is hearing from some of the puppies we have placed in pet homes!

Luke Lambert (L5 litter) came to the store to visit me today and Kaylie (L4 litter) and her mom Jonnie called to wish a Merry Christmas last night.

Here is a picture of Halo (L4 litter) and his big sister Angel telling Santa how good they have been this year! (How could they be bad with names like THAT?)

And here are Sampson and Aslan (L3 Litter) with their teenage owners!

Posted by: Vistadei at 09:42 | link | comments (1)

I was going to post this as a comment to the last post, but thought it might be better standing alone.

I am going to ask on one of our sheltie lists, I know the National rescue co-ordinater has posted before a food they use in rescue short term to get the weight down fast, (they do mix it with green beans, sorry Genni) I believe it is one of the "grocery store brands" but does the trick
I would be interested in the brands of premium foods with low protien levels, R as some puppy buyers ask that question.  Lowest I have found was Pro-Plan Sensetive Skin and Stomach with the fish protein, that is about 26%.  Most premium foods are about 33% on regular diet (not kidney or diet etc) and premium puppy food even higher.

Anyway, I did want to let you know when Diana and Dew-oh where in the vets regarding their breedings this fall, they were 18 pounds and 19 pounds.  Sooooooooo they are about the same height and build as Genni.. she just takes after momma.. harder to keep trim, huh.  At least she won't be tempted by the egg nog like the rest of us this Christmas!

Posted by: Vistadei at 15:48 | link | comments (3)

Yipes! I was in the store buying dog food yesterday, and was tempted to get a bag of diet food for Mysty, she is getting. hmmm well.. "portly" yeah, that is the polite word.. "portly" Anyhoooo... I looked at the diet food and it is 50% protien!! yipes, yipes, yipes!  Now anyone who has discussed dogs with me, knows my theory that so many people who call for a new puppy has had a dog die of kidney disease, and I believe it is being caused by all these "premium" foods that are soooo high in protien.  Years of that just strains the kidneys too much. Anyway, I always like to see dogs on foods that are about 28% protien, no higher than that.  So, SF.. when I suggested maybe Genni go on a diet food, please check the contents, I about passed out when I saw 50% protien.  Go for the green beans....

Posted by: Vistadei at 13:33 | link | comments (3)

Oh I bought the dogs the "naughty" gift this year!  Their very favorite naughty gift is leather gloves, something they probably shouldn't be chewing but soooo love to anyway.. so I got 4 pair!  The just love to lay and knaw the fingers off one at a time!!  Not spoiled, are they?  I think I am done ,done, done.. I have bought all the gifts, sent all the stuff that needs mailed, wrapped,  and placed everything under the tree.  I guess I have time to bake some cookies, eh?  I have mentioned the Fly lady program before, and it is a God-send for staying on track and making it through the holidays in a peaceful and loving matter.  I have a link to the site down there on the left if you would like some peace in your life too!

Posted by: Vistadei at 14:06 | link | comments

Final shopping day before Christmas.  So, we have 7 stockings here for the dogs, but either I need to buy a stocking for the new comers this year, Ricki and Destiny (who is back here visiting while my daughter moves to their new house) OR we could just put all the wrapped presents in a big basket and let them pick their own, what do you think???

Posted by: Vistadei at 11:00 | link | comments (1)

Some one asked me if I show my dogs, why I was nervouse about the nationals and why did I need more handling tips. Welll at a regular dog show maybe a dozen people are watching the ring, and of those dozen less than half giving a flying hoot about YOU!  At the nationals, not only is there a huge audience watching every class, but there is also a professional videographer video taping your every move with your dog.   Those videos are sold for a couple hundred dollars to those in the country that couldn't make the nationals, and everyone can watch it over and over again in sllloooooowwww motion seeing every little detail!  Oh my, perhaps I shall also take my advise for the pup Gennie and have shredded green beans for 50% of MY diet too!! ohhhhh have to find a nice outfit too, something that looks good on a rear view! .  I have some months to pull it all together!

Posted by: Vistadei at 11:32 | link | comments (2)

I am hoping to find some help polishing my handling skills and teaching the dogs how to work better in conformation shows.  If there are any handlers reading my blog, no matter the breed, I would really love to hear from you.  I particularly need some polish presenting on the table, training tips to do so.  I am hoping to enter Daisy in our sheltie nationals in April, and really need to get that polish for presentation at the nationals.  This will be the first time I have entered a dog at the national level and I am very nervous!

Posted by: Vistadei at 08:48 | link | comments

I re-did one of the pages on the web site, the one with candid pictures of the dogs around the house.  I even added one of me.. go check it out, there are some pictures I shared on the blog, but there are new pictures I took today, as well as some from years ago that have never been seen outside our family.. enjoy!

http://www.vistadeishelties.com/athome.html

Posted by: Vistadei at 11:25 | link | comments (1)

Did you wonder why I hadn't written in the blog all week?  Thought maybe I was busy Christmas shopping?  Noooooooooo  we had MUCH more fun this past week as a flu type "bug" swept through the dogs.  Now picture this.. 8 pre-school age kids all sick with vomitting and the "runs" at one time.  Oh no.. but at least with little kids you can hand them a bucket and teach them to puke there when their tummy is bad, but unfortunately you can't do that with 8 dogs, oh no you CAN'T!!! An odd thing about dogs, 6 rooms in the house have hard floors of linoleum or wood, but would they, could they possibly puke there? Oh no, never.. as they started to feel the need, they find the few carpeted areas they have access to and do it there.  Even better is when they sleep on the couch and just hop straight up with a "uuuurrrrpppp BLAHHHCHHHH" all over.  Thank goodness for the Hoover Steam cleaner, without it, all would be lost!

At least with the "runs" they all managed to get to the great outdoors in time, but each return trip then required a bath, as they have lots and lots and lots of hair "back there"... ughhhh... catching them one at a time coming back in was an all day job itself, then of course it is what, 19 degrees here, so cleaning up the "runs" from the frozen icey ground presented a whole new challange.  Thank goodness I had a couple days off work to tend to it all, and on the days that I didn't have off work, I came home to crates that needed scrubbing, bedding needing washed, and the dogs that had been sick in the crates needing a full body bath, plus a good blow dry, so they could go out to the bathroom without getting sicker being wet!  I am tired and worn out from it all, but everyone is back to normal, except Darby who got hit with it the worst, he is still on boiled rice and extra fluids and is pretty wrung out from it all.

Posted by: Vistadei at 08:59 | link | comments (1)

Before the next Therapy dog visit, I want to find a little santa outfit or something cute for Darby to wear.  Also starting to think of what presents to get for the dog's Christmas stockings (yup, they all have Christmas stockings) I have one place where I hang the stockings, and if you ask our old guy "Dusty" to show you where Christmas is, he will run over and put his paw up on the stockings.  It is soooo cute.  Their most fun comes from unwrapping gifts. We keep big chunks of paper from our own gifts and keep re-wrapping the dogs gifts for them all day.  They just love to grab it and tear the paper off in little dime size bits, or do the old shake and shred on some presents.  I want to get them some gifts that will be usefull, at agility class the instructor has a wooley frisbee with a soft edge, Darby likes that alot.  Those big knots of rope with lots of fringe are popular at our house too.  Use the "comments" button below and give me some ideas of what you buy for your puppies!

Posted by: Vistadei at 11:23 | link | comments (6)