The Black Rock Ruckus
In the News
2008
NEW Champion!
Track finished his championship on 12 April 2008. He is 15 months old. His final points came in a major win and Best of Winners.

Track racks up points
California. Track (Blackrock American Flyer) is making his way across California and around the show ring.  With his daddy, Flyer, ahead of him in the ring and his co-breeder, owner, and handler Faith Shimamato on the end of his leash as part time anchor, or kite tail, the youngster is getting the hang of the ring.  Various antics have included leaping in the air, leaping on judges, and leaping over the dogs around him. Track is starting to settle into his work some -- Faith says she is hopeful that "choking sensation on his throat will eventually come to mean -- slow down." Meanwhile, Faith is keeping up.
Track picked up a 4 point major Winner's dog and Best of Winner's in February, a two pointer the next day and a single in March.

The epic saga of BonnyLass

She was born 1 of 6 pups. She has 4 brothers and a sister. Although robust at birth BonnyLass was not as big as her brothers and got pushed away from the nice warm spot in the nest on her second day  of life while my sister, who raised the litter in Las Vegas, was at work.  When Misty came home she found BonnyLass with a case of hypothermia. Her body temperature was quite low and when Misty called me I would not have bet on her survival. But, Misty got her into the vet immediately, they warmed her up and she was fine -- but just not as big as her brothers who continued to crowd her out of the feeding spots.  Misty tube fed her every four hours for the next 10 days until BonnyLass gained her own foothold in the whelping box.  She was clearly a pick-of-the-litter pup for her conformation. She has stunning angulation and balance front and rear and Misty and I intended to keep her for our own breeding program and the show ring.

Her name was BonnyLass from about the moment she hit the ground. Windermere's Sunshine of BonnyBlu is her three times Great Grandfather and he is a major foundation dog in the breed. He is also a black tri despite his name being "Blu." I have no idea what that was about, but I love the name Bonny and we were putting a pirate theme together for the litter based off the father's name -- Victory at Sea.  I wanted to make a distinction between BonnyBlu and this girl and there is a female pirate out there in history named Anne Bonny. I added a touch of Scottish spin to the Bonny (meaning pretty) by adding Lass (meaning girl).  Her registered name is Blackrock's She-Pirate and so BonnyLass goes well with that.

Then came along the woman in Buffalo. When she called and asked about a show girl I didn't know if Misty would be willing to send her off or not, but Misty was living out of her RV and traveling between her Air Force job in Las Vegas and her civilian job in California.  We thought BonnyLass might be better off in the NY home where she would be getting more attention than adapting to Misty's nomadic life. So, off she went.

Then her puppy teeth started coming out and a photo from NY confirmed that she is missing a front tooth. So that took her out of the show or breeding life. 

Before she could be shipped back to Las Vegas a friend of mine who has a littermate to BonnyLass and who lives in NJ sent out a message to his herding group and sure enough an interest popped up there.  A woman in Brooklyn was interested.  Now we had to get BonnyLass to NY. The Buffalo breeder had a friend going to Westminster and Bonny hitched a ride.  BonnyLass was on her way again.

BonnyLass got to the NJ hand-off house and she was a little wired up from her travels, but fine.  The next day the Brooklyn woman came to see BonnyLass with her husband and dogs. I should have known when she told me she had 10-year-old littermates that there would be a problem. But I let that go. (*discussion on littermates below.) She put all three dogs in her car and nothing dramatic happened. Then she called me and wanted to know if she could try her overnight. I said No. I lectured a bit about making commitments and being in charge of her pack. I told her BonnyLass would be in NJ for a week and she could visit if she wanted, but that when BonnyLass went home with someone it would be because that person was giving her a home for life.  I figured that would be the end of the Brooklyn.

Instead, 30 minutes later my NJ friend called and said Brooklyn and her husband left with the dog.  For the next 4 days I got happy pictures of three lovely dogs and stories about them roughhousing and Brooklyn's concern her dogs were too rough, but that BonnyLass seemed to be OK with the play.  Then nothing. Then Sunday I got a phone message saying it "wasn't working out for several reasons." According to Brooklyn, BonnyLass is too aggressive with her dogs and Brooklyn was afraid her relationship with her dogs would be permanently changed. Lastly, she said, the puppy was too aggressive to be crated. At that point I knew this was not just a question of guidance. This was a lost cause and the 5 month old puppy was clearly in charge of the house.

BonnyLass shipped to me in mid-February. She came out of her crate alert and social. We drove home and I turned her out with the Black Rock pack. She was nervous and anxious. She spun in circles not knowing what else to do with herself or how to self-soothe. The pack helped her find a calmer state of mind and she was able to lie down -- truth be told she was intimidated into lying down since no one was enjoying her restless pacing and neurotic circling.

Although BonnyLass improved through leash work and careful management, she was not a neurologically sound dog, exhibited additional significant pathological and neurological symptoms, and was ultimately not adoptable. BonnyLass was put to sleep in April 2008. It is impossible to say if her problems were the result of the difficult circumstances of her birth, her later hypothermic episodes, or congentially developed. As difficult as it is to say goodby to an old dog whose life has filled my life with memories and left me a legacy in their pups, putting a youngster like BonnyLass to sleep is perhaps harder, but the duties of responsible breeding include making life and death decisions.
* The problem with litter mates.
In my opinion, keeping littermates is never a good idea. Never is the operative word here and it is a tough law to live with when a breeder has two particularly nice pups from the same litter and wants to keep them both or just wants to wait a bit before deciding on one over the other. The problem comes from the natural laws of the pack.  Littermates are bonded to each other in ways both competitive and complimentary.
When the human pack leader first makes contact with the litter and asserts themself into the litter's hierarchy there is some separation between the pups, but they maintain their close ties to each other and that interferes with whatever work the human is attemping to establish. The link between litter mates who live in the same home remains throughout their lives. Even when one littermate is sent away to "grow out" as some breeders do, once the pup returns, the relationship is re-established.  When the human is not the unquestioned packleader the pups will develop their own dominance system and that hierarchy usually excludes the human.
In BonnyLass' case, it seems she came into a pack without a dominant human leader and she quickly figured out if she could dominate either of the two littermates in residence she would then be the leader of the pack. The behavior she exhibited, which included some aggression directed at humans outside of the home, pretty clearly suggests she had come to believe she was in charge of her life and the lives of all those around her. This is would be similar to having a seven-year old child telling his or her parents what, where, and when to do whatever the child has demanded!