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What a handsome little Wonder Fluffette - ditto Tisha's comment about pic #2; it's all about flying through the air.

He looks as if he's quite musical, given a chance, and probably will be quite the tenor.

Denise over at the C&S Forum has a GS (Remo the Wonder Fluff).

Hey, what about "wolfie", (might be spelt wrong? might be volfie?) Mozarts nick name:-)

Have fun
Diane

http://operetta.stanford.edu/

One of my favourite operas is Carmen... but then, I don't think you'd find a suitable name for such a fun puppy-fluff in that opera :) It's rather tragic, and not in the funny La Boheme way.

Now, La Boheme, there's an opera with some great names! Rodolfo, the lover and poet, is always waxing on and on and on about poverty and love and blah blah blah. He's all about the passion and the jealousy, but he thinks about it so darn much, that he never actually seems to DO anything. Well, except complain and wail a lot. (Granted, it's beautiful wailing, but wailing nonetheless). His friend Marcello, though, now he's got some fire to him! He whisks his old girlfriend Musetta off right out from under the nose of her new lover! Oh, and there's this minor character who's a lot of fun: Parpignol the toy salesman. All the little kiddies love Parpignol. You could call your new friend Parpy-Puppy :)

Anyway, yippee for the brand new pup! He looks like a sweet fuzz :)

Shelly

it's funny, but most dogs don't really bother Big Lizard, or notice him unless their owner points him out. only one dog has so far had an unending facination with biggie. Chutney used to follow him all over the place and would herd him back to us if he wandered too far. she was crazy for him and would wag and bark if she knew i had him, and snuff my shirt for Biggie every time i would visit her and her owner. our puppy, on the other hand, didn't even look at him twice. biggie doesn't seem to mind dogs, either, unless they nose him too hard. cats, on the other hand, are a bit more attentive.

i'll let you all know what we decide on--and let this be a warning that i'll probably be posting more puppy pictures as he grows up! LOL!

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All breeders have long names especially when you add the kennel name. Our dog was named " The Happy Gangs, Fibber McGee" and the other was "The Happy Gangs, Maggie Muggins". Opera names are just all that much longer as you are adding the Character, Opera and composer as well! Cool!

Are you planning on showing and/or breeding him?

Diane

He's SOOO cute!! He looks so much like my Remo when he was a baby! They're just sweet beyond words and can be ornery as the dickens at that age. Is this your first shepherd? In case he is, just a couple of pieces of advice that we learned after our first...

Until he understands the rules and gets past the chew stage, don't be afraid to crate the little guy when you're gone. I HATED the thought of doing so when we had our first and we ended up with a lot of destruction. A dog-person who's opinion I respected told me that dogs actually LIKE having a space to call just their own and that I would be shocked at his affection for that space once he adjusted to it. She was right!! To this day (8 years later...) Remo will go in his crate (of course, there's no door on it now...) and sleep or just quietly lay there for a little rest. Not that he sleeps there all the time - I think it's a refuge for him where he feels like no one will "bug" him...

The other thing is doggy school. We started it early and kept it up for probably a year or so. The exposure to people and other dogs is invaluable. We did some classes early on with our first shepherd, but we didn't keep it up and he became somewhat - uh - intense with people he wasn't real familiar with. Remo, on the other hand, is a sweetheart to everyone. In fact, the ladies at our vet clinic says he's the only shepherd they see that they feel completely at ease around... The thing about shepherds is that their appearance is enough to keep anyone with dishonorable intentions at bay - they really don't NEED to be trained guard dogs. I have no doubt that if it was necessary, Remo would take down anyone who came at me in a threatening way in spite of his sweet demeanor.

Can't wait to hear what you name him!

Denise in Omaha

thanks for the advice! we are shepherd people: geoff's parents had a kennel for years and his father is an american and canadian national judge for the breed. though i've had experience with older dogs (ah! my running buddy in oregon!), the puppy thing, in general, is new to me. we have the little guy in his crate during the day and he's adjusted fairly well to it. he cries just a bit when we leave, but he's always very calm and quiet when we get back.
i don't have too many doubts as to how people friendly our dog will be (he's had lots of visitors since he's been here!), but we'll need to doggie socialize him pretty intensely when the time comes. we don't plan on any puppy play dates until after he's had all his shots, so we need to get those done ASAP and have him play with some other pups during this critical window.

the name!
as for a name...i've taken to calling him "Salish" (pronounced "SAY-lish"), after a tribe of PNW indians. we don't know if it's really going to stick, but i figure he needs to be called something other than "puppy-pup" to expedite training. he can already sit and speak on command!

Diane,
what kind of dogs do you have? those are really great, spunky names.
Salish shows promise so we'll probably end up showing him, but even if he doesn't finish, he's still proving to be a champ in my book...even though he DOES tear up my flower bed--on purpose! i can't wait until he's civilized!

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Funny thing about shepherds, though - I don't find they look at all threatening, and I'm always sort of taken aback when people refer to them as guard dogs. Maybe it's because I grew up with two of them, one of whom let me do the most inhumane things to her - like ride on her back, and explore her ears and butt. Let me tell you, Silly the cocker spaniel seemed rather skittish after having been around two shepherds :)

Ming - I love, love, love the name Salish!!! It's so kicky!

They kept us very busy with training, showing, socializing, breeding and just keeping a close eye on them. Tough work being a responsible pet owner!!!

The "Happy Gang" is playing in doggy heaven now, all together again! They were such great dogs!

Diane