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last revision 09/17/2007

 

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I knew even before I lost Ashlee that I wanted another German shepherd. As hard as dealing with her illness often was and as crushing as losing her felt, I never regretted having her. To this day, I feel blessed to have had her in my life, even for such a short time. But to consider another shepherd, I wanted to make every effort to avoid the pitfalls I had with her. I knew there were no guarantees that any dog I brought into our lives would be healthy. There are no such guarantees in this life. But, I knew that research and careful planning could minimize the chances of a serious genetic problem. Thus I began my quest shortly after Ashlee’s death.

 

I knew I wanted a solid, German bloodline dog to be my travel companion. I also had obedience competition in mind. I checked out many kennels, read through contracts, checked pedigrees, talked to breeders. Step by step, criterion by criterion, breeders were disqualified. Distance became my greatest enemy. That being my distance from the breeders I checked out. I am the type of person that cannot truly consider buying a pup without visiting the kennel and meeting the dogs and breeders face to face. I certainly would not be willing to buy a pup without seeing the litter myself.

 

As luck and timing would have it, a breeder I know through the kennel club told me they had bred her German-bred SAR bitch to a German import stud. They were expecting a litter the first of June. At the same time, they had an outcrossed litter by one of their American dogs out of a German import bitch as well as a full American litter. (These were their first litters in more than 2 years, and they hadn’t expected all 3 breedings to take. Surprise!) I was able to check out pedigrees before the puppies were born. Both German litters looked promising. When the puppies were 2 weeks, 4½ weeks, and 2½ weeks old respectively, I was able to visit and meet them and their mothers.

 

Ben and I took a fancy to Griffin, the mother of the full German litter. She came out to greet us, and then led us in to see her little ones. Ok. Little is a relative term. At 2 weeks old, they were already bigger than most full-grown Chihuahuas and heavier. That wasn’t to be my only visit over the next few weeks.

 

The breeders, Scales Arizona, intended to temperament test each puppy at 6 weeks of age and then again at 8 weeks of age to insure they were placed in just the right home. When they had the results, they would know more about which pups would be slotted for pets, working, and show. I reserved a working puppy, deciding that even if none of these puppies suited our family, I could wait until a later breeding and hope for the best.

 

9 weeks old

As things worked out, one of Griffin’s boys came up with the temperament suited to my needs and lifestyle. Little “green”, the paperwork called him. So it was that at 9 weeks, Scales AZ Xander came home. Right away, we started puppy classes, making sure he got all the socialization he needed and then some. I dragged him everywhere I could so he could meet all kinds of people and other dogs. Not only in town, but all over the countryside.

 

Being this was my first male, I was warned by the breeder to expect quite a few differences in his development than I had seen in my girls. She did everything she could to prepare me for what to expect, for which I am extremely grateful. I wanted to be sure I did things right.

 

Annie was thrilled with the new puppy to help raise. She’s a wonderful big sister and took great pains to teach him not to bite, climb on, or chew on others. Izzy, on the other hand, was certain I was out of my mind. She avoided the boy whenever she could. If he came near her, she got up and walked away. Don’t worry. She’s since decided he’s not so bad after all. For the most part, anyway.

 

I had to do a great deal of Xander’s early training off-leash since I hurt my back and shoulder about a month or so after we finished puppy class. Thankfully, Xander was already trained well to walk on a leash by then. He wouldn’t pull on me. I finally started getting back into the swing of things, thanks to Maryna’s work on me. Then I was in a car accident that set me back a bit. Maryna put me back on the road to dog training.

 

Much of Xander’s early training concentrated on sits, downs, and retrieving. He loved to retrieve and would carry anything in his mouth. Metal, plastic, fabric, wood, any material. I encouraged him to bring anything to me. As a side effect of that training, he brings me anything he finds, including garbage when we’re out in public. My mother commented once that she had us so well trained to give her our candy wrappers and such when we were kids that we continued doing it when we were older. Now I know how she feels.

 

Closing in on two years old, Xander’s temperament and personality developed just the way I had hoped. He loved people and thought other dogs were great. Occasionally, he decided to finish a fight another dog started, but a couple of firm corrections and lots of patient redirection later, and he reevaluated his response to their provocation. Nothing is funnier than the almost disdainful look he gives me when another dog is acting up. “Look at that. Can you believe that idiot?” Good boy!

 

We’ve run up against a few medical issues (like food “allergies”, short-lived autoimmune disease following his puppy rabies vaccination, and yarn in the gut), but we deal with them. The most obnoxious has proven to be sorting out chronic ear infections. Through allergy elimination, we nailed down three allergens – wheat, lamb and carrots. The ears are nearly clear. The wheat “allergy” turned out not to be a true allergy at all, but amino acid deficiency. Changes in his diet have resolved the problem (we switched to the Volhard Natural Diet using raw beef and beef organ meats).

 

We’re still working on his training, as his puppiness permits. I don’t push when the puppy level is high. I let him be a puppy. As weeks and months go by, he’s becoming more and more the calm, attentive, responsive companion I know he will be as an adult. He still has lots of puppy left, but I don’t mind.

 

He loves to play ball with me and tag with Annie in the backyard. (Well, that’s what he thinks the game is anyway.) He’s the only dog I’ve ever had that figured out how to open not one but two trashcans. We’re still searching for a dog-proof trashcan. He’s also a master at opening doors that aren’t locked.

 

The first FIVE generations of Xander’s pedigree are displayed at the bottom of this page. If you need more for research purposes, please let me know. I’d be more than happy to forward it to you.

 

MEDICAL HISTORY

 

Xander was fed Nutro Lamb & Rice (½ puppy food & ½ adult food) when he came home from the breeder at 9 weeks of age. He went completely to adult food at about 5 months of age. Prior to coming home with me at 9 weeks and 2 days of age, he had the following vaccinations and medications:

 

• June 8, 2001  (1 da)                   Nemex-2 (wormer)
• June 16, 2001  (9 da)                Nemex-2
• July 19, 2001  (6 wk)                 Duramune Max 5 vacc (Fort Dodge)
• July 25, 2001  (7 wk)                 Albon, given for 10 days (for coccidiosis – one of the pups had the runs so they treated two whole litters) – I also have the MSDS for this product.
• August 9, 2001  (9 wk)               Duramune Max 5 vacc (Fort Dodge)
• August 10, 2001  (9 wk, 1 da)     Nemex-2

 

The Nemex-2 was given in all 3 cases as a precaution/preventative.

 

After he came home, he had the following:

 

• September 8, 2001  (13 wk, 2 da)         Clavamox – 250 mg for 7 days to “prevent” an infection following an eye injury; Gentocin Durafilm 5 mL; eye Fluorescein Stain to check for corneal damage
• September 17, 2001  (14.5 wk)            Duramune DA2PP-CvK vacc (Fort Dodge)
• November 21, 2001  (24 wk)                IMRAB 3 vacc (Merial) AND treatment for ear infection (topical only – I put my foot down about antibiotics when I SHOULD have put my foot down about the rabies vacc)

 

I questioned the administration of the rabies vaccination during the ear infection. The vet assured me there was NO problem with giving a vaccination given the ear infection was mild, so I permitted it. (I had not yet learned enough about vaccines to realize the ramifications of that action.) About 10 days following vaccination, he began having difficulty opening his mouth. At first, I thought maybe he had bruised his jaw somehow. By day 4 of developing symptoms, he yelped when he opened his mouth to play, bark, yawn, or even eat. He became hesitant to eat. His jaw was almost locked closed. He saw the vet on day 5 (December 7, 2001). The vet knew exactly what was wrong. Masticatory Muscle Myositis, an autoimmune disease wherein the body attacks and destroys the proteins in the jaw muscles thinking they are a dangerous foreign matter/pathogen. The vet was experienced with this disease, had seen many cases over the years, she said. She treated Xander as follows:

 

• Dexamethasone injection administered at the office – brand name & label unknown
• Prednisolone sent home on the following dosing schedule – brand unknown:
• 4 days (12/8-11/2001) – 20 mg twice a day
• 2 days (12/12-13/2001) – 20 mg once a day
• 2 days (12/14-15/2001) – 10 mg once a day
• 7 days (12/16-22/2001) – 10 mg once every other day
• until 01/03/2002 – 5 mg every other day
• REFUSED antibiotics for the ear infection (not willing to give antibiotics and pred together – my gut told me NO WAY!); ear infection was conquered by the time Xander finished pred treatment using a topical home remedy (after various topical solutions sent home by vet failed to take care of it)

 

I asked the vet if the rabies vacc was related to the autoimmune disease onset (I already suspected the answer was a resounding YES!). She flat out denied they were related. Mere coincidence, she assured me. My research, of course, told me a very different story about cause and effect. That adverse reaction went unreported to the FDA until I filed it myself in December 2004. (Yes, YOU can submit ADE reports to the FDA YOURSELF. You do NOT need your vet to do it. See the FDA ADE report form.)

 

Thankfully, Xander recovered from the MMM without need for further treatment. Another dog I know was not so fortunate and required 2 surgeries to correct a completely locked up jaw. Xander’s ears remained clear until March 2002.

 

The first of March 2002, we got up on Saturday morning to find Xander had yarn dangling out both ends. He was trying to vomit it up, but there was some clearly hanging out the opposite end. Emergency visit to vet, including x-rays, showed he had swallowed a whole skein of yarn and it was mostly balled up in his stomach. Part of it had made it all the way through his intestines, but because it could not finish moving out, it was causing his intestines to accordion up against his stomach. He had emergency surgery that day. 4 incisions were made in the digestive tract – 1 in the stomach, 3 in the intestines – to remove all the yarn. He remained at the vet’s until Tuesday lunchtime when I picked him up to bring him home. He was given antibiotic injections during his time there. Upon arriving home, I immediately started giving him yogurt, knowing that his intestines would need the boost. He never suffered any diarrhea or any other toxic effects from the incident, thankfully. He had his staples removed 10 days after surgery.

 

About 2 weeks from the day he came home after his stay with the vet, Xander’s ears flared up big time again. After that, the ears remained a problem. In August 2002, my research into chronic ear infections and their link to food allergies led me to a veterinarian in Tucson specializing in allergy elimination. Through her, I got in contact with Dr. Daroowalla at Benarda in Tucson.  Xander saw her for the first time September 9, 2002. At that time, she advised a homecooked diet with supplements as a start to an elimination diet. Xander switched from kibble to that homecooked diet that very day. We saw improvements right away, but the problem continued, only to a lesser degree.

 

In December 2002, Xander grew ill but appeared to bounce back after a couple of days. A few days later, his illness returned, only worse. I took him to my emergency vet (conventional medicine). X-rays revealed no blockages, but his spleen was enlarged. (I found out later this was common for dogs that are dehydrated, which I WISH the vet had just told me right then.) Bloodwork showed him to be severely dehydrated. A liter of IV fluids later, and he looked to be feeling better, but he still didn’t want to eat. At that time, the conventional vet assured me it was salmonella poisoning because I had given him raw chicken. She apparently missed the fact that I had given the chicken to entice him to eat SOMETHING because his appetite was nearly non-existent. I refused to allow treatment for salmonella. I spoke with the other vet in the same office as I was paying the bill (she had known Xander since he came home with me). She said she had been treating a lot of cases of some weird virus (including in a couple of her own dogs) and suggested giving him a couple of days and he’d likely be back to his old self. She was right. A couple of days after his IV fluids, his appetite returned and he was his normal happy self.

 

Following the illness of December, I decided to jump into a raw diet. So, on 12/18/2002, Xander switched from the homecooked diet to a raw diet – specifically the Volhard Natural Diet (as laid out in the “Holistic Guide for a Healthy Dog,” 2^nd Edition, by Wendy Volhard).

 

During the same year all of this was occurring, Xander’s mother, Griffin, was diagnosed with pannus and spayed.

 

In January 2003, when Xander saw Dr. Daroowalla for a follow-up, bloodwork showed a healthy dog. No signs of allergic reactions or autoimmune disease. Gave us strong evidence that we were finally on the right track with improving his health.

 

During February 2003, I had to switch back to kibble while I searched for a more cost effective source of meats. In April, we found a source of meats in Tucson, so Xander went back onto the raw diet on April 28, 2003. At that time, I decided to switch from the Volhard ND to the Volhard NDF to make prep easier and less time consuming.

 

Xander’s overall health continued to improve by leaps and bounds as his body healed and rebalanced. The ear infections would get worse then better in cycles. The breaks between flares became longer, and the flares grew less severe.

 

UPDATES

 

01/2003 – Xander’s sister was certified in SAR cadaver search. Way to go, girl!

 

03/15/2003 – Xander’s brother, Rocky, earned his CGC. Good job, Rocky & mom!

 

12/20/2003 – The year has been eventful with those ears, I’ll tell you. They would do really well, then suddenly they would flare up again for no apparent reason. Close tracking finally showed results though. It looks like he’s probably allergic to the processed alfalfa hay (from the pet store) that we were buying for our chinchillas (he liked to graze on the pieces that were dropped). After booting his butt from the chins’ room, his ears showed marked improvement. We have since quit buying alfalfa hay for the chins as well, as I discovered it’s not all that good for them any more than it is for guinea pigs. They eat timothy hay now, and they love the stuff.

 

Incidentally, we finally figured out that the carrots aren’t an allergen for him. The natural sugars in carrots were feeding the yeasty ears, just like sugary foods will feed yeast infections in women. Duh! Took me long enough to get that one, and someone on a raw diet list pointed it out to me. Boy, did I feel stupid!  J

 

06/20/2004– Xander had his physical for the year. His ears are clear!!! Yes!!!!!!!! We used a combination of raw diet, homeopathy, and probiotics to get his ears healed. We are watching him to make sure the infection doesn’t recur.

 

At 3 years of age in this picture, he hasn’t realized he has out-

grown Annie’s crate. Despite that fact, he still loves to nap in there.

(Photo taken 06/19/2004)

 

07/07/2004– We just received a tentative diagnosis of bilateral hip dysplasia yesterday afternoon from the vet. We need to meet with the orthopedic specialist to confirm. I keep reminding myself he’s still my boy, the same dog who has been living with us the last 3 years. We will do what we must. I am fortunate that I have a lot of options available to us, so my treatments options are not as limited as they might be for some people. I am very thankful for that.

 

(Photo taken by my hubby on 07/20/2004)

 

07/25/2004– After talking to others about Xander’s hip x-ray, we plan to get an official OFA x-ray done by the orthopedic specialist. The x-ray taken by the vet is available for anyone who is interested. Click here. Also – it was brought to my attention that a half-brother by the same sire has been diagnosed with unilateral hip dysplasia – the right hip, no ball in the joint.

 

08/17/2004– Xander’s soft tissue injury is slowly on the mend. He’s doing well.

 

11/16/2004– Since switching to raw, I have been hesitant to try any of lamb stuffs with Xander as it was identified as an allergen for him in kibbles – aggravating his ears and giving him itchy feet. After reading some cases where pets were allergic to a particular protein source in kibble but did fine with it raw, I decided to give it a shot. I bought some lamb necks and Xander got his first lamb neck yesterday morning.  NO PROBLEM!!!!  He tolerated it like a champ, and boy did he have fun chowing down on it.  J

 

12/2004– Had a mild recurrence of the ear infections, basically right on schedule for kidney/bladder season.

 

02/23/2005– Ears are nice again!  Xander is doing very well! Xander continues to do well with lamb in his food rotation. This has led me to believe that the processing done to meats for kibbles does alter the meat in some way that can have a negative impact on the system. We are adding pig’s feet to the diet rotation.

 

03/23/2005– Xander is doing great, so this update is not truly for him. (The pigs feet are a HUGE hit.)

 

I have been saddened to learn that Xander’s dam, Griffin, has been put to sleep. Griffin was the reason we ultimately chose to buy a pup from that particular litter. There were 3 litters on the ground that year. Ben and I both fell in love with Griffin pretty much on-sight. She came out to greet us and led us to her babies. It was like she was telling us she wanted us to take one of them home. Even after she lost her sight, she remained sweet and gentle. A true ambassador of her breed. She will be sorely missed. Rest easy, sweet lady…….

 

03/31/2005– Xander took a spill in the hallway this morning and severely twisted his right hind leg. Joint, muscles, tendons, ligaments and all are unhappy campers. He also wrenched his spine when he fell. Fortunately, I had an appointment with Maryna today, so she told me to bring him with me. She got him straightened out. He’s going to be sore for a few days, but he should recover nicely.

 

09/16/2005– Xander had a physical on July 15^th I just realized I forgot to post about. He’s in fine fiddle except his ears were a bit icky. No big and they’ve gotten under control very easily. The hot humid air with the monsoons tends to annoy them, so it came as no surprise. On more recent news, he slipped on the concrete floor (slick unfortunately) yesterday morning and hurt his right hind leg again. So he was a bit gimpy yesterday. He seems to be back to normal today. He is most definitely prone to injury on that right side. Poor boy. We need to get the new tile laid. I picked a porcelain tile with a rough surface to give the dogs more traction. It’s just a matter of getting it laid throughout the house.

 

10/07/2005– Xander is NOT happy about the new puppy in the house, and I’m not happy about the behavioral issues we are having. Training time….

 

10/19/2005– Well, we’ve figured out what’s going on in Xander’s head and are making great strides toward him accepting the baby. It’s not a jealousy or dominant male thing. It turns out, the puppy triggers Xander’s high prey drive. So I have to teach Xander self-control where his prey drive is concerned. This is a situation I unwittingly created as Xander grew. I thought that having him around and playing with small dogs until his was over a year old was enough to socialize him with small dogs, but I didn’t take prey drive into account. So we’re working on it and things are going well. We really hope to get this issue resolved so the boys can live in peace.

 

10/28/2005– Things are on an even keel now. Xander has made staggering progress and is doing great with the puppy. They’ve had complete and total access to each other since the day before yesterday. D’Artagnan isn’t crated anymore except when I can’t supervise him to make sure we don’t have housetraining accidents.

 

Xander has worked really hard these past 3 weeks to learn to control his prey drive and be gentle with the puppy, and I’m so incredibly proud of him. The first night, his prey drive was so high he grabbed the puppy and his teeth were chattering with frustration when I wouldn’t let him have it. Less than 3 weeks later, he was playing with, supervising and protecting the puppy. He’s such a wonderful big brother! It was all accomplished with patience, consistency, work and keeping things as positive as possible. (Virtually no corrections were used, and those were for jumping on ME.)

 

04/25/2006– For an update on Xander, please read the article “Lessons Learned.”

 

05/04/2006 – It’s been a very busy few months with Xander. Xander has done great with the puppy since October. He takes his role as big brother very seriously and has done a wonderful job helping me raise D’Artagnan (now almost 9 months old).

 

We attended classes through January, February and March to work on his “small dogs are squeaky toys” misconception. He and I both made some new friends. And he earned his AKC Canine Good Citizen (CGC) certificate a couple of weeks ago. WOOHOO!!!! Major accomplishment. Now I’m working on getting him ready for the obedience ring. He attends his first AKC match this coming Saturday. He’s not really ready, but show season in Arizona ends the following day and doesn’t start up again until mid-September. I figure this match will be a great way to get him exposed to the show environment without the stress of REAL competition. I hope to have him in the obedience ring in September when the show season starts.

 

Xander’s ears cleared up after we lost Annie, testifying to the chronic low level of stress he’s been under dealing with her unpredictable ways. I had him at the vet two weeks ago for snorting and reverse sneezing, turned out to be inhalant allergies for pollen from things blooming in the desert right now. Chlortrimeton was recommended for a week to see how he did. It worked like a charm on controlling the allergies, but it must have suppressed his immune system in other ways because the ears flared up again. *sigh* I took him off the Chlortrimeton, and the ears are healing again.

 

11/28/2006– Well, the summer monsoons were rough on my poor boy. We had a very wet summer this year, and as a result, the humidity levels were high. That irritated the yeast in Xander’s ears in a bad way. We tried a round of olive leaf, which did help for a while by knocking back the internal yeast population. We are currently doing a two-pronged approach to treatment – probiotics and zinc supplementation. We should hopefully see improvement in the next few weeks. In the meantime, I continue wiping his ears out with purified water or witch hazel (when they’re red) to keep debris and gunk down. The cool weather we’ve been having helps, too, as it’s very soothing to his ears.

 

Xander’s level of response to my leadership has improved immensely. He’s improved to the point where my mother can walk him with ease. Also, he very seldom now tries to rise to the occasion when another dog tries to pick a problem. He lets Mom handle it now, ready to back me up if needed, just as proper pack etiquette dictates. I find that he is most likely to try to handle those situations himself when my energy is low – ie I’m not feeling well or am distracted by inner turmoil and not keeping my mind on what I’m doing at the time. He continues to serve as a good reminder to me not to allow myself to dwell on troublesome thoughts, which is non-productive anyway.

 

BTW, we had our first attempt in the obedience ring at an AKC match the first weekend in May. TOTAL and utter disaster that could have been even more totally humiliating, but we had so much fun it didn’t matter. Photos and a rundown are available HERE. It was an adventure to be sure. LOL

 

09/16/2007– It breaks my heart to share that Xander left this world Saturday afternoon (09/15/2007). When I am up to it and able to write about it, I’ll add information about what has transpired in these last weeks. There are other updates I still haven’t posted as well. I’ll try to get them all done at once.

 

 

 

Registration Number: DL 879820/01

Sex: M

Color: Black & Tan

Date of Birth: 06/07/2001

Date of Death: 09/15/2007

Breeder: Scales Arizona / Kathy Zmudzinski & Stacy Speer

Pedigree generated by WinCanis Pedigree Program, Version 4.07, © 1995-2003, James E. Seltzer

 

 

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xandert@cableone.net