Blaez (pronounced Blaze) is a sable German shepherd almost three years old, another weird name I know, I have a penchant for weird names but when I got him, to me, he resembled a wolf, so I wanted to give him a wolfish name not just wolf or something, I like my pets to have unique names so I searched alternate names for wolf in other languages and even tried elvish then I found a website that had old English to English translation and that is where I found the name Blaez, I Googled the name a bit just to make sure it really is the meaning and it was. Blaez is the Old English word for wolf so I decided that would be the perfect name.
After I got Shadow I still wanted to have a German Shepherd and when Shadow and I got stuck in a rut I spent my days at work (when I wasn't busy) Googling German Shepherd’s I really liked the sable German shepherds and became quite clued up with different types of German Shepherds and where each was developed and breeders in my area, closest province and country, and would see when they had puppies and I would watch the Internet for puppies, not really interested in buying of course, I already had two dogs but a girl can dream cant she! My job is of such a nature that I must always be on the Internet, so when I did not have a lot of work to do I would also spend my time on Facebook and at home at night I would also go on Facebook, one day about mid-November (when business is usually slow) I saw a sable German Shepherd pup at one of the SPCA’s from a town that is not too far away from the town I lived in, I looked at the poor pup and the description read something like “meet Jesse a 5month old German Shepherd, he needs somebody that is willing to spent time with him training or a dog trainer” I thought aah he is so beautiful he will surely be snatched up real fast, hope he gets a nice home. Days went by and I thought he was surely adopted but early December his photo came up again and I felt so sorry and started wishing I could adopt him, so I sent the photo to my Mom and just said what do you think, to my amazement my Mom answered that I should call and find out if he is still available, wow I phoned and lo and behold he was, my brother was also very supportive (which was weird because he is not a dog person) and took me to go and meet “Jesse”, he was even better looking in real life and he was also quite a big boy, I didn't really take notice of his size at first as he was already five months old, I just didn't want to rush into anything again but the lady working at the SPCA said everybody just walks past his kennel, giving him no notice, even if they try to show him to people looking for a dog they just were not interested which was very weird to them too as he was quite a handsome boy, so I think he was meant for me, my brother said he would pay for the adoption fee as my Christmas gift and the rest is history, I got him before Christmas and spent the period while the club was closed to bond with him. Shadow and Blaez got along like two brothers and now Shadow also has a playmate.
Everything was not moonshine and roses with Blaez, I had troubles with his stomach but I will elaborate more about that in a separate post, the other problem was that he did not really know how to play, he was very playful but didn't know how to tug or fetch a ball or anything, his way of playing was grabbing something you have and running away then you must chase him, with a lot of effort I taught him how to tug and fetch, fetch took a bit longer but he got there. The woman at the SPCA said it was an elderly couple that had him and couldn't keep him any more because they were moving, but I think they got this puppy which was cute when he was small and they let him do whatever he wanted, but he grew and grew and grew and eventually they couldn't handle him any more, he was a very active dog so he must have been a handful for them , he came with a voucher that was fully paid for at a dog training club in that area and he had already gone for the first couple of lessons, I never used the voucher but it had a list of his behavioural problems, it was quite a list but I never experienced any of those problems with him. I decided I am going a total different route with Blaez’s training and did it the Michael Ellis way with a few tweaks and ways of my own, I started him in Novice and we are going to A-test now so finally I am moving up!
Blaez is my big boy as he thank goodness stopped growing but he is quite big for a German shepherd, and because he is sable a lot of people think he is a wolf, but no he is just big, he is also the dog I am actively training now, since I put the other two into semi-retirement.
Handsome Blaez
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