In order to better integrate with a myriad of other canine-focused bloggers, SKYY’s blog is moving to the following web-address:
I hope you’ll follow us there, and join SKYY’s new fan-list to keep following the intrepid white canine.
Sincerely,
The Management
So, SKYY was an entrant in MangoMinster 2010, an online dog show, with entrants profiled via their pictures.
Fans of SKYY everywhere need now go to the Mango Minster webpage and vote for SKYY in the “Hard Working Boy Dog’s” category.
Is this a little silly? Yes, but who cares? It’s fun. Would it kill ya to vote for a handsome white canine?
Sky’s entrance photo (which will look familiar if you’re a reader of this blog) is displayed here:
This may look familiar....
Skyy has now completed his second day of Puppy Kindergarten. Again, he did very well. He’s a smart little puppy that lets my failings as a master slide by the instructor’s attention quite successfully.
We covered “sit”, and “come” again, and worked on heeling and “lay down”, all of which are commands Skyy is already performing pretty consistently with verbal queues only. The most amusing part of the evening was watching all the puppies playing with the tufts of white hair that kept rolling by them like tumbleweeds – despite brushing him earlier that day, Skyy was shedding profusely.
After the class we watched the adult dogs in their various obedience and agility training sessions. Most definitely inspiring. The bond between some of these owners and their dogs, strengthened by the lessons they share, is truly amazing to witness in person. Plus, I want to be able to point at something and have my dog jump over it.
When Skyy’s da’ was four months old as Skyy is now, he was only three months away from winning his first Best in Breed at a show. I don’t know if Skyy will have that appeal, but the more time I spend with Skyy and other dog enthusiasts, the more excited I am about finding out.
Some pictures from the evening:
Look up!
Look over there!
Voted Most Energy in Class
A moment for rest between lessons
The Intrepid Photographer
Voted Most Cutest Vicious Little Beasty
Teacher's pet. Not really. My pet. But the teacher likes him...
The Instructor's Enforcers. (warning: don't piddle on the mats)
I brought Skyy home from Szumeria Kuvasz Kennels in November, but it was in early October that I had started thinking of finding a new dog.
On October 1st of last year, Kaiser Soze, the incredible dachshund that I had known and loved for twelve years passed away. My ex Kathy and I had picked Kaiser up from a family breeder in Georgia shortly after moving in together following our respective college graduations. We referred to him as our “first born”, and from the get-go he was one of the sweetest, albeit stubborn, dogs I had ever known. Even as a little bean who could sleep in one of my shoes, he had the tenacity dachshunds are often known for. He didn’t think anything of trying to wrestle with our neighbor’s malamute, and the malamute would gamely walk around the yard with our dachshund furiously dangling from the scruff of its neck.
From Florida, to California, to Virginia, to Maryland, to Minnesota, Oregon, and finally Florida – Kaiser moved through life with either Kathy or I or the both of us, always brimming with love, always enthusiastic, always a joy. He was graying around the muzzle by the time he turned twelve, but he would still play tug-of-war with the best of them, still run to see you when you came home with his ears flopping around his feet, still manage to stick his persistent aardvark-tongue in your ears if you got to close.
Then, suddenly, he got sick. We’d always taken great care of his back – as dachshunds are prone to back injuries – even to the point where we’d get compliments from veterinarians about how healthy he was, but some things are more difficult to protect against. By this time Kathy was with him in Florida and I was in Minnesota, so I didn’t get to be there. But because he was in such pain from the aggressive pancreatic cancer that had infected him, Kathy had to have him put down. She made the fateful decision on her own birthday, no less.
Kaiser still has all of the love in my heart. He was and always will be the world’s best dog, so far as I am concerned. I miss him.
This is Skyy’s blog, but Skyy just needs to know; he has some big pawprints to fill.
The World's Best Dog. RIP. 10/1/2009.
It’s some pretty ugly drizzly weather those of us in the northern Midwest are enduring of late.
Two days of above freezing temperatures and mild precipitation just leaves everything wet and soggy. The snow soaks the water up like a sponge, and the result is a heavy wet slop that’s no fun for anyone to trudge through except Skyy, who still loves it.
I took this picture of Skyy outside. I used a couple of filters to mask the dreariness and found the result somewhat dramatic. But because I haven’t posted anything else of late, I thought this might be a credible tide-me-over.
Cheers,
Skyy enjoying a drizzly sleaty day.
Opening #1: “There is something about walking on freshly fallen snow, the kind that whispers and speaks as you walk. The way it transforms even humble suburbia into a place beautiful and clean.”
Opening #2: “The rude winter wind might threaten to stop the blood-flow in the ends of my ears, but it doesn’t lessen the need for SKYY to get his winter-fix.”
These were two of my potential opening lines for this post. I was *inspired* by @neilhimself and his tweets (I don’t like that term) about walking in the snow with his white German Shepherd, Cabal (which is a cool name for a dog.)
@neilhimself's dog. Beautiful white German Shepherd, named Cabal. Also kills squirrels.
But there comes a day when one must admit that one is not Neil Gaiman. So here goes:
I am not Neil Gaiman. I am younger. I wear colors other than black.
It’s true.
But nevertheless, I too have a white dog and often walk in the snow. But what saddens me about my walks with SKYY is that I almost never get to see him in the daytime. Like Neil, it’s umpteen degrees below zero all the time. Unlike Neil, I have a dayjob that pretty well occupies the day. The shortened Minnesota winter days means it’s still dark when I walk SKYY in the morning and evening. My neighbor, who daily gives SKYY a little exercise around lunch gets to see him during the day, but not I.
So it was with both intent and relish that I took SKYY on a long walk this past weekend. I’ve already posted about our day at the dog park [click here if you’re interested in reading that post], but what I didn’t mention then is that I took a fair amount of footage of SKYY during a long walk that day, for no reason other than the pure joy of seeing him run around in the sunshine for a change.
So, per usual, I’ve got a little video of SKYY here of that event. The truth is, we had a wonderful time. And in the rays of the sun, the beauty of SKYY’s gait (even as a puppy), the brilliance of his white fur, and the joy with which he bounded through the snow provided me all of the satisfaction for which I had hoped.
Feel free to give me some feedback on the quality of the videos. Pretty soon I’m going to have to come up with some schtick other than setting SKYY to music (I added some “dialogue” to the dog-park post), but for the time being I’ll hope you bear with me.
Thanks to all the SKYY fans out there that _have_ enjoyed the posts.
For your viewing pleasure:
Today was SKYY’s first day at puppy kindergarten. He’s attending the St. Paul Dog Training Center in St. Paul, Minnesota, the training facility recommended to me by Szumeria Kuvasz kennels.
I’ve included a little slide show of the photos my five year old son (“Dad! I’m five-and-a-half!”) took with my little Canon digital camera.
We covered “Learning your name,” “sit”, and “C’mere”. Skyy was an exemplary student. The teacher put a lot of pressure on me by using Skyy as the “demonstration pup” on two separate occasions, but in both instances Skyy was a true pro. At 15 1/2 weeks he was far and away the largest puppy, but I’m happy to report he was also the most laid back.
I’m sure we’re on the road to years of perfect obedience. (…hahahahahahahahaha!..right!)
I don’t have to add too much to this one, given what’s told in the video [below]. This past Saturday was SKYY’s first time at a dog park. Needless to say, we had a great time; saw lots of beautiful dogs and good doggish people. Kudos to the City of Woodbury for an amazing dog park – seventy acres of leashless freedom. Incredible.
So, if you’re the sort to read blogs about dogs, or even by dogs, it’s not unlikely you’ve heard of Mango.
A snapshot of the Slobbery One
About as near as I can tell, he’s probably the slobberiest blogger on the wide world interweb. He’s also a great enthusiast of all things doggish, and host to what is now an annual event:
I’ve got to give credit where credit is due: it’s quite a production. Before Skyy came along, and subsequently this blog, I might never have guessed how large a presence dogs (and, as in my case, sometimes even their owners) have online.
So in the spirit of community and participation, I am preparing Skyy for his own entry into Mangominster 2010.
The following photos are in final contention for Skyy’s entry:
Poor Skyy got clocked and fell asleep.
ah...grass. I remember grass. Haven't seen it in 3 months, but...
Skyy's favorite position.
One handsome Kuvasz.
A moment still, mid-romp
One of my dilemmas, you might imagine, is to ask myself, is it fair to use a picture of Skyy as a little puppy? On the one hand, it could still be considered recent, as only a couple of months ago he weighed a mere 15 pounds. On the other, he is such a different looking dog now than just a couple of months ago. I have to think puppy pictures are hard to beat in a contest, but integrity probably dictates I submit a picture of the dog I have *now*.
I mean – he’s a handsome dog either way.
So the pictures posted here are some of my favorites, and I may select one as my official entry. But I’m also getting the urge to pull out my Canon SLR and try to take some truly great shots of the little white one this coming weekend.
So we’ll see. Maybe this post was just an excuse to post some of my favorite pictures of Skyy to-date.
I remember well watching Marty Stouffer’s Wild America when I was a kid. The footage of elk and wolves foraging on whatever they could find during the harsh wintertimes always stuck in my mind. Well, there aren’t many winters more harsh than those in Minnesota, and it is here that I’ve found my Kuvasz, SKYY, still shares with his wolfish forebears the instinct to forage in the snow. I would have loved to get Mr. Stouffer to narrate this little clip, but, sadly, he wasn’t available (at a moment’s notice at 10pm on a Tuesday night and, well, I never really tried to contact him anyway) to do so. Nevertheless, for your viewing pleasure:
Sky’s cousin, Biggie, is a proponent of the raw diet. Well, here, SKYY offers you dieting: RAW.
My Kuvasz Blog 