When a Favorite is buried in your back yard. ;-(

We are so very proud of our Turquoise! She is so nicely and correctly built, she is smart, loving, and loves to have a job...and she has a few.

Turquoise was SUCH a beautiful puppy and as she grew her looks just kept getting better and better! She is correctly built but at 67 pounds seems much larger, she has a 'presence' about her. (so do the pups she births).

Turquoise is BLACK....all Black....Correctly Black, with a beautiful coat. She is in fact, so Black, it is hard to take good photos of her.

When I found a Reputable Breeder who breed really Nice, Well Built, Titled and OFA Certified German Shepherd Dogs (GSD or GSDs) together. Dogs that are owned by a Breeder who works her dogs and know what she is doing. That even though she lives 1200 miles away from me, she is very helpful and sends up a lot of photos of puppies to folks that are interested for the right reasons. This is a breeder that is proud of the dogs she breeds and wants her Kennel name on them. Add that to the fact that I have/had looked for puppies like these all over the Nation for well over a year. Add all those facts together and you get a long dog name like "Kazmaier's Turquoise Vom Steppenwolf Bach". We will call her simply, Turquoise.

We looked allllll over the Internet for MANY months. We sent a few emails. But when I saw these two dogs, the sire and dam of Turquoise, I was a bit smitten. When I went and studied the pedigrees, I was excited. When Deron said, "We can drive down to Texas if this is the puppy you want. But if we are driving that far you should really get two." I was elated! When Deron spent New Years Day working on wiring money down to the breeder to pay for two puppies, including putting chains on the truck to drive 60 miles, the first and last in 6 1/2 inch deep and drifted snow, to go to Walmart (it was a Holiday and they made it all but impossible to wire money over the Internet) I lit up like the Christmas Tree! New Years Day, after looking at the two puppies on line for over two weeks (I like to think things over and get a lot of answers), They were mine...now to get them here.

Kazmaier's Turquoise Vom Steppenwolf Bach click on the name for a look at Turquoise's impressive and long pedigree with photos of dog's she is out of. Her pedigree goes all the way back to when the breed began in the 1800's.

PLEASE NOTE: My BLACK GSD are BLACK. No brown, gray, white, or any other color hairs or undercoat on them.

My puppies arrived on Jan 3,2014 using a Hauler. Nice puppies indeed. Better than I expected Nice!

Turquoise has two siblings serving with Homeland Security, another serving as a Certified Therapy Dog. She also has a son that is a Certified Therapy Dog (see below). This comes as no surprise. Turquoise Greatgrandsire is Import Czech Border Patrol Ginta z Pohranicni Straze SCHH1,ZVV1. As I said, these two puppies I bought come from an impressive Working Kennel. Turquoise also has, 1/2 siblings~1/2 cousins, (sire bred to Turquoise's Dam's Sister) are serving in the Michigan State Police Dept. Special Ops.

For my GSD Names I use names that start with the letter T from the Holy Bible. Turquoise is a Stone. It was set into the Israel Priest's Breastplate, Exodus 28:15-30. The turquoise was set, the first stone in the second row, Exodus 28:18. There are 12 stones in the Breastplate, one each to represent the tribes of Israel. I also wear a LOT of Turquoise Stones. I LOVE the color. So? A Black GSD named Turquoise.

I have to admit, Turquoise was not a name on the long list that I keep of Biblical "T" names. But when I thought of it, it is not only in the Priest Breastpiece, Exodus 39:11, but other places in the Bible it talks about Turquoise the stone. Our dog Turquoise wears a lovely Turquoise Collar and man, on that Black GSD! Looks very nice.

Turquoise is not a hyper active puppy/dog, she is not obnoxious, but she is busy and active...just the way I LOVE them! She loves to learn and do. She loves to run and play, always wanting to do more, learn more. So making learning fun and exciting, she just shines! You can see from these photos that even with little Agility Open Tunnel Training, she LOVES the Open Tunnel and loves running through it.

Turquoise, true to the breed, loves to learn and loves to please her people....and she loves the treats and praise that she receives. Turquoise learned to "sit" on command within a couple of days at our home. She is built very nice, comes from a WONDERFUL line of GSD and you can see how beautiful this dog really is....although it is hard to take good photos of Black animals. more to come

Turquoise on 2014-01-30, she is growing very quickly. She is not quite "as big as a horse", but seems to be getting there.

2014-02-12 Texas Tea and Turquoise. This was Turquoise FIRST TIME wearing an empty Backpack. She did not care about the pack, she stood still for the snapping it on. BUT! When she and Texas Tea started walking together?....let's just say there might have been more than two "outtakes". Turquoise is also sitting nice for the photo.

This is Turquoise, 2014-03-28, trying on her new Wenaha Dog Backpack. She is 6 months old in these photos and has not yet grown into her feet, but otherwise how nicely she is growing. The Backpack Panniers are filled with Bubble Wrap so that I can see them filled out and how they will ride on her body. The fit looks good. We are planning a few Backpacking Trips this Summer (2014).

March 30-31, 2014 We were under a Blizzard Warning. Knowing it was coming we thought we should take a few photos. So here are a few Easter Photos without snow. Turquoise is 6 months old in these photos.

March 21, 2016

Raya (our Farm Dog's) last night on Earth was hard.

None of us slept, but Raya.

Raya normally and always, slept right next to our bed. On her last night here, Raya, slept in the living room between our desks. Deron put her there and that is where she stayed too weak to move.

Turquoise was so upset about this and when the lights went out... She paced the floor. From Raya's normal spot, next to the bed, to Raya. Then. She barked at Raya, and then came and barked at us, like Lassie, to ask us to come and see Raya was in the other room and not good. During the night, this went on every so often. The next day, after very little sleep, I found I must have slept some, because I had scratch marks across my waist. I am sure that Turquoise got a bit desperate, and tried to tell me again, to let me know that something was terribly wrong with Raya.

After Raya died, late the next morning, Turquoise "stepped up". Deron and I both noticed right away that Turquoise's voice got deeper. She is also not a "barker", but all noises outside (that we heard and did not) were, and are now, met with the "Big GSD Bark".

Turquoise also is sticking closer to us.... as if she has "Stepped Up" to take over the part of THE loving, guarding and always watching Farm Dog, all on her (Turquoise) own. Or, <laughs> maybe there is just more room on the floor now and she fits closer to us better.

One Year Later:

Turquoise has filled a spot she saw a need in. She has continued to do "Property Checks" each and every day. And while she may only be chasing off Rabbits, keeping them at bay, keeps their predators away. She, as well as Texas Tea, have/has chased off Fox that we know of too.

Turquoise has also developed that keener ear, paying attention, to every thing, keeping a watchful eye on things.

Each morning and evening, since Raya died, when Turquoise goes out to 'potty', she disappears for about 20 minutes. We live on 161 acres and she is out 'back' doing a check on our own animals and checking on property as well as chase off any other animals that are not suppose to be there. When she checks it all, she comes in and goes about the rest of her day/night.

She also had a litter of pups, Sept. 21, 2016. We kept a male, that we will train and neuter to become the Official Sheriff/Farm Dog here. His name is Tychicus Ray....Ray in honor of Raya.

Note: Weigh in at Vet 4/4/2016 = 66 pounds

Turquoise also does other types of Farm Work around our place. This is a photo of her 2018-02-25 after much, much, snow here, pulling snow away from the house area.

We bred Turquoise to Titus so that we could keep a male/neutered pup from the litter to take over for Raya our Full Time Farm Dog.

You can see their son here in this photo as well as on his own page here, "Meet Tychicus Ray".

We do not breed our dogs often. We have one litter a year at this point. We did rebreed Turquoise to Titus before he left our Kennel to go live with our relatives.

Turquoise had 5 cuties! 3 Females and 2 males. She is such a good mother to her babies!

This is a note I received from one of our Puppy Buyers About Titus X Turquiose Puppy 2016

Hi Marna,

We celebrated Hugo's 1st birthday and wanted to tell you how great he is doing! He has graduated his first two rounds of training with flying colors. We are still working on distraction training, once he is a little better with that he will officially be a service dog! He has been trained to alert me when people are talking to me that I can't hear and also to alert to the doorbell and text alerts on my phone. He also helps me get up off the couch when my leg is bothering me and retrieves dropped items for me. He has been trained to sit and press himself against me and rest his head on my shoulder when I am having a panic attack. We are also working with him on pressing the handicap accessible buttons to open doors and cross walk buttons with his nose. He loves having a job and being part of our pack. He's amazing! Thank you for our amazing boy!

Best regards,
Nerissa

Turquoise is a lovely dog to look at and a dream to watch move. She joins us as we ride our bicycles out on the prairie as well as when we ride our horses.

Just a few shots of Turquoise, with her half sister, Texas Tea.

A Few More Just Candid Photos of Turquoise

Shake Hands:

Shaking Hands is so easy to teach a dog, and so easy for a GSD to learn! And Turquoise learned it fast and easily!

High Five:

High Five is a cute trick taught after Shake Hands....and Turquoise QUICKLY learned this trick too!

Jump Through Hoop:

Turquoise dose not JUST Jump Through Hoops! She comes through them with GLEE! She loves Hoops and Tunnels!

Fetches:

This trick took a little longer to teach. Not because of Turquoise, but because she was the youngest of FOUR GSD puppies we were raising and training in our home at the time. When I threw the toy, before Turquoise could get to it, someone else would and bring it back to me. Ha Ha But we worked it all out (it was very cold out and we had snow when we were teaching this....and we live in a tiny house.....so).

Holds Items In Mouth:

HOW CUTE IS THIS EASTER BUNNY!? Turquoise was a pup when this photo was taken. I am very proud that not only did she "Hold Items In Mouth" on command, but also "Sit" and "Stay".

As you can see she was not just a lovely pup, she was always beautiful!

Back Up:

At our house, BACK UP is not only easy to teach, it is essential! To teach "Back Up", a person usually takes their dog to a hallway and stands in front of their dog. Give the "Back Up" command/cue and walk toward the dog. At first some keep their dogs on leashes, gently giving cues with it as they work with the dog. The slightest move backwards is rewarded and built on.

Seriously. "Back Up" in our Tiny House, is learned early. And it is funny. I forget this is even considered a 'trick'....it is just normal here.

Honors Other Dogs:

Turquoise is the 2nd Dog over in this photo. The first is her 1/2 sister, Texas Tea. On the other side of Turquoise is Titus, then Tekoa...who is not longer with us....and sadly missed.

"Honoring Other Dogs" is when a dog pays attention to only the instructions given to them. This is very important with Police, Military, Hunting and Herding Dogs. Dogs are like kids....they get excited when other dogs are present. They want to be the one that is center of attention. So they need to be taught to "honor the other dogs", so that everyone behaves well.

Wears Clothes, Hats, Booties, and other Items:

This was taken on my Birthday. It is a big deal all these pups are sitting together wearing these items. They were young at this time.

Turquoise is sitting between our two Saddled Dogs, Titus and Tekoa. Texas Tea is on the end. Texas Tea is Turquoise' half sister.

Doggie Sit Ups:

While she is not 'enthusiastic' about doing Doggy Sit Ups (sit then down, sit than down, sit then down) she sure will do them.

Turquoise LOVES Agility. While we do not compete...we are just too far out to get to classes and such, 2 1/2 hours one way from, they might have Agility now and again....we do have Agility Equipment we Train and Play On.

Bar Jump:

Not real solid on the 'send over', but when I run with her, she sure does do it well.

Hoop Jump:

One of her favorite Jumps.

Tire Jump:

Another one that she loves. She likes going through Hoops and Tunnels.

Open Tunnel:

If Turquoise had a favorite piece of Agility Equipment, it would be the Open Tunnel. We started her as a pup and she LOVED it! She would almost explode out of the out end of the Tunnel and you can/could see the excitement on her face!

Closed Tunnel:

Teeter Totter:

Sea Saw:

more to come

Turquoise can and does pull all sorts of items. We start our pups at about 5 or 6 months old, in harness, with VERY LIGHT weights. It is not about pulling, it is about learning. Learning the feel of the harnesses, how the weight moves, and learning the commands.

Deron bought me a new Scooter/Kick Bike for my 60th Birthday and we love it! This is Turquoise pulling me here at our place 3-4-2017.

A sled dog not only has to learn to pull correctly, learn all the Sled Dog Commands, they also have to learn to work and listen when there is chaos all around. As you can see? Turquoise does this really really well.

much more to come

Isn't she lovely!? This is Turquoise out with us on our Bicycles. Her movement is regal. She is such a good girl!

We live waaaaaaay out in the middle of no where. We are buying 161 acres. So our dogs can and do run free with us when we ride our bicycles. NOT IN TOWN, when we hook them to our bicycles with a Springer Dog Attachment.

The contents of this page for Meet Turquoise is still under construction as we add adventures and photos through the years. Come back often.

-- The Working German Shepherd Dogs Team
Fri, 03 Jan 2014 10:21:08 -0500