Flora's Lady Eva Annelise
By Sally Frankel
This article was written by answering the questions shown at the bottom of the page. It made it easy to write having questions to answer and a subject I am passionate about. We would love to hear about your Farmdog. Please answer the challenge and send us an article about your dog(s).
Anna is the tenth Danish/Swedish Farmdog to be born in the United States. She is the third puppy in a litter of three. Her father, Flora's Han Solo, is the first Danish/Swedish Farmdog born in United States and her grandmother Flora is the first breeding female to come to this country. Anna's litter was the first to be conceived on United States soil. Words cannot express how blessed I feel to share my life with this wonderful companion and to have been able to be a part of such a small and select group of people that live with Danish/Swedish Farmdogs.
Life is good, and even better living with a Farmdog!
Who are your Farmdogs and how did you choose their names?
Anna's kennel name is Flora's Lady Eva Annelise. aka, banana, little varmint, freckle belly hound, flea, Ma Barker, and Dozer (The first name Mel gave her because she would bulldoze her way onto the best teat and then doze off to sleep when she was done). My husband still calls her Dozer.
Each one of her names has a special meaning to me. It took me over three months to come up with her name because it was hard to make up my mind.
Flora is her grandmother and also her kennel name. That one was a given. Mel, her breeder, suggested that I name her after the current Queen of Denmark: "Queen Margrethe". At the time we had a Chesapeake Bay Retriever (Rags) that we nicknamed "Princess Money Pit" -- because of all the Vet bills she had accumulated. I just couldn't let this new little puppy out rank Princess Rags. My first Chesapeake was my soul mate and her name was "Lady Kathryn of Calabasas" (Katie). I gave Anna her title because it didn't out rank Rags. Anna's second name is "
Lady". I was trying to find a name that was both Danish and Swedish.
Eva and
Annelise fit that requirement. Eva was my grandmother's name and we were also soul mates. I wanted to call my new puppy Eva because of my grandmother and if she turned out to be an awesome flyball dog I could call her "Eva Knievil". Prior to bringing my new family addition home I practiced calling her Eva as her call name. When I said the name as a reprimand it sounded disrespectful to my grandmother. I didn't feel right about calling her "Eva" (even though later she did become an "Eva Knievil"). I thought that Annelise was such a pretty name and I was having a hard time deciding between the two names so I gave her both: Eva Annelise and called her "Anna". Three months after Anna came to live with us I realized that her initials spelled FLEA.
Luke was much easier to name. I thought about calling him "Stormin' Norman" after my father and because it would be fun to call "Norm" in flyball ...
"Everyone knows his name" from Cheers. Mel had named him "Flora's Cool Hand Luke", the name really fit his personality so he remained Luke. Sometimes we call him "Mr. Howl" (something he does when he is really happy).
How did you learned about Farmdogs?
I had been playing flyball with my Chesapeake, Rags, since 1997. Rags was a member of the
Woof Gang Flyball Team. When she retired from flyball because of an illness in March, 2002, I wanted to remain with the team so I became a full-time box-loader and continued with my three year search to find another dog for our family. If it weren't for Rags finding flyball there never would have been an Anna in our home. I would love to have another Chesapeake Bay Retriever, but our house is too small for two large dogs. I knew that I would have to restrict my breed list to small dogs. My husband did not want another dog at the time and especially not a small dog like a JRT (hum... something unique about those feelings, don't you think? - Tee hee!). I first heard about the Farmdogs from a flyball teammate. She had seen Flora at a flyball tournament. I looked up the breed on the Internet but dismissed it shortly after. When Rags retired my search had more purpose so I looked at the breed once again. Solo and Hanna were playing flyball then and this time the breed seemed to be the right fit, although, I cannot recall what the difference was other than my needs were stronger. I told my teammates that I wanted to get a Farmdog and three of them tried to discourage me. I think that all I needed to hear was one of them telling me to start baking brownies because there was a long waiting list and that I had a snowball's chance in Hell of getting one. That was the day I started networking and became more tenacious about finding a Farmdog for our family. Being the strong-willed child that I am, having a husband that said no to another dog in the house, and a team that didn't believe I could do such a thing, was all the fuel I needed to launch me full steam ahead into my quest for a Farmdog.
Tilly was my first live Farmdog encounter as she was for so many others. One cold winter night a friend and I went to see Tilly at one of her flyball practices. Tilly was so small, only six months old, and just beginning to learn how to run over the 4? jumps and catch a tug. Sue, Tilly's human mom, asked me if I wanted to run her. I was so surprised and thrilled at the chance to play but a little afraid that I wouldn't do it right. The moment I touched her and she hit the tug, her exploding special Farmdog energy flashed throughout my body. I knew then that my destiny would include a Farmdog. Sue told me how to contact Brita and Mel and get on a waiting list. I will never forget that night or the thrill I felt from Tilly's energy. The next flyball tournament I saw Sue and Tilly and nearly every hour I would ask Sue if I could hold Tilly or show her off to someone. That same weekend I met two other Farmdogs, Tilly's sister Libby and half-brother Solo. Six months later Solo became Anna's father. It really was my destiny as there were only three pups in the litter and I was chosen for the last one. I have been blessed ever since.
When/how did your Farmdog come into our family?
The happiest day of my life was the day Anna was born. All the people on the waiting list received an e-mail telling us of the birth and announcing the three lucky families. We all started writing e-mails and became friends way before any of us got to meet our pups. After about two weeks of e-mail and pictures I asked which puppy was mine. Mel told me that Esther Smithstan was the first on the list and she wanted the first-born "Inge". Judy and Stacey Redburn wanted a male so they got "Cooper". I really wanted a female, but thought that it might be better to have a male since I had a female Chessie at home and didn't know how they would get along. Mel told me that she was sure that having two females in the same house would be fine with a Farmdog. She said that if I decided that I didn't want Anna that I could have first pick of Flora's litter which was due in October. I learned a long time ago if I try to change the outcome of things that it always backfires on me. 99% of the time if I take the hand that is dealt to me I come out a winner. In this case I was blessed and will forever be grateful. I fell in love with Anna a long time before meeting her or seeing Flora's litter and Anna's litter-mates. Mel still jokingly asks me if I want to give her back and take another one. At least I think she is joking ... She was correct about two female dogs getting along too. Rags and Anna were best of friends.
Side Note...Because of the three litter-mate families sending email back and fourth several times a day while Mel copied other Farmdog owners, I decided to start the Yahoo group we all enjoy today. This was the place we became good friends long before ever meeting in person. We shared our worries and conquests together and became a small family. Soon the word spread throughout the community that we were a cult. As more Farmdogs came to the US and more litters were born our little family grew to what it is today. The Yahoo group is still the place we come together for family support. And for that I am very grateful!
The bonds I have made with the Farmdog Community are close to my heart. Just like a family, I know that if I am in trouble my Farmdog family will be by my side. I know this to be true as once long a go, my husband had a heart attack, I had to spend very long hours far from home. Anna was a puppy and had to stay in my kitchen with Rags while I was gone. Brita offered to come to my home and feed my dogs so I could stay with my husband. This act of kindness shall never be forgotten. In addition, all the cards and e-mail I received a few month ago from across the country is further evidence that we are a loving Farmdog family. If one has to belong to a cult, it is so nice to belong to such a good one!
The three litter-mate families planned to go up to San Jose together to visit the pups a few weeks before we could take them home. As things happen, I was the only one that could make it. My stepdaughter and granddaughter from San Diego were going to fly up the following day to meet Anna and then have a Girl's weekend in Northern California. When I arrived at Mel's house on Friday she fed me dinner and then asked if I wanted to take Anna back to the hotel to spend the night. It was so exciting! Anna spent the whole night running into the bathroom to bark at the strange puppy in the mirror. I gave her a bath, she watched TV, and played with her new toys. She wasn't crate trained yet, and when I tried to put her in the crate she howled and wined. The hotel didn't allow dogs and my room was located next to the office. So I held her in my arms all night and was afraid to fall asleep for fear of crushing her.
Early the next morning I received a phone call from my stepdaughter telling me that they couldn't come to San Jose because they had to evacuate their house. This was October 2003 and the weekend the big fires started in Southern California. They didn't fly up and I couldn't get home; the airports were all shut down. I knew that I had to leave the motel early because Anna wouldn't stop going to the window to look out. -- Some things never change! -- I didn't want anyone to know that I had a dog in my room. Mel had asked me to wait until after 10:00am before returning Anna to her house. So I packed up Anna in the rental car and we drove to Starbucks and then to a park near Mel's house to wait for 10:00am. When I returned to Mel's, Hanna gave Anna a very warm welcome home ear cleaning.
I tried to cut my trip short and fly home but ended up spending the whole day in the San Jose Airport. That evening Mel called me to make sure that I got home okay, when I told her I was still there she came to the airport to pick me up, took me out to dinner, washed my clothes and gave me a warm bed to sleep in and
forced me to play with Anna and her siblings an extra day.
November 8, 2003, Marv, Rags and I drove to Fresno to meet Mel at a flyball tournament and to pick up Anna and bring her to her forever home. Her brother and sister had already gone to their new homes. Anna stayed a week longer because I wanted to combine Thanksgiving holiday with my paid vacation time so I could have more time to be with her. Also it gave me a little more time to work on my husband. He still didn't want another dog, let alone a small dog. He was so mad at me but he did drive with me to pick up Anna. He tried so hard to ignore Anna for about three months and refused to call her by her name (that's why he calls her Dozer), but Anna won him over and now he is one of her biggest fans.
What activities do you enjoy with your Farmdog?
In the beginning I wanted to focus just on flyball and when Anna had that down I would try other sports. We did start Canine Freestyle with Carolyn Scott, but we were not able to practice or do much because of life circumstances at the time. Plus Anna barked at me because I was way too slow; barking is not a good thing with freestyle.
Anna did a little Go-to-Ground (Earthdog) her first couple of years, but because she was not an AKC breed she was not able to title. Flyball tournaments always seemed to be the same weekends so we had to stop. Now that UKC is in the picture we are planning on trying it again. Anna has not forgotten the thrill of the hunt and loves to find the rats.
Both Anna and Luke run the Obstacle Lure Coursing at Wags for Wishes once a year. About six times a year they participate in field lure coursing. They both really love chasing the lure and getting out in the field to run.
I took some beginning agility classes with Anna about two years ago. She was good at it but her mother (me) was awful. I couldn't keep up with her. Someday when we are not doing so much flyball we will give it another try. Maybe by that time Anna will be older and not too fast for my old legs.
|
Anna passed her herding instinct testing when she was 10 months old at Wags for Wishes. She has been on sheep twice and loves it as much as she does rats and flyball. We have to travel too far to do herding and with this economy it just isn't in the cards for Anna right now. I do hope someday that will change.
Anna frequently went with me to visit my mother at the Senior living facility and father in a convalescent hospital before they both passed on. She was an un-official therapy dog and very entertaining to the residents. |
When Anna was a puppy I started her on Clicker training, and began the first stages of flyball training. My family situation changed when Anna was five months old and it became necessary for me to commute to take care of my parents full-time. This change in lifestyle probably is the most contributing factor in Anna's very strong bond to me and her focus on flyball. I took her everywhere and because I wasn't working I could practice during the week with two former Woof Gang teammates. Other than Mel giving her a great start, they were the two people that helped me the most with Anna's training. Both Anna and I were like sponges wanting to learn everything we could. We first worked on getting her to go away from me, pick up a ball and return to a tug. When she was fully grown and the x-rays determined that her growth plates were closed we started working on single striding jumps and beginning box work.
I found myself timing my trips back and forth to my parent's home around flyball practice. Tuesdays I would practice with the two Woof Gang members and later with Sue, Farmdog Tilly's mom. On Friday nights I would practice with the Woof Gang (Close to my home) and on Saturday and Sunday I would practice with a new team that was forming in Palm Springs. Later I started going to San Diego to practice with Lickety Splits Flyball Team on Sundays. All these practices were at different places, with different dogs, and all required many hours of driving. Anna never got distracted and we never had a problem with her focus. My parents lived on a golf course in the desert and I would practice with Anna along a narrow stretch of grass. Many times the roadrunners would come out to see what Anna was doing. They didn't phase her, I guess they didn't look enough like tennis balls and I think that she knew that they couldn't tug.
Anna is very easy to train. She is focused and she loves to tug more than anything in the world. I am truly convinced that the reason Anna was the last in her litter to be born was because she was too busy tugging on the umbilical cord. When asked what is Anna's favorite flyball position, I always answer with out a doubt, "On the end of a tug".
Even though I did play flyball with Rags, I really didn't know how to train a dog or all the ins-and outs of the sport. Rags was a slow dog that ran on the "Green team" most of her short flyball career. Anna was my first dog that was specifically trained for flyball.
Her first tournament was in Logandale, NV. She was on the Lickety Splits A team. Anna had only run with dogs in the other lane a couple of times and I had just met the members of the team about a month prior to her first race. I had to learn how to pass and how to get out of the way of the other dogs and handlers at that tournament. No one knew if Anna would be able to compete or not. The first heat was a scene from a "Keystone Cops" movie; the whole team fell apart. But the next heat and everyone after was flawless. Her second tournament was not too far from our home. Anna had quite a cheering section for that weekend. This was the first time my husband and his family got to see her run. Helene was in town and came by to spend the day with us and see Anna, Aunt Tillie, and Anna's brother, "Cooper" play flyball. Racing was fast and very close and I believe that the competitive bug bit both Anna and me that weekend.
Her third tournament was her debut in Northern California (Madera) when she got to race at the same tournament with her mother, father, sister, and grandmother. Mel asked me several times that weekend if I wanted to give her back.
CA Debut - Flyball Racing |
|
CA Debut - Box Turns |
(Anna is the last dog on the left in both movies)
Does she do anything else? ... Well did I mention that she likes to tug?
What are your favorite things about your Farmdog?
Anna is very entertaining. She is always happy and a wonderful friend. She is extremely birdie, someday I hope to field train both dogs. Anna would make a good flusher. Luke is very good at marking birds and an excellent retriever. Tracking is something I would like to try with Anna too. She has a keen sense of smell and can locate, cats, rats and opossums anywhere they try to hide.
Anna frequently stands and walks on her hind legs looking like a meerkat. Another thing that she does is jump straight up in the air when she greets people. This must be the circus dog part of her background. You can see her do this when she enters the pen with the sheep in the movie above.
Anna seems to understand people and dogs and she treats them accordingly. She was very calm around Rags, our old lame dog and wild around young healthy dogs. When Anna was six months old I was visiting a flyball tournament in Madera. This was the first time she had been together again with her mother, father, grandmother brother, sister and two aunts. She was so wild and happy to greet any person inquiring about her. A young women who apparently had Downs Syndrome came up to me to ask about Anna. Anna sensed that she was different from all the other people she had greeted that weekend and was very calm and cuddly with the woman. I was holding her in my arms and could feel the calm come over her. I knew then that I was holding something very special and was the luckiest person in the world.
At first I was worried that a high-energy puppy would be hard on Rags and that Anna might become the Alpha dog at a very young age. Anna instinctively knew to respect Rags and Rags knew to be gentle with Anna. It is very difficult to say who really was the Alpha dog; they both respected each other. We worked on making Rags the Alpha by giving her food, toys, and hugs first. We made sure that Rags went out the door first even when she could no longer walk without assistance. The two dogs played together in slow motion. Anna would get a toy and run ahead of Rags then wait for her to catch up. When she did Anna would dart away to find another spot. They played soft slow motion tug if one dropped the tug the other would hand it back and they would start all over.
Anna is the alpha dog now that Rags has passed on and Luke has come to live with us. She plays hard with Luke and they have a very special bond. They both love tugging. Even though Luke is 60% larger than Anna the two of them are almost an even match for tugging. They play any chance they can get. It is quite common to find them both tugging on the same toy at a nose-to-nose standoff. The longest I have seen them do this is about 45 minutes non-stop.
What are your Farmdog's favorite toys?
With out a doubt anything she can tug. Be it a rope, toy, my socks, bra, husband's underwear, or a towel after her bath. If it is something she can pull, she will tug.
What things does your Farmdog dislike?
Both dogs now like baths and swimming. At first water was acid. All it took was a ball in a swimming pool to eliminate that fear of water. Anna still does not like to go out in the rain, but if there is a cat, a ball, or maybe a bird, she will go out into the rain to get it.
Getting her nails trimmed is still a serious problem. She was good at it when she was a puppy, but she got nipped once and like an elephant, she never forgets. I used to drug her before getting her nails cut because she would twist so badly that she injured her back. We have been drug free for nearly two years now. I just go to the same vet tech and make sure they do it with me in the room.
What behaviors do you find comical and endearing?
Anna is my "Type A" dog. In true Farmdog fashion she is always looking out the window for something to bark at and to protect the farmhouse from intruders. When I was young and my mother would find us looking out the window she would say to us "What do you see Sister Ann?" a quote from the book
Sister Ann, by Henry Handel Richardson. Who knew that someday I would have a little watch-dog that I would ask the same question and so appropriate because "
sister Ann quite literally spent her life on the watch-for the next disaster, she being the only one who might ward it off".
Anna makes me laugh when she does her famous leap in the air to greet people. I love her silly little wiggle when she is happy to see me. I enjoy playing tug with her and mimicking her "Sponge Bob" growl as she tugs. I love how alert she is to all that is going on around her. I adore her focus and dedication to me; we make a pretty good team.
Anna feels so good curled up in my lap or next to me when we sleep. She offers so much comfort and an escape from the difficulties in my life. We need each other. I often tell people that Anna is a rescue dog; she rescued me.
Who do you greet first, your dogs or your significant other?
With out a doubt I greet my husband first, because the dogs are always with me.
Which comes first, coffee or feeding your buddy?
I always take my dogs outside to go potty first thing in the morning. Even before I have the chance to do the same for myself. They get fed first and we walk before coffee, but that is only because we like to do it before it gets too hot outside, and we walk to the Starbucks for the coffee. There is no difference when we are at a flyball tournament; the dogs always come first.
... My next life, I plan to return as a dog in my own family.
More About Anna...
Anna has been the U-FLI highest titled flyball dog since July of 2005. She has been the first to achieve all of the U-FLI milestone plaques.
U-FLI: TFU-III /
NAFA: FMX
Anna has appeared in the following publications:
U-FLI Web site
NAFA Web site
Woof Gang Team
Tell us about your Farmdog
Please answer the challenge and send us your article about your dogs.My personal challenge goes out to Jeanne Eleazer, please tell us about Bobdog and his new brother Digger. It is so special to have a Farmdog for several years and then add a new one to the family.
Questions:
- Tell us about your family.
- Where do you live?
- What is your occupation, do you stay at home or are you retired?
- Who is/are your Farmdog/s?
- What is your Farmdog/s' registered name/s?
- How did you choose your Farmdog/s' name/s?
- How did you learn about Farmdogs?
- When/how did your Farmdog/s come into your family?
- What activities do you enjoy with your dog/s-they don't have to be organized activities, walks, balls, hide and seek, etc. are all fun
- What is/are your favorite thing/s about your dog/s?
- Do your dog/s have a favorite toy/s?
- Do your dog/s dislike anything such as baths, toenail trims, tooth brushing, etc?
- Do your dog/s have any behaviors that you find comical or especially endearing?
- Do you have other pets?
- Everything and anything else you would like to share
And for extra fun, answer if you are brave or feel like it
- Who do you greet first, your dog/s or your significant other?
- Where does your dog sleep?
- Which comes first, coffee or feeding your buddy?
- Can your dog/s live on $200 per month (I read in a survey that is an average cost-hahaha)