# 14 month old AmLine bitch



## Xeph (Jun 19, 2005)

Marcato's Turn the Page "Mikasa" at fourteen months. Waiting for her to grow hair


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## dogfaeries (Feb 22, 2010)

Oh, Jackie, I like her! This is the girl that is your bred-by and pointed?


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## gsdsar (May 21, 2002)

She is lovely!!!


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## Xeph (Jun 19, 2005)

dogfaeries said:


> Oh, Jackie, I like her! This is the girl that is your bred-by and pointed?


Yes ma'am. Adore this bitch. She's hellfire and brimstone. Just what I wanted.

Excellent stock dog. I'm really looking forward to trialing her (we will be going beyond HT PT)


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## Xeph (Jun 19, 2005)

gsdsar said:


> She is lovely!!!


Thank you!

Here's one more photo


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## lorihd (Nov 30, 2011)

a beautiful dog!


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## selzer (May 7, 2005)

Nice!


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## Ashley_M (Feb 19, 2003)

Lovely girl!!


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## Cschmidt88 (Nov 24, 2010)

She is a gorgeous girl! I like her a lot!


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## dogfaeries (Feb 22, 2010)

I'm really excited for you, Jackie. Sounds like she's going to be lots of fun.


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## Xeph (Jun 19, 2005)

https://youtu.be/2eC8hr3xn6k


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## Shade (Feb 20, 2012)

Beautiful! Beauty and brains :wub:


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## Debanneball (Aug 28, 2014)

Stunning!!!


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## Galathiel (Nov 30, 2012)

She has the look of her mother I think 'smiles'. She's a beautiful dog. You should be proud of your baby.


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## Daisy&Lucky's Mom (Apr 24, 2011)

Jackie ,she is definitely the full package.


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## Nikitta (Nov 10, 2011)

Great dog!


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## Xeph (Jun 19, 2005)

Thanks everybody ^_^

Now if she would just *grow some dang hair*!!!


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## dogfaeries (Feb 22, 2010)

Xeph said:


> Thanks everybody ^_^
> 
> Now if she would just *grow some dang hair*!!!


It's always something! You didn't think it would be easy, did you, LOL?


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## gsdsar (May 21, 2002)

Xeph, can I ask an ignorant question? I really like your girls shoulder. And her croup. (I think, I suck at this) would you be willing to explain, from your eyes what is her best and worst feature? Aside from coat, LOL. I like learning. 

To me( here comes my ignorance in this field) she is moderate in angulations, good shoulder, nice top line and croup, I think her muscling in the back end could be better( could be coat related). 

This is an honest question to learn. If you want to PM that's cool! 

She is lovely. Please don't take anything I wrote as criticism. We see so few AmLine dogs. And when I see one I like, I wanna learn!


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## Xeph (Jun 19, 2005)

I do not mind you asking  I welcome questions, and I share my AmLines here because there are so few.

I do love her shoulder and croup, but do feel she could have a slightly longer upper arm, and her shoulder lay on is a bit to far forward (lay on is placement of shoulder, layback is angulation).

Her upper and lower thigh are not equal lengths, with her upper thigh actually be slightly shorter than her lower. This results in a bit of kick up. She could have a better finish on her follow through and slightly better under reach.

It's hard to say what her best feature is, because there are so many things I like. It also depends if you are asking based only on structure, or on her work as well.

I love her size. She's actually large for a bitch, but her mother is oversized and there have been some bloody GIANT bitches winning in the AKC ring. Her correct size is what I was going for.

She has absolutely *beautiful* feet and pasterns (the whole litter does), which are poorly lacking in many AmLines. Lots of loose/flat feet. Her pasterns are properly angulated but also springy enough to absorb impact while she works. Very strong ligamentation.

I wish she had a stronger head. I think she may be a little weaker than her mother, which surprises me. Her ear set is better than her mothers, though still slightly wide.

In terms of her work, I love her grit, her hardness. She can take a correction. She may yell at me, but she continues working and adjusts as necessary. I would like a little more biddability. She is often positive that *I* am the one that is wrong (no, Meep), and will work correctly for a minute or so, and then try and pull the same crap she originally got corrected for.

She is an opportunist...like Strauss. She's a real pain like that, but I love it.

She is not as clear headed in her work as her brother Ouzo (he is stunning on stock), and will work herself up into a literal lather. She has to learn to settle and not worry about the sheep leaving her. She has a lot of power and presence, and the sheep definitely read it.

Her brother walks into the pasture and can be almost on top of them, but they don't get very flighty. Mikasa walks into the pasture and they want to scatter to a corner. The sheep respect Ouzo...they lean more towards fear of Meep.

She has a lot of eye for a GSD, and does the Border Collie stalk.

Earlier, in the same lesson (no video unfortunately), I stopped Mikasa up in a corner and had her sit. The sheep and Meep ended up in reversed positions. She was stuck in the corner and they stood staring at her.

I was momentarily terrified because I wasn't sure what would really happen (even though my instructor's sheep are very docile). They all stared very intently at my little bitch. One took a step forward, Mikasa leaned towards him...and they stopped. She was quiet, she was calm...but it was very clear that she wasn't going to take one lick of crap from them.

I can't blame the sheep. Would you want to mess with this?









She is absolutely going to cost me points in a trial...but my instructor loves her and said she'd take her as a real working farm dog any day.


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## gsdsar (May 21, 2002)

Xeph said:


> I do not mind you asking  I welcome questions, and I share my AmLines here because there are so few.
> 
> I do love her shoulder and croup, but do feel she could have a slightly longer upper arm, and her shoulder lay on is a bit to far forward (lay on is placement of shoulder, layback is angulation).


Huh? So would a longer upper arm change her angle? Make her higher in the withers? Again, stupid question will abound. 

[\QUOTE]Her upper and lower thigh are not equal lengths, with her upper thigh actually be slightly shorter than her lower. This results in a bit of kick up. She could have a better finish on her follow through and slightly better under reach.[/QUOTE]

Huh? LOL!!! Kick up? Does her back paws swipe up? Not finish fluidly? Not sure I understand this. 

[\QUOTE]It's hard to say what her best feature is, because there are so many things I like. It also depends if you are asking based only on structure, or on her work as well.

I love her size. She's actually large for a bitch, but her mother is oversized and there have been some bloody GIANT bitches winning in the AKC ring. Her correct size is what I was going for.

She has absolutely *beautiful* feet and pasterns (the whole litter does), which are poorly lacking in many AmLines. Lots of loose/flat feet. Her pasterns are properly angulated but also springy enough to absorb impact while she works. Very strong ligamentation.

I wish she had a stronger head. I think she may be a little weaker than her mother, which surprises me. Her ear set is better than her mothers, though still slightly wide.[/QUOTE]

Ok. So I am not imaging that. I hate commenting on heads. I tend to love thick heads. Blocky. So I cringe when looking at different lines. Your girl had a very feminine head to me. Appropriate for a bitch. I like her ear set and expression. I wish their was more "bulk?"

[\QUOTE]She is absolutely going to cost me points in a trial...but my instructor loves her and said she'd take her as a real working farm dog any day.[/QUOTE]


Best compliment ever! Have not been around a lot of AmLines. The herding instructor I went to had them and trialed them and I liked her dogs a lot. Moderate, good work ethic, not over the top, nice drive, good on sheep. Made me look twice!!


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## gsdsar (May 21, 2002)

Apologies. Appearantly I can't multi quote on my phone. I tried. Hope it's not too confusing.


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## Xeph (Jun 19, 2005)

I know what you were trying to do 

In regards to her upper arm, my understanding is that it would improve her front reach further. I will have to ask somebody else about the rest (and my understanding COULD be wrong...front assemblies are still difficult for me, even after all this time).

Kick up - Because of her short upper thigh, instead of completing a full sweeping motion backwards, her stride is shortened and she goes more "up" than "back." She cannot quite extend fully (not the same as locked knees)

In regards to her head, yes, more "bulk." My guys tend to be weak in the muzzle vs weak in the skull. The back skull and breadth of skull are very nice, but they are a bit hollow through the cheek and muzzles are a bit too refined. Soul and John Stamos are my exceptions to this.

Here is a picture of Mikasa with her John Stamos


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## Darthvader (Jan 24, 2014)

Lovely shepherds I love the last pic.


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## Xeph (Jun 19, 2005)

Here's a couple pictures from today so you can see her in motion. Natural, off lead, working stock the way she loves, and freestanding in a field


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## dogfaeries (Feb 22, 2010)

Nice! Jackie, you need to post photos more often. Seriously! Lots of them.


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## Xeph (Jun 19, 2005)

Thanks  She finally is starting to get coat back...entered in a show at the end of the month, hoping for good results.


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## Ashley_M (Feb 19, 2003)

Absolutely love that herding photo.


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