Rishon is the matriarch of our kennel (her name means "first" in Hebrew). All our other dogs are either daughters or granddaughters of hers. She was born 26 May 2011 at Green Paradise Shelties. Rishon is the serene, stable, nurturing leader of our little pack. She never has to assert herself, all our other animals have great respect for her, even now that she gets older and slower. She only has to lift her lip a tiny bit or stare at someone for a split second to make a would-be perpetrator melt into the background. With Rishon we have tried various training disciplines, but her greatest hobby is tracking. Now that she and I have some more trouble fasttracking through the mud in rough terrain, we have started her on detection, and of course she excels at that too. She may have been losing some of her hearing lately, but there's nothing wrong with her nose. Rishon has always been a great mother to her puppies and to this day she nurtures all of her offspring. If they have a nip or a tick somewhere, she points straight at it so I can take care of it. Rishon has always been quite a strong-willed lady, while she still loves to cuddle. She was always our greatest hunter of cats and game and unfortunately she has taught her offspring to enjoy that too. Fortunately she always finds her way back to me without fail, but as she sometimes seems to forget what she's doing these days, she wears a GPS Tracker.

Rishon bijna 12 jaar

In this picture Rishon is almost 12 years old. She is completely deaf now, but she still loves to frollic in the woods. Only in places that are potentially dangerous for her, I have to keep her on leash, as she doesn't hear me when I call her.

Rishon 10,5 jaar Rishon 10,5 jaar

In these pictures our "Grand Old Lady" is 10.5 years old.

Rishon 7 jaarIn these pictures Rishon is 7 years old (2018). She has children and grandchildren and will soon become a mother herself for the last time. Rishon 7 jaar Rishon 7 jaar
Rishon 7 jaar Rishon 7 jaar Rishon 7 jaar

Rishon drinkt 2016 Rishon verzorgt Ailey 2016Just a few nice pictures of 2016. Rishon is the unchallenged packleader, but she cares for her packmembers very much and she never needs to revert to agression to get her point across to visiting dogs. She used to wash Ailey's face and teeth constantly. Even after Ailey was humanely put to sleep, Rishon kept licking her face for at least an hour. Rishon op het strand 2015This picture was taken by Maayke van der Laak

Rishon op Fundag KC Kennemerland 2015 Rishon op Fundag KC Kennemerland 2015Went to a funworkshop in May 2015, we both enjoyed working together very much. Rishon op Fundag KC Kennemerland 2015
Rishon op Fundag KC Kennemerland 2015 Rishon op Fundag KC Kennemerland 2015 Rishon op Fundag KC Kennemerland 2015 Rishon op Fundag KC Kennemerland 2015

We had a great workshop Mantrailing with Renate Hagen of Trackingschool DogAdvice in 2014. After this workshop, Rishon and I started a course in tracking in Utrecht (picture below). Unfortunately it was too far to drive to Renate every week, otherwise we would have loved to keep training with her.
SportSpeuren 2014

DogDance 2014 DogDance 2014Rishon and I followed a course DogDance, but Rishon didn't like it very much, so we stopped. Fortunately her daughter Nyota really liked DogDance, so I continued with her. DogDance 2014

Rishon ClubGG Examen Zit en Blijf← Sit and Stay (2 Minutes) Rishon ClubGG Examen Los Volgen




← Heeling without leash		 Rishon ClubGG Examen Apporteren↑ Retrieving Dummy
Rishon ClubGG Examen Voor Achter Langs
These pictures are of the Club-GG exam. The exercises are the same as the GG-B exam, but this is organised by the club itself, instead of Cynophilia. The examinor was Loes Bijlhout. Rishon passed the exam with flying colours. Left you see the heeling in front of and behind a row of dogs.
 Rishon ClubGG Examen Vak Sturen↑ Sending to marked area
     
Rishon 17 Maanden
In these pictures Rishon on either side Rishon is 17 months old, in the Amsterdamse Bos in October 2012. And the picture below was taken 1,5 months earlier when she was still in her summercoat. So you can see how fast that coat grows back.

 Rishon 17 Maanden
Rishon 17 Maanden Rishon 16 Maanden Rishon 17 Maanden
     

Rishon 10 Maanden
Rishon 10 Maanden & TuvokIn these pictures Rishon is 10 months old, celebrating the spring in the Amsterdam Forest. Early in the morning, hence the beautiful colour of the sunlight and of course together with her (and our) best friend Tuvok.

Rishon 10 Maanden

Rishon 10 Maanden & Tuvok

Rishon 10 Maanden
Rishon 10 Maanden
Rishon 10 Maanden
Rishon 10 Maanden & Tuvok
Rishon 10 Maanden & Tuvok
 Rishon 10 Maanden & Tuvok
     

Rishon 8 Maanden
In these pictures Rishon is 8 Months young. She is now 41 centimeters unfortunately, but has the best temperament you could wish for.
Rishon 8 Maanden Profiel
 Rishon 8 Maanden
     

To the right you see our Christmas card of 2011. In this picture Rishon is 6,5 months old. We no longer have to attach her to Tuvok to make her sit and stay.
Kerstkaart 2011
     
Rishon 5,5 maanden oud
Rishon is 5,5 months old here. She does great at training. She already can heel without leash, lay down while I walk a circle around her, sit close next to me and last Tuesday she learned sending ahead. However she occasionally doesn't come when called, so she starts puberty early.
Rishon 5,5 maanden oud
Rishon 5,5 maanden oud
She likes to "help" with whatever you do, but she also loves to cuddle and she loves everything and everyone.
     
Today Rishon was on the beach for the first time in her life. Both dogs enjoyed themselves greatly as you can see in the pictures. Click on the left picture to see the whole series. If you want to abort, click anywhere on the screen or press Escape.
Rishon was 20,5 weeks old.
     
Rishon 19,5 week oud
In these pictures Rishon is 19,5 weeks old. We are in the Amsterdam Forest.		 Rishon 19,5 week oud

Rishon 19,5 week oud
     

Our vacation with the camper on the Veluwe in September 2011


Sandsculpture festival in Garderen
At the living statues festival in Arnhem it was so crowded, we put both dogs in the buggy.

The hippiade at the KNHS grounds in Ermelo

The great forest and heather were right next to the camground, so we had great walks every day.
     

These pictures are of the last  puppy-training at the school of Olivier Wiegman  the 10th of September, when they placed some small agility exercises for the puppies to play with. Rishon loved it.


Rishon really loves the puppytraining, as you can see in these pictures. Left is the first training on the 27th of August when Rishon was 13,5 weeks old and right on the 3rd of September. It feels wonderful to see such a happy puppy running straight at you.
     

Below you'll find pictures of the activities we undertook with our little girl in her 12th and 13th week.


Finally good wheather, so first time in the water. Rishon is exactly 13 weeks old today
What you can't see on the pictures, she was complaining all the time, but the treats were enough reason to stay with me anyway.

Rishon (12,5 weeks) in daddy's lap

Rishon investigates the agility tunnel for the first time, together with Ragdoll Shakaar. A few minutes later, when the cats finally vacated the tunnel, she ran back and forth through it, with Tuvok's favorite toy in her mouth, great fun.

Rishon at 12,5 weeks and Tuvok in the heather.


Rishon meets cow, in the end she got a lot closer, but then I unfortunately didn't have my camera at the ready.
     


At 12 weeks of age Rishon went to her first show, a local all-breed clubmatch. She did great and was the best (and only) Sheltie. As you can see on these six pictures, she was showing very well, a natural. In the best baby finals she did not win, but of course we were extremely proud of her nonetheless


Below you can see Rishon in her buggy, which replaced the babypouch in which I used to carry her. She became too heavy to carry. On the show she slept soundly in this buggy, her home away from home.

     


These 6 photo's are of Rishon at 11,5 weeks of age. The bottom three prove how great she now gets along with Tuvok. They play all day and sleep on top of each other.
     

Rishon is a very happy puppy and we think she's very bright as well. Within a few minutes after wearing a collar for the first time in her life, she already knew how to walk on leash and she neatly retrieves all her toys when we throw them.
The normal walk is of course far too long for her, so I carry her in a babypouch.

For the pedigree of Rishon I found pictures of many of her forebears. A few pictures are still missing, but I have emailed their owners or breeders to ask the pictures of these dogs. Hopefully it will become complete.


Rishon 9,5 weeks old

We wanted in the first place a companion for our adopted dog Tuvok, but I (Iris) would very much like a dog to show and perhaps breed with. We also want to train (also agility later on).


Rishon 6 weeks old

It took some time before we could pick up Rishon, because first our older dog was a little sick and we didn't want to risk it being contagious, and then the breeder was ill. But at last at the age of 9 weeks and 2 days we could make the drive to Germany to pick up the "key to our hearts". We are eternally gratefull to Marion & Theo of Green Paradise Shelties that they granted us this gorgeous sweet puppy.


Rishon 7,5 weeks old