© Phoenix White Shepherds
Stephen moved to New Zealand from Wales in 2008 bringing with them their 2 dogs Zappa & Emma. Unfortunatley Emma, the White Shepherd, died shortly after arrival. Cariad came into their lives a little later and as she has grown has adapted well to the outdoors lifestyle.
Emma in the Sand Dunes where she would pursue rabbits
Emma taking a rest from hunting rabbits in the dunes at Ynyslas Wales
I have owned 3 GSDs, Jake a big White GSD, Emma a White and Jasper a big Black and Tan. Emma and Jasper I have worked as hunting dogs, Jasper fathered 2 pups to a greyhound by means of A.I., one of them to become a very well known dog in the UK. The following is a little bit about Emma.
I made the trip from Wales, UK, to Dunedin and brought with us Emma (white GSD) and Zappa (white GSD x Greyhound). Emma was a 11 yr old white GSD bred by a Brian Plummer, her pedigree name is Moonglow Raggengill. I have had her since she was 10 wks old. I fell for her whilst returning from a rabbitting trip up in Scotland calling into Brian's kennels on the way back. Sadly the old arthritis is taking hold and she is a bit stiff on her legs lately, though she was surprisingly perky and unstiff when we picked her and Zappa up from Christchurch airport after their journey over and being in their flight crates for 36 hrs or so. Probably from the administration of Metacam - she normally gets given it mostly at weekends as this is the time of most activity for her, when I'm off work - it works well for her.
Her flight had touched down and we waited patiently for her to be brought in; Zappa had arrived on an earlier flight because they couldn't both be fitted on to the same plane. After about 20 minutes the airport staff member who was looking after the dogs' arrival paperwork, told us that they had lost Emma. He trundled off to phone Auckland, where the dogs had first arrived and were put on the Dunedin flight. She was definitely loaded there was the reply from Auckland. How can you lose a big crate with a GSD in it I asked him? Just then, in came one of the women staff, I've found your dog she announced, she'll be in in 2 minutes. Apparently she had been unloaded from the plane but left on the tarmac instead of being brought in by the baggage handlers. Well in she came tail wagging and none the worse for the delay. A quick walk and a pee, some water and she was in the van with Zappa, ready for the journey to Dunedin. We got home eventually, took the dogs around the house inside and out and then bedded them down for the night. Well… tried to! It was about 11pm and they had started to wake up; it seems dogs do suffer from jet lag and they were up and pacing for a good few nights.
Mr Plummer bred his whites primarily as working dogs; quite a few were sold as mountain rescue dogs. Apparently the whites were used as opposed to the Black and tans because they didn't frighten people when they were found. Some went on as herding dogs. The lines had good temperament, were high on the back end and were also obedient and agile. I wanted the large dog in the litter but Brian said he was spoken for, he was going to mountain rescue member. Brian also made a television programme for the Lone Furrow series in the UK about his life in Scotland and particularly about his whites. Showed how he trained a team as sledge dogs and how he used them for hunting with ferrets for rabbit, plus their many other uses. He wrote many a book and one was entitled Polly - it was about how he started out with the whites with a dog called Polly and all the things she did to help him in his life in the harsh Scottish Highlands. Polly was a very versatile dog and the book is well worth the read. Sadly Brian passed away a few years back and from what I've found out his partner has kept up his work with the whites and now breeds long haired whites and black GSD's.
Apparently Emma is a double of Polly from what I've been told. She has been a damn good dog and has located many a pheasant and rabbit and flushed them out. She definitely taught Zappa how to hunt up and to see her push through brambles, brush and cover would have put many a spaniel to shame. She was an excellent part of my working/hunting dog team back in the UK in her younger days. I then lived on the edge of a 3000 acre forestry and had 4 GSD x greyhounds plus Emma and we spent many a happy hour hunting in the woods. She was a pain when she located a deer though and would relentlessly pursue them - my failing was I couldn't call her off! I would watch her disappear into the forestry with her trailing a deer, the deer just sloping off. She would usually return to the house some time later. I would often holler her in anger but she never appeared, until she was ready. Then one day after such an incident I walked out from the house about an hour later, no Emma. So I walked on a bit further and saw her lying in a hollow in the ground. I shouted at her, she stayed there; I called her nicely and up she got and trotted to me!!
Time went on, life ended up with just myself and Emma for a while. During this time I moved in with my cousin - she had a big house. Just her and Buddy - a big disobedient 2 yr old Rottweiler. Her opening line when Emma and I arrived was, "can you do something with Buddy? He rules the house". And he did! I decided to start with Buddy's basic obedience and on our 2nd day there put him on a lead took him out into the garden. Emma was just to the side of him. I walked him round stopped, sit, a gentle tug on the lead and he bared his teeth and snarled at me. Well, Emma came in from the side of him went under him, grabbed his front leg furthest from her, pulled it back down and over went buddy and she pinned him by the throat. He squealed like a baby in shock. No harm done - Emma let him go when I asked and Buddy started to behave and turned out a cracking, daft-as-a brush, reasonably obedient Rotty, once he knew his place.
Then an opportunity arose for me to breed another GSD x greyhound. My son wanted a dog of this breeding to hunt with. He had a greyhound bitch and an ex-partner of mine had a big white GSD dog- Jake. I got the pair mated and along came 4 pups, from which I picked Zappa. Emma ended up surrogate mother to Zappa. Zappa was always a bit mad and he gave her some grief, always wanting to play, as pups do. Tugging on her ears and pulling on her back legs. He would trot around gamely after Emma in the woods, checking rabbit holes and searching out other critters. She has always been boss of the pair though and although she would take a lot from Zappa, when she put him in his place she did it good and proper, the not so sweet and placid Emma!
I made the trip from Wales, UK, to Dunedin and brought with us Emma (white GSD) and Zappa (white GSD x Greyhound). Emma was a 11 yr old white GSD bred by a Brian Plummer, her pedigree name is Moonglow Raggengill. I have had her since she was 10 wks old. I fell for her whilst returning from a rabbitting trip up in Scotland calling into Brian's kennels on the way back. Sadly the old arthritis is taking hold and she is a bit stiff on her legs lately, though she was surprisingly perky and unstiff when we picked her and Zappa up from Christchurch airport after their journey over and being in their flight crates for 36 hrs or so. Probably from the administration of Metacam - she normally gets given it mostly at weekends as this is the time of most activity for her, when I'm off work - it works well for her.
Her flight had touched down and we waited patiently for her to be brought in; Zappa had arrived on an earlier flight because they couldn't both be fitted on to the same plane. After about 20 minutes the airport staff member who was looking after the dogs' arrival paperwork, told us that they had lost Emma. He trundled off to phone Auckland, where the dogs had first arrived and were put on the Dunedin flight. She was definitely loaded there was the reply from Auckland. How can you lose a big crate with a GSD in it I asked him? Just then, in came one of the women staff, I've found your dog she announced, she'll be in in 2 minutes. Apparently she had been unloaded from the plane but left on the tarmac instead of being brought in by the baggage handlers. Well in she came tail wagging and none the worse for the delay. A quick walk and a pee, some water and she was in the van with Zappa, ready for the journey to Dunedin. We got home eventually, took the dogs around the house inside and out and then bedded them down for the night. Well… tried to! It was about 11pm and they had started to wake up; it seems dogs do suffer from jet lag and they were up and pacing for a good few nights.
Mr Plummer bred his whites primarily as working dogs; quite a few were sold as mountain rescue dogs. Apparently the whites were used as opposed to the Black and tans because they didn't frighten people when they were found. Some went on as herding dogs. The lines had good temperament, were high on the back end and were also obedient and agile. I wanted the large dog in the litter but Brian said he was spoken for, he was going to mountain rescue member. Brian also made a television programme for the Lone Furrow series in the UK about his life in Scotland and particularly about his whites. Showed how he trained a team as sledge dogs and how he used them for hunting with ferrets for rabbit, plus their many other uses. He wrote many a book and one was entitled Polly - it was about how he started out with the whites with a dog called Polly and all the things she did to help him in his life in the harsh Scottish Highlands. Polly was a very versatile dog and the book is well worth the read. Sadly Brian passed away a few years back and from what I've found out his partner has kept up his work with the whites and now breeds long haired whites and black GSD's.
Apparently Emma is a double of Polly from what I've been told. She has been a damn good dog and has located many a pheasant and rabbit and flushed them out. She definitely taught Zappa how to hunt up and to see her push through brambles, brush and cover would have put many a spaniel to shame. She was an excellent part of my working/hunting dog team back in the UK in her younger days. I then lived on the edge of a 3000 acre forestry and had 4 GSD x greyhounds plus Emma and we spent many a happy hour hunting in the woods. She was a pain when she located a deer though and would relentlessly pursue them - my failing was I couldn't call her off! I would watch her disappear into the forestry with her trailing a deer, the deer just sloping off. She would usually return to the house some time later. I would often holler her in anger but she never appeared, until she was ready. Then one day after such an incident I walked out from the house about an hour later, no Emma. So I walked on a bit further and saw her lying in a hollow in the ground. I shouted at her, she stayed there; I called her nicely and up she got and trotted to me!!
Time went on, life ended up with just myself and Emma for a while. During this time I moved in with my cousin - she had a big house. Just her and Buddy - a big disobedient 2 yr old Rottweiler. Her opening line when Emma and I arrived was, "can you do something with Buddy? He rules the house". And he did! I decided to start with Buddy's basic obedience and on our 2nd day there put him on a lead took him out into the garden. Emma was just to the side of him. I walked him round stopped, sit, a gentle tug on the lead and he bared his teeth and snarled at me. Well, Emma came in from the side of him went under him, grabbed his front leg furthest from her, pulled it back down and over went buddy and she pinned him by the throat. He squealed like a baby in shock. No harm done - Emma let him go when I asked and Buddy started to behave and turned out a cracking, daft-as-a brush, reasonably obedient Rotty, once he knew his place.
Then an opportunity arose for me to breed another GSD x greyhound. My son wanted a dog of this breeding to hunt with. He had a greyhound bitch and an ex-partner of mine had a big white GSD dog- Jake. I got the pair mated and along came 4 pups, from which I picked Zappa. Emma ended up surrogate mother to Zappa. Zappa was always a bit mad and he gave her some grief, always wanting to play, as pups do. Tugging on her ears and pulling on her back legs. He would trot around gamely after Emma in the woods, checking rabbit holes and searching out other critters. She has always been boss of the pair though and although she would take a lot from Zappa, when she put him in his place she did it good and proper, the not so sweet and placid Emma!
Emma sunning herself in our N.Z garden
Emma loves the water and it's hard to keep her out of it. When Zappa was a few months old, Bron and I were walking along a river bank with Zappa and Emma. There was snow on the ground and the river was in full flood, and just 2 minutes after I said to Bron "I have to watch her or she'll be in the river", Splash! in she went - followed by a smaller splash. I ran to the bank and there was Emma just paddling round and poor Zappa under the water. Up he popped but swam out to the middle of the river in panic. I shouted and shouted until he turned round and swam back, I had to get down the bank and haul him out. After that he was terrible in the water. Not afraid of it, just panicked when he went in. He would get in the water at any opportunity, but seemed like when he realised he was swimming he panicked. That's when Emma would swim up to him and stay with him until he got his feet down. One day, in his splashing panic he ended up a bit far out in the water, and she actually swam right up alongside him, nudging him in to the bank.
Well the panic swimming persisted with Zappa, over time he progressed mostly when he had an object to swim for. I would take a throwing dummy to the water, if I threw this in the water he would swim for it without panic, pick the dummy up turn head back in and then panic. Also he would have stiff competition in reaching the dummy from Emma, although a bit arthritic she remained a good swimmer and would sometimes get to the dummy first. She would pick the dummy up sometimes, sometimes just swim around it and leave it for Zappa, why only she knows, but dummy or no dummy she still swam back with Zappa. Sometimes her having the dummy gave him encouragement to determinedly swim after her and not panic so much. Two weeks before we left for New Zealand I thought I would spend some time getting Zappa to swim properly, I couldn't bring a non swimmer to NZ, but that's a story for another day.
We've been in NZ for 6 wks and the dogs 5, we're all settling in fine except for Zappa. Although he has been fine most of the time he was definitely traumatised by the flight. It started off with a fear of a fun device called a thunder maker, a tube with a spring attached. I cured him of that, then it was the dishwasher… cured that one. Now it's the toaster - proving a bit more difficult! Bron also thinks he has a bit of separation anxiety, as when I go out he panics for a while. Emma's no problem. She's good as gold - just getting on in her cool chilled manor as always. In fact she seems more laid back. If anything she became very protective towards Bron over the years in Wales, but over here she's a lot better. She even let the electric meter reader open the back door to the house and call out… to be honest I think the flight deafened her a bit and she didn't hear him!
So now we continue the settling-in process. Have paid for registering the dogs with the Council, as well as registering as a kennels! This is compulsory in Dunedin if you have more than one dog. I've made contact with a breeder of Emma's line, Raggengill, in the UK with a view to hopefully importing another white GSD in the future…
S.B.
