Wealhtheow vom Bairdhaus ~ "Thea" RETIRED

BH, RN, ATD, TKA, TT, CGC

DOB: 8/13/16

AKC: DN47905303

Hips: OFA Good GS-100420G24F-VPI

Elbows: OFA Normal GS-EL38948F24-VPI

Shoulders: OFA Normal GS-SH120F24-VPI

Cardiac: OFA Normal GS-ACA91/25F-VPI

Eyes: OFA Normal GS-EYE691/38F-VPI

DM: Clear N/N

MDR1: Clear

Thea is a true "pocket rocket". While small in stature (bottom end of standard), she has excellent, balanced structure and a muscular build making her very fast, quick and extremely athletic. What she lacks in physical size she more than makes up for in working ability. She has never-ending drive and enthusiasm coupled with a willing nature and hard, resilient temperament which make her a fun and easy dog to train in all phases. Tracking is naturally intense and obedience is eager, focused and energetic. In protection she is the sort of dog that causes people on the sidelines to stop their conversations and turn their attention to her. Her barking is strong, serious and intense, her strikes are fast and hard and her grips always full and crushing. She hits like a cannonball on long bites and shows excellent fighting behavior, clean outs and strong guarding throughout.

Not only does she have great working ability, but she also has just a great overall personality. People who don't know her often ask if she is really as happy as she always appears to be in photos or upon their first time meeting her and the answer is always "Yes. Yes she is." Thea has one of the most good natured and just overall joyous personalities we have ever seen. She has an innate cheerfulness and zest for life that are almost infectious.

Off the field she is a very easy dog to live with and gets along wonderfully with all people and dogs. She does tend to be rather aloof with strangers out in public, though she is always totally confident, sound and approachable. She simply doesn't have much use for people she doesn't know so after shoving her nose into their hands and pockets looking for treats or toys, if none are forthcoming she just ignores them. Visitors at home are quite a different matter though and once we welcome them they are likely to be pelted with toys and invitations to play.

Thea's pedigree is just as exciting as she is herself. She is a daughter of our own own B/HOT Beowulf v Wildhaus "Wulf", and granddaughter of BSP Champion Ernst Weinbergblick and our foundation female, Ira v Argatos. Thea's sire, Wulf, is simply one of the best GSDs we have ever had the pleasure to own. Strong drives, bombproof nerve, the sort of dog who takes everything in stride and can go anywhere and do anything. On the SchH and SDA fields, Wulf never failed to have intense natural tracking, beautiful obedience, and powerful protection with incridible hardness and fight drive (sometimes too much as that "out" was a problem at times when helpers couldn't lock him up). His rock solid temperament allowed him to easily transition to the chaos of the AKC/UKC indoor venues to pick up some Rally titles for fun upon retiring from bite sports. Wulf also brings exceptional health and longevity to the table as he was with us for 14 1/2 wonderful, happy years before we had to say goodbye. Thea's dam, Seda, has proven herself to be a strong producer of versatile working dogs with several puppies from this and previous litters excelling in SAR, law enforcement and various dog sports. Seda herself is the result of a breeding using semen several decades old. This has afforded us the very exciting and unique opportunity to bring forward in the pedigree the genetics of such legends as Drigon, Enno Antrefftal, Racker, Ajax Haus Dexel and many other incredible producers from history.

We were very fortunate to have been able to finally obtain our much sought after Wulfie daughter from a dam with such wonderful genetics and we had high hopes for Thea's future accomplishments on the trial field and in the whelping box. Unfortunately, this was not meant to be as she suffered a devastating back injury at 3 years old. She remains with us as a beloved companion and we'll pursue some tracking titles and possibly some other low impact sports, but her career on the SchH field ended before it could really get started. With the possibility that a genetic structural weakness or predisposition could have contributed to her injury, we also had to make the heartbreaking decision not to breed her.