AKC "SumerWynd In The Playoffs", or "Player" as he is called was the first Belgian Sheepdog in our family. Also known as "Groenendaels" Belgian Sheepdogs are known for their intelligence, agility and herding ability. Player was certainly a very good ambassador for the breed.

After a good practice session, Player likes to sit on the dog walk and check out the neighborhood. "Geez, I think I hear the ice cream truck coming this way".

In his agility debut in January 2002, Player took a first place ribbon and scored a qualifying run for his outstanding performance in a CPE "Full House" game event.

Since then, Player earned several agility titles in NADAC and CPE competition, many through the expert level. Player also had his HIC and PT herding titles on sheep. When he was 9, he obtained his Canine Good Citizen award.

In November 2008, Player was not acting normally. Because of his age and physique, we were concerned about the possibility of bloat. When we took him to the ER, the Vet took some x-rays to try and see what might be going on.

He returned to us and said: "The good news is he isn't bloating, and the bad news is it isn't bloat." The x-rays show some masses on his spleen. The most likely diagnosis was Hemangiosarcoma (HSA); a form of cancer.

Shortly after, Player had surgery to remove his spleen. Pathology results confirmed the diagnosis. Unfortunately, the prognosis for this kind of cancer is 2-3 months with surgery alone and 4-6 months with surgery and chemotherapy.

More information about Player and his cancer.

A couple of weeks after Player healed from the surgery, we started his chemotherapy, along with several holistic and dietary treatments.

Throughout his illness, Player was a trooper and every hospital member commented on "what a good dog" he was. His quality of life was extremely good and life was as normal as possible. Player still got to enjoy life, eating his favorite foods (chicken tenders), going for walks, playing with our other dogs and spending time with his Dad and family.

Even though Player beat most odds, it came to the point where his body just could not fight the cancer any more. On June 26, 2009, we had our Vet come to our house to let Player go on his final journey to the Rainbow Bridge.

After Player had been gone a while, we were commenting that our pack just didn't seem complete without a Belgian. The Samoyeds are certainly smart, and the Keeshonden are funny and great alert dogs, but there was definitely something missing. Enter our little Belgian.

AKC " LaraLee's Golden Aster of Cheyenne", or "Cheyenne" as she is called is our newest Belgian Sheepdog to our family.

I went to meet all puppies, sire, and dam when the puppies were a little over 6 weeks old. All of the puppies had very nice temperaments, and choosing just one puppy seemed to be impossible.

As impossible as it may have seemed, after the first visit, little Green Girl and I seemed to find each other. On top of being a really pretty puppy, she was also the most adventurous and curious. This combination seemed like it would fit very well with our plans.

In the first several weeks Cheyenne has been with us, she is showing us just how smart she is. She learned to sit, down, stand, and shake her paw over several days using positive reinforcement training techniques. We have also managed to take her to just about one new place every day to meet new people and discover and experience new things.

We have also left some of our agility equipment (a tunnel, tippy board, and a wing jump with the bar on the ground) in the yard so Cheyenne can become familiar with them and play with them. It did not take her long to run through the tunnel (in the shape of a "U") chasing after her buddy Peanut.

Cheyenne's life took a sudden turn when she had her first tonic-clonic (formerly called grand mal) seizure at 14 weeks old. Since that time, she has had a seizure, on average, about once a week. While this is not at all what we had expected for a puppy, we are trying to manage the seizures, and give Cheyenne as normal a life as we can.

Cheyenne started her first class, an AKC S.T.A.R. class in October. She is having lots of fun meeting new people and dogs, and learning lots of new things.

Here is Cheyenne, at five months old, enjoying her first snowfall. At first, she wasn't quite sure what to make of the snow. Being from Texas, in the late summer, she didn't have any chance to see snow.

Here is Cheyenne playing "tug" with her buddy Frosty in the snow. "Tug" is one of her favorite games.

We have continued to get her out for socialization, and she is doing extremely well. So far, her reaction to strange people is to either go up and greet them or look to us for guidance. At which point, we usually tell her, after asking the person (or people) for permission, to go say hello. For most strange situations, her reaction is to slowly approach and investigate; again looking to us for guidance if she is unsure.

In May 2012, Cheyenne got to welcome the newest member to our pack, Tala. Tala is a Samoyed, and Cheyenne and Tala have been having a great time together since she arrived.

One thing which is very nice for Cheyenne is Tala has a very similar play style. This means they both like to wrestle, tug and chase each other around the yard.

Cheyenne's journey has been a lot different than we had every expected.

When we first brought her home, we had planned to have her do agility like Player. Unfortunately, all that changed when she was about 14 weeks old when she had her first seizure.

Because of the number and intensity of her seizures, we were not sure if she would even survive to see her first birthday. Well, she did, and has seen many more as well.

We always try and remember Cheyenne needs buddies, fun, stimulation, and lots more to thrive. So while she doesn't do agility, she does lots of other things, with us as well as our other dogs. Each day with her is special.