The personality/characteristics of Tika are intensity, wild, carefree, lovable, competitive and well downright exhausting! In hindsight we should have given her the moniker Draufgänger!
She is tiny but mighty, determined, driven and when she is done for the day, downright grumpy and wants to be left alone. Her new den has become the guest bathroom where she heads to at night to conk out.
As morning approaches, she is up, alert and ready for work. She sits at the back French doors and watches out as dawn comes across the pastures. She will spot a coyote around the back of the chicken coop 75 yards from the door in the dimmest light of dawn. She will then pursue said coyote with the cunning and quickness of the wiliest of them all.
She was the tiniest in a litter of 9 pups breed with Czech/DDR working lines and she will work no questions asked.
Her coat is a thick medium/long silky black. Her frame sleek, slender and built for speed. She has it all, including an obsessive compulsion for sticks. Or should I say the tiniest of worthless pieces of wood that she continuously drops at your feet! This obsessive behavior is in hopes that some unsuspecting victim will actually throw this now malformed toothpick for her fetching pleasure.
I love her to bits, although at times she frustrates the piss out of me! I don’t think I would trade her for the world because who can say they have a Tasmanian devil of a dog that is so stinking beautiful you just want to love her to pieces!
At just a few months old, she was a tenacious puppy! She would take on Rowdy, six months her senior by the way, and pin him down by his neck! My Rowdy boy is so sweet he would just entertain her until she passed out!
As she’s grown, currently she is going on 21 months, she is still every bit stubborn, quirky and relentless. I know I have my hands full with her, but I accept this challenge. Learning how to work with her strong tendencies and high prey drive does not come without its ups and downs.
I’ve never had a German Shepherd so full of energy, drive and stubbornness. With that said, I am learning what I can and cannot do in order to cultivate the energy she has. While also learning to direct that energy in the proper way.
Here’s to a new chapter in the life of Ani and Tika; where I get to learn from this crazy lil wolf all the patience, tolerance and what one should do when trying to live with a smart, loving and independent free spirit.
