By Nawa Ruckes

I “found” Seven (girl) & One (boy) on the internet in December 2010 when they were about 3 months old. They are brother & sister German Shepherds, and they were delivered to me just before Xmas. (Seven is left, One is right in all the pics)Seven.pngOne.png

In April 2011 I saw an ad for Raewyn’s Dog Obedience Club in the local paper and gave her a call. By this time One was starting to walk funny which Raewyn noticed as soon as she saw him.

After a visit to our local vet, xrays were taken and we went to see Steve McGill (orthopaedic vet extraordinaire) in Matamata. Steve advised us that we couldn’t operate on One to correct his hip dysplasia, but we could make sure he was pain-free and given the best chance at life that we could.seven___One.pngThis meant putting One on medication and taking him to see Kirsten Gollan, an animal physiotherapist in Cambridge. She gave me some simple exercises for him to do to help strengthen his rear leg muscles. I relayed this information to Raewyn and next thing I knew Raewyn was incorporating these exercises in with our weekly visits to her.

We’ve been visiting Raewyn for about 2 ½ years now. Seven & One enjoy the challenges that Raewyn provides and it’s a great opportunity to teach them some doggie manners around other dogs. In fact, One won the inaugural Dog Sports Rotorua Agility purple ribbon in June this year, with Seven coming in second.Picture4.png

They are a wonderful pair – and they hate being separated! If you come to my gate they’ll either ignore you, cry at you for attention, or growl at you. I haven’t yet figured out any “selection criteria” as to what action they take – but I’m sure they’ve got it all figured out in their heads.Picture5.png

They’ll celebrate their 3rd birthday on 1st October, and all I can hope for is lots more birthdays to share with them both.