YY Litter
Miss White (now “Jiva”) went to Minnesota for tracking, nosework & herding competition and possibly Search & Rescue. Mr. Red (now “Archie”) went to Georgia as a pet and for therapy dog work. Mr. Gold (now “Zeke”) went to Montana as a pet and for therapy dog work. Mr. Purple (now “Ducati”) went to southern Colorado for forensic detection (cadaver). Mr. Blue (now “Ve”) went to Idaho for Search & Rescue. Mr. Green (now “Brodie”) went to Casper to be a therapy dog and compete in all kinds of dog sports – Julie plans to try agility, nosework, and rally, at least, with him. I kept Miss Yellow (now “Pascha”) for nosework competition, therapy dog work and hopefully breeding.
See Pascha at morning playtime 12-28-24 and 10-19-25
See Pascha training in nosework, August – November 2024
(1 year 4 months – 1 year 7 months old)
See her favorite training photos
Jiva (Celhaus Yaj of Ten Thousand Lakes TD) at 2 years 6 months
the former Miss White
Name Story: Yaj is Sanskrit for a person who is a wise sage. “Yaj is Sanskrit for a person who is a wise sage. Jiva is short for Jivamukthi. A Jivamukthi in Hindu is a fully “enlightened” soul who incarnates solely to help humanity. “Jiva” means the self and “mukthi” means freedom from the mortal world, emancipation or fully absorbed in God. Minnesota is known for its over 10K lakes.
10/19/25: “Jiva passed her tracking test! Only 2 of the 7 entered passed. Judges commented on how well she did! (Cel’s note: A dog earns a TD by following a track 440 to 500 yards long with three to five changes of direction and usually changes in terrain (open land, trees, different grass, etc.). The track is laid by a human tracklayer and is “aged” 30 minutes to two hours before the dog begins scenting. The goal is to use the scented track to locate an article (a glove) left at the end of the trail by the tracklayer. The owner follows the dog on a long leash. There is an article at the beginning of the track too in this case a yellow bandana. It is an exacting test, and the judges complemented Jiva and her mom, Sarah, for a fantastic job.) “Corners were crisp, nose down with a few head checks. Great pace. My only “angst” was after long walk in, we had to wait 15 minutes as previous dog needed extra time. Jiva was initially wired for bear and then chilled and lay down as we waited. When judges arrived I gave her another cue, my usual i had already given Are you ready to track? Clipped leash on harness. And went to start. It seemed that “chill time” made her settle calmly right away at a good pace. So it wasn’t the problem I thought it would be. I also petted and praised her a bit longer at the start. There was a turn in small grove of trees that she circled to work the scent. Really a spectacular tracking performance! So damn proud of us!!
Photos 1-2: “Jiva with the 2 judges and the tracklayer.”
Photos 3-4: “Jiva posing with articles after taking picture with judges and track layer. First article a yellow bandana, end article is the glove. On top of both is her toy.”
Photo 5: “Jiva waits for me to say she can retrieve the ball.”
Photo 6: “Joy”
Jiva at 2 years 4 months
Photo 1: “Jiva getting some lovin’ from my sister after a day of activity!!! Its gorgeous up here! Tomorrow we head to a state forest and state park to see the falls colors and hike some trials.”
Photos 2-4: “Tettegouche State Park. This is the Baptism river. It feeds into Lake Superior. Rather long, steep arduous hike to the waterfall. Jiva was zonked after two long hikes today. We were too!! Both J and I exhausted after 3 days up north! I think yesterday 4 hours rigorous hiking!!! One hike was relatively short (2 miles) but thick forest with barely visible path. No other humans around in this forest. Jiva off leash. She would go ahead about 75 ft, stop and then run back to us. I think she did 10 miles. Hike to water fa ll with steep inclines. She was out of her mind with new smells and adventures. What a blast for her!
Photo 5: “Happy Jiva”
10/9: “I got into the tracking test on October 19th! Now a few butterflies! The AKC judge who certified us did say that Jiva was just ‘fabulous’ and congratulated us for getting into the test.” Cels note: there are always more entries than places in tracking tests, so they do a draw to determine who gets to compete.
Jiva at 2 years 3 months
“Tracking test the end of October. I’m having fun training her. She is such a happy, at times naughty, entertaining pocket rocket. With an off switch. (I installed it – and it works beautifully. We had a wonderful hike today.)”
Jiva at 2 years 2 months
7/19 (no photos): “I wish I could get a photo for you of Jiva and I tracking. She is so good! I was planning a morning track today, but there was a thunderstorm so I did this afternoon, knowing the heat will factor in. Just finished. 700 paces or so. 2, 200 plus pace legs. Tall prairie grass and very humid and sunny so a bit hot. I also trained today a longer walk in to the start. Lots of paces before she got to first article. Followed by multiple articles. Aged the track about 45 minutes. Jiva was getting very hot. She refused my offers of water because she was in tracking mode. Used her dinner kibble to reward on the articles and ball on rope at the end. I spend a lot of time at the articles to praise, pet, food. Gets her calmer for the restart. She found all the articles beautifully. Damn she is a hard worker!! Lots of crickets on this field (a new field too). I have to restrain her speed and make her go my pace the little fast devil. She just did FANTASTIC! Back at minivan I got her crate pad wet and she did finally drink water. Running the big crate fan now and the AC. Next time I bring some ice just in case. Next Friday we certify. I feel very confident. Short fun tracks until then. Heat index 102. Not walking this evening. She is ridiculously happy…except when I leave the car to go lay a track – or when I watch other dogs’ herding sessions and she doesn’t get to come along – she will carry on a bit. Or if we are near water and I won’t let her swim. She gets over herself and her drama though. I know I’m cruel, so cruel.”
Photos 1-3: “First swim of season! Water quite cold and choppy from stiff wind. But record hot weather at the moment and glad I was able to take her swimming! Trying to set up TD certification test. Been a challenge to find someone to certify and schedules.”
Photo 4: “Wondering what I’m doing in the garage. We had a great time swimming earlier!”
Photo 5: “She’s a content little bugger.”
Photo 6: “We passed our certification track this morning in knee- to waist-level prairie. It went well, except this particular field had many ground-level vines!! I nearly fell laying the track and then running Jiva on it. Whoa! She needs to go my pace but sometimes that’s so hard for her. The tester is also an AKC tracking judge. She said she was looking forward to seeing Jiva today as she had laid a blind track for us earlier. Jiva did fantastic!! Nailed all the corners, steady pace, confident dog. The judge was so impressed with this shepherd of mine! She suggested we try for TDU also. October 19 is our TD test. Handling Jiva today was a breeze. She was so confident and committed. In one area she circled a bit for whatever reason, otherwise she was exactly on the track the whole time. Jiva wasn’t impressed with no reward at the articles and had to settle for my happy praise and petting. Back at car, her toy, tug and some light fetch. VERY proud of her!!!!”
Photo 7: “Jiva chilling with me in the back yard, living her best life gnoshing on a frozen Kong.”
Ducati (Celhaus Yamaha Chasing Ducati) at 2 years 2 months
Ducati joined his full older sister, Roxanne from the TT litter, in training for Search & Rescue
“Ducati’s first trip to the ocean.”
July 14 (no photos): “Ducati is on his first search after certification. We are in Oregon and will be working on 2 to 3 cases this week. One case is 4 years old and the other is a homicide that is about 1.5 years old.” He and Roxane are both doing fantastic!”
Ducati at 2 years 1 month
June 20 (no photos): “Ducati certified this morning in human remains detection. He did a super job!”
Ve (Celhaus Youngest Brother Ve) at 1 year 8 months
the former Mr. Blue
Name Story: “Ve is one of the brothers of Odin in Norse Mythology. My two male dogs are named Vili (middle brother) and Ve. (Https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vili_and_Ve). Ve is pronounced ‘Vay’.”
“Ve just got back from the groomer’s and wanted you to have one of his birthday pictures. He camps out in my office with me these days, so he gets lots of hugs.”
Ve at 1 year 8 months
(no photos) “Ve and I are going to trial for our BH this spring, and then see when we can go for Level 1 after that. Two tries at SAR didn’t work out for various reasons. So he’s a Schutzhund boy now. He likes bitework better anyway. He loves it. When he sees me pullout his ” tough guy” clothes, you can’t hardly contain him. He’s still a puppy, so he does it with a big stupid grin and a wagging tail. Yeah, tracking. American Schutzhund does black powder detection, so that would be the other option. I think the trainer I’m working with favors tracking though.”
Archie (Celhaus Yan) at 1 year
the former Mr. Red
“Here are some birthday pictures we took this morning. He wanted to play instead of hold still for photos. He is doing really great. We have been going for morning jogs now that the weather is a bit better and the snow has, for the most part, quit for the season. We started slow at 1 mile, three days a week. He LOVES it. We get deer and bunnies and squirrels out this early in the morning and so Zeke has tons to look at. It has been a bit of a learning curve because he is coupled with my other dog, Indiana, so they have to run together in a team so we don’t all get tripped up. We are soooooo ready for camping season to get started! And nice weather so we can be outside more – planting flowers and playing in the yard.”
Archie at 11 months with Ava (from the KK litter, 8 years 2 months)
“Hi Cel, hope all is well. Here are a few photos of Archie. He is such a joy!”
Zeke (Celhaus You are a Blessing) at 9 months
the former Mr. Gold
“Zeke is doing awesome! He is so big now, and so handsome, fuzzy and fluffy. Zeke is such a sweet boy. He loves coming up to us for pets and snuggles, although he’s not keen on napping with me. He is kind of lazy in a hilarious way. My golden, Indiana, and Zeke will play tug with a toy and his favorite move is to just lie flat on the floor while Indy just drags him from one end of the room and back again. He is also very patient and loving with my four children. My oldest loves to “train” him. Really, he just has him sit and lie down and stay but Zeke gets treats and my son gets practice on how to work with dogs. The girls love to dress him up and read stories to him and he patiently allows it. I have included a picture of Zeke with a cat-ear headband the girls put on him. I am looking forward to spring when we can get outside to go jogging and enjoy some camping.”
Zeke at 13 weeks
“It’s been a few weeks since I sent an update. Zeke is doing awesome. We have been enjoying all sorts of fun activities from going to the local ice cream at the little ice cream shack, to going to tractor supply and hamming it up for all the workers and shoppers in there. We also got out the little splash pad at our house for the kids because it has been super-hot lately. Zeke loves it! He and my golden spend just as much time running through the water as the kids. We also just got back from Zeke’s first camping trip! We went on top of the Beartooth Mountains to a secluded mountain lake and enjoyed a nice peaceful weekend. Zeke had a blast hiking into the lake and really enjoyed the fishing. He was not quite sure what to think of those fish. I need to get a hunting vest for him or something. I was scared he would be mistaken for a bear cup or wolf pup, so I put a red bandana on him while he was up there. However, he behaved so well and never once tried to run off.”
Pascha (Celhaus You Walk on the Wings of the Wind CGC ATD) at 1 year
Pascha now has her own page.
Name Story: Since this litter was born on Holy Saturday, I wanted an Easter-themed name for my girl. The name for Easter in the Eastern Rite Churches is “Pasch.” In the Western Churches we talk of the Paschal Mystery of Easter. “Pascha” is a derivative of both Easter names. Her registered name is from my favorite psalm (Psalm 104), which is one of the Psalms prayed in the Liturgy of the Hours for Easter Sunday.
Pascha (1 year 8 months old) passed her therapy dog test on December 27th.
The tester was concerned that perhaps her walking with a cane would bother Pascha – until I told her part of the therapy dog test involves how she reacts to a person walking unsteadily, so we wouldn’t have to pretend this time.
AND her Canine Good Citizen test on December 28th. Good girl!!!
The CGC tester wears an oxygen tank. Last January when she tested Varoom! for hewr CGC, she worried that the hissing of the oxygen tank would bother Varoom! but I told her it was one more great experience for a potential therapy dog. This time she didn’t even ask if it would bother Pascha. I love that we have “extra” distractions on these two testings on my potential therapy dogs.
See Pascha doing Therapy Dog visits and Reading Dog at the school.
See Pascha at morning playtime on December 28, 2024 and October 19, 2025
See Pascha training nosework
See more one-year-old photos
to the YY litter Background Information
to the YY litter pedigree