Little Nikki (DDay's Nicole Snow Princes).

This is Nikki. She is an American Eskimo. Nikki was born in April 1999 and is about seven months old in these pictures. I never had an American Eskimo before and I am going through a learning experience with her.

My Mother and Nikki

Nikki and Me

Nikki was given to me as a birthday present. She was named after a friend of that I once knew. Nikki was three months old at the time I got her and really did not resemble an American Eskimo. Even now as she approached a year old she is just began to show some of the features that all Eskies have. An American Eskimo is not your run of the mill dog. They crave constant attention. If you can not devote enough time to your dog do not get this bread. She seams to have more energy that most dog have. I have had many type of dogs through the years and have found that this one seams to be stronger and more energetic than most dogs. I have to be careful as to what I do around her because she learns so fast that she can figure out how to do thing that I do not want her to do. When I feed her she watches me. She sees where her food is kept and sees me opening the lid of her food container. Now she uses her nose to try to pop the lid off.

Nikki also does a lot of other crazy things. She likes to walk on her hind legs a lot. Many a times while I am sitting in the back yard I will see her stand up, unaided, on her hind legs to look around the yard. She also likes to walk on her hind legs while on the leash. She also runs funny. As she runs in the yard I notice that she has a Pepe Le Pew approach to her run. She seams to hop more than run. This gives her the effect of a gazelle.

One thing that is very discouraging is her constant speed. This makes her very hard to photograph. This past year I got a Sony FD-71. I was able to take some action shots of her antics. However, when I moved up the a Nikon 950 and later to the Nikon 990, I have not been able to catch her so easily. As a puppy she was a bit slower, but I did get some mid air shots that I have not been able to reproduce on either Nikon. I suppose I could use a film camera and a scanner. Ugh....

New Stuff

I have taken some more recent pictures of little Nikki. Because of her speed an the fact that she refuses to stay in one spot for very long she is very hard to photograph. Recently I was looking through a photo album of my grandfather. In the album I found a picture of my Great Grand mother with an American Eskimo on a leash. The dog looks like my Nikki and the photo was take in the later 1800s to early 1900s. This bread is a relatively new bread to the various registries. In the past this dog was know by other names and has been around. Below is a copy of this picture. Note the shape of the dog's head and position of the ears. I have been told that the breeders of this dog are trying to get the dogs ears to be spaced further apart. I believe that this dog is evolving through breading selections.

My great grandmother with an

American Eskimo ~1905

We believe that this photo was taken about 1905. I thought it quite interesting someone else in the family had one of these dog's.

10/12/00:

I took Little Nikki in to the veterinarian to be fixed. I feel badly about this. She is a nearly perfect. After this she can never be shown of at a dog show. Being of at least seven generations of PR (Purple Registry) there were many options. I also felt bad about leaving here with strangers in a strange place. Since we got her she has always been with us all the time.

 

4/12/01:

Nikki is two years old now. She take commands quite well and has settled  down quite a bit. Up until recently she was a real, "Fireball." She is, however, a bit skittish. I bought her an electronic mouse and she will not come near it. I placed a child's gate in the door of our living room and she climes over it when I bring out the mouse.