Asintay German Shepherds

Hello, my name is Mr. Lesley Robinson. On occasion, I’ve been accused of being long winded, especially when it comes to German Shepherds.So you might as well go and get your coffee and sit down with me for a little while, haha. There are a couple of questions I get asked from time to time: “How did you get into German Shepherds?” and “What does Asintay mean?”

Well, I was born in a small community called Kipawa. It is a very beautiful place tucked away in a corner of the bush in Quebec. No, I don’t speak French, lol. One day, my mother, younger brother, and I were going to the store on our old snowmobile. In those days they weren’t called sleds. At that time the ice was beginning to melt along the shoreline, so my mom told me to stay on the ski-doo while she goes into the store to get the mail. Being the non-listening five year old I was, I decided to disobey my mother and start following her. She didn’t even have time to get to the store and was a little way ahead of me, when she noticed her young son following her. I remember her saying: “Lesley, stay there on the ski doo, go back to the machine, don’t run, there’s a big German Shepherd up there on the hill.”  Well, of course I kept running. 

I do remember looking to this hill on my right and seeing this big dog looking down towards me. He was really focused on me, now that I reflect back on it. My mother has told me the rest of the story, because to this day, I don’t remember a thing. She explained that I kept running to her but didn’t get too far, as the German Shepherd from the hill caught up to me and grabbed me somewhere in the shoulder area and was really shaking me up. My mom told me she didn’t care what that dog would do to her, and when she arrived where I was pinned by the dog, she stared to kick him repeatedly to get him off me! 

Wow, my mom was fighting a huge male Shepherd to save me, and he really didn’t want to give me up. Now you must really be wondering what I’m doing with so many German Shepherds, haha. Well, I can tell you that for not even getting my skin broken by the rampaging German Shepherd and not remembering what happened, I sure had a fear of dogs after that. Thank goodness for snowsuits and sweaters. It used to really irritate my older brother when dogs would come near us and I would try and hide behind him. I was actually in panic mode and you know, they would always center me out. I used to hate that. 

Well, many many years passed and I was walking on Young Street in Toronto. I was about 19 years old, and to be honest, I was a little intoxicated. I felt something brush against my right thigh. Naturally, I looked down to see what it was. Calmly and casually, this extremely large German Shepherd overtook my pace and passed me. The thing that caught my attention though was that he was leading a man who could not see. At the time I didn’t give it much thought, but I was really impressed with the look of this dog and what he was doing. That is one of the things that has always stuck in my mind. 

Another time, when I was about 21, I was walking my Border Collie and a Chihauhau in Sturgeon Falls, Ontario. I was really enjoying my walk when I heard a very loud single bark. I looked over and coming towards us was a black and tan shepherd. I still had a lot of fear of dogs at this time and when this rather large creature went around my back, I froze. I couldn’t even see him and he could have done anything he wanted. But the dog just wanted to see why my two dogs were so close to his yard. He wasn’t aggressive and went back to his yard when his owner called him back. This dog was nice and he was similar to Kwi – Very black, and the way he moved, even though I was scared, really caught my eye. I continued on my walk but was so deeply impressed with how this dog slithered back to his owner. 

It was an incredible feeling. I wanted a dog like this so I could watch him and always have that feeling.

To be continued…