This is Patch, now known as Skipper, the little Schipperke with a rare auto-immune skin disease who came to us several weeks ago from a shelter in California. We renamed him Skipper in honor of his Schipperke heritage, because this breed was used as watchdogs on boats and barges in the Netherlands and Belgium. ("Schipperke" is actually a diminutive form of the Dutch word for "skipper," so there you have it.) As you can see, Skipper has now become an official rolling dog himself.
I took this photo of him right after that roll, and you can see he was one very happy boy. It’s too soon to know what kind of "roller" he will be. We have three categories of rolling dogs here. There are the "fair-weather rollers," who generally roll only on grass when it’s warm out. Then we have the "all-season rollers," who roll year-round regardless of the weather. Finally, we have the "snowy rollers," who usually prefer to roll only on snow.
It’s kind of hard to tell from these photos, but Skipper’s hair is definitely growing back and his skin is in much better shape. He still has some crusty areas, particularly on his ears and around his neck, and his face does seem to be permanently scarred. But we’ve only had a couple of days where he’s been scratching at himself, so we are cautiously optimistic we have his skin disease under control.
(Click on photos for larger image.)
Rolling Dog Farm Blog 
Leave a comment