The brave new world & celebration

The weather was beautiful this weekend, the sn*w melted, quite a bit of it YEAH!!! Since it was so nice(heat wave of 40!) I put up my expen from hell(8X8 pen, it's the one from hell cuz it's a pita to move around, doesn't fit in my car, but was a $50 steal) out on the driveway (only dry place to do so right now), topped it to keep any birdies out and give them shade(they range from 8-almost 11 lbs now) and plopped their little butts in there. . new world to view, different sounds(barking and howling adult dogs, cars coming ni and out of the driveway, sounds of birds), and they romped and had a blast. . .finally collapsing into the two crate halves I put out there for them. . .stayed out all afternoon Saturday and all morning Sunday, and will be doing mroe of this at night as long as weather's nice, unfortunately tonite we're expecting freezing rain ::SIGH:: They need this.

I expected them to come in and collapse, NOPE! Zoomed around like they'd slept all day LOL
They also started their leash breaking. . some of them took to the harness the 2nd day with proud trots to their xpen, some of them channeled a mule LOL I use an Ezwalk harness, helps you walk them along without them choking themselves on a collar. Bella, Aurora & Nacht all pretty much trotted with me. . Drummer, Joy & Silver all said NOPE!! LOL

Thanks to an idea given to me by another blogger, that morphed into antoher idea, I tossed a new toy into the puppy pen this morning. A water bottle filled with a handfull of kibble. Crunchy and loud, and when I left, they were having a blast playing keep away. Will have to keep water bottles to replace this one, as it was a huge success. I also gave them one without a cap with kibble in it to play with.

And thanks to a fellow Obedience person, I was able to change my training tactics with Gossip to work on the three steps back for Rally :) RA here we come!!!!

Starting at the beginning

Soo, last week, I put a harness on Gibbs, my pick 11 month old boy from Dei's litter, and headed to Rally with Gossip. We haven't been since Umbra died, I just couldn't get the energy to care, the weather went nasty and my car was housebound for almost a week, blah, but finally started feeling better, and headed over.

Gossip needs some work with step back three steps, tho she's getting better and better at fronting without help. I was using a dowel at her breastbone and it worked, but suddenly she decided I beat dogs with that dowel. Evil evil stick. Need to get back into the groove of things, as I hope to get her RA this spring and work towards that CD. . .

The thing that tickled me pink was I pulled out the weeves, and after a reminder run, she did it, yes, with the sticks at a V, but she did it! Was supposed to go to an agility class tomorrow, but ended up having a borzoi club meeting. Think i'm going to see about going over once a week to play with the agility equipment on our own. . need to start doing the monthly rental.

Gibbs. . Gibbs was a typical clueless male puppy who doesn't know where his butt was, otoh, he had fun. He got to meet everythign from a psychotic GSD who hid under his owner's chair and growled at all the other dogs, to a sheltie, to a Berner, to a long haired dachshund. This is the youngest I've started a dog with rally, and he's got the puppy brain thing going, unlike his uncle obie who was pretty put together already at this age. . .i'm hoping to train him to be my triathalon dog(Coursing, obedience, show dog). I got lots of compliments on my boy. He'll keep going with us and possibly start agility training when we start going.

Weather's warming up, was a balmy 40+ today LOL. .. sn*w's melting, that's all that's imoprtant to me

training, bomb proofing, etc, puppies

One of Kani's faults is being very soft/submissive. .been trying my best to make sure these pups have a lot of confidence. . lots of noise making. . from bags flapping over head, to dropping paper on their heads, to knocking on the whelping box and smacking the bowls around. Also trying to figure out how to make a weeble wobble. . a board with a ball underneath that when they step on it, it shifts. . helps gain confidence.

She has been an absolute best of mama's, even tho one of them bit her hard enough to give her an owie. . long as they leave that alone, she will lay there forever, but I did have to remove her as she ended up on antibiotics. Two weeks away from them, and she still demands to be inside next to the box. . she'll go in and let them nurse her saggy empty teets, but she's finally started growling at them, which is a good thing, that's how we think she got the wound to begin with, not telling them when they are rough.

Gossip is still very very infatuated with them, tho she's no longer requiring going in the box to nosebump them before she goes out to go potty. She definitely can't wait to have her own Goslings.

The littlest angel(she was 8 ozs at birth) is still the smallest, but she is now known as the littlest monster. She was the first out of the box, and she was constantly getting out of the box, and in fact, until they were 5 wks old, the only one who would get out to be with mama, she didnt' want to nurse, just wanted to cuddle with Kani. I always knew when Kani was out of the box as Bells would start screaming until she got over the box edge and was with Kani . if Kani moved back in teh box, she'd scream her little head off as she got herself back OVER the box LOL.

Combined at 4 wks, they weighed half of Kani's weight. . poor wee Kani.

My attempts at bomb proofing them has backfired tho.

Only one of them seems to be as sensitive and submissive right now as mama. The rest are now just sitting there when I drop the paper over their head. . LOL. . makes it hard to get them to move in order to clean their whelping box. They just stare at me with their little black eyes. . .lol, oops. . .they don't even lift their heads when I go in to clean up after them, and the other night I was so tired I didnt' realise Drummer was behind me til I stepped on him .. ouch. . felt so bad. . .

It's so darn cold that there's no way these little ones can go outside. Hate dead of winter puppies. . .never had them before. . always managed to have them wehre they were 8+ wks old when the dead of winter hit or they were born late dead of winter so it was warmer when it was time for them to go out. So having to figure out other ways to handle the mess 6 growing little puppies make. . and was amazed when wee wee pads worked. . soon as I put one down, they toddle their little butts over and poo on it. The current ones have sticky tape on the bottom, so when you stick it to their box, they can't pull it out and play with it. Not that they don't try LOL Picked them up some toys the other day, and they are in love with their squeakie slipper and are trying hard to play with the big yellow rubber ducky that I figured would be unplayable with for a few more weeks. IOW, they're so darn cute with that giant rubber ducky I can't stand it LOL

My eyes keep being drawn to the feisty little grey brindle and the bratty little creme girl. I'm always drawn to the brats LOL. . who needs an angel, those make great pets, I like the little brats LOL Of course, a number of people interested in this litter are drawn to them or the boy, who is currently unavailable until Pat decides about him.

So darn cute, but sooo darn evil . . .
(this is a combo of two posts I've written but never got posted LOL)

Wonderful homes

One of the great things about being a breeder, is witnessing the bond between puppy and owner.

Timmy left 1/24(Thank the gods it was that weekend, we've pretty much been snowed in every since!). I drove up to South of NYC and met Aysha so she could take her little man home after a month at Casa da Wedge. He gained ten pounds while he was with us, height and muscle and thorougly enjoyed the time he had with his sibs. . we got there early, so i got the kids out(I took Tony to show her the difference in muscle between the two boys) and was very pleased at how outgoing they both were. She got there an hour late, but when she finally showed up and Timmy saw her, he turned himself inside out, rubbing all over her as if he were a 60 lb cat, and the feeling was mutual. . this boy is very much loved and spoiled. Makes all the trials & tribulations very much worth it. She was soo happy to see him, and the feeling was truly mutual. . I just love to see that. .

Been talking to Secret's mom about leasing her, asked her how she'd feel if Secret was gone for over a year. . she told me Secret'd be ok, but I could not ask her to part with her Easy(AKA Derby) that was her heart dog, and there's no way she could be parted for him for any span of time. Makes your heart glow.

River & ROM & Weather

River AKA Brooks JR, from the Mandolin-Mielikki Hawaiian litter managed to single himself out today! Now to find those illusive majors. . and then on to work on that DC, where all he needs is his singles. May have to see about borrowing him like I did his papa and work on that :) Pat really would like to get Brooks ROM. . Will have to work on sister Reba's FC & GRC this year. Hoping Mir gets his ROM this year too, by my books he's lacking just a few points which he should get when First finishes her GRC :)

ROM is a register of merit. . dogs get points via the titles their get gets. My Kyra got her ROM, and is 14 points shy of her ROMX, which I doubt she'll get cuz her youngest litter is 9. . .depends on if Eros is in shape to show and Kari thinks it's worth it, otherwise I'll turn to Dei and work on hers :) It's a nice 'award' that's basically quality of get. . .

Racing season starts back up in three weekends, sn*w is slowly melting(YEAH!). I'm hoping it melts fast enough FOR racing Season to start. Focus needs a few points, Reba needs 3 points, First think needs 6 points, and Tipperary just started. On top of that, can't wait to get the MOnsters(Gibbs, Ziva & Co owned Jenny) on the field and Ms Emma may join us. .. hope they all run clean. Tony leaves in a month. . .I'm going to miss him, he's such a sweet little red head!

I took Gibbs to Rally class last week, he was a hit. . even if he was totally confused in class LOL He has no clue where his butt is unfortuantely. Was very good meeting the dachsie and was just a good boy. . .I'm going to have fun with him, got lots of compliments :) He's a tank, and I love it!

Snow snow go away!

OMG. . .I feel like I was dropped back into CNY.

Poor Grins up to his chest in snow

this has been the worst storm since I think the news said 1920 for Baltimore MD. In the deepest spot, it was over 3 ft. . the fences are 12 inches shorter than they should be, we just got plowed last night. .thankfully I parked at the bottom of the 300+ ft driveway Friday just before it hit. . .The Prius & Windstar disappeared under the snow. . .the kennels were blocked by snow. . I had to go stomp the snow down in order for the boarders to go out to piddle. . .
Saturday was so much fun. Bonnie's tenant came down, wearing plastic garbage bags over her feet. . .we don't get weather like this, so we don't have clothes for snow up to your groin. . .using a leash as a suspender, the idea worked real well, unless you fell, it kept you from getting wet and thsu chilled. . granted, Grins did look at the bags with a wild gleam in his little eyeballs. . .even when my boots got wet, my feet were cold, but not soaked.

Gossip taking snowballs out of her tootsies

Bagheera was used as a snow plow, he's a massive big boy, and he raced around the old dog yard, pounding down the snow, making it easier for us to carry water to the two yards. The younger dogs were having a blast, tho I know they were sore after plowing thru snow that came beyond their chests on the smaller dogs. . Gossip over did it and was very sore that night. They tromped their 3 ft of snow down to 12 inches around the fence line and the gate, which made it easier, just clear out the gates, slip in and feed them.

Gorgeous Monday Morning front field shot

Then stomped down the 300+ ft of driveway to my car, and started shoveling that out, sure I wouldnt' be able to get it completely shoveled, but at least I felt like I was attempting it. . I had no idea if work would be on for Monday, and would rather not take a vacation day if I have to LOL. I took Gossip, thinking she'd break the snow for me making it easier for me, but nooooo not my special little spotted bitch. . she allowed her mommy to do it, tromping on my feet. .brat. . put her in the car and started shoveling. . .when suddenly a young gentleman in a frontloader came off the dairy farm across the street and started digging me out, he told me to stop shoveling and he finished it. . thank the heavens for wonderful neighbours.

Photo above is the dog yard Saturday morning

Went to work, and half the office wasn't there, but we were open, even with no customer service LOL Headed home, to find that the plow guy hadn't shown up yet. . .walking that hill in snow is like using a stairmaster, OTOH, haven't slept as well as I have the last two days in a long time LOL Plow showed up at 9ish. . .just in time for me to collapse into bed. . .
Unfortunately, poor Grins has an ulceration on an eye from running into brush, so he can't go outside if it's sunny, that's been A LOT of fun. . .(NOT) Just as much fun as tryign to sit on him to put his eye ointment in
OMG. . I am soo sick of it, and we've got another one heading straight for us tonite. Get up this morning, we're expecting 14-22 inches more, with the possiblity of a new storm hitting us on Monday. UNCLE!!!!!!!