Awards, Inspiration, and Photos from Puppy Owners

Yeah, this one will be a long one lol

We missed a big weekend brag but in our defense, we only just found out. Texas is in a different time zone lol Anyway, Sonnet (NEWPoint Poetry of Nuthatch - Frost's littermate out of Becca and Delceg) took a 4 point major in Texas this past weekend!

First, we want to thank Mayzie for sending us this award:



We have never received an award before so this is especially nice for us. (Mom does need reassurance that folks actually read this.) We want to thank Mayzie not only for the Award but also for bringing a smile to Mom's face every day when she reads your blog.

Here are the rules for the Sunshine Award:

Post the award
Send the award to 12 blogger friends
Post links and leave a comment on the 12 blogs
Put these instructions in your post so they’ll know what to do

We would like to give the award to the following friends who brighten our day frequently. We know we can count on you for a smile and some sunshine no matter how much snow there is outside. We're sure most of you already have them but for those of you who have never met these animals, we strongly suggest you visit them...

Wild Dingo

Tucker

The Bumpass Hounds

Maxdog

The 'Sploring Wolfies

Mango & Dexter's Great Adventures

Honey the Great Dane

Life With Dogs

El'bow and Hauwii

Clive - The Assistance Dog

BeeBee's Chrome Cavalier TTT

Frankly Speaking


Inspiration

We've been reading lots and lots of posts on obedience training and tricks, etc lately and it has been most inspiring. As some of you know, obedience and rally have been on my to do list for ages and I just never seem to find the time to take some classes like I would like. I decided this while a valid point was an excuse none-the-less. So, after picking a likely (and hopefully easy) candidate (Ms Willow - the German Wirehaired Pointer), we have started short (like 5 min/evening) training sessions. Now, it is VERY important to remember and understand that I have absolutely no training skills whatsoever. I'm not easy to train and I have no great ability to train four leggers either (I'm admittedly better with two leggers in this arena). Combine that with very short attention spans for both dogs and owner and you face a serious challenge. This is why I chose Willow. She lives to please me whereas most of the GSPs live to love me and play with me but not necessarily to listen to me. It goes without saying that trying this with a Siberian is just not for novices.

Anyway, we started a few nights ago. I decided we'd start at the very basics. So we started with "sit". By now you're giggling saying - they don't even know how to sit?? but bear in mind, this is a conformation household and the last thing you want a show dog to do is sit in the ring, so we train "stand" from the start much the way most people train "sit". I was mightily impressed with Willow (I'm quite sure the credit belongs to her rather than me and my cheese slices). She picked up sit very quickly and in just a few nights, I've gotten her to the point where she will alternate between sitting and standing on command. I know - it's not exactly like she does the tango but hey, it's a start.

For you obedience afficionados, we have tried clicker training in the past. Found it very easy to teach them all that the click means good things are coming their way and I'm happy with what they did. Not so easy to teach everyone locked in a crate while you train only one dog that they aren't missing out on all kinds of goodness and that there is no need to bark at the top of their lungs to make sure I know that they'd be there too is someone would open the crate door.

Lastly - some photo updates from Riley (formerly Alex - out of True & Dundee):

Global Animal Blogging Event (GABE)

Our friend Twinkie is hosting an event to help us meet other animal bloggers around the world. She does a much better job explaining it that we do - see her explanation here.

We'll be an active participant. We're really looking forward to meeting other bloggers :) We will be doing giveaways. At the end we'll draw randomly and there will be one prize for every 25 comments. In your comments please make sure you let us know what kind of doggies, kitteh, etc you have/are so we can tailor our prizes accordingly. It will likely be a mixture of toys, treats and perhaps some handmade blank cards.Grandpa is already groaning. He says any excuse is good enough for Mom to take off to buy doggie stuff. Mom just sticks her tongue out at him. She believes in spoiling the ones you love (and we agree!).

For those of you who have never met us before, we are an odd collection of humans and dogs and one poor lone kitteh collectively known as the Nuthatch Gang. We can be found participating in goofy activities of all kinds as well as conformation shows, field tests, and rescue events. We are mainly German Shorthaired Pointers (GSPs) but there are also a few Siberian Huskies (Mom used to breed Siberians) and a German Wirehaired Pointer (GWP - Willow) and a single kitteh (Squishington). We live in southern Ontario, Canada but if you look hard enough you can find Nuthatch dogs across the USA as well as in Australia. We're like Lays' potato chips - salty bol

We hope you enjoy your visit with us. Please make sure you tell us a bit about your crew so we can make sure to find the right prize if you win and, most importantly, we can satisfy our ever-demanding curiousity. (Don't tell Squish though - there is only the one cat here and no one wants it to get killed except the Siberians and they're not allowed near her.)

Wordless Wednesday

Another Great Weekend

OK, despite being down with a nasty sinus infection I'm still counting this as a great weekend. We got a call from Iris letting us know that Aurora (pictured below - Nuthatch's Edenstar Aurora - out of Jammer and Bug) went WB in New Jersey for her second major!



In other news, I am trying to get the video uploaded. I got some nice video of them terrorizing the kitchen - now to see if I can make Hsin-Yi's suggestion work for me.

On Good Friday most of the puppies will be going to their new homes. The exceptions are Hamelin who is going to St Bartholomew's and has to wait until he's old enough for a rabies shot (I think I should deliver him in person lol); and Maelle. We're either going to foster or co-own Maelle.

That will be my last hurrah for a bit. The following weekend Grandma and Grandpa are headed off to Spain and Portugal to celebrate their 41st anniversary and I'll be alone with the monsters for a few weeks so no travelling for awhile. Mango Momma mentioned some shows in Springfield but I won't make it in April - maybe in May though. The dogs on the other hand, will likely be there lol

I have accepted two judging assignments in September and those will hopefully be the last ones I need to complete my permit for half of group 3. I'm thinking we'll do part of group 1 next. I started with Siberians and was erroneously told when I started judging that I needed to start with group 3. This was a bit awkward as although I keep many ties to the Siberian community, most people think of me as a Sporting Dog person and the judging requests I get are often for sporting dogs. So, we'll move onto Sporting and return to finish the working group afterwards.

Wordless Wednesday

Beware of Puppies....

After a week of beautiful sunshine, it snowed on my day off. I considered trying to take some video of the munchkins playing - it's an action filled event, complete with tuff little barks when someone tries to steal their siblings toys, the patter of thousands (ok, it just sounds like thousands - it's really only 44) of little paws as they race across the kitchen, the sudden tearing noise brought on by a piece of wallpaper disconnecting from the kitchen wall and, most terrifying of all, the sudden scream as those sharp little milk teeth pierce my ankles as I try to wash the dishes. Even their fur mothers won't come into the kitchen when they're loose. Their breeder braves it because the dishes must be washed and poops not caught early rapidly become floor paintings best avoided at all costs. Of course, one can only brave it in socks or (for the truly brave only) bare feet. Shoes can crush wee toes too easily for my comfort. I may never forget the puppy who broke a leg when the owner of an attached sock, attempted to move their foot away. Mind you the pup got caught on the chair and it was one of those freak accidents you suspect will never happen again in your lifetime but that haunts you nonetheless. The pup has gone on to do very well after some very expensive surgery and extensive physiotherapy. She now keeps her family overwhelmed in hugs and kisses.
I will try to upload some photos of them tomorrow. I'm worried about trying to upload video as we are on dial up. If anyone knows how to do it without spending all night trying to upload it - please let me know.

This is a picture of True (one of the two mothers) as a baby...



and as an adult...



and Jeannie (the other mother) as an adult (sorry, couldn't find a baby pic of her)...

Photo Updates

Not much new here. The puppies are growing like bad weeds and making a much bigger mess than that bol They head to their new homes Easter weekend.

I got some photo updates from Becca (Becca x Dundee)...








and from Garak (Dundee x Shiraz)...

A Very Wordy Wordless Wednesday

First - Happy Saint Patrick's Day!!

It's been a busy few days so I'm way behind but the rest of the weekend went extremely well. Frost went Winners Dog and Best of Winners on Saturday (5 pts) and Lucy went Reserve Winners dog. It was especially nice as Frost, Lucy and the Winners Bitch are all sired by the Hun, Delceg (Malomkozi Delceg). It was also good in that Dad handled Frost and he was so happy with the results that he forgave Frost for eating the bottom out of his pipe case on the way to show that morning bol Apparently Frost likes leather. Hey, who doesn't?

When we got home, we got a call from Iris and Rory (Nuthatch Edenstar Aurora - Big x Jammer) had gone Winners Bitch, Best of Winners and Best of Breed over Specials at a show down in the US for a 3 pt major.

We topped off this unusually wonderful weekend on Sunday with Frost and Buffy going Reserve Winners and Lucy going Winners Bitch and Best of Opposite Sex over Specials (4 pts) and Dundee going Best of Breed again.

Mango Momma - I spoke with Sarah, my friend from Master Chew Sits who also handles our dogs in the US, and she says she has handled dogs for Dexter's breeder before :) It's a small world.

Speaking of which, as I wandered about the show I kept thinking of all our blog friends. I got kissed by Goldens and thought of Maxdog and the Bumpass Hounds. I watched a fawn mastiff and thought about how much more I liked Mango's brindle than the fawn that seems to be so popular at shows. (It's not surprising really. I like brindle boxers better than fawns too. What can I say, I'm just now a fawn kind of girl.) There were demonstrations of dancing dogs during the lunch break which made me think of Honey and Hsin-Yi (although they all had little dogs, nothing as majestic as Ms. Honey). There were tons of Danes and a few bassets. Puppies with gorgeous long ears and big feet :) There were even a few service dogs wandering around with their owners watching the show. I'll post the pics of our wins when I get them in the mail.

In the meantime, for our wordless Wednesday, we offer...

Show Day ...

Wordless Wednesday's photo is of Linus. His owners sent it to me and it's one of my all time favourites. I keep telling myself one day I'll take pictures like that.

This morning we rushed out to go to the Purina National Show in Mississauga. Sarah has come up from Master Chew Sits to visit and handle dogs and she has brought our Miss Buffy with her. So, we had Frost, Lucy, Buffy and Dundee entered and it was a good morning. Frost went second in his class and Lucy won her class but the big winners were Buffy - who went Winners bitch and Best of Winners for a 4pt major!! and Dundee who went Best of Breed. It was very nice :)

The I had to hustle back so I could get to work on time lol

Dundee will be in the group at around 2:30pm and everyone will be back in the ring tomorrow morning.

Here's some old pics of Buffy :)

More Weekend Visitor Pictures...

Wordless Wednesday

First Visitors & Communal Motherhood

It was the weekend for future puppy owners to come and meet the little ones. I got several pics of the munchkins playing which I'll post separately. These are the pups playing with some of their visitors.









I have noticed that many fur Moms in the house develop what I call communal motherhood. Once the puppies come upstairs, they seem to become every one's puppies. The Moms reroute any dog they feel is disturbing the pups, sometimes with more than just a bark lashing. They warn people who come to visit that the puppies are not leaving (and shake their heads in sorrow when I eventually disagree and send them home at 8-9 weeks). First time Moms never put two and two together. Puppies in the living room + visitors means that puppies are leaving the house usually sooner rather than later. Old Moms that are now grandmas and great-grandmas make sure that visitors realize that they aren't that naive. They know people are there to take babies away and they do not approve.

This afternoon Charlie, Mr Big, Chanel & Spirit are off to visit our friend and canine chiropractor Gloria. They love going to visit Gloria as it means lots of nice back rubs and massages. They were less than impressed last night though when I announced that they were in dire need of a bath first. Charlie is the only one who looks forward to a bath. Usually it means he gets to go to a show which he absolutely loves. As soon as you open the bathroom door, he hops into the tub and waits for his bath. This is unlike the other three whom I have to pull into the bathroom and then lunge to close the door before they can wiggle out again. Then they need to be lifted into the tub (and they aren't light) and restrained while being bathed one-handed. I do all this while trying to keep my balance (remember I normally walk with a cane and am waiting on knee surgery). Needless to say I ended up just as wet as they were. I think Chanel put it down to fair is fair while Mr Big and Spirit just settled for giving me sorrowful looks with big brown eyes.