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Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
GABE WINNERS!!!!!
OK, I know we said we`d do one prize for every 25 of you but there`s only 28 and I needed to shop. So, we`re going to do one prize for every 7 which works out to four prizes. Winners were randomly selected using numbers. No dog spit was involved but we offer free samples with every prize if desired.
Our winners are:
1) 3 Doxies
2) the Booker Man
3) Sugar
4) Mayzie, Ranger & that Pirate they live with...
We`re going to try to email everyone in the next day or two but of you see this feel free to email us at nuthatch AT aztec DASH net DOT com
Again apologies for the delays, its been a busy few weeks here.
Our winners are:
1) 3 Doxies
2) the Booker Man
3) Sugar
4) Mayzie, Ranger & that Pirate they live with...
We`re going to try to email everyone in the next day or two but of you see this feel free to email us at nuthatch AT aztec DASH net DOT com
Again apologies for the delays, its been a busy few weeks here.
Oh my doG, what a week...
As some of you are aware, Grandpa and Grandma are off in Spain and Portugal celebrating their 41st wedding anniversary. This means I have been on my own with the hounds of hell for the last week and a half. It has been fraught with adventure, excitement, and will require much time to recuperate from. So, here goes in somewhat chronological order…
The first afternoon, I had opened the doors to the outdoor kennel as the weather was beautiful. As you may or may not know, all of the middle-aged dogs rotate back in forth between the kennel and the house. The old, the young and the sick all stay in the house full time. This allows me to maximize the attention everyone gets when they’re in the house so that they’re out most of the time rather than in crates. Anyway, back to our story. I was reading my book by the kitchen window when two dogs streaked across the lawn. No one was loose outside (we have a fenced in area but the whole property is not fenced due to size). So, who should be streaking across my front lawn? Why it was Dublin and Cello and nothing more. But Dublin and Cello was more than enough, thank you. There is (or should I say was??) only one pen left in the kennel that they had not escaped from. It now has a gaping hole in the bottom. So, this meant that Dublin and Cello were in the house until Grandpa gets home or I find some handsome stranger who feels like fixing fences. So far, we’re still waiting on Grandpa. Having them in poses problems of its own. Dublin, aka the Monkey Man, hates crate. I have worked him up to small amounts of time in crates with blissful silence and he’s fine if I’m not in the house but otherwise his complete desire is to be with me. This is part of the reason for kennelling him. I’m worried he will develop separation anxiety if I give in to having him loose with me all the time and there’s only so much barking I can cope with. Having him inside for two weeks means he’s bound to be loose a fair amount of the time. This means he has to be able to cope with being with the puppies because he isn’t getting the opportunity to be out with the three girls in season at the moment and he’ll never cope with being locked up through both sets of dogs being loose in the house.
The puppies are now about 11 weeks old and are scarier than a pack of auditors. I normally inflict in very small doses on very patient previously-mother dogs. Not, a young adolescent male of almost 18 months and is just discovering the concept of girls. I am proud to say he’s handled it like a pro and plays gently with them. I watch him with them and I get a sense of pride at what a wonderful young man he is.
All of that happened on the first day and the fun didn’t stop there…
Hamelin and Maelle learned to climb up the stairs. Our house has a raised middle area with additions on both sides. It’s an old place that someone has added on to multiple times over the years. Sadly, they did their own plumbing each time too. While the puppies cannot do stairs there are various refuges from them. Areas where you can safely leave them knowing they cannot follow you and the dogs have somewhere to escape from them. It didn’t stop there either. They learned the couch within a few days as well and then the final blow…Maelle learned how to go downstairs today. Now, there is nowhere to hide. It`s like the blob…no escape.
But I'm jumping ahead of myself, lots happened in between. Ziggy locked herself in Dad`s office. This wouldn’t be terrible except that Ziggy is thirteen, somewhat incontinent and Dad`s office is the only room in the entire household that has carpet in it.
After some discussion with my boss and my doctor, I am taking a temporary leave of absence from work due to my knee. I know this is for the best and I have my boss` blessings but it still feels bad. I feel like I`ve let them down and worse still, the relief I felt when I realized that I didn`t have to keep struggling to cope with the cocktail of pain, pain medication and work that had been my life for the last several months was overwhelming to a degree that I found frightening. I had no idea I was that stressed.
Then I lost the piece that holds Willow`s crate closed so she doesn`t escape at inopportune times. Thankfully, I found that this morning as well. Willow means no harm but she`s a naturally dominant girl who doesn`t believe in sharing me with other girls. Surprisingly this offends some of the girls and the hair-pulling begins when they`re out together.
We`re still in the span of a week and a half here and the fun isn`t over. Some volcano blows its wad in Iceland and now I`m not sure I can get Grandpa and Grandma home and I`m rapidly starting to need a vacation.
Did I mention that Hamelin discovered how to climb out of the puppy playground? and anything else he feels fit to climb is also fair game?
This means that I have no way of leaving them out there either. They are now completely uncontainable except in a crate. They have made good progress with crate training but a few minutes to do my laundry uninterrupted would be nice…
The above picture is a re-enactment for our audiences enjoyment. At the time, I was too busy screaming at her and dirty little feet to grab the camera. The photos of Hamelin are of him actually caught in the act as he had already proven his escape talents and climbing talents several times previously and I, as his ever resourceful (or is that regretful...) breeder was simply waiting with camera in hand for him to do it again. No puppies were harmed in the making of these photos.
I do have GABE winners but I'll save that for another post.
The first afternoon, I had opened the doors to the outdoor kennel as the weather was beautiful. As you may or may not know, all of the middle-aged dogs rotate back in forth between the kennel and the house. The old, the young and the sick all stay in the house full time. This allows me to maximize the attention everyone gets when they’re in the house so that they’re out most of the time rather than in crates. Anyway, back to our story. I was reading my book by the kitchen window when two dogs streaked across the lawn. No one was loose outside (we have a fenced in area but the whole property is not fenced due to size). So, who should be streaking across my front lawn? Why it was Dublin and Cello and nothing more. But Dublin and Cello was more than enough, thank you. There is (or should I say was??) only one pen left in the kennel that they had not escaped from. It now has a gaping hole in the bottom. So, this meant that Dublin and Cello were in the house until Grandpa gets home or I find some handsome stranger who feels like fixing fences. So far, we’re still waiting on Grandpa. Having them in poses problems of its own. Dublin, aka the Monkey Man, hates crate. I have worked him up to small amounts of time in crates with blissful silence and he’s fine if I’m not in the house but otherwise his complete desire is to be with me. This is part of the reason for kennelling him. I’m worried he will develop separation anxiety if I give in to having him loose with me all the time and there’s only so much barking I can cope with. Having him inside for two weeks means he’s bound to be loose a fair amount of the time. This means he has to be able to cope with being with the puppies because he isn’t getting the opportunity to be out with the three girls in season at the moment and he’ll never cope with being locked up through both sets of dogs being loose in the house.
The puppies are now about 11 weeks old and are scarier than a pack of auditors. I normally inflict in very small doses on very patient previously-mother dogs. Not, a young adolescent male of almost 18 months and is just discovering the concept of girls. I am proud to say he’s handled it like a pro and plays gently with them. I watch him with them and I get a sense of pride at what a wonderful young man he is.
All of that happened on the first day and the fun didn’t stop there…
Hamelin and Maelle learned to climb up the stairs. Our house has a raised middle area with additions on both sides. It’s an old place that someone has added on to multiple times over the years. Sadly, they did their own plumbing each time too. While the puppies cannot do stairs there are various refuges from them. Areas where you can safely leave them knowing they cannot follow you and the dogs have somewhere to escape from them. It didn’t stop there either. They learned the couch within a few days as well and then the final blow…Maelle learned how to go downstairs today. Now, there is nowhere to hide. It`s like the blob…no escape.
But I'm jumping ahead of myself, lots happened in between. Ziggy locked herself in Dad`s office. This wouldn’t be terrible except that Ziggy is thirteen, somewhat incontinent and Dad`s office is the only room in the entire household that has carpet in it.
After some discussion with my boss and my doctor, I am taking a temporary leave of absence from work due to my knee. I know this is for the best and I have my boss` blessings but it still feels bad. I feel like I`ve let them down and worse still, the relief I felt when I realized that I didn`t have to keep struggling to cope with the cocktail of pain, pain medication and work that had been my life for the last several months was overwhelming to a degree that I found frightening. I had no idea I was that stressed.
Then I lost the piece that holds Willow`s crate closed so she doesn`t escape at inopportune times. Thankfully, I found that this morning as well. Willow means no harm but she`s a naturally dominant girl who doesn`t believe in sharing me with other girls. Surprisingly this offends some of the girls and the hair-pulling begins when they`re out together.
We`re still in the span of a week and a half here and the fun isn`t over. Some volcano blows its wad in Iceland and now I`m not sure I can get Grandpa and Grandma home and I`m rapidly starting to need a vacation.
Did I mention that Hamelin discovered how to climb out of the puppy playground? and anything else he feels fit to climb is also fair game?
This means that I have no way of leaving them out there either. They are now completely uncontainable except in a crate. They have made good progress with crate training but a few minutes to do my laundry uninterrupted would be nice…
The above picture is a re-enactment for our audiences enjoyment. At the time, I was too busy screaming at her and dirty little feet to grab the camera. The photos of Hamelin are of him actually caught in the act as he had already proven his escape talents and climbing talents several times previously and I, as his ever resourceful (or is that regretful...) breeder was simply waiting with camera in hand for him to do it again. No puppies were harmed in the making of these photos.
I do have GABE winners but I'll save that for another post.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Quick Update & Our Wordless Wednesday Pic
Mom is trying to adjust to some new medication and she's kind of hazy to say the least. She told me to say she's sorry she's behind in comments and GABE but is hoping things will settle down again in the next few days and she'll get caught up soon. If you haven't commented on our GABE post. Make sure you do, she went on a shopping binge and has lots to give away.
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Wordless Wednesday - Warning Squee Alert
This is my all time favourite photo anyone has ever sent me of one of our dogs...
Monday, April 5, 2010
Spring is here...
"Spring is here. Spring is here.
Life is skittles and life is beer..." - Tom Lehrer, from Poisoning Pigeons in the Park (honestly, it's a funny song)
Round here, though I like skittles, the dogs are fonder of beer than I am (I know - terribly un-Canadian). The puppies went home on Friday. Peace reigns here at least temporarily. Friday the weather was beautiful. So beautiful in fact that we could finally put up the puppy playground. (See photos below) The puppy playground makes an appearance here as soon as the weather gets warm enough and stays until it is too cold. Good for puppies under 4 months. The centrepiece is my magnificent garage sale $10 purchase. I consider it a masterpiece. Easy to disinfect and the puppies love it. Supposedly (I read this somewhere but don't have enough data to hold it up as a fact), exposing the puppies to the different surface combined with the small tunnels, the slides, different levels, etc (and they do make use of all of it by the end) helps make them more comfortable in different situations as adults, especially if you intend to introduce them to agility. I took a bunch of pictures of them in the playground before they left.
Now, only Hamelin and Maelle remain. Hamelin is the solid liver boy who is going to St Bart's and Maelle will likely be fostered out.
Poor Maelle has the distinction of hearing the first words out of my mouth upon seeing her as "Oh my doG, you are the ugliest puppy I have ever seen." I have since managed to get more used to her unusual head markings and I substitute unusual for ugly. Actually, they do grow on you over time. More importantly, from the neck back Ms. Maelle is most definitely a gold medallist. Lovely shoulder layback, she gaits around the lawn and leaves you breathless. Her brother Kronk (formerly known as Patrick) is much the same and I'm hoping his family lets me show him as well.
I'm a little behind on my blog comments but will try to catch up soon. Anyone know why when I leave comments it sometimes causes an unending series of windows opening until I shut down the computer?? It would be really nice to prevent this as it adds to the time it takes to leave comments and tends to make me wary of leaving many.
Life is skittles and life is beer..." - Tom Lehrer, from Poisoning Pigeons in the Park (honestly, it's a funny song)
Round here, though I like skittles, the dogs are fonder of beer than I am (I know - terribly un-Canadian). The puppies went home on Friday. Peace reigns here at least temporarily. Friday the weather was beautiful. So beautiful in fact that we could finally put up the puppy playground. (See photos below) The puppy playground makes an appearance here as soon as the weather gets warm enough and stays until it is too cold. Good for puppies under 4 months. The centrepiece is my magnificent garage sale $10 purchase. I consider it a masterpiece. Easy to disinfect and the puppies love it. Supposedly (I read this somewhere but don't have enough data to hold it up as a fact), exposing the puppies to the different surface combined with the small tunnels, the slides, different levels, etc (and they do make use of all of it by the end) helps make them more comfortable in different situations as adults, especially if you intend to introduce them to agility. I took a bunch of pictures of them in the playground before they left.
Now, only Hamelin and Maelle remain. Hamelin is the solid liver boy who is going to St Bart's and Maelle will likely be fostered out.
Poor Maelle has the distinction of hearing the first words out of my mouth upon seeing her as "Oh my doG, you are the ugliest puppy I have ever seen." I have since managed to get more used to her unusual head markings and I substitute unusual for ugly. Actually, they do grow on you over time. More importantly, from the neck back Ms. Maelle is most definitely a gold medallist. Lovely shoulder layback, she gaits around the lawn and leaves you breathless. Her brother Kronk (formerly known as Patrick) is much the same and I'm hoping his family lets me show him as well.
I'm a little behind on my blog comments but will try to catch up soon. Anyone know why when I leave comments it sometimes causes an unending series of windows opening until I shut down the computer?? It would be really nice to prevent this as it adds to the time it takes to leave comments and tends to make me wary of leaving many.
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