Good News In Paisleyland

The daylilies are at their peak

The little Arboks all hear!  So nice to get that out of the way.  I was getting a little nervous when the boys were not responding.  Both liver girls heard on Friday and barked at me when I tested.   One boy gave me a single response on Saturday so I was not sure on him, but on Sunday morning two of the boys were responding.  Only the smallest boy slept through everything.  Finally yesterday evening he popped his little head up when I pinged my finger on a food pan.  This morning all pups popped right up when I tested them.  Whew!  We'll do BAER testing later to confirm hearing, and within a couple of weeks will also identifyy any unis (pups that hear in one ear rather than both ears).

Now we have to get through one more week.  Because I lost a litter to canine herpes several years ago, I'm still paranoid.  It's very rare, and there is no reliable way to prevent it.  Because it can be a respiratory infection in dogs, most adult show dogs (and probably most city-dwelling pets) have been exposed to it, but will show no symptoms. Because they will not necessarily develop an immunity, the dams may not be able to pass immunity on to their pups.  It's normally only fatal to pups under the age of 3 weeks because they can't develop the fever necessary to fight it.  Once pups are 3 weeks old they will be able to fight the virus, so we will keep all fingers tightly crossed for one more week.  If you've ever heard of Fading Puppy Syndrome, this is one of the causes.

Oops!

Argus and I hiked the Reservoir Park Trail yesterday.  The park includes a Dog Park, so I hoped that there would be some friendly Labradors for Argus to swim with.  We had the park to ourselves, but I quickly discovered why there were no dogs swimming!  The shoreline was a foot of black gunky mud.  Argus didn't mind bit, but he sure got dirty.  He splashed in a real lake further along, but still required a bath to remove the remaining muck!