More Adventures

Love this picture of Argus, "painted" in Photoshop.  How cool is that?  Someone who has one of Argie's grandsons did this just for fun.  Love it!  I've ordered a big print of it for my wall.

Today the pups will be venturing outdoors to expand their world.  They've been exploring the basement every evening, and have come up into the living room to check things out, but it's been too hot outside for them.  The heat finally broke and it's beautiful today.  Once we get the housework done and the yard mowed, the pups can do some exploring.

This weekend I will also go visit Christopher and his new family, finish the paperwork, and take a picture of everyone for Patti.  Sounds as if he is doing well, and has fit into the family which includes two little girls, an elderly Dal mix and a 3 year old Viszla.  Viszla are just as silly and busy as Dalmatians, so Christopher and "Olive" should keep each other entertained.  Actually, Chris is getting a new name too as Christopher just does not seem right for a dog.

Who Stole My Time?

OK, where does my time go?  Why is it that when I have puppies I never seem to have enough time for anything else?  Could it be that they are so darned CUTE that it's hard not to sit and watch them when there are other things that need to be done?  Could be!

We started weaning last night, not because we had to, but because it's time to get started.  Pauli has plenty of milk, but I'd like to be able to send her home when the pups are 6 - 7 weeks.  Just makes things easier around here, and Pauli is getting bored.  Pups need to interact with adult dogs to learn proper responses, but Argus is more than willing to take over, and I find the boys really enjoy dealing with pups.  When Pauli is outdoors in the morning and I am cleaning the puppy box, Argus gets to come down with me and puppy sit.  He's just fascinated with puppies and small dogs.

Pups started on goats milk with goats milk yogurt.  Tonight they will get the same thing but with an egg yolk added, and on Saturday I'll add freshly ground turkey (from Whole Foods).  After a few days of that, and moving from one to two meals, we'll start adding a variety of foods.  Just wish that goats milk was not so expensive, but it is much more like bitches milk than cows milk is, so we always use it if we can get it.

Fun With Puppies

It was so nice to have a day off yesterday, and a chance to spend more time with the puppies. This is such a great age, when they look and act like little dogs instead of spotted blobs, and have started to develop their own unique personalities.  One of the pups  is missing from today's photo (taken yesterday) as he was taking a pee break.  They are very good about leaving their rug now, and peeing on the newspapers - if they can find the papers.  Pauli continues to rearrange the box every night, shredding papers and moving them around.  Always a mess when I come down in the morning.  Apparently she thinks it's OK for her pups to grow up in a Trash House!


The pups have names now, as I finally came up with a theme for the litter. I thought about doing Scotch brands but it was hard to find good names for the girls.  The girls could have had flower names but there was a shortage of suitable names for boys.  So I picked restaurants, and there were hundreds of excellent names to pick from.  The boys are Murray (Murray's Steak House), Mancini (Mancini's Char House), and Mickey (Mickey's Diner which is a well-known local attraction housed in an old trolley car).  The girls are Dixie (Dixie's On Grand), Fern (Fabulous Fern's) and Luci (Ristaurante Luci & Luci Ancora, our neighborhood Italian restaurants).


We are surprised to have three pups with a single blue eye.  I rarely get blues, so was not expecting it, but they are acceptable according to the Dal standard, and can be shown.  I've finished lots of blue-eyed champions, but have not kept one in many years, primarily because I've have gotten so few of them.  It's always something, and much better blue eyes than deafs!  Pauli's grandmother had a blue eye, as did HER grandmother, so it's in the pedigree, just not very close, and because Argus does very few blue eyes, it caught me by surprise.  Louie's owners were also surprised, as Angie gets very few blues.


Mickey the Patch, and Mancini each have a blue right eye, and Luci has a blue left eye.  Mickey can't be shown anyway, and will be an extra cute pet.  Mancini is a gorgeous pups with hand-painted markings, and if his structure is good he will just be a blue-eyed show prospect.  Luci is a beauty too, but still missing a lot of trim on her right eye rim.  It's moving, but has a long way to go.  Eye and nose trim is good on the others, and markings are sooo pretty.


So I am looking at Dixie and Fern, both dark-eyed, beautifully spotted girls, with confident personalities.  Hopefully one is a keeper!  I need a puppy!

No Picnic Today

Too hot for a picnic?  Yes!  Called mom to tell her NOT to make potato salad as I was not grilling today.  We'll go out for burgers and then over to mom's for watermelon.  Mom loves picnics but it is way too hot for eating on the deck, and indoor picnics don't cut it with me.


Coral gave us a scare yesterday.  When I let her out of her crate she was wild-eyed, panting, and had trouble with her balance (more trouble than she normally has).  AND she would not eat her breakfast - a bad sign in normally enthusiastic eaters.  Only thing different in her life was that she had gotten her first Proin tablet the previous evening, as she has started to have trouble holding her urine - not unusual for spayed 14-year old female dogs.  When I checked the side effects of Proin, they matched up with what I was seeing.  Apparently Coral has a sensitivity to the active ingredient in Proin.  When I checked with the Vet he said there was no way to reverse the effect and it would have to work it's way out of her system.  She laid around most of the day, and although she was still breathing hard, the panting stopped.  By dinner time she was ready to eat a chicken back, although a bit more slowly than normal.  This morning she is back to normal.  Still creaky and a bit wobbly, but that's how she was before the Proin incident.  So, I guess Ron will just have to take her out every couple of hours.  He kept Coral's grandpa Morris going with extra attentive care, and will do the same for Coral.


Pups are doing great, got their pen changed yesterday.  They can now come and go from their box, and have more room to play, and Pauli can escape to her crate when she needs to "get away".  Need to get updated pictures today!


Christopher has a home!  He went on a try out Sunday, to be sure he fit in OK with the 16 year old Dal cross and 3 year old Viszla.  A very nice family with two well behaved little girls.  Patti is pleased that Chris will live in a family with kids.  Rex got a name change to Canuck, and Christopher will get his changed too.  Jordyn & Magic are still Jordyn & Magic.


Letty's new home is official now.  We did the paperwork last night, including the contract and transferring her AKC registration.  The file also included a certified pedigree, her BAER hearing tracings, and OFA hearing confirmation.  I miss her like crazy, but she's in absolutely the perfect home.  Have a good life, Letty girl!

Busy Weekend For The Pups

The pups had a very busy weekend, with lots of company.  They up and about now, exploring the area around their pen, and responding to people.  On Friday the little patched boy greeted me with a wagging tail, the first pup to "notice" people.  I love it when they reach that stage, and it happens at 21 days.  At that age they start to respond to their environment and to notice things.  To me, that's the time they become little dogs.

We had two families with children who sat on the floor of the puppy pen and held the pups.  It's hard to keep kids sitting when they get excited about pups, but important not to startle or scare the pups at this age.  Both the pups and the kids did a great up.  Several older kids and lots of adults to visit and handle pups too.  Because the pups are only cute and active for 10-15 minutes at this age, no one gets bored either.

I firmly believe that all the early handling and exposure to small children makes an enormous difference in how the dogs respond later on.  Dogs that I have purchased, who have had little or no experience with kids, take more work later on to be comfortable around kids, while the dogs that are used to children are always comfortable with them.  There are exceptions of course, and part of a dog's temperament is "built in", but we can do much to modify some things, and to raise puppies that are best able to face the world.

Eyes are open wide now, and we have a couple of blue eyes.  Not a fault according to the Dalmatian standard, just something that goes with a Dalmatian's genetic color makeup.  We can show blue eyes in the US, although some breeders never keep or show blues.  It's really up to the individual.  The patched boy has a blue right eye, which will be very cute on him.  The smallest male also has a blue, but if he continues to look as nice as he does now, will probably go to a show home.  I don't get blues very often, so this was a surprise, but Pauli's granddam had one.  I've shown and finished many blues in the past.

Tonight we do the paperwork on Letty.  She has worked out very well in her new home and is due to be spayed next week, before she comes in season again.  Skip does NOT want have to hand walk her for several weeks (while in season) when she could be going for a daily run in the dog park!

Whew!

Whew, what a hot and busy weekend.  While I was sweltering at home, my daughter Jess was sweltering in Virginia where the temperatures were over 100 (and they lost power on Friday night).  She flew out to stay with our friend Laurie, and to show Penny & Amery at the Greater Washington Dal Club Specialty weekend.  Laurie, Jess & I were the breeders of Penny's very successful litter that included Meribel who was BoW at the National, has three Specialty majors, and needs but a single point to finish her championship (and is only 11 months old).  Amery was actually the pick of the girls, but was not as mature and ready to win at the National.  Because the judging panel looked good for the shows in Virginia, Jess decided to fly out and show Amery there.  Because Amery lives with Laurie, Jess did not have to fly out with a dog - which would have been impossible because of the temperatures.

Amery had 2 points before the weekend, having beaten her sister Meribel at small shows when we were getting ready for DCA, but when the weekend was over she had 14 points, having gone WB (Winners Bitch) for 3-4 points majors, three wins in a row.   Good girl, Amery!  Now both brownie girls have 14 points and 3 majors, just needing a single point each to finish.  Meribel was shown in the Puppy Class, and Amery took her wins from the BredByExhibitor Class.  Good puppies!

Hopefully the new litter has some stars.  They had lots of company over the weekend and are looking so very cute!  Update on them tomorrow.  Lots of updates actually, as Christopher is "trying out" a new home too.

Pups At 22 Days