Puppies, Puppies Everywhere!

I think I need to give Lolo to Cali for a week or so – Lolo would get expert medical care and we would have answers in no time!! I did an ear cartilage test and I think Lolo has softer ears than her littermates – they are less stiff. I will try to get a picture of Lolo’s eyes so you all can see what I mean about how small and different they are. One of her eyes wanders a bit but she can definitely see. All of the puppies are having eye exams on November 1 before we drive down to Salt Lake City so that will give us some information about Lolo.

The puppies are so much fun!!! But oh my – we are definitely in the high maintenance phase of raising puppies. They are now eating two solid food meals a day (still chicken, rice, veggies, yogurt and some organic beef) and this is quite the event. Lolo eats apart from everyone else but the rest share a big bowl of food and it is a feeding frenzy. They are not quite as clean as they were because they are wearing food these days but it is cute to watch as they clean each other off. They are going potty a lot more so this is also more work and requires increased vigilance – puppies are not fussy about where they step!

The outside time is a lot of fun. They are so curious and the smallest, ordinary thing becomes entertaining when a puppy is involved – like a pinecone or a stick. Yesterday we put up the ends of our agility dog walk to serve as a ramp in/out of the house. We had a few fall offs but most caught on quickly and were walking up and down without mishap. The outside time is great exercise and gives me information about temperament/resilience.

I left off Sula’s picture yesterday so here it is today – she looks like she is laughing. Sula continues to be a HAPPY puppy! We have a shot of Dawson facing the camera, and also one of him with his brother. Rosebud is the other puppy standing and facing the camera. Rosebud is also sitting up and batting at another puppy who is hidden in the weeds, and Lolo is once again featured sitting down. Madison is the puppy on the ramp.

The G for gol-darn-what-was-I-thinking Litter is sired by Jed (CKC/AKC CH Riverhaus Jed v't Rijkenspark, TD). Jed was imported as a puppy from The Netherlands by Trish Wright, and you can read about him and see a picture at: http://personal.nbnet.nb.ca/tdwright/Jed.html.

The F Litter is a repeat of a previous litter and so there are no real surprises in the litter (except Lolo). The puppies are typey, sweet and very lovely. The girl I kept from the first litter, Asia, finished her championship at 12 months and qualified for the Eukanuba Invitational this December in California; Asia and I are working to get ready for that show, which is very seriously The Big Time.

On the other hand, I have no idea about what the G Litter will be like. My hope is that we will have a nice blending of the strengths from each parent. The pedigree will be ¾ “foreign” since Cadi’s dad was imported from Australia in utero and Jed is also an import, as I said. I failed to mention that I was hoping for a small litter (three or four would have been perfect!) but the veterinarian who did the ultrasound found one after another and then stopped saying, “at least six or seven”. Sigh. I texted (is that a word?!) that to Galen, whose response was an immediate, “NOOOOOOOO”. This will be our last litter for a while!

I hope that you have a fruitful day!