My Current Routine

Since the puppies arrived, I've felt like a mom with a new baby; not getting enough sleep! Ah, but it’s worth it.

Since Piper had such a large litter, I’ve been pouring the groceries into her and the babies. The first few days I was supplementing most of the pups, just to make sure they’re getting enough to eat. Now, I’m down to just the littlest one. I’ve been feeding her quite a bit extra, not knowing how much she was actually nursing. Whenever I’d look in the crate and check, she would just be sleeping. So my routine the past few days has been feeding her every few hours.  My last one of the night would be about 12 or 1am.  So I’d just doze on the couch to make sure I didn’t miss it, then I’d feed  her, then go to bed. And start all over the next day between 5:30 and 6.

So Piper usually wants out first thing in the morning to potty. That would be my first feeding for the little one and I would weigh her also. Piper would come back in and I’d be done for a while.

Usually later in the morning, Piper would go back out and I would quickly do my next part. First, I put all the babies in the little dog bed I have just for them.

Then I’d pull her towel out and put a fresh one in.

Before the pups are put back in their crate, I quickly weigh each one and put them away. (I weigh the pups every day for at least the first week. That way I know if they are gaining or losing weight and I can plan accordingly.) 

Then I clean out Piper’s dishes and give her fresh water, and fill up her dry food. My mama dogs have dry puppy food and water in front of them all the time. Since Piper had such a large litter and she wasn’t eating that well at first, I’ve been giving her canned food twice a day too. It’s a great place to hide her vitamins and calcium pill, and she loves it!

After trying to quickly get all that done, Piper is more than ready to come back in. She doesn’t like to be away from them for long.

And now, I must be off; it’s time to feed the little one again.

The new girl in town.

About two weeks ago I made a trip to the airport to pick up our new girl. What a sweetheart! She's a purebred cream colored miniature Poodle. She's a really nice size too, not to big and not to small. About the same size as the Cavaliers. We're hoping that someday she will have beautiful Cavapoo puppies with Desmond!

But for now she has something else going on! When I found out about her, the previous owner told me, "she might be pregnant." I said, "With what?" The lady told me she had been in with her male Bichon, but that he "isn't a real aggressive breeder." As time went on and we made the arrangements to bring her home, it became more apparent that she was definitely expecting.

Like I said she's been here just about two weeks and settling in pretty well. And getting bigger and bigger. We should have some adorable Poochon puppies maybe by the weekend or the beginning of next week!

So here's a picture of our new girl, "Belle". She had a crew cut right before she came, so unfortunately doesn't have the normal Poodle top knot, but doesn't she have a sweet face?!

At My Feet

When I'm outside working there's usually a pack of dogs following around. And when I come in the house and sit dog, this is what happens....

And yes, Pooh's head is resting on my foot!

Just had to brag a bit...

Well, I finally did it! I entered Moriah in something. And she did a lot better than I expected.

Moriah is my black and tan German Shepherd. She's five years old already (I got her when she was about ten weeks old), but when she was younger I took her through some obedience classes and have continued to work with her, occasionally. I've always planned on entering her in some AKC shows and getting her obedience title, but it just never seemed to work out. Most of the AKC show are on the other side of the state from me or down south a few hours. There is a weekend circuit only a couple hours away from me that usually happens on Memorial Weekend and that's the one I thought I'd aim for. But the timing was never right. She was either in season or possibly pregnant or going to be bred or something.

Well, this year I decided to finally enter some things in our local fair, just for fun. One advantage of entering the fair is, you get in free! Ok, so our local fair doesn't really cost that much, but we like to go more than one day, and it does add up. So I entered some photos and was thinking about entering Moriah in an obedience class, but was under the impression the classes were on Sabbath (Saturday), so didn't think that was an option for me.

One day I ran into a friend in town who regularly shows her dog at the fair and she informed me that the open dog classes were on Thursday. So I entered! Then I thought, "Oh, my, what have I done?" I used to show dogs, but it's been over twenty years ago. And Moriah hasn't been out and about much lately, and we don't have a lot of time to practice!

Well, Thursday arrived and we were off early to the fair. (We were told that our class wouldn't be until one or so in the afternoon, but I wanted to go watch and support the 4H kids and their horses).

We checked in with the dog ring when the obedience classes started, but didn't actually compete until between four and five o'clock! It had been a long, hot day and I wondered how Moriah would do.

For those who aren't familiar with this kind of thing. This class is done all on leash. The judge puts you and your dog through a heeling pattern with left turns, right turns, about turns, halts, fast, slow and normal walking. There is also a "stand of exam" where you stand your dog, leave it and the judge goes up and touches your dog, then you return to the heel position. Of course, the dog can't move during this process. Then the "recall". You leave your dog on a sit, go to the end of the leash and call the dog too you. The dog should come straight in and sit facing you, then the judge gives the command, "finish" and your dog should return to the heel position by itself. When everyone has done their individual turns, the whole class (or half depending on the ring size) goes back in for the sits and downs. This is where the judge has everyone sit and leave their dog (to the end of the leash) for one minute. It's amazing how long a minute seems when you're doing this and hoping your dog doesn't move! We all return when the judge says so, then repeat the process with a "down" for three minutes.

When our turn came she did pretty well, but the performance wasn't close to perfect, that's for sure! Of course, I could have practiced more too! After everyone had their individual performances and we had done the long sits and downs we were called back in for the awards.

To my surprise and delight, Moriah received the Grand Champion award (1st place) with a score of 196 out of 200! Like I said, I was pleasantly surprised. And even though this was just our little 'ol country fair, the class was judged with AKC rules and an AKC judge, so that meant something to me.

Now I'm encouraged to try a bit harder to find some shows and get that title!

And for those who may be wondering (my friend was already teasing me about this), "No, she wasn't the only dog in the class!" *smile*

Going to get our health certificate

Yesterday was the day! Our little sable girl had an appointment to get her required health certificate so she can fly home tomorrow!

First was the truck ride there. From our house to the vet who does our health certificates, is about an hour's drive. (Yeah, you hate to have an animal emergency in our neck of the woods!) First we have to drive to the river and ride the ferry across, then it's up and other the mountains to the "highway" (a two lane 60 mile an hour road), which takes us into town to the vet's. Thankfully, with all the ups and downs and winding roads she didn't even get carsick! Now, that's amazing!

Once we arrive, she is weighed. Wow! A whole whopping 2.8 lbs! (her sister is twice her size!)

 (I don't understand the garbage can on the scale?..maybe it's easier to weigh the little ones.)

Next we go to the exam room and meet Dr. Steve where we'll get the rest of the check-up.

He checks her all over, even running a fine comb through her hair to check for parasites or skin issues, but she looked good! Here he's checking her ears.

Smile for the camera everyone! (I love this picture~What a silly guy!)

Checking her little ticker. Everything sounded good!

She was such a good girl.....and who could resist that face?!

Next the micro-chip is implanted. Unfortunately, a large needle is use to insert the chip just under the skin between the shoulder blades. But she was such a trooper and only gave out a "YIPE!" when it was inserted.

All done! Whew! Glad that's over with. At least we know she'll be safe and have permanent identification if she were ever to get separated from her family.

So everything checked out good and she got her health certificate and is ready to fly home Thursday!

Now, for the long drive home....well, at least my commute is pretty!

First Bath!

It's always interesting to give the puppies their first bath. They get so excited when you pick them up and carry them to the laundry room, then they probably begin to wonder, "what's happening?"

First, I hold them and trim their toenails, then I set them on a towel on the washing machine and put little plugs of cotton in their ears to keep the water out. At this point they're usually holding pretty still wondering what's going on.

I have a small bucket that I use for the puppy shampoo. I add some to the bucket and then put some warm water in and mix it up. Since I'm not using straight shampoo directly on the puppy it makes my shampoo go further. A trick I learned from my dog groomer friend.

Next we gently set the puppy in the laundry sink and turn on some warm water and start getting the coat wet. It's pretty easy at this age and size since I can just hold them under the faucet and turn their little bodies any ol' direction to get all the hair wet. Then I dip a sponge in my shampoo and started lathering the puppy all over.

At this point we get different reactions; some kind of freeze and just sit still, some whine, some wiggle, and some try to just climb out of the sink. "Get me outta here!"

 Coco

Little sable girl

Oscar

It doesn't take long to bath a small puppy, so soon I'm done shampooing and start the rinsing phase which is basically the same as at the start. Then I use my hands to squish as much water off the puppies coat and towel dry. If it's cold weather I use a hair dryer for the next step. But since it was so warm today, I put the puppies back outside in their pen to air dry.

They look so cute, all fluffy and clean, and smell good too!

Cavapoos-Eight Weeks Old

Well, it's that time again! The weekly puppy update! This should be the last one as the pups turned eight weeks old today and are ready to go to their new homes:) The little boy, Oscar will be going to his new home on Sunday. (His new "mom" is sooo excited!) But the girls will actually be staying a couple weeks longer as their new families already had things planned and can't get them yet. So maybe we'll have a couple more puppy blogs after all.

This week my family was visiting from out of state and my seven year old, animal loving nephew was here, so the puppies got extra attention! Sometimes I would look around for him and not seeing him anywhere would ask his mom, "Where's Ethan?" She'd give me that look like, "Where do you think?" And we'd find him in the puppy pen with the babies. He was always so gentle with them too.

Because of the nice weather we have been spending a lot of time outdoors and so have the puppies. I have their exercise pen out under the trees still, so they would be out there most of the day. One day we woke up to rain, so they couldn't go out.  We have another big pen right in our garage, so we layed a new sheet of linoleum down on the floor and it gave them a large area to play when the weather was bad. It had plenty of room for the potty boxes, bed, food, water and toys, with room to run!

 The puppies love to run around that tree and play "catch me if you can" with each other.

One day Ethan's mom found him in there laying on the dog bed with the puppies crawling all over him! Too cute! He really wanted to take the "little brown" one home. He thought maybe I would have more brown ones and also mentioned that he was going to put a puppy on his Christmas list;) (hmm...could that be a hint for Auntie Jen?)

His favorite:)

The puppies have been completely weaned off mom now and are eating and drinking like "big kids". They will be getting their first bath today and their first shot today or tomorrow also. They also finished their second type of de-wormer this week.

They are so adorable! Their hair is growing and getting thicker and longer. This litter has some of the riches colors we've ever had too. I can't wait to see pictures of them as adults!

My aunt and uncle came for a visit this week. She loved the puppies too!

They say that Cavaliers are cat-like, in that they like to climb up on higher places. Our first Cavalier loved to sleep on the back of the couch behind me. Well, Coco, the Cavapoo loves this box! She jumps on and off of it, sleeps on it, and stands on it. I think she'll be one of those "back of the couch" sleepers if her new family approves!

A lap full of puppies!

And a good-bye kiss from Oscar!