And Then They All Went Home

Monday morning Mr Yellow went with his new Dad Jarrod Alcaida and his partner Chad Harr to Live on Fox Island.  Jarrod shows Pygmy Goats and was so excited to come and pick up Finn that is Yellow Boy's new Name.  Lavender Hills Take What You Can Give Nothing Back.  I expect Finn to have the most amazing life with his two dads living on the farm with Gigi the Corgi and Monkey the Affenpincher.

Then Right after Finn Left, Red Boy's new Mom Kathy DeHart drove up from the Portland Area to pick him up.  Kathy is an experienced berner mom with two other dogs in her house and wanted a dog to do performance stuff.  Rally, Obedience, Drafting.  She has named him Forrest - Lavender Hills Life is a Box of Chocolates.  I am sure I will get to see Forrest a bunch in my travels and I wish Kathy and Steve the Best with that sweet baby boy.

After they had left, Cuba and Pink Girl were kind of lonely.  I brought them into the house and let them mix with the big dogs under careful supervision.  Last night they both slept in the crate together and didn't have any accidents, I was so proud.

This morning Pink's Dad - Walter drove up from Portland to pick her up with his son Kevin.  Pink is now going to be called Emma and I think that name just fits her perfectly.  Walter wanted to call her Lavender Hills Emma Von Raron which doesn't go with the movie theme but I told him that was OK.  I know she will have him wrapped around her little paw in no time.  

I would be lying if I didn't say I cried a bit when she left, I had been doing so well with all the puppies but it just hit me that they were all gone and I already miss them, so keep the pictures and information coming because I just loved these puppies to death.  I know they all have amazing homes and each and every one of the families is special in there own ways and I think the puppies that have been placed are exactly where they need to be.

Cuba has been given freedom in the back yard now that everyone is gone.  I opened up the deck and he has been hanging out with his mom and Kenya this morning & Mom and Grandpa this afternoon.  Gandalf is in a foul mood tonight so I am keeping him away.  I think he is grumbling about having another puppy in the house and those damn little sharp teeth.  Vegas has gotten to play with extra supervised play time.  She just doesn't realize how big or exuberant she gets and I don't want her hurting him.

I guess this is it for not until the next litter comes - 

Starting to Leave the Nest

It has been a very busy few days and it didn't help that I lost my internet for 2 days.  Finally got it back this morning.

Friday was a big day,  Anne and Addy came up to evaluate the puppies and help take pictures.  You will see their 8 week pictures below.  Anne left with Lime Girl and delivered her to the Portland Airport where her new Mom - Joanne was waiting to meet her.  Her name is now Lavender Hills No Place Like Home and her call name is Kansas.  Kansas had fun in the airport chasing people down for puppy rubs and only was a bit fussy on the plane.  She now lives in Arizona with her big Brother Sigen and I expect her to keep them both very busy.

After she left, Larena and I gave the rest of the puppies baths for their big photo shoot on Saturday morning.  To say we were both exhausted afterwards is an understatement.

Saturday morning we were up bright and early.  Lisa arrived at about 9 am with her car piled full of props and fun stuff to take pictures.  We chased puppies around, and she left around noon with over 1000 pictures taken for the day.  She is still editing them and as I get them I will send them to the individual owners of the puppies.

The picture above is of Blue boy - who is going to be staying here at the house.  I fell in love with him about 4 weeks ago and I just couldn't stand the thought of not keeping him.  So his name is now Lavender Hills Show Me the Money - Call name is Cuba.  I hope that Cuba can follow in his Grandpa's footsteps and keep me proud.

Today we had two families come.  One decided that the puppy wasn't the right fit for her and what she had hoped to do with him and I totally respect her decision.  Mr. Red wasn't a show dog in my opinion but she had her heart set on him and really wanted to see for herself, and agreed with me that there will be another puppy in the future, and if she wasn't totally in love then she needed to wait and that is what she has decided.    This has made made another person very happy and she will be coming tomorrow along with another family to pick up Yellow Boy.

Green Boy just left about an hour ago for a long drive back home to Corvallis with his new mom Haley.  His new name is Lavender Hills Hey Mr Wilson and his call name is Wilson.  Haley is a Vet at OSU and I know he is going to have a wonderful home.  I am hoping he doesn't cry too much on the way home, as that is a long trip for the little guy.

Nevada has watched Kansas and Wilson leave and she doesn't seem too upset.  I think it is important for her to see her babies leave so that she doesn't go looking for them.    I did reduce their space in the living room so I can actually sit on the couch now, since there are four puppies instead of 6 and I added a large crate so that hopefully Cuba can get used to it since that is where he will be sleeping at night once his brothers and sisters are all gone.

7 1/2 Weeks

The puppies are quite active now and keeping me and Larena on our toes and busy, busy, busy.  They have been enjoying the big back yard and I tell you I need eyes in the back of my head at times to keep up with them.

Last night they are were all playing and having fun so I went into the kitchen to make the big dogs food.  They were all centered around the island waiting patiently for me to prepare their dinner, when in runs lime girl.   Jumps up on me like hey whatcha doing?  Then went around to each one of the big dogs to see if they wanted to play with her.  The little stinker had managed to get herself between the slats on my deck and came through the gate from the back yard onto the deck and just waltzed into the kitchen like she owned it. 

My deck looks like the clampetts have been visiting.  I had to improvise with anything and everything I could find to stop them from coming between the slats.  I knew this was a problem with the last litter of puppies and had every intention of fixing the problem before the next litter.  Some how it didn't get done and now, well it looks terrible.  My house looks terrible, the weeds have taken over, just know that for those of you that are coming to get puppies, don't look at anything but the puppies.  Maybe one day I will get things caught up

I still do not know who is getting what puppy but for those that have a possibility of getting one of these babies you might want to start thinking of Registered Names for your baby.  My Kennel Name is Lavender Hill so all puppies names will start with that and then the theme for this litter is Iconic Movie Quotes.  So I know one person is toying with the name Lavender Hill There is No Place Like home and her call name will be Kansas.  I cannot tell you what Mine is yet as I won't know for a couple of days if I am keeping one and I don't want my name out in the universe yet for someone else to grab.

Beth is coming at 11 tomorrow and Pups go into the vets office at 3:30.  somehow I need to work for a couple of hours in the morning, so it will be a very busy day.  Enjoy the pictures that I took tonight while playing in the yard.  Of course the only one that wouldn't sit still long enough to get her picture taken was of course - Lime Girl.

7 Weeks

I feel like I am always apologizing for taking longer to post than I would like....but it has been a very busy week for me at work and so by the time I am done at the office and come home and do what needs to be done with the puppies it 10pm and I am falling asleep over the computer practically and I just haven't been able to manage.

First off Lime girl is back to her normal self and doing awesome, running playing doing everything she did before without missing a beat and no limping so I am beyond relieved.  I was pretty sure she would be but there is always that nagging in the back of your mind - what if?

I kept the puppies in their confined outdoor space longer than I would have liked because I didn't want her overdoing it in the big yard.  I had expanded their area, put in a few new things that make noise when they walk on them and they have been doing well.

This weekend Dallas was entered in a Dog show in Lynden and my partner in crime for showing dogs had to work today, so that meant that Dallas was going to have to hang out with one of our friends that is a professional handler and sleep in a crate in her rig for the night.  He could do it, but I absolutely hate to do that to him and so Larena offered to stay at the house with the puppies while I came up after work yesterday, bailed him out and headed over to the hotel, where he promptly jumped on the bed and let me know how much he appreciated not sleeping in a crate.  After we show tomorrow then I will bring him back home with me and give Larena a big break.

But she just sent me a text that the puppies were bored and so she opened up the big yard and they are having a blast I am bummed that I am missing their first big adventure in the back yard, but I am sure that they are much happier with their new yard.  She said they are already going through the agility tunnel and having fun, so something to look forward to when we get home tomorrow.

Next week is going to be a very busy week.  Puppies will be getting evaluated by my friend Beth who is a Lab breeder on Wed morning.  Wed Afternoon they go into the vets office for their first set of shots and we will microchip the puppies.

Everyone wants to come and tell me their two cents worth on this litter and I keep a journal, I don't tell anyone what anyone else has said or what I am thinking and just let them tell me their thoughts.  So on Thursday my friend Cindy who shows Dallas wants to evaluate and Thursday afternoon my friend Lorraine who is a German Pincher breeder will come.  Friday the stud dog owner is coming up and doing it.  One puppy will leave with her on Friday and then on Saturday I have a friend who is just an amazing photographer and especially with puppies is coming up to take pictures.  I am thinking that puppies can start going on Saturday afternoon.

I will try and keep you posted as we progress through the week.  Lots of things happening that is for sure.

Oh Yeah if your wondering about the 7 weeks pictures they are up.  Not the best of pictures, I was limited on the help I had and if you are wondering what all the white stuff is on their noses.  it is cream cheese.  I was using it to get them to stand still on the table:)

Happy Mothers Day

Even though this picture is a week old, I thought it was kind of appropriate for Mother's day.  Wishing everyone a very happy and special day.

Nevada is still being an awesome mom, she continues to let the little sharks nurse off of her and is watching over them whenever I am off doing something like mowing the lawn.  She is still trying to get them to play with her and I think that will happen in the next day or so.

Lime girl is continuing to improve every day.  She is running and playing with the other puppies, She limps every once in a while, usually right after she wakes up.  So I do think this is more of a muscle or soft tissue injury just based on how she is acting.

Yesterday I was able to go out to our local health food store and they had fresh butcher bones, I picked up four for the babies as that is all they had left, they go really fast and thought a couple of them were larger and puppies could share.  Well they LOVED them and sharing was not what they wanted to do.  Lime and Red ended up with theirs alone as any time one of the other pups came they got pretty defensive about their bone.  Pink and Green shared and yellow and blue shared just fine.  I let them chew on them for 5 minutes then picked them up and will bring them out again today.  My dad is going to stop by Sunny Farms today and see if they have two more, so that we don't start world war three.  If not I will have Larena stop on Monday and pick up two more on her way to the house.

Normally at this stage I would have opened up the big back yard to the puppies, but because lime is not all together well yet, I want to keep them in their puppy environment.  I pulled out two more x pens and made their area bigger, so it actually a good sized area now.  I also brought out a pop up shade canapy to give them extra shade in the grass.  I brought in a plastic tarp yesterday and did you know they make a lot of noise, especially when you have four puppies pulling it from each direction, it was great fun.  I am going to see if I can find a little kiddy pool for them to fill with water as long as the weather is as nice as it has been.

Last night in the middle of the night, don't ask me how, but pink girl managed to get her head stuck underneath the couch.  At 2 am I hear a puppy screaming and thought for sure it was Lime girl, but no she and the rest of the puppies are looking as dazed and confused as I was.   I hear Pink and I see her butt and back but no head.  I pulled on her but she wasn't budging.  I actually had to lift the couch to get her head out.  How she managed to do this, I have no idea, hopefully it doesn't happen again.  In the meantime, I see a nap in my Sunday afternoon future.  That is after I have finished mowing the lawn and given two dogs baths, by then I will need a nap:)

6 Weeks

I am so sorry for not posting this week.  I had planned on doing it on Wed when I was home watching the puppies but then Wed turned out to be a very bad day.  A breeders worst feeling and the thing we worry and dread the most happened, I stepped on a puppy.  It happened when I was trying to feed them and step down off the step, of course they are all screaming and crying for food and Lime got underneath me and I stepped on her front foot.  She cried, I cried it was horrible.  She was holding up her foot and just crying for all she was worth.  I managed to get their food down and pick her up and love on her, but she wanted her food at that point, so I put her down and watched as she held up her paw eating.  Every time she put it down she cried out and by now I am just beside myself.  I call my vet and blubber into the phone I stepped on Lime Girl.  Thankfully my vet follows me on Face Book as does her staff and I am well received at their office.  Kelly tells me to wait, Dr. Allen was just getting ready to leave for the day - then I hear through the phone - Susan Stepped on Lime Girl and my vet yelling, tell her to hurry up and get in here.

So the next trauma of course is making sure all the puppies will be ok for the 45 minutes or so while I race her into the vets office.  As I am climbing into my van I am thinking oh this is going to be a fun ride.  (just two days before I was thinking I need to start taking the puppies for car rides so they get used to it) no instead I drive an already traumatized puppy 20 minutes away to the Vet's office.  Really Good Susan.  We get there and she is immediately whisked out of my hands, more because they all want to love and cuddle her than worried about her well being.  Linda allows me to come back and she palpates the area, determines what is hurting and takes x rays.  It just so happens that on that particular day they had an Orthopedic Surgeon that came up to the office for some surgery's and he comes over and takes a look at the x rays.  Now he has a real sense of humor and thought he would freak me out more by saying Oh My Gosh you broke all her toes, see that - of course he is pointing to the area where her growth plates are wide open and she is supposed to look like this.  I told him nice try.  He looks it over and they both pronounce nothing is broken, it is just a soft tissue injury and she will be ok in a few days.  She gets more snuggles, I pay the bill and collect my puppy and we drive home, with her curled up in my lap on the way home sound asleep.

Yesterday and today have been spent trying to keep her calm as my vet said, she knows she is hurting and is actually doing a pretty good job of that by herself.  She has moments of not limping and then she will limp again.  I am hoping and praying that she will be herself in no time.

In the meantime,  all the other puppies are doing great, these are sweet puppies and all are growing, running playing and eating well.  We have three puppies that are now over 11 pounds, 2 at 10 pounds and one at 9 1/2 pounds.  Yellow continues to be the biggest boy, he loves his food and attention.  I cannot be on the couch as I am right now without him wanting to be picked up and loved him as he just demanded from me.  Blue Boy is very mellow and is just happy to have his belly rubbed.  Red and green are pretty busy and curious and usually in the middle of any scuffle.  Pink is the smart one, she sits back watches, she is pretty much completely potty trained and she loves my dad, her little tail wags ninety miles a minute when she seems him.

The best part about the last couple of days has been Nevada.  She wants so badly to play with the puppies but they haven't quite figured out her games yet.  Just like her mom, she keeps bringing toys outside to the puppies and drops and pounces on them.  Right now the puppies are taken back and are not quite sure why their mom is acting so weird. In the meantime it is fun to watch.

My dad came over to help take pictures tonight, not the best pictures, he does his best but doesn't have the patience that is needed to photograph puppies so they are the best I could do for now, if I can get someone that is better to help with a camera I will do them again.

Note to Self.....

Oh Boy it has been a very busy weekend.  Lots of guest at the house and the puppies are just thriving.    Yesterday my good friend Cindy and her son Brandon came over.  Cindy shows my dogs for me and just fell in love with the puppies.  She helped me do some stacked pictures of the puppies.  I usually never do this to 5 week old puppies because over the years I have found they change so much between 5 weeks and 8 weeks it isn't worth trying to puppy wrestle them.  But Cindy wanted to do it, so we did.  What we got were some great pictures and she felt overall this was a very consistent litter and she has her favorite that she is keeping her eye on for me. 

They got their first taste of string cheese and some dehydrated duck for their efforts and Cindy may have a few new piercings in her fingers for all of her efforts.  Later she lay on the deck and had the whole group crawling all over her.

Today my son showed up wearing a baseball cap, a couple of the puppies were not sure why his face looked so funny, so this was another good thing for them to learn.  One of the reasons I love having people come over, all shapes, sizes, voices and smells.  One of my friends told me that she once had a dog totally freak out because a man had a baby on a backpack on his back and the dog thought it was a 2 headed person.  So now I am on a mission to find such a person, if you know of someone that can help me with this task, send them my way, it will be good for the puppies.

Tonight I opened up their little exercise area so they have another x pen attached giving them more grass to romp and play in.  I have added a ramp to go down into the yard, since I need them to learn how to walk up and down the ramp, the step going into the big yard is a big one and I don't like the puppies jumping off of it, so I figure if they can learn how to walk up and down the ramp then we can move to the big yard.  Right now Pink girl is the star.  She is so smart, she is also the only one that always pees and poops out in the yard and if she is indoors at night, it is always on the puppy pad.  I would say the others are about 50% of the time on both the ramp and the peeing part:)

I would also like to say note to self.... Never debone a chicken and then go and play with puppies without washing your hands first.  The results are not pretty, I am surprised I can even type this, my fingers hurt so bad.

5 Weeks

Took a while to get everything loaded up today as this morning was spent watching the Bernese Mountain Dog National Specialty Via live stream from Sturbridge.  Best of Breed with a beautiful line up of dogs started at 7am my time, which meant an early start getting puppies fed, weighed, cleaned up and taken care of before breed started.  I got to watch most of it until the end when we had puppy people come so I missed the very ending, but it made me very proud of our breed and how lovely the dogs I watched were today.
It wasn't until later after my puppy folks left that I was talking with a friend who is hoping to get one of these puppies to show that I realized I hadn't posted or put up the new pictures.  For that I am sorry to keep you all waiting.  To say I am super excited and happy with this litter is an understatement.  They take everything in stride, are happy to have new blood , um I mean fingers to chew on.  They get so happy and excited to go outside, they love it out there.  As soon as they are a little bit bigger, I can open up the big backyard, but for right now, they just cannot quite manage those steps into the yard. 

Larena and I are teaching them how to use a dog ramp, right now let's just say it is a hit and miss about 50% of the time they get it and 50% they don't.  They are getting much better about pooping and peeing in the grass and very few accidents on the actual deck.  I have an enclosed in puppy area off the side of my back deck and it has one small step down into a side yard that I have x-pens around so they can pee and poop down there.  My friends that were here today could not believe how smart these puppies are.  One is a Great Dane Breeder and I really think she was flabbergasted when she watched Green make his way off the deck go into the corner to poop.  She just looked at me and asked how old are they?

Nevada is still letting them nurse, not as much and she is quick to let them know when they are hurting her.  I am now feeding them 4 times a day.  6am, noon, 6pm and 10:30pm.  Sometimes they eat everything I put out and other times they leave half of it behind for mom.  My feeling on this is that is just fine.  I don't like my puppies to feel like they are starving or have to hurry and get it all, I think that just fosters bad eating habits.  I would rather them eat slowly and not worry about where their next meal is coming from.  Again my Great Dane Breeder today was amazed at how civilized they were when I fed them this afternoon and shocked at how they left 1/2 of it behind.  To me eating fast is just asking for a disaster, so this makes me happy at how slowly they are eating.

They are not puppies but Sharks

It has been a busy couple of days, Tuesday we had some puppy folks come for a visit and the puppies are getting more and more excited when someone comes to see them.  Their little tails start wagging and they run towards visitors I am sure they are thinking fresh blood, fresh blood, because they are little sharks or pirannah's and they are biting everything. 

Mom is getting a little more aggressive with them when they are nursing, of one of them chomps down too hard, she is done, outta there, hasta lavista baby.  Today I am sure one of them drew blood and she jumped straight up and when they came at her started to growl at them.  Then Red boy's head ended up in her mouth.  Not to worry she won't hurt them but this is her way of letting them know that this hurts and how would you like it if I bit you.  Puppies need to learn this, otherwise you will be calling me in 6 months begging me to help you fix a biting puppy.

So for now crocs, or other fully enclosed shoes, long sleeves and maybe gloves are going to make visiting a much more pleasant experience.  Although the weather has been nice, yesterday I had to keep all the dogs in the house with all the doors and windows shut.  My neighbors across the street are slash burning and all the smoke was coming directly towards me, it was not pleasant.  Today the air pressure changed or something and it is no longer coming into my yard so we were able to spend the day outdoors.  As a matter of fact, they ate lunch and dinner outside and are still outside enjoying the beautiful day, I am sure when I bring them in they will crash big time.

While they were sleeping today I mowed one of the dog yards, not too close to where they were, but close enough to be a loud noise.  They watched with interest but didn't seem to upset by the noise which is a good thing.  I changed the pictures today for you, these were taken today and you can see how much they are changing.