Day 32 - No photos

Blogging everyday takes for dang ever. So, no photos and not much huge to write today as I have a lot of responsibilities.

We let the puppies out for at least three hours a day in the house and it's a blast. They are soon going to become destructive little monsters, though, but the forecast says sunny so as soon as the grass is dried out in the back yard and I can mow/garden it all down after a week solid of rain, I'm kicking them out there for the day.

This is great because I don't really like the fact they are confined to a tiny ex pen all the time. It takes a lot of cleaning and they are starting to spill out of their crate. Yishai suggested pulling out the coffee table that is next to them and setting up another ex pen there for more space, which I may do.

It's cute watching himself torment over which puppy he'll get. I still think he's going for OP, but sometimes he really, really wants Moto and other times Daca. I hope he makes his choice soon, I really don't like sitting on a bunch of puppies without confirmed homes. It scares me a little. I like my ducks in a row. In about three weeks they'll be shipping off to new homes, and I don't even know that they're all spoken for yet. Get on it, Y!

Week 4 Photos - Batch Two

How cute are we? SO CUTE.

Firma and Fie.
Firma and Fie
Firm and Fie
Reid and Optimus Prime
Firma and Optimus Prime
Firma and Optimus Prime
The Fury and mini-Fury, Daca.
The Fury and Optimus Prime, Reid,

Week 4 Photos - Batch One

I challenge you to not be destroyed by the cuteness.Reid.
This is Reid's most classic pose.
Moto

Firma


Fie


Daca

Optimus Prime


More to come whenever he gets done with them. I have one that will make you just die of Fury and her puppy.

Day 30 - Kinda halfway there, eh?

So today is day 30, and if I am holding the puppies in my care for a minimum of 60 days, my job is half-done. It doesn't feel that way at all.

Yishai is torn about how to choose puppies. Yesterday we had them out in the evening for a very long time. I still think he'll end up landing with Optimus Prime, but I keep reminding him that whatever puppy you end up with is somewhat inconsequential - my three Aussies were picked arbitrarily. The first and last from a photo, and the middle upon popping out of mama dog. They all had weaknesses and strengths, but I never wondered if I should have chosen another dog.

Ah, so the power of "pick of the litter" goes, he says. It's not inconsequential - it's not like one dog is just the same as another, he spends hours with them every day.

So yesterday, as we are watching them bop around on the floor, chewing on each other, interacting with Fury, etc, he starts to "test them" by putting them on his chest and looking for sustained eye contact and licking. He likes a lovey puppy. Firma and Daca failed this test, but only really because they were more interested in play-fighting with each other than him. All of my puppies are very people aware and happy to hold a gaze. All of them can be enticed to lick you. I don't know if that test of his is going to work.

I am pretty happy with his selections, though. He seems to be going for the puppies I would, and for interesting reasons - beauty and serenity. There are three puppies in the litter that are frenetic: Fie, Firma, and Daca. They will play as long as they can last, they're aggressive and fairly dominant. They run and jump a lot, and will sacrifice art and care for speed and enjoyment. The other three, Reid, Moto, and Optimus Prime seem to have more old souls. They watch and wait and think. They all seem a little more content to be on their own to explore things, too.

What I love about Yishai's observations is how he phrases stuff: "Optimus just seems to understand me." :) Four-week old puppies get it.

This reminds me of when Dusty died. Dusty was probably my heart dog - more than Fury. When he died, I looked in Fury's eyes to see if there was a tiny bit of his soul there (she was born a day after he died). Not really. Strangely, for some reason, while she doesn't remind me remotely of Dusty, she reminds me of my mom. It's creepy. And yes, Mom's still around.

Anyway, there was a dog that I looked into his eyes and saw a bit of him - my friend Mary Jean's Rascal. There was something akin in his soul. Unfortunately he has recently passed. I think I will always look into the eyes of other dogs to look for him. I just thought I'd mention that I still feel the impact of the world's loss of Rascal. I hope that my puppies inspire that in others, too.

Another new phenomenon is that Fury is starting to play with the puppies. They were playing, as Patrick MacRoberts calls it, "Bite the head" with one another, but now she gets in on the action. It is darling. She used to be a very social dog with other mutts in settings like the dog park. Over time, however, too many dogs have violated her trust so she rarely engages other dogs in play. It's cool to see her come back with that.

She also keeps trying to get them to play tug of war. Not yet. :)

Day 29 - Early weaning?

It is getting to be such a bear to get Fury to feed her kids. They wake us up every morning screaming and either my roommates or I go out and tell Fury to "feed your babies" which results in her hopping in there and doing it. I can't imagine the little teeth are comfortable for them. I usually follow each milk session with some puppy mash, but now that they have all their puppy teeth in, I'm going to try to supply them with more hard food and some water - of course dumb ol' Fury likes to eat it instead of them. There's got to be a balance here. :)

Here she is, cleaning up after feeding DURING feeding time.

The puppies are getting far more adventurous these days. They get let out to have run of the house for an hour or so probably 2-3 times a week. I am always quite thrilled at how they handle new experiences with no problems whatsoever. I will be glad when the rain stops and they can explore the backyard - both for house cleaning purposes and because I think dogs need to be outdoors. :)

They are also getting much stronger personalities. I'll go into that more when I get my photo set from Chris that he took last night. Today I watched as Firma tried to "work" Fury - kind of paralleled her out wide and watched her eye, and when Fury wouldn't play with her and turned around, she heeled her. Very cool. They're starting to remind me they're stockdogs. I'm also about ready to start taking deposits from parties rather than just keeping a list. I'm still looking for homes, though. I am hoping some of these puppies go to versatility homes (I'm primarily interested in working/conformation as I'd like to see them get championships if they turn out, but want to see them do what I bred them to do, too).

I had a scare on Friday: I've been thinking that Dactyl (whom we really call Daca, Dax, Daquiri) looks funny and I realized it was that her eyes are a bit wonky. Be being me, I did too much Internet research and was sure I was looking at PRA (progressive retinal atrophy) - she was going to go blind!

Daca's possibly wonky eyes?

Yishai came over to inspect her, and saw nothing wrong, but as I tearfully told him that if she was going blind, I'd probably have to put her down, he said, "Well, then, she's my puppy." I told him, "You can't do that." Yishai wants an adventure dog - to take with him mountain biking/hiking/on trips, etc. He's interested in stock handling and agility with it. He can't take the hurt puppy just because she's hurt. But that's the kind of guy he is. "Blind is not that bad. I won't let you put her down for that."

Here's my dog guy with his little pals. After I took this picture, I went and took a shower and when I came back he was asleep in the same puppy pile. Awww.

Anyway, on further consult, pretty much everyone says either, "I don't see anything wrong" or "it's typical for them to not fully be developed yet" so I'll hope for the best. Everyone is probably right. CA Sharp (our unofficial breed geneticist) said not to worry, as did one of my mentors. They'll get their eyes checked about a week before I ship them off to new homes - there's a CERF clinic here then. Living in the middle of nowhere makes these kinds of things hard sometimes.

Also, I would like to say that the week 4 photos are going to blow your socks off with their sheer cuteness. Be prepared.

Here's Yishai puppy wrangling for the photoshoot.

Chris Bersbach, puppy photographer extraordinare after photoshoot with all six Furies in his lap.

Day 27 - No sleep

I haven't taken any new photos since last time, so this is just a writing blog.

People weren't kidding when they said that I'd be getting no sleep with puppies. And it's not puppies' fault, it's Fury's. My roommate had a friend spend the night last time and every time he came out, Fury would bark her head off at him (and interestingly enough, Optimus Prime would stand there doing her best like a mini Fury - not sure how I feel about that). Then she would tear at her ex-pen because since this guy was roaming the house, I decided it would be better for all involved if she just stayed in there. Finally, she got what she wanted in that she got to stay in the room. But even then, she woke me up to go to the bathroom (this was something she started while pregnant and I was lenient and this is what happens). And then in the morning, the puppies were restless so it was paper changing and feeding time.

I feel like I am getting dragged through a truck. Happily, I don't have an 8 to 5 job, so I can sleep in. But when I am used to waking up at 7:30 - consistent arising at 10 am feels extremely dirty. Only to do it all again tomorrow.

::bangs head against desk::

Day 26 - Graaaaaaaaaaaaass

So, I decided to take someone's advice on this blog and try out grass for the puppies' housebreaking needs. They still, to my frustration, associate the carpet with pee pee time and I hate it. We've got a huge storm here in San Luis Obispo and I don't have any way to wash out my little squares and dry them with the rain like this. I was just going to keep setting down paper, but the idea to get a box of sod and teach them to pee on it sounded pretty good. Why not? This is all experimentation anyway, right? Except if you go to Home Depot during a storm, what you will find is a bunch of knocked over palm trees and total desertion. It occurred to me that planting sod in this particular weather is pretty dumb, and so is stocking it.

Deflated, I returned inside, but then thought about ground cover. It's green, it's plant, they had it in stock, and it should do the job - no mowing! I grabbed Yishai and brought him over to it while we discussed the merits of this plan and I decided a $13 investment in ground cover was fine. We looked up this particular variety (and no, I don't remember what it is) on his phone and found it not to be toxic to chewy puppies, so here we go. Let's see if it works. Carpet is now banished. I also rearranged things to make it more . . . palatable and easy to clean? We'll see.

Also, if you are curious, there's a good article on the Internet about potty training your dogs. Check it out.

The puppies are pretty fun right now, I have to say. They sleep most of the time, but when they are up, the rock OUT. Tear at each other, tear at us, and, as mentioned previously, try to stick their heads in our mouths. It's quite enjoyable to play with them. Yishai and I were talking about our business yesterday and he brought the puppies out to my bed, wherein they determined that this particular footing surface was excellent for urination. Laundry ensured. And despite his watchful eye, maybe Optimus Prime fell off the bed. I was impressed with her total nonchalance about the episode (one thing I like in my dogs is stoicism).

Yesterday I had to meet with some friends, and Yishai suggested we bring them a couple puppies to see as the sort of don't seem to want to make it out to see them at my house. We loaded up Optimus and Moto (these are Yishai's two favorites currently) and hauled them over there. Our friends are "city people."One hails from Montreal and the other from the Bronx. Miki had never held a puppy before and looked about as awkward as anything I've ever seen. Her husband kept his distance and just looked at them. Every time Moto would toss his head up to look at her she would go, "Oooh," with a little fear. It was interesting. Puppies are pretty much the most innocuous thing I can imagine, especially at this stage with them being very mellow yet alert and well socialized. It reminded us both of our encounter with some New Yorkers hiding in a tree in Costa Rica, trying to avoid baby coatis.

This is a baby coati:

It is really interesting, and I would make a value judgement of "sad" as well, what lack of exposure will do to you. I contest that all hate-based fear comes from the same place - lack of familiarity with a topic, people, politics, etc. This is why, when you apply to teach at a college, you need to provide a diversity statement - I think it's paramount that teachers understand and almost force the importance of learning about cultures and peoples different than themselves. I mean, afraid of three-week-old puppies?

Anyway, they're good people, no judgement there. It was just an interesting phenomenon.

Yishai helps Fury clean off a food-covered Optimus Prime. BTW, I am pretty sure that we have a winner. I think she'll be staying with us. No promises, but he is in love (and good, because if I were keeping one, I wanted a solid red bitch anyway - and she's awesome).

Also, shout outs to the ladies in the Business Office (I think this was Mary Key) for the little "Howdy" on my individual registration packets. That's one of the best things about my experience on the ASCA Board - meeting and really enjoying my time with those gals. :)