Dexter Update

Dexter is one of Decker and Shasta's pups (a littermate to Jazzy whose pics I posted recently). His owners (Kristin, Dave and family) were in touch with Cindy recently with an update and a photo, which she thoughtfully passed on to me:

"We are so happy with Dexter. He is a wonderful puppy and gets along so well with everyone he meets, dogs and people. He has such a calm, easy-going personality.

He graduated from his puppy school and we're thinking of doing some agility classes with him in January. Here is a picture of him after his first grooming done by Jonathan and Mike.
Thanks again for trusting us with Dexter and giving us a wonderful addition to our family."

What a super report! So far these pups are getting an "A" in the personality department and I think they are looking quite nice too.

Jazzy's Dentist visit

Decker's pup Jazzy had to have a couple of puppy teeth extracted yesterday. Sometimes puppy teeth are retained past when they should be and letting them stay can cause problems and throw the puppy's bite off. I hope Jazzy weathered her dental procedure okay. I'm sure Karen will let me know...

Since I'm thinking of her, here are some cute pics Karen sent me a few weeks ago. You can see that Jazzy and Karen's older PWD Roxie love to play. I think Karen's kids might be pretty fond of Jazzy too...

Road Trip to the National Specialty

My recent road trip to CA for the PWD National Specialty brought lots of memories, as well as being very fun!

Here are some random thoughts on the trip:

I am always fascinated by some of the junk art near I5 in the Weed area so this time I searched the internet when I returned home and found some photos of the dragon and cow sculptures. That is Penelope the dragon to the left. Penelope is the creation of Ralph Starritt of Yreka.

Another of Mr. Staritt's creations is "Moodonna".

The town of "Talent" Oregon (we drove past the sign on I5) was the inspiration for the call name for my friend Jessie's dog.

The last time I headed that far south with the dogs was when we went to the National in Ventura in 2007. Kilo died just a few months before that trip. This was truly a special week for me as I got to see his kids and grand-kids having fun with their people at the National. Kids Bella, Cooper, Ecko, Reef and Sydney represented him well at the National, as did grand-kids India and JoJo. Kilo came back to me in a dream recently, but he lives on every day in our house in his daughters and grand-daughter. Makes me teary just thinking about it...

It's not all about the "stuff" anymore

My birthday was yesterday and, no, I am NOT telling how old I am! Reflecting back on birthdays past, I can remember when I was young and my birthday was all about the "stuff". I would spend a month prior to my birthday thinking of all the great gifts I would like and counting the days off on the calendar until the grand day arrived and I got to dig into all those presents.

Karen sent me a birthday photo of Jazzy (Decker's daughter - right)
and her housemate Roxie - too cute!

In addition to noticing the sprinkling of lighter blonde highlights in my hair (I refuse to acknowledge that they might be GRAY highlights!) I also realized yesterday that, at some point, my birthday has come to be more about celebrating all the good things that are already in my life instead of wishing for more. I spent the day celebrating lots of birthday wishes from friends, the beautiful sunny day, the flowers my hubby surprised me with, the extra TLC and great training sessions I had with my dogs and the knowledge that I am blessed to have the most important things in my life on an everyday basis.

Pupdate

Decker's son Port has been off staying with my friend Julie and her family for a few days. He is coming back to our house tonight to spend the next two days, then we will head north to meet up with his new owner, Alex and turn him over for his travels to his new home in Canada. It will be a little bittersweet enjoying these last few days with him, but it is time for him to move on and we hope to get to see him occasionally and get frequent updates.

Ecko has surely been enjoying having him around and I got some pics of them playing on the back patio last weekend.

I have gotten reports on several of the pups and hope to have contact information for all their new owners soon, so I can keep tabs on the little guys.

Piranha Puppy Port

Decker's 10-week old son Port has been staying with us for the last 10 days and I am exhausted! It's so easy to forget how much work puppies are when you haven't lived with one for a while! I am a firm believer in puppy "management" when the situation does not allow for supervision, but the bottom line with puppies is you have to do a whole lot of following them around and teaching them what the rules are. If all you ever do is tether or crate your pup, he won't learn the rules very quickly, if at all. In addition, the little guy needs to get up in the middle of the night for a potty break still. I am SO missing having an uninterrupted nights sleep...

Port has been sleeping nicely in his kennel at night. During the day, he is in a spacious kennel run in the garage. I run home from work on my lunch hour to let him out for a romp in the yard, then it is back into the kennel run with his lunch. He gets free range of the house and yard in the evening when we are home and gets escorted to the yard frequently to remind him that he is to potty there and not in the house.

• He has been to the river twice and swam like a little fish on his second visit.
• He went for a walk to the end of the block and back and made friends with a scary fire hydrant.
• He likes to tug with the braided fleece toy and gets quite fierce about it.
• He likes to retrieve for a few tosses, then loses interest (no attention span yet).
• He eats like a little piglet. He has been getting mostly kibble with a ground raw prepared food, but this AM he had his first raw chicken wing, which he took to with gusto.
• He has teeth like a piranha and the adult dogs and humans in the house are doing their darnedest to teach him how to use them appropriately.

Altogether a fun little dude and I think his new owner Alex will have a blast with him when he heads north to live with her in another week. Some day when Decker is retired from agility, I think we will have to find one just like this for Jan to run

Catching Up

I don't know if that is actually possible, as things seem to be moving at whirlwind speed lately.

Last week saw a quick trip to watch the Decker x Shasta litters temperament test, followed by a flurry of communication between Cindy and I to discuss puppy placements; the arrival of a new girlfriend for Decker; a private lesson with some nice folks with a 14-week old Lab puppy; and a three-day trip out of town to judge a water trial (leaving Jan behind with all the hormonal dogs!).

Most of the chaos revolves around fun and exciting things, so I remind myself to just hang on and enjoy the ride.

Recently I blogged an excerpt from an article by Kathryn Lanam regarding behavioral development in dogs. This article is one that is included in Pat Hastings book "Another Piece of the Puzzle: Puppy Development". I really enjoy this article and reread it every time we have a litter of puppies. I have not compared them side by side, but I believe the link below is the same article as can be found in the book:

http://www.briardbreeder.com/info.html#Behavioral_development_of_a_puppy

Photos are of Decker and Sydney (his new girlfriend).

Puppy Pics

I drove to Snohomish and back yesterday to watch the puppy temperament test, play with the puppies and visit with Cindy and Nancy. Poor Cindy and Nancy got stuck with all the work and I had all the fun. It was a fun trip, the temperament test went well, and the puppies are looking really nice.

Here are some puppy photos I took. It was difficult to carry on a conversation, fend the puppies off who were tugging on the camera strap and still remember to actually USE the camera, but I did get a couple of cute shots.

6-Week Birthday

Decker and Shasta's pups will have their 6 week birthday this Saturday (17th). Can you believe it? Seems like they were just born...

As of around 5-weeks of age, the pups are in the "socialization period" of their development. That stage can be broken down into several other stages, but this link to a blog entry from my last litter will give you an idea of where they are at developmentally:

http://lookoutpwd.blogspot.com/2008/01/socialization-period-5-16-weeks.html

I had fun looking at some of the entries from this time back in 2008 and checking out some of the photos of our "deadliest catch" litter.

July 4th Weekend

Drove north to visit Decker and Shasta's puppies this weekend. It's around a 3-1/2 hour drive from Beaverton to Bothell, so we opted to drive up on Friday evening and stay at Sandy and Jim's house on Wye Lake in Port Orchard. Its always great to visit with Sandy and Jim (although Sandy was not there this visit) and the dogs and I always have a hard time tearing ourselves away from the relaxation of the lake when we leave.

Saturday and Sunday morning both dawned cool and overcast, but we forced ourselves to take the dogs down to the water and get some training in both days. The dogs enjoyed themselves and the less seasoned dogs are making nice progress. I traveled with Decker and Chili this weekend and gave them a review of some of the tasks for Versatility since they are entered in a trial in a few weeks. I did a little grooming both days too, with a bath and some brushing and light trimming for Decker and his great-Aunt Sabrina.

We visited the pups on Saturday evening and enjoyed them so much that it was hard to tear ourselves away. They are a sleek and healthy bunch of pups and I am excited to see how they mature.

Ivar - wavy male

Chandler - curly male

Port - wavy male

Salty - wavy female

Elly - "wurly" female

Ray - wavy male

glimpses of PWD history

I came across these two articles on PWDs recently. Enjoy!

1983 AKC Gazette article

1975 Sports Illustrated article

Decker x Shasta Pups - Week 4

Here is what the following week will bring for the babies:

Week Four (Days 22-28)

• Begin to eat food
• Begin to bark, wag tails, bite, paw, bare teeth, growl and chase
• Use legs well
• Tire easily
• Depth perception starts

Cindy has scheduled appointments for the pup's CERF exam and temperament evaluation already, although those won't be taking place for several weeks still.

A CERF examination is a typical eye screening examination that is done by a veterinarian specialized in ophthalmology. The pup’s pupils will be dilated with eye drops and the examiner will examine the eyes looking for major abnormalities. This ensures that the pup's eyes are healthy when they go to their new homes.

Less is More

Isn't that a phrase on the "Life is Good" clothing?

Ecko and I went to the agility barn on Saturday. The round-trip drive takes me about 1:20 and we trained for about 20 or 25 minutes. In twenty minutes, we got a lot done. Ecko was panting pretty good, but still eager to go when we quit, so I think it was perfect. We worked on:

• Jumping 20 inches (I have been jumping her 16 but she is ready for the "big time"). She is pretty much fine with this, although we did spend a bit of time gradually increasing the height on the tire jump. I will need to do this for a couple of more training sessions before she is quite on-board with the tire being this high.
• A fun sequence of about 4-5 jumps and 3 tunnels. We ran this a couple of different ways and it was a really motivational way to be able to let her run pretty fast while still working on some crosses and those higher jumps.
• We ran the dog walk and a-frame a couple of times working on contacts and also speed on the dog walk.
• Did a full set of weaves about 6 times and....
• Done!

On Sunday (cool and rainy, argh!) I took the same approach to water training.

Decker theoretically already knows all the exercises I will be asking him to do at the trial in mid-July, but he hasn't actually done them in about 2 years. His "review" went really well.

• 60 foot retrieve from shore - Nailed this, including waiting for me to send him. Sometimes he gets a bit over-eager.
• Gear bag drag. Did this twice nicely and in turbo mode both times.
• Float line retrieve off shore. He took direction from the boat to shore nicely, especially since he definitely did NOT see the line on shore. He spotted it as soon as he got close and did an amazing, lightening fast snatch and booked it back out to the boat.
• We ended his session with some buoy ball drop training. We did one send to the marker and target without the buoy ball, just to make sure he remembered his cues. He did that part with no problems so we did the next one with the ball and he nailed that too.

Stoker has been acting slightly stressy ever since some sessions went south last summer. For a girl who seems a bit ditzy sometimes, she has a memory like an elephant.

• I rowed the boat and Julie sat on the platform and fed her cookies. She asked her for simple behaviors like hand targeting, sit, down, changing sides (left to right and right to left). Stokie settled down nicely and enjoyed all the treats.
• We decided to ask her to jump off the boat and here is where it got interesting. With Julie off the platform calling her and throwing the toy, Stoker would jump into shore, or parallel to shore from the boat. Several times she decided she couldn't jump and we just didn't push the issue. When she did jump, it was really fast and she hurled herself off, so that is promising.
• After a bit of a break, we worked on sending to the marker and secondary target in the water for a thrown toy reward, followed by treats. She did super well at this and we only did about four repetitions.
• Finally, we worked on her swimming at my side as I walked 5 or 10 feet at a time in the water. I asked her to hold a rope in her mouth and when I cued her to drop it, would reward her with the toy and treats. Just a few repetitions of this, which she did very well at, and we ended on a positive note.

After we put all the gear away, I got both dogs out and let them have a good romp play-retrieving in the lake. It's good exercise for them and they love it!

Puppy Update - Week 2

Decker and Shasta's puppies continue to thrive. Cindy is quite pleased with their progress and says they are a strong and active bunch.

Here is where they are at developmentally (they turned 2 weeks today):

During Week Two (Days 8-14):

• Eyes should open around days 8-10 (eyes are open on all the pups)
  
• Ears should open around days 13-17
  

Week Three (Days 15-21)

• Teeth begin to erupt
• Puppies stand up and start walking (Cindy says they have already started to do this!)
  
• Begin to lap liquids
• Defecate/urinate without stimulation
• Start becoming aware of environment
• Start playing with littermates
• Develop sense of smell
• Puppies will start to discriminate as to where to relieve themselves

Cindy hopes to have some video clips of the little ones soon.

Pics from the Weekend

The Chili-girl loves to go to the lake and doesn't get to go as often as she used to with two younger dogs in training for titles. Here she is taking a nice snooze in the sunshine on the way home from the lake on Saturday. Just love her!

Deck-man is such a goof-ball, but loves to strike dignified, thoughtful poses in the back yard (and I love to capture them with the camera). A study in contrast, that's our guy.

Puppy Pics and Theme

There are pics of Decker and Shasta's pups now in the "media gallery" on Cindy's website at:

http://www.cascadepwd.org/

They still look like little aliens, but it is fun to look at their markings. Cindy said they were quite active and squirmy during their photo session.

The litter theme for this litter is Northwest's Best Seafood, with the pups litter names being seafood restaurants. Here is the line-up:

The boys are:

• "Port" (Anthony's Home Port)
• "Chandler" (Chandler's Seafood)
• "Ivar" (Ivar's Seafood)
• "Ray" (Ray's Boat house)
  

The girls:

• "Salty" (Salty's)
• "Elly" (Elliot's Oyster House)
  

With the cool, rainy weather we have had all spring, typing the list of names made me long for a nice hot bowl of clam chowder! :-)

Whirlwind Weekend and Puppy Progress

Woke up Saturday morning to cool, overcast weather (was supposed to be 80 degrees and sunny), a splitting headache, and the realization that we were supposed to meet at the lake for water work at 8:30 AM. Ugh! After spilling coffee all over Julie's car and launching the boat without the plug in (fortunately, we caught that quickly, loaded it back up, drained it and relaunched with the plug in before it sank!) the day began to improve. After the clouds burned off, the temperatures really did hit 80 and the lake was beautiful. The water was reasonably warm and I was smart enough to take Chili (who is a blast to train at the water) and Ecko (who is training on easy, baby-dog working stuff) so I had successful training sessions despite the fact that my headache would NOT go away.

Returning home from the lake around 2:00 PM, I found that Dick and Ginny had already arrived for their visit. They let themselves in and were lounging on the patio with Reef, Decker and Stoker when I walked in the door. Jan arrived a few minutes later and we all had a nice late lunch on the patio.

After lunch, Reef got his monthly haircut. Dave and Rebecca arrived with their two PWDs from the agility trial in time to watch Reef endure the final snips of his grooming torture, then we all enjoyed a relaxing evening hanging out with the dogs and chatting.

It was up early again on Sunday and out the door to the agility trial. Decker and Jan were entered and we timed our arrival just slightly too late for him to walk his Excellent Standard course. Ugh! The guys did a creditable job on the course with just a brief detour over an off-course jump. Both Deck and Jan were hot and lazy by the time Jumpers rolled around in the afternoon and missed the weaves there, although the rest of the course was smooth.

PUPPY STUFF

No pics or videos of Decker and Shasta's babies yet, unfortunately (I think Cindy and Rick have their hands full!), but here is some of what the pups would have been up to during their first week.

• 90% of time spent sleeping, 10% eating
• Susceptible to heat/cold - cannot regulate their own body temperature
  
• Instinctive reflexes: crawl, seek warmth, nurse
• They can right themselves if placed upside down
• Need stimulation for urination/defecation (Mama cleaning them does the trick.
• Rapid development of central nervous system
• Rectal temperatures 94-97 degrees Farenheit
• Pups may lose 10% of weight after birth, but should start gaining again and weight should double by end of week

The pup's eyes should begin to open during the next week.

And then there were six...

It isn't unusual for one puppy from a litter to not survive those crucial first few days, and we said goodbye to one of Decker and Shasta's male pups yesterday, leaving 4 boys and 2 girls. Sorry little guy, wish you had the chance to grow up strong and happy like your siblings hopefully will, but it wasn't meant to be.

My report from Cindy says the rest of the bunch is gaining weight like crazy and that they feel like little sausages, they are so round and full.

They're here...

Decker's puppies were born on Saturday morning. Shasta did a good job with the delivery and is being an excellent Mom, as she was with her first litter. Apparently Decker and Shasta didn’t get the message that I am looking for a girl puppy, as they had lots of boys!

There are five males and two females. All pups are black with white markings with one being Irish-marked. Two are curlies (both males) and the rest are wavy.

I can't wait to see the little guys in a few weeks and will share photos if Cindy sends some...

The clock is ticking....

The countdown is getting close on Decker's puppies being born. We only do the puppy thing every couple of years so when there is a litter due, even long-distance (Shasta is with her family in Washington), it is very exciting.

Perhaps Shasta will follow Rick's plan and have her pups on Cindy's birthday on Friday? Cindy reports that Shasta is very big now and all she wants to do is sleep and eat. She got her pre-whelping haircut last night. Hopefully all will go well for this sweet girl and there will be a lovely, lively litter of pups to show for it.

Until then, we will continue to wait expectantly for good news...

I took some time tonight to dig out some baby photos of Decker and his siblings and reminisce a bit.

Decker's brother "Marlin"

Decker, keeping cool...

Come on people, I'm trying to nap here....

Decker was one of the "Ocean's Eleven". Yes, there were really 11 of them, so this is just over half! Their litter names were sea critters, Otter, Squid, Marlin, Moray (that was Decker).... I can't remember all the others.

View from the top...

Or, it's all down-hill from here...

I took this photo of Ecko at the top of the steps up to the back yard early Sunday afternoon shortly before my cold kicked in full force and proceeded to kick my butt for the rest of the weekend.


Groomed a pretty six-month old pup this weekend. Menina was VERY well behaved on the grooming table and got to have some down-time exploring in the yard and playing with Ecko.

Ecko doing her best "kung-fu" impression while playing with Menina.

Actually had a pretty good day on Saturday, with a trip to the river with a couple of the dogs for a training session. We couldn't coordinate taking the boat with us and the weather was kind of crappy (high 40s and cloudy/rainy) but we still got a good session in.

Did some sending to the marker and secondary target with Stoker who did very well with that. I also worked a bit on her float line retrieve from shore with me standing in the water (brrrr!) and sending her to shore for the line with a food tube attached. She loves to swim and retrieve despite the cold, and we only saw small glimpses of her stressy behavior from last year's Courier training fiasco.

Ecko wasn't excited about swimming and I didn't push it because the water really was COLD! Played with her a little retrieving the food tube and then attaching it to her line for her to retrieve. We also worked on some multiple article retrieves in wading depth water and she did a good job fetching the buoy ball with the sinking line. I think she will be one of the clever dogs that figures out bumping the ball with your nose will kick the line up out of the water...

We ended with all four dogs taking a turn at doing the Courier pouch exchange in the field near the car. This was a good way to warm them up after their cold water swimming and a fun game for them to play.

Resting up from the weekend.

What's one extra PWD? Or three? Or four? If you said "exhausting", you got the right answer!

On Wednesday, 6-month old pup "Willa" arrived for a weekend visit. She was really a very good girl for her age. She didn't chew anything she shouldn't, she ate her meals when they were offered and she slept nicely in her crate (after a few minutes of complaining the first night).

She did give us a good scare when she decided that we were no way, no how gonna catch her in our extremely large back yard on Thursday afternoon. I spent over an hour after I got home from work trying to persuade her that I really wasn't scary and that being caught wasn't a bad thing. I finally enlisted Ecko's help and by pretending to ignore Willa and play with Ecko instead I finally managed to capture her. Needless to say, she spent the rest of her stay with us dragging a leash so we could catch her when we needed to.

Willa and Ecko had fun playing on and off while she was with us and she followed Decker around like he was her hero.

Ecko engaging Willa in a game of "chase"

Willa with a toy. Isn't she cute?

On Friday evening, Julie dropped off Ecko's brother Cooper and his housemate Tsuzi. These two have stayed with us before and are always easy to have around, but still..... seven PWDs in one house? Yikes!

On Saturday morning, Dick and Ginny arrived to spend the weekend with us, bringing Ecko's brother Reef with them and the total PWD headcount hit eight. The dogs all got on amazing well. Fortunately the weather was amazing so the patio doors could be open to the back yard pretty much the whole weekend.

We had a yummy dinner which Dick and Jan cooked on the barbecue Saturday night to celebrate Ginny's upcoming birthday.

On Sunday, we had a visit from this beautiful bird. We heard her first, and thought it was the Pileated Woodpecker that visits each year. After looking at some bird websites on-line, I think it is actually a Northern Flicker, which supposedly makes a sounds very similar to the Pileated Woodpecker. Flickers are members of the woodpecker family. The Northern Flicker is 11 - 12 inches long, has a wingspan of 17 - 20 inches and weighs 3 3/4 to 5 1/2 ounces. They are common in open woodlands and suburban areas. They nest in a cavity in a tree or post.

Reef was the first PWD to depart, heading home with Dick and Ginny Sunday morning. Willa's family came to pick her up mid-afternoon and Cooper and Tsuzi left late in the afternoon. Amazing how peaceful the house seems with "only" four PWDs.

One may go a long way after one is tired.

The title for this morning's entry is supposedly a french proverb. I hope it's true because I am feeling particularly sleepy this morning and have no "get up and go". I suspect it has something to do with being Monday and having a full day or work ahead of me instead of a day of playing in the sunshine....

Left - Chili posing with her Daddy's slipper before we headed out into the sunshine.


We had a gorgeous weekend of sunshine and warm temperatures. I spent almost the whole day outside on Saturday.

Saturday tally:

• show-groomed one dog (Photo right - Cooper resting after his trim...)
  
• pet groomed one dog (short lion trim for Stoker)
• brushed one dog (Ecko kept flinging herself on the table....)
• biked three dogs
• walked one dog
• did some laundry
• kicked back with a Marguerita and had a lazy evening.

On Sunday I called my mom to wish her "Happy Mother's Day", then scurried around the house and raced out the door to meet Julie for the drive to Elma and back for the dog show. Cooper was only entered one day and did not win his class, but we had a fun day anyway. We stopped at the lake on the way home and did a casual training session with Cooper, Tsuzi and Stoker - the highlight of the day.

This morning.....I'm tired.

It's the little things

Had a lazy Saturday morning (photos on the patio and in the yard below), followed by a trip to the lake (in cool, overcast, rainy weather) to test out Martha's newly repaired boat. Picked up the pace a bit on Sunday with tomatoes and basil to plant and yard work to do...

Chili posing on the retaining wall.

Stoker showing off her toy.

One hand on the camera and the other tugging with Stoker...

Stoker and Ecko tugging.

Deckers turn to pose.

Siblings learning to jump from the boat. Ecko (right) and brother Cooper.