D-Day tomorrow

D-Day?  Little Darby (or Darby-Do-Head, as she often is called by the Curmudgeon) gets to go to her forever home tomorrow.  She will live in Ballard and her friend will be a blue boy I bred a few years ago.  He lives with Jody's mother, but they will undoubtedly get to play.  Darby is the sweetest thing one can imagine.  PRETTY face.  I don't know what Jody will call her.  Maybe Darby!!

Sorry about the orientation.  Hopefully you can kind of get an idea of how talented these guys are.  Very good balance.  They know where their front and their back feet are!!!

Look at Danny Boy, standing up on two feet balancing on a moving platform!!!  He is something else!!!!!  They all are, really.  Darby is the front girl sitting down, "Mab" in back.

Danny, hoping for a handout!  Do you think he likes to eat?!!!  He'll be EASY to train.  They all will.  They are smart and they all like to get treats.

These were taken at Terrie Demierre's farm, outside of the barn.  Had to show off the babies.  May 14th.

Darby going over "Mab's" back!

All the puppies are show quality, but one for sure, Mab, is going to a show home.  Boyle, who is also going to Colorado, may well become a show dog as Abby, "Mab's" new owner, wants to show him and Aj is up for it, so there may be two show dogs in Colorado that fly there on Sat.  Abby is distracted this week from her end of the year studies because she is so excited.  She is going to call her girl Darby too, and register her as Elwha's Neala Queen of the Fairies.  That Darby is also lovely and will finish her championship post haste, for sure!
The side yard now has the two gazebos up and functioning.  I feel much more secure now with the kids out in that yard.  The raptors could still see them, but hopefully won't feel like they have enough room to get in and out.  I can sit under them in the shade too.  Important to my dermatologist!!!!!  The big dogs are with them also.  Raptors will run a risk if they come down into a den of Border Terriers!!!!  Anyway, I'm feeling more secure, and of course, have a lighter wallet!!!
Life will be a bit boring for a bit, but maybe I can get something done when the pups go to their homes on Friday and Sat.  Danny goes to be the light of peoples' lives in Carnation.  Lucky boy.  Lucky Carnation.  He may even learn to be a politician!!!  HA!
I'll try to get a few more farewell pictures up.
Curmudgeonville

Eight weeks old today! Where does the time go?!!!

They've been outside twice today so far, which for a work day is pretty good.  We'll go out more when we get home after work.
Kathleen and Kate are coming over today and Ian tomorrow.  Kate will maul them a lot and get them playing with a kid, if you can call a thirteen year old a kid!  She is much more a kid than I, so it counts a bit!
They love being outside.  They run and run and run and run some more, then they run through a tunnel, then up a ramp, then into the hole under the tree, then through the tunnel again, etc.  They have had no close raptor calls for a bit.  Thank heavens.  The gazebos have arrived and Karl is coming out sometime soon to put them up.  Can't wait for the relief from total worry. 

Kat and two of her kids exploring.

Mab, pensive

5-10-12  After playing hard outside at the office.

Danny Boy wondering if he can climb all the way up!

Boyle getting ready to dive onto someone.

Kat and three kids,  Cute.

They LOVE the under-the-tree hole.

Danny tugging with Mab

The under-the-tree-hole/tunnel.  Perfect for Border Terrorists.

Mr. Boyle being cute and ready to jump.

Darby going exploring.  They are all athletic.

Rascal-y play

We will be at work tomorrow.  May is "melanoma month" so we are putting on a free skin cancer screening tomorrow.  Poor babies don't get to play outside all day tomorrow as we would wish.
All the pictures were taken today except for the puppy pile dated picture.
Signing off for the weekend,
The Curmudgeon

Sunny day

I tried the babies in the outside run at work this AM.  SURPRISE!!!  I locked them in with their mother and turned to go inside and guess what!!!  There was one little rascal at my feet!  Darn and dad gum!!!  They aren't big enough yet.  I watched them almost get their heads caught in the gaps.  So, they are in with me today again.

They had fun at Betty and Skip's.  They came home bigger and rascal-ier than ever!!!  After I got home and had dragged in my gear from the handling seminar weekend, I took them outside in the side yard and we had a gay old time.  George and Jean came over to see their grandkids and helped me watch for eagles.  ( Beau, AKA Daddy, belongs to George and Jean.)  G & J are excellent bait handlers and helped the pups know how good they are for climbing onto things and for finding things, going through the tunnels, etc.  That hour wore the pups out and they slept well after that.  I was frozen and had to drink plenty of tea after standing in the wind.  I made everyone come in when the sun went down!  Wuss that I have become.  The pups didn't seem to mind it this time.  They are growing up!!!

They are becoming prettier in the face, if such a thing is possible!!!  Danny Boy is very masculine, not that Boyle isn't, he just isn't the buffed up type Danny Boy is.  Boyle has puppy fur that is kind of fluffy, but has a nice, hard coat coming in under that.  It feels good.  I guess that I think that the faces look like Kat except for Danny Boy.  He looks like his daddy, Beau.  They do have nice heads.

Jean was commenting on their color last evening.  Since George and Jean only have blues, they aren't as familiar with the nuances of the grizzle coats.  These guys have white eyebrows at the moment.  Funny how these little, predictable things happen and almost as if overnight.  It isn't really, but feels like it.

Anyway, they are now only in a crate in the car, no longer in a bag.  Those bags get HEAVY when the babes get big!  When I took them out of the dog run this AM I just whistled them into the office and they kept at my feet.  They are awfully good, and so happy and sweet. 

Pictures coming.

Handling seminar was great.  Now I have sore muscles!  Back didn't like the bed at the motel.  I'll take a while to straighten out!!!  I CAN hold two puppies at a time.  They do still fall asleep in my arms, so I guess that we are OK with each other.

Zinger and Ono did well at the handling seminar.  Practice, practice, practice!!!!  We'll have fun when we get in the swing of things.  Right now there are a ton of boxes out on the porch for the big dogs learning nose work/sniffing.  They ALL love that, and the pups only think it is for making them look for good smelly treats that I hide theirs!!!  Just wait.  They will be tracking fools!!!!

So much for what I know.  What do you know?

c

Rain, rain, give us a break!

Rainy as heck today.  Puppies probably won't go out.  They can't control their internal temperature as well as adults can and I don't want them chilled as much as this deluge would do.  Of course the weather report this AM said that we would have sun breaks today.  None so far by 4:00 PM!

The babies are excited to think about visiting Bonnie, Betty and Skip this weekend.  Betty is doing lots of planning to protect her floors!!!

If you can believe it, they are getting even lovier than before.  When I sit down on the kitchen floor with them, they all pile in my lap post haste and crawl up onto my chest to snuggle as close to my neck as possible.  They are snuggle bugs personified!

Crazy busy.  Sorry for no pictures.  Maybe Monday.  Fingers crossed.

They are getting soooooo good at the sniffing/nose work game it is unbelievable.  They are fast and have caught on quite well.  Amazing how fast they learn at such a young age. 

Handling class in Victoria this weekend.  Hopefully I can keep from tearing my knee cartilage like I did the last time I took this class!  I will have a brace on each knee this weekend.  I have done physical therapy and am ready, but you want to hear about puppies, not me! 

They go crazy in the yard.  We went out for about 45 minutes yesterday and I held the 40" pooper scoopers in my hands and swung my arms the entire time to protect them from hawks and eagles.  I saw none and looked up a lot of the time.  The puppies stayed safe and my arms got a great workout!

They ran and jumped and hid in the grass and tunneled under the cherry tree root like the big dogs do.  It was heartwarming.  I was very excited to see them tunnel as well as they did.  Natural earthdogs.  They climb up the slanted runs and go through the pipes I have out there.  The yard looks like a mess, but it is a studied mess, made for their enjoyment and education. 

As soon as the deluge stops, this is an ideal time of year for puppies.

I'll let you know how much they grow over the weekend when I can't see them.  I'm sure that I will be blown over.  It IS truly amazing how fast they grow at this age.

There are some awfully pretty puppies in this litter.  Fun to show!!!
Later,
The Crumudgeon

Curmudgeon blows it!!!

I forgot to bring the camera to work today to take all those zillions of pictures I took over the weekend off and put some onto the blog!!!  Duh!
The babies are growing up, as per schedule.  We did spend quite a few hours outside this weekend and I put up more cover so that I would feel more secure that the raptors wouldn't descent on us and take home lunch.  Tomorrow, when they go on sale, I'm ordering a few that won't disintegrate in the sun, wind and rain. They will let light through, but stay standing.  I may hate it when it lets the grass dry out, but maybe not.  I'll deal with it when that time comes.  I can't stand it the way it is now.  We did have a hawk fly over this weekend, but nothing like the eagle!!!
I put all of their play equipment out and they are climbing things, sliding down things, going through multiple tunnels, going into holes at the base of the cherry tree and getting into all kinds of mischief.  Great puppies.  They also will sit in my lap or anyone else's lap for as long as anyone will sit on the floor with them.  Snuggle bug city.
They are supposed to be wormed at six, eight, ten and twelve weeks, so Sat. we started.  Panacur, three days in a row.  They LOVE the cat food morsel with which I mixed it.  They each have inhaled their morsels, both days so far.  Now they don't want their dog food, just mom's milk and cat food.  They are only in luck on one of those and are still doing fine.  I just think that maybe they don't like the new dog food.  We'll see.
They are experiencing the cats, one at a time, and they have walked on cement, gravel, dirt, wood, and of course, grass.  They don't seem to mind any surface.  I am teaching each one to walk beside me and I feed them every few steps as they walk with me.  It will be EASY to transition them to heeling with that in their minds.
We did have visitors this weekend and they were able to visit new people and dogs.  Next weekend they will stay with Bonnie, Betty and Skip while I take Zinger and my dogs to a handling seminar in Canada. It will be good for them to have yet another change of scenery! 
They continue to sniff out the treats in the kitchen on all of the apparatus that move.  They LOVE that game and sniff audibly the entire time.  Of course they love the Natural Balance doggie sausage bits and pieces that I use for treats.
Better get busy!
Charlotte

Six weeks old tomorrow

Yesterday Pip and I did our first nosework class.  We had fun, especially Pip.  I think that she is a natural.
We went home and I sat on the floor with the babies.  I put treats all around the room and watched those little boogers use their noses and find them all.  I could hear them even across the room sniffing/snuffling/hunting.  It was precious.  They were darn good too!!!  Trackers in the making!!!!
Can you believe that they will be six weeks old tomorrow?  I can't.  Where does the time go?  I'm getting old!  That's what I always think when I see time whizzing by.
Danny Boy took a walk with the big guys today at lunch time.  If I have one at a time and the little one stays with the big ones, even UNDER the big dogs, then I don't worry so much about the eagles and the hawks.  I had one hawk one time dive bomb me when one puppy was walking beside me IN MY FRONT YARD, but when he brushed the side of my face with his wing, he veered off.  I would have jumped on him if he had tried to execute, but it was an eye opener too, no pun intended.  That one was pretty amazing because the bird touched me, but it wasn't an eagle.  That is why I only take one at a time out for walks and then I HOVER.  We live in the wilderness.
Some much for sniffing.
Curmudgeonly yours,
c

Scary Sunday!!!!

Don't you hate it when nightmares come true?  I do.
Over the weekend I planned to take the pups out as often as possible and we were doing a darn good job of it too!  Sunday on our second trip out I was set to take pictures because they were coming to my whistle so perfectly and it was the cutest thing in the world.  Forgot the camera the first time out.  Boogers!
We were out all of two minutes and I was trying to capture the little rats on film running at me and saw a shadow go over me.  I looked up and a bald eagle was RIGHT THERE!!!!  I scooped up the bunch and headed into the house in record time after I yelled at the eagle to stay away!  Scary in spades!  That ruined my day and my plans and my picture taking, big time!
After that we went into the north yard and stayed under the hedge or out in the front yard in the little run I have that I have covered with fence slats.  I sit in it, but it isn't long enough to have them run to me and I can only sit.  Even in the north yard I am constantly watching the sky.  It was hard enough trying to take pictures and watch THEM without having to watch the sky too.  No more pictures except in the pen, sitting down.
I am going to order some gazebo things that Costco has coming on sale and put them up side by side in that south yard and reclaim it for the puppies, no eagles allowed!  The structures have a see-through roof, i.e. not dark, and they are big enough we can have fun out there, they won't rot like the other things I've hung up out there in the past and I can stand up in them!  All good things.  That eagle was CLOSE, too close for comfort!  Scared the living daylights out of me.  MYYYYYYY babies!!!!!!

Anything cuter than that?

Well, maybe!

In the front pen under the slats, "hiding" from the eagle.

Coming when called.  My call is a soft, high-pitched whistle.

Whistle come!

Dinner al fresco, before eagle interference.

Darby

They are cute.  They come running whenever I'm near and have started chewing on my toes.  (No, that isn't cute!)  Mr. Boyle is the one who demands I come around if he can see me doing charts at the table, for instance.  He is already spoiled and LOVES to be held.  He cuddles right in!!!  They all climb on anything and everything and are not afraid of much.  We went out in back on Friday and they spent time with all four of the kitty boys.  Kidd, the oldest and dog wisest, loves puppies and wove in and out among them.  They were a bit taken aback at first, but adapted fairly rapidly.  I carry one or the other out usually when I go out to put the cats in their cat house at night and they get a rub from Kidd usually.
It is frightening how fast they grow up.  I have some new books with new things to try.  We'll see how the old curmudgeon does!
More soon,
c