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Thursday, August 2, 2012 at 4:43PM 
Hi Nathan/Darlah:
I have some updated pictures from the park.
Stella has a big girl haircut for the summer.
I will let it grow again.
Wait till you see her, and no you cannot have her back!!!!!
Regards Valerie
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From us: Stella, I think you are cute no matter what haircut you have.
If this is easier for Mommy and you, then go for it!
You really turned into a totally beuatiful silver beauty.
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Gerda also posted photos with Tre chillin amd what a lucky guy he is.
I do believe he has Abigail's snout, nose and mouth. :-)
Can't wait to see if the twins look like twins still. :-)
Updates with the dogs here later. Roxy (not our Roxie) is heading home tomorrow in the morning so I am washing her last thing before bed. Sadie also heads home but not till night so she will get bathed in the afternoon.
Reader Comments (19)
Tre has the look of a fun loving boy. I love his face.
I hope I get to meet him at the picnic.
Hi Valerie,
Stella /Tipper looks adorable. Do you find that she doesn't get as many knots with her hair short.? I am considering a short cut for Molly next week as she has that blowing coat.
Kathy: You will see Tre, Ringo, Kobe but not sure about Laci. That's the entire litter if they all make it. Doubt we will see Tre next picnic unless she has some serious frequent flyer miles. :-)
Darlah, do you know who is coming from Molly's group?
Susan:
Stella is not able to come. Not sure on Jenkins as they just had a baby but will send mail again. Mia is indeed coming. Murphy we didn't hear back from. Rest assured Molly will have a great time and you will too. Have always heard that everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves.
We will be there early as we have to help out setting up as we are one half of the hosts. :-)
Susan: If it is really short she will be easy care. I take care of a lot of dogs with a half of an inch to a full inch and its hardly any work. You do have to take care of the ears and tail but the body is easy to comb through with hardly any hair. I like the longer look but its YOU that has to do the work and hair grows and with your boating it may be the right thing to do. Besides, I rather like Stella in this do. I bet Molly may wear it well too.
I cut Shoshi one year before the picnic and got grief from someone nameless that no longer comes. Bloody catty person, I say. Shoshi has ticking and she doesn't look good in short hair. Molly does not have that issue. Short hair on ticked dogs looks funny and makes the hair look dirty. So Shoshi has longer hair.
Stella is beautiful and she is rocking that haircut....good for you Stella! :)
Tre is adorable as well....he has Scruffy-like qualities I think, especially that ponytail!
Susan, I cut Scruffy's hair.....Darlah wasn't thrilled with me ;-) Not because it's shorter, but because I did it myself and may have made more work for myself in the long run with all the uneven lengths. But Darlah, he sure does photograph well.....can't even tell I cut his hair, right? :)
Lori: Yes he looks good. The feet is similar to what I did when I started and now I cheat and use curved scissors. You are doing better than I when I started. The issue about different lengths is when the undercoat comes in that creates mats and thus the term blowing coat - not really blowing coat. Add on to that if you have different lengths in all of the coat, you just maximized your work. I know this cause I did it not once but a number of times. I am slow, what can I say. I convinced myself that the person who told me LIED or was fooling or dreaming. So, I now tell others. Some believe me, some don't. Some just figure it out when they are pulling their hair out. I pulled out mine or cried when Shoshi had mats all over. One year I had her thinned out and oh boy it looked great and then it started growing and oh my gad. I cried again. I thinned her out myself and when the coat came back oh boy more crying. People - I have made all the mistakes but you have to do them yourselves to grasp it. I get that! But I offer my experience just in case you are the type that believe me. hahahahahaha
hi susan/darlah, i prefer stellas hair longer also. i found it was too hot to keep long though. i was brushing every night and also i am brushing her teeth daily. this is so simple, i brush her a couple of times a week. i want to take her to the beach, the short hair will keep it simple. this is only for the summer, i am growing it out again.thank goodness i have no children to obsess over,lol.
I do believe you Darlah. He will get groomed properly soon. I wish he could stay a puppy forever but I have to accept that things change. I hate change :(
Lori: You can leave him in a puppy coat forever - many do and it makes them appear young.
Stella has an adorable puppy-ish face. Luv it and she does wear silver well! :-)
Tre looks adorable and I too love that ponytail! Too bad he didn't live closer as I think he should join Scruffy's rock band. His little white paws looks just like Kobe's. Perhaps there should be a side to side close-up as they do look like they could be twins!
Lori - I have to laugh as I am not reading the blogs in sequence - doing top to bottom and now see you did trim Scruffy, so you don't need to repeat yourself for my benefit! :-) It looks great! I relate to you wanting to do it yourself - very difficult to trust a new hair stylist for we women never mind our dogs. Luckily, I've had the same groomer for over 20 yrs. She's in Pickering - you or Roger could drop him off for the work day (or a shorter period if desired). All my dogs have loved it there! Tia used to dash to the door as she met the groomer at 4 months, so they became family - Laci's off to a great start there too. :-)
Val: Actually longer hair keeps them cooler as it acts like insulation - honest. It's hard to grasp for many but it does. My long haired dogs do not get into panting to cool down on hot days that my visiting short haired dogs do and I do pay attention. Risa can lay out in the blazing sun without issue.
Short hair is good for those that have no time or desire to groom or have a lifestyle that is not conducive to long hair. It's not something we should NOT feel guilty about. It's a choice and either is okay.
I like long hair as it shows the havanese as they are meant to be naturally. Not many keep them naturally. So much so that we had people coming to us at Pawsway so they could see a Havanese in a full coat as all they had seen is one cut. So if you do have a long coat on yours expect people to oooh and ahh over yours. It just happens.
It's simply a CHOICE and its yours to make. There are good and bad haircuts in dogs just like there is for humans but hair grows. The only issue is cutting around the eyes - something some groomers do on purpose so you have to come back often as hair growing out sticks in their eyes and actually create leakage and can hurt the eye. If you do cut around it be prepared to cut often. Personally, I hate the look of shaved hair around the eyes. They really don't look like Havanese but that's my issue. I see so many haircuts -good, bad etc. I actually disliked Simbas shaved but when it started growing out it looked magnificent. But if I was his owner with several small kids, I would keep him slightly shorter than he is now. You get to a point where short is not easy care depending on length. At times it can be worse than long hair when it is in that inbetween stage.
Deb: Lori is looking for a groomer but Pickering is a tad far for her as she lives near us. I am asking Julie for her groomer's name as I know she does show dogs and therefore knows how to scissor cut. I have also seen her dogs that she has cut and she cuts well. My mind just forgets her name. arrgh
Re: twins
They shared the same placenta and amniotic sac. There have been cases in which two puppies appeared to share a placenta but had separate amniotic sacs. In one such case the two puppies were of opposite sex, clearly not identical twins. Probably their two placentas were so close together that they fused in development. This was not the case for Kobe and Tre. Identical twins in pups are not marking for marking but share the same dna makeup and are very similar. It's not something that happens as frequent as in humans. Although not the norm in humans it happens more frequently than in dogs.
Darlah - I was of the impression that Lori was East of me. Now it makes sense, as I thought it must be a long drive to take Scruffy for his play-dates on Thursdays and before going to work.
Re twins - I recall all the debate around whether my daughters were actually identical. Was told 2 placentas often do fuse. Mine did share one placenta, and each had their own sac and then one other around the two of them. As time went on, it was decided they were identical and a Med Student from UofT actually did a thorough study on them, fingerprints and all. It was also decided they are mirror image - even more rare! Interesting to hear of the differences in canines though. Why do they not have near to identical markings?
thanks darlah, i thought the same thing about long hair, but all the dog parents were telling me the opposite. i caved, but i am not planning another cut til christmas. i want it looking beautiful for her cards.
Just as in human twins there is always something slightly different (can be minute) but more obvious in canines, less so in humans. It's why moms can actually tell the difference and I am sure why you could tell the difference. Moms are mighty observant and know. But if we were to run a Dna on Tre and Kobe you would find out that they are indeed twins.
Risa had 2 pups in her last litter that the only difference between the two was a slight amount more of white on a marking on the foot and I mean SLIGHT but they were not twins per se. They did not share the same amniotic sac nor did they share a placenta. They certainly look very much alike where when they visited it was hard to tell who was who.
But in dogs twinning can be said to be common as in many breeds you do have dogs that almost look identical but the difference is separate OR shared sacs and placentas.
With dogs if you bred a gal to 3 males you could potentially have 3 dads in the same litter. I know of many that use 2 males to assure a pregnancy and they DNA to find out who is dad. Crazy, eh?
Darlah - That happens in humans as well. Do you recall the story of the woman that gave birth to twins - 1 black and 1 white. If she was wondering who Dad was, she got her answer - both! (Unless there were multiples.)
I could always tell the difference between my girls and if twins are born vaginally, I can usually tell the difference w/ head shape. 2nd's head usually rounder. Interesting w/ my girls and why we came to agree they were mirror image is when we looked at them in the car rear view mirror, we inevitably got them mixed up.
Yah, I don't agree w/ breeders using multiple sires - some like to choose both parents and also there are benefits to knowing the blood line.
Identical twins can have their own "everything" as it depends on when the egg separates. You can actually have 1/2 indentical twins. Identical from Mom as egg splits before fertilized that are then fertilized by Dad w/ 2 different sperm.
Sorry folks if this is boring, but I have always found it facinating whether it be w/ humans or dogs. :-)
The breeders that use 2 or more sires do know the lines. Before they can register them they do a DNA test to see who the dad is. Many will do it when using an old stud as he may be shooting blanks more than viable sperm so they get a guarantee they won't have a singleton or just 2. So many reasons but I wouldn't do it but do get why in some circumstances they would.