Photos Received

Here are a few photos I received yesterday and today.

Football Yawn?Tell me do you also get your own snacks to cheer on your fave team?

From Stella's Mom:

I just had to send this angelic picture of Stella. Who would think that just a few hours earlier she was standing on my dads dining room table. She's quite the jumper !!!

From me:

Yes those Wasabi/Spice pups are some agile dawgs!

Levon Chillin'

Shannon Said:

If there's ever any question about missed deadlines.... 

I have the answer!

Tomorrow we will cover the Birthday of Magic, Finn, Joey and Tangles. Huge Happy Birthday to you! Send photos please!

No Grooming Day

This is how it works. I had a no grooming day today. Roxie reflects such. It's okay to have a day off. I could truly do them every other day and hardly ever see a knot or I could do it twice a week and have it take me more time than if I did it daily or every other day. It really depends on the weather but if you are sitting watching tv, its a perfect opportunity to just do a comb out.Plus a clean coat lasts longer staying knot free.

I do not find the Havanese hair difficult but I also know how to take knots out and the more you do the faster you get - sad but true. I find very short hair as long as you do the ears and tail they can skip a number of days without an issue. Still, if someone is visiting me they get a brush out even if they don't need it. Why? It's great conditioning and I truly believe if I do it daily when mom and dad gets them at home it is easier due to that conditioning. Why do I do it? For the dawgs, of course. You see I rather love them -  mine and visitors alike. If they are happy and I can make things more positive then its worth the effort. It should be for you too.

Just a little effort makes a huge difference with our relationships with our dawgs.

PS: They love the human that does for them.

I have a ritual at bedtime. I look at ears. I clean around eyes and I snuggle and love them up and of course they get a small treat at the end. Nathan would like to think that all they want is the treat but its not true. It's also the ritual that gives them comfort as strange as that sounds.

Paula Posted This

As you know Paula grooms dogs too up in Sudbury and posted this on Facebook.

What do you mean he is matted?

Now as someone who has dematted many dogs I want to say DO NOT WASH YOUR DOG if it has knots. If you do you make the knots tighter. Knots do hurt. When it gets felted they can get skin lesions. It's not fair to you or to them to keep them in a long coat if you don't want to comb them out on all layers not just on the top layer. There is NOTHING wrong with a short coat.

The more you groom the better you get at it. TRUE! The faster you get too as you become confident.

Brohs and More

Okay so its rainy and they have red eyes but hey you can see that they are brothers from a different litter. Bailey was over for a visit and really cozies up to his new gal pal Adele. He also got to play with Fiona as well.

We also had some visitors today so the adults got to play and socialize too.

It's all mine!

Fun and Games

Catch me if you can!

Oscars also visiting but only for overnight. It means a very quiet time tomorrow and a no grooming day for me.

Just so you can see how cute Bailey is without the red eyes - here he is again.

Thanks everyone for playing with the dogs, loving them up. They hate it so - NOT. :-)

Happy Birthday!

Want to wish, Levon, Piper, Boo and Ella a big happy birthday. How did the time fly by so fast?

This is how Levon is celebrating his.Just teasing...  Just about now I could easily crawl up beside him and fall fast asleep but he's at home, not here. :-) So have a great one!

This is the Piper gal. We are wishing you a big happy birthday too! Hope you are doing something wonderful!

No photo from Boo or Ella so I dug up a photo of Boo when he was a pup.

Boo, we hope you are having a great birthday too!

No photo of Ella but we are shouting out a huge Happy Birthday. Hoping all 4 of you are having an amazing day!

Socializing

We had Logan, Panda and Levon here. It's mighty quiet around here.

Goldie drops in for the day tomorrow and I get to wash 10 pups and 1 Spicy mom. Today I groomed 1 here and there as I felt like it and by 4pm everyone was done. Usually I like to just do it in the morning.

No matter which way I do it if someone comes the ones Nathan want to take to the door are always the ones not brushed. Now what's that about?

It's Over

Kat is no longer reacting to Fiona - hooray! Sanity is back. Levon comes tomorrow. Goldie comes later this week and so does Scruffy and Pepper. We are hoping for a sunny weekend so we can get puppy visits in.

Time to get the pool covered but still hoping for one hot day so we can get the pups in. We shall see. If not its an excuse to get all of them back to swim next summer. :-)

Fiona Returns

Fiona returns. Yesterday I spent the day combing her all out. Today she got a bath. Silly boy Kat thinks she is still in heat. I want to shoot him - well not literally but throwing him in the pool comes to mind. Get over it, Kat!

It's cloudy today. Everyone seems to be in a funk. Not much playing. Lots of cuddling and napping including Nathan.

I finally put Terra's beds and bowl away. Losing the uncle yesterday was well difficult - still is. Nathan has been sleeping off and on all day mumbling too many losses. This too shall pass.

Me, I have been doing things with the dogs but I have to admit I only picked up the camera a few times so photos are not plentiful.

Today Logan and Panda gave me a massive hug. Now that's what days are for - those moments!

Update on Tuesday, September 3, 2013 at 5:55PM by Darlah

We will be in Ottawa for a funeral from early morning to late at night. I am not sure how updates will work but expect them to be short.

Grace Departs

Grace is a fun dog. At times she is a going concern and others she is a gentle fun soul. She's still a puppy I think. She's not one of ours so I don't know when she was born but she has been amazing with the pups. She also can be mischievous as ever. Helen and Suzie fell in love with her yesterday. We love her too!

The pups will miss her but tomorrow we get to see Levon and we will see how he does with the pups.

It's quiet this month and that's usual. I actually wish it was busy. But I could use the downtime - well downtime such as it is.

Gracie had a bath. Miss Fiona came home and I am waiting a day before she gets a bath and gets combed out. Yvonne is amazing that she took her but she set me a note saying you know me I am not great grooming sorry. So, Fiona gets a reprieve tomorrow and then a comb out and if I finish the comb-out a bath. If not she gets bathed the next day.

Get this - Kat thinks she is still in heat and oh boy I have a headache listening to Kat cry. It's well over 21 days but we are keeping them separate. Will we survive? Maybe a bath will help but not up to a dematting today. Tomorrow yes.

Hunting & Friends

I got this photo from Lynda this morning. Panda was chipmunk hunting - can you play with me? It's so cute just seeing the Panda Bear's back end!

We had Helen and Suzy over. Pepper and Scruffy departed at noon. I got everyone groomed. I didn't sleep so much last night but that too shall pass.

We did have a great distraction with the dogs - no extra except Gracie and Helen and Suzie brought Milo and Hugo over. It's a quiet house but tomorrow Miss Fiona comes home.

Here are a few photos from today.

Now I feel like Wasabi does in this photo - a need to chill out and stay distracted. It's too quiet. :-)

Deep Sadness

We had to put down Terra today. She had a fast growing cancer. Originally we had thought that she was having issues with her hips as she had bad hips as she stopped walking for the most part the last couple of days and stopped eating. Goldens never stop eating. Havanese do. A golden is a food hound to the max. She refused steak.

When we arrived at the vet she walked in the door and hadn't been. I had great hope they would put her on Metacam and then that was it. She walked - of course she was fine. But her gums were ashen, her breathing labored. I attributed the breathing to the walk but even after an hour it was labored as she stayed on the floor. Her heart rate was racing. She was very ill and testing revealed she was bleeding out fast. This was a fast spreading cancer as it began to effect her lungs as well. Denial is a wonderful thing I suppose at times but this was so fast - well I am shocked.

Removing the spleen was no longer an option and this happened in days. Removing the spleen can buy you up to 6 months. It is a silent killer in dogs like goldens.

It's a crime as she was an amazing dog - yes with bad hips but she never complained. She loved the pups. Was a gentle soul and never demanded anything but a little love. She played with the Spice pups just last week. She was always a great big dog socializer.

I love all my dogs more than you can ever know. I stayed with her to the end. Nathan cried in the car. We both cried all the way home. We each grieve differently. Poor Dennis is deeply sad. But I will tell you my heart feels like it is broken beyond repair.

Yes, good that it was quick but you are in shock. No time to think. No time to say goodbye truly. I am glad that we do so much with our dogs every single day even when I am sick. I have many memories but for now I am in shock and deeply, deeply sad.

We came home, took out the pups into the grass and clicked and played.

So forgive me if I share a few photos of Terra over the years. It's the ones I could find without searching.

Terra and Shoshi. She played flicking snow games with her and was famous for always getting down to the puppies level to engage them in play.

Panda adored the Terra - well visitors and our own all did. She was a dawg magnet.

Wasabi, Terra and SpiceShe is greatly missed.

Gracie Visit

Gracie is not one of our dogs but she comes to visit and today she got to see how she was with the pups.

She was also playing with them in the grass and was really great with them. It was a great experience for her and for them and as Spice knows her she didn't mind.

Hoping it doesn't rain this weekend but it surely is looking that way. We need pool time!

Tomorrow night Scruffy and Pepper come to visit overnight. Let the fun games continue. Looking forward to it!!!!

No Groom Day

Well, it was still a groom day. I did Cooper, Logan and Panda but I decided to take the day off from doing my crew. I had a gallery I had to do for a dog club and I have a gallery I have to get done for the 2 daughters so after 2 days of doing the dog club gallery, I needed a break.

It's quiet around here - just our dogs. It feels funny after such a busy summer.

The Coops & Rox

Well as promised we got the Cooper in to swim. Roxie kept showing him how to dive in but he's not quite ready for that yet but swim - no problem.

Getting priorities right - kisses first!

Everything is done so gently with confidence.

As you can see Cooper has no problem!

Okay, Coops try it this way!

 Roxie gets so excited to dive.

Cooper barks not me! I have some common sense you know... not like Roxie... I will swim but dive in - are you crazy? Rather normal for first time exposure. Can't wait to try it with him again. He was such a natural swimmer!

Roxie has really lost her marbles - er brains as she has taken to literally swimming under water near the surface. First time I thought oh a mistake but she does it on purpose and comes out laughing. Like I said she either embraces life or well she's a water dog!

You can tell these 2 are related.

As it is Anne and Russell's anniversary I decided to wash the guy up as a present to help them celebrate.

I tried to get a great photo of him just washed (he was just washed) but he kept saying just give me the treats!

We also had Ty over but he was not wanting to swim so he snuggled up to me and looked at Nathan cross-eyed.

Hope we have more swimming days. It was great to get out there!

Memory Stroll and Humidity

Christine wrote: 

Can you stand this picture?  I was making the bed and this is what I found on the other side!! 

------------

It was a hot and cloudy but a humid day. Dogs wanted to play inside more than outside. Outside they just laid around and when you look at the gallery of the puppies you will see they too had their tongues hanging out. But they played crazy inside I tell you.

I didn't click inside much as they played in such a way that all my photos would have been blurs. Bet you they will sleep tonight! I know I will as I was doing the slide on the floor and run game. What is that? You run and slide out of the way and they keep on going. About the 5th time they got what I was doing.

Bath Times

The pups had a bath. So did Spice, Roxie, Adele and Dusty. Next is Abigail and Kat. Cooper had a mud run and I say a mud run as it start pouring in such a way that it was like someone was pouring buckets over you and instead of running up the walkways in he went the opposite way running in the grass kicking up mud. I didn't give him a bath. I instead cleaned his undersides, his feet, brushed and combed him out and said Coops if you do that again we are swimming mud and all and I am joining you. hahahahaha

He had good company as he had Kat following him getting even more muddier than the Coops so much so that it makes NO sense to clean his undersides and feet as he is mostly mud unlike the Coops. There are advantages to being taller.

Off to Home

Before they had a bath, Colby was out running through the grass, into the dirt and getting to be a total mess. Brie didn't - can you believe. They depart shortly and I am crashing today. I think I am tired from the week long festivities plus all the rest that I normally do and I have to wash the pups tomorrow. They were also mucking it up and well it is time. If it doesn't rain, I may just wash and let them air dry. We shall see.

Tomorrow the Coops comes and Dusty departs. If weather is good we will finally get him into the pool. Only issue with the pool is you must comb them out before and then brush and comb out after and blow dry so we usually do it just before they go home. But we owe the Coops a swim and besides I want to see him shake. :-) Might have to invite Steven over for some slow motion video but its not the weekend - sigh.

Gallery

Look at Harper laughing!

Sibling Dance in Motion

Brie adores the puppies...

They were exhausted last night and started in again this morning. Harper was even starting to tell Adele you just think you are the boss. Well, I am top dog sometimes too. It was good for Adele!

Here's the gallery of Harper, Adele and some of the other dogs like Brie, Colby, Truffie, Roxie, Abigail etc.

Sorry had a really late night.

Fun Day

Not sure if I will get photos up but plan on taking them. I heard Colby was full out playing with Truffie. Oreo is about to have a bath and Harper is coming overnight - Adele's brother. Dusty also just arrived.

Exciting times but a bath must be done and Nathan better click photos and then back to even festivities.

Tuesday will be quiet...

Working on a gallery with Harper, Adele, Brie and some of the others joined in. May not get that up till late tonight. We shall see.

Coops Departs

This is early morning after we set everything up. Each day we take it all in, wash it and set it up again the next day. Can you believe?

My day started with setup and then I started grooming. First Cooper then Truffie and Brie and Colby and then the rest. Then one bath and we played hard. I cleaned the puppy pen, took them out and snuggled on the furniture outside.

Tomorrow we have a bat mitzvah early and then we come home, I wash Oreo and then we head out for a party. Oreo heads home tomorrow.

We had amazing play sessions early morning. As the day went by they grew sluggish I suppose. Me too.

I call this running of the dogs...

Now you understand why they were sluggish later in the day. This went on for oh about 2 hours. I want their energy.