Hey It's Over

 I had to post this photo as it's as if this black, tan and white gal from Abigail is celebrating that we are now done this testing business.

I looked at this photo and just roared.

Do you think they are sore? Not a chance. You should see them playing today.

Treasure Update

Yes, she is pregnant but you knew that. Check out her blog to find out what the ultrasound said.

Visiting

Today we had Gidget coming over to visit the pups with her human mom Audrey and Audrey's mom. It was fun to watch Gidget and Audrey with the pups. I remember how Gidget loves them so.

Towser and Tia with their parents is dropping in too.

It's going to be a full house and fun to socialize the pups. Tomorrow they are 8 weeks. WOW

This socialization is 'good' for the pups - canines and humans.

My all time fave photo from today is Audrey (Gidget's owner) getting loving from Spice.

Tell me if you agree.

It's not only puppies that need socialization but the big dawgs too.

It is truly important to socialize every chance you get.

Big Sis Puppy Play

I love how Spice plays with the puppies. She is just amazing how she jumps and plays and rolls with the little ones.

Do you notice how they all crowd around her as if they look up to her?

It's the big sister syndrome. What else can she teach us?

Treasure Watches Pups

Treasure goes for her Ultrasound on Monday. Is she pregnant? Must be. She's growing by the day.

She enjoys watching the pups. Is she a good mom? One of the best. She adores the pups.

Now off to groom her. As you can see in this photo, she needs a good grooming. :-)

Shoe Time

Spice seems a tad bored today. I will have to give her a bath and wake her up. She's starting to knot and some of that is from mad play but also when that happens it means the coat is dirty and needs to be washed. A clean coat knots less.

But don't make a mistake and wash a knotted coat. It is important to get the knots out BEFORE you wash or the knots get tight and turn to felt.

Today, due to the cooler weather the pups stayed out for close to 2 hours and now they are sleeping and sleeping. Time to give a bath during quiet time.

The adults that also played with them are taking naps.

Wide Eyes Wonder

I placed Truff on the stairs. tried to brush his hair back and then made funny faces at him to get him to look at me.

I never saw him looking at me with such big eyes.

I wonder what he was thinking?

Support the Havanese

The Havanese specialty shirt is now on sale and is on sale online and will be on sale at the show.

But if you want a certain size, be sure to order ahead of time.

There is a photo on the front and on the back.

The Havanese Fanciers Club of Canada will also have a raffle at the show, tote bags on sale and there will be vendors at the show.

See the official merchandise here.

Try to attend if you are near Richmond Hill at the end of the month. We would LOVE to see you.

Here are the details.

We will have Truffie and the Spice showing but not by us. Nathan can't show as he is show chairperson but we will be there helping out, taking photos.

Plus if you are getting a puppy or have a puppy, the vendors you want will be at the show.

If you can't make it for Saturday for the national specialty, be sure to join us on Sunday for the regional specialty put on by HOLA.

Look forward to seeing you there.

Nathan, Kat & Swimming

Earlier I was torn between the computer and the swimming pool. The large oval brown eyes Kat fixed beseechingly on me convinced me to take a dip. Sometimes it’s important to make time for best friends. Kat and I have been swimming together for many years. His leaps off the deck into the swimming pool have long brought us joy. Don’t listen to me, see for yourself. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnyWJ6SWxpU

Note: Ignore the human and watch the dogs. The very first thing we teach our dogs is how to get out of the pool. In this 3 year old video, after Kat and I took the edge off, I slowly lowered Abigail into the pool and then escorted her over to the steps and let her climb out herself. I will repeat this over and over until I’m sure she gets it. The same theory holds true at your cottage. The first thing you do is make sure that when your dog is in the water he or she knows how and where to get out. This is serious stuff. Don’t ever assume. Keep your dog safe this summer. If you are in a boat make sure your dog is wearing a life vest. Enjoy every minute, come home safe and then share photos with us. That’s the rules.

Nathan

Time to Chill

With the pups going on 7 weeks, Abigail is now finally starting to wean them. Wasabi has started days ago. Wasabi was able to play with the pups as they knew her milk bar had closed. Abigail can't.

Within a week, I suspect they will both be playing with them without having to deal with the locust effect.

Nothing is Easy

As breeders, you can't keep them all but you fall deeply and madly in love with your dawgs. There comes a time where you have to retire your breeding dogs and add a younger set. It's a very hard and difficult process and if it is easy then it isn't us.

When we have to place our adult dogs, we are careful where they go to. We need to have a connection and we want to continue to see them. It has to be a pretty spectacular house for us to consider or they aren't going anywhere.

But when dawgs get up into the 5 to 7 year range, they would really benefit from being one of 2 or the only one. Psychologically we know this but our hearts are heavy.

There are certain dogs that we know would prefer to be the focus vs. one of a group.

So when this comes up, we do so hesitantly, with a heavy heart. It's not easy. But I love my dawgs enough to make it about them, not us. It's never about us.

Someone recently asked me and I felt it would be best to explain it here. It is NOT an easy process. believe me!

Even moms enjoy playing and it is important to have normalcy in their lives and fun. It's easier to strike balance for them when the pups are older.

When they are younger, moms do not want to leave their pups so I still take them out, weigh the pups and give them a full body massage where they stick out their tongue in appreciation. They do tell you when they like something and each day I try to make sure they have that expression at least once and shoot for many more.

When they are happy, I am happy.

Lazing

Ever notice that when the weather is not too hot, not raining and not too cool, the dawgs just want to be out 24/7?

Can you blame them?

Lately, due to all the play, our dawgs have been literally exhausted and looking to go to bed starting at 9pm. We go to bed at 10pm. The kids living here, well I don't think they ever go to bed.

This is a house of much activity. I think we may go crazy if it was ever totally quiet for days. 

Before Heavy Rain

The Spice helped with socializing the pups out on the deck. She's a true character. It's hard to remember that she is a puppy too just fully grown.

She is the first in the morning to pounce on my body to remind me that it is time to get up and if I tell her to go back to sleep, she will give me an extra 20 minutes. But she doesn't have patience when it comes to Mommy i am HUNGRY!

I had big plans to take the pups outside, wash dawgs and all that but nothing today is going as planned.

Still, we will have to kitchen it and I will eventually get the 2 moms washed. 1 down, 1 to go. Then I have to groom the rest.

Steven and My's Home

We had the pleasure of visiting Steven and My's home, their 3 and Eugenia's 2. What a full house that was and it was fun.

The food was great, the human company was great and the dawgs - well the dawgs are the dawgs, aren't they?

It was great for Truffie and Mac who found they really liked each other and yes the rest already knew.

Check out photos from the visit and check out the video out though my camera died halfway through or was that 1/4 of the way through but now with a charge it is as good as new.

The video is not the best but shows you that fun nature the Havanese is well known for.

Steven's photos can be found at http://www.flickr.com/photos/slantyyz/sets/72157627215075189/

Update on Tuesday, August 2, 2011 at 7:10PM by Darlah

Here is a video of the visit.

Balance is Important

It's very important that moms get snuggles, play time and silliness. Just because you are a mom doesn't mean you can't let loose, climb into a fish and have a crazy old time.

Reality is, you should. Life needs to be fun even when you have responsibilities.

I make sure moms know they can play and enjoy and even crawl up next to me in a recliner and watch TV like we usually do.

I can't imagine if a mom was made to not have balance but simply all responsibility what kind of mom would she be?

It's so important for them to love motherhood and the entire experience or they shouldn't be bred, imho.

Moms here get full body massages each day along with their grooming, extra food with yum gourmet food above and beyond the other adults. They can go through a full roasted chicken along with their kibble in a day when feeding so many. What they want, they get and the moms know it and relish this experience.

I do believe a happy and healthy mom makes for pups that are happy as well.

I have to say, this crew is delightfully happy.

End of the Weekend

Spice today got best puppy in breed over a number of puppies and best of opposites. I think the gal finally got this outdoor show stuff. Yesterday she thought well let's play.

I will be glad to not have to wash her tomorrow. Steven and My will have their pool up and I hope Spice stays out of it but I will laugh if she doesn't.

The Truff had his bath today. The rest got groomed and well.... is it bedtime? Nah.... off to take a swim and then take pups out for some fun play.

I placed up an old photo of the Spice snoozing and I bet you that is what she will be doing tonight. Can you blame her?

Oh My

Nothing today. Spice was at an outdoor show and she saw it as an invitation to play. She does well in inside shows but put her in grass, and put lots of dogs around her and it equals fun.

Nathan wasn't worried about it. He laughed. As he said, she deserved to lose today as she just had the fun in her and with her championship under her belt, I don't mind her having fun.

She is a puppy, after all. But what a drive to watch her play. hahahaha

She Does it Again

Spice took breed again today and got her championship. Wow, so fast for this gal. She still has 2 shows this weekend to do as Nathan promised a ride to someone otherwise I swear he would be taking a siesta and so would Spice but instead maybe they will pool it tonight and deal with 2 more shows till Specialty time then she will just hang out and play unless Nathan wants to keep her having fun in the ring.

Does she like showing? It appears so. Does she like so many baths? NOT a chance.

Do you realize you can dry out the hair washing so much so I use a very specific human conditioner that restores the hair moisturizer, blow dry on low (takes twice as long) and then after Sunday no matter how dirty she gets, she will have a break for a week or 2. Knowing her, it will be minutes that she is dirty.

We are so very proud of our Spice and look forward to hanging out at Steven and My's house so she can play with their 3. That she will LOVE!

Spice Did Rather Well

Today Spice got Best Puppy in group, won breed over specials and just plain had fun.

For such a young thing, she truly did well.

Tomorrow I get to wash her again at 6am.

I think I am going to need a holiday but Nathan lost his eye drops (not good) and was still happy with his Spicy gal.

It's nice to have his hard work pay off.

Good one, Nathan, Spice and huge thanks to Judge Mike MacBeth for seeing the potential in our gal, Talemakers Spicy Chipotole.