And So It Begins....

  Sweet Sadie is not so sweet anymore!  Fat and grumpy, she's not adjusting to impending motherhood or perhaps she's just impatient with late pregnancy.  She no  longer likes any food we give her for more than one meal.  We're tempting her with various puppy foods, chicken broth, hand feeding and when all else fails, expensive dog cookies.  Tonight she did something funny--took her cookies into a crate and tried to hoard them inside the mat!  I could hear her tummy rumbling and finally Sadie relented and ate her cookies.  All the while, her full food bowl is sitting nearby. 
  Sadie now refuses to go into her special kennel yard but I think she doesn't like to be alone anymore.  She's in the nursery now, probably sleeping, and we'll indulge her every whim until  the puppies arrive.  Tomorrow I will finish cleaning her room, give her a bath and hope that Sadie won't have the puppies at least until Monday. Saturday, we're hosting an ice cream social at our house for the Northern Virginia Collie Club and I'm not planning on a whelping puppy demo to go with the rest of the events!

Puppies? Puppies! Puppies!!!!

  Sadie had her x-ray this morning and  four puppies were definitely in view!  There is probably a fifth and I'm hoping she rounds it up to an even six.  Sadie as gained ten pound since last August, which makes me wonder if the count could be even higher, that the pups were so well lined up in the x-ray that they were not discernible.
  We have one to two weeks before the mystery is solved.  Sadie is not giving us clues if she will deliver on her first due date or last so we will be prepared for the babies starting June 21--and keep a careful watch on Sadie at all times.  She's become a picky eater, doesn't care much for the puppy food we started her on.  I added chicken broth to tempt her appetite but that only worked for a couple of days.  I tried a different brand of food this morning, adding the broth for good measure, and she seemed more interested.
  Sadie's fur is coming off her belly and her coat is rather loose in general.  I'll do some trimming as delivery time nears, but in the meantime, I'm sure she'll enjoy a daily brushing!

First Points!

What a great week-end we had last week!  We entered Gibson and Jewel in the Mattaponi Kennel Club shows in Manassas.  Gibson did much better in the ring than his last show in the fall.  Saturday's judge, Houston Clark, was very encouraging, telling me Gibson is "a decent enough dog" but he likes to see the temperament and movement of a herding dog.  When I told him that Gibson was 100% better than his last show, that his preference then was to collapse in a puddle, especially if the judge was male, Mr Clark said I must be on the right track and to keep working with Gibson.  When I took Jewel in the ring, Mr Clark said, "that's more like it"! Jewel was Winners and Best of Winners for her first point! 

Sunday's judge was not as fun to show under.  Gibson was more relaxed and confident than on Saturday, but was still startled by a sudden movement by the judge shortly after we entered the ring.  Gibson gave a quick growl, which of course did not please the judge, but was fine after that.  I was thankful he didn't disqualify us, but felt he then had us stack our dogs in Winners in a way that he knew Gibson wouldn't be comfortable.  Except for the final stack, Gibson moved so well and showed so much better than the day before that it was almost like the old Gibson was back!  Jewel was Winners, Best of Winners and Best of Variety for her second point!  She lost her composure during pictures--it was her first time, after all--and the judge grew impatient with us.  He didn't act like he enjoyed his assignment at all!  I knew he wouldn't give her any consideration in the Group judging, plus my handling skills are not up to that kind of pressure, so we packed up and headed home.

Besides earning points, the best part of showing is catching up with friends and making new friends.  We had a fun group back at our house Saturday night for a very informal supper.  David cooked chicken on the grill and everyone brought something to go with it.  We toasted those who had won that day, especially Michelle's malamute who won his championship on Saturday!  Her lucky dogs got a special treat for their accomplishments--a steak!  We had our own special treats--sinful desserts from Pastries by Randolph.

As if points, good friends and good food were not enough, Ellen took one look at Sadie and said "of course she's pregnant, look at her"!  We had started to think Sadie was expecting as she had expanded a bit and her behavior had changed that week.  She had been getting into all the show things, something she had never touched before.  She's chewed the tops to almost every spray bottle I have and ate the remnants of a jar of first aide cream that I didn't even know was in her room.  Fortunately, she threw that right back up and it's obviously not affected the puppies as she's growing on a daily basis.  She found the heat the last couple of days to be unbearable.  Poor Sadie, how will she be able to endure another month?  We're going to take her to Casanel this afternoon for some pampering and showers of attention, that should perk her up!

Strike Two....

Followed by a home run!! Claire's breeding did not take but Phoebe's did! We saw four puppies on the ultrasound. One was bobbing its little head, almost like it had the hiccups. The fourth puppy tried to stay out of sight, but was finally on the screen so we're hoping there could be a couple more shy ones that don't like to have their pictures taken. Phoebe is very pleased with herself and was able to entice the vet office staff to keep giving her treats! The puppies are due in two weeks--maybe St. Patty's day??

Here We Go Again!

Lauren is in season! Ellen and I have made breeding plans and I think Lauren will go to Ellen's this week-end. We are going to breed Lauren back to her father, CH Bo-Dandy's Rock Solid, ROM. A litter of puppies should brighten the late winter doldrums!
I had been teaching Lauren a few tricks for a possible library program. We've been working on her walking between my legs, then jumping up against my chest for a kiss on the nose. She likes to jump up, but has been quite stubborn about consistently doing the leg portion of the trick. Looks like we'll have to postpone that part of her training as her belly will hopefully be swelling! We can still work on another trick, sitting and "waving". My friend at work and I had been devising a very elaborate routine to use for storytime programs in February but now we'll have to wait until we get back into our remodeled library in early summer--plenty of time for Lauren to get her figure back and learn all her tricks!