Taste Testers

 Our club, The Northern Virginia Collie Club, is going to have a booth at the Virginia Scottish Games as part of the Dogs of Scotland.  There will be special events for Sunday and I'm wondering if Jackson is old enough to participate in the "Terrier Wannabe" races.  The club is hoping we can raise some money by having a raffle and selling treats.  I've been going through some dog cookbooks, picking out recipes.  I'm thinking about making pretzels, biscotti and different cookies.  I think my first three days of retirement will be spent baking!  The first recipe I tested from the Three Dog Bakery Cookbook was Blue Blue Berry Berry Buns Buns.  Our dogs loved them!  I took some to share with the club's dogs at our taste testing at Casanel Winery, but they didn't seem to enjoy them as much.  Our dogs don't get lots of special treats so they might not be good barometers for testing recipes!
  Sasha definitely thinks I'm spending too much time on this project.  I need to find a cat treat cookbook to appease her hurt feelings (and to get back my dog cookbooks):

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!