MISSING PUPPIES

 I have time to be rested and get caught up around here. I am giving myself plenty of time without any puppies. But I sure do miss them. The excitement of the birth and seeing what pups are born, their sex, their color, size and shape.I won't be having pups until spring and that sure feels like a long way off. When pups get to 5 weeks they are very messy and it is a lot of work. Seeing their personalities develop is amazing to watch. They are all so different, they develop at different rates. Some are responding almost immediately and others take more time. I love teaching a four week old pup to stand on the table, placing his feet and making him look like a real show dog. They learn to stand to be brushed and handled. When they go to the vet for first shots they stand on the table so beautifully and the vet is so surprised at how good the pups behave. Sounds crazy but I am looking forward to all of this again. The pups from my last litter are now four months old. Maggie, the little girl that I kept is growing up fast. She is so much fun to train. Things don't bother her at all, she is very curious and loves to train. She makes working with her so much fun. By the time the next litter is here she will be a year old.  I am hoping to do some nice photos for Christmas. I hope to have four Shelties line up in front of the decorated fire place, wearing pretty red ribbons. My granddaughter is going to help me this year. She loves decorating and since I have not done much decorating since I lost my husband it will be fun to have her here, helping with it. 

Today I groomed the two oldest dogs who are spayed and had enough coat to make another three shelties.  It was a huge job but they looked so good when finished. I just love looking at them when they are so neat and clean and so pretty. It took all morning to brush out  these two girls, so heavy coated. They were so good, stood on the table a long time, let me cut nails and clean ears. Still have to do teeth but maybe tomorrow. They needed a break by the time I was ready to do their teeth. 

I am looking forward to this Christmas with my granddaughter helping with the decorating. It is not fun to do it alone, so I just did not bother. I can't believe that we are half way through September already. Hopefully by March pups will be on the way. My spring will be very busy but so much fun with new pups again. I can't believe how much I miss the puppies 

Maggie is still very much a puppy and keeps me busy. Skye is 10 months but also a puppy.  Training two pups at the same time is a challenge, but they are doing well. 

I  hope that everyone who has one of my pups is doing well too.

                       My granddaughter with her boy Walter!

GETTING THINGS DONE

 It has been awhile since I have written. Took time to get all the puppies settled in their new homes. Wonderful families and all my pups are happy and doing well. It took a long time for the DNA on the last litter to come back but finally we know the litter was sired by Keeper. CH Weststars Finders Keepers. Keeper passed in March from a dental, he did not come out of the anesthesia. Fortunately we had bred him to Topaz, and we had also bred Sammy, Illusions Living the Dream to Topaz. She had a funny split heat and when the pups were born I had the feeling that they were Keepers, just from the look of them but we still had to do the DNA testing to be sure. All the pups came back as Keeper kids. I was so happy to hear this as I decided to keep a daughter of his. Keeper was the sweetest, most calm, loving Sheltie ever. I still miss having him lie under the desk with his head on my foot. 

His daughter Maggie, is a sweet, loving girl also and she is very smart. I am having fun with her training. She is learning the agility obstacles and doing well and she has fun. She and Skye get along so well and play all the time. Skye is already 10 months, don't know where the time has gone. My baby is all grown up. 

I have now had the time to put all the puppy equipment away and clean the house. It is so nice to have everything back in order and dusted. The puppies took so much time that I did not do much housework. All caught up now and I can spend time with the dogs. Hopefully to train Maggie and Skye in basic obedience. They both have a good start but need to be more reliable. I probably have two months where I can still work out in the agility area with them. By the end of October it will most likely be getting too cold. I will continue as long as possible. Skye is doing great with her house training and Maggie is coming along pretty well. The 6 months between them makes a huge difference. 

I place Maggies mother Topaz into a wonderful home with Glory. Glory has developed kidney disease which is being treated but she needed a companion and Topaz was perfect for her. Also the people that Glory and Topaz are with are wonderful and if something happens to Glory they will still have a Sheltie to love and be their companion. I love Topaz and I miss her but what she is doing for Glory and the family is so special.

Topaz has had three litters and was a pretty good mother but not overjoyed with babies. She will be happy that she is finished with having pups.

So I am taking a break and will probably breed Quinn in Feb/March time frame, pups would be due April/ May time frame. Pups available in June. A nice time to house train pups.This will be a nice break for me and Quinn. I have been sleeping through the night, no pups crying or Topaz barking to go out.It feels good to be rested. This morning Skye started barking at 4:45 which is very unusual for her, so she really had to go out. This does not happen often and I would rather get up than have to clean a dirty crate. Of course when one starts barking they all decide that it is time to go out. So we had an early start to the day. 

I lost my beautiful Brooke on August 4th. She had liver issues and was on medication but it did not help much. She was loosing movement in her rear also. I hoped that we could keep her going for awhile. But she started bleeding from the nose and it did not clear up. It would come and go each day and I knew more was wrong. It was time to let her go. So many losses in such a short time. 

I am going to take advantage of the sunshine and warm temperature today and get the dogs out to play. Hope you all have an enjoyable and safe holiday!

Brooke at 1 year!