THE HOLIDAY SEASON IS UPON US

 I can't believe that I have not written in almost two months. So much going on with the dogs. My Rosie was not feeling well and pretty lethargic. She would not touch food which is very unusual for her. She normally is a chow hound.I decided to give her one night and see how she was in the morning.She was a little better but not herself. I took her to the vet and she was completely checked out, more blood work and xrays of the abdomen and chest cavity. All appeared to be well. The blood work did show that she was fighting an infection somewhere. I took her home with an antibiotic, thinking it may be her teeth. It is a real battle to clean her teeth. Teeth are very important and an infected tooth could cause many problems. She is on the antibiotic for a total of three weeks and then we will do more blood work to see what is going on and if she is not fighting an infection we will know that it was her teeth causing the problem. Rosie's kidneys are good as she came through the spay without any problems. So she should come through a dental with out problems. I am nervous about it as back in March my 11 year old Keeper had a dental and did not wake up from the anesthesia and his blood work was good. Maybe a reaction to the anesthesia. Nothing showed up in the autopsy so we will never know for sure. It was so sad and a shock. I am nervous about Rosie having the dental but it may be necessary. 

On another note I went to visit a friends litter, they have a pedigree that is something that I really want to incorporate into my line. I purchased a lovely sable boy and a lovely sable girl. It was a beautiful litter and I am thrilled to have two pups to grow out that may be stunning adults. I am looking forward to another litter of my  own. It has been seven months since my last litter so spring will be a really good time to have pups. I a going to breed my blue girl, Quinn to Charlie a lovely sable male that I co-own with a friend. He is also the sire of the two pups that I recently purchased.   House training is a challenge with two pups but we are getting there. My granddaughter is coming to visit and we will take some nice Christmas pictures of all the dogs, it should be a fun time for all of us.

I hope to do better with the blog in the future. Living with 6 adults and 2 pups can be pretty challenging. But it is also a lot of fun and a lot of work, but so rewarding.

Skye is now a year old and I plan to spend time training her this winter. We got started outside before the weather got too cold. So now we will work indoors and concentrate on obedience and fun games. They learn so quickly when they have fun. I am using Susan Garrett's on line program called Recallers part of her "Say yes" training program. I have had a lot of success with this program and I am looking forward to success with Skye. Skye loves to work!

Hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!Enjoy your Shelties. They are your best friends!

 

WISHING YOU ALL A HAPPY THANKSGIVING

 This Thanksgiving I am so thankful for all the wonderful families that have given my pups such wonderful and loving homes. I enjoy all the pictures that have been sent. November 22 was the first birthday for many of my pups. That was the haredest litter that I have had and for Bonnie also. She is not a large Sheltie but she gave birth to 11 pups. I think that must be a record. It was the start of feeding round the clock for several of the babies, Bonnie and I were able to raise 9 pups. She was overwhelmed but she had 9 beautiful pups. I had little sleep for two or  more weeks as there were two pups that needed so much help. One was Owen, who I gave to a friend of mine and he is a stunning, friendly boy, worth all the hard work. The other one who needed so much help was Skye, the only girl out of the nine pups. I worked so hard with her. She crashed a couple of times but I was able to keep her going. She is now an energetic, beautiful girl, worth all the work.I have seen pictures of all the pups except for Hersey, maybe I will get one soon. 

Bonnie was spayed, as it was a hard time for her and she was so overwhelmed. I promised  myself a year with no pups. I am totally rested and hopefully have a litter in the spring. It will be a year. 

I am also thankful for my family and good friends. And my dogs have kept me going and I am so thankful for them. Lots to do with caring for them but they are my family and I would be lost without them. 

We all have so much to be thankful for in our lives. Give your shelties  a hug and be thankful for the the joy they bring into your lives.

Happy Thanksgiving  

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Happy Halloween everyone. Hope all the kids have fun and will be safe,. And maybe the rain will stop in time for trick or treat! 

The 6 year old female is no longer available. For now she is staying in her home. There are times that it is just too difficult to make the decision to re home an adult dog. They take longer to adjust and you just plain worry too much about them.

It does take a long time to get the perfect situation for them and even with that you worry about them. I hope to never have to place an adult again. I only have two seniors here, lost two to illness the past few months. Hopefully my two will stay healthy and be with me for many more years. 

I have been 6 months without puppies and I do miss having them even though it is a lot of work, stress and lack of sleep,they are still missed. I plan to have pups in the spring. I will be breeding Quinn this winter and hopefully pups in May. Time will tell. In the meantime I am working with Skye, she is Bonnie's daughter and we have a few issues to work out. She is a smart girl and improving. We will be doing "Say Yes "dog training on line this winter. It is a great course for any type of problem the dog may have. They learn through games and they just love it. Games are fun for them and before you know it they have accomplished what you want. Skye should be well along in her training by spring. 

On a sad note Walter is no longer producing pups. He went sterile last summer and does not seem to be recovering. He is on special food and vitamins and we are hoping that this might reverse. But it is doubtful.

I will do some of this training with Walter and Bonnie, they both need a good reminder course. 

Hope that you all have a fun and safe Halloween. I don't get trick or treaters here so I don't have to worry about a dog slipping out the door. Be careful with your dogs.

LOOKING FOR THE PERFECT RETIREMENT HOME.

 I am helping a friend find  the perfect retirement home for a lovely 6 year old tri color female Sheltie. She is a sweet girl that is a little reserved but does warm up when comfortable with you. She will need a fenced yard, she is well trained , some basic obedience and well house trained. She is a special girl and we want the perfect place for her. If you know someone who would be perfect for this girl email me at jody.shelts@gmail.com . I will send you her contact information and you can talk with her owner. 

It  has been a long time since I have written. Don't know where the time has gone to. We are rapidly heading to winter and I sure am not ready for that. But I do have just about everything ready. New stone dust in the dog yard and it is awesome. The water just sort of disappears from it and there is no mud at all. I purchased a small electric snowblower for that yard. I have always had to shovel the dog yard and that is a huge job. This way it should go quickly with nice clear paths for the dogs. It is so nice that there is no more mud. Now much easier to keep the dogs clean. I am almost done preparing for winter. Just need to refil gas cans for the generator. 

I have given myself a break from puppies and I am actually missing having pups, but it will be a full year before more pups. I needed the time to get well rested and to spend more time with the other dogs. I have been catching up with Skye's training and she is doing so well. This week she conquered the A Frame and the dog walk, no fear at all. She is improving, she needs more confidence and with the on line course of Susan Garrett's she should make huge progress and have fun doing the courses. They are like games and really help with confidence.  I devote one room in the house to training, it used to be my puppy room. Next year it will be again but for now that is where we train.

I have been baby sitting two Shelties for the past month and I did spend time working with them too. They have now gone home and Skye gets all my attention. 

It feels good to be prepared for winter, although I don't enjoy the cold, maybe this will be a milder winter. The dogs love the snow so I know I will have to get out and play with them.

Hope you are all prepared for winter and be safe. Trim the hair around your Shelties toes so they do not clump with snow and get ice balls stuck between their toes. 

All for now and take care!

OWEN 

MAGGIES NEW ADVENTURE

 Maggie started her new life yesterday afternoon. A friend of mine had lost her last old Sheltie and now had just one Sheltie. She definitely needed another Sheltie to help fill the void. I had been putting all my training time into Maggie. I really needed to put this time and energy into Skye. She has some fear issues that I hope I can take care of. It was hard to socialize last winter with the weather and the covid. Many of the socializing opportunities were just not safe so we stayed home. Maggie was born in May and as the weather was getting better I was able to get her out and I spent most of my time with her. But Skye still has a great need and now she will get the time that she deserves. We always think that we can do everything but time does not permit us. And sometimes the energy is low.

When I heard that my friend really needed some cheering up and something to fill her time with I offered Bonnie. Bonnie has a mind of her own and made it very clear that she was not leaving here. Maggie had warmed up to her and to her sheltie so I decided to offer Maggie. I knew it was a perfect home and Maggie would get all the time that she needed. It was a hard decision, she was my Keeper daughter but I knew if we did co-own her I would not have lost her. So we are co-owning Maggie and some day she will have pups for us. But for now she has lots of growing up to do and my friend has lots of time to work with her and is excited to do that. I am happy with this and I get more time for Skye. And Maggie is still part my puppy and I can visit her anytime. So it is a win-win for all of us.

No matter the arrangements and no matter how wonderful the home is it is still hard to let one go. Now I have 6 Shelties and they are all staying. I have two seniors but they are in good health and hopefully will have a few years. My granddaughter and I are going to do a photo for Christmas of all the dogs sitting and wearing bows, so we do need to get busy.We are looking forward to this and it should be fun. In a few days when I hear how well Maggie is adjusting I will be fine.

                                               MAGGIE

  

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!