Cuteness!

Black leg! She loves to play bow.

Pickle! One day he will grow into his ears.....

Tony! Still looking like a stuffed toy...with mud

Tony as usual likes to stay on top of things...

Nordic Champions!

Congratulations to Susanne with Unique (OBay Truly Unique) and Marianne with Monty (Toven The Full Monty) for winning the small team event at the Nordic Championships! The Nordic Agility Championship consists of teams from Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland.

Monty is Unique (and Zen's) sire. Monty is owned by Johanna and myself but he prefers to run for Marianne and she has been doing a fantastic job with him this year. Congratulations!!

Where do the days go?

The puppies are getting more active and the days are just flying by. Zen has had enough of the puppies but lets them nurse occasionally. I am suprised that she doesn't want to play much with them. She would rather play with me, so I cannot have her in the room when I work with the pups. So instead I let Hob-b and Jordan in with the pups when they are loose.

Both Hob-b and Jordan are gentle so I can trust them with the pups. In this photo patient Hob-b puts up with the pup using her tail as a tuggie!

A more appropriate tuggie! I continue to work on tugging with the pups. I try and use different tugs each time, so that they don't get used to just one type. But they really like this one!

We had a lovely dinner for a friend's birthday and at the same time had some puppy socialization. Black Leg joined us and you can see her size in relation to a beer can.

Carmella catching a little cuddle with Dennis. I don't know who is more tired. Night night....

Two busy days for the pups

We try to give the pups new experiences everyday. Yesterday the pups had their first car ride and their first visit to Spellman. Going to the office is great socialization for puppies. Not only do they get to see new things, but they meet lots of people. This is just what they need and hopefully the people at the factory enjoy it too!



Dennis took them out of the car and put them into this basket which just invited a Christmas tree photo.

Carmella almost gotten taken away in a handbag! She heard that Paris Hilton may be looking for a new handbag pet and wants to offer her services.

Black Leg got a chance to do some ordering around in the sales office. Her computer skills will come in handy.

Today the pups took a car ride to the Butchers and to Sainsburys. Dennis opened up the boot so that they could watch the world go by. They got alot of attention and are very comfortable in the car.

When they returned home there was a big shock.....the sun was out! So Dennis took advantage of the warmer weather and fed them in the back garden. This was only their second time walking on grass and gravel but it did not seem to bother them. They had their lunch "al Fresco" and the fresh air made them very hungry.

Dot and Black Leg are wondering if they could have some more please......

Computer Games

Black leg and Pickle are reading the Agility Forum. But Black Legs says it is too controversial and too much talk about border collies.....So she puts down her tri paw and clicks back to the Agility Net to read the nice front page articles.

Puppy Play

Not the greatest photos, but puppies are hard to photograph while they are playing. Although this photo is dark (my camera flash was acting up) I thought it was so cute. Tony likes to climb up on things and he decided the washing up bowl was fun!

Carmella tries out the mini tunnel and does a baby retrieve.

Pickle 5 weeks

Tony 5 weeks

Dot 5 weeks

Carmella 5 weeks

Black Leg 5 weeks

Now the work really starts

Black Leg (now also known as brown leg or tri-leg as her black leg has turned 1/2 brown!) is learning the alphabet. I haven't the heart to tell her it is upside down....This is one of the sound making toys that I found yesterday in a local charity shop. It is in the pup's pen so they walk around on it and it makes noise. Sometimes they just sit on it and the toy keeps talking....a is for apple, d is for dog.......... Who would buy this toy for a real child, it would drive a parent crazy!

Up until now (the pups are 5 weeks old tomorrow) the work was pretty easy. There is not that much to do and Zen does all the cleaning!

Well, the fun is over! Now I have to get up at 6 am to feed the little pups and spend at least one hour following them around and wiping up pee and poo! I think we will need a truckload of papertowels by the time these pups go to their new homes on 28th Dec.

Today I started to take the pups one at a time into the kitchen and work with them individually. We did a little tuggy play where I try and touch them around their head and body while they are tugging. They tug so gently right now, but do try and hold on as hard as they can. Little Tony likes to kill his tuggy, shaking it back and forth. Very cute! And Pickle really holds on tight and is the strongest tugger right now.

After a minute or two of tugging, I introduced them to my secret puppy training tool. If you are reading this blog I ask you to keep this a secret and not let just anyone know about this! (Kidding, of course!) My secret is squeeze cheese in a tube.......known in England as Primula Cheese. The puppies go crazy for it and they can lick it quite fast. So for tiny pups it is a fabulous way of giving them treats as a reward.

So I let them lick it off my finger as I stand them in position and get them used to standing in a breed show stand. Then I try and get them to follow my finger around and put their feet up on things. Today they put their feet up on the skateboard and we moved it back and forth a little bit. None of them had trouble with that. They had all had gone up on the skateboard on their own yesterday. They find it a great spot to lie on and pounce on their littermates. I also have a little baby wobble board that the puppies love to run up and down on.

This afternoon I will introduce the pups to the clicker. I just click as they are licking the cheese and we do this for a day or so. I like to teach them their first "trick" by 6 weeks. Generally I just have them spin one way as that is easy for little puppies. Dennis usually teaches them to shake paw and that is his expertise in puppy training!

So each pup takes about 10 minutes and before you know it another hour is gone! I try and repeat this a few times per day and so.......My house is not as clean as it usually is!

New Website!

Be sure to click on the website link on the right side of the blog. My good friend, Mary-Ann has designed a new website for me!

The link is www.geocities.com/obayshelties

Puppies tug training

Here is Pickle working very hard on learning to tug! I found this little cat toy at the store yesterday and the pups think it is great. I think tug training is so essential to agility, so I work very hard encouraging the puppies right from the start. I think most pups will tug at this age, but you have to keep working on it right thru until adulthood. In teaching I find that many shelties do not tug and then you always have to rely on food to train.

Here Carmella gets a turn! All the pups were fighting over this toy!

Cardboard boxes make great puppy toys too! Tony is already starting to work on his "circus elephant trick".

I think the pups will make their first car trip on Friday and visit Dennis office. It is only 5 minutes away and a great way to introduce the pups to a new environment. Especially since I cannot seem to get them outdoors due to the cold, rain and wind!

Another pretty great agility weekend

The nice thing about breeding dogs is that I get to share in the joy when one of my pups do something fabulous! This weekend two of "my" pups have had fantastic wins.

Yesterday at Wyre, Nicky and Indy won Small Open Jumping. This is just awesome as this is Indy's second show and the 3rd time he has won 1st place! This gives him one of his 4 wins needed to become an Advanced dog. I have no doubt those last 3 wins will be coming sooner rather than later! I am still waiting for details on his win and will share when Nicky emails me tomorrow. Indy is OBay Truly Driven (Tazz x True).

Today at Southern Border Collie, Timmy (OBay Truly Taking a Chance) won Open Agility. Peggy and Timmy have been winning lots of jumping classes this year, but needed one more agility win to become advanced. Well today at the last show of the season, Timmy decided to give Peggy a great Christmas pressie and win the class! Timmy is Zen's brother and is the 3rd puppy of the litter to become Advanced in England. When I bred True to Monty, I could have never anticipated just how fabulous ALL those puppies would be. How lucky am I? There is not one pup from that litter who does not have the drive and enthusiasm to work, they are all a pleasure to watch.

This is Timmy with his trophy and ribbon. There were over 100 dogs entered in this class and Timmy won the class by 1/2 second over the 2nd place dog.

As for me and Hex, we also had a pretty good weekend. We had a nice training day on Saturday with Leslie Olden. She always gives us something to work on! Then today at Southern Border collie, Hex was entered in her first open classes. I was interested to see how she did against the fast senior and advanced dogs. We were eliminated in the Agility, but she tried hard. In the jumping she ended up in 3rd place (out of 103 dogs entered). She was just under 1 second off of first place and 1/10 second off of 2nd place. I was really pleased with that! Both the top 2 dogs are very fast and really good dogs, so to be right up there was a real boost for me.

I now know that Hex has the potential to do well, but we have some work to do over the winter if we are going to be able to reach the top!!

Darn cute puppies and some good news!

The pups had two days at home with Dennis this weekend while I did agility things. Yesterday, they had their first outing outside and spend a short time in the pen in the garage while Dennis did some work. Pickle decided to make a break for it, but found that he wasn't strong enough to break the metal bars.....

Dennis tried again to take them outside today on the deck, but it was way too cold and windy. They all just howled and cried. I don't blame them, the weather was horrible today.



This is "Dot". She is so far the biggest of the litter. But we don't like to remind her of this. She is very sensitive and likes to say "I am not fat, I am just fluffy". If you are wondering why there is a milk bottle next to her...we put pennies in plastic bottles and shake them around. This generally causes chaos as the puppies bark and attack the bottle. The new owners are usually suprised at the puppies enthusiasm for plastic water and milk bottles!

This is "Tony". He is so far the littlest of the litter and tends to look like a little wind-up toy. In this photo he is trying to communicate with an alien-being.

What is the good news? Hob-b is pregnant!! We decided to breed Hob-b to Chi now instead of waiting until next year as we have a busy year planned. I was unsure if Hob-b would get pregnant as she came in season while we were away on holiday, so we did not know what day she was in her season when she was bred. I had not seen any signs of pregnancy early on, so I was doubtful that she was pregnant. But when we came home on Thursday after not seeing her for 2 weeks, it was obvious that she has puppies! She is such a little cutie, so reminiscent of Jordan with her sweetness and gentleness. I am very excited to see what Hob-b and Chi produce!

It's Good To Be Home!

We got back from Dubai yesterday. It was a great trip and very relaxing. (I will write more about it later) I was OK on the flight, but once we got into the taxi for the ride home I was jumping out of my skin and so excited to get home to see the pups. It is was hard to be away but I know Johanna took such great care of them. They turned 4 weeks old yesterday and I am glad we made it back for their birthday!

The pups have changed from little lumps into little fuzzy pups. They are starting to show some personality and their faces are changing. I am not sure they are the most beautiful pups I have ever had, but they are certainly cute. I have no idea what their ears are doing as they are pointing in all different directions! The pups were weighed today and I compared their weights to previous litters. The strangest thing is that they are substantially smaller than my last two litters. I can't decide if this is an indicator of their sizes. It would be scary if it is, as they are smaller than Hex, Indy and Max were at this same age. Since those pups all turned out under 14", I should be expecting "micro shelties" from this litter if the weight comparisons hold true! Even "Dot", the biggest of the litter so far is smaller in weight than Hex was at the same age. It will be interesting to watch and see how they develop in height.

So now the real work starts with the pups. We have been handfeeding them chopped mince for the past week or so. This is going well and the pups come right to the hand to inhale the food as fast as they can. I try and encourage them to come up into my lap now to eat the food. Yeah, I am probably teaching them to jump up! But I like shelties to learn to come up towards me, as they can have a tendency to back away. This step would probably not be necessary with Golden retriever puppies!

We have started the sound effects tapes (thunder, gunshots and doorbells) near the whelping box. In addition, the TV or radio is always on in the room. And we are now carrying the pups into the kitchen and hallway and putting them on the floor. The new surfaces throw them at first and they walk carefully trying not to slip. I bring them into the kitchen and then start slamming doors and drawers to make noise. At this age, they still startle at new noises, but that should decrease as they get older. I find that at this age they can be hypersensitive to new things. I try and make a note of how the pups respond each day and watch in case one pup seems more sensitive.

Today the pups had their first taste of puppy food. (They are being fed on Burns Dog Food) They all took to the food right away and were gobbling the food down as only a true sheltie can!Again, I push the metal food bowl around and generally try and make noise while they are eating. Geez, it would be much easier if I had some children around to make noise! I must make a mental note to rent some kids for the next litter!

PS For some reason I am having no luck downloading photos today and I am fustrated! For strange reason if I put this old photo of Carmella on the post, I can upload the other photos. If I then try and delete Carmella, all the other photos dissapear also! Very spooky!

Celebration!

Today the puppies, Zen and I celebrate the birthday of someone who couldnt be with us today due to geographical distances :o)

The puppies had a blast and were not worried by tipping paper plates or serpentines - they love partying! Last night they started shredding newspaper in the pen, and even would carry small pieces in their mouths...