They're heeeeerrreeeeee!

In three hours Daisy whelped 10 puppies. That's right. THREE HOURS. There were two brindles right away, followed by 5 'ee' puppies and then 3 more brindles at the end. I had one stillborn (#6) who I could not revive and after 20 minutes I put her aside. I had totally forgotten that Daisy could carry "e" and when the first one came out I thought she was a mismark...followed by 'omg its albino' only to have my brain finally catch up and tell me she was 'ee'. So nine puppies. Free whelped. All have really nice markings and no mismarks or fluffs (Sire is N/N for coat length).

Off to nap...

Eating my words

Boy did my dogs make a liar out of me!

Yesterday when the temps were an all time high for the year so far (67 degrees for those keeping track), my friend Kody and I took the dogs for a walk to our north pasture, along a field road in the heart of our acreage. The dogs were doing really well, as always, off lead, and would come when called, and would stay close by.

I started telling Kody stories about the dogs. Like when Sadie got her name "princess sadie" because she would go well out of her way to avoid any mud, or water puddles on the farm because she was above all of that. I told Kody about how Zoe could never quite figure out how to get across large ponds (she didn't know well enough to go AROUND IT, so would just sit and bark at me). After about four or five stories we came upon a giant spring lake. You know the ones that don't stick around for more than a few weeks..... As I was telling Kody about how my dogs don't swim....

well....you guessed it. They made a liar out of me! Naturally the first two in the water were Ballantyne and Brewer. They had a fascination over the kiddie pool as puppies but what made it worse was they had JUST been given baths the night before. They were up to their chins swimming around the lake. Before I could back pedal on my story all of the dogs (minus Oliver and Daisy who were left in the house) were swimming around.....EVEN SADIE the PRINCESS! I could not believe my eyes! And naturally no camera to record such a thing. I bet if I went again alone not one of them would enter the water.

It was a 'good' water pond too. The ones with the mucky water, the slim, the algae, the goo. The stuff that stains their coats.....and smells REALLY nasty. so yes ALL the corgis AND Mitcham..

Humble Pie? Eating my words? I'm not a liar, but I sure felt like one.....wow was I embarrassed.

But the good thing I guess is all the dogs slept REALLY well last night and they were VERY happy when we got home. If only they'd learn how to bathe themselves.....

Ballantyne

Here is the naughty black puppy Ballantyne at just about 14 months of age. My mom was taking photos with my camera phone, and I wasn't quite done stacking but this photo turned out the best (no setting sun reflecting in the door in the background here). I think she's growing up nicely. I love the slow growing puppies! While i can't brag that she finished in 4 shows at the age of 6 months, I can hopefully say she'll finish fast once she does get out there. She isn't a big bitch, but I love her movement, her temperament, her bone is adequate for her size, I like her shorter leg than her sister the naughty red puppy Bolin.

Time will tell. Patience is not my strong suit but I'm learning to be patient. Good things come to those who wait :)

Daisy's time is fast approaching

Daisy is due to whelp anywhere from Easter Sunday to May Day. She was bred four times over the course of a week and on the fourth breeding was STILL flagging and Levi was STILL wanting to breed her. So we shall see when she does officially go. Her temps have been constant around 100 degrees and she's been not eating all her food, even though I'm feeding her more often.

She is enjoying the suite accommodations of the whelping box but I have yet to break it to her that its not permanent ;)

Pending a huge disaster of a whelp, I'm going to use flowers that start with C for puppy call names. Registered Names I can not think of clever things, and of course my OCD/stubbornness insists on having something to do with the letter "C" because its my third litter. I have not the foggiest idea of what to think of for names. Perhaps that will come as the puppies grow.

Any suggestions? :)

Houston

Happy Trails to all of you who are at, or will be at Houston this week for the National. I haven't missed a National since I started going so I'm sad to not see all of my friends! We don't ever have enough times during the course of a year to get together so me missing one of the more important ones makes me very sad.

That being said I am working for my sister still and its a busy week for taxes.....

I am gearing up for spring yard clean ups now that our snow has finally melted.....

I am still lambing, and we have two calves on the ground too.....

Daisy is really getting large! In the last few days she has really gotten huge and I am feeding her four times a day as she just doesn't seem to have enough room to eat. Now I wonder how she will make it the next few weeks....she honestly seemed to have um....blossomed over night.

Safe travels everyone and I hope to get lots of texts with updates!!

There will be puppies

Daisy has been about 43 days since her first breeding but she had a long heat, flagging still after seven days of it. Since she is constructed differently than Zoe and Ell, and has more hair....., It was hard to really figure out if she was just gaining weight from my feeding her more often, of if she was really bred.

I had hints of it. She lays differently in her crate now, she is more standoffish outside when playing with the other dogs, etc. So we went in to get an ultrasound just to make sure. The puppies were so well formed at this day/stage we were able to see beating hearts! How cool! The vet saw at least 6, which is perfectly fine with me!

Her approximate due date would be between Easter Sunday (of all the days!) and the first of May.

I'm looking to have a theme that I can use, plus have the registered names have a common thread. Last litter was the 'rules' litter and they all started with "B". This will be the "C" litter and need to think of something clever. that's always my hardest thing. themes. I'm too specific maybe.