Plans for 2016 (subject to me changing my mind, lol)

Despite not having any litters of puppies or kittens I have been kept busy with training and socialising Eliza and keeping on top of the grooming in exceptionally wet and muddy conditions. But I have to look to the future and make decisions about possible litters for 2016.
The plan, at the moment, is that we should have a Bob/Manuel litter of kittens next month, Tibbs was also mated by Manuel but I'm not convinced that she is pregnant, middle aged spread has taken a hold and she now has a solid build making pregnancy less likely and harder to detect. Mrs Miggins will hopefully be mated by Fawlty in the next couple of months, at the moment Fawlty is very much a case of, all the gear (very well endowed) but no idea, but I'm sure he will work out what he should be doing at some point :-)

I have been struggling as to which dog to mate on the next season, I will not be in a position to keep a pup myself but have had a good number of enquiries for pups from all 3 of my adult girls. I have made the decision not to have two litters together as it is just so much work and so hard to make sure that each pup gets the individual attention it deserves, but the fact that my girls only have a season every 7/8or 9 months means a long wait between litters, especially if the mating is not successful, anyway, the decision I have made is to repeat the Dime/Cash mating on the next season, I then hope to mate Spirit on the next lot of seasons and last, but by no means least, Tiffany on the season after that. I know that this will disappoint some who are waiting on Spirit and Tiffany, but hope that you understand that in order to give my pups the best possible start the litters have to be carefully planned.

I have to include a few pics of Eliza out and about, also a quick clip of some of her clicker training. We are working on several basic commands and are using clicker training, she is like a sponge and absorbs all information, I see fun times ahead with her.

Sit/Stay

Having just come back from a rare week away, leaving Graham in charge of everything, Eliza appeared to have turned into a completely manic, and much bigger puppy! So, today I have had to put a bit of work back into her. After our walk this morning she got a much needed bath and clip, followed by a refresher course in sitting, going down and recall, which thankfully she remembered very quickly. I then decided to push this a bit further and get a group shot of all my dogs. It took a little while and a fair bit of repetition, but we got there in the end with a nice relaxed sit/stay from her (though the sun had gone in by the time we met our goal and the pro dogs were pretty bored, lol). 1st picture is the adult dogs in the sunshine, 2nd is the final product, with Eliza but minus the sun :-)

Enjoying a quieter time

Phoenix left us last Friday, always so much harder letting the last one go. Eliza was subdued for 24hrs after his departure but has fully regained her bounce now!

I am not a fan of early vaccination so she will have one vaccination when she is over 13 weeks old, she will not be vaccinated against Lepto as I believe that the vaccine is a far greater risk to her well being than the chance of her contracting the disease (added to the fact that it only covers 4 strains of about 200 and that it can last as little as 3 months and almost certainly no longer than 9 months). She will almost certainly still have some circulating maternal antibodies at the moment so she is going out to be socialised.

She has started on a few outings, these include our local park, the beach, the bus station a walk through the town centre and a walk alongside a main road. She has been through a subway and had several trips in the car. None of this has phased her, she has had a few moments of uncertainty in some situations, but completely regained her composure almost instantly. She is like her mum in that she has a non stop wagging tail :-)

She and Fawlty continue to be good buddies.

Miss Tibbs and Bob have both visited Manuel in the last couple of weeks, so hopefully we will have kittens in March.

The big dogs have enjoyed some lovely walks this week, couple of pics here, more, as always, on Flickr.com

Ready for his long trip

Phoenix is due to leave us on Thursday, poor boy has a long journey and a trip on the ferry as he is off to Ireland. Normally I get the pups ready to go within 24hrs of departure, but felt it was better to allow a bit of time between bath and journey. Always so much harder to say goodbye when they have stayed that bit longer :-(

And then there were two

Most of the pups have flown the nest over the last few days and so far reports are encouraging, all seem to be confident happy pups, a few teething problems here and there with one or two, but on the whole I believe we have 7 happy families.

Phoenix is staying with us just another week or so, this lad has got a very long journey ahead of him as he is off to Ireland.

I suspect that Fawlty is going to miss the pups even more than I do, he has been obsessed with them right from birth and has consistently wanted to interact with them, in fact I think the pups are starting to think they may be cats as I have caught Eliza on the cat wheel and climbing onto the cat scratch post!

Really fed up with the wet weather now, it's no joke having to walk 9 dogs on flooded/very muddy fields and woodlands, not that they seem to care as the pictures show. We will be going to the beach tomorrow as although they will still get wet we won't have to worry about the mud!

Update - We visited the beach today, here are a couple of pics from our visit (including dogs belonging to a friend).