One week old

5 left. Just after I posted the last photos, something happened to the white headed girl. We aren't sure, but it looked likely that Fly had accidentally smothered her, because she was big and active and feeding well one minute, and not breathing the next. So we're down to 5 pups, and unfortunately only one girl. I'd had my heart set on a girl from this litter, but we'd already lined up a wonderful home for a girl pup, and after much thought (and whinging), I've decided to let her go to them anyway. So I'll have to wait for my Esme. We'll probably keep at least a couple of the boys to run on, and maybe I'll take one of them myself (Tadhg, perhaps?).

We were lucky enough to have Nan Lloyd looking after them for us so we could go to the State 3 sheep trial over the weekend- huge thanks, Nan!- and apart from doing the ENS exercises with the Maggots, she must have spoiled Fly rotten. She's refused to even think about commercial dog food and is holding out for the good raw stuff.





















Blaze/socks boy- active, quite noisy:





















Dark boy- the smallest:




















Half face boy- probably my favourite at the moment:

























White head boy, the biggest and greediest- the insides of his ears are black, and his eyelids are going black, so we're hoping for dark eyeliner:























Little girl- at the moment she's very placid, not bothered by the ENS exercises, just easy going. She has a zigzag at the back of her neck, just like Ziggy as a pup:

Flystrike!

Yep, we have maggots!

True to form, Fly waited until I was at work on Monday afternoon to go into labour. In fact, she held out until Richard was half way to his doctor's appointment. He'd asked his mum to check on them during the 2 hours he'd be gone, and she found Fly with one very large and unfortunately deceased female pup. So R came screaming home in a panic, but fortunately she had a couple more healthy pups before I arrived, and then another 5 once I was home. The last one was a very skinny little boy who arrived at 9pm, and just never really got a feed, despite all our best efforts. He died at 4am.

So we have 6 healthy fat little maggots: 4 boys, and 2 girls. They have a lot of white, but will darken up as they get older- and all black and white, not even one of the tris I was hoping for. One boy has a full white head, but both his ears are black inside, so hopefully he'll darken up a bit too.

I haven't any idea who Esme is yet- could even be one of the boys!

Pup 5 (of 8) arriving:





















Having a break:



















Boy with blaze and socks:



















Boy with half face:
























White headed boy (the biggest and greediest):




















The darker marked, smaller girl:





















The dark marked boy:





















The white faced girl:




















Little boy that didn't make it:




















Sleeping:

"Woof" and other things

Slightly interesting things that have happened recently:

1) Farmboy is talking! His vocabulary is now up to: "Up!", "Dad!", "Woof!", "tug", and he does sound effects ("Rrraaagghhh!" for living things, and "Rmmm rmmm rmm" for vehicles). Oh, and "Sssssh!" to shush the cats out of the kitchen. And he says "Mum-mum-mum-mum", but I'm not sure if that's a sound effect or a word. And he says "Nyang nyang" for breastfeeding, but he's said that since he was about 6 months old.

2) Jim can catch a frisbee. He's been chasing and grabbing them for a while now, once he realised life isn't all about the ball, but just lately he's started getting some serious airtime and usually beats Muddy to the prize.

3) Tom's metaphorical balls have dropped. Overnight he went from that incredibly annoying shrill little yapping to a deep, resounding macho bark. The first time I heard it I had to look twice, it was so unusual for him. Little Tommy is all grown up now.

4) Bill can do a serpentine. I started our yearly agility training on Wednesday, motivated by the sheer terror of having entered the Royal Show again (why? why? why?). Bill hasn't forgotten much. Wednesday we worked on him not biting me so much when excited, Thursday I rested and applied antiseptic, and yesterday we did a serpentine and some weaving. I wish I had proper weave poles. The serpentine was cool, he got the hang of it very quickly, but I still can't figure out what I'm doing. Half the time I was using the near-side arm up and down, the other half I was doing the evil-arm thing. The near-side arm seems much more natural, but then I can see how using it for turns away can lead to that random flipping out thing dogs do on straight lines, if their handler starts to wave their arm at all. I'm quite prone to random arm waving, especially when trying to run. I've also just realised that I entered Bill in Open Agility, and he doesn't do a seesaw. We have one (thanks to Jules) that just needs a little TLC, but I'm not sure if I should risk ruining Bill's dogwalk by introducing the SS now. I know it will freak the hell out of him, and we don't have a real dogwalk, so I'm worried that he will assume anything with a long upramp is a seesaw, and bail. Maybe I should just run around the SS in the trial.

5) Still no puppies. That's not at all interesting, just really frustrating,

Up the duff!

Yep, I think Fly might be "in the family way". Knocked up. Or is a bun in the oven... or twelve?

I remember those days of late pregnancy. Belly practically dragging on the ground, waddling everywhere, constant reflux, backache, urinary urgency, and incessant desire to stare at cats...

Kendenup Photos

Pendalup Tess:

















Tig, after her lovely Open run (if you listen closely you can hear her muttering about daft handlers):

















Wayne Hall and Boylee Wal:

















Glenice Webb and Morillo Hedda:
















The Gatekeeper:






















Jean Hydleman and Belmore George, Open finalists and winners of the Improver:
















Boylee Salt waiting her turn (13 years young and still trialling):



















Boylee Sam, another golden oldie:
















Nick Webb and Morillo Bailey at the bridge:












Yvonne Haynes and Boylee Ceilydh in the Open final:

















Christies Cocoacina, meditating before her run:















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