This is the slide they put up at the banquet where the Top Dog awards were given. Zhora was the 2016 Top MACH Vallhund. Love this girl. Fabulous picture from the old Countryside in Edinboro by Cindy Noland.
…The Return Of Zhora.
She made the most of it! Turning in a perfect weekend in her first trial since early last July (other than the Invitational, of course). She was amazing, even accounting for my stupid handler tricks that nearly cost her a Jumpers Q today. She picked up QQ’s # 55 and 56, only 4 to go for MACH3!
Nina had a lovely JWW Q yesterday but Nina’d the rest.
Zhora Saturday Jumpers (part 1 of QQ #55, 18 points, third place, 4.75 YPS):
Nina Saturday Jumpers (Q, first place, 22 points, 5.36 YPS):
Zhora Saturday Standard (part 2 of QQ #55, 26 points, third place):
Nina Saturday Standard (NQ):
Zhora Sunday Jumpers (part 1 of QQ #56. 13 points thanks to my random misplaced front cross that nearly sent her to the wrong jump, I praised her for calling off it, which nearly caused a refusal…then she slowed right down because my GPS was clearly malfunctioning):
Nina Sunday Jumpers (NQ, rough angle on that first bar down, then after the third bar I say “HEY!” at which point she shouts back at me, judge Laura English said it was like she was saying “HEY YOURSELF!”, she didn’t knock any more bars though!):
Zhora Sunday Standard (part 2 of QQ #56, 26 points again, third place again, at least she’s consistent!):
Nina Sunday Standard (NQ, allergic to yellow, I caused the weave issue by praising her for making th entry):
Look who’s the cover girl on the AKC Dog Agility Community Facebook page today!
When you have a newborn litter, the days seem much the same, you don’t have to do much except make sure the dam is looked after, keep the whelping box clean, and handle, weigh and monitor the puppies. With this litter we had to do a bit more because Popcorn (now Cora) was struggling at bit at first, but overall, they grow, they eat, they crawl around. And then, all of a sudden, their eyes are open, then they’re walking, then they’re moving to the big pen, they’re learning things, and now, somehow, we’re almost at the point where they’ll start leaving to go to their new homes and now….now we have to figure out how to let them go. I love this litter so, so much, they are exactly what I was hoping to get from this cross so far. And while I am SO looking forward to following their adventures out in the world, I am also going to cry….a lot…as they leave me.
Today we took them all to the vet (where I work) for their first doctor exam, microchipping (we use a local anesthetic so they don’t mind that big needle), and since Cora is scheduled to leave on Saturday, she got her first distemper/parvovirus vaccination. The others will get theirs next week.
Cora getting her checkup (with a snack) from Dr Julie.
Everybody was healthy! No heart murmurs, everybody who should have testicles has two, and nobody who shouldn’t have testicles has any. Bites were good. And they really did very, very well. They played, nobody was really worried about being up on the exam table, nobody cared about their local anesthetic injection OR their microchip. Cora was very brave with her vaccination and didn’t even notice it. They wrestled and played in the exam room and then played tag up and down the hallway with the staff.
Licensed Veterinary Technician Simone and Chex
There are many reasons I love working where I do. We have an awesome staff who are dedicated to making sure pets have a good experience at the vet, we’re a certified Fear Free clinic and we work hard to make the vet fun if possible! I love the doctors and staff I work with and seeing how they all interacted with the puppies was awesome. We have Adaptil diffusers in every dog examination room, we play music specifically intended to help dogs feel calm and comfortable, we use food and low stress handling techniques, but even so, I was very happy with how the puppies did! They played, they ate, they wagged and barked and socialized!
Simone and puppies
Simone getting the bities from Alfie (formerly Orson):
“Sorry Jan, she knows how to bark!” (Cora, wearing the blue collar):
Veterinary Assistant Jason had LIVER….they liked liver AND Jason
SO MANY THINGS happened this week! The puppies took their first ride in the car (to visit my work, since they’ll be getting their microchips next week, I wanted their first visit to a vet clinic to be all fun), they started eating meals in crates, many different enrichment things, they’ve been going out onto the deck…
We played with paper and an apple at Amanda’s work!
The cool kids are outside!
Yesterday three of Jim’s graduate students came to visit the puppies. We had them sit on the floor in the living room and let the puppies have to come out of the pen to greet them. I realized that most of the socializing has been taking place with the puppies IN the pen, so we wanted to change things up. No worries, they were thrilled to meet new people and find new fingers to bite and hair to eat!
They are getting fitter and their stamina is increasing. Just a few days ago a jaunt outside the pen for zoomies would tucker them out in just a few minutes. Now they need several real world zoomie adventures a day before they’re tired.
They’re real little dogs now. They’re looking quite pudgy so I expect they’re gearing up to grow some more.
I’m feeding them a variety of things, and so far they love everything. They’ve become excellent eaters as Vallhunds usually are, and clean their plate in record time. They’re eating Primal raw (a variety of protein types), kibble, canned food, various chewies, and people food (they’ve tried popcorn, cheese, baby food, various meats, and eggs). I will start feeding them in crates in the next few days. They now have a treat ball filled with kibble in the pen, and they’re gradually learning how to make it dispense the food.
One of our favorite enrichment activities with puppies (we got the idea from my dear friend and mentor Ulla Gamberg at Vastgota Swedish Vallhunds) is giving them a hard boiled egg to figure out.
Ironically, even though this litter took forever to start eating, they made very short work of the egg and figured out it was food immediately (past litters took a while). This morning’s zoomies and the egg tired them out (for now).
So here, without further ado, our magnum opus: Puppies vs Egg. (Spoiler alert, the puppies win, the egg was harmed….oh my….).
Nina and I have been off since the end of September (basically she got her MACH on a Saturday, another double Q on that Sunday, and then we were off for puppies). But since we’re going to the Invitational in December, which is getting extremely close, we really need to start getting back into practice. Since the puppies are still nursing a lot, I scratched Zhora, but still ran Nina. I crated out of my car and only took her into the building to warm up and run, to hopefully minimize exposure to other dogs as much as possible.
Nina was AMAZING! Over the course of her career, she’s had some periods where she hasn’t had three double Q’s in a YEAR, and she came back after 12 weeks of and DOUBLE Q’D! That’s three IN A ROW, she’s never done that. 10 year old Nina was so excited to be back she couldn’t stop bouncing up and down and barking. When we went to Sue’s on Wednesday just to at least try and remind ourselves how to play agility, she was so happy she zoomed!
This was our first time showing under judge Bob Jeffers, and I hope it won’t be our last. His courses were challenging but very fun, they ran better than they walked, and Nina double Q’d! So NO complaints!
Jumpers With Weaves (Q, third place, 4.9 YPS, 20 points, the top 3 dogs were all within half a second of each other):
Standard (Q, second place, 4.06 YPS, less than 1/10th of a second behind the first place dog):
Thank you SO MUCH to everyone who’s been coming to visit, we’re averaging at least one new visitor per day just now and this is exactly what we want!
Today the puppies met 6 year old Abigail (they already know her mum Caroline), and her grandma Sharon, who kindly brought her cane and wheelchair so they got to see those too!
Mum Zhora came in to provide refreshments
“Breeding is an important by-product of the wider interest in ones breed and some kind of dog hobby/work, not the main aim.” (from “Brainless” on the Champdogs.co.uk forum. “Brainless”….ain’t)
Orson just actually PLAYED with me! He raised his little paw up and then kinda-sorta POUNCED on my hand! They are very interactive with us now, tails wagging, growling, coming over to sniff and lick our faces!
I was woken up by a crying puppy this morning, he was having a difficult time pooping. They’re a little constipated (which isn’t unusual, adult dogs almost never get truly constipated, but baby puppies sure can, especially while nursing, and it can be quite serious if left untreated). So I gave everyone a dose of milk of magnesia, and will keep doing that every 4 hours or so until they have a touch of diarrhea, that’s how you know you’re done according to the puppy experts.
We are offering them food three times a day. They’re interested to varying degrees (Popcorn, Orson and Ruffles the most), but they’re all eating at least a little bit.