Clover had her puppies on Tuesday 6th of November 2012. Six puppies, 3 boys and 3 girls. All good weights, healthy, happy, strong, drinking well. They have been given temporary names, because I find calling puppies “1st boy” and “3rd born” and “last born” tedious. This post is just to show you some puppy pictures. Enjoy!
First born, “Alfalfa”, bitch.
It is with great pleasure that I announce that my darling Clover, otherwise known as “Ch Burrowa Blue Flame TD ME”, has been confirmed pregnant. The sire of the litter is Caber, otherwise known as “Ch Glenbogle Kiss Chasey ET”.
On the left, Caber, and the right, Clover.
Clover had an ultrasound on the 8th of October, which was day 28 of her pregnancy. Though dog ultrasounds are not hugely accurate in determining numbers, excitedly, we had SIX puppies show on the ultrasound. This is a huge litter for Clover, doubling her 2010 litter of 3 puppies (her first litter), and a singleton litter in 2011 (Myrtle). It is more than we hoped for!
This post is a commitment to keeping you updated on the process of pregnancy, and puppy raising. My puppies are raised using Dunbar’s protocols: I don’t want to produce ‘lemon puppies‘. Unfortunately, pregnancy is kind of boring. At the moment, our efforts are spent on keeping Clover active, taking her for walks as often as we can, and currently catering to her new found food fussiness.
However, I’d like to describe how we got to this point. Why I’ve made the decision to have a litter from Clover, why I chose the sire we have, and the puppy buyer process. Continue reading
I celebrated New Years Eve at a twilight dog show, with my three adult dogs: Clover, Chip, and Winnie. It was lovely, and really encapsulates that doggy year that I have had.
This post is quite personal in comparison to my regular content, but I hope it may still be of interest to my readers. I’ve broken this post up into different doggy-interests, and described 2011 happenings and 2012 goals in each.
Winona at the Border Terrier Club of NSW’s Championship Show in 2011. At this show, Winona was given Best Puppy in Show and also awarded Best Head. Go Winnie!
Conformation
I have been focusing my showing efforts on Winona, and she has accumulated approximately 70 points over the last year. I have hopes that she will collect her remaining 30 points next year and so gain her champion title. She has also had the most success, gaining several baby puppy in groups, puppy in groups, and a runner up in group along the way. Her mum and dad, Clover and Chip, have been shown sparingly, but Chip has still been awarded points over the year gone. Clover… Clover had fun.
Earthdog
In South Australia, unfortunately, we have had some problems with our Earthdog judges, which meant that I was one of only two judges in the state. This is problematic as passes at each level must be awarded by at least two judges and, as I can’t judge my own dogs, it made it difficult to gain titles on my dogs.
Chip, however, had passes from 2010, and so got his “Senior Earthdog” title early in the earthdog season. He then went on to receive three “Master Earthdog” passes, but he needs one more under a different judge to get his ME title. Unfortunately, he is likely to be leaving us before the next earthdog season, and so it seems unlikely that he will gain his ME title.
Clover is in a similar boat, also having three “Master Earthdog” passes. However, next year, she’ll still be here to compete and so should gain her ME title easily. We then intend to pursue her “Master Earthdog Excellence” title, which involves a further five passes in senior and an additional five passes at master. It will be tight for us to achieve this in our short earthdog season, but I hope we may be able to!
And darling Winona… At 6 months, I took an innocent puppy to earthdog practice, and found myself coming home with a dogged rabbit hunter! At 6 months and one day, Winona gained her first pass for her “Novice Earthdog” title. However, she was not entered in anymore tests for the season. Hopefully we will be able to achieve her NE and her SE titles in 2012. (But “Senior Earthdog” does involve a recall and this is not a forte of my independent Winona.) Continue reading
I frequently post critiques on other people’s videos around the blogosphere, so I thought I was well over due to upload a training video for others to critique. However, I am probably my own worst critique.
Below is a two and a half minute video of Clover doing some heeling training.
My own comments:
Overall, I am happy with her attitude and willingness to work, especially considering she still has a bit of ‘baby brain’ (her puppy was born 4 weeks ago!).
I am not sure, after watching this video, if I should conduct tug-rewards on this slippery surface. Clover doesn’t seem unhappy about her lack of traction, but I am not sure if it’s great for her body.
I didn’t realise how wonky I am on my feet! There are a few times I look like I’m going to fall over, and my feet go weird ways. Some of this is probably due to the hypermobility of my joints, but I am going to be more conscious of having clear body cues. I think at the moment, Clover has to make some guesses about where I was going next.
I am not quite happy with some of my reward points.I should’ve rewarded her eye contact more, and sometimes she was out of position. Next session will be a food session to help try to pinpoint the heel position.
Keep in mind, we haven’t done any training sessions for at least 2 months! So I am pretty happy with her comeback performance here.
