Remember how I posted about Dulcie’s puppies?
Well, Potter and Klunk are now four weeks old and are on the look out for their new homes. These boys are big!
(Unfortunately, little Sniper was slept on by Dulcie at about 7 days old and passed away.)
Firstly, Potter, with his flashy white bits:
It is with mixed feelings that I announce that Winona (who we talked about days ago in our 2012 goals) went to a new home on Friday. After their weekend trial period, her new family has fallen in love with her.
Winona at 7 weeks
I get frequent enquiries about border terriers, and Winona has been ‘on offer’ for a while – however, with certain conditions. Namely, that we can continue to show her to her title, and that we can have a litter from her at a later date. This is a pretty big ask.
Her new family contacted me after their border terrier cross died, and after a lot of consideration, came to visit. Continue reading
While Rescued Insanity compiled a lovely list of blog posts she enjoyed for the year, I’m sitting here cursing that I never composed such a list! While I do post my favourite links, mostly blog posts, on my Twitter account, I can hardly fathom getting the number of my favourite blog posts down to an appropriate number to incorporate into one post. So please let me just promise that I’ll try harder next year.
Instead, I thought I’d write a post on my favourite dog blogs of the year. This is almost as an extraordinary feat, if you consider my blogroll length. However, I’ll try.
Here we go:
Saving Pets. Written by PetRescue founder, Shel, this blog constantly, and edgily, challenges the shelter system in Australia. The blog is phenomenally well researched, well presented, and relevant. (On a side note, this blog is also responsible for almost everything I know about cats…) I get excited when I see Saving Pets come up in my Google Reader, and I hope you enjoy reading as well.
Reactive Champion. Crystal’s blog is more of a journey and dog training blog, no where near as specific as the title ‘Reactive Champion’ makes out. The diversity of topics is what I appreciate, and the time and effort evident in every one of Crystal’s post. Crystal’s well thought-out and clear explanations explore a host of dog related issues, from dog training to dog medication to reactive behaviours. What I really appreciate is the extensive notes that Crystal provides when she attend expos. Reactive Champion is very much ‘worth the read’.
Intellidogs. So this is not so much a blog as it is podcasts, but I simply cannot get enough. Karen Wilde and John Buskle present the podcast, and explore a variety of topics. I love that Karen and John come from different continents and have different doggy interests, and it really adds flavour to the show. This podcast often accompanies me as I do housework. I would absolutely miss the Intellidogs podcasts if they ceased to occur.
KC Dog Blog. Brent Toellner is an inspiration. His blog shows campaigns lodged against BSL and for no-kill. He also often includes extensive reviews of new dog studies, of media cases regarding dogs, particularly dog bites, and links to the most phenonemal other blog posts. How this man does it all, I have no idea! Though sometimes the content is very US specific, there is plenty of ‘other stuff’ to keep me entertained.
My Puppy, My Self. I am not always engaged or driven by the content on this blog, but I really admire and enjoy the commitment and discussions around dog science. Also, there are normally some lovely links to dog science and dog discussions in his posts. For this reason, Lee Charles Kelley’s blog got into my favourite blog list.
What were your top 5 blogs for 2011?
See how this compares to our favourites of 2012. 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
My first border terrier was a dog called MacDogald, and he now lives with my parents. However, he has come back for a week as my parents are overseas. Mac is dog aggressive, and one of the reasons he moved to my parents house is because I didn’t feel it was fair on him to have foster dogs through the house.
Mac has met Winona, the 14 week puppy, numerous times. Mac is good with puppies – he seems to understand that they’re ‘special’. When he met Winona at my house, that was fine. He tells her off when she gets annoying, and that is quite okay in my household.
Mac met Mr Chip through the fence, and Mac did not like Mr Chip on first sight. Mr Chip was quite happy to make friends despite the growling (Mr Chip is not very clever).
The interesting case was Mac meeting Clover. Clover grew up with Mac, but Mac moved out when she was about 2 years old. She has visited Mac at his house several times, but due to pregnancy and puppies, Clover hasn’t seen Mac for 5 months. Clover hasn’t seen Mac at our house for about a year.
Mac and Clover were very good friends when they were here. There is only one serious tiff I can remember of there 2.5 years or so that they lived together. They played well together. Mac has separation anxiety, and Clover was a comfort to him when he was otherwise home alone.
A young Clover cuddling Mac.
That being said, since Mac has gone, a lot has changed. Clover has grown up, matured, had her first litter of puppies… And otherwise, become a bitch.
So I introduced the two of them with caution. I first allowed them to meet through the fence.
Clover’s reaction was phenomenal. It cannot be described as anything but ‘remembering’. Continue reading
