Easter Sunday

Perkins hopped on over to wish you all a Happy Easter :)

Long Weekend

Not much happening in my neck of the woods these days.
It's a long weekend which is wonderful.  I've been catching up on things around the house, window washing for one, bluk!
I brought out some of the patio furniture even though I know there will be at least one more snow storm before the end of April :(

Been out training a bit with Kort, adding distractions & duration to his heeling.  It is wonderful to be outside training!  Agility will be moving outside at the end of April as well so Kort & I will be starting up again.  We've had the winter off.

B is for Bessie

Mom got a new dog!  Another rescue, mom's 3rd.

Mom's first rescue was way back in 1978, she was coming out of the grocery store & was stopped by 2 children who had a box full of puppies.  The puppies were 4 weeks old & the kids were told to get "rid" of them :(  Mom being the sucker she is lol! came home with Buddy. Buddy was the best dog ever, he lived to just 2 months short of his 18th Birthday.

This is mom & Buddy in July 1990, he was 12 yrs old......

Next came Chance, mom went to our local shelter & picked him out.  He was 7 years old & had been brought to the shelter when his owner got a boyfriend & became pregnant :(   Mom had Chance until he was 14  years old.
This is Chance on Dec 8 2001, the day he was adopted by mom, I groomed him up for her ♥

So now it was time for a new dog.  My mom of course looked at all the shelters & rescue groups in her area.  She came across Northern Critters In Need, a Rescue out of Ignace Ont, which is about 4 hrs from Thunder Bay where my mom lives.  Bessie caught her eye, she is kind of a combination between Buddy & Chance I think!
This is her story.
Back in November 2012 reports were coming in about people hearing a dog barking/crying.  Upon investigating they found Bessie.  She was attached to a dog house, in the middle of nowhere, with a 4 foot chain.  The dog house had no bottom in it, & she had just given birth :(  Whoever did this either left her there because she was pregnant, or because she had puppies.  Either way, there was no food or water, nothing.  It makes me sick to my stomach to think of her out there alone with her new babies.  The rescuers estimate the puppies were about 3-4 days old.
Bessie was a wonderful mom her foster home reported.  She is quite timid, & suspicious as you can imagine, but her & mom are doing quite well.  Mom has only had her for a week so I will keep you updated.

Here's some pictures.....

Bessie's first night at moms......

Bessie with her 8 babies just after being found......

The 8 babies at Christmas 2012......all pups are in new homes :)

A Special Kind of Day :)

Today is a special day....
It would have been my Dad's 84th Birthday for one, I went to bed thinking about him last night. I miss him.
I had trouble sleeping, I eventually fell asleep but then woke up shortly after.  I looked at the clock, it was 3:33, hmmmm, my Dad popped into my head right away, #3, 3rd month, March, Dad's birthday,
I wished Dad a Happy Birthday then tried to fall asleep again.  Later, still awake, I looked at the clock again, 4:44, ok this was getting weird.
Anyway this post is not about numbers, but there will be one soon :)

Today is also my niece Adrienne's Birthday.  She is 17 today, wow! She is a very special girl, how I love her ♥
Adrienne is also special because she was born on my Dad's birthday, & on HER Dad's birthday!  Yup, both her grandfathers were born on March 19th , how cool is that!!

 

Superstar!

And of course I can't forget another important member in my life ....
Happy 7th Birthday to Perkins ! ♥

Scurry

Andy did manage to get a few pictures of Kort & Tate trying the scurry on Sunday.  These are of us running to the bumper, my dogs wouldn't go out to get it on their own when it was thrown in the air, so we were allowed to run out with them , encourage them to pick it up & run back with it......so fun!

Kaleb's Birthday Bash

I had so much fun yesterday at Kaleb's Birthday Party.  I wanted to have one for Tate last year when he turned 10 but I never did.
We have such an awesome group of doggie people here, everyone had fun doing the timed scurry, Tate was sooo cute, way better then Kort which surprised me, unfortunately we didn't get a picture of him racing with the bumper in his mouth & jumping around like a puppy :)

There was a scavenger hunt at the end & everyone let their dogs run around together, what a sight, about 30 dogs all getting along & having a blast.
I won the scavenger hunt, hurray for me!

I think we should do this every week !!!

Here's a couple of pictures that Liz took from the day......

 

 

 This is the toy that I got for Kaleb, I think he liked it !!.....

Everyone lined up for the weiner dunking contest!......

 

 

The Birthday Boy with all his loot :)......

Senior Spa Day

Yesterday I went to Sarah's with Tate.  We came up with the idea of having a Senior Spa day.  Sarah's Flatcoated Retriever Kaleb is turning 11 on March 12 & Sarah is having a Birthday Bash for him today out at Blazingstar.  It is a huge deal to have a senior Flatcoat, their average life expectancy is sadly only about 8  :(
Tate will be 11 on April 11th.

Tate has been having trouble with his front right shoulder on & off for some time now, so while Sarah was giving him a full senior massage ( she is a licensed dog masseuse/practitioner ), I gave Kaleb a bit of a grooming for his big party :)

Poor Tate had quite a bit of soreness in that shoulder & had some very tight muscles from all the compensating.  Sarah got him all worked out though, a few more days of Traumeel & some continued stretches he should be feeling better.

The Handsome Birthday Boy

Super Handsome Seniors ♥

Fuzzy Butts :)

It's getting harder for me to keep up with the neuter coats on Tate & Kort, I have fibromyalgia, & have also worked as a dog groomer for 30 years, my wrists , neck & back feel it now :)

To make it a little easier I trimmed down both boys bloomer hair, Tate is happier because now that he is older he doesn't like standing on the grooming table for hrs to be brushed out.  I have been leaving their hock hair long , just because I have trimmed some hair down, doesn't mean I don't like hair, I mean that's why I have Collies!

I think they look cute! ......

 

Fun At Alta-Pete !

Yesterday Amanda & I went to to Jenny & Scott Glenn's Alta-Pete Stockdogs for a herding lesson.  This would be lesson # 2 for Kort.  Amanda & I had a feeling that Kort would be a little on the worried side due to his "run in" with the paddle at his last lesson :)

Herding is extremely complicated, more then I ever knew.  The dogs must have so much drive & determination to want to do it, but at the same time not succumb to pressure when it is applied.  Kort is very sensitive,  as most collies are, & even though the paddle hitting him was an accident, & we did our best to make the rest of the lesson fun, he still remembered it & did not want any part of herding the sheep.

No worries though, I am ok if he doesn't want to herd, I am trying it out to give him something different to do, I don't need to trial him, I just want to have some fun with him.

I do not like to go in the pen, so that is why I asked Amanda to do the work :)  However, there was no way Kort was going to work with her, being such a mommas boy,  so Jenny & I went in, my job was to follow behind the sheep & keep them moving, while Jenny jazzed Kort up & tried to get him excited about chasing the sheep again.  It took alot of work!  Bless Jenny though, she did get him excited enough that he did a few runs around the pen barking all the while .

I'll take him back , probably in the summer when there is no mud!  I am such a PRINCESS, omg ! I hate the mud!! I hate the dirt!! I hate my dog dirty!! lol!!!  You know what, Kort hates it too! He would try to avoid stepping in the mud if he could help it, sooooo funny!, my little prince ♥

Here are some pictures Amanda managed to get of our adventure, thanks Amanda!

 Can you see the mud!!!......

 Look at his feathering's!!......

Barking :)......

Jenny trying to get him excited......

 

I had to get in & help, ick! ......

Yeah! success!!!......

It was an awesome day!  I love doing things with my dogs, even if I'm a wuss :)
Here is a little video I put together of some of the other attractions out at Alta-Pete,
Special appearances by Lad the border collie owned by Jenny, Mr Rooster & the chickens, the guardian dogs Togo & Alaska, & of course the sheep, there are lots & lots of babies out there now, I got to bottle feed one, you can see him at the beginning of the sheep section, he is just staring at me, hoping I was going to feed him again ♥

The Best Laid Plans

I thought it was time to do a post about the litter I was hoping for a puppy from, it would have been due in 2 weeks,. 
Unfortunately Mother Nature had it's own plans & the breeding did not take. Everyone was very disappointed, but no one more then the breeder. 
It is hard to be a breeder, which is why I would never do it.  You know people are hoping for a puppy, but then it doesn't happen. 
In this case I believe everyone was very understanding & the majority of us are waiting for the next litter. I believe Cava will be in season again towards the end of June, so if mother Nature decides to bless us this time, puppies will be born in the fall. 
I believe everything happens for a reason, I am willing to wait for my puppy.  It's not about the puppy so much as it is about the breeder, I wouldn't go anywhere else!

Here's a couple of seriously cute puppy pictures of Tinbie taken by Liz......

 

 

 

And the crazy antics of the Blazingstar crew :) also taken by Liz....