Take Home Messages

Even Pozy knows that I need help!

A couple of things for new homes.

Collars are not the best way to manage a puppy. Panicked puppies can easily slip a collar and they will be off like a shot — or a frightened deer, and think how safe that would be.

A collar is fine for ID but please consider a step-in harness both for safety and for the safety of the baby puppy’s neck. I like this one:

Size small works for now but they are cheap and so consider two — one in small and one in medium.

Second thing — new puppies need to go directly to their new homes and stay put as they get used to things. The puppy will already be experiencing so much change as they leave the only home they have known and their siblings — they will need their new humans to minimize all additional changes for a while.

A Moonshadow

Remember — puppies are inconvenient. If that doesn’t work for you — it is not the right time for a puppy. No big deal — not every season in life is the right time for a puppy.

Sun

Puppies deserve to be priorities.

Mirak

At least, that is how I see it.

Have a wonderful day.

Evening Report

A Birthday and Update

Today is Daisy’s fifth birthday — here she is earlier this week with Pozy.

There is not a kinder dog than Daisy. What a gift she has been to all of us who love her. Happy Birthday to Daisy!

This is a photo of Daisy’s paternal grandparents — Sydney (G Litter) and Zed (F Litter — loved and owned by Terri Zimmerman).

The puppy between them is their daughter, Harper B — littermate to Holden, Daisy’s father. Those adult dogs are, therefore, the great-grandparents of the Moonshadows, and both were just beloved, wonderful dogs.

Moonshadows and Daisy

As I mentioned, we had vet visits this week. Yesterday’s Puppy Nanny sent this photo to me from the puppy yard — these are the Moonshadows…

Five Bright Stars went for well-checks yesterday plus Titan, pictured here with Hunter…

We want to make sure his small size is not caused by any physical issue. His heart checked out — no murmurs. He will have some additional tests next week but I will be surprised if anything is amiss — he acts just like all the rest; he is just small. That said, we have to make sure he is okay before he can go to a new home.

The puppies constantly mess with my schedule by engaging in unscheduled activities. The Bright Stars decided to make confetti out of the pee pads this morning — I tried to use the less expensive ones. #fail. It was everywhere and so are they — and so I got my handy Bugsy out to help with clean-up and to distract the puppies from eating the pieces.

By the end, they were trying to ride Bugsy.

This is Capella on the slide and — I think — Mirak in front.

This is Orion winding down…

Please have a considerate and respectful day.

Evening: Daisy Photos

The Leavings Begin -- Slowly...

At about eight weeks, formal evaluation of structure can happen.

Mirak

None of the puppies have bad structure and at the same time, all puppies have faults — they are living creatures, after all, and no more perfect than us humans.

Structure matters for soundness, and it also matters for the beauty pageant part of things.

Sun

And so the process of evaluating puppies is first and foremost an evaluation for structural soundness and secondly (and related), to assess which of the puppies is likely to be most successful in the show ring.

We have spent the past two days doing that.

So many photos — and videos. We watched the videos in slow motion and discussed — thank you to Eden Jonas for coming out to help with this process, and also to Suzanne for her unending help with all things puppies.

Capella

Since there are no perfect puppies, we are basically counting up strengths and faults and seeing how that balance sheet looks.

For example, Lyra is a structurally sound puppy with lovely movement — and she doesn’t have the substance of some others.

Lyra

Nova is lovely with great breed type and sound movement — and she has Claire’s bigger ears.

Her head is turned — they are not as long as they appear in that photo :)

You get the idea.

I will place show puppies in a limited number of homes with people I know and trust — that means some puppies that could indeed qualify as “show puppies” won’t ever be shown. That is just fine. All show puppies need wonderful homes — they do not all need to be shown.

Heze is a lovely show puppy who will be shown.

I will co-own him with Alison Jaskiewicz who also has Heze’s Aunt Kiri (Sparkler) and Uncle Tristan (iPup).

Heze was the first to leave — he headed off to New Hampshire this morning.

The process of assessing homes — and puppies — is always ongoing and yes, things can change at the last minute. Placements for both litters are not all settled — that is normal and expected.

WHEW.

With Heze’s departure we have some new math: it is now 10+9+9+me.

Evening Report

Thank goodness for good friends — that is what I have to say about that. All ten Bright Stars had wellness checks in the past two days. I never leave puppies alone — hence the good friends remark.

All ten passed their health exams with no issues. Stool samples were negative. And so on — a more complete report soon but zero issues with the wellness exams.

Orion had some GI upset late this afternoon — thank goodness we have a vet in the family and much gratitude to her. But between that and the vet adventure and Claire and work and all the normal stuff, I did not accomplish as much as I wanted to today and that includes emails and videos; I hope to catch up tomorrow and Saturday.

Claire is doing well and is amazingly cheerful and happy. The puppies are all alive and well. There you go — success, under these circumstances.