Q: We’re choosing a breed. What kind of puppy will be calm, clean, and quiet?

A: Ceramic. Puppies are awful. Their teeth, when not embedded in your person, are dismantling your property. Meanwhile, the other end dribbles unspeakable fluids in unforgivable locations. Nature equips puppies with overwhelming cuteness to keep us from killing them.

Well, maybe not COMPLETELY different. We do have other dogs at home, although admittedly Cheery and the puppies have gotten the lion’s share of the attention in the past two months. This weekend, Miss Ava and I are going to both Atlanta for their AKC shows and to Perry for their UKC shows – more bang for our dog travel buck as it were. Ava is now 13 months old and maturing very nicely. She hasn’t been out since November so I’m looking forward to showing her off this weekend. My DH is staying home with the remaining 6 adults and the puppies – an angel or what?!

So forgive me in advance, but doubtless the puppies’ 8 week photos will be late! And wish Ava and I luck!

First points at first show, 6 months, 12 days old

Ava is Best Puppy in Match at 14 weeks

Ava @ 10 weeks

Well, phooey, these didn’t come out as well as I had hoped. I’ll have to beg Jeri to come over next week. Be that as it may, they’re all growing wonderfully and happy and silly – and as big as our Yorkie, Pepper! (Pepper’s wise to puppies. She “trains” them while they’re little, so once they dwarf her she can still be the boss of them! LOL!)

DARLA

TUCKER

LIBBY

TRIPP

CASSIE

QUINN

DORI

SIRRI

Trying to catch up on events. Yesterday we had the puppies evaluated using the Volhard Puppy Aptitude Test, also know as temperament testing. It is done when the puppy is 49 days old, a time picked because the puppy is neurologically complete and untainted by training. (That’s what the Volhards say anyway. I wonder how “untainted by training” they can be since they’ve been using the potty box for almost a month now; that seems like training to me.) Many, many thanks to Beth Fitzgerald for taking her Sunday afternoon to evaluate the puppies, thus missing her husband and one of their Rottweilers earning an advanced agility title.

The results were not too surprising to me, mostly 3s and 4s, except for little Quinn. I have found her to be the most affectionate, sweet, and snuggly of the litter, while her testing was mixed bag of 3s and 6s. Kind of hard to decipher – 3s are very middle of the road and a good prospect for most families and obedience training, while 6s are independent and the Volhards say “not affectionate and may dislike petting and cuddling” – not my experience with this girl at all!!! Still, as Beth said, this is but a snapshot in time with a puppy and a person. Take into account this day was also their first car ride and several of them thought looking at themselves in the mirrored wall in the training room of the Huntsville Obedience Training Club where we did the testing was more interesting than what Beth was doing, it’s entirely possible they were a little thrown off. After the testing was over, we set them loose to run amok in the big room; that was much more fun for them!

These pictures were taken when we were setting them up for 7 week photos. Thanks Marti! It was a hoot to watch Sirri try to make friends with your pretty Dobie girl through the crate bars!

The puppies play hard and crash hard. After 45 minutes asleep in the car on the way home, they were ready and revved to play outside until the sun went down!

We're ready for our closeup, Mr. DeMille.

Wish we had this training space at home.

Yes, I’m woefully behind in posting. These photos are from the puppy party a week ago Sunday. A smallish crowd due to the ugly weather, but good, experienced eyes. And the guys in my office were more than happy to eat the leftovers of lunch on Monday. The puppies had a great time! Thanks to Heidi and Jeri for the photography. (And blame me for the smallness of the pictures. I’m sure I’ve done something wrong; I just can’t figure out what it is. Besides, you just wanted to see the pics, right, rather than wait for me to be technically competent? Good luck with that! )

Linda, Heidi, Janet, Jeri, and me with the kids!

Linda and Janet make their critiques.

Stacking for the folks watching on the cam.

Linda lines up sleeping puppies.

Charlie, at 5, is already a practiced puppy socializer.

That doesn't look at all comfortable!

If I sleep IN the bowl, nobody can take my food!

Just can’t believe how much they’ve grown and developed in 6 weeks! They are really little dogs now and so much fun – so happy to see us when we come in the room, so bent on destruction of anything they can get their little teeth on, and they are definitely corgis – they eat everything put in front of them! If you’ve been watching the puppy cam, you’ve noticed that Cheery is mostly off camera all day; we’re slowly getting them them weaned and Cheery is getting reintegrated to the “big dogs”. While I think she’s grateful for the break, she’s always happy to see them in the evening when we put them to bed together.

DARLA

TUCKER

LIBBY

TRIPP

CASSIE

QUINN

DORI

SIRRI

Living in “tornado alley” is interesting to say the least. A tornado touched down in Huntsville yesterday evening and moved right through the area that Bob and I had driven home 45 minutes earlier. Some damage, but no people hurt, thank doG. And at least we didn’t end up flying around NOAL in a bathtub with 7 dogs and 8 puppies! LOL!

The doGs smiled on us – Monday was not only warm and dry, but I was off from work and was able to let the puppies play outside that afternoon. While Cheery pretended to nap under the garden bench, all the while keeping an eye out for any danger, the little dogs got to learn about the big, new world known as the puppy yard. They had things to climb on and under, slides, tunnels, lots of different balls, and grass! Of course, I was too busy playing too to take any photos of that and didn’t pick up the camera until they started to tire out. You can see from the photos that we have a few ears up and their color is breaking – look at the red coming in on their heads, both on the sables and the tris (most noticable behind their ears). They are becoming very vocal while playing with each other. They are also becoming very messy! They’re pretty good about using their potty box, but somebody’s little alligator teeth tore open Cheery’s pillow and they joyfully pulled out all of the stuffing! Nothing is safe now! LOL! No doubt a lot of work, but we are having too much fun!

A bit more cooperation this week from some. FYI I post them in birth order; no secret line up as to who I think are the next specialty winners. My favs have remained pretty consistent although movement remains to be seen as they get steadier on their feet. Half are up over 4 pounds now. Ears are starting to get “lift”. They are in full swing of playing, eating, etc. If the weather ever gets halfway decent I’ll be glad to give them some time outside to run for short periods and to expand their universe a little bit.

Darla

Darla

Tucker

Tucker

Libby

Libby

Tripp

Tripp

Cassie

Cassie

Quinn

Quinn

Dori

Dori

Sirri

Sirri