Evenings with the Jubilee Pups are quite relaxed with friends welcome to visit at any time. They enjoy playing, entertaining, listening to ... errr, fireworks? Yes, fireworks, and many other strange noises, on a noise desensitisation CD. They are also quite keen to make their own music too ...
Please adjust your volume control, ie, it needs to be turned on.
Friday, 6 July 2012
Friday, 22 June 2012
Breakfast at home with ...
... the Jubilee Puppies
Yesterday was the first day of solid (actually, very sloppy) food for the Jubilee Puppies. Puppy food soaked in warm water and goat's milk - lovely!
You will need the volume turned on for this.
Yesterday was the first day of solid (actually, very sloppy) food for the Jubilee Puppies. Puppy food soaked in warm water and goat's milk - lovely!
You will need the volume turned on for this.
Thursday, 7 June 2012
Lunch with the Jubilee Puppies
I love puppy feeding time. It’s not the most exciting of spectator sports, I just enjoy the noise and watching the puppies scent their way to an unoccupied teat - one of the many pleasures of ‘puppy watching’. The last pup up to the milk bar usually has a little work ahead of it ... the easily accessible teats are taken first so late comers will need to burrow beneath their siblings and their mother.
Cafe Latte Girl doesn’t always like to give her babes an easy ride. Just as they think they’ve got themselves comfortable, she rolls onto her back and they all fall off ... however, some do manage to stay on and ride it out until she settles again.
Once each pup has had it’s fill they just let go of the teat and tumble into a heap, full and tired. There they fall fast asleep.
The Jubilee Puppies had a special afternoon visitor to their Puppy Palace today, Mr Smart Bear. He proved quite a hit with the girls who soon made themselves very comfortable.
After a good lunch, an entertaining visitor it’s quite fitting to have a well deserved nap ...
Sunday, 3 June 2012
Arrival of the Jubilee Pups
Last night was busy! On day 60 of Cafe Latte Girl’s pregnancy, which happened to coincide with the start of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations, she decided it was time to start whelping. I was spot on! She whelped day 60 with her first litter, had a feeling she’d be the same this time.
Cafe Latte Girl has a lovely, comfortable whelping box, I have a blow up mattress to sleep on beside it, I don’t leave my girl when whelping is imminent. It’s exhausting work for Mum, it’s also tiring for me - sleepless nights, change of eating habits and any routines just go to pot. The big dogs get little look in for a few days, but they’re cool, they cope very well.
CLG, despite her lovely whelping box, took rather a shine to my bed ... it took some persuasion that she’d be better whelping in her box where she had room to move around as she needed.
Contractions started late evening, but she had quite a while and a bit of hard work to put in before her first pup arrived, not long before midnight. Whelping continued into the early hours of Sunday morning.
As soon as the first puppy is born the ‘watching’ begins. Puppy watching is work, it can take a great deal of time up during the course of the puppy’s development, but it is absolutely vital in order to determine the temperament and characteristics of each pup.
It always amazes me how quickly a new born pup will head towards the milk bar, this is what nose work is all about. It doesn’t take long for the pups to realise that the easiest milk comes from the back teats, there’s sometimes a bit of a scrum to get there with a large litter!
So, the puppies are finally all here. Five girls and one boy. Cafe Latte Girl was large, much bigger than with her first litter. I was sure there would be seven or eight pups, others thought 10 or 11. As it turns out it was just the six, maybe the way she was carrying them this time, or more fluid, who knows. The pups are all fit and healthy, as is their lovely Mum, although she’s very, very tired.
After eating six placenta’s, food isn’t high on CLG’s wish list, but fluids are vital ... she’s a lot of milk to produce. After mum is refreshed and the puppies are fed, it’s time for CLG to have a nap and enjoy her babies ...
Cafe Latte Girl has a lovely, comfortable whelping box, I have a blow up mattress to sleep on beside it, I don’t leave my girl when whelping is imminent. It’s exhausting work for Mum, it’s also tiring for me - sleepless nights, change of eating habits and any routines just go to pot. The big dogs get little look in for a few days, but they’re cool, they cope very well.
CLG, despite her lovely whelping box, took rather a shine to my bed ... it took some persuasion that she’d be better whelping in her box where she had room to move around as she needed.
Contractions started late evening, but she had quite a while and a bit of hard work to put in before her first pup arrived, not long before midnight. Whelping continued into the early hours of Sunday morning.
It always amazes me how quickly a new born pup will head towards the milk bar, this is what nose work is all about. It doesn’t take long for the pups to realise that the easiest milk comes from the back teats, there’s sometimes a bit of a scrum to get there with a large litter!
Saturday, 2 June 2012
The Waiting Game ...
It seems to have been a long time coming, this Jubilee weekend. Much for us to look forward to ... none of which to do with the Jubilee!
We are eagerly awaiting the arrival of Cafe Latte Girl and New Boy’s puppies. It isn’t the greatest of timing, having a projected whelping on the Golden Jubilee Bank Holiday weekend, but I can’t change the forces of nature. As a result though, I have taken the big decision to upsticks and leave home for the whelping. Living on the edge of a small town isn’t the ideal location for such an event when such a big National event is taking place at the same time. Noise. I don’t like noise, I get quite stressed by it ... CLG is fine, but she wouldn’t be fine if I was stressed. So we have moved to a friend’s place. Much quieter with few neighbours. Much better for me, therefore much better for CLG and the rest of The Sensational Six. We will return home after the weekend, when everything has quietened down ... excellent experience for the pups - an early vehicle outing.
There was confirmation of a pregnancy back in May.
By end of May the Mum to be had definitely filled out.
CLG has been wormed on a daily basis since day 40 of her pregnancy. In the last two weeks her daily food ration has been gradually increased, mainly increasing the levels of proteins, with the aim of raising feeding volume by something like 50% by the day of whelping.
Her temperature has been monitored twice daily for the last week ... I’ve been waiting for a drop below 37ºC. This is a good indicator that whelping will occur within 12-24 hours. Not fool-proof granted and the method doesn’t work for everyone, but certainly in my line of dogs it’s a pretty good indicator. So, the waiting game begins.
At 3.30am CLGs temperature dropped to 36.7ºC. Food last night was refused. There’s been some ‘nesting’ activity going on in her very lovely whelping box ... she’s made a right mess in there!
She, nor I, have slept well for some nights.
She has eaten two small meals today, she’s been for a walk to check on her sheep and she’s been wanting to play football. Whelping doesn’t seem to be too high in her list of priorities.
So, when will Cafe Latte Girl deliver her puppies? You’ll just have to be patient and wait and see, just like me ...
We are eagerly awaiting the arrival of Cafe Latte Girl and New Boy’s puppies. It isn’t the greatest of timing, having a projected whelping on the Golden Jubilee Bank Holiday weekend, but I can’t change the forces of nature. As a result though, I have taken the big decision to upsticks and leave home for the whelping. Living on the edge of a small town isn’t the ideal location for such an event when such a big National event is taking place at the same time. Noise. I don’t like noise, I get quite stressed by it ... CLG is fine, but she wouldn’t be fine if I was stressed. So we have moved to a friend’s place. Much quieter with few neighbours. Much better for me, therefore much better for CLG and the rest of The Sensational Six. We will return home after the weekend, when everything has quietened down ... excellent experience for the pups - an early vehicle outing.
There was confirmation of a pregnancy back in May.
By end of May the Mum to be had definitely filled out.
CLG has been wormed on a daily basis since day 40 of her pregnancy. In the last two weeks her daily food ration has been gradually increased, mainly increasing the levels of proteins, with the aim of raising feeding volume by something like 50% by the day of whelping.
Her temperature has been monitored twice daily for the last week ... I’ve been waiting for a drop below 37ºC. This is a good indicator that whelping will occur within 12-24 hours. Not fool-proof granted and the method doesn’t work for everyone, but certainly in my line of dogs it’s a pretty good indicator. So, the waiting game begins.
At 3.30am CLGs temperature dropped to 36.7ºC. Food last night was refused. There’s been some ‘nesting’ activity going on in her very lovely whelping box ... she’s made a right mess in there!
She, nor I, have slept well for some nights.
She has eaten two small meals today, she’s been for a walk to check on her sheep and she’s been wanting to play football. Whelping doesn’t seem to be too high in her list of priorities.
So, when will Cafe Latte Girl deliver her puppies? You’ll just have to be patient and wait and see, just like me ...
Monday, 9 April 2012
Spring Arrives in Lakeland
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| The days are getting warmer |
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| The last remains of snow on the Lakeland mountains |
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| The hedgerows are bursting with daffodils |
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| The ponds have been ... busy! |
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| Arctic Fox - happy in her work |
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| Cafe Latte Girl ... fed up with waiting for her turn to work sheep |
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| Handsome Lad in full concentration mode ... with a little help from his shadow |
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| The Mad pup ... half-sister to Cafe Latte Girl & Aunty to Pocket Rocket |
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| High Noon |
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| Cafe Latte Girl and mate New Boy ... relaxing in the sunshine |
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| New Boy in action |
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| "Wait for me" ... Pocket Rocket |
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| New Boy and Cafe Latte Girl's Search Puppy - with us for her hols |
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| Womble Bum ... "throw the damn leaf" |
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| Heavy in lamb |
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| And the clouds return ... |
Thursday, 15 March 2012
Pocket Rocket finds ... new friends
Meet Hector Herdwick ...
Hector arrived, along with some of his mates, almost four weeks ago. They have come to help us with our sheep work!
The arrival of the sheep hasn't been without it's problems and frustrations. Within the first week, one was decidedly off colour and another came down with a bad leg, so two were removed from work. I had an idealistic image that arrival of sheep might mean being able to train my dogs on them daily and within a month see some advances in our training. Sadly that's not been the case. I have seen progression, but not necessarily in what I was wanting to work on.
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| Handsome Lad stretching out |
The sheep haven't been worked by dogs before so they aren't what we call 'dogged'. This has led to incredible frustration on my part. Whilst the sheep are ideal for Pocket Rocket, they're calm and there's much we can do with a bunch of calm sheep, Handsome Lad has struggled to move them. He had started to drive and I need him to be able to move them, but they just wont budge. Nor will they budge for my friend's Trials Girl and she's supposed to be a professional. It's been suggested I'm doing something wrong ... that may well be the case, but it's yet to be suggested what I'm doing wrong and I haven't got the fogiest what it might be I'm doing wrong, if I am!
So, for the time being, Handsome Lad and I are working on improving the start of his outruns, and his flanking.
I am very pleased with the work Pocket Rocket is doing. She's now worked sheep about four or five times. This short video shows her lovely right handed flanks, she's gentle with the sheep but she can be tough with them too.
Pocket Rocket is getting all grown up ...
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