Simba's Family

We were lucky last night to have Simba's mom, dad and kids playing with the pups and Simba too! I got a ton of photos but I will get to them later.

But here is one of my faves.

Daisy Fun

Daisy comes to visit every now and then and I must admit I ADORE her.

She's not one of ours but she is Katsura's sister's daughter. Are you following that?

She adores the pups and all the rest of the dogs. She also  is what I term as a party dog. She just loves to be the center of attention.

If everyone is just laying around she riles things up to get them really playing.

Tonight she got  a bath and soon she goes home and will be sorely missed.

Here Nathan is holding her like we do the puppies after a bath and laughing hysterical.

Daisy face says it all....

So many changes this week...

Just now we also had a visit from Simba's family who came to pick up Simba and the kids played with the pups. I got wonderful photos that I will share tomorrow.

More opportunities to socialize the pups.... nice.

Meeting a Non Havanese

We are lucky to have Zoe drop by for a visit and this way the pups get exposed to a non Havanese other than Terra.

Zoe was great and so was the pups.

Check out the gallery.

The Games They Play

Did you know you can teach a dog to play hide and go seek? You really can.

Mothers or pups will hide under furniture and pounce out saying tag you are it.

Havanese are really intelligent and they enjoy you working their brain. By training them you actually create a greater bond and you get a dog that you can show off and enjoy as they are well mannered and ... well smart. But you have to teach them.

But when you start training them and you can start now you do it for a max of 10 minutes at a time no more. They are pups and easily distracted.

Take a treat, put it to their nose and bring it back over their head. They will naturally go into a sit and say sit and then reward. Eventually they will sit with just the command.

They are what you put into them - honest. You can go as far as teaching them to get the yellow toy or the red toy etc.

Each time you go somewhere give them a word association. For instance each time you go into the car say 'car' and each time you return home just before you arrive tell them 'home' and soon you wil be communicating with them.

We used to use walk for walks when we didn't want them to know what we were talking about as we were just asking if the other wanted to go on one and the dogs got excited. Then we switched to ambulate and they soon understood that and we switched yet again - well they are smarter than you think.

Crazy Busy

Remember When

Not much to say today but we are crazy busy and will be all week till the 24th when I can play catch-up with the galleries, videos and such.

I hope you understand the delay and this way I can spend more time sifting through the tons I have clicked or taken moving.

The adults are doing well. They are getting love while Nathan watches TV or plays outside etc. I get less time as my focus is on the blog, paperwork, washing dogs etc but I make sure I make time to get my time.

Life will slow down. Will that be a good or bad thing?

We will keep blogging but the info may be fun as I talk about life with dawgs and maybe you can relate, ask questions and we will get there together!

My Daze

Yesterday I washed Gidget. This is a gal that I have known since she was a pup (not one of mine) but has spent a fair bit of time with me that I feel like she is part of the family. Her son Louis comes here too for visits and well Gidget and Wasabi are best of pals and I rather like that.

Today I washed Logan and it took me much longer than usual. I have yet to figure out why. Tonight I will wash Shadow and do paperwork for Ringo and Lucy.

I am still scratching my head trying to figure out why Nathan doesn't do some of it. How did that happen?

I think on my to do list has to be 'teach how to do x'

Poor Truffie looks like he is saying why are you doing paperwork, puppies, washing moms when its me who needs a bath. Hey, what about me? Well, Truffie, I could steal that line 10 times over. hahaha

Playing With the Pups

Panda loves to play with the pups but so does her housemate brother Logan who we have had photos of in the past playing with pups.

There is something about pups that makes us all fall madly in love with them - well most of us.

Panda jumps up, down over and has a roaring grand time with the pups. I do too. So I 'get' that!

The pups really like her too. I can understand that as she is a ball of pure fun!

Distraction of Colour

When we went out to eat with Lynda on her birthday the other night (thnx for inviting us Lynda - great food) her son Jon mentioned a black and white view of this photo. Nathan insisted that Panda looked more like Phantom and Roxie like Abigail but I thought they both look like Abigail.

Taking the distraction of colour out of the equation you can see that Abigail truly has pups that look like her no matter the colour. 

I may start doing some black and white photography just for the fun of it after the pups are gone and I have caught up on creating a mega gallery of photos just before they were one unit.

With Kat Daddy's looks rule or share both it seems but with Phantom it is a mix of mom and dad for sure and with Abigail I think its with these two mommy through and through.

Lots of Updates

Simba comes to visit us from time to time and its a great deal of fun.

He is such a bubbly puppy so filled with a ton of fun.

We have Daisy visiting and he was playing with her like she was a long lost friend. He also plays with everyone else but it was particularly fun to see him with Daisy as Nathan got some fun photos of the two that I will try to get to in the next couple of days.

Everyone's blogs were updated with puppy photos from litters that went home to of course litters about to go home. Check them ALL out.

It's a busy week with baths, paperwork, bags to get ready and well empty nesting.

Mia's Visit

Mia and her mom and grandmom came over for a visit. It was so delightful but very windy and very cold.

I hope none of us get sick from this experience but we also had the pups out and Mia was able to see them as well as some of the dogs. Some we kept inside. Spice is not feeling that well (it happens) and I figure it is her partaking of the junk in the yard as it seems to be at this time of year but I left her inside.

Fiona, Risa, Abigail, Wasabi, Panda, Roxie and Simba was outside.

Fiona really seemed to like Mia and Wasabi was very aware and seemed to follow her around sniffing and almost coddling her. It was cute.

Mia was the littlest one of the crew and she remains that way. She's about the size of what Fiona was before pups.

I call Fiona my delicate beauty but in reality she's not delicate at all but rather sturdy just smaller.

Mia was pure white in her back and now she has black and silver strands coming in all over.

One of the things I love about the havanese is if you wait long enough they change and it is rather nice.

Other than the windy cold, it was a great visit and I really enjoyed seeing her.

Thank you for taking the time to visit and for dealing with all this cold.

They say snow tonight....geez... Do you have that shovel ready?

Agility Update

Kathy didn't have the chance to take any pictures of Kona while he was participating in the Agility 1 classes but I applaud her for putting in the effort that Nathan couldn't find the energy for.

I heard he is doing rather well too!

Kathy is so amazing with Kona. I got to watch her in obedience class when she did a class with us and she works him well. I was impressed and it is obvious just how much she loves him.

That does my heart good!

Kathy said to us in mail:

Kona finished 2nd, he was 4 seconds behind the winner a large female Doberman.  All the dogs were large except for Kona.

Kona was not the fastest, but he had the fewest errors.

 It was fun for both of us.

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Nathan wrote back that he was sure the Doberman cheated and I think so too!

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Here is a photo of Molly too before she went home.

This is an easy care hair do. I rather like it. I just think the top needs to be a tad longer so it lays down vs. up like a bichon. But she rather wears it well either way and it doesn't take away from her beauty.

When you look at her face it is easy to see Kat with the silvering going on. I do love the silvering but I also see some of Wasabi in her. I also see Ty, don't you Kathy?

The silvering is evident in Kona as well and it adds something nice to the colouring. He too has such a nice compliment of looks taken from his mom and dad canine types. There's not too many silvers out there and it is nice to see Kat passes it on.

Puppy Fun

Molly is over for an overnighter and she was having a grand time with the pups. We picked Molly up from her house and she was delightfully pleased that she had all this crew to play with her.

Her mom and dad are coming at noon tomorrow after she gets a bath. Good thing I have 2 dryers as one bit the dust today. I am so upset but I also have a crate dryer so I will use that on one side and the stand one on the other. We will figure it all out. Last time I had to have a dryer fixed it took me 6 weeks. By that time I can air dry them as it will be so warm. hahahahaha

Molly is a Kat and Wasabi pup. She looks a lot like Kat to me in this photo. She came in full of life as if she was in a candy store and all the candy was for her.

It's delightful to watch.

Today we went to the show and tomorrow I have Molly to bathe and I need to play catchup on grooming. I had planned on washing Fiona but we shall see how this dryer situation works out.

I was unhappy about the dog show. Usually it is much larger and more vendors. But as Nathan said we still managed to spend money.

We got chicken strips, liver treats, a pad for one of the crates from Bowser as I couldn't resist giving them comfort and Suzie and Helen brought us this bed for the pups. It's so cute! They adore it and its large enough for all!

Best part is going to the Tim Hortons afterwards to chat with Helen and Suzy. We don't get to see them enough.

Bath Times

Nathan washed Socks (not one of ours) from start to finish. I was there giving him direction but he did all the work other than cleaning up the bum area and the pads in 45 minutes and that included my end. A short coat is easier but a long coat that is taken care of can be easy too. I can do Fiona or a number of the others in 45 minutes too.

I took a comb and went over him and I did find a few knots but it gave me an opportunity to show him where they usually are and how to find them. This is normal.

I remember when I did Val's TT eons ago having her go over his coat line by line and finding one knot and I was miffed. How the hey did she find THAT! But she added you did a really good job. I also did a bichon for her and she didn't find a single knot and I hated that coat as it was so thick and tight. I was shocked and she had no clue how much anxiety I had over her criticizing my handiwork. So, with that in mind this wasn't meant as a 'find the mistakes' expedition with Nathan. It's simply a learning experience as it was for me hopefully without the anxiety.

I washed Logan and then Panda and Roxie. When I first started doing Logan he would mat very easily. We have since gone to a once a week bathing with him and it seems to be helping a great deal. His hair is getting longer and it appears easier!. It may be the once a week bathing and the products combined.

All I know is now Logan gives me kisses while I groom him and before he used to try to stop me with his mouth. I didn't blame him and worked hard trying to make it a good experience and part of that was coming up with this new plan that thankfully seems to be working better. Getting kisses is the best especially during a time that they do not like.'

I tell you this as patience is important and making it fun is important. A good experience will help you in the long run and worth the effort. If you take them to a groomer make sure they also have that mindset.

SiblingsI would rather have the dog enjoy the experience or at least not hate it than to have it be a quick job. It takes me 45 minutes to do Roxie or Panda but at least twice that long with Logan and I can do Katsura in a little over an hour. Risa, if I line comb her, and I do, each wash takes about the same time as Logan. She has thick full body hair and the longest part is parting and going through the coat line by line to find the knots.

I am a picky nut though and just like someone who takes a rag over to see if you dusted right (that's not important to me) I tend to use a comb to find those missed knots. If you do you can actually go much longer in-between with brushing.

I am also a freak about eyes and ears. I will find an ear ache faster than anyone else as I have a golden and know ear aches and just how those things smell when they begin.

People come visit with their dogs and I clean around the eyes taking those eye boogers away. I have a friend that laughs at me as she knows when I come in I am going to clean around her dog's eyes. I can't help myself.

The last thing I do every night before bed is spray their mouths with Leba II, clean around their eyes and look at their ears.

Why am I talking about this? To each of us we have important things and things that aren't. Some of us may like a long coat and others like a short shaggy puppy cut. Some may prefer to take their dogs to a groomer once a week and get it brushed out and others prefer to brush while they are watching tv daily and take their dog to a groomer only when they need a haircut.

The bath may seem rather scary at first. Lord knows Nathan fought me long enough about doing one and then he did and it was easier than he thought. Of course the coat was short but still it was puppy coat length and much thicker. With the right set of tools and being thorough you actually make your work easier.

So when you are bathing buy a tether and do it in the laundry room sink. Tethers usually come with ridiculous plastic nooses that can't be shortened. You want that rubber part that goes against your sink but you will find more ease with a woven noose that can be tied in knots to shorten it if necessary.

I just bought another from K9grooming supplies here. If you have a grooming table it can be used there as well but just as the replacement for what they give you on a bathing tether is worth every penny. To be able to wash your dog hands free makes the experience much nicer and it was one of the things I was pleasantly surprised with when someone way back when told me that I should get this combo. It works and even buying the replacement as an add on cost still makes it cheap and worth every penny. It is something you can use even when they are an adult.

Really its not hard bathing and grooming with the right tools. But it is you that has to decide what you want to do.

In Need of a Bath

The Logan gets a bath weekly as he has a coat that mats easily. He is not the norm so don't fret. Panda is also due for her every 2 week bath and Roxie is way overdue so they get the baths tomorrow.

Socks also has a bath and I am going to show Nathan how to do it. I will fill you in on how that goes. He needs to know how to do this stuff if I am not able to. So the teaching begins. That means, in case you are not counting I have 1 of mine and 3 of someone else's. :-)

Then we have the show on Saturday and I really should bathe more when I return but it may wait till Sunday. Poor Kat is long overdue. I will brush everyone though as I like to have them mat free even if they look a mess.

What am I looking for at the show? Sometimes I look at the cat beds and tunnels as that is what the pups like. Mammoth bed also makes great beds and they are always there. I am also looking for treats, fancy ribbons, toys and lets not stop but what will I end up with? Sometimes nothing, sometimes I find a great deal.

Today we had mad running over the pool cover. We had a game of hide and seek. Yes we do play hide and seek and they do look for you. It's a riot. It helps that if they find you they get a tiny treat. Bribery - it will get you everywhere with the dawgs!

Life Changes

No more feeding pups for now. The pups totally get it now and milk is gone.

Moms get more freedom when they are not feeding. That's true of human moms too who breast feed.

But that doesn't stop the moms from playing and enjoying and having fun.

I think when we go to the All About Pet Show this weekend I will be collecting treats as the moms deserve it after such an amazing job. I may eveb look for a cooling bed so they have a nice cozy cool spot outside when we are chillin' outside.

Yes, we are already thinking outside fun. Aren't you?

Long Day

It's been a long day and there isn't much to report on with the adults. We will play recovery tomorrow and I will groom, wash Fiona perhaps as she will need it or just recover.

I want to go to bed now but the pups are calling me.

They were happy to see me and I them. :-) Logan gave me extra kisses. How special was that?

Truffie: Oh My

Here is an older photo of Truffie. I should just click one and put the latest up but I don't feel like it. ha I have groomed him and the gals enough today and they all look a mess.

Some boys mature slow. Some mature fast. Fiona's boys seem to mature slow but it seems someone shot Truffie with hormones and he is so focused on the gals and their smell that it is irritating the hey out of me.

Usually your boy is fixed before this point but not if he will be used for breeding. He is kissing the gals neck, their ears making all sorts of mats (Kat does this before he mates - a romantic soul) but its not funny when its all day and the gals like it and you are the groomer.

But you can't get mad as that will interfere with his breeding in the future. This is counter-productive to maintaining a show coat.

I love him but....

Bed Fun

It doesn't matter how old a dog is but this type of bed always evokes fun.

I didn't create this. Wasabi stacked this bed on top of the other and climbed in.

It was Dennis who caught her in action and told me to get the camera fast. I could have moved slow as she seemed to be mighty comfie in this position.

Delilah Has Pups

Abigail's sister Delilah who lives in Nova Scotia and our Katsura had pups a couple of days ago. Here's a link to her facebook page. If you can't see that, check out her website.

Older Ones Having Fun

If you watch the videos you will notice that Truffie, Roxie, Abigail and a visitor Molly was playing up a storm on the cover.

We experience that every single day - that mad, wonderful fun. It's the same or different players but everyone always manages to participate sooner or later.

It's nice to see the display of the dogs being so full of life.

I want the same energy level - please!!

We are trying to go to the All About Pet Show next week and we usually go with Helen and Suzy who own Hugo and Milo and meet up with anyone else that comes. At Woofstock we actually meet up at a designated point with dogs as that one you can bring them. The All About Pet Show doesn't allow. So its just humans looking at dog stuff together.

So if you are interested... We are thinking Saturday but are trying to coordinate.

Also, I will be posting a - must get list for the pups in a day or two. It's time I amend the one I have. :-)