Wyntr is coming!

Literally!


The air is crisper  and shivery and leaves crunch loudly. The air smells like fire places and warm jackets warm ourselves and those around us.

The title of my blog is the mantra of one of my favorite science fiction series by George R. R. Martin; the "Song of Fire and Ice," series.

"Wyntr" is also the name of the kennel from which my next puppy will be coming, and I can only be extremely excited by the pairing. Celeste finally went into heat, and was bred October 29 and November 1 to Tiggy! Puppies should be on the ground by New Years!

So, Wyntr really is coming!

Harper is finally snapping out of her I'm-in-heat-and-I-have-no-brain phase.

Dear Harper's brain,

Mommy has missed you. It's fun to play with Harper again.

Love furever,

Mommy

October 2010 and Harper is in season

October has got to be my favorite month, and I've done my best to take Harper on as many walks as possible. The leaves are gorgeous, the air seems more clear, and the sky is this incredible shade of blue.

Another event which has me feeling hopeful is that Harper is in heat. While I'm not planning on breeding her until Nancy and I find the right stud dog, it's good to see normal signs of fertility- no matter the mess! :-) Its not that I expected her to be infertile or anything, but one just never knows. I feel like maybe she had a light heat at 6 months, but the current heat (at 11 months) is the real deal. 

The Normal Canine Estrous Cycle

Right now, Harper is in the "proestrus" cycle, which means that for the next 10 days (or less) she will be excreting bloody discharge from her vagina and male dogs will continue to be very interested in her. However, she is and will be unwilling to mate.

I can tell that she doesn't feel well, and she's very very needy. But, I can't let her up on the couch to cuddle or else I'll be dealing with a mess! Poor little thing. I gave her a coated aspirin to make her feel a bit better. Right now she's trying to burrow under Abby's bed while Abby is still IN the bed...

So for the second time I've had to back out of Advanced Beginner obedience ;-) The first time, I didn't like the trainer. It is probably for the best, though, because Harper doesn't have much of a brain right now and the latter class had literally about 20 people. Once I feel like I'm in a class where Harper and I can learn something, I'll blog more about what happens in class.

Celeste still hasn't come in heat, and I'm going to go ahead and assume that it will be a while before that happens. Its probably for the best. Otherwise, I'd probably have a puppy while Harper was going through her first heat and that would not be fun for anyone involved.

Pictures at the park

Monroe, Michigan- October 2-3, 2010

Ah, "my" two little bookends! How I adore them both. The black one is "Chewpee," and his full name is Rubad-Kaos Get Shorty. He got a four point major at the show! Harper is looking up at the camera like, "Mom, I'm freakin' tired. Get that camera out of my face."

This weekend has been good and traumatic for me. The good part is that Harper took second to another bitch on Saturday, and beat one other bitch. I'm going to keep showing her until we get a couple of points or maybe even get a major. I think right now it might be too tough to finish her.

Nancy told me that Pippin, Uno's full sister, came down with Addison's the last weekend in September. Harper and Pippin are half sisters through Brynnie. Nancy's puppy Mimi, from her Millie x Burnie litter, also came down with Addisons. However, Mimi's owner put her to sleep rather then have to deal with an Addison's dog.

What this means for me and Harper is that she has at least a 50% chance of being a carrier and at least a 25% chance of having Addison's disease herself.

Addison's disease is what is referred to as an "auto immune" disease, where the body attacks itself. Diseases such as demodectic mange and allergies are also immune diseases. Addison's disease is also termed as "hypoadrenocortism," or disease of the adrenal glands. The body is unable to produce corticol, which affects how the body handles stress.

Although Addison's disease is not thought to be genetic, auto immune weaknesses are common in certain lines and should be watched carefully. At this time, we are still planning on breeding Harper, but are going to make our choice as carefully as possible. I have asked both Meta and Yvonne in Europe if any of Harper's other relatives have had any immune diseases, or even just allergies or mange.

Here is the website where I found the information:

http://www.canineaddisonsinfo.com/index.html
http://www.canineaddisonsinfo.com/index.html
http://www.vetstreamcanis.com/ACI/january/VMD1/FactSheet054.asp

Harper officially has Teenager ADHD

And boundless energy, to the point where I'm not exactly sure what COULD tire her out, except for maybe a herd of sheep.

We've started a new Advanced Beginner obedience class, and honestly it has way too many people in it. There is another corgi (Pembroke), several retrievers, a spaniel or two, an affenpinscer, a rottweiler, and an extremely dog aggressive doberman pincer that scares me. We learned the usual stuff- heal, sit, stay, lay down and we worked on holding the stay. We also worked on U-turns and finishes and come-fores.

Harper was sooooo distracted by all the scents and the smells and it probably didn't help that her "sister" Abby is also in our class.

She picks up on the concepts pretty quickly when she allows herself to learn.

Maybe next class will be better!

Harper is maturing

I don't know if I mentioned in my last post, but I pulled Harper from the last Advanced Beginner obedience class we were in, and we're starting a new Advanced Beginner's class this coming Tuesday. It's with a new trainer, and I'm anticipating that we'll have a better chance at actually learning something. I really didn't like the other trainer's method and I felt like he was sucking the fun out of the training process, so I chose to stop going. He forbade us using positive reinforcement and I don't want Harper thinking that training is a thankless chore.

Harper and I didn't get to go to the herding clinic because it was cancelled. Ah well! Perhaps next time. Sometime this week Nancy will hopefully cut Harper's toe nails and we'll try to fluff up her white parts. We leave out for Michigan on Friday night.

Harper did something super cool this Saturday while we were "park hopping" and I am really excited about it: she's teaching herself scent discrimination.

I''ve always known Harper was bright, but this takes the cake for me.

We were in the park and playing fetch with a stick I found that was just perfect! Not to heavy, not too small, not too big, not too short and not too long! ;-)

One of the times I accidentally threw the stick near an area where there were many sticks.

I expected her to just grab any old stick and bring it back, not thinking that she would actually use her nose to find the exact stick we were using. But, she did!

The reason I know that is that the stick we used I had found originally in another park, and its of a different kind of wood then trees at that park. It's a less dense kind of wood and the bark is peeling off of it.

Thinking that maybe that was just a fluke, I did the same thing again, but threw the stick in a different area that was equally populated with sticks, and low and behold she did it again!

I would really like to start encouraging this behavior in her. It will be tough to do that inside the house, because my scent is everywhere. I wonder if I can somehow get her to recognize a scent and then try to find it.

Perhaps I can get a stinky piece of cheese and let her smell it, then hide it somewhere in the house with out her watching me. That way I can make the behavior self-enforcing. 

Right now things are pretty laid back in my neck of the woods, all in all. It's a lazy, Sunday evening and everyone is sleeping. Harper and I went on a short walk, but it started raining so we had to cut it short and run home. 

My personal life has been very interesting, with a trip to D.C for Rosh Hashanah and a decision to start taking classes on Judaism. 

I wish that the BF would get rid of his rescue dog, mainly because I don't feel like we are a good fit for her and he's gone quite a bit and doesn't spend the amount of time with her necessary to make her a more normal dog. The good thing about Abby is that owning her has given me a good idea about what bad temperament is and has cemented in me its importance in a breeding program. Abby can't help what she is and what she's been through and I wish that I was a more patient person who could appreciate what is good about her more then what I do. 

I decided to remove Harper from obedience work for a while. She's going through this stage where I just don't think it's a good idea to push her. She doesn't have the focus to work like she did last month and I don't want training to be something horrible for her. If she doesn't want to work, then we won't work. We have a fairly strong foundation as suggestion in "Schutzhund Obedience." It could be that Harper is getting ready to start her first heat, which would be really cool. 

We're going to be showing on October 3, 2010 in Monroe, Michigan and then again on November 11, 2010 in Fort Wayne, IN. I'm really hoping to get a point on Harper before she turns a year, but I don't think that will happen. However, you never know unless you try and she has "bodied up" quite a bit in the past couple of months. She is a lovely girl, and hopefully we can get her finished. 

Kathy is still waiting for Celeste to come in heat, but hopefully it will be sooner then later. Tigger's litter with Abby (the cardigan) turned out with round rib cages and longer legs then is typically desired. I have a feeling that he will produce better with Celeste (at least, I hope so!!). Kathy knows that if I don't see anything that appeals to me in this litter that I won't be taking home a puppy.