Bye Bye 09

Welcome, 2010!

I think I'm one of the few people who did not have an awful year. I'm thankful that I have been majorly healthy and that all the dogs and pups have too. I'm grateful for the many new people the dogs have introduced me to... even some of the stinkers! (It's all a learning process.)

I have hope that things will improve greatly for most folks this coming year.

My new year's resolutions are few and simple:
eat less
sleep less
spend less.
Live more!

All the best to everyone!

More Pictures, Cotton/Brogue pups

This is another look at Bode, from the first (May 09) Cotton/Brogue litter. He is a little over 35 pounds at 7 months.


And THIS is Brady, from the same litter. Brady is 28 pounds.


Brady likes the snow too...


Finally, a Hunter Whoodle puppy


This is Alice, one of my grandpuppies from my friend Penny's litter. Isn't she a cutie?

Odds and Ends

So the big day came and went without our area getting hit by the tremendously high winds we might have had. Even so, I have MORE trees down and a number of my very tall, thin pines lost their tops. It's the first time I've seen that... I guess they get to swaying in the wind and just snap off.

Bought the pups a water BOTTLE for Christmas... actually, I bought it for ME. But it just doesn't attach to the pen wall like it should and the pups would have it down... and open... in no time. So it's going back and they'll continue to play in the water bowl. This morning, one of them...6, I think... managed to get his whole body wet in one of the adult bowls when the pups were out playing. I mean he had all 4 feet standing in the bowl (which holds over a gallon and had just been filled up.) He was looking very pleased with himself. I think I managed to get him out of there BEFORE anyone else noticed. At least, none of them got inside the bowl THIS morning... they may have filed the idea away for another day! And yesterday 2 learned "Climbing and Jumping 101." Most of my food bowls are the elevated kind, ranging from 8 to 12 inches off the ground. As soon as the pups were allowed out to explore the bedroom, they all started eating the adult food in the bowls. (And, of course, the adults all make a beeline for the PUPPY food!) The pups stand on their back legs and s t r e t c h to reach inside the elevated bowls. Well, yesterday, the bowls were empty. When 2 couldn't find any kibble, he climbed on top of his brothers and onto the bowl stand. He was obviously taken with being ABOVE everyone else... he stayed up there even after the rest had gone to get into other things. Then he half jumped/half fell off. A few minutes later I watched him figure out how to get back on top without the aid of his litter mates. And he jumped off. The next time, he LEAPED OUT and off. He practiced until he had all that down pat and then went in search of something new to conquer. THIS morning, he got on top of the full bowls, made a flying leap to the ground and didn't get up there again.

Cotton and Brogue's 2009 litter
Got some beautiful pictures of one of the pups, enjoying the New Mexican snow. Bode is a little over 35 pounds at 7 months.

Christmas Photos

Here's wishing everyone a wonderful last week of 2009!

Numbers 1 and 4 (left/right, elephant and duck)


Number 2 (hippo)


Number 3 (cow)


Number 5 (chip 035 - panda)


Numbers 6 and 7 (left/right, chips 536 - tan dog and 621 - bear) "Hang in there,kid, it's almost over!"


Slightly different shots are on the website and my dogbreedinfo ad

Who's a Smart Puppy NOW?

But first, a contest...
WHO is the actor who plays S Clause in the Belk Cristmas commercial?!
No big prize to the person who supplies me with this information. Just a big BIG "thank you!"

And, now, back to the puppies...
Today, for the very first time, the gang was allowed out in the bedroom. I usually have to free them at 6-7 weeks, but these pups have seemed perfectly happy behind bars. They've loved it when I've come in with them but haven't been too upset that they aren't loose with the other dogs. In the last couple days, however, they've been VERY boisterous about wanting out... and 7 pups yelling at you at one time is boisterous! So this afternoon, I ran everyone out of the house into the snow (yes, I still have plenty of snow) and opened the flood gates. MOST of the pups just crowded into the opening... and went no further. For a few minutes. Then they wandered out. All except #4. He had been trapped in the back of the pack and didn't actually see that he could get out until most of the pups in front of him had moved into the wide open spaces. BUT as soon as he was free, #4 made a beeline for... the big dogs' food bowl! And he stayed there, feasting on the unfamiliar, but obviously delicious, stuff until he could eat no more. Here's the thing: the puppy pen takes up one whole end of the room. It is 14 feet wide. The adult food bowl (one of them) is on the end of the pen AWAY from the gate. Sometimes it gets pushed over against the wire and pups have tried to fish some of the kibble out and over to their side without much success. #4 OBVIOUSLY has put a lot of thought into planning his raid on the adult delights as soon as he was free. He didn't look around at all. He walked through the opening, made a left and went straight to the bowl.

Remember, when picking a pup to live with you for the next 15 years, the trick is to be smarter than he is!

The Water Bowl

It happens every litter, usually long before 9 weeks, so I guess I have something to be thankful for with these guys BUT... yesterday Puppy #2 discovered the joy of doggy paddling. I was watching when it happened and was powerless to stop it. The pups were playing, chasing each other and wrestling and #2 accidentally stepped in the almost full water bowl when in hot pursuit of Puppy #4. It was almost comical to see it dawn on 2 that wet feet were something different. He caught #4 and then just froze.
S l o w l y he turned and almost casually walked back to the bowl, then around it. Then he tentatively put a paw in and tapped the water. It barely moved so he tapped a little harder. It splashed. Next thing I... and he... knows, he's digging in the water like he's trying to uncover a skier buried by an avalanche! Water is flying everywhere. He's getting his belly wet. He's in HEAVEN! Now, ONE puppy in the water bowl isn't such a terrible thing. But #2 likes to share AND he has thoughts of becoming a teacher in his next life. So, and I kid you not, he goes over to some of the other pups... who are sitting or lying down in a nice quiet little group, getting ready for a nap... and plunks himself down in a wet mess right in the middle of them. And one of them, #6 or 7, I'm not sure which, starts to lick the water off his feet. The two of them exchange a look and I can see #6/7 thinking "His FEET are wet? "
It was all over but the shouting. 6/7 follows 2 back to the bowl... which now has only an inch or two of water left in it... and 2 starts digging in the water. He stops, stands back and I can hear him say:
"Now, YOU try it, kid." Kid tries it. Several times. Until there really isn't any water left to splash. Or drink. My feeble attempts to distract them fail miserably but I got even. I didn't fill the bowl up again for over an our. (Of course, they were all sleeping during that time....) So far this morning, I've not seen anyone IN the water bowl. Maybe they've forgotten about it or the other pups told them wet dogs are unattractive. Right.

The Day After

These are just out my back door... I'm standing on the kitchen thresh hold and just shooting the pictures... no closeup. Trees are within 4-5 feet of the house, in some cases. Great BIG trees (which I'd have to go outside to get shots of because of their size. And I'm not going out in the snow!) This is why this Spring, I'm going to do some pruning and removal.



This one is off the side of the house and again, I'm shooting from the doorway, no closeup. More bad news just waiting for a heavy wind to wander by. The driveway is between the house and these trees, so there's probably 12-15 feet separation. Most of these are thinner, younger growth, but they're tall enough to fall on the house and cause a lot of damage.

This morning I measured a tad over 6 inches with the ruler on the porch railing. And it's rather wet. The main snowfall is over, apparently, and now we're going to have at least 2 days of snow showers and wintry mix (slush!) Power and phone are still on... HERE... but out all over the place. Locations just a few miles from me got twice the fall I did, while some other spots in out "local area" report over 20 inches. Let's not even talk about Asheville, Boone, etc! Got a phone call early this AM from the City of Kingsport saying most of the area was experiencing or going to have WATER outages and the power was out to a lot of people. (I'm on Kingsport water but Johnson City power.) I filled up every bottle, jug and glass I could with water just in case because these dogs use a LOT and there's no way I can get to the store to buy it if it goes off! There has been no traffic on my road... that I have heard... and like I said, I'm not going out in the snow to look for tracks! On this hill, we can almost always get down. It's getting back UP that's a problem. The 3 families above me all have 4 wheel drive but there HAVE been times when the mouth of my drive has been a parking lot. And I sure wouldn't want to hike up that hill... even in good weather!

Not about Dogs (Much)

It's snowing!


It started at EXACTLY 2:30 this afternoon. I know because I was talking with my granddaughter on the phone... she graduated from Naval basic training this morning and is on her way home for two weeks... when I first called it was pouring down rain. Then a little later she asked if the rain had stopped because she couldn't hear it any more. I could see some huge snowflakes coming down... but didn't go to check. I looked at the clock and realised we'd been yakking for a half hour so we started saying good bye... which took another half hour. It was really coming down and sticking! I took the above pictures... hoping you could see the snow, which is unusual for around here, mountains or not! but especially this time of the year. Then I started doing something with the puppies, but since we're not talking dogs in this post, it doesn't matter what.



These two pictures were taken about 2 hours later, 15 minutes a part. You STILL can't see the snow, but there is about 3 inches already! Sent the dogs out for a potty break and some of them... Shadow, Lotus (my Shar-Pei) and a rescue... had a great time chasing around. Everyone else did their business and wanted back in. Especially Cotton and Emy BUT they have the shortest hair right now since they were just at the groomer. The snow was piling up fast on their backs... Keogh looked like she was parti-colored!


The bad thing about the snow is I had to put off getting Ost, the new Labradoodle puppy. Yesterday, it looked like the storm wasn't going to get here until later tonight. During the 6 PM news, our local weather men, who REALLY know their stuff, said it was going to start with sleet and rain earlier than expected and by 11 o'clock last night they were saying it was going to come down fast and furious in the early afternoon (AFTER the sleet and rain.) So I called and asked Ost's breeder to hang on to him until after Christmas... we're supposed to have this weather for 4 days! and the temps are supposed fluctuate above and below freezing giving us the layered effect of ice and snow. Kind of disappointing. Can't wait to see him! But I'd prefer he was safe in AR rather than stuck at the Atlanta airport! Supposed to have around 9 inches of snow by morning. We'll see! I have plenty of dog food and made a midnight (yep, me, out at midnight!) run to Walmart. I wasn't the only one who'd listened to the 11 PM news... the place was busy and folks were getting groceries, not Christmas presents. Around here, we pay attention to our local weather reports because they are right on the money 99% of the time... okay, 95.

Weights at 8 Weeks

There is a formula for predicting approximate adult weight which works fairly well with large breed dogs... not so well with smaller ones. It is 10% for every 4 weeks. That is, if a puppy is 5 pounds at 4 weeks, it's mature weight will be right around 50 pounds. If it weighs 20 pounds at 8 weeks, full grown it should be 100. Got it? Okay, so here are the weights, by the number... YOU do the math. (We WILL have a test!)
#1 (female) 6.33 pounds
#2 (male) 7.32 pounds
#3 (male) 7.80 "
#4 (male) 5.86 "
#5 (male) 6.60 "
#6 (male) 6.55 "
#7 (male) 5.82 "

As you can see, the two big boys are still the two big boys, but two of the "small guys" have surged ahead of their sister and the black and tan fella is back among the smaller pups. As I've said all along, I can't predict how this is going to go!

Lights Out

Let me tell you how smart and cooperative these puppies are. At night... or early in the morning... whenever I decide it's time to go to sleep, no matter how wound up and active the pups are... and some times they're really tearing around their area... when I turn the tv off and the lights out, that's it. Within a minute, at the most TWO minutes, everybody, even the 7-1/2 weeks old pups, are lying down and QUIET. You can hear a pin drop. I'm used to it, but every once in a while, especially when I have pups, it occurs to me again that dogs are much more accommodating than people are! Now, it doesn't work if I turn off the light and leave the tv on... the puppies just assume I'm not serious and they go on playing (and the older dogs, if they're into something, keep at it too.) Some nights I just lie there for a few minutes and enjoy the silence.

Something new happened... the pups have made each other cry. Usually that starts at 5-6 weeks, someone gets too rough or too determined. But these guys have been remarkable about wrestling nicely with each other, not chewing too hard, the bigger ones haven't pulled the smaller ones around by the tail, etc. In the last couple days, however, there have been a couple of unhappy squeals. Haven't hear any today, so they may have phased on already!

And their still Mama's pups! More so THIS week than last. Di's been spending 4-5 hours away from them... usually in the same room, but not in the pen... for about the last two weeks. Starting Friday and all this weekend, the whole gang has been getting antsy... and then whiny... after about 3 hours. I let Di back in the pen and they rush her like they're starving... and I know by the amount of kibble they are consuming, that's a lie. She nurses them for 3-4 minutes, then goes and lies down on her belly (so they can't get to her nipples) and they go back to playing with each other. Diamond is playing much more with them and she's a lot rougher than she used to be. She also seems to single one out for a romp and ignores everyone else for a long time... sort of like "ME time with Mom." It still amazes me that I used to force wean my pups at 3-4 weeks... actually remove moms to another part of the house and not let them back around their babies until they were ready to leave at 8 weeks. Puppies are no more ready to leave their moms (and littermates) at 8 weeks than children are at 10 years.

And yes, I'm getting Ost when he is 8 weeks old. BUT he'll have Di and that gang to become a part of. I'm really interested in seeing how long it takes him to make a place for himself. Another social experiment on the mountain

7 Weeks Pictures

Just posted the new ones on the website. Here are a couple to whet your appetite:




You'll notice the stuffed animals are back... it makes it so much easier for ME! And I've added a few comments about pups where I've noticed something new or different.

Size-wise they're like this...
female, #2, #3 and #5 (all pretty equal now)
#4 (black male) (right in the middle of the pack)
#s 6 and 7 (still the smallest and the darkest)

Next time I post pix on the website, I am going to remove all the previous pictures. So, if you are keeping an eye on a particular pup or two, you might want to download their pictures each time BEFORE the new ones go up.

Something New

If you've been on the website today, you probably noticed that I am making a change. Of course, if you have the Whoodle PAGE as a favorite link and never go to my home page, you didn't see it. And I'm tempted to be mean... it's been one of those days!... and not explain here. BUT in the interest of keeping things as simple as possible, I'll just tell you.

I've decided to do Double Doodles.
Now, I can hear you saying, what the heck is THAT? DOUBLE Doodles are the result of crossing a Labradoodle and a Goldendoodle. They are also called Ultimate Doodles and a friend's children have labelled theirs "SUPER" Doodles. (If an Australian Labradoodle is used in the mix, the cross is called the North American Retriever, which seems rather ironic. For the uninformed, there is a HUGE difference between the AMERICAN Labradoodle, which is the cross of a Lab and a Poodle, and the AUSTRALIAN Labradoodle which is the cross of 5-6 different breeds. This is well documented, so don't kill the messenger!)

Anyway, I have found and purchased a darling little F1B AMERICAN Labradoodle boy and Ost (rhymes with "host," "most," and "boast!") will be arriving here on the 18th when he is 8 weeks old... actually, he's 2 days younger than Di and Brogue's puppies, so he'll have playmates his own age for about a month while he settles in. I expect he'll be in the mood for making babies before the end of the year... will do some preliminary testing (VWD and hips) and then let him talk to Keogh. I'm also looking for another Goldendoodle female, puppy or young adult, mini to medium size, in any color but black or parti since Keogh isn't a youngster herself.

So, right now, that's what's got everything HERE in an uproar!

Just ONE Pup Unspoken for

And then there was one. These little guys (and gal) get sweeter and more beautiful... as in fluffy!... every day. They've also figured out that there is a world outside their pen. They've always known about the other dogs but it has just now dawned on them that there is a barrier between them and them. And they're starting to sound off about it! Again, they are ahead of schedule. USUALLY pups aren't particularly interested in what's beyond their boundary until I start letting them out to roam around. There's at least another week before I let these guys out but they're already eyeing things to get into!

Now, the problem with having just one puppy available... and this is always the case... I've been corresponding with 5-6 different people about the litter. And when we've talked/emailed, there have been several pups unpromised. It's a really big deal, this buying a puppy, and folks need to make sure EVERYONE in the family is in agreement (or controllable!) BEFORE making the commitment. I don't like to rush that. BUT if people let the decision making drag on for more than a few days, the pups are all spoken for. Then I get the weeping and wailing... "but YOU said there were puppies! I promised the KIDS!" I'm not Bettye Crocker... I can't just whip up another batch because I've run short. And I don't like hounding folks because even though EVERYONE sounds sincerely interested, a good two-thirds are not. It's sort of a rock/hard place situation.