And then there was one..

Everyone keeps asking me if the house is quiet.. well, I suppose it is quietER but not sure a house with 4-6 dogs will ever be quiet! Love my Zen girl, she really is a nice pup. Would say she is probably medium drive at this point, she is a bit so-so with her food, but LOVES her toys. She will tug anywhere which is great and her retrieve is coming along as long as I manage the environment.. (ie. have it so she has nowhere to go but past me!) She is sleeping a lot which I had forgotten about.. as it has been 5 years since we have had a pup in the house. She has great plays with Tex, he thinks she is marvellous as she is still (just) smaller than him. Give it another few days..
It is lovely to hear Caroline, Julia and Denise are really enjoying their pups as well, and everyone seems happy with their confident, go-getter attitudes to life.
I bullied Mike into taking Zen's 8 week pics, in the park outside our house.

Decisions Made!

I took all the pups to Winpara Kennels today, Robyn Evans place, where she very kindly went over them all and stacked them for their 'structure shots'. Wow what a difference with a professional who knows what she is doing.. the boys stacked beautifully, first go. Fleet was not as good but not too bad and Mist was terrible. Haha, takes after her Mother. Her stacked shot isn't perfect as she really wasn't co-operating. Robyn confirmed my overall opinions about each pup and the litter as a whole. There have been BIG improvements in the pelvis's of all, compared to their Mother and I am really pleased about that. Mostly the toplines are much improved as well. Their fronts could be better, all could do with more shoulder layback, which would also improve their necks. Bone is mostly good. Overall, I am very pleased with them!

I have very much enjoyed the experience of raising the pups in combination with Rosi, and she has been such a good Mother it has made it pretty easy. They have done a lot and seen a lot, and I hope they turn out to be happy and healthy family pets and agility dogs.

So without further ado:

Wicked Tess  (Caroline Peek) 

Tess will be doing agility and herding

Wicked Groove (Julia Lewis-Lloyd)

Groove will be doing agility

Wicked Back In Black (Kriszty Kelly)

'Mist' will stay here.. pet name still to be decided! She will do agility 

Wicked Nothing Ventured (Denise Crook)  

Venture will be doing agility

Quick vid of their first swim, courtesy of Pamela! 

Merry Christmas!

We had to do the obligatory Christmas photos. With 4 goregous puppies, how could you not??

So, Merry Christmas All! 

Love 

Rosi x Jetta Perfect Double 

Uber

Mist

Styx

Fleet

More vids

I took the pups with me to Mums' today.. thought I would see how they went with a change of 'H' (habitat). They did great! Very focussed, no problems with working for food and toys, interchanging both out easily. This was the 2nd time I had shaped them to stand on a wobble cushion (first yesterday). The boys were hungrier than the girls as they missed out on a feed from Rosi, and you can tell as they were a little less happy to switch back to a toy.. but the reluctance was only brief. They are such fun to play with! They have already worked out that training is a lot of fun, you might hear the hysterics of the pups in the background on the vid, that wanted another turn!

6 weeks!

Wow time is going SO fast.. love these babies, they really are special and SO cute.. (of course I am not biased at all).
They have been busy, as usual. They come with us on some walks to the park, just a little way in to climb up/down the hill and explore different terrain. They went to an agility friends' property last night and saw some agility for the 1st time (not that they noticed much as they were wrapped up playing with a toy).

Mist meeting the lovely Angel

This week, as well as tugging, I introduced a little tiny bit of retrieving. They did very well yesterday, of course not as well today when the tape was on! This is also the week I will start rewarding for body handling, and doing some anti resource guarding exercises. The pups I think most likely to be going on the plane have been doing desensitisation work in the crate (chewing chicken necks). As they are very much on their feet and running around everywhere I have covered all my tiled area in rubber matting to avoid slipping. My garden has been cordoned off so they can't tackle any stairs, as they are not good for them under 12 weeks.
It is a very busy time of year with family and Christmas, so I might not be updating as much as I have been, but I promise the pups are still getting everything. I don't know how I am going to bear saying goodbye!
A show breeder friend has agreed to stack them for me in a weeks time, so I will post those pics here. Might have to wet them down as they have all of a sudden grown coat.. it does not look like they will be short coats after all.

Week 5/6 photoshoot- Outside Fun

Introduced the pups to the paddling pool yesterday.. probably left it too late in the afternoon though, so they were not that into it (was not a warm day either). They had another busy day, went to visit the minis and Dash again in the morning, and out to dinner with us last night to a friends' house. Their 'man-handling' target has been very much increased, so I think we are OK there. Will find some more children in the next few days. They are starting to show a bit more interest in food.. but Rosi is still feeding them every few hours, including through the night (we found this out to our detriment when we tried to lock them away so they couldn't get out of the pen.. but then Red couldn't get in so we had a very wakeful night with indignant, hungry babies!)
Can't believe there is only 1 photo shoot to go.. less than 3 weeks left!