February 22nd, 2010
Orchid is entered in her first dog show on March 5th. It’s the Greater Milwaukee Poodle Club’s winter Specialty. She is also entered in the Wisconsin Kennel Club show’s on Saturday and Sunday. This is a fairly large show for Poodles in Milwaukee and Wisconsin. There’s a four point major each day.
Orchid has a great coat which she undoubtedly gets from her sire, CH Nightwind Paint It Black CD. I’ve really had to practice with her moving as she takes after her mother in that she loves to jump. Its hard for a judge to see her beautiful movement is she’s jumping and bounding all over the place. She’s seems to be getting the hang of it.We’ll see how she does in a show atmosphere.
Tags: Milwaukee, Poodle, Wisconsin
Posted in Dog Show, Orchid | No Comments »
July 8th, 2009
All the puppies are now in their new homes. Lots of people ask if we were sad to see them go. I (and Patty agrees) don’t feel sad at all, but rather proud and happy. We plan to breed litters to provide others with happy and well adjusted Poodles. Its fun for us to share our love for Poodles with others. So, when the puppies leave, we feel a sense of accomplishment.
I’m reading “Shaping Success” by Susan Garrett now. While Orchid may have edged out the other Puppies in the beauty category, she wouldn’t have been my first choice for performance events. I’ll have to work extra hard on getting her over the stubborn streak she has.
Tags: Milwaukee, Poodle, Puppies, Standard, Wisconsin
Posted in Puppies | No Comments »
July 4th, 2009
All the puppies came with us to the Fourth of July picnic in my parents backyard today. We just brought the x-pen and set it up in the backyard off to a side. All the kids there (young and old) loved playing with them. The puppies enjoyed all the excitement and action.
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
July 2nd, 2009
The puppies are eight weeks old – that means they are ready for their new homes. But, first I need to decide which one to keep for the next generation. Its way too hard of a decision so I invited a few experienced Poodle people over to help evaluate the litter. As expected, as with any group of dog lovers, it seemed like everyone had a different opinion. Since I’m just as concerned with the dogs performance abilities in addtion to its conformation, the decision is a bit more complex compared to a comformation only breeder. But, as Patty pointed out, all the pups were pretty close on the Volhard P.A.T, so we should choose the best conformation dog. There are four stand outs out of the six – Fushia, Apple, and Orchid girls and Orange boy. After much discussion, and nit picking, Orchid was the ‘winner’.
After we had a nice dinner, Andrea N, one of the puppy buyers, stuck around to make her choice. I think Andrea knew all along which puppy she wanted but wouldn’t tell me. She was crossing her fingers that I wouldn’t select her favorite. Andrea got her wish and took home Fushia – the charged up bundle of energy.
One less puppy in the pen.
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
June 25th, 2009
The litter is really busy now. Whenever they’re awake is go-go-go! Yesterday morning we did the Volhard Puppy Aptitude testing on the litter. There were three people observing and scoring the pups. As we expected all the pups were in the 3-4 range. I liked all of them but was especially taken with Fushia girl and Apple girl. Fushia had the most energy and Apple seemed most interested in pleasing. On the Volhard test, scores in the 3-4 range are considered ideal for trainability.
Tags: Puppies
Posted in Puppies, Uncategorized | No Comments »
June 20th, 2009
The puppies are getting cars rides in anticipation of their trips home – their forever homes. One of the boys will be going on a plane ride to Florida. Not sure which one yet – either Yellow or Orange. So they both get to practice riding in the puppy carrier on the floor of the van. All the puppies made a 50 minute one way trip to my parents for a visit. Yellow rode in the carrier on the way there, Orange had the experience on the way back home. Both of them were pretty quiet and relaxed.
Tags: Puppies
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
June 10th, 2009
Taking a nap in the crate
Although we’ve had the crate in the Puppy parlor for them to investigate for a couple of days already, today is the first time they’ve been encouraged to go into the crate by using tiny bits of cheese as a lure. They liked the cheese so much that there were three pups squeezed into the crate at one time. (after all these are Wisconsin dogs – yum cheeeese) In a couple of days I’ll put the door on it and close them in for a few seconds to start. I fully expect the pups to be just like our other dogs and run willingly and happily into their crates when we ask them to.
Posted in Puppies | No Comments »
June 9th, 2009
First Day at the Beach
Lots of new things for the puppies to see and do now that they’re getting older – almost five weeks. In the last couple of days they ate lunch in a different room, got to go into a small crate, walked on the brick walkway, had their first bath, and climbed on a low cardboard box.
Today they went to the beach! (really the kids sand pile)
Posted in Puppies | No Comments »
June 5th, 2009
This grass stuff is fun!
What an exciting day! Lots of new smells and surfaces to experience. And poop on! Within about one minute of being on the grass four of the six pups did their “business”. This was a previously unadulterated section of the lawn. So, how’d they know grass is good to poop on. After that, all the pups pretty much stayed together, never getting more than 10 -20 feet from one or another. The temperature was in the mid 70’s F which made the experience all the more enjoyable.
Posted in Puppies | No Comments »
May 31st, 2009
Comfort food
Feasting on gruel
The puppies started the weaning process by getting a watery gruel of mashed puppy chow. After the second time seeing the feeding bowl, all the puppies are taking after their mother – never missing a meal or morsel of food.
Posted in Klara, Puppies | No Comments »