Irish update

I concur on the drop command. I never even had to teach it to Irish, he just came knowing it. He will take any toy and if I tell him bed, over he goes. Amazing. Guess its those extra weeks that they spent with Patty and the gang that helped. Irish sleeps through the night and is fairly reliable with toiletting. He was recoiling at the thought of wearing the gentle leader but then I switched him to a medium and voila, he is responding. The first one was just too small for him. He does not like the crate but only complains marginally before he is sound asleep. I think he is just giving me a chance to change my mind. He loves being in the office and he is getting very spoiled with all the attention. I am amazed that I can put him under my desk in a downstay (no he doesn't know he is doing a downstay) and I can actually leave the office door open and he just stays there. Okay, enough gloating. I do have a growling issue so I'm curious if any of the other pups are doing this. He will growl when he plays with a toy. Not all the time and generally when he is playing by himself. Anyone else finding this one? All in all, these puppies are great. Remind me of this sentence when Irish is a teenager and I'm going crazy with his behavior.

Izzy's a Liar

Even after this wrestling match, Skippy will still go in the tunnel with Izzy. He really does want to be a Golden puppy. He's never swatted or growled at her and she just climbs all over him.

Seriously, Izzy has been to one class so far, and she is working on walking in a straight line on a leash, being quiet in the crate, eating all of her food, sit, wait, and hurry. She's really good at "hurry."

Frederick and Adrienne give us way too much credit!

Learning the House Rules

Izzy thinks that Skippy is a Golden Retreiver, too. She really wants him to play with her and would rather play than eat. Skippy is a willing participant ~ most of the time.

In this photo, Izzy is trying to convince Skippy that she absolutely will not maul him in the tunnel.

Pecking Order (second in a series)

If you're going to live in this house, you have to figure out who is in charge. At the top of the peak is Sheena (not pictured), an eleven year old Ragdoll who doesn't put up with anything from anybody. She is followed by Piniella, then Halor, then Skippy (here, in the tunnel) then Izzy. Skippy is an amazing rescue cat who thinks he is a Golden Retriever. He runs with the pack, sleeps with the pack and always wants to be with the pack. He tried out the tunnel, too.

Izzy updates the blog (first in a series)

While Ingrid is working on all of those hard commands, we decided to have some indoor fun. Saturday night, Patty got out the 9 foot tunnel and I was not afraid at all to walk through it. I just followed my mom and it was very easy.

Email from Orlando

I received this from Ingrid's puppy raisers (we love hearing from our pups and their raisers!):

Patty and Gang

Just have to tell you again how grateful we are for all the guidance and affection that Ingrid received under your care. She is the most gentle and loving and smart little girl (ouch! but she does bite :-) We are working on that. Psychologists say that we are a product of nature and nurture. Your gang certainly did provide the necessary ingredients to fully nurture Ingrid. She sits on command; retrieves and drops toys almost on target; knows "kennel", "let's go" and "hurry", takes her toys to something that looks like a bed, curls up at our feet while we work in the kitchen (even if the food is not for her); subsequent to a barking good time on nights two and three, she is a silent sleeper; during class #2 she was the only quiet puppy during crate time - she is just plain wonderful! It took us 3 months to train our first puppy how to retrieve and drop. Fred had to make believe he was a puppy to demonstrate retrieve and drop! How did you accomplish so much with Ingrid in such a short time? People can't get over her beautiful coloration and her little "mohawk" hairdo on her nose. Blessings upon you all as you continue raising exceptional puppies for exceptional people.

Fred and Adrienne
p.s. Ingrid says "hi" to Izzy

Open Blog for Halor's friends and relatives

I've sent the user name and password to a few of the I-puppie's people and opened up the blog for them to add photos and little blurbs about their pups - obviously, D-pups are welcome to join in the fun. If you want to play along, email me and I'll send you the info. It's really easy!

Irish finally made it to San Diego

Well after a few false starts, Irish has finally arrived in San Diego. He was accompanied by three other puppies from Northwest (two "R" puppies and Napal). There was a lot of barking but none coming from sweet Irish. He just looked at me as if to say "Get me out of here". He went home and had a great time exploring. He then went to the office and was greeted everywhere he went. He was a bit timid at the airport but once he got settled at the office and discovered there was food involved in this adventure, he relaxed.

Dara ~ flower girl

If you i-pup raisers are wondering what your i-pup might grow up to look like - here's a clue. This is Dara, who is being raised up near Seattle by Tanya and Jason. Dara was a year old on December 20 and is a full sibling to the i-pups. Boy, does she look like her mother!

Chapter 2

Chevel has gone to live with our friends Bob and Nancy. Bob is a Motor Sargeant in the Rocklin Police Dept. and Nancy works with me. They were thrilled to have the opportunity to adopt Chevel - and as it turned out, Bob and Chevel have the same birthday! Happy CCI ending!

This is Chevel - she came home the day before her 2nd birthday. She's 3/4 Golden and 1/4 Lab - a very lovely girl who is very fun to have around.

But, wait - there's more! Chevel (pup #6) was released from AT the same day that Izzy came home. Seems that Chevel didn't want to share her toys with the other CCI AT pups, so they bounced her from training after 4 months in the kennel. Her training reports had indicated this new game for 3 months, so we know that her trainer worked very hard to change her behavior. We were happy to see her and she demonstrated her new bad habit with Izzy (but didn't even try it on the older girls at home!). This photo is of Piniella checking out Izzy while Izzy checks out Chevel - Dennis in the middle on the dog bed...

Izzy immediately made herself right at home - Piniella (great-grandma) usually has to teach the pups that she is boss - but she was pretty calm with Izzy's arrival and has been helping with babysitting.

We'll be puppy raising Izzy, so after one night off from puppies, Izzy came home again. Here she is with her mom on her first night back. The green ear is a remnant of the tattoo she received at CCI that day. They put a big old glob of green stuff on the puppy's ear, then press the green stuff into the skin with a little tool with tiny pins that make up a number. It happens really fast - but the green stuff takes a while to go away.

10 weeks and they're gone!

Ivan (in the pink collar) and Irish (in neon green, of course!). After enough time for the pups to run around and have a bathroom break, we said goodbye and loaded them back into the bin for a ride into the kennels. It was a VERY quiet ride home - and a nice relaxing evening ~ after we scoured the dog run, x-pens, crates, puppy litter boxes, toys, and garage area....

Once in the Puppy Park, they are excited to be free and run around. Many of the toys are the same as what we have, so they're very comfortable in their new play area.

It's definitely hard to get a good shot from the side of the pups - but they're all jumping around and trying to see out the top as we roll across campus from the parking spot to the Puppy Park.

Once we got to CCI, there was special reserved puppy drop-off parking space for us, right in front. Jim Flint came out with one big bin and took a look at the pups - "Whoa, maybe I should have brought two bins!" We squeezed them all into the one bin and away we went.

OK, we got all of the babies into our Highlander. There is a big crate with three pups, two medium crates with two pups each and a single crate with one pup. It was a tight fit, but everyone seemed to have enough space.

Dennis and Patty saying goodbye to the brood - definitely a happy moment - but we weren't looking forward to two hours in the car with eight puppies. This trip can be one of the noisiest rides ever with at least one pup whining/crying all the way to Santa Rosa. As it turned out, they were really good and we had a nice drive.

New Year's Day - pups leave tomorrow...

This is the Grand Dame (and great-grandmother to these pups), our first breeder, Piniella. She will be 8 years old in April. Piniella whelped 5 litters and sent a total of 46 pups out to puppy raisers. So far, she has two breeders (Kittredge and Auburn) and 15 graduates with 1 pup (Astro) still in Hearing AT. Piniella was purchased from a breeder in Washington and was named for Lou Piniella who was the Seattle Mariners' manager at that time. Piniella was featured in the CCI Mariners' calendar at 8 weeks and a year later - both times with Lou Piniella. Piniella loves long walks on the beach, lots of attention, and playing ball.


It looks like I woke up the gang during nap time - and all I wanted was a photo of them sleeping! Dennis and I have vowed to oil our door hinges before the next litter since there is no sneaking around with this troop.

Lunch time at the Daniel house. It's interesting to watch the gang eat - some of them get right to it, some stop to play in between bites, some lie down for their meals, and some have to sit down to think about it.

Halor is without a doubt the smartest dog I've ever been around. She literally talks to you with her facial expressions and amazing eye contact. She was raised by Helen Wirfel in Concord, CA and can do anything you ask of her. She is Piniella's granddaughter by Kittredge, a CCI breeder from our first litter. Hal is a very tall and lanky gal who is always on the thin side. She has a beautiful silky golden coat and huge brown eyes. Halor's mom is Martine and her name was a combination of Martine's b/c's dad's name (Hal O. Roth) ~ we call her Hallie, Hallie Berry, Halzor, or Hal. Hal loves to go places, but really, she just wants to play - she'll play anything, anywhere, with anyone. She can do weave poles, jump through hoops, and LOVES to play ball. One of her favorite games is bringing me everything the cat knocks off of flat surfaces. They are a tag team on a mission.

Today, Ira learned just how much fun he could have with the tennis ball - and he didn't let anyone else play with it. He just picked it up and took off with it.

Ingrid and Halor playing with a toy.

Ingrid with Hal (teaching who's the boss).

Ingrid and Hallie just hanging out.

Tomorrow morning, we pack up the gang and head for Santa Rosa. Today, I tried to figure out how I would fit our 160 pounds of puppies into my Highlander. This is the first time I found myself wishing for my bigger SUV back! So, the solution is 3 in one crate, 2 in each of 2 crates and one in a single crate. I'll let you know how it goes...