Can't get any cuter than this.

Uno and Tres were napping on their backs this morning. I couldn't resist taking a photo of the two of them.



And since it was such a beautiful day out today. The puppies got to spend a few minutes in the grass. This is the first time they've been outside our house.

This is Uno being cute for the camera



Here's Dos exploring his new world



And this is Tres.



And here's Tank.


And isn't this the cutest face you've ever seen? (It's another photo of Tank)

Two Weeks old!!!

All the puppies have their eyes open now.
They have all had their first nail trims.
They have all doubled their birth weight.

11 days

Wow are the puppies growing. They are getting bigger each day and alot cuter. Their eyes should open next week. They are already starting to develop little personalities. Here are a few photos that I took today.

Uno (the girl)

Dos

Tres

Tank

One week old today!!!!

It's hard to believe how fast these puppies grow. Let's let the photos show the difference in a week. Since the puppies don't have names yet, we've nicknamed them Uno, Dos, Tres and Tank. Uno is the girl.

Uno (girl)
Uno has adorable heart-shaped striping on her forehead. Ed was the one who noticed it and has been kicking around calling her Heart-y. We're sticking with Uno for now until something better comes along. Uno weighs 1 lb 5 oz


And now for the boys...


Dos (boy with white paws, biggest blaze on his chest, and white tip on his tail)He weighs 1 lb 2 oz


Tres (boy with white paws, smallest blaze on his chest, and white tip on his tail)He is 1 lb 5 oz


Tank (no white on his paws, very small blaze on chest. He's the biggest puppy of them all) Tank weighs 1 lb 7 oz

They're here!

First is our little girl. Weighing a petite 8.9 ounces. Cute little white toes.



Next is Dos. He weighed 9.0 ounces. He has the biggest white blaze on his chest. He also has a white tip on his tail.


Tres is the third puppy. He weighed 9.7 ounces. He has a white tip on his tail.


Last but not least is Tank. He weighed 9.8 ounces

And the vet saw...

4 puppies!

Tama had her x-rays this morning and there are 4 puppies. It's less than a week until we meet each one of them.

Is she? Isn't she?

She is...

In the words of an 8 year old boy, "Mom, she looks like she's going to explode."

See the pretty white sparkles all over her? You'll have to look close. That is sleet. It is almost May and we're still having dreary, cold, crappy winter weather. I can hardly wait for summer. I miss my 300 days of Phoenix sunshine.

Timber at 1 year

It doesn't seem like it could be a year already. Where did my puppy go?

Now starts the fun! Since Timber is a year we can start focusing on agility. He has the drive that I was hoping for. We're taking baby steps into agility hoping to not repeat some of the problems that I had with my other dogs when I was competing. Actually it wasn't the dogs as much as it was the way I trained them to do certain things. I'm not making those same mistakes with Timber. For instance - Contacts. Farley, my last aussie and Dakota, my border collie, would only stick their contacts if they felt like doing them. Or if I was right by them telling them to do it. Not this time, Timber is going to know his job before we start going over the full contacts even if it means spending the next year doing nose touches to a target plate at the bottom.

This past year Timber has focused on obedience, and I've been teaching him some tricks. The tricks that he can do are:
• Bang - play dead
• Roll Over
• Shake paw, other paw, high five and wave
• Speak
• Weave through my legs
• Pick up and put away his toys in a toybox
• Open a mailbox (we're working on him bringing me the letter)
• Beg
• Walk backwards

So, happy birthday Timber.

Do shibas shed?

I can't tell you how many times I'm asked that question. I always have to giggle a little to myself when someone asks. They really have no idea. In the cool Pacific Northwest climate, these dogs have good coats. This is the 3rd time this week that I have brushed Don Juan, and each time I've had a pile of hair equal to what you see here. There is at least one more pile worth of fur ready to brush out tomorrow.

Bath time is coming soon and then he'll be done until the fall while all this hair regrows. Fortunately, this amount of shedding only happens a couple times a year. But all year long if I'm dressed up and wearing black pants, you'll find me sporting a nice coat of shiba hair from the knees on down.

Tama meets her new boyfriend

Tama is on vacation this week. And because of it, hopefully in about two months we'll have little shiba puppies again. After her last litter turning out so nice, with the help of Tama's breeder, we picked a nice moderately-sized male to breed her to.

Champion Piggy

It has a good ring to it - doesn't it.

Piggy Finished!!!

Pending AKC verification, Piggy finished her CH today with her final major!!!!! Two years and a day after she was born.

I was on the phone getting the blow by blow from friends at the show, and I think I broke their eardrums with my scream. It should be a 5 point major. It was 4 years ago at the same show that her mother, Tama, finished her show career by winning a 5 point major. Like mother, Like daughter.

Official photo to follow as soon as I get one!

Merry Christmas!

Here's a couple of photos of my two boys on Christmas morning. OK, I couldn't resist when I saw that Hanna Anderson had dog pajamas that matched Jared's new Christmas jammies.

Happy Howl-o-days

Here's wishing you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

First snow of the season

It snowed! I took Timber out to play in it and very quickly he got the hang of chasing snowballs and running wild and crazy through the cold wet stuff. He tried to dig in it like he used to do in the sand at the beach this summer, but it wasn't quite deep enough. No matter, he enjoyed it for at least a little while. The snow has already turned to rain and probably by the end of the day, it will disappear.

Happy Halloween from Yoda and Anakin

The sun decided to come out...

especially for Tama's birthday.

Happy Birthday to you. Happy Birthday to you... Ok, we all know the drill by now.

Happy Birthday Tama. She's 5 years old today. For some reason, they've brought the birthday party inside under my desk. Here's Tama and Timber being really annoying as I'm trying to work:

Blue Isle Shiver Me Timbers, CGC

Yesterday Timber received his AKC Canine Good Citizen award.

There are 10 parts to the test that we took together. He had to pass all 10 in order to get his CGC award.
Test 1: Accepting a friendly stranger
Test 2: Sitting politely for petting
Test 3: Appearance and grooming
Test 4: Out for a walk (walking on a loose lead)
Test 5: Walking through a crowd
Test 6: Sit and down on command and Staying in place
Test 7: Coming when called
Test 8: Reaction to another dog
Test 9: Reaction to distraction
Test 10: Supervised separation

After my last aussie being the only dog in my household without a CGC (he wouldn't let the tester touch his feet), it's awesome to finally have an aussie that has passed. Especially one that is so young.

Timber and I are working on pre-agility and rally right now.

For more information on the ACK Canine Good Citizen test, go to http://www.akc.org/events/cgc/training_testing.cfm

It's a month full of canine birthdays...

Happy Birthday to you... Happy Birthday to you... Happy Birthday dear Jazzy.
Happy Birthday to you.

Tama's is next week.

And another miracle milestone...

HAPPY 10TH BIRTHDAY, KISHI

It's really hard for me to believe that my girl is 10 years old.

How is she doing?
Looking at her, I'd say better than ever. She has a gorgeous coat. There are still some small areas with blackened skin which I doubt will ever fully heal. She had an ear infection recently and I took her to the vet. The vet saw no signs of yeast, treated the ear infection topically, and I can tell she's already feeling better. Kishi is adjusting to the loss of her eyesight, and gets around pretty well. She'll follow our voices when I take her outside, and in the house she just knows the lay of the land, so to speak.

6 months-6months-Where has time gone.

My squishy little puppy is now an adolescent. But look beneath the cuteness and you will see a counter-surfin', toy-destroyin', knock-em-over-with-full-body-slams dog. We're working on those, but it's part of his aussie charm.

Aussie Retriever

Sit, Stay, Smile

While working on sit stays, I thought it would be a little fun to see how our buddy Timber handled sit stays in a crowd. And of course it was too cute not to grab a camera and capture. It's not easy to get all the dogs to stay in one place, and to all look in the same direction. They all seem to have their own agenda. And when one dogs moves, they all think they can bolt. So, after about 20 minutes of trying to get them all to look good, I think this one photo the best.

Doesn't Kishi look good? If you look back at my posts from a year ago, you'll see that she's made remarkable improvements. She looks better than I've seen her in a long time. Except for her eyesight, she is doing fantastic.

Shiba Veteran Website

This is a really great website if you want to see how well Shiba Inus age. There are some beautiful dogs here. Most of them are 9 years old or older. And one that is almost 17!

Shiba Veterans

Water Dog

Are you bored of pictures of the puppy yet? Tired of me gushing about how wonderful he is? Well, here's one more photo and post of him and then I promise I'll post something of substance.

Here's our water dog. We took Timber to the beach today for the afternoon. He can swim pretty well. It didn't take much encouragement to get him in the water. He just followed us in. He's not thrilled with areas with waves. He'd prefer the calmer areas. His favorite thing is picking up shells.

Role Reversals...

Farley was always the trainer of shiba puppies. He was a good play buddy for them. Now with a new aussie puppy, Don Juan has become the play buddy. What a role reversal.

THE NEW



THE OLD

Just call him "DIGGER"

We had a load of mulch delivered. Timber thought the soft dirt was a great place to exercise his paws. I never knew a puppy could dig a hole so quickly!

The dog within...

He's the cutest puppy ever...

Not that I'm not biased or anything!

Timber has learned to sit and down. We are working on stand. He has a pretty good sit-stay - the best you can do with an attention span of an 11 week old puppy.

Homemade training treats

I've been doing some experimenting trying to come up with food and training treats for my dogs. Here are my dog's favorite training treats. Don Juan has always loved salmon. And these have just enough to entice him and keep him asking for more.


Salmon Snackers

You can divide this recipe in half. It makes a HUGE batch. Freeze any extras.

12 c. oatmeal
4 c. whole wheat flour
8 eggs with the shells
2 cans of salmon (drained)
3/4 c. olive oil
2/3 c. honey
1/2 c. molasses
1 can Meyenberg goats milk (add enough water or chicken broth to make 2 cups of liquid)
1 large can solid pack pumpkin
1 apple (chopped fine with skins on)

I will also add other fruits and veggies when I have them - Asparagus, Broccoli, Carrots, Collard, Cucumbers, Green Beans, Kale, Lettuce, Parsley, Spinach

Preheat oven to 325. Grease 2 cookie sheets

Dump everything into a VERY large bowl. Mix together. Pat onto greased cookie sheets & bake at 325° for 1 hour. After 1 hour turn oven off, crack oven door & allow cookies to cool in oven. Cut into squares when cool. You must refrigerate or freeze any extras.

And the puppy's name is...

Blue Isle Shiver Me Timbers
Call name: Timber

Introducing....

Well, we don't quite have a name yet. If it was up to J, it would be "Red". If it was up to Ed, it would be "Nibbler". And if it was up to me, he would be "Bandit". So we're going to play it by ear and let the puppy choose which one he wants to answer to... so far, Red is winning. He is an 8 week old red merle australian shepherd.

He's been introduced to the rest of the crew one by one.

Kishi growled - she's got to exert her kishi-tude.
Don Juan sniffed and then pretty much ignored him.
Jazz was so excited to see him that the puppy ran and hid behind Ed. She wants someone to play with soooooo bad. But she's still a little big for this little guy. I predict the tables will turn in a month or so. And she'll be the one running for cover.
And Tama surprised us all. Since her litter of puppies over a year ago, she hasn't wanted to be around any puppies. She seems to like this little guy. And I see her maternal side coming out. The puppy warmed right up to her.

Kishi Update

I've had people ask me how Kishi was doing. Her skin is doing much better and her hair is growing back. There are no more raw open spots on her body. The yeast smell is definitely not as bad.

It's been almost a year since we started using the Nzymes in her food to combat the yeast problems and I've found if I bathe her in Selsun Blue that she doesn't itch. We removed the carpet in our downstairs where she spends most of her time. I've always had the feeling she was reacting to the chemicals that Stanley Steemer uses to clean the carpets. Her problems started in our last house a couple weeks after having the carpets cleaned for the first time. The allergies got better when we moved into a new house, and worse once I had the carpets cleaned again for the first time in that house. Removing the carpeting was the best thing we could do for all of us.

Although she'll never be rid of her allergies, I am thankful the old dog can have some relief.

Natural Balance Recall

I know many of my friends use Natural Balance. I know, because I have recommended their products for years. We've used many of their dry foods and their rolled food as training treats.

Natural Balance just recently recalled some of their foods due to melamine contaminated rice gluten.

I had been feeding the recalled product, Venison and Rice, on and off, switching it out with the Natural Balance Ultra Premium and Candidae when I couldn't get the Venison and Rice. And I was using it even during the time that we lost Chelsea a couple months ago. Oddly enough, all my dogs got sick immediately after opening a bag of the Natural Balance Venison and Rice. All of them except for one. Kishi, the one who eats a raw meat diet.

The other dogs bounced back after taking them off the food and feeding them homemade rice and chicken for a couple of weeks. Chelsea just got weaker and weaker. We didn't test her for kidney failure. So I guess we'll never know for sure. It was a couple weeks before the Menu Foods recalls began. I sighed with relief when I didn't see Natural Balance on the first list. I really never expected to see them on the list. I felt I was feeding a high quality food that would never let something like this happen.

But it did. The announcement was made a few days ago and these products were on the list.
Venison and Brown Rice Dry Dog Formula
Venison and Brown Rice Canned Dog Food
Venison & Brown Rice Formula Dog Treats
Venison and Green Pea Dry Cat Formula
Chicken Formula Canned Dog Food
Lamb Formula Canned Dog Food
Beef Formula Canned Dog Food
Ocean Fish Formula Canned Cat Food

If you want more information on the Natural Balance Recall:

Natural Balance Recall

Needless to say, my pups are all happily eating a different brand of food-

Nature's Variety Dog Foods

They are on a combo raw and kibble.

And one more point for Miss Piggy...

She's up to 10 points now, including one major. There's another show next weekend in California. Keep your fingers crossed.

Tomo the therapy dog

Tomo and his owner Denise passed the Canine Good Citizen (CGC) and the Therapy Dog International (TDI) Tests today. Tomo is going to be a therapy dog!!!

Pictures to come.

And the Pigster racks up two more points

Piggy won WB today at the Cluster shows in Arizona for two more points!