School of Rock

We went to the park in the snow last Sunday. Halo was suitably horrified - pictured she is 5 and a half weeks pregnant and totally disgusted with the whole affair.

Karma started with Raimi for The Schooling of the Brothers. It was a lot of running, being chased and general Ridgeback idiocy but things didn't get really embarrassing til Rory showed up and Karma took the opportunity to show those boys just how it's done.

She teased Rory a little with some light wrestling just to warm him up and make him think he had the upper hand.

And then she turned on the heat. He tried and tried to keep up but it just wasn't happening. She could turn on a dime and turn on the speed in a micro-second.

She always managed to stay just out of reach. It never seemed to occur to him that he couldn't catch her. She'd slow down to allow him the chance to save face ...

... and then she'd take off show-boating again. It's all about the confidence ... she reminds me so much of Halo at that age, just alive and exhilarated by the control and power of her body. Of course ... a boy getting schooled by one light wheaton white footed girl is nothing compared to getting schooled by two of them!

Working Girl

Another weekend of shows, another point to count toward Karma's championship. Today the judge even complimented me on how well Karma was trained which is really nice since just a show or two ago we were struggling to get her to walk into the ring. Of course most of the credit goes to Adine and her family's persistence in training her, I just hold the end of the lead.

Before the show today we headed out to the park to blow off steam and I of course brought the camera. Here's Karma all dignified and whatnot - she takes after her mother in that respect. Oh wait ... this was actually just a brief moment of Karma captured for posterity, most of the time she was doing this ...

While we were at the park we ran into Rory, Karma's brother, who will appear in the next post getting totally schooled by his sister. For now though the spotlight is on Karma and how proud we are with how far she's come in just a few shows.

The Edge

Some days being outside with the dogs is exhilarating. Despite the cold.

While Raimi and Leeloo partook of the late afternoon light and empty field Halo and I ...

... stood and shivered. I had to let the coat out 2 inches from the last time she wore it to allow for almost 3 weeks of puppy growth.

Leeloo does not brake well,or corner well, or accelerate well ... but she's all heart.

This is her turning at the last second to avoid a run-in with The Boy. This was a near miss on her part ... no one wants to run into that great maw.

Here's where they buzz Halo who supervises their antics. She believes the coat I put on her is woefully inadequate and shivered like a leaf to prove it.

And this is the happy result of an evening's romp at the park ... comatose Ridgebacks in a pile. Check out those legs ...

The Queen

Must be nice to be worshipped at your feet. Halo has the patience of a saint. She is so ridiculously tolerant of everything it boggles my mind. Currently Halo is squashed into a most awkward postition on the couch because everyone wants to be nice and close for warmth.

Oh wait - not quite the angel every moment - today a dog approached Raimi to size him up but I didn't interfere as it resolved harmlessly and both boys went their seperate ways. Halo, who must have caught the eyeballing, wandered over nonchalantly, (she might have been whistling to feign indifference) circled the dog and then turned on the major bitch eyeballs to which the other dog went 'Oooooh shiiiiit', tucked tail and started to move away from her whereupon she started the grumbly growl. Whereupon *I* started the grumbly growl and asked her just WHAT she thought she was doing? She halted, looked up at me and I swear her expression was 'Oh, you caught that huh?' She then raced sheepishly to my side and asked for a cookie. Good. Grief.

Nine Months (actually it's 9 weeks)

It’s official. Halo is with puppy. Really – I knew this 2 ½ weeks ago but you don’t like to say for sure and get everyone’s hopes up only to have them dashed when no puppies arrive.

She has thankfully gone from clinically depressed to clingy which is much easier to live with. The bottom is dropping out of her abdomen so soon she will arrive at that oh so unattractive state of pregnancy where her waist sucks in and her tummy bulges out so that she appears to have a bowling ball in her stomach. I’ll update with pictures of a 5 week in whelp Halo once the weather warms up and I can get a decent photo of her outside.

The week of March 23rd should see the safe arrival of some Ridgeback puppies if all goes well. Halo is traditionally an easy whelper so things should go pretty smoothly. Famous last words right?

If I haven’t contacted you and you are interested in a puppy let me know – I’m still suffering from the after effects of computer email merging from a couple months ago …

The Missing

Despite my pronouncement about how perfect Leeloo is obviously that's not entirely true. Raimi is not a mystery to figure out. Halo is pretty direct in her intent much of the time. Leeloo is a conundrum.

Leeloo and her siblings were raised on cedar chips, not newspaper which is what I use. Cedar chips mean that when they 'go' it soaks in right away, there is little odor and they don't learn to pee away from their beds. Leeloo doesn't care about her own 'deposits', she can sit in her own pee and crap all day and not mind one bit.

So Leeloo came to me not paper trained and no inclination to go away from her bed. I spent several weeks paper training her but she continued to pee whenever I was out regardless of where she was kept, crate or expen. She house trained pretty fast but knew when I was gone she didn't get into trouble for peeing in the dog room or crate.

We deduced that another part of the problem was an allergy to her food which effectively caused a food induced diabetes. She would drink unusually high amounts of water which made holding her pee during the day doubly hard.

So paper training her helped a bit in that I could direct the pee, changing her food reduced the amount of pee but holding it while I'm out ... still working on it. Crating her just results in a crate of pee plus a puppy covered in it. Not something I want to return to after work. I tried to put her in an expen in the kitchen and that resulted in barking all day (because she was away from the other dogs) plus copious amounts of shit and a puddle of pee.

Today, I had to be out for longer than usual but decided to live with the consequences anyway so back into the kitchen she went.

When I got home there was no pee, no shit and no Leeloo. The kitchen expen was empty and almost exactly as I'd left it 9 hours earlier. I was not greeted in the hall by a naughty puppy. Heart in throat I went to check on the other dogs.

Times three.

Looking out at me from behind the baby gate across the dog room door. There was Leeloo, thrilled as always to see me. Raimi and Halo bounced around with joy as well. I was never so happy to see a naughty puppy.

She had spent the first part of day getting out of the expen, going down the hallway to the dog room and jumping over the baby gate into the room. The latter part of the day was spent ripping a foam dog bed into a zillion little bits.

Did she pee or poop? No chance. Too busy with the dog bed one presumes.

I think it's a one off thing, it could also be that I freaked out at her yesterday for the pee and poop thing in the kitchen (something 'they' tell you doesn't help train dogs but it felt good to vent) and she's terrified to either stay in the kitchen or 'go' anywhere in the house. Could be neither ... could be both.

Only time will tell ...

Clumsy

As Ridgebacks grow they go through a lot of changes both physically and mentally.

When Raimi was about 6 months old I was sure I had made a huge mistake in keeping him as a show dog. He was a disaster; he moved and looked like an intoxicated marionette for a lot of his puppyhood. Thankfully he outgrew that!

Leeloo has a little more dignity. I see her as a giraffe - nothing on the planet moves like a giraffe. Like a giraffe Leeloo seems to be made almost entirely of legs which gives her a similar type of movement. Long and graceful with lean and flat muscles ... she really doesn't move like a baby puppy at all.

She's still not as fast as Halo and Raimi tho, even with those long legs, but she tries to keep up as best she can - one day she'll be able to give Boy a run for his money.