My puddin tats... big kittens now!

Pipsqueek - still our little motor mouth, if I didn't know better I'd swear he was part Siamese just for the sheer amount of chatter that comes out of his mouth!

 

Possom - has gone from the smallest to second largest and taken after Pipsqueek in terms of his chatter.  He is the first and now LOUDEST to greet me in the morning or evening or upon entering or exiting a room or or or...!  If his chat fails to make his point, he'll happily hoist himself onto your lap before repeating himself!

Punkin is proving himself the quiet cuddler... he is a little bit more cautious than his hell-bent-for-leather siblings and wants to look before leaping.  At night he is one of the ones who will quietly snuggle himself near me and settle in before looking at me like, "Well, no one was using that space where they?  You don't expect me to put up with those crazies really?"  (Punkin will be looking for a home after he is neutered, vaxed and microchipped.  The adoption fee will reflect only the cost of this vetting.  He would like a quieter home with snuggles by the fire-side and would be okay older/quiet dogs, gentle older children, other cats and kitty-friendly house-bunnies as he's been fine with Nilla here.)

And then there is Princess Peachie Pie... don't let those sweet eyes fool you, this one is an adventure princess who is the first into everything!  If there is a stalking-pouncing-chasing game she is sure to be in the middle of it but also is happy to curl up in your arms and doze half the night once she's had run play.  (Peachie will be looking for a home after she is spayed, vaxed and microchipped. The adoption fee will reflect only the cost of this vetting.  She would enjoy older/quiet dogs, children and other cats but may enjoy pouncing type games a bit much to be an ideal companion for a house bunny although she's never bothered Nilla here.)

Saturday and Sunday quickies

Saturday was rather boring as I've got a nice cold going and played narcoleptic half the day - waking up basically enough to feed and water everyone and ensure the kids weren't running too feral.  We did do some basic training with Kiah (yep - it has a name!) and Rin but other than that not much.

Sunday we loaded up on cold meds, loaded up the dogs and went to training.  So the girls got their runs in flyball and obedience and Kiah had an absolute blast - she got to meet some of her future flyball team-mates (Collie, Sheltie, Poodle, ShihTzu, Lab, JRT, Border Collie, Golden, various mixes), see the flyball box (ohhh... that is COOL!) and chase a ball and play tugs.  I managed to injure my shoulder (thanks Rin!) but still got through stepping in to teach an intermediate class and Hope's flyball before going home.  Really, really pleased that Hope was pulling some very close crosses with Maddie flawlessly and Rin was handling crosses, position changes and dual lanes like a pro!  Should make September start with a bang!

At home with Kiah did a few quick-bursts of the same stuff we'd started working on manners wise a few days ago, some restrained toy fetching and worked up her tuggy as well.  She got SO revved up with the tuggy which has little 'flappy' bits she went into zoomy mode and just ran in great laps for about 20 mins before flopping over.  Then we did some cardboard box games - we had a flat piece of cardboard she 'surfed' on while I pulled it around the floor - I'm thinking that'll be a favorite game, a 'tunnel' to be sent through/recall through and a small box to bop around the house with her paws like a hockey puck.  I also used an old computer keyboard and some bubble wrap as "weird surfaces it's fun to walk over" and had her jumping on and walking around on them, sits, drops etc.  She is a funny little nutter!

On her second day after school drop off she spent the early morning toddling around after us.
She met:

•  the kittens more fully and learned that 4:1 are not odds in her favor with curious kittens.  Whichever she was sniffing the other two or three would be patting her tail.
• the sheep and our neighbors visiting cows and jumped up for a better sniff but without being over the top excited.
• gardeners with linetrimmers, leaf blowers and pruning sheers as well as hard-hats and protective goggles
• various people at he hardware store, grocery and a park, cafe
• plastic door strips on a shop that was closed, with Lily flipping them about and making all sorts of ruckus while I encouraged her to push them with her nose and investigate.

We had several tuggy sessions and introduced the idea of running out to a thrown toy (small rope bone and plastic baby teether) and bringing it back, again with polite releasing. More work on basic sits and downs, touching etc.  We also worked a bit on bite inhibition (aka YOUCH! needle teeth hurt!) playing very gentle mouth games with my fingers.

Friday after school drop off she met:

• various people at Coles, the shopping strip and neighborhood in Pakenham and in Gembrook - not many men unfortunately.   
• a community van which is equipped with automated lowering and raising ramps for wheelchair users which they were very nice in letting us go up to and have a meet-n-greet.
• the 7-9's class at La's school as well.
  Manners wise we continued with sits and downs, making them downs from sits and sits from downs as well as continuing with targeting introducing a target plate.  We continued with retrieving thrown toys (soft tuggies and plastic teething rings) as well as tuggy. We introduced the idea that if she wants to get out or into her pen she needs to sit and be polite.  We introduced a bit of doggy zen, object trading, some basic body handling (light 'pinches' on the webbing between toes, feet, ears, lips, collar holding/tugging etc), some short and light restrained recalls and eye contact.  She's been absolute gold with her house training, not a single accident and only one time using the newspapers provided in her pen - which was really my fault as I had the choice between taking her out when I saw her looking fidgety and chasing the naked-wet-soapy 2 year old who was streaking through the house on her way to merry mayhem, so puppy got ploinked in her pen till I caught and nappied the 2 year old!

 As you can see a busy puppy is well behaved by default...

 Quick puddins pics!  I missed the 5th weeks due to being ill and have the 6th weeks but my computer ran into some *cough* minor problems due to certain small cute people holding their sippy near it just as it's lid popped off.  Turns out computers don't swim well and it's having royal fits.  In the meantime I am having to use my laptop which doesn't have photo programs on it so it requires loading the whole files to photobucket and then resizing which is a pain! LOL

Rin 2.0

Over the past few months we'd been considering either bringing another working dog like Rin into our family because she is such a little treasure and so fun to work with or else a smaller dog as I miss having a littler dog around.  We eventually decided that it was probably better to put off a small dog for several more years (3rd in line after 2 more Aussies) and get the working dog now because a little dog would be more likely to get run into in the wild play my girls enjoy just because of the size difference and it would be nice for Rin to have someone around her age (not quite 2 yrs now) to play with given Hope (4.5) and Sierra (10) are past the puppy/teenage sillies and want to lay down after a good play instead of imitating an energizer bunny.  After looking at several dogs, I found a litter of Border x Kelpies who needed homes and looked very much like Rin and a week later went to visit with the girls.  This little cutiepie is who we all chose.

She's not named yet but her nickname is Demonbaby... anyone want to guess why???  (That's midsnarl with the tuggy. LOL)

She is super clever and in her first day home had about 200x reps in which she picked up the basics of a sit and down with about 15 seconds duration (reliably, occasionally a bit more) as well as targeting with a target wand with two bumps.  She's been started on building tuggy value and learning to take it only when told, with a nice balanced bite and letting go politely when told.  She met her collar and the leash and discovered she could walk politely.  Not bad for 8 weeks old and 24 hours home after not being off a farm before!

In her first full day home she went to: school 2x, pet store, nursery and on a walk around the grocery store
She met well over her "10 new people a day" and included little kids/older kids/older teens with hats/elderly people and using prams, a trolly, a zimmer frame, a pair of crutches, a cast on the leg without crutches and two mobility scooters which she made one ladies day by jumping up unafraid into her lap when she was called.

a rather perfect (somewhat soggy) mothers day

Mothers Day started here with me sneaking out with the three girls for training for "mommy time" while the kids got their surprise ready.  Nothing better in the world than time with my girls and coming home to the kidlets and a warm (and DRY) house!  :)

After flyball we started the girls on obedience.  We're trying to get back into practice as I'd intended last year to start trialing in obedience with them before we got totally sucked in by flyball. (To be fair we achieved FD, FD-X, FDCh and AFDCh so it's not as if we weren't having fun. *G*)

Initially a few weeks back I was told Rin would have to wait a few months for an opening in foundation (intended to teach novices how to train) because of recent structure changes made her considered "new".  Likewise Hope would have to test in on the next test day because of our extended break.  I said I'd just test both in at competition level classes instead.

When I came back last week we were thankfully able to bypass that all together and both did well where I popped them in and garnered a lot of comments... such clever girlies. :) This week we had small numbers, basically instructors only (read: few people are mental enough to think training in the rain on mothers day seems like rockin' good fun) so after flyball we had the option of running in higher levels than I've trained for at home or going home.  Naturally we decided there were a few centimeters of fabric yet to be totally saturated and stayed!  Rin was bumped 2 levels up from where I thought she should be and surprised me by getting compliments in everything but a blown stand-stay! (Poor dog, she loves to catch raindrops from the air so that was tough ask when those raindrops were just TAUNTING her by falling all over!) Hope got bumped up to CD level and did pretty well if not perfectly polished in everything except not tucking her bum neatly in left-about-turns.  They even gave us a taste of some more advanced exercises I gather are for higher levels - a broadjump and return (I thought she'd be confused but she did it very nice) and a send out to a box the dog must sit in before coming back out over a jump to you. (pretty nice but I'd not want to push it more than the meter and a bit I was sending from atm)  But I still get all melty when I present them with something they've never seen and they manage to fool everyone into thinking we know what we're doing!  Such clever, clever little poppets!

When I got home the kids were bursting with tea, cards, flowers, a love-heart La had decorated with 'lots of jewels and diamonds and sparklies', a new set of framed handprints (we do this every year, so I have a little collection of growing kidlet prints) and a big beautiful plant for my rainbow garden.  Between the kids and dogs (oh dear, those needed DRYING too...) I got clambered all over by the littlest members as well... little puddins have helped write this by batting at my fingers on the keyboard with their little purr motors going for the first time!  Isn't it just fantastic?

Nice try Pointyblackdog...

While training with Sierra, both Rin and Hope were outside.  I could see Hope near the door staring at it and attempting to beam the message into my head to let her back in or at least notice she was doing the behaviours very, very nicely and merited some rewarding.  Rin, noticing that standing at the doorway was not working any better this time than the previous attempts, took a slightly different tactic.  When I gave the cue to Sierra I heard a ruckus of scrambling sounds and a thunkity-whump near the kitchen window.  Perched neatly and determined not to be ignored (surely if I saw how wonderful she was I'd relent and play obedience tricks with her instead of the red dog!) stood Rin with her rear feet on the bin and her front paws on the window ledge.  You guessed it - the cue we've been working on tweaking this week is "stand". 

The puddins at 4 weeks old...

From L-R: Pipsqueek, Punkin, Peach and Possum

Bebe #1 Pipsqueek - we started solids this week and Pipsqueek has proven to follow his trend of loving his grub a little too much... straight into the middle of the bowl and tucking in with serious intent. We may have to alter his name to just Sqeek or Pip if he ends up tooooooo pudgy!




Bebe #2 - Possum, our teeny little lad... he's such a quiet little guy but I think he's rather clever. While his siblings are pushing around for the food like little piggies he just waits till they're done and I put fresh stuff down to eat without getting jostled!




Bebe #3 Punkin - I know it's not the best framed shot but it just cracks me up. Punkin is proving to be Pipsqueek's little shadow. Wherever Pipsqueek waddles first - and at this point it is waddling and wobbling rather than walking - after a brief think about things Punkin is right off after him.



Bebe #4 - Peachie-pie! Not one to be outdone she is just as adventurous as Pipsqueek but also likes to stick near her mumma. That can make it hard to decide if she should run off to explore or follow mum back in for a nap! LOL


Post photos... it's hard work being a model! Zzzzzz...

Pictures brought to you courtesy of our local friendly Puddin Wrangler, La.

Random shots of the Borderbrat

Now look at this face... sweet, innocent, attentive...

...butter wouldn't melt in her mouth right??? How could I resist snapping some pictures of such a lovely, well behaved pup?

Yeah. Well after this one was snapped she whirled around, jumped into the pond, got completely soaked and then soaked everyone by shaking half the pond on us while wriggling gleefully. Looks are deceptive! Borderbrats are evil! LOLOLOL

La and Lily's Bunnyliscious Easter Hunt

We went to one of our favorite gardens for our Easter-egg hunt again this year. It's to the point where La consider it "the Easter park" because we've gone there for the last few years. The bunny may have also brought some coloring books, crayons and wrist bangles along with the home-made chocolates he'd hidden in the eggs.

Of course you can't go on an Easter egg hunt without the proper equipment!

One requires a basket and most importantly...

BUNNY EARS! Very important for sussing out bunny-trails!


But naturally 5 year olds and 2 year olds are good at knocking the ears off a bit too often in their hunt, so they were stowed for play at home shortly after.




And since someone is growing and hasn't had a decent picture in awhile, I may have cheated in snapping a few non-egg-hunt pics as well...

The puddins at 3 weeks old...

In which the puddins get their baby names. I'm sure new owners will change them but I can't just call them puddins for the whole time so between La, Nic and myself the puddins have baby names!

Bebe #1 - Pipsqueek Still our feisty little chatterbox and the pudge of the litter, you can't cuddle him without a steady stream of itty-bitty-kitty gossip!

Bebe #2 - Possum He has a habit of curling his little tail up over your fingers when cuddling and with his soft grey fur and little white points and fondness of being cuddled up like baby possum in a pouch, it seemed an obvious baby name.


Bebe #3 - Punkin, still the cuddle bug of the litter and marked like pumpkin pie with a dash of whipped cream

and of course Bebe #4, our little Peach-blossom who continues to be the most adventure prone. La wanted to name her Coo-ee because she is the first to go for a wander! LOL