How time flies!

So the puppies turn 8 weeks old today! I can't believe how time flies! They are all crazy! All of the puppies show intense interest in the wing on a string and love to chase it. They all began pointing it a couple weeks ago, their points are now staunching up nicely! For an 8 week old puppy to hold point for any period of time is impressive. These guys sometimes hold for 10 seconds!

This is Coti, the light blue/green boy. He left for his new home on Friday! He had become the mellow guy in the group and wanted to play and then just be held and kiss you on the chin! These are his new parents below, Brian and Stephanie.

Jaida's green chair is a favorite place of the puppies to play. Here is Kyler crushing the pink girl, one of her favorite pastimes. Kyler seems to spend more time playing with her than any other puppy.

Playing with Kyler's bear. Which really is just skin with no stuffing anymore.The blue boy destroying the earth! He even has devil eyes! No, just kidding, it is just a camera effect!I love this picture of the pink girl, she looks like she has some skin to grow into!

Playing tug o war with the earth ball.Kyler is in the background here wanting to get attention from Mike. Note the green hunting collar that she has on. That is because, for the second time in a year, she went in to a corn field and came out without her collar. Argh! Luckily, the last time she lost her collar, I bought 2 just in case. So, I happen to have another. It does mean, however, that I have to buy her a new nametag again...(this is the one and only place I will ever get name tags!) Once we decide on a name for the new puppy, I will order them both at the same time.Red girl watching over the planet...I am sure she has world domination on her mind!

Here is Coti the first night in his new home. Lucky guy, he has all new toys!With his new dad, Brian. I think he had a long day!He loves his little stuffed beaver!With his new mom, Stephanie, getting cuddled in the kitchen!Then. lastly, on Saturday night we traveled to eastern MA for the wedding reception of a good friend. My friend from high school, Rachel got married to her fiance' Chris. The wedding was a great time. It had a Jaws theme, as that is Rachel's favorite movie. It was a relaxed affair with good food and good times!

Here is the cake, Jaida was obsessed with it and kept looking at it until they took it away to cut it!

Here is a picture of Rachel and Chris doing their first dance. This was taken above the heads of the crowd. They danced to the theme song from "Shrek" as their first dance! That's the way to get the croud thumping! Congratulations to them, and may they have a lifetime of dances together! Love you!

Of course, we had to tape Jaida dancing to the Cha-Cha slide song. She had a great time, even though she didn't know the song! It is a bit dark, but you get the idea!

Half way there!

So, Kyler and I headed up to Sharpe's Farm in Hopkington, NH for the Northern New England Brittany Club hunt test. This was Kyler's first SH test in a while and I wasn't sure how we would do. We ended up with a qualifying run! Her honor left something to be desired, which I am fine with, as that is what we have been working on in training. Otherwise she had a great performance and actually stayed steady to wing, shot and fall!. She didn't move until I told her to retrieve! I was extremely happy with her performance.

Here she is after we realized (or I, for that matter) did well enough to receive a qualifying ribbon. So, now she is half way there, we need 2 more legs to finish her SH title. We will head back up tomorrow to try again. Often times, however, things the second day don't go as well as the first. They know the game and tend to be a bit hotter the second day, we'll see!

Yesterday while the puppies were out playing in the yard, the red girl decided that our chickens were very fun to chase. She loved when she jumped at them and it made them fly in the air.

She finally gave up when they went into the front yard.

Mike picking berries and a few of the babies helping!Seeing the chicken coop for the first time! Wohoo, these things are fun! This is the green (formerly light blue) boy. He is huge!The chickens weren't quite as happy about the whole situation as the puppies were. This is the red girl, pink girl, and yellow girl missing her collar. The blue boy was just leaving the scene as I took the picture. The yellow girl points the wing on a string like a pro already!

Pink streak of lightning!After the hunt test this morning we spent the day at a kids fest at Wachusett Mountain. There were all sorts of free samples and fun things for kids to do. Here is Jaida going down the biggest slide she has ever seen!

Then she got to go for a pony ride on a nice grey Arabian mare.

Waving like the ham that she is!

So, we'll see how things go tomorrow with Kyler. All I can ask of her is for her to continue to behave like I know she can!

Finally some time to post!

Sorry for the delay in posting for those waiting! It has been a busy time with the babies! We also spent last weekend down at the Crane Wildlife Management Area for the VCCNE hunt test. I was apprentice judging the junior hunt test levels so I can officially begin to judge at hunt tests. The paperwork is all done, now I just need to wait for the official word that I am a judge!

We had a great time on the Cape, despite the rain. Kyler had to stay home with the babies since they are not vaccinated yet, it was just too risky to take her or them with us. We were able to work Cedar on some birds after the event, which was very helpful with some issues we have had with him lately. I think we made some progress.

The puppies are now almost 7 weeks old! I can't believe they will be leaving next weekend! I will miss them as they have come quite a part of daily life here. They are spending time daily outside in their ex-pen as well as being able to run around the house while we clean their box.

Here they are asleep in the corner of their box.Outside chewing on their first turkey neck, which is great for teething! The one missing the collar is the yellow girl, she, or someone else that is, keeps pulling it off and I find it on the floor in their box.Yellow girl digging in. The boys, learning how to share.Can't I just have a tiny bite?
Red in the house this morning. I was trying to get some nice pictures this morning, but they wouldn't leave me alone, so I had a difficult time.Hmm, check cord, tasty! This is the pink girl and the green boy (formerly light blue), he also managed to get his collar off. Luckily they are all old enough that I can tell the difference between them all even without their collars.Dark blue testing out his teeth on the check cord.Hopefully over the next few days I will be able to get some better pictures.

I am heading up to Sharpe's farm in Hopkington, NH both Saturday morning and Sunday morning to run Kyler in 2 SH tests. It is still slightly risky because the babies are still not vaccinated, but I am running first in the brace and will put her up in the truck as soon as we are done running. I plan to wipe her down with Chlorhexiderm after as an extra precaution for the babies. We'll see how things go, her honor still needs some work. She has yet to honor another dog other than a Vizsla...We are braced with a GSP tomorrow and a Brittany on Sunday. I am hopeful that working with our friends GSP tonight that we can lay the groundwork for that. Fingers crossed!

A great weekend

My weekends start early now that I have a set schedule at work. At least until further notice I currently work Tu/Wed/Thur from 7am to 7pm. That gives me a 4 day weekend every week! It may change in the near future, as the hospital I work for wants the surgeon to be there on Mondays instead of Wednesdays.

The puppies continue to grow and get cuter every day. They are starting to develop their own personalities now.

This is the red girl playing with Kyler, she, in particular likes to play with mom. This was the puppies first time being allowed to run free in the house to explore.

The light blue boy picked up one of Mike's socks and carried it around for about 5 minutes. I didn't want to take it away as he was enjoying carrying it and since he wasn't hurting anything I decided to let him carry it for a while.The first time being allowed outside their pen in the yard. The pink girl checking out the transport cages for quail.

She got it! The red girl was able to grab the wing while Jaida was dragging it around.This is what happened after I brought them back inside after the romp. Excuse the stain on the pee pad!

The love to tackle mom!The boys checking out the world outside of the box.Pink loves to play! She seems to be the bounciest of the group.

Puppy pile!Red girl watching the action.Red girl chewing on her first marrow bone.This is how we found the navy boy after romping with mom.

Kyler is a fantastic mom, I keep trying to tell her that she can wean them now...She doesn't nurse them often, but still does a few times a day. It can't go on much longer, their teeth are sharp! (Note: Their collars changed again...They outgrew the medium size ones. The only real change is that light blue boy is now neon green, and the yellow girl, who was originally white, is more of a neon yellow)Jaida holding the big boy.We also took Cedar and Kyler for a hike on Saturday to Laughton's tree farm. Which, incidently, is not really a tree farm anymore, it is owned by the state. Mike had done some work there a few years ago cutting trees to create habitat friendlier to grouse, which are not very common in Massachusetts. Just as we came to a corner where we turned down this road, the dogs put up a small covey of 3 grouse! They were ecstatic after that and hunted hard for a good 1/2 hour realizing that there may be more birds there. We didn't find any, but it was a nice experience for all, as you just don't see grouse all that often where we are.This is one of the roads leading to our house. On the way back from our hike we ran into these guys, a flock of about 30 turkeys. Strangely, we took this picture right after running into about 10 turkeys justs a few hundred feet behind us.
Jaida had fun on Friday after school with finger paint!Then, Sunday, we visited the Franklin County Fair, where Jaida likes to sit on the tractors. Note that she is wearing appropriate clothing for the particular brand of tractor she is "driving".Of course, it wouldn't be a complete fair with out petting a calf! She also had a great time on a roller coaster and a mini pirate ship ride! I was quite suprised at how much fun she had on the "scary" rides!