Breaking in the new toy

 

Today the two boys got to go to Walla Walla with us. While Adrian talked with the boat repair guy, the boys and I walked around their parking lot checking out everything we could in the 10 degree weather. Then we headed over to Petco which was supposed to have a Puppy Playtime at 5:00pm to 5:30pm.  Well our boys were the only two puppies who showed up, but we made the best of it. We walked the whole store, checked out each isle and met all every stranger who walked in. They also got to meet two older dogs who were in the store shopping. The toy in the photo is the one both boys agreed on and felt they Had to have - luckily it was on the after Christmas sale rack, so they proved themselves to be excellent bargain shoppers too!

Puppy play

We currently have two boy puppies still at our home, Brown and Blue. Brown will be going to his new show home soon, but meanwhile he's here to play with Blue. This morning we woke up to blizzard like conditions, which luckily only lasted until mid-morning. The boys found the fresh snow to be very fun this afternoon once the sun came out.

Jack and his girls

 So we went to my in-laws for Christmas. While we were there Jack played with an English Bulldog, a Pomeranian and a Springer Spaniel. He also got lots of love from 11 children and a bunch of adults. He was fantastic and everyone just loved him! Oh and he also met the horses in which he was not to sure what they were. We have 3 minis and 1 Arabian. Well just have to say that Santa was good to Jack as well, new toys and a yummy bone. The girls also dressed him up in some doll clothes, that did not last long but he was a good sport. Well just had to send you a little note on how he is doing. He starts puppy class on the 6th and we have been teaching him sit, stay, down and off. We are still working on him coming when called and actually paying attention when you say his name, a little selective hearing.  Stephanie

Post Christmas Run

Today was sunny and warm at our house, right up until the dogs and I headed out for our run anyhow! It ended up raining, hailing, windy and cold. Luckily my mother gave me a wonderful set of water proof, insulated coveralls which I had worn despite the weather being so nice before we left. The only bad part was the hail on my nose and in my eyes - I'll start wearing a hat with a visor from here on out! :)

Olive all ready for Christmas

Olive has started some training with the clicker and treats. I think the clicker helps reinforce when she does well because of her left-sided deafness. She already knows watch me, sit, jump, to go in her travel crate and hand touch. We're still working on laying down and not biting me as much (work in progress).


Mom bought her a little Christmas collar with jingle bells on it (which, while cute, also helps us keep track of where she is running around to).

Hope you and the rest of the dals had a great holiday.    Samantha and Olive

Black gets a home

"Black" (Black Diamond Sleepy Hollow) got to go to his home today. Black will be living in Tillamook, OR with his new mom Ann. Hopefully he doesn't ever lock her out of their home like he did their vehicle! Another lucky boy off to a fantastic home.

Santa knows Jack!

Jack had a chance to give Santa his wish list before Christmas. We've heard he's been a good boy, so hopefully all his holiday wishes will come true.

Snow babies

At about 4pm today it started snowing. All four boys headed outback to check it out. I had hoped to get video but was unsuccessful; they were leaping in the air biting the snowflakes as the snow was coming down. They chased each other around and had a great time playing in the snow. They were even more happy to come back into the house to take a nice long nap by the heater.

Angels

Our four remaining angles looked so sweet I couldn't resist taking this shot. Too bad that when they wake up they are a rowdy obnoxious bunch of boys!

Lap Dogs

Mozart's dad would like all of our newest puppy owners to see what their future looks like. Those cute little bundles sitting in your lap tonight will be turning into 40-60lb lap dogs very soon!!

Black Diamond Autumn Harvest - "Orange"

Tonight's blog are photos of the four boys we still have at our house. Orange will be heading to Florida on the 22nd, but the rest of the boys are still looking for homes. These photos were taken last night and the boys are now 9 weeks old.

Black Diamond Full Moon - "Brown"

Black Diamond Foggy Night - "Blue"

Black Diamond Sleepy Hollow - "Black"

Cinder update

Cinder is doing great - she is the most inquisitive puppy I have ever had - nothing is scary to her - I have a built in vacuum system and I hit the switch and she stuck her nose in the opening in the wall while it was running - our other dogs always run from it when it is running.

She is also Miss Queen Bee in the house - my Mother In Law's dogs are terrified of her - the moment she heads for them they are heading away from her. My old black lab is being pretty tolerant of her when she climbs all over her except she has informed the puppy that her tail is off limits. All in all the four dogs are doing great.

We have her pretty well house broken except when I let my husband and son watch her then all bets are off. But she is starting to whine when she needs to go (once) and out the door we go.

She is sleeping in her crate in our room at night from about 10:30 pm to about 3 am when she whines - I take her out and then back in the crate she goes - she then sleeps until about 4:30 am when my husband and I get up to get ready for work. Then my Mother In Law takes over.

We also use a playpen for when we want to confine her for a short period of time during the day - cleaning up things we don't want her in, if she is getting out of control (rambuctious) and it is easier for my Mother In Law to put her in the playpen instead of the crate.

She is very smart - she always shows us where her food is kept when it is time to eat.

We have had so much fun with her and yes her little needle sharp teeth are out in force. We are working on getting her to quit using us as chew toys.

She is getting her next series of shots on Monday and everyone at the vet office just loves her. She has met both of our neighbors and all of Riley's friends and girlfriend. They are always coming over and trying to steal her.

I brought out Spooky's tunnel and oh boy have we had fun with that - she races thru it then races around the house to race back through it again. She does it about 4 times before she flops down exhausted. Tonight we were in hysterics. My 6 ft 2 in son crawled in the tunnel and Cinder shot in it after him - then he starts yelling for help because she is all over him and he is trapped - the tunnel is rolling through the living room with all of us laughing so hard.

Cinder is such a love bug (when she isn't trying to chew us to death) - every since the first day we brought her home she is a couch dog - when she wants to nap she goes over to the couch and puts her front feet up on it then turns and looks at us - yips once and waits for us to boost her up - she loves sleeping next to our black lab who is also napping.

My husband is particularly happy with her - he loved our other dalmation and he has spent alot of time with her. Our partner in our Christmas tree farm asked Jim why he would want to raise another puppy and he answered because she is a Dal and we love her. It was too cold last weekend to take her down to our little tree house to do tree sales but this weekend the weather looks pretty good so the playpen, toys and Cinder will hopefully be going down to help sell trees.

I think she is going to fit in just fine with us. As soon as she has had all her shots - I am going to sign her up for the puppy social group I found.

Take care and thank you again for allowing us to get Cinder from you.

Uncle Mozart

Photo of Mozart and Ringo enjoying some down time together. Their family wrote and said "They are getting along so well, and Mozart really enjoys having a buddy to play with." Adding a new puppy to your home when your first dog is 3 to 5 years of age is almost perfect; they are young enough to actually play with and tolerate the puppy, yet old enough that they can actually help you train the pup to be the dog you want them to be. I think this family is going to be very happy together for many years to come.

Update from Olive

(Light Blue is now called Olive and lives in Washington state.) Everything is going wonderfully here with Olive. We went to the vet yesterday to get her second round of shots and to get de-wormed. We have her next round of boosters in three weeks. She was the belle of the ball at the vet, everyone wanted to come meet her and pet her.

She's been coming to my swim practices in order to meet lots and lots of people. I'm especially happy because there are so many little kids there who want to come meet her. My swimmers have been fighting over who will get to puppy sit for me if I ever need it. We also had a puppy play date over at a friend's place where she got to meet two older beagles and a miniature mutt. She slept so well that night.

She's getting very good about going outside, even though she HATES the cold wet weather. She'll start to cry as soon as I open the door. I'm pretty sure that's why she's been so good; she wants it over with and to be back inside asap!

Toni flying high!

Toni (On The Spot's Princess Antonia Rose, RN) has started her obedience work with flying colors, going High In Trial! Toni is one of Romeo's puppies and her mom is Zinda (owned by Bonnie Rose).

Lilly babysits

Seeing Lilly demonstrated how good she could be with the puppies when we did our trip to Portland - tonight she got to play with the boys again. She once again was thrilled and mothered each of the boys, who were just as happy to see her again.

Jack finds his spot

Black Diamond Love Potion No 9 is now called Jack. His mom writes "Jack has met many new people so far. We took him to Petsmart to get more toys and then to Five Guys where he technically was not suppose to go in but they allowed him in since I only want a to go order and I was carrying him. He also met a bunch of fire fighters, they were at a call at the assisted living center by our house and stopped when they saw him. He also has met my mother-in-laws dog, a pom in which they played and he met a huge Rottie. So far he is a joy! Oh and crate training is doing good. Last night he stayed in his crate for 6 hours sleeping and then went out to go potty and back in his crate until I woke up. He only whined for maybe 15 minutes. He is also meeting Santa next week with the girls so we will have those pictures too." Stephanie

White Sands, NM

Here's a photo of Mozart looking particularly handsome. (Mozart is from our first litter which was born Nov 2007). He's doing great with the puppy. Samantha named her little sweetheart Olive. They're so darn cute! Thanks again for sharing your puppies with us. Ringo made many, many friends at the airports. He really got a lot of socializing in. He slept through both flights.

Down to four

Izza seems just fine with the idea of being down to four children. She spent the evening playing with her remaining boys. Still looking for homes: Black, Orange, Blue and possibly Brown.

Keeping them in the family

Thanks to Mozart's mom making arrangements for us, everyone got to pick up their puppies in the warm and dry home of a friend of hers. This wasn't the only great thing Bernie did for us today - she brought along her daughter Samantha who after much thought ended up taking a puppy as well! Now their family consists of Mozart (3 yrs old) and Ringo in New Mexico and Olive in Washington. Mozart is Ringo and Olive's uncle.

Red meets his girls

Red's new family wrote: We have named him Jack. We were going to go with Arthur but Jack just fit him better. He whined a bit on the way home but then fell asleep. So far he is a joy! He has played with the girls non stop since we got home. Went potty outside twice and ate like a horse. I think he will be easy to crate train as I put him in his crate when we ate dinner, he whined for a little bit but then settled down, played with his toys and fell asleep. We are sooo happy.

Stephanie

Raspberry meets her new family

As noted before, Raspberry will be called Yoshi now. Her family seemed very happy to finally meet their new family member. It was great to meet each of you for the first time. Enjoy her!

Can you hear me?

Tonight the babies had their BAER hearing test performed by Dr. Erickson who lives fairly close to the Monroe, WA show grounds. Dr. Erickson was kind enough to let us take the babies to his home so we could have them done while in town for the dog show. Everyone has hearing in both ears except Black who's deaf in his right ear and Light Blue who is deaf in her left ear. Being deaf in one ear doesn't really effect dogs and they make great pets. We even have a friend who has a uni (as they are called) that she's doing Agility with and he looks fantastic running the course! You'd never know there is anything different about him.

Getting bigger

Tonight the babies turned 6 weeks old - boy time flies! To celebrate, each of them received their first vaccination. This will hopefully boost their immune systems just in time to go visit the vet for their hearing tests which are scheduled for next Saturday evening near Monroe, Washington.

Tunnel Work

As part of the puppies learning and socialization we have a fabric tunnel we place in our living room for the puppies to explore. Everyone in the litter has now braved the scary tunnel all on their very own, several of which have decided running through it full tilt is a blast! The tunnel is great seeing it completely surrounds the puppies, it moves as they go through it and makes a funny sound - all great experiences for them.

Fun despite the weather

Our weather hasn't been good enough to let the pups our again this weekend, but they had fun anyhow. Today they had two more visitors, friends from town who have a 6 year old Dalmatian and a love of puppies. The more visitors the better from here on out, socialization, socialization, socialization is the name of the game and it makes a huge difference in the type of dog each of these babies will grow up to be. So if your reading this and live close enough to come visit, please do!

Visitors!

The puppies enjoyed their visitors from Pullman today. Our friend Jordan and one of her friends from work came to visit the babies today. Each puppy was handled lots which was a great experience for them. They also got to see their first non-spotted dog, Jordan's Rally star Kester. We truly appreciated the girls visiting and especially their help in taking the puppies 5 week stacked photos (see our website to view the photos).

Aunt Lilly Checking In

Lilly was born Sept 2009 and is these puppies father's, sister. :) All the other dogs in the house enjoy the pups and like peeking in on them each day. The pups are just starting to get tall enough to touch noses with the looky-loos.

Lost & Found

Every pup received their microchip tonight. Their 'great-grandma' helped out by loving on each pup before and after they received their chip and helped me by holding each pup while I implanted them. Microchips are implanted between the puppies shoulder blades and are an individual id number (like a social security number) that special scanners can read. Practically every vet and animal shelter now has scanners that can read these chips and can be the difference between never seeing your puppy again and having a successful reunion, if something ever happens and they disappear.

Airing Out

Today was warm and sunny and I had some projects to do in the front yard, so it worked out to be the perfect day for the babies to see the outdoors for the very first time. There were lots of sites and sounds for them to experience, lawns being moewed, cars driving by, dogs barking, leaves burning, etc. Once the sun went behind a cloud they got chilly and were ready to head in. Several of the pups managed to climb up the two steps into our front door all on their own! Wish we were going to more days for them to be outside, but I can't imagine November will hand us too many more days like today.

Birthdays

Today is the 3 year birthdate of our first Dalmatian litter, so we want to with everyone a Happy Birthday!! There mother is Jazz (Ch Patchmt's Jazzin It Up,CD,RN,CC) and their father is Radar (Ch Proctor's Dappled Doppler). This litter consists of: Annie, Lexi, Lola, Mozart, Ranger, Romeo, Tonto, and Willow. Take care everyone.

Ms Raspberry

Ms Raspberry has a black patch under her right ear, so she won't ever get to be a conformation show dog, despite being a beautiful girl. Therefore, our first pet pick home has chosen her. Her AKC name will be Black Diamond Twilight and will be called, Yoshi by her family.

Meet Mr Black

Late night play

I attended the WWKC Board meeting tonight and got home late. Apparently the pups were waiting for me, I was only home for a few minutes before they were all up and playing. In this photo is Brown (front bottom left of photo), Red (above and to the left), Powder Blue (walking in front of LPatch girl), Liver Patch Girl (who wears the purple collar), Raspberry (center of photo), Green (with the orange toy) and Black (far right of photo) - missing from the photo (either in the potty room or sleeping room) are Orange & Royal Blue.

Brown = liver boy

Red = liver boy

Powder blue = liver girl

Purple = liver patch girl

Raspberry = black girl

Green = black boy

Black = black boy

Orange = liver boy

Royal Blue = black boy (with one blue eye)

Color Coded

This afternoon we put collars on each of the babies, officially assigning them their 'colors'. This week we will start taking individual photos of the pups with their colored collars on.

Graduation Day

The pups are now old enough that they have graduated to their new puppy box. This box starts to teach them many things, it gives them more room for walking, running and playing, it teaches them to go through small spaces (like doggy doors) and will help start their potty training. Hit PLAY to watch the short video tour of their new home.

Izza enjoys the new puppy box

As soon as we set up the puppy's new box, Izza took advantage of the bigger space for nursing. She seems pretty happy with the new arrangement.

Play time

The puppies are starting to learn how to growl, bark and play with each other. Of course, each time I grab the camera they stop making sounds. This video they are playing inside their sleeping crate trying to play with each other. This upcoming weekend they will move into their 'puppy box' which gives them a 4x5 play area, a 2x3 sleeping area and a 2x3 potty area.

Itchy puppy

This pup was barking and trying to chase his tail... right up until I grabbed the camera. Oh well. Hit the play button and you'll get to see a short video of some cuteness anyhow.

First Meal

I have today off from work so I decided it would be a good day to give the puppies their first meal. They received a 1/2 can of dog food and a cup of dry Blue Buffalo Chicken & Brown Rice Puppy food, mixed with warm water. As you can see, they enjoyed it! They had it all over themselves - the two who are missing from the photo were over on the side licking food off of each other as they were both coated quite well.

Monty heads to Montana

Today was a great day for Monty - he finally got to meet his very own family, Susan and Chuck. His new parents are very active, hiking, jogging, mt. biking and x-country skiing and they have always taken their Dals with them. He's going to have a very active and wonderful life! Hopefully he will love his new buddies as well, two kitties with lots of personality. We're hoping Chuck figures out how to send us the photo we took of the three of them before hitting the road (I forgot my camera and my phone, so we had to use Chuck's phone camera). We're also looking forward to updates about his new life as time goes by.

Happy babies

The babies are almost 3 weeks old and everyone is still doing great. Everyone's eyes are starting to open, although we still can't tell eye colors for sure yet. They are also starting to figure out that they are puppies, starting to bark and growl when playing with each other.