Happiness Is...

Going on a puppy outing with a great group of people and some amazing dogs!

(Snoopy - Peanuts litter, 23 month old goldendoodle; Terra - T litter, 5 month old poodle; Wyatt - W pup, 5 month old labradoodle; Tundra - T litter, 5 month old poodle; Vida - V litter, 5 month old goldendoodle)

Handling an amazingly sweet, easy to handle doodle in Advanced Training.

Then switching for the rest of the outing for a little 5 month old doodle who loves to walk fast and hold her tail high.

I'm home!

Puppy Pool

Don't forget to guess in the puppy pool! It will be closing soon and I want everyone to have a chance to win the $25 gift certificate. Guess breed, sex, color, month of arrival and first letter of name. You can also submit names for extra points.

Choosing Of Themes

This post is to answer the question from Erin (in Scotland!) about how themes are chosen for litters so here's a brief explanation.

Theme ideas are submitted to CAST, from raisers, graduates, supportors, etc. The litter is born, seen how many pups, boy/girl ratio and then an appropriate theme is chosen from the list. They have to ensure there is enough names and enough boy/girl names to make sure all the pups fit into the theme. The raisers are notified that they are slated for a pup from the litter and given a list of approved names, you submit your favorite three boy and favorite three girl names and you find out who you get when you pick up the pup and what name was chosen. You can also submit names that fit in theme and they'll decide if it will fit in the theme or not.

I hope that helps a little. There is no telling what theme will next, just have to wait and see after the pups are all born! (No litters that I know of as of yet, probably won't be for a while yet that another litter will be born)

A Whole New World

College is a waste of my time. Forgive me if you disagree, but I am not the sort of person to sit in a classroom/office all day and be happy. This term of accounting classes has made me see that I am not interested in going into accounting, at. all. The people are boring, the rules are boring, the classes are boring, it is boring. So, I am making a change. There are changes coming in our lives in the coming future and I am changing my major as well. I am going to go for early childhood education, I've always loved kids, always loved teaching and tutoring and love seeing little minds develop. The plan at this point is developing but I have already registered for the classes for next term and have plans in place to start a career that will work with whatever changes our family goes through.

This change is coming not only from being bored out of my mind with accounting but from other possibilities that have come up that we are hoping and praying will come true. All I can say is that maybe, just maybe, our dreams are finally going to come true!

And yes, we are still going to raise puppies and don't forget to get your puppy pool guesses in!

Mulligan

The good thing about pets are that we can call "mulligan" and start all over! Of course, it is harder to have to undo learned habits and behaviours and have to train correct behaviours and shape productive habits, but we can do it! So I've called "mulligan" with Eva and Rizzo.

Eva: Eva has started (not necessarily recently) thinking she can climb onto the furniture whenever she wants, although she does pause with her front feet on the couch or bed waiting to be told "no" but she is still instigating and not on our choice. That is a behaviour I have always disliked and so she is no longer allowed on the couches or bed except for in the early morning after Max gets up and she has about 10 minutes of cuddle time with me. We are also going to re-train her "go to bed" and work on her greetings and reaction when people (namely Ally) come over. She's a wild thing then and barks and jumps and spins and goes crazy so we're going to be working on her default being to go to her bed and waiting for pets there. She is also going to be transitioned to sleeping and being loose all the time. There really is no reason for her to be crated and it would make her much more comfortable to be able to relieve when she needs to instead of waiting until we wake up or get home, etc. She has been sleeping loose but it is time to start letting her be loose when we aren't home. She is perfect at night, not getting into anything and simply goes out when she needs to and then returns to her dog bed. That's on top of solidifying her basic obedience and a couple fun tricks.

Rizzo: Riz is awful about jumping on top of the furniture whenever she wants and doesn't listen very well to the "off" command. she is not allowed on furniture at all anymore and we will work with her on the "off" command. The main thing I'm going to be working with her on is crate training. Rizzo doesn't not like to be kenneled unless she's with Eva. She will do anything to get out and she knows that if she pees/poops on herself, she gets to come out. She doesn't do that when she's kenneled with Eva but since Eva is going to transition to being loose, Rizzo will have to be kenneled alone. Why don't we just let her be loose as well? Well, Rizzo will retaliate for us leaving her and it isn't fun to clean up. So getting her used to and accepting of being kenneled alone is the first step to get her to be loose as well. We will also be working on "go to bed" and basic obedience with her as well as walking on a loose leash. We will also be working on not barking at the door and socializing her more.

Revision to Puppy Pool

Alright, those of you who have guessed in the puppy pool, you are welcome to re-guess. Our puppy will be coming home sometime in 2011, will not be from the litter I mentioned before and who knows what letter/theme it will be! I'm, of course, more then ok with this, it gives me some more time to spend with my sweet Eva.

Happy guessing!

Change in Plans?

Max told me last night he would like to get Eva's urine sent to the oncologist in a month instead of in two months. Makes me happy! Depending on what is seen by the local vet we might just use it as a monitoring and still wait until January to send it to the oncologist but I'm happy that we may only have a month wait to know what's going on instead of two.

I'm not planning on changing puppy plans at all. It's not like we had a healthy dog and got this news, it just is what it is and we have to keep living and enjoy today. Today is a homework, training, full of classes, praticing my piano skills (in progress), laundry, dishes and cuddling with my girls watching movies sorta day!

Life Must Go On

No matter what news we get, life must go on. Yesterday we traveled to Ally's with Eva, Rizzo and Galaxy in tow. Grand total of dogs at Ally's yesterday: 7. It never felt like there were 7 dogs there which is saying something :-) Ally and I took the "puppies" and old lady (Tiki, Galaxy, Eva, Eclipse and Kira) outside and ran around with them and played the "come game." All of the pups did great, Kira didn't want to leave Ally's side.

Anyway, we hung out and then our older sister and her boyfriend came over with gluten-free lasagna, cake and phase 10! Fun times, fun times. I'm not too good at keeping secret what cards I have in my hand..... oops.

Now I'm exhausted from the whirlwind that's called my life the last couple of days and happy I got to sleep in thanks to DLS. Now it's off to spend some time with the three needy girls in my house and prepare for the future by enjoying today!

We Have A Plan

After 32 hours of getting to process it and an in-person consult with our vet and looking at the blood results we have a plan. We've spent $400 at the vet on just Eva and Rizzo over two days and it's another almost $100 just to have the oncologist look at her urine and gather what they can from that. Our vet wants us to go to the oncologist but for now, we aren't doing anything. Eva is still Eva, her body is still her body and she's still got a poor prognosis. The only thing that has changed is we know there are more questions that need answered and more tests that we can do and there may be an option for us to fight it.

The plan at this point is to wait until January (the first week) repeat the U/A down here and make sure the cells are still in her urine. We will also do a water deprivation test to see where her kidneys are truly at and if the cells are still there will take the 2.5 hour trip to the oncologist and see what they say. Like I said yesterday, we will not fight it. If it is cancer, it has been progressing for 2 years and is the likely cause of her decreased kidney function. Eva is happy right now, she's doing great. I'm not going to give her drugs to make her miserable and risk killing her with those drugs to treat something that is killing her.

For now, we love Eva and treat her like a normal, healthy dog for the next 2 months. Then, we go from there. We hope to find out what it is, where it is and how bad it is so we can make an educated decision on what to do and know what to look for. Eva will tell us when she's done, whatever the cause is and we will listen to her.

Cancer?

No smiles now..... they think the cells they saw in Eva's UA are tumor cells. They want to send them off to an oncologist......

We won't fight it.......

Say What

Eva weighs in at a whopping 47 pounds! The vet was shocked that we got her to gain weight and was very happy with her overall physical condition. She does have some very infected ears that he showed us how to take care of and I might try her on a homemade food again to see if that helps. We'll see what she needs for a diet tomorrow after we get her blood results back and take in her urine sample. We are planning another check-up, bloodwork and an ultrasound in April 2011.

So all outward signs say she's doing great, now just to see what her blood says. :-)

Keeping Myself Busy

Not even two weeks into this break and a large part of me and my life feels empty without a puppy in a jacket by my side. So, after sending an email to the puppy raising list begging for suggestions, I have a plan to help the time go by faster. I have written out some goals for my doggies, first part is happening tomorrow with both of them going to the vet and getting needed procedures done and training already in progress. I have a list of commands and tricks I want to teach each dog before the pup comes and I want to get some manners instilled in Riz quickly. I have college and some goals around the house I want to finish before the pup comes and some personal goals. I have a puppy blanket I'm making that I need to finish soon and some supplies to get. It also helps that there's a couple really cute little black girls I can watch (Galaxy is visiting this weekend!) whenever I really need a puppy fix.

All those things are just bandages though, I need me a permanent fix! Of course the founding mothers of Canine Angels are really good at keeping puppy plans and news quiet and keeping me on my toes. I've done all I can to get news out of them and their lips are sealed!

Contest

Wow, talk about a discombobulated post! So here is a new post with the guidelines written out more clearly and the possibilities!

Guess sex, breed, color, month of arrival and first letter of first name. 1 point for each correct part.

Names can be submitted for extra points. If I choose one of the names you submit for my puppy you get 2 extra points if it is not already on my name list.

Total possible points = 7

Sex: male, female
Breed: lab, golden retriever, poodle, labradoodle, goldendoodle, lab/golden cross
Color: yellow, black, chocolate, apricot

Puppies may be donated at any point and of any age. We are trying to get a pup from a litter of 2 FBLs, 2 FCLs and 3 MCLs that were born 10/30/10 donated. If I don't get a donated pup the next breedings are planned for spring 2011.

Prize: $25 gift card to the store (online or in person) of your choice.

Guessing will be open until 11/30/10 unless I recieve a puppy before that! You can guess on any post on this blog, no specific post required.

Oh My Word!

How in the world did I wait 11 months, 12 months, 19 months and 3 months before/between my puppies!?! Charlie has been at CST for all of 9 days and I'm dieing without a puppy! I can't wait to get my little guy/girl and have the best year with them, both of us learning and growing and teaching together! To be honest, I'm dieing for news of my next puppy and am hoping it's just a short couple more weeks before my pup is in our home and it feels complete here.

I might as well start a puppy pool, lets try this. Guess what breed, sex, color and month my next puppy will come home and you'll win a $25 gift card to the store of your choice!

Here's some information to help you guess:
"Xerox", the little black lab puppy we did the fundraising for came from a wonderful breeder in Montana. On Sunday she had another litter that we are hoping to get a puppy from, just waiting on some confirmation. Anyway, the litter contains 2 female black labs, 2 female chocolate labs and 3 male chocolate labs.

Of course there is always the possibility of a different puppy being donated to CAST before then.

If CAST does get a donated puppy it will be at least a "Y" puppy, if not "Z" or starting the alphabet over with "A."

Another option is that next spring there may be a couple litters bred by CAST in which case the litter would be themed. The Space Litter dam was in heat a couple weeks ago and it appears has about 6 months between heat cycles. The other breeder for CAST I'm not sure of her heat cycles. Both are golden retrievers and may be bred with another golden, lab or poodle.

So with that information, let the guessing begin! I will enable comment moderation so guesses will be hidden.

Extra points for submitting names not already on my donated puppy name list for the letters "Y", "Z", "A" & "B". *

Guesses should include sex, breed, color and month of arrival. Extra points for names not on the list. The most points once our puppy arrives wins, 2 extra points if I choose a name you submit!

*I want to see what you come up with for names so won't be posting my name lists just yet.

I did it!

Eva and Eclipse will be at the vet on Thursday November 4 at 8:20 am. Eva will be getting her blood work done and possibly an ultrasound. I really want to see what is going on in there, does she have underdeveloped, malformed or missing kidneys? Eva we aren't too nervous about, she's doing great, gaining weight and feeling a little too well sometimes ;-) Eclipse is a little more stressful. We need to get a baseline for where he is and see if his kidneys have declined in functionality since he was last tested 14 months ago. It's a strange feeling for me going in to the vet with more concern about Ally's dog then my own, it's usually she's going with me for support as we brace ourselves for more bad news on _______.