Checking Out the Rain

Just because we have puppies the crew isn't forgotten. They still get their exercise, loves, cuddles, brushing and games. Even at bedtime we have one on one with each. As a mom and dad of 7 kids, we realize how important it is to make sure everyone counts - visitors included.

Th red one in the picture is Teddy - a Havapoo and the grey one is a Havanese called Oreo that turned various shades of grey instead of the black and white it started out as. This is a Kat/Lola pup. I am interested to see if any of the Wasabi/Kat pups turn similar.

Then of course the one nuzzling the statue is our Treasured one. This trio is having a roaring grand time rolling around as pups usually do. It's exciting to have such activity.

Our two sons have pitched in to help with play/walks and watching pups while we do mundane things like showers. one has to do THAT...

Oh..and there is that grooming thing. I have worked my way through half of them today. I will get the rest this afternoon. Even our visitors - after the first time now wait their turn. The trick..the treat at the end. :-)

PS: Puppy Saga is going on at Talemaker Puppy Life.

Picnic - Wasabi & More

The picnic was a blast and we at Talemaker want to say to Yvonne, Alex, Rita and Willard bravo - we will have ours in August and to all those that brought food, helped out and had great conversation with - well we enjoyed it.

I suspected Wasabi was in early stages of labour. I was right. In the car she started pushing. Her labour was not hard but she wasn't pushing all that hard. Last time was a c-section so this was new to her. It was great that she went natural.

Follow us at Talemaker Puppy Life as we continue this saga. We will be updating it with pix shortly and telling you about puppies and how life changes with them.

WE are tired but enjoying those dogs that are with us and the pups and making the most of living and loving the dogs despite the lack of sleep and food but hey I can use less of THAT...

Hope you enjoy the picnic pics. It took all day as I had to edit each to reduce the size but otherwise I did nothing to them.

Check out the picnic slideshow. We hope you enjoy!

Puppies Getting Born

Stay tuned for photos and the story about it on Talemaker Puppy Life including Wasabi being in labour on her way home. Not done yet...

Mom's real tired and a total mess from delivery... but baths much later...

More tomorrow!

Taking the Plunge

Ah...pool life - we have it so ruff...

When Daddy dives in the pool, so does Kat but there is a whole lot of activity going on when he does this.

The dogs run around like banshees till he hits the water and then they still run around till he surfaces.

Risa jumps on the diving board with him but never goes in till invited.

Every now and then another dog spills in or shall I say jumps in but not in the fashion Kat does. For him it's a passion.

Diving or jumping in even for human young ones is not always easy.

You have to be fearless about it. Not all of us are like that. Some need to work into it.

Then the crew watches as everyone comes out.

Doesn't Treasure fit nicely under Terra?

Well - is today the day Wasabi delivers? Daddy is trying to feed her..she panted though not badly all night - she's tried to nest under the deck - all signs...but follow us at Talemaker Puppy Life to see when they make their debut.

We will be posting photos and telling you how it all went.

Double Trouble

Can it happen twice? What do you mean?

When gals are intact, they come into heat usually every 5 or 6 months. Well, not Fiona - she's back in heat after 2 months.

What timing. See what you are missing? NOT!

It is what it is....

Wasabi is still in waiting... I am hoping for Sunday morning after much rest. ROFL

Again... It is what it is!

We will be posting everything puppies when they come on the puppy area at.....Talemaker Puppy Life

Just know - we are waiting too!

Wet Havanese Equals Fun

Today was a hot, hot day that hasn't started to cool down yet. We decided to pool it and the human mom will work tonight. This is how we survive - heh

Treasure, Kat, Shoshi, Fiona and Risa all went into the pool today.

If you haven't taken your Havanese swimming yet - well it sort of gets them in high drive - the wet skin and all.

Treasure was running around like a banshee up and down chairs and all around.

You can click on the photos to see a larger version, if you want.

She's not the only one that loves the wet and now that Risa and Shoshi has a haircut, well the human mom can ask the human dad to brush away and it only takes him minutes.

The mom still had to dry Kat, Fiona and partially dry Treasure but cutting out two sure saved me time. These short haircuts are nice...heh

Wasabi also hung out at the pool and did her usual snoozing. Check it out here. When will she deliver? We are taking bets....heh

After the pool was done, we pressure washed the deck now that all the weeds are gone - well gone around the pool.

We still have to weed the rest of the yard but we aren't looking if you aren't.

We are getting excited about having new little ones here. We haven't had any for a long time.

We had much to get ready but now it's all done. Even the video camera is charged.

Tired Havanese

It's a day of all days here - so much rain and so many Havanese - especially that FIONA that won't leave me alone - play play - play all day and then they can't figure out why I sleep with my head up against the wall.

Then Mommy has to take a silly photo of me.

It's the day before I get shown - maybe as a special and oh-hum - it's way too much. They said I have to show out in the rain.

Mommy says - thankfully I have great structure as this wet conformation contest wouldn't do but mud..what about that?

Someone did tell me that on spa days they do mud packs all over the body but I envision something entirely different than this.

Well it is what it is...and pray for Mommy's sanity as she will be doing the clean up.

Wasabi also went to her appointment and you will have to see how many puppies they saw. She has her own blog for her and the pups you know...

Reducing Havanese Output

Yike gad..what is she talking about NOW?!! Well, it's a subject that is trendy as it's a 'green' tip.

To get your Havanese the healthiest they can be, consider feeding a high quality dog food that is typically found at a specialty pet store or online.

Because these foods have less preservatives and fillers, your pet will excrete less waste. That makes clean-up quicker and easier. Your Havanese will enjoy a healthier, more nutritious diet and you have less mess to deal with!

By feeding a diet that is of quality, your dog's hair will be healthier, shinier etc Hair is an indicator of health at times.

Remember the term, garbage in - garbage out? Well in this case, it's talking about that hair on your Havanese.

Well off to brush dogs and wash some. It's raining so I wonder why but a dirty coat mats/knots easily and a clean one - even wet doesn't tend to.

PS: we are setting up Wasabi's whelping box today and capturing her reactions. We will be posting on the puppy site called Talemaker Puppy Life all about it. This is where we are posting everything from pregnancy to pups to home. You'll find the rest of our lives exposed right here.

Running in Step Havanese

Last night we had Treasure and Katsura at handling class and no one was there yet so we let them off lead to have a run. You can't do this unless you have an excellent recall. Both of these dogs have done the Total Recall class and we reinforce their recall always. That doesn't mean if something totally distracts them that they will listen to you immediate but it's pretty darn close.

That means Nathan stands on one end - me the other just to have that level of voice barrier and still with excellent recall, you let them off far from the street. We simply don't take chances.

Last night the duo was rip roaring around chasing each other and Treasure loves the game especially with Kat but she also has learned to cut him off and he seems to enjoy that she figured that one out. If you look at the photo, they are perfectly in sync with each other. It's a delight to watch them.

If you are not already doing so, do follow Wasabi's pregnancy through to her puppies going to their homes. Her tummy is ever growing and you can now feel puppy bumps.

Talemaker Havenese Craziness Evolves

Treasure is off to handling class tonight as she has a show not this weekend but next. She knows her stuff but it is always good to practice, practice and perfect. We are working on getting all the waiting to be fun. Will we manage it? Time will tell.

If you haven't noticed, in the right hand column, we started an area just to talk about Wasabi, her pregnancy - the pups when they arrive and all the fun till they go home.

All the dawgs count around this place so anything non preggie or pup related when they arrive will be here.

You may want to read both but for those that just want a look into what it takes to do this breeding business emotional and otherwise and want to see puppy photos, look at what sort of date to date status Wasabi is at and much more, well visit us at Talemaker Puppy Life.

Abigail's Almost There

Last night Darlah bathed no less than three dogs: Abigail, Fiona and Treasure.

This morning we picked up our friend Val at 7:00am and then headed for Simcoe, Ontario. Today was Abigail's day.

In spite of the fact she's in heat and dealing with the fact that Kat wants her as much as she wants him, she was wonderful in the show ring. She won Winner's Bitch, then Best of Winner's and Best of Opposites picking up two more points towards her championship.

She needs just two more to finish. She's almost there! Val helped. Rita helped on lead when I had to show two dogs at once. Darlah helped most of all by doing a wonderful job on Abigail's coat even though its still growing back. And right now as I'm typing this Darlah is doing it all over again in anticipation of tomorrow's show.
Nathan

Shakin' and Rollin' Havanese

Well today is almost weekend time and Jazmyn, Lola and Marlee are going home and Risa is coming home. Lots of baths and sad Havanese but Rufus will be here for the weekend starting tomorrow and then Gina goes to her handler - sniff and Ruby and Louis will be coming. We even get Lil' Man now known as Milo back next month for a visit. We can't wait.

There's never a dull moment around this place. Treasure can attest to that as she shakes her head after coming off of a huge play session.

Catch you tomorrow with purty photos of our clean Havanese visitors going home.

Visitors at Talemaker

We had the pleasure of meeting Rufus.

If you remember, Yvonne's Lola and our Katsuro had a tryst and this is one of their pups. Doesn't he look like he has Kat's face. Side by side you could tell who dad is.

It was a tad overwhelming for Rufus with this crazy crew but after introducing him one on one and then opening up the house to all - he was more than fine.

We tend to do the 'one on one' with all so they can see that each are not a threat and then the crowd doesn't overwhelm. It's a good process but every now and then we forget or someone shows up when we don't have the dogs away and we have to create that environment.

He didn't even have an issue with the big guys and tried to get the chew away from Terra. It was a riot. He's going to be more than fine here when he comes to stay for a week.

You can see him saying - hmm shall I try? He hesitated and then went for it. Terra just turned away and it was impossible for the little one to get it but if we had longer with him, Terra would have played tug with him.

Rita was also here delivering her last pup to its new home. She met the potential owner here and they took the little one home. Yvonne dropped in. It was a busy house today and tomorrow we get to go to Beths to get Treasure.

One more update in the morning and not another til lFriday night when we get back with Treasure and Blazin'. Exciting times or what?

Havanese Smells & Baths

We had a bit of a glitch and I posted a long post that disappeared so let's try this again...

Abs was out today between the rain looking for Lola. She hadn't been groomed yet so what you see is all natural.

There's something about Lola wafting through the air. Lola just had a bath and I sprayed a finishing spray on her that smells like cologne.

Kat reacted to the smell too - not over the top but highly interested as she smelt good. It tells me that they are guided by their noses.

If you want to know how so - well read a post I had written last year here.

Wasabi and Lola was out strutting their stuff but what they were doing was investigating who was doing what where. It's an interesting subject - men being led by their noses - oops dogs being led by their noses but us ladies like things that smell good too.

Highlights: Abs & Fiona & Nathan

It's harder than you think. Where's that tail? Gad - do they have to make those banging sounds - X doesn't like it.

More Photos later...still sick but getting better and Yvonne's dogs are coming here for a month - are we excited or WHAT!