Beautiful Day

It is absolutely gorgeous here today.  28C.

I am getting a ton of stuff done around the house.

The girls and I took a break to go play in the ponds for awhile.

And now the view from my front door.  So peaceful.

Nebraska Musings

I had a great time in Lincoln, Nebraska!!

I ran 4 dogs in the Open and got a second place with Arson!!!  Thanks to Brad & Diane for giving me the privilege of running this great dog.  Two Open seconds and an Amateur WIN in two week-ends with three different handlers is pretty cool.

Click on the picture above for a bigger view of the last series.  There was 13 dogs invited to the last series and only two did it without handling, double handling or picking up.  Of course, one of those two was Arson!

The pic is not a view from the line...the line was quite a bit to the right and about 40 yards up from the first channel of water.  The long right hand bird (about 375 yrds) was shot first and it was visible under the arc of the flyer.  Both long birds retired.  Getting dogs to look tight past a flyer station and across a huge piece of water was very difficult for some handlers.  The left hand bird (about 275) was shot second and the short flyer on the point was shot third.  Dogs were handling and picking up on both long birds.

Of course, the white van was NOT there during the test.  :-)

The Derby was also fun.  I started 3 dogs and got a 4th place with my very own Miss. LIBBY and a JAM with Goose.  That's two starts and two placements for the Wibbster.

I learned a lot, made some mistakes and had great fun.

So Nervous

I'm off to a field trial tomorrow.

It's not my first trial, it's not even my first trial alone...but it's my FIRST trial alone as a PRO.  Kenny is staying home and I'm taking 7 dogs to Lincoln, Nebraska. 

I'm pretty nervous.

One dog I'm taking, "Arson", was second in the Open and WON the Amateur last week-end, so no pressure...no pressure at all.

And a fun picture of our Derby warriors from the Kansas City trial.

First place was Riot, who's a riot, and second and third were my little Elmingo dogs Libby and Zink.

Sleuth

Tartan Mystery Man of Elmingo

Meet Sleuth!  He is another adorable puppy from the Prize x Darbi litter.  He was known to me as "Blue".

Prize had very well endowed ears, and so does Darbi (who both have the large-eared Lean Mac in their pedigree).  I don't think there's any question that these pups will have good sized ears.

A big congrats to Meg (Elmingo's Prime Suspect - Prime x Darbi), for getting a third place in the Qualifying at the Jayhawk trial!!

Missouri Pictures

Some random pictures of the past couple weeks.

A BIG congrats to Elmingo's Pacific Eider MH (Shaq x Miikka-2007) who became Qualified All-Age at a trial in BC last week-end!!  The Miikka/Shaq pups have had a great couple of weeks.

A picture of Stanley and me running puppy marks.  Stanley is also a Shaq pup and he is quite the character.  Notice our choice of retrieving items that particular day.

Miss Yellow from Darbi's recent litter is now "Asia" (Elmingo's Shanghai Surprise).  She is now in Ontario with her new owner and doing wonderful.

And while Asia was showing off her great retrieving skills, Ahti demonstrates what she does best.  That is sleeping on my dirty training shoes.

Libby is becoming all grown up!  She is running land and water blinds, multiple marks with retired guns and is still an all out clown.  She looks so much like mommy Miikka that it's eerie sometimes.  Libby is really starting to come on in training and it looks like she and I will have much fun at field trials in the years to come.

We've been training in Missouri this week and last.  Nice to get out of the Texas heat.  The property is gorgeous!  This is just one of the many ponds on the place we are training at.  This property is owned by Bill and Becky Eckett.

There are quite a few resident geese at Blackwater Retrievers.  This one stood out.

And introducing Otto (Horsetooth's Otto Know).  He is by FC AFC Dare To Dream and out of a QAA female.  He is one week older then Stanley and an absolutely wonderful puppy.

Now you know why it's called Marcy's Daycare at training sometimes.  These little guys are a full time job.

Good week-end!

A great week-end for Elmingo at the Kansas City Field Trial.

Turq (Prime x Darbi 2008) got a third in the Qualifying.  Yeah Turq!!

And Miss Libby got a SECOND in her first Derby.  Her brother Zink was third.  Nice thing was that Kenny won with Riot, so Horsetooth had 1, 2, 3 in the Derby.

Darbi ran very, very well in the Open.  The land blind especially, was her shining moment.  It was very difficult and lots of dogs picked up.  She did it in only 3 whistles and worked her butt off for me.  Unfortunately she was dropped after the water blind.  She has only been back in training a couple weeks, so we were very proud of her.

Pictures coming soon!!

Cowboy Up

I'm finally back on line!!

Yeah!!

We have arrived in Missouri and will spend the next week or so training and running a trial.

I got an update and some pictures from "Red's" new owners.  They say he is doing great!

He is now known as "Spur" and will be formally called Elmingo's Lone Ranger.

We sure miss him here, but it looks like he is having a ball!!

No blogging for a bit

WE (my significant other*hint*) broke the air card. No internet other then my iPhone until we get back to Colorado.

The puppies have all gone to their new homes other then the one staying with me, Miss Pink. Apparently I blogged mostly pictures of her, so no one was surprised she was the pup I decided to keep.

Her name is: Elmingo's Tick A Tee Boo and she is known as Ahti (I pronounce it Addy). Tick A Tee Boo is yet another racehorse once owned by my Grandparents.

Ahti is the Finnish god of water, so I thought the name was fitting for her.

Pics when I get Internet on my computer again. :-(

One down...

...four to go.

Mr. Orange left for his new home today.  His new owners drove down from Colorado to pick him up.  I hope they have a quiet drive home.

We've had a very busy week, so sorry for the lack of pictures.  Lots of clients in training and long days in the field.

Of course the puppies came with us every day.  They were always close to the action and were out of their pen between tests so they could explore and play.

The pups were also introduced to water this week.  Although it was muddy water, it had a firm bottom and was actually "running" water for the pups.  The temperature was a balmy 30C, so it was a perfect time to show them that water felt nice and cool.  I stood on the other side of the channel and we coaxed them back and forth.

They thought it was great fun!!  A few pups even went swimming in the deeper end of the channel.

And the unofficial "sixth" puppy, Miikka, enjoyed it as well.

Sigh.

We joked that the puppies were "little rich kids" as they had so many toys.

The tunnel is a big hit, as it is with all my litters.  They spend oodles of time running in and out of it.

Way to go Elmingo Kids

Congrats to two Elmingo kids.

Elmingo's Prime Suspect (Prime x Darbi) got a Reserve JAM in the Qualifying in Louisiana.  This was Meg's first US Qualifying.

and

Elmingo's Little Man (Shaq x Miikka) got a third in the Derby in his first Derby, also in Louisiana.  Zink is only 15 months old (Libby's littermate) and has all summer and fall to run Derbies.

Way to go kids!!

Sleepy Heads

Busy day for the wee ones.

I think they'll sleep soundly tonight.

They love their new Sponge Bob digs and are fully "potty box" trained.

Website!

My website is down.

I need to renew my domain.  Whoops.  One has to renew every few years and I just forgot.

I'm on it...I promise.

Random pictures

I love frog legs.  It is even cuter on puppies.

The babies are loving training!  We make sure they are comfortable and in the shade in the heat.  We let them out to play a couple of times a day and they entertain the whole training group.

Here is little Stanley checking out the pups.

Speaking of Stanley...I thought I should introduce him.  He is a 12 week old pup I bought out of California.  His sire is FC AFC Wood River's Franchise (same sire as Libby) and his mother is the very nice AFC Flyway's Ruby B Gonia.  I am very excited about this pup.  Here he is shown chasing his first live duck.

And he had no problem with it.

And oh ya...Kenny and I got married yesterday.

:-)

Miss Libby

Libby was going to run her first derby next week-end in Louisiana.

She came into season last week.

Oh well, she could use more training.

She's coming along real nice and looks like she's going to be a fun dog for me.

Unfortunately Libby is going to have to be spayed.  She will not pass an eye CERF.  I wanted to let her have one heat cycle and we're going to spay her as soon as it's convenient.

She's one of the reasons why I'm a little leery about getting puppy eye CERFs.  Her condition should have been caught at her eye CERF at 7 weeks old, but it wasn't.  It happens.  CERF vets are humans too, and the puppy's eyes are changing so much at that age.  I've always gotten puppy eye CERFs and probably always will though.

A bit heartbreaking for me as she's the first pup I've kept out of one of my breedings.  But, she marks great and can see fine.  I'll have a nice trial dog where I won't have to worry about heat cycles after this one.

I wouldn't trade her for the world.

Save You $$$

Darbi loves her Gallery Furniture T-Shirt.

Training days

I'll post more pics/videos soon...I promise!!

Pups have come to training with us for 2 days now.  They stay in an x-pen and have a blast.  They are obviously becoming well socialized to gun shots, 4-wheelers, dogs barking, etc. etc.  They haven't turned a hair with this all going on.

And the pups have moved in to their new digs as well.  I use a "potty box" with my litters and they learn to go potty in one area and play/sleep in another.  This litter is catching on to the potty box concept faster than any other litter I've had.  It's a win/win as they learn to stay clean and I have an easy job of cleaning up after them.

I'll post pics and/or a video tomorrow.

Darbi is still nursing, but only once a day now.  She stills hangs out with the puppies more often then that, as I put a t-shirt on her at the other times.  This lets her spend time with her brood without being chased around relentlessly.  Another win/win.

Pups are always fun, and I think it's because of the beautiful weather and the ability to have them outside all the time, but this litter is just so easy.

Didn't take long

Darbi went in to nurse this evening and jumped out when they latched on.  And it happened twice more.

Then she gave me the stink eye.

I got it loud and clear...full steam ahead with the weaning.

On a cute note, yellow jumped out of the whelping box (more like crawled and strained) just to poop on my carpet.  She was trying to be clean.  It was precious (other than the poop part).  So pups will be moved to their new digs where they will have a "potty" box in the next day or so.  It teaches them to be clean and are much easier to housebreak that way.

Weaning

The puppies are in the process of weaning.

Sort of.

Usually at about 3 1/2 to 4 weeks, I introduce the pups to moistened puppy kibble.  I wait until their mother hasn't nursed them for awhile and then present it to them.  Sometimes they take right to it, and sometimes they sit in it, play in it and basically do everything except eat it for a few days.  During this time, the mom has as much access to the pups as she wants.  I continue these once or twice daily feedings until momma looks at me and says "they are yours now".  And thus, we would begin full fledged weaning.

This particular litter took right to the puppy kibble.  First day, they ate it all up.  And so I started feeding them every day, twice a day.  The moms usually back off at this point and I pick up the slack with feedings.  Darbi hasn't backed off much yet.  She hasn't regurgitated any food for them (normal for my two girls) and is still spending time in the whelping box and letting them nurse regularly.

I believe in gradual weaning and doing it at mom's pace.  It seems Darbi isn't ready to start full-fledged weaning yet, so I will continue with our schedule of daily kibble feedings to get them used to the food.  She will tell me when she's ready by throwing up some food for them, or letting them nurse for only short periods before jumping away (those sharp puppy teeth!).  She still goes in and lays down and falls asleep with them.

I can't say enough what a great mom she is and raising pups out of her is just too easy.

She'll be ready soon enough though...it's almost time.

Outside Playtime

Puppies are starting to go outside a few times a day now.

I'll tell you, it's different for me to have a litter NOT in the middle of winter.  This is a first for me.  In the past, I've had to plop them in a snowbank for 5 minutes at a time to introduce them to the great outdoors. they were not happy campers.

It was 28 degrees C today and they were outside several times.  Once for a couple hours...when it cooled down to 22C.  What a treat!!

They were initially overwhelmed by being outside their whelping box at first, but now they seem to enjoy their time in the sun.  I can't wait to take them for little adventure walks and puddle jumps in the coming weeks.

Bright and Early

First thing in the morning is one of the most active times of the day for the puppies.

So, I took this video as soon as I got out of bed.  The whelping box hadn't been cleaned (excuse the mess), and I most certainly hadn't had my first cup of coffee yet.

I wanted to share what I wake up to every morning.  It is SO much fun.

Chicken

While Darbi is well over her chicken fetish...I still don't have the heart to take it out of the box.

More Video

The little guys are becoming more active every day.

And Darbi is spending less time with them every day.

Unsteady Gait

The puppies are starting to walk short distances, although on wobbly feet.

They still sleep most all of the time, but in about a week, they will start becoming very fun and active.

A Prime daughter

I got this picture of "Harper".  She is a Prime x Darbi daughter and has a fabulous life in Alaska.

Harper is on the right in the photo and is pictured hunting with her buddy Skeeter.

Good Bye Prime

FC AFC Tartan Prime Time

2001-2011

Prime (left) winning the Amateur at Centennial in 2009.

Darbi (right) getting the second in the Amateur behind Prime.

He was unbeatable that day.  And on many other days.

It's hard to find the words to say how sad I was to hear that Prime passed away 2 days ago.

He was special to me in so many ways.

I first met Prime when I loaded Darbi into my car and made the 16 hour drive to Colorado to breed her to him.  What most impressed me about Prime was his consistency.

I would not know for some time after that breeding, but that road trip changed my life in so many ways.  I got to see Prime every day the past year or so and it was still his consistency that awed me.  He shared a special relationship with his owner Barb and it was an honor to watch them run as a formidable team.

Prime placed in the last Open he ever ran last year and I was there to see it.

He leaves a legacy with many, and most of all in his many "kids".  I was fortunate enough to have 7 great pups by him and although they have big paws to fill, I hope they make their daddy proud.

My heartfelt condolences to Prime's family, Barb & Jim Howard.