Munchy Monday: An Introduction to Life’s Abundance

June 12, 2017January 2, 20191 Comment

Ok, so I know it’s not Monday, but this is an introduction to a series I’ll be doing called Munchy Mondays for the next few weeks.

I hope you all had a great start to your week! We are in the middle of a very hot week here. Welcome, summer!

This week is the puppies’ four week milestone, and that is when I am planning to introduce them to solid food! (Mushy food may be a better description.) Those of who you have been reading my blog for a while may have noticed I recently added information about Life’s Abundance dog food. I decided since I will be starting the puppies on food this week, that this would be a great time to introduce you all to Life’s Abundance and why we have decided to make the switch! I’ll try to keep the post relatively brief, but I have a lot of information I’d like to pack in here. So be patient with me if I get a bit lengthy! 🙂

Our journey with dog nutrition began during Mia’s first pregnancy. At that point, we were feeding Purina, thinking that is was a good food for her. Purina is a well-known, popular brand of food. I, like so many others, assumed that because it was so popular and well-marketed, that it must be a good quality food for my dog. During Mia’s pregnancy, I began to take a big interest in nutrition and its effect on dogs, pregnancy, and long-term health. I found a super helpful website called Dog Food Advisor. I was shocked to see that Purina Dog Chow was ranked as a 1-star dog food.

When I read further into why it was rated so poorly, I immediately decided my dog would NEVER eat Purina again. Let me give you a brief overview of why Purina Dog Chow is one of the worst dog foods out there. (You can read more details here from Dog Food Advisor.) The main ingredient is corn. Dogs cannot digest corn. It’s of little nutritional value to them, so it’s basically a worthless filler. This is the FIRST ingredient! The second ingredient is meat and bone meal, which is hard for dogs to digest, making it a very poor choice for protein content. Also, this ingredient is “anonymous,” meaning it’s any combination of animals. This is not a good mark for food; because if there’s an allergy, it’s impossible to pin point if you don’t know what exactly your food is made of. The third ingredient is corn gluten meal. Remember what I said about corn? This is basically used to boost the protein count on the nutrition label; but corn is a poor choice for protein for dogs, because they can’t digest it! Purina also has artificial coloring and no probiotics, and the ingredients don’t really improve any further down on the list.

If you’re using Purina, I highly recommend you STOP. I was unaware of how poor this food is, and I can definitely say we have seen big differences in over-all health since switching. There are so many better choices out there.

It was over a year later until we found Life’s Abundance. During that time, we tried a few different brands of food with varying opinions. Beaverdam- average food, no complaints. Diamond- gave our dogs diarrhea. Victor- good quality, the high protein mix is nice for our hunting dogs, but no large breed puppy for Jade when she was growing. It was during Mia’s last litter that we started using Life’s Abundance, and we love it!

Here are some things we have noticed in our dogs during the past two years since switching to higher quality food.

Less poop! All that corn filler in Purina makes for a lot of undigestible waste that creates big piles of poo. Nutrient- dense food can be fully absorbed with minimal waste output. 🙂
More consistent poop- When on Purina, Mia would frequently battle diarrhea. Since changing her diet, this no longer happens!
Less food- When eating a food with a lot of poor quality ingredients and fillers, our dogs needed to eat a lot more to be satisfied. With better food, the amount of food they need to eat in a day noticeably decreased.
Beautiful fur- I didn’t think about this too much until we got Timber as an adult. I’m not sure what he had been fed before, but it clearly wasn’t very good. His coat was dull and rough. After just two months on a better diet, his coat is shiny and MUCH softer.
Energy! Our dogs have endless energy and stamina. I can tell that they simply feel good! So many people comment on how much endurance our dogs have. When other dogs come to play, my dogs are usually still running and playing long after the others have flopped down in the shade for a rest.

These are only things I can see from the outside, but I’m sure there is so much going on inside, as well, as a result of good nutrition.

As a comparison to Purina, here are the first few ingredients of Life’s Abundance. The quotes below are taken from Dog Food Advisor’s review of Life’s Abundance food.

“Chicken meal is considered a meat concentrate and contains nearly 300% more protein than fresh chicken.”
“The second ingredient is ground brown rice, another name for rice flour. Ground rice is made from either white or brown rice and is considered a gluten-free substitute for wheat flour.” All of Life’s Abundance food is free of corn gluten and wheat gluten. Many foods use gluten to boost the protein content of their foods, because protein is so essential for a dog’s diet. However, the protein contained in gluten is incomplete for a dog’s nutritional needs.
Oat groats come in as the third ingredient. They are a gluten free whole grain.
Chicken fat is next. The primary fat source in dog food should be animal-based because canines derive significant nutrition from these fats. While vegetable oils may sound healthier, dogs actually need the specific nutrients found in animal fats that are not available in vegetable sources. Dog Food Advisor says, “Chicken fat is high in linoleic acid, an omega-6 fatty acid essential for life. Although it doesn’t sound very appetizing, chicken fat is actually a quality ingredient.”

Also, Life’s Abundance food contains flaxseed meal, “one of the best plant-based sources of healthy omega-3 fatty acids” and fish oil which “is naturally rich in the prized EPA and DHA type of omega-3 fatty acids.” Life’s Abundance does NOT contain artificial colors or flavors.

I’m sure you can see now how great this food is, but we need to pause for a confession.

There was one thing that I didn’t like when we left Purina behind, and that was the cost. Purina and other poor-quality foods come with a low price tag, which is nice for a family on a budget. Any high quality food costs more, but I like to think of it as an investment. It’s something that is more expensive now, but the long-term benefits will be worth it. The two main things I take into consideration are these: First, our dogs eat less of a high quality food. The cost per pound may be more, but they won’t eat as much. Second, with proper nutrition, our vet bills will probably be less over time, because our dogs will be healthier. In my mind, those two things help to close the price gap.

So, why Life’s Abundance? Aren’t there many other good brands of food? Yes, there other quality foods on the market. We chose Life’s Abundance for a couple of reasons. One thing we really like about Life’s Abundance is that we can get almost all of our dog care products directly from them- food, treats, dental chews, supplements, shampoo, and ear cleaner. They have a wide variety of dog (and cat!) products, all of which I can trust to be safe and healthy options. We also chose Life’s Abundance, because it helps us as a business. We are an Independent Field Representative, and we are able to advertise and sell Life’s Abundance products. When you buy through us, we get a small commission from that sale at no extra charge to you. We use this commission for our purchase of food, treats, and supplements for our dogs. (Just to give you an idea, we typically use over 100 pounds of dog food every month.)

Whew, I think I’ll stop there for now! That’s a lot of information to digest, but I hope you find it helpful when it comes to caring for your pets. If you have any questions about Life’s Abundance products, please contact me! Over the next few weeks, I will be posting Munchy Monday blog posts highlighting different Life’s Abundance products that we recommend; so if you are interested, please follow my blog to see the posts. Have a blessed week!

Puppy Update- Two Weeks

June 3, 2017Leave a comment

We are two weeks in and everyone is doing well! I am so grateful for how smoothly things have gone. Mia is an excellent mother, as usual. Her babies stay clean and very well fed. They have grown quite a bit since birth. The pigment has come into their noses and paw pads, their eyes have opened, and they are just beginning to walk. They used to propel themselves in a swimming motion to get around, but they are now figuring out how to get those little legs underneath them. In the past couple days, I have begun to see them interact and play with each other. It’s very cute to see their uncoordinated play and adorable puppy growls.

The next two weeks will bring about a huge increase in their awareness of the world around them. We will begin paper training in order to get them ready for crate training when they go to their new homes. As soon as they are confident on their feet, we will provide a “potty area” outside of their nest to teach them that they don’t potty where they sleep.

I am very excited for the next weeks as I get to observe their individual personalities emerge. It’s always such a fun time!

Below is a picture of the puppies in order from darkest to lightest. Herby, Harper, and Huck are the three darkest puppies. Hamlet, Harley, Happy, and Hazel are the lighter puppies, with Hazel (far right) being the lightest.

Harley is my big boy, weighing nearly a pound more than Harper, who is the smallest of the bunch. Here you can clearly see the stark difference in size.

That’s all I have for tonight. I hope you all have a relaxing Sunday!

A Glimpse into the Whelping Process

May 18, 2017May 18, 20171 Comment

We are praising God for a beautiful, healthy litter! Mia safely (and rather quickly!) delivered seven puppies last night. We have four boys and three girls. I love seeing them all snuggled together like this!

Some of you may be happy to stop reading right here. Others of you may wish to continue on. I thought perhaps some of you may be interested in a more detailed description of what it’s like caring for a pregnant dog and helping her deliver her puppies. If you don’t want details, feel free to stop reading and carry on with your day. 🙂

Caring for puppies begins long before the due date. Rewind back to March. We did some testing on Mia to help determine her ovulation and most fertile breeding period. We were fairly certain we bred her too early on her previous two litters, because of the very small litter sizes and suspiciously late whelping (delivery). The late whelping dates hinted that she was ovulating later than we thought. This time around, though, we seem to have done it right!

During her pregnancy, Mia remained mostly herself- around people anyway. However, she became very moody around our other dogs, especially poor Jade. Mia is usually a very willing playmate for Jade; but while she was pregnant, Mia wanted nothing to do with Jade. Jade found this baffling and tried repeatedly to engage Mia in her playful antics. Mia usually sassed her with a warning growl that simply meant, “GO AWAY. I DO NOT WANT TO PLAY.” Jade usually left her alone after that, until the next day anyway.

About halfway into the pregnancy (which lasts nine weeks), we did an ultrasound to see if Mia was indeed pregnant and get an estimate on the litter size. We were told to expect 4-5 puppies, so we got a few extra blessings this time around!

Around that time, I slowly started to increase Mia’s food intake, and I began giving her a scrambled egg each day to boost her protein. She tends to be a picky eater while pregnant, so I basically free fed her, allowing her to eat little snacks whenever she wanted.

When she was seven weeks pregnant, I wormed her using fenbendazole. When pregnant, it’s very common for females to contract worms. Their immune system isn’t functioning as well as normal, so they are more susceptible to parasites and other infections. In order to keep momma healthy and to prevent the spread of parasites to the puppies after birth, I like to worm the mother approximately two weeks prior to birth.

In the last three weeks of pregnancy, we could definitely see Mia’s belly getting bigger and lower. I was expecting four puppies, because I didn’t think she looked that large, but Zach was guessing six or seven.

As we came closer to her due date, I began taking her temperature twice daily- morning and evening. A dog’s normal temperature is 100 to 102, slightly higher than a humans. Approximately 24 hours prior to delivery, a female’s temperature will take a sudden drop, usually hitting 98 degrees. By tracking her temperatures, I was able to pin point the night she would have her puppies. (Dogs like to deliver at night, so it’s important to have a good idea of when the time is coming.) Yesterday morning, Mia’s temperature dropped, so I knew the puppies were coming that night.

I made sure I had all my whelping supplies on hand. Dental floss to tie off cords if necessary, clamps, suction bulbs, scale, blankets, gloves, lubricant, liquid calcium, and my computer spreadsheet to record birth weights.

That evening, Mia kept sneaking off upstairs into the dark corners she could find up there. I finally had to close the door at the bottom of the stairs and encourage her to lie in her whelping box.

Zach stayed up with Mia until close to midnight while I got a little rest. Then I took over the puppy watch. Mia was very restless. She kept waiting at the door to the stairs, but I gently guided her back to her box each time. Eventually, she settled in there. Around 1:30, I saw the first puppy. Before the first puppy and its placenta were totally born, the second puppy came. Within half an hour, Mia had four puppies born.

I was planning to record the weights of each puppy and put some kind of identifying mark on each one. I was also wanting to give Mia small amounts of liquid calcium in between each puppy to give her uterine muscles a boost to effectively continue labor. However, the puppies were born so quickly, I eventually gave up. I simply tried to keep track of how many males and females were born! She had seven puppies in less than 90 minutes. She only got one dose of calcium during labor, which I’m sure she wouldn’t have needed anyway based on how quickly her labor went.

Bunny trail: I am grateful that Mia is able to free-whelp. I like to be close by to help if needed, but she has always been able to deliver and care for her puppies herself. Even though she has free-whelped in the past, I do not allow her to deliver unsupervised. Why? Because there are so many things that can go wrong. If someone is there to assist, many of these problems can be corrected. If nobody is there, these correctable problems can very quickly claim the life of a puppy, an entire litter, or even, in some cases, the mom herself. Sometimes a puppy is born breech. This is normal; but when a puppy is breech, it needs to be born quickly. If the mom is tiring out and the birth takes longer, the puppy can drown before it’s born. Some human assistance can prevent this and revive a non-responsive puppy. A puppy could get stuck. Sometimes with some calcium to strengthen contractions and a little lubrication, the puppy can be safely delivered. Other times, an emergency trip to the vet is needed. The sooner the problem is addressed, the better than chance of saving the stuck puppy and all remaining unborn puppies. It’s also pertinent to count placentas. On occasion, a placenta may be retained in the uterus. This will lead to an infection that will result in the mother’s death in a matter of days if it’s not caught in time. So I approach each delivery prepared for situations like these. Thankfully, things have always gone smoothly for Mia, but it’s still in everyone’s best interest to be prepared.

Back to the story. After five puppies, I thought we were done based on the vet’s prediction. So I took a picture of them. But I noticed Mia wasn’t quite relaxed yet.

Then, to my delight, another puppy was born, followed by the seventh a little before 3am. After that, Mia visibly relaxed. She began to very thoroughly clean the puppies. She stretched out comfortably and rested. I knew she was finished then. I waited up another hour just to be sure. During that time, I made sure each puppy was able to nurse. Then I went to bed for a few hours of rest.

This morning, I recorded the weights of each puppy and put a colored string around their necks to easily identify them. That lasted all of two minutes before Mia tore one off and ate it. I have now been forced to find other ways to tell them apart. They each have some white markings on their chest or feet. I did my best to find distinguishing features for each one. One puppy has a white spot on his back left paw. One puppy has a white spot on her chest shaped like a right angle. One has a spot on her chest that can best be described as shaped like a palm tree. This puppy here is Huckleberry (Huck for short). He has the biggest white marking on his chest and neck.

Today I haven’t done much with the puppies, besides dab the umbilical area with rubbing alcohol to help prevent infection. Mia has been taking excellent care of them. I will be monitoring them to make sure each of them is nursing; but otherwise, I will simply allow Mia to do her thing. I weigh each puppy twice a day. This is to monitor growth and also get them accustomed to being handled. However, I try not to handle them too much during the first week or so, because it clearly stresses Mia to have her babies removed from the nest.

And here are some pictures of everyone nursing and resting comfortably. Check back later for the individual pictures of the puppies!

Timber

April 24, 2017April 24, 2017Leave a comment

You’d think some day I would say enough is enough. At some point surely I won’t have enough love and energy for any more furry friends.

Well, I haven’t reached that point yet.

Meet Timber. 🙂

We had been planning to get our own stud at some point, but we weren’t in a rush. We were more so leaning towards a mini poodle, since both Mia’s and Jade’s litters will be sired by a mini poodle. Yet, we also liked the idea of having a male setter. (Setters are such fun!) Then Timber kind of fell into our lap, and we couldn’t say no!

Timber comes from the Celtic Irish Setter line. It’s a bloodline I have been envious of since we got Duchess. This line is known for excellent field dogs, and they have also been used in therapy and agility. The Celtic setters are a great combination of gorgeous form, excellent hunting instincts, and jovial personality. We had inquired about using their studs for Duchess to bring some of their bloodline into our own setter puppies.

However, we were also checking around with some other people who have Irish Setters studs. And that brings us to Timber. His owner bought him from the Celtic breeder as a puppy. His owner also had another Irish Setter stud which fell more into the “show” line of setters rather than the “field” setters. (Show setters are larger with much longer hair. We prefer the field setter which are smaller, leaner, and have stronger hunting instincts.) Timber’s owner, however, liked the show setters, and rarely used Timber as a stud. He was actually considering selling Timber. This proved to be a great opportunity for us. This is the bloodline we like, and Timber is a full-grown, proven male. So we brought him home!

And let me tell you what an adventure that has been!

Timber has the sweetest, happiest personality. Nothing fazes him, frightens him, or upsets him. He assumes everything and everyone in the world is good.

See that happy, smiling face? That is Timber 100% of the time. You really can’t help but love him. The only unfortunate thing about him is a general lack of training. For anyone with a dog, especially a hunting breed, you can understand the difficulties that can come with an untrained, adult dog. The only command he knows is “sit.” We are working on teaching him “come,” but he’s so independent and energetic it’s difficult to catch and maintain his attention.

This problem is compounded by the fact that he is a real Houdini! It took us several weeks to modify his pen in order to keep him contained. In fact, we have had him nearly two months, and just this week he contrived a new method of escape. This has given rise to a new phrase around our house- “Timber-proof.” We are still Timber-proofing his pen!

I’m ready for the day we can just let this happy boy run! We have an underground fence on our property, and we love it. Our dogs can spend the whole day running and playing together as they please. All except poor Timber. He’s not totally trustworthy with the underground fence, and he doesn’t respond consistently to the command “come,” so he’s been a on a figuratively short leash. I always keep one eye on the yard when I am in the house to make sure Timber is still in his pen; and when I’m outside with him, I can’t let him out of sight. We’ve made a lot of progress, but he still has a ways to go until he can be given free range of the property.

Here is one more picture of this handsome guy.

And here are some recent pictures of our girls! Jade is getting prettier every day.

Not quite as recent of a picture, but Duchess is as goofy and energetic as usual!

And sweet Mia is starting to get a little swelly belly with her puppies that are due in May, although it’s not noticeable yet in these pictures. She is still eager to play fetch, though, whenever someone is willing to throw her ball!

Have a great week!

Rolling with the Punches

March 14, 2017March 14, 2017Leave a comment

Roll with the punches- idiom

Literal meaning- based on boxing, step back or to one side as you are being hit so that you do not receive the full force of the attack

Figurative meaning- to adjust to difficult events as they happen, especially by being flexible

That’s what I’ve been trying to do the past few days. Figuratively, of course.

Previously, we had been using a stud from Whistle Hill Kennel named Rusty to breed Mia. We were very pleased with the puppies we got from them. However, Rusty was unavailable this time around. (He is vacationing away from home with some other ladies for the week.) We had two other options. Whistle Hill has a young male who is ready to stud out for the first time, or we could use another local breeder, Mr. Beiler, who has a red miniature poodle. I decided to try Whistle Hill’s young stud. I am familiar working with the folks at Whistle Hill, and it’s also a little bit closer to home. (I prefer not to board Mia away from home when she is being bred. I’m afraid it would stress her too much, and I would miss her if she were gone for a week! So I choose to drive her back and forth. It’s more time consuming, but it works best for us.)

Anyway, yesterday (Monday) evening I took Mia to meet with her young friend, but things didn’t go as planned. Mia was very interested and did her part flawlessly. However, the male was not interested. He was too busy dashing around the yard. After trying various methods for an hour, we gave up. This young guy was clearly too inexperienced and immature to accomplish his job.

By now, though, I was in a dilemma. As some of you may know, the northeast is getting hit by winter storm Stella. We are expecting over a foot of snow today, and the snow was already starting last evening as we watched this happy little guy bounce all over the yard. We talked about bringing Mia back the next day and trying again, but with the snow, there won’t be any traveling today. It also wouldn’t be wise to wait another two days until the roads are passable to try again, especially if our attempts are still unsuccessful.

So at 8:00 yesterday evening, we called up Mr. Beiler. Thankfully, he was able and willing to help us out. As I drove through the snow on little, windy back roads through Lancaster county farm country, I had to chuckle. I patted Mia as she sat contentedly on the passenger seat next me. What I wouldn’t do to find you a suitable mate, Mia!

I was also very thankful that I had left a bottle at home for dear baby Reese who was spending the evening with her daddy!

I now have met Mr. Beiler and his little poodle, and I am happy to say that my evening improved at this point. I was very pleased with this stud. He is older and has successfully sired good, healthy litters. His offspring have been known to be sweet, mild-mannered puppies. Oh, and he “did the deed,” which was a huge relief for me now that we are holed up at home for the next couple of days.

Although our breeding didn’t go as planned, I am still happy with the outcome and optimistic about the results. In the end, I’m thinking it’s maybe for the best we ended up with this particular male, rather than a young, unproven male.

If the breeding was successful, we will be expecting a litter to be born around May 20th. For those of you on our waiting list, you will be receiving an email with more details and updates about the litter. If anyone has interest in being added to our waiting list, you can email me at miasmunchkins61414@gmail.com.

Oh, Baby!

January 31, 2017January 2, 2019Leave a comment

I try to keep my blog mostly dog-oriented, but this news is too big not to share here. 🙂

On Saturday, January 21 we welcomed baby Reese into our family. She was 6 pounds 14 oz, so she is just a little peanut.

We are so grateful to be blessed with a beautiful and healthy little girl. The past ten days have been the biggest adventure of my life thus far. It has definitely been a huge adjustment, but I have the greatest husband ever. He has done so very much to help this new momma keep her sanity as we both adjust to a new baby in the house. We also have had great support from friends and family. I have a refrigerator full of food and several meals in the freezer that people have dropped off for us. Today is actually the first day that I am alone with Reese. My mom, mother-in-law, or Zach have been home with me other days.

It hasn’t been all sunshine and happy thoughts in the last ten days; but overall, it has been good. Reese is a very content, sleepy newborn. She is finally starting to be awake more; but for the first couple of days, we hardly saw her eyes at all. As for me, I’m hanging in there. The nights are long, but she actually sleeps well for a little baby. I really can’t complain. I try to take a nap during the day, and I usually spend most of my days right now in my pj’s. That’s allowed, right? 🙂

Dear Mia is adjusting well, too. She is very forgiving when her breakfast doesn’t come until 11:00 am or when I accidentally step on her on my way to the nursery at night. She is excellent with Reese and checks on her periodically throughout the day to make sure she is okay. Mia likes to know where Reese is, and she doesn’t like when we put her someplace new. The first night that we put Reese in her crib in the nursery, Mia was very worried about her. When we lay Reese on the floor, Mia likes to snuggle with her. The other dogs have only had an introduction through the glass door, but they are very intrigued by this new little bundle.

Here is a picture of Reese in her carseat to come home from the hospital. She looks a little lost in there!

And this is a post-bath picture. She may look happy now; but, believe me, she HATES baths.

This sweet little girl looks just like her daddy’s baby pictures. I haven’t been able to claim much of her appearance except for her ears. 🙂 Version 2

Have a blessed week!

Looking Ahead at 2017

January 6, 20172 Comments

There is something about a new year that is fresh and inspiring. A whole year ahead to see where God will take me. This year in particular, I feel some excitement as well as some apprehension over some of the many, many changes that will be taking place. It’s most certainly going to be a year of trusting God’s provision. That means physical provision, emotional provision, and spiritual provision. In all three of those areas, if I simply look at what I know is coming and my ability to handle it, I can get overwhelmed pretty quickly. God will definitely be stretching me this coming year and asking me to trust Him in ways that I never have had to before.

Instead of fearing the known (and the unknown) of 2017, I am resolving to trust that God will provide. I am resolving to take my worries and my inability to securely plan all the details and place it all at His feet, knowing that He promises to “supply all my needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:19). Having needs that will need to be met will allow me to experience God’s blessings in a new way.

When I take away the fearful part of looking ahead, it allows me to focus on the very good and exciting things of the new year. The first of which is BABY! We are less than three weeks away from my due date, and reality is slowly sinking in. However, I can’t fully comprehend all the changes that will happen in our home with a new baby until I’m dealing with those changes face to face. I’m not sure what to expect in the next couple of months. I’m trying to keep an open mind and calm spirit.

As for the four-legged members of our family, we have the potential for an exciting year! We are eagerly hoping for another litter from Mia and the very first litter of Irish Setters from Duchess! As some of you know, Mia’s first two litters were very small- two and one respectively. These very small litter sizes are uncommon for dogs like Mia, and we have been baffled as to the reason for her below average litter sizes. It’s actually concerning when a female is only carrying one puppy. It raises the chances for labor complications significantly, not to mention that some females can’t care for a single puppy due to a lack of milk-producing hormones. So the fact that her last litter was only one puppy had me a bit concerned. After some discussion about her with another breeder, I am very suspicious that we are not timing her breeding correctly. It seems as though she may be on the very late end of the “normal” breeding time schedule. For her next litter, we are planning to do some testing and adjust our breeding schedule in hopes to achieve a more normal (and safer!) litter size.

As for Duchess, I am ready for an adventure! She is beautiful dog, and I am so excited to have Irish Setter puppies. We are expecting to see some puppies with great hunting and competition potential. We also plan to continue her hunting training and keep her active in the field. She thrives on the thrill of the hunt, and we thoroughly enjoy working with her.

And we can’t forget Jade. My happy golden girl is still growing, and I love her dearly. She is so affectionate and sweet. We are considering training her for upland bird hunting this year. We haven’t quite decided if we want to tackle it yet. She would be a different style hunter than Duchess- a “flusher” rather than a “pointer.” We have heard different theories as to whether or not you should hunt a flusher and a pointer together. She definitely has a hunting instinct, which is why we are considering getting her out in the field. However, because Goldens are more of a water retrieval hunter by nature, she would have to be taught to search for upland birds like pheasants. Jade would have to be taught that scent and the whole process of searching for it. Duchess always had a nose for upland birds; we could rely quite a bit on her natural instincts. Jade’s instincts aren’t nearly as defined. Needless to say, that topic is still in the discussion stage. 🙂

That’s a brief view of my upcoming year. It will definitely be a year of change and new opportunities! I am hoping to grow my Etsy shop this year with some new items that I’m really excited about. The shop will be closing soon for a few weeks, because of the coming little one. I am planning to reopen in March with some new items ready to go!

I wish you all a blessed and happy 2017!

Off She Goes!

December 16, 2016December 16, 2016Leave a comment

Whew, it amazes me how fast time goes! The flurry of activity surrounding planning and caring for a litter is over again until next time. Part of me is a little sad, especially after having just a single puppy to bond with. I had so much fun spoiling little Noel while she was here! But there is another part of me that is breathing a sigh of relief. Puppies are a lot of work! Once they get to eight weeks old, they need more time, training, and attention than I can give them, especially this time around with Christmas coming and a baby on the way. I feel happy to pass my puppies on to a new family where I know they will get all of that time and attention they need.

Giving Noel to her new family was extra special this time, because Zach and I got to take part in a Christmas surprise! Noel went to a beautiful family and was a surprise Christmas gift for the children. It makes me very happy to know she will get plenty of love and snuggles from her new family. 🙂

Here is Zach getting his final cuddles with Noel.

And here is a sweet picture of Noel from her new home!

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Now that the puppy work is over, I am shifting my focus on getting ready for my own little one! We have less than six weeks to go until my due date, so it’s time to get things ready. My wonderful husband is busy refinishing some furniture and painting the nursery, and this mama is looking at her piles of baby things that need to be organized and is wondering where to start. The next few months will bring some big changes to our home. Ready or not, here we go!

Have a very merry and blessed Christmas!

Six and Seven Weeks

December 4, 2016Leave a comment

Due to Thanksgiving, I skipped my weekly puppy blog post last week; so today I’ll try to give you a brief summary of our last two weeks.

This is the point of time where puppies become the most fun! They are playful and responsive, and you can begin to see their temperaments and personalities.

It has been a little bit different raising a singleton puppy versus the usual multi-puppy litter. There are definitely pros and cons to each. Here are the observations I have made.

Pros:

We have a very affectionate, people-oriented puppy! Since this little munchkin doesn’t have litter mates to play with, we have become her play mates. She is very affectionate and much more in tune with us than other puppies at such a young age.
She is content to sleep alone. This is, in my selfish opinion, the best thing about a singleton puppy. I was afraid once we started separating Noel and Mia overnight, that we would have to deal with all of the crying and whining that usually comes with lonely puppies. But not this time. Noel was more than happy to sleep alone, since Mia had been slowly spending less and less time with her anyway at night. Sometimes I can hear Noel growling and yipping as she plays with her toys after we go to bed, but she her crying and complaining is very minimal.
I can give her a lot more freedom in our house. With a normal litter of puppies, it’s impossible to give them freedom of the whole house. You’ll end up with chewed shoes, puddles, and general chaos. With only one puppy, she gets to spend a good bit of time with free access to most of the house. I can monitor the potty situation more closely; and therefore, she can spend a good bit of time roaming and playing as she wishes.

Cons:

Singletons aren’t as well socialized with dogs as most puppies. Puppies teach each other tolerance. All of the play biting and wrestling and such makes a puppy generally used to not always getting his own way. He is used to sharing his food and his toys, and he is generally not overly surprised when his sibling jumps on his head during a nap or wakes him up with a chomp on the ear. Singletons don’t get nearly as much of that socialization. I have had to be much more intentional about socializing Noel with other dogs. I can still tell a difference, though. She gets overwhelmed more quickly by other puppies. She likes them and wants to play, but her comfort level is fairly low. It quickly becomes too rough for her. She actually does much better with older dogs. She loves Duchess and Jade. These dogs are much bigger, but they aren’t like puppies. They are calmer and more gentle. They follow the doggie rules of good manners. Noel doesn’t get overwhelmed when playing with them. They are sometimes pretty rough with her simply because of the sheer size difference, but Noel can sense they are “safer” and more “mannerly” than other puppies.
Singletons are harder to wean. This little lady is spoiled. Without the competition of other puppies for food, she didn’t take much of an interest in eating solid kibble. She would nibble at it, play with it, and then scamper off and play with her toys instead. Usually, puppies are greedy and immediately devour whatever food is given to them. Instead, I found myself hand feeding this little miss and coaxing her eat. She wasn’t in a hurry at all. She knew she would get enough to eat, and there was no reason to fully devote her attention to eating. It took some extra time and new methods of teaching Noel that meal time is for eating! I also had to be much more strict in separating Mia from Noel. With only one puppy, Mia wasn’t helping the weaning process at all. She was very tolerant and was still allowing Noel to nurse as much as she wanted. Despite the extra hurdles, though, Noel is successfully weaned! She is eating unsoftened kibble, and she eats most of it from her bowl (no more hand feeding! Yay!). She sometimes prefers to eat it directly off of the floor instead of from her bowl, but we are conquering one habit at a time. 🙂 I’m satisfied at the moment that she doesn’t need to eat from my hand any more.

With the extra work of weaning and such the past two weeks, I realized I have done a terrible job at taking pictures! Here are just a couple.

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Here is a fun video of Noel and Jade playing. Jade is an awesome dog. She is so big, yet she is so gentle! (Although, Noel doesn’t think she is gentle when Jade accidentally rolls on top of her.) Noel thinks she is such big stuff when she gets to play outside with the big dogs! (If you are viewing this from an automatically sent email, you may not be able to watch the video. Click the URL at the bottom of the email, and view it directly from my website.)

Have a good week!

Five Weeks

November 19, 2016June 27, 2017Leave a comment

This week marks five weeks old for little Noel. We made two visits in the past week to play with her foster siblings from BJ’s Farm. The puppies are now old enough to play and interact. The boxer puppies are very intrigued by Noel’s tail, since their own tails are docked. They like to bite on it, which Noel doesn’t appreciate very much. It was a good lesson in tolerance! She also learned how to tell the other puppies when she had had enough of the tail-biting. I’m eager to continue our play dates and see her progress in the coming weeks. She was very shy for the first couple of visits, but on her last visit she started to be more bold and playful. The next two weeks should see some very noticeable changes as she continues to grow and find her confidence.

We had a few very beautiful, warm days this week. I believe they will be the last ones of the season, though. I made sure to take advantage of the time to have Noel outside, because I don’t think we will have many more opportunities to play outside for long periods of time.

Mia seemed to enjoy teaching Noel to play with the leaves and sticks.

Noel just recently learned how good a belly rub feels!

This little sweetie also got to be my official dog bed tester! I took some time this weekend to try a new design for a dog bed. I am very pleased with the outcome! You can check it out here in my store!

$35.00

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!