Laureate Shelties Blog
A bit of this, a bit of that...with a lot of free spirits.
We're crate training the teenagers and to teach them to be clean I've been getting up at 6 am to let them out. Well this morning I overslept and was an hour late, which meant three crates needed to be washed. After the crates were washed, I bathed and dried the pups and then took their ears out of their braces (they need to be changed periodically), did nails and fluffed them up. We put "Lola" on the table and took some photos of her at 13 weeks. She was only moderately cooperative. Finn was worse and so I said to Pete I'd take them out for a walk (their first) with the camera.
Got your tail!
Finn McFluff and Lola
Lola found some dried plants to taste...
...and some more
I'll try pulling this out!
What?
Checking on her brothers
Lola chasing Corbin
This was the first time the pups have experienced paparazzi and Corbin wasn't too keen on the camera. He kept his eye on me and felt better if he hid in the bushes!
Lola scouting for trouble
Found them! Finn
McFluff on the left,
Rehannah and Corbin
Lola and Corbin
Corbin on right, Lola, Finn and
Rehannah
Corbin top, Lola and Finn
Same order...looking for
Rehannah the ringleader
AAAAKKKKK! I couldn't believe it! All four wandered over and despite my efforts to call them away they all had to check it out...it's in their DNA! I was mortified...all that effort gone to waste...(sigh)
I didn't take many pictures...I was too worried about getting these guys back into the house. It was minus 9 C, there wasn't supposed to be water (and mud)!!!
Another few hours spent in pursuit of photo records of our puppies. I find it necessary to set their ears, groom them completely as if they were an adult going to a show and take photos at about eight weeks to get an idea of what we have. Pete and I have done this from our very first litter. Prior to setting the ears, I'd place them all as pets!
So this is the blue boy, yet to be named. He is a beauty, and has only improved as time has gone on. He is not large, being in the lower half of the safe zone on the chart. He didn't like me much a few weeks ago and so I made him my project. I brought him upstairs with one of his sisters and would feed him chicken
wieners and cheese. The
light bulb went on right away!
Since his excursions upstairs, he thinks I'm the bees knees. He is very adoring and makes eye contact constantly. He is pretty adorable...:-)
A bit of a lean going on here...
Such a pretty face!
This one is pretty close to perfection in my view
Back to the point I was making about doing their ears and grooming. This morning this gals ears had come undone and were hanging. She looked like a
coonhound...and I said to my friend we have three show prospects plus a brood bitch. Did her ears, bathed and chalked her and gave her a head trim and she amazed me. She is more than I'm used to, but not really overdone. Her size is still fine, measuring 9 3/8 (nine weeks tomorrow). Shows to go you...
Very full muzzle and a one piece head
I'm glad we persevered with Eva and gave her one last chance. I'll be forever grateful to Jennie
Hynes for her efforts in getting her bred to her beautiful stud dog.
It is going to be VERY busy around here this spring!
We finally got around to taking pictures of some of the Eva puppies. This is the litter by GCh Rosmoor Protocol ROM x Laureate Longoria. We place two beautiful black boys, and are growing out four for now. We only did up two of them, but hope to get pictures of the other two shortly.
This is the stunning blue girl we are calling "Eden". Her registered name will be Laureate Everlasting.
She is the smallest, and has been so kitten like I almost called her "Kitty"... (Eden is better)
There was a haze over the sun, but she didn't need sunshine to sweeten her eye. She isn't all sugar and spice though...she loves to beat up her blue brother. Interestingly she will also curl up next to him. She appears to know they are the same colour. Today after being fluffed up I put her on the floor and she got "stuck" in the mirror. She was totally in love with her reflection! :-)
This one just doesn't take a bad picture...
We took pictures of "Sushi" shortly after. It had become overcast, and the temperature was minus 11C. She shivered, bunched herself up and basically didn't want to participate. We snapped a few pics, but weren't happy with the results and brought her back in to have a nap. A few hours later the sun came out and I said to Pete we ought to try again. This time it was like, no problem...I know what you want. She posed and was a star!
I tell that story for the people who think we do something magical to make them stay. Sometime it just doesn't work and you have to take a break and do it another time. I also include this photo which wasn't cropped to show that we use things to get their attention. I lost my large turkey feather that I used in the past, so I improvised and found an dried sedum in the garden and waved it around...I also used my gloves for some shots.
We think these girls are coming along nicely and showing a lot of promise.
Her off side has all the flash...
I love taking pictures of the dogs running in the snow and in water. There is something about the spray that is exciting to capture. I had another look at the photos I took yesterday and was surprised that I had missed some really good ones.
Miley taking a break from the action (but not for long)
Wild eyed Emma-Lou
Paris ploughing through
Little Taboo's butt in focus. It is rare to have her in the photos as she is usually harassing me from behind. She and LuAnne were just behind me in most of the photos with Taboo taking delight in barking at me the entire time!
Here is her cute little behind again...
Paris
Stormy and Mayer both needing a head trim, but again I can't resist the snow action going on...
I can't believe I missed this one...it might be my favorite of the entire shoot. Little Bridgie getting a snoot full of snow.
Because I get asked so often, I'll tell you that I shot these photos with the Nikon D300 body and this
lens.
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