Inception 16 weeks

Laureate Inception (Finn) and six other puppies went on a road trip last week and descended on my friend Brenda for the weekend.  We had a wonderful visit and I hope her neighbours have forgiven her for the noise!  Finn (who we nicknamed Finn McFluff) acquired another nickname from Brenda of "tub of love" as he is just so laid back and relaxed (and loves belly rubs).  We went to handling class with five puppies and they all did really well.  They were great travellers; I can't wait to start showing the crew (in my new Van...whoop).



Finn is holding his promise and along with his lovely temperament, he has a really good front assembly and beautiful profile and expression. 



Finn, aka Finn McFluff the Tub of Love...he makes us smile.



It's In Their DNA

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)!!!

Paris Pups - 8 weeks

The Paris - Digit puppies got bathed, blown dry, tattooed and Vet checked yesterday. A big thank you to Gisela for your help! It was a very big day for them and they handled it well. Today I figured we better take some snapshots of them before they got too dirty again. Here is our pick from this litter. The boy with the blaze. No name chosen for him yet...

A cold day (minus 17 C) so we just put the table out the door and took some shots for the record.

A beautiful puppy with a very familiar look...

Leaning in...

The bigger plain faced boy

The smaller girl

Paris Pups at One Week

Paris' newest litter is divided in two by size. We have the two littlest ones weighing around 10 ounces and then the two big boys at 15 and 16 plus ounces. They were a bit grubby this morning, so they all had their first bath and blow dry. I kept them in the "incubator" (a large cooler with a heating pad) to stay warm, but you can see the little girl wasn't quite warm enough yet. She went back in with Paris to stay warm.

She is still the smallest, and she appears to me to be one that could be on the smaller side at maturity. Just a hunch. All I can do is observe, while I have people waiting patiently in the wings for me to decide which puppy is for them.
The biggest boy on top. These fellows are fat and doing well on their mothers milk. I wonder if the big boy going to be big later, or moderate once he is weaned. It is a waiting game...lots of time for things to change.

Paris Pups Day Three

I was sick a good part of last week and had a low grade fever. I had spent the day in bed Friday sleeping, hoping to have energy for when she gave birth. Well, it didn't do me much good as I was not feeling well at all by the time the puppies arrived. Luckily Pete stepped in and that Paris is such a good mother. All I had to do was record weights and remove dewclaws and then go back to bed. There are 3 boys and a girl in this litter that was born Friday night. Two of the boys are bigger and then there are these two, the small darker boy with the blaze and the female which are quite a bit smaller. The female has actually lost ground to this boy who had the smallest birth weight. Now she is the smallest, so I'll be keeping my eye on her to make sure she is getting enough.
Holy narrow depth of field! Was trying out the 50mm f 1.4 lens for the first time, and was surprised at the result. The little girl is on top.

Settled down for a nap
Cute toes

Now the two bigger boys. The fellow yawning is the largest at the moment at around 10.5 ounces. He has a half collar, with an extra splash of white behind his shoulder.

Sooooo sleepy!

The bigger boy saying "back off bud"

Hugs

Half collar showing his little flourish of white which doesn't join into the collar.

The bigger male with full collar

Emma's Pup at Five Weeks

I took Emma's girl out yesterday to take her pictures. It isn't easy when you are alone and there are no littermates for her to interact with. So I would place her down and back away and she'd hop after me. I managed a few quickie snaps. This one is cute, though not in focus.
Seen from above...pulling grass. Plunk her and run... She obliged and sat. Actually, I think she just wanted to sit. She isn't the most obliging puppy; she is downright ornery. I joked on the Facebook page that her name would be Laureate Dominatrix..."Trixie" (probably not...but shows where we are at the moment temperament wise).
Left eye (or do you call it her right eye) is definitely blue.
Other eye looks to be brown.

She is a little devil with a blue dress on! Maybe if I name her Laureate Miss Congeniality she will grow into her name...

2009 Year In Review

I thought I'd include in this entry some of my favorite photos taken over the year. It was hard to choose, as we've taken a LOT of pictures this year. Many are great shots, but these are a few that matter to me. This one of Pete with the dogs shows our beautiful Mais Oui demanding affection. We lost this wonderful girl to pyometra this April, so this is one of the last photos of her. On the far left is her dam, Tiramisu who also passed away this year...she was Pete's shadow and constant companion. Lexus, our oldest, not in the photo passed away in April as well.

We also had some happy times to offset the sad moments. Good times with great friends. Showing our Portuguese friends Rui, Paula, Henrique and Isabella our little part of the world. Raising a beautiful healthy litter, a successful ASSA, and travelling in Australia, going to Westminster in NYC, the National in Georgia and visiting with family and friends in Vancouver. Most of all, we enjoyed our quiet moments at our farm with the dogs.

This photo shows that even though we have almost 50 acres, the dogs tend to wrap themselves around my legs! I have an entourage of my old girls that follow me on our walks. It is the boisterous youngsters that will break away from the group and go wild.

Characteristic of our photos this year...muddy, grubby and very happy dogs out on their walks.
Babies...we enjoyed playing with our puppies this year. Emma and Barbie grew up together.
We had a ball with our summer litter...Miley and Maisie (Mayer and Mandy).
Stormy and the deer fly. One of my favorite photos...taken with Brenda's lens.

2009 Show Results

ASSA National

1st 12-18 month Futurity: Can Ch Laureate Jivara
1st 12-18 month sable and white bitches: Can Ch Laureate Jivara
1st Open Blue Bitches: Can Ch Laureate PaRay Per Se (co-bred by Tray Pittman)
1st Over 12 Years Veteran Bitches: BISS Am/Can Ch Laureate Louisiana
Award Of Merit: BISS Am/Can Ch Laureate Louisiana

Canadian Champions:

BPIS Can Ch Laureate Embelish (co-bred by Aneita Frey, owned by Kim Aston and Peter Culumovic)
Can Ch Laureate Lancome (Bred by Kim Aston and Peter Culumovic and co-owned by Pennylynn Woodruff)
Can Ch Laureate Lutece (breeder-owners Kim & Pete)
Can Ch Laureate PaRay Per Se (co-bred by Tray Pittman, owned by Kim and Pete)
Can Ch Laureate Rachael Ray (co-owned by Pennylynn Woodruff)
Can Ch Ruffleith's Remy Martin (co-bred and owned by Pennylynn Woodruff)
Can Ch Ruffleith's Rose In Bloom (co-bred and owned by Pennylynn Woodruff)
Can Ch Ruffleith's Tina Rufette (co-bred and owned by Pennylynn Woodruff)

Other Titles

Am Ch El Solo Serenity (co-bred by Marjorie Norstrom, owned by Marjorie and Shirley Wong)
Laureate Due South, Am CDX (owner Lori Drouin)
Laureate Tiramisu, ROMC (co-bred by Karen and Robert Henley)
BPIS Laureate Epitome

Many thanks to the co-breeders and owners for making this possible!

Our best wishes for a Happy and Successful New Year!