Just did the temperament evaluations yesterday, which I generally find fascinating. This is the best tool I use as part of my determination of which puppy goes to which family, and while I am usually not surprised, sometimes there are surprises there! Like yesterday. I had pretty much figured out which puppies would go to whom, and now I need to revisit that! The one I thought would be the best fit for a family with kids (even though they're older) is not a bad choice, but there are better. And the one I thought would be a good fit for the "senior" in my bunch really isn't as well, so I'll be really studying the evaluation notes today to make selections. Not much time now!!!! They will soon be going to their new families, and then I get to hear the "complaints" about how exhausted they are, that raising a puppy is hard work! LOL! Tell me about it!
Well, I was going to stop this blog section because sometimes there's just nothing to blog about! LOL! But some of you really seem to like it, and I can see a big use for it once puppies are born! OR, I might do a separate "Current Litter" page when I've got puppies baking in one of my girls' oven, and carry it through when they leave for new homes.
BTW, I love to get pictures of your puppies as they grow, and as adults, so keep that in mind!!! I might put them on the internet and make them stars!!! Ha!
If you care to leave a comment, please do. But, this is NOT the place to ask for information that requires a response from me. Your best bet to do that is to email me direction at poshpoos@gmail.com. It's easy to miss those comments here for a while, so if you need answers - email! Thanks!
BTW, I love to get pictures of your puppies as they grow, and as adults, so keep that in mind!!! I might put them on the internet and make them stars!!! Ha!
If you care to leave a comment, please do. But, this is NOT the place to ask for information that requires a response from me. Your best bet to do that is to email me direction at poshpoos@gmail.com. It's easy to miss those comments here for a while, so if you need answers - email! Thanks!
Whew!
My computer died! CPU was completely fried, so I have spent the last few days deciding on a new computer, trying to avoid Windows 8.1 and failing that, and now getting used to a new computer with a new operating system that I despise. Good news is that I was able to save all of my old files, and have learned a valuable lesson - backups will be scheduled regularly to an external pocket drive!!! Actually considering backing up to a cloud account, but don't know enough about that to do it yet. Requires research!!!
At least I still have all my photos and all my poodle files and documents! Wahoo!! I am back in business!
At least I still have all my photos and all my poodle files and documents! Wahoo!! I am back in business!
Something you might want to check out .....
Check out VetStreet - www.vetstreet.com. It's main purpose is to provide a communication and marketing vehicle for vets to stay in contact with their clients, and provide useful and often humorous information to them about their canine and feline companions, information that will answer questions, offer ideas about solutions to specific behavioral or health problems, that will help them be better, more well informed, pet owners.
My vet offers this to her clients - benefits include the monthly newsletter, being able to look up my dogs vet records online, make appointments, etc. I love it! I learn something new every time! If your vet doesn't offer it, you might show it to him/her, too.
Anyway, you can "subscribe" to the site if you like and get your own newsletter minus the vet connection - chock full of good stuff to know, and lots of smiles! OR, just put it in your bookmarks to reference in the future. Guarantee you will learn something you didn't know, and an educated pet owner is a good pet owner!!!
Bev
My vet offers this to her clients - benefits include the monthly newsletter, being able to look up my dogs vet records online, make appointments, etc. I love it! I learn something new every time! If your vet doesn't offer it, you might show it to him/her, too.
Anyway, you can "subscribe" to the site if you like and get your own newsletter minus the vet connection - chock full of good stuff to know, and lots of smiles! OR, just put it in your bookmarks to reference in the future. Guarantee you will learn something you didn't know, and an educated pet owner is a good pet owner!!!
Bev
A GREAT dog toy!
If you are handy at all, or have a friend/relative who is, then make one of these. I will have two for my gang (being made by a friend with the tools and knowhow to do it!), with different size bottles and different shapes. This is a GREAT idea!!!
http://blog.petflow.com/bells-
I love it! And I think most dogs would, too!
Bev
http://blog.petflow.com/bells-
I love it! And I think most dogs would, too!
Bev
Tired of waiting?
SO AM I! AND, SO IS LIZZIE! Jordan, on the other hand could care less! LOL!
We're on the homestretch! As of tomorrow (Friday, July 4th), I will be on official "puppy watch", and will be pretty much housebound from then until the pups are at least a week old, baby monitors buzzing, and lots of running up and down stairs. For a little petite girl, Lizzie is enormous and is now going upstairs like a walrus! Ha! Down is okay, but up is a chore. And she is eating like a little Miss Piggy! Lots of small meals - not much room in there now!
The whelping box is set up, supplies are laid in. Got lots of coffee and snacks for the long night I anticipate for whelping. I have help coming to pitch in - my sister in law, who's an old hand at this now, and my Mom who is just in charge of drinks and sandwiches! Wants nothing to do with "birthin' babies"! And, hopefully the timing will work out for my Furman pre-vet student, Cook English, to be here. He has two doctor appointments in his home town he hasn't been able to reschedule and if Lizzie decides to conflict with her timing, he won't make it, and will be very disappointed. So will I! As a vet, he won't often get to see a "normal" whelping, just emergencies. So seeing one that goes smoothly is a great learning experience. He also plans to be on hand for the tail docking and dew claw removal. Hands on, no just observing!
Lizzie's xray showed eight puppies, all about the same size, so now it's a wait and see what the split is between boys and girls. For those of you getting puppies, I won't let you know the big event has occurred until the pups have been around for a day or two and I'm sure they are all going to thrive and make it. You just never know. But then I'll let you know! Will try to call each of you with the good news, but if I send an email, don't be disappointed!
Here's Lizzie's xray - see if you can see all eight!!! - Bev
We're on the homestretch! As of tomorrow (Friday, July 4th), I will be on official "puppy watch", and will be pretty much housebound from then until the pups are at least a week old, baby monitors buzzing, and lots of running up and down stairs. For a little petite girl, Lizzie is enormous and is now going upstairs like a walrus! Ha! Down is okay, but up is a chore. And she is eating like a little Miss Piggy! Lots of small meals - not much room in there now!
The whelping box is set up, supplies are laid in. Got lots of coffee and snacks for the long night I anticipate for whelping. I have help coming to pitch in - my sister in law, who's an old hand at this now, and my Mom who is just in charge of drinks and sandwiches! Wants nothing to do with "birthin' babies"! And, hopefully the timing will work out for my Furman pre-vet student, Cook English, to be here. He has two doctor appointments in his home town he hasn't been able to reschedule and if Lizzie decides to conflict with her timing, he won't make it, and will be very disappointed. So will I! As a vet, he won't often get to see a "normal" whelping, just emergencies. So seeing one that goes smoothly is a great learning experience. He also plans to be on hand for the tail docking and dew claw removal. Hands on, no just observing!
Lizzie's xray showed eight puppies, all about the same size, so now it's a wait and see what the split is between boys and girls. For those of you getting puppies, I won't let you know the big event has occurred until the pups have been around for a day or two and I'm sure they are all going to thrive and make it. You just never know. But then I'll let you know! Will try to call each of you with the good news, but if I send an email, don't be disappointed!
Here's Lizzie's xray - see if you can see all eight!!! - Bev
Lizzie is getting very close!
I begin to think she may present me with puppies a bit earlier than I originally thought. Since both parents are mine, I didn't do progesterone testing this time (bad on me!), so I don't know EXACTLY when she ovulated - it's the only way to have a true target date for delivery. But she's very clingy, restless at night, and showing other (kinda icky) signs that whelping may not be all that far away. I have to take one of my other girls in for minor (hopefully) surgery tomorrow and I might just take her with me to see what my vet thinks, just for the heck of it. For a little girl, she's pretty big, indicating a big litter or big puppies, or both! I just want an easy delivery and fat, healthy, thriving puppies!!!
Watch soon for an xray - my repro vet now has digital xrays, so she can email the xray to me and you all will be able to see! We'll have a guessing contest on "How many do YOU count?" Ha! Bev
Watch soon for an xray - my repro vet now has digital xrays, so she can email the xray to me and you all will be able to see! We'll have a guessing contest on "How many do YOU count?" Ha! Bev
HAPPY FATHERS DAY!!
To those of you who are fathers, to those of you who are sons or daughters, to those of you whose fathers are still with you, and to those of you whose fathers are gone - - - take a few minutes today to remember your father, appreciate what you learned from him for what he did right, and for what he didn't do right or did absolutely wrong. Every experience you had with your father had an effect on the person you are today, good or bad.
My own father died 32 years ago at just age 62, far too young, erasing all those retirement plans he had with my Mom. My brother, too, died early of cancer at just 56, so the main male influences in my life were gone in a flash! Appreciate in the moment is the lesson I learned from their early departures. Can't say I always did it, but I do try. I miss them both dearly, every day, and I still to this day often have conversations (albeit one-sided!) with my Dad, and I swear sometimes I hear this voice saying "Tsk, Tsk! You can do better!" And, I'm ready to catch all kinds of grief from my Dad about what I could have done and didn't, when/if we get to meet again one day. Some things never change! LOL!
So, celebrate the day! I truly miss my Dad and wish he were still here with me.
Bev
My own father died 32 years ago at just age 62, far too young, erasing all those retirement plans he had with my Mom. My brother, too, died early of cancer at just 56, so the main male influences in my life were gone in a flash! Appreciate in the moment is the lesson I learned from their early departures. Can't say I always did it, but I do try. I miss them both dearly, every day, and I still to this day often have conversations (albeit one-sided!) with my Dad, and I swear sometimes I hear this voice saying "Tsk, Tsk! You can do better!" And, I'm ready to catch all kinds of grief from my Dad about what I could have done and didn't, when/if we get to meet again one day. Some things never change! LOL!
So, celebrate the day! I truly miss my Dad and wish he were still here with me.
Bev
Just call me terminally curious!
I had to make a quick run to my reproductive (and regular) vet today in Flat Rock NC, Dr. BJ Parsons, to have Josh collected for shipping. He will be a daddy in St. Louis, Missouri this time! Anyway, BJ has all this fancy new equipment she just loves to use, so I took Lizzie with me to see if I could interest her in doing a quick and easy ultrasound to cement the pregnancy confirmation in stone! I enjoy seeing this stuff as much as she does! As always, she told me that ultrasounds are generally just used to confirm, not to try and get a count on the number of puppies, so whatever we saw, there are probably more. Keeping that in mind, she saw (and so did I!) seven! SEVEN! Yikes, my little petite Lizzie is really going for a bakers dozen! LOL! Not! Means there could be 7-9 puppies. I hope no more, so they will be at good birth weight, and nice and healthy! We reviewed Lizzie's hip xrays and BJ says she sees no structural reasons Lizzie should have any trouble whelping, so here's hoping for a picture perfect delivery!!! Seven! OMG! More? Double OMG! Bev
It's official!
I really thought she was, but today I verified that Lizzie is indeed baking little furballs in her tummy! I don't personally have the touch for palpating, but have friends who do, so I had one do a quick check when I was getting my dogs eye exams this morning. Palpation is not done for a count, just to verify that there are indeed puppies in there, and Gloria stopped feeling around at 5! Means there are probably more, but at least we know she is going to present us with puppies!
Okay, now back to twiddling our thumbs while we wait for the big event!
WAHOO!
Bev
Okay, now back to twiddling our thumbs while we wait for the big event!
WAHOO!
Bev
Older Puppy Available
UPDATE! She has a home! Within ten minutes of sending out an email to my mailing list, and posting this original message here, I was contacted by two interested parties, and this sweet girl will be going home with her new poodle mom this Thursday! I think it sounds like a match made in heaven, and a much better situation for her where she will be loved, get lots of attention, and be a treasured family pet! Networking absolutely works!!! Ha! Thanks, everyone! Bev
At the risk of getting deluged with inquiries - please just send an email, don't call! - I am aware of an older puppy that needs a new home - cream female, 7 1/2 months old, all puppy shots, AKC registerable (owner did not send in the original registrations, so that makes this a lot easier), and I believe she has already been spayed. Puppy is in Beaufort NC area and is available immediately.
Basically this is a case where a buyer just made a well-intentioned mistake and has realized that a standard poodle is not the best dog for her and her family. She breeds cats, and that is where her real love lies. I give her credit for making a difficult decision. From an independent person and neighbor of the owner, I know she has had a good home, it's just not the right home. She's a very sweet, eager to please puppy and will make a lovely pet.
You may send me an email and I'm happy to share the info I have and give you contact information.
Bev
At the risk of getting deluged with inquiries - please just send an email, don't call! - I am aware of an older puppy that needs a new home - cream female, 7 1/2 months old, all puppy shots, AKC registerable (owner did not send in the original registrations, so that makes this a lot easier), and I believe she has already been spayed. Puppy is in Beaufort NC area and is available immediately.
Basically this is a case where a buyer just made a well-intentioned mistake and has realized that a standard poodle is not the best dog for her and her family. She breeds cats, and that is where her real love lies. I give her credit for making a difficult decision. From an independent person and neighbor of the owner, I know she has had a good home, it's just not the right home. She's a very sweet, eager to please puppy and will make a lovely pet.
You may send me an email and I'm happy to share the info I have and give you contact information.
Bev