It's a happy time to see the babies ready to go to their wornderful new homes although I'm always sad to see them leave. 

This has been a busy week and I'm afraid the blog got a little neglected.  Don't worry, I do give updates & photos to the prospective owners )

The pups have had a trip to the vet and created chaos.  I'm sure Dr. Miki was exhausted as I was by the time we left! 

Two of the pups new owners are flying in tonight to bring their pups to warmer climates tomorrow.  Five more leave tomorrow and one is flying with me to California on Monday.

Here are a few pictures from this week.

Little Cupid looking very grown up!

Vixen:  Always playing in the deep snow.  Good thing she's staying in Canada!

Snow Head Comet.  She looks as though she'll enjoy the Californian sunshine

The boys, Blitzen & Prancer, skating across the driveway

Rudolph looking a little tired after a long play in the snow

Frosty Girls Dasher & Vixen

Snow Loving Blitzen

Wow.  Six week old puppies are busy!  And boy can they bite hard!  Almost all of the pups will leap great puppy distances and latch on to whatever body part they can.  AND THEY DON'T LET GO!  I actually lifted Cupid over the little x-pen attached to my leg (I know, I know, not great for the puppy, but boy was I impressed!).

The other night I found all the puppy viewers sitting high on the couch, I thought it was strange until I walked into the room.  5 little vultures flew in and attacked me as soon as I sat down!  I had to fend them off by covering up with a blanket!

The pups have enjoyed taking turns coming with me to agility practice.  They have a blast romping in the barn and testing out the agility equipment.  While moving the A-frame the other day, I had Cupid, Comet & Dancer throwing themselves at it and finally hopping on for a ride.  The ended up showing off their skills running up and down it.  All the pups seem really attracted to the tunnels as well.  They have great fun playing hide and seek and "where the heck will I come out?"

The pups have been going out in the yard daily.  Today it was really icy, but they stayed out for close to an hour (they are sleeping REALLY well now!).  I'm pretty sure Cupid enjoyed sliding--she'd run and then slam on the brakes and glide very dramatically for several feet!

I do have to laugh because no matter how much snow we have, the pups still gravitate toward the bare patches and manage to dig and get themselves very, very filthy!

The kids can alll make it up to the top of the stairs now.  Okay, Vixen made it to the top minus ONE stair and then cried pitifully and Dancer made it half way up and then joined in her sisters howl.  The rest of the siblings were looooong gone!

I have tons of photos and videos.  I keep running out of memory on my camera!  (BTW Thanks for the awesome camera mom!!!!!)   They are very cute and a lot of fun (when they are not attached on to my body.  Did I mention they like to tug???)

The boys now know where they are going to be living, but I still haven't quite placed the girls.  I'm sure the Rio x Focus girl owners can sympathize with the "Who's going to be my puppy?" delemma!  I promise to have it figured out by early next week!

The kids are scheduled for a vet visit Wednesday afternoon, a trip to Pam's Pooch Parlour on Thursday afternoon and then most are going home next Friday! 

Comet, Dasher & Cupid waving in their sleep?

Dasher (aka 'Little Flare)

I promise a Timmy's coffee and doughnut (Facebook Style) to anyone who can correctly name the puppies!

Vixen sleeping in her favourite spot--the shelf! 

The other most popular napping spot is the puppy feeding saucer when its upside down!?!

Why are Cupid's eyes always red?  Or do I really want to know?

Comet sleeping with her brother's new toy

Dancer

Rudolph "Hey, where'd Kyra go?"

Blitzen in the middle of the skating rink we call a driveway

It's a really nice "warm" and sunny day here, so a few babies got to come with me to agility practice.  I'm feeling really guilty because I realized that Comet had been forgotten in my previous car trips.  She reminded me of this fact by chatting to me the whole way to the barn.  Blitzen & Dancer did their best to quiet her in the crate by jumping on her head and grabbing her tail, but for some reason, that didn't help much!  At the barn, the pups shot out of the crate and were suddenly everywhere and into everything.  They discovered the 20 foot tunnel and had a blast running through it.  They met a 10 week old German Shep. who was quite scared of them initially, but then decided they were worthy playmates.  Unfortunately her paws were pretty big and when she pounced on Dancer, Dancer turned around and gave her a huge puppy snarl and told her to mind her manners and then dove back into playing with the big pup!

When we got home, all eight got to experience a little of the snow and LOVED it!  They scattered everywhere with only one pup falling off the rocks (you have to know my driveway to understand this one...)

Pups in the snow

Dancer falls off the driveway...

Dasher--where did those long legs suddenly come from?

Dasher

Last time it was no pictures lots of words, tonight its the opposite!

The kids continue to grow with Comet's huge belly leading the way.  They continue to travel with me although as they are getting heavier, fewer of them come at a time!

Flare is getting herself back in shape and helped Piper, Rio & Fly finish second in the Brockville sledding fun race yesterday.

A huge congratulations to Brody & Jim for earning their USDAA ADCH yesterday (I know, shameless bragging and it isn't really puppy related although Brody and Flare are littermates, does that count?)

Enjoy the pup pics.

Rudolph

Prancer

Dancer & Cupid (she's really not that much smaller in real life!)

Comet (who's starting to slim down the past few days! LOL)

Vixen

Piper finally gets her jaws on the Dragon Fly!

Blitzen pretending to be mellow

The puppies get busier with every hour!  They have been spending time in small groups living with the family and the big dogs.  They love having the space to run and Kyra does a great job of winding them up into a border collie frenzy (and then they crash hard--unfortunately, Kyra doesn't come down quite as quickly!  LOL) 

Prancer wins the prize for figuring out the stairs.  He made it up to our second landing while chasing Kyra.  His brothers just stared up longingly and then lost interest.  Cupid is NOT giving up the dragon fly to Yahoo, Piper or anyone else!  LOL  This morning She got a hold of it and would not let go.  I think she must have had it in her mouth for 5 minutes without ever dropping it!

Today Prancer, Rudolph & Dasher got to go on a trip to Kyra's dance class.  There they gave many, many, many kisses to dozens of willing 4 year olds.  The mothers were more confused, wondering if I was trying to sell the puppies at class.....?  One mother was horrified that the puppies didn't live outside LOL

Flare is getting back into tip-top shape with lots and lots of walking, a little frisbee and some dog sledding.  She's very eager to start playing her sports again!

I have tons of cute pictures, but not enough time to post (how mean is that to tease all of you!).  Please drop me a line if you'd like photos and I'll be glad to email them to you.

The pups and I have had a very busy week.  They have had so many great visitors to play with including the gang of six who all came loaded up with armfuls of newspaper!  I think I'm now well set for newspaper for a while.  The pups have even gotten a load of French papers so they will be billingual I'm sure!

Every day, a few pups at a time come and spend time in the 'real' house.  At this point, Piper begs to go outside and then sits at the end of the driveway hoping that someone will come and save her from the little monsters.  Flare & Rio alternate from playing with them to attempting to escape them and their incessent urge to latch on to any passing dog...  Most have met the cat (who is now wise to the ways of puppies since his encounter with the Bert kids in the x-pen, and flees very quickly to high ground) although they don't show too much interest since he dissappears pretty quickly.

Dasher and then Dancer play with Grandma Rio

The pups have taken to carrying everything around...  Little bones, balls, big stuffed animals, blankets and of course newspaper (if its dirty, its even better apparently!).  They adore their toys, but when there are no toys within reach, they grab each other (tails, flanks, legs) and shake hard!  It's not uncommon to see a pup getting dragged across the room by its tail.

All the b/w girls and all the boys (Dasher, Vixen, Blitz, Rudy & Prancer) went for their first car ride last night.  They had never been actually closed up in a crate, but they really didn't care.  There was one or two mutters after they had been in there about an hour, but that's it.  They came out, bold as can be, greeted everyone and of course peed on the floor .  The drive home was dead silent and when they got home, they went straight to their paper and emptied themselves.  No messes in the crate at all.

The pups have been given a larger night time puppy pen.  One end has crates and soft bedding and the other end has newspaper.  I've been reducing the area of newspaper and the babies are still doing a great job of aiming for it.  I've yet to have had an accident in the bedding side (well, other than little paws running through the yucky stuff...)

Dasher, followed by Dancer (the red Dancer!) and then Prancer

(sorry, the lighting is bad again and they all look b/w!)

The usual puppy room chaos...

Dasher of the Wagging Tail

Handsome boy Prancer finally standing still

Rudy ready for bed

Comet ready to play!

Youtube and I are finally friends again so I was able to download a few videos this morning.  The first is of the pups discovering toys for the first time.  Of course their favourite toy is Piper's brand new toy which has her banging at the puppy room door to come in and reclaim it!    This one was shot several days ago.  The pups are now toy machines and grab, drag and roll anything that they can find.

The next couple of videos are of Flare who decided for the first time ever, that pups are worth playing with!  I took a couple of pups out for a wander around the house and Flare had a grand time with her new playmates--well as long as they weren't attempting to go for a drink!

Flare & Comet

Cupid & Vixen

Comet & Flare "My What Big Teeth You Have Mom!"

The puppies have hit four weeks!  Let the fun begin!  Tonight while tidying their pen, one pup ripped the garbage bag, two bags of dog food were given holes in the sides (I know, I know--why the heck did I have dog food bags on the floor???), one ran by carrying a dog bed, several managed to poop and of course EVERYONE is required to run through fresh poop right? 

Rudy seeing if he can fit between the wall & the x-pen

Dancer making sure she isn't missing anything

Rudolph showing the first step in "How to pick up a dog bed and shake it"

Yes, they occasionally stop and look really innocent and cute. 

Rudolph (seems to be his photo night!) above and Dancer below.

The pups are getting better at eating their solid meals.  Grandma Rio is always hanging about trying to teach them how to fling kibble in her direction...

In the past few days they have discovered toys and Kyra has been loving sharing all Piper's toys with the babies.  Poor Piper isn't so sure, but the pups sure have been enjoying their new squeaky and stuffed friends!

They are certainly brave and all love exploring.  Any time the door opens now, they have no qualms about leaving the room and are eager to prowl the rest of the house!

I'm still on the quest for newspaper--if anyone has extra Citizen's with the flyers removed (yes, I'm picky!  ) and is coming by, please bring them!

Hey Sue--Welcome back from Mexico!  The blog was quiet without you, Manic & Yahoo!

This morning started with Flare and Dancer greeting me at the puppy room door and after that, every time I'd visit, there'd be a new batch of pups running around gleefully in the puppy room.  This evening, Miss Dasher really had me impressed when she made it ON TO the couch!!!  (Hey Nathalie--I don't think you need to clicker train her to hop on anything!).

Dancer - keeping with the trend of the red & whites escaping first!

Dasher doing chin ups on the sofa

The pups also started 'solid' food.  Okay, it's puppy mush--pureed puppy kibble mixed with water to make a really stinky soup.  Once again, Dasher stood out as she stood IN the middle of the cookie sheet of goop.  The floor ended up being covered in goop which even Rio (!?!) turned her nose up and I had to do an extra mopping of the floor.  Don't worry, I've learned my lesson--newspapers and a puppy saucer.  Not as much fun, but no mop required!

Dasher hogging dinner with Vixen (top), Prancer (middle) & Blitzen (bottom)

Civilized Dining

(from 12 o'clock:  Prancer, Blitzen, Dasher, Vixen, Cupid, Dancer, Rudolph, Comet)

I'm loving my new camera (thanks mom!) with its video capabilities.  It's so easy to get little video clips.  I did manage to actually get some fun movies and catch the pups at play.

You can almost smell the puppy breath.... 

Terra--this one is for you--lots of hungry puppy sounds!

The pups have been having lots of visitors in the past few days and have learned the value of climbing into a nice, warm lap.  I've learned the value of having lots of visitors to help clean up the puppy pee (thanks Sally!)

Flare got to have an afternoon at the "Spa".  Okay, she went home yesterday and Pam bathed and trimmed her...

And my favourite video of the day:  Puppies at Play

Comet & Dasher

The babies are three weeks old today and anyone in the house can tell when they are awake!  There's lots of little yips and most of all ferocious growls coming from the puppy room.  It's quite funny hearing 8 puppies all growling all at once.  They have started to grab each others tails and give little shakes.  Today they got some puppy toys which they all tested out.

Flare continues to be a doting mom despite the puppy teeth.  She's one contented girl providing she gets a good long daily walk!

I've decided that the black & white kids will be the first to escape the whelping box.  All three of them are continuously on the ledge trying to climb.  The funny thing is that they always try on the far side of the whelping box where if they ever did make it out, they'd be hitting a wall.  I have yet to see a red kid on the ledge!

Blitzen & Vixen - Adventuresome or not so Smart?

Red pups, Left to Right:  Comet, Dancer, Rudolph & Prancer

Since in the last posting, Kyra got as many comments as the puppies, she's getting yet another photo posted....

Kyra & Cupid

Sleepy Mr. Prancer

Next stop, solid food!  (Okay, not so solid, but mushier than Mom's Milk!).