ATB: Spring has Sprung!

Getting Ready !

Today is the official 1st day of Spring, 2012 however we've sure been blessed with a lot of springlike weather already.  I know that here in New England anything can happen in regards to the weather but boy oh boy - it has been a record breaking mild winter here.  It's been great in so many ways.  Easier on John as far as the ongoing snow removal here, awesome for the dogs who never really had to take a break from the field all winter, and as for me - I really think that my joints fared quite well.  Unfortunately though winter was not very kind to our friend Julie who slipped and fell on the ice over two months ago.  She is still recovering from a broken rib and a punctured lung.

Speaking of Julie, John and I enjoyed a daylong visit with her down at the New England Sporting Group Dog Show in Fitchburg on Sunday. We also had a chance to see Thistle and Sassy there too. I couldn't believe how grown up Thistle is now! She looked really pretty too as Dawn had spent some time clippering the hair on Thistles neck.  Pippin and Thistle have very similar and challenging show grooming needs to put it mildly!  It has taken me all this time to finally figure out the best way to care for Pip's coat so hopefully some of our techniques will be beneficial for Julie.  Dawn tells us that this coat comes from her Rosie so she too has a lot of experience.  Sassy looked so pretty and was happy to be there with us all.

I had the pleasure on Sunday at the show of grooming Miss Ruby Rose (Scooby's Ruby!).  Marilyn and Roger are so faithful to come to the shows and cheer us on anytime we are there in Massachusetts.  It was funny because Marilyn had emailed me to say all of a sudden Ruby's tail had changed and the way she described it I knew it was exactly like Scoobys.  If you are familiar with our crew and the many photos here there and everywhere of them - you'll notice that most of our Brittanys are groomed for the field. There is no added pressure to do show grooming on them so they always have the more casual look. The Brittany is supposed to be low maintenance after all.  Grooming of course means a whole lot more than getting a dog ready for a show. It involves frequent regular brushing, nail clipping, paying attention to skin, teeth, and toenails among other things. We are not huge advocates of frequent bathing of dogs, I think that dries their skin out and strips them of the lanolin needed in their coats.  If you're keeping a dog in show coat that's an entirely different story.  Anyway, I just wanted to elaborate a little bit on that because whenever I mention I'm going to do some grooming on the dogs John rolls his eyes and thinks I mean shaving the neck, trimming furnishings etc.  I tried to explain that grooming is NOT limited to that extent!  Anyhow.  What I'm getting at here is if you catch a glimpse of pictures of Mr. Scooby doobah it's likely you can notice the marshmallow/mushroom puff which I try very hard to keep trimmed up.  I do not like flags of hair on the end of Brittany tails though. It's just not hygienic and it makes them look silly.  So beware!  If you're around where Pam, Julie, or I may be and your Brittany has a tail flag - you may find it has disappeared when you were not looking!!!  Ruby was a very good girl and I couldn't believe how easy it was to spend some time with her on the grooming table. I saw no reason to give her a field clip but I did take off some of the fringe around her ears and neatened up her pretty little tail. I love Ruby.  It only took a few minutes to show Marilyn how to use a curved, blunt ended scissor to carefully 'clean out' the hair under Ruby's tail, then use my 46 tooth, single blade thinning shears to blend in hair on her tail itself, carefully shaping the remaining hair left there.  As is typical of Molly and many of her get, Ruby has an excessive amount of very fine hair behind her ears.  I trimmed that all out nicely, trimmed the length of hair on her ears even with the 'leather', and used my fine tooth stripping tool to take out some of the fluffy bulk.  Ruby reminds me so much of my Rosie but John said she reminds him more of Scooby. Either way, she is a beautiful Brittany girl. 

As for showing Pippin, she and I are continuing to improve our game. We are better than we once were  but have a ways to go.  Pip and I both were in need of a big boost of confidence to bring us up out of a place of discouragement about showing.  The only way I could envision this happening was to take her back into the ring myself, see what we could do together for awhile and take it from there.  I'm at a physical disadvantage but I still want to try and show Pippin to the best of my ability.  After a very dry season of no placements we were in the ribbons again in December and January. (We all need to keep our achievements in front of us and I would have been happy with the major at that time but we did take reserve to a 4 point major, also a Best Opposite Sex, and a Group 4 Bred By Exhibitor.)  Anyway, John took pictures of Pippin and I together in the ring on Sunday.  There was an entry of 41 beautiful BrittanysHemi's Uncle Alex won Best Opposite in Sweeps and also Reserve Winners Dog to a 4pt major amidst awesome competition.  And at the end of the day, I also walked away knowing Pippin was every bit as competitive as any of the others.  It was not her day, but one of these times - it will be.

Ahhhh... and then there is Treasure!  Pictured above are the initial attempts John and I have made out in the puppy room.  This room is also affectionately known as the puppy cave or in Treasure's case ' the Treasure house'.  Being multiple dog owners with a small personal kennel means creatively managing the entire crew so that no one is ever left out and all know and feel how important and special they are. This escalates to a higher level in the case of an expectant mother dog.  I feel very fortunate to have a husband who understands the importance of this.  John is always seeking ways to improve their environment and the life we share with the crew here. So now we have a puppy room, which is located right off of our garage that is perfectly equipped to meet every need in regards to breeding, whelping, and raising a litter of purebred Brittany pups. Pictured above is the way it looked as of this afternoon. Treasure was recently gifted with a very special full size bedspread from Julie to call her very own throughout the process.  This afternoon she settled down on it and lay in the warm sun.  In a day or two we'll be laying new indoor/outdoor carpet tiles in the room, and then the whelping box will be brought in.  (When there are no pups due, this room is set it exclusively as a grooming studio.) I love having a separate area dedicated to momma and pups. Everyone can come in and visit, or the pups can go outside with supervision into the yard when they are old enough. We bring in a nice big piece of culvert for them to run through.  Although we pretty much 'live' in that area for the first few weeks (setting a cot up inside) there's also an intercom from the house.  As the pups get a lot older they spend their days inside the house in an X-pen with us.  We begin crate training in the puppy room and also introduce informal clicker training.  I maintain that we are responsible for bringing pups into the world - we are accountable to them to teach them as much as possible as we can while they are here, to prepare our Brittany pups to spend the rest of their life with humans.  Perhaps out of anything that has to do with All Things Brittany - it is the 1st 8 weeks of their life which I take more seriously than anything else. Devoting an area totally to their well being and to Treasure's is just part of it.  It is a rare occurrence for me to go to any other dog event when pups are due or shortly after they are born.  We routinely set up a quarantine period here.  

Treasure is sleeping on our bed each night now.  It's comfortable for her.  If we go away she is either crated comfortably in our largest crate or settled into one of our indoor/outdoor kennel runs.  I don't believe it's a good idea to leave her loose in the house as her behavior can be unpredictable. She could decide to try to make her own nesting area somewhere unconventional, and in the process really hurt herself.  She does enjoy being with the rest of the crew although we closely supervise their interaction. Being such a playful girl as Treasure is means she loves to engage in activities with the others. But she is deserving of her own time, her own space, and her own one on one interaction with us. She gets it.  As pregnancy advances, these needs become greater. They will be respected. 

Treasure is about 6 weeks along now from her first tie with Bullet.  Her appetite has returned full force. Her abdomen has expanded to the point though where we are now feeding her smaller meals throughout the day.  Otherwise she becomes very uncomfortable after eating.  She loves to have her belly rubbed!  This is the stage where hair may begin to fall out on her tummy, around her nipples.  It is too early to detect fetal movement, that occurs in the final week to 10 days of pregnancy.  We look forward to watching and feeling the movement of puppies! 

Before I close, I have to tell you about our latest discovery as we continue to go through the boxes which we brought up from our other home.  You may remember I found all of my parents breeding records, pedigrees etc. from the 60's ?  Well, yesterday John showed me a box full of  Dog World magazines dating from that period too. All those fabulous articles about DNA, genetics, breed standards, showing, pup development and every topic imaginable!  There were also several huge thick AKC Gazettes and yearbooks.  I like it that there are notes about various topics in some of the magazines which my dad must have found especially helpful. 

There are a couple of hunt tests coming up this spring we have an interest in all levels of testing.  Also John is pursuing his desire to become an AKC Hunt Test judge and should soon be apprenticing somewhere. I'm so glad he discovered the fun of AKC Hunt Tests, *thanks to Pam and Sam. We now encourage everyone to give it a try. We'll be doing more gun dog training assistance for those who need it. This is for those who enjoy hunting with a close working dog within shotgun range. John enjoys helping others this way with all point breeds, but especially with Brittanys. Sometimes all it takes is a telephone conversation to share new ideas.  Other times a few outings together in the field. And then there are times when John enjoys working with a dog over a period of time.  Not that I'm bias or anything  - but he has a wonderful way with the dogs who readily respond to his training methods.  Our homing pigeon population suffered a devastating blow when attacked by an ermine a few weeks ago.  Our quail are all doing well and it's almost time to trek the johnny houses to the area we use for training!  There is always something new for sure.

That's it for now. We'll continue to share more about Treasure in the days and weeks ahead. Speaking of this beautiful liver and white Brittany girl, she's standing at the open screen door just wagging her tail, looking to go outside.  What a beautiful night it is here in Southern Maine.  I may just have to outside and enjoy looking at the stars and listening to the peepers!  Take care and God bless you and  yours - John, Ann, and All Things Brittany