The Quick/Spryte puppies are one week old today. They continue to grow and become more mobile. They are starting to use their back legs more, even propping themselves up on all four and taking a wobbly step or two.
Weights from today:
Merlot: 13.3 oz
Syrah: 12.1 oz
Zin: 14.8 oz
Pinot: 13.2 oz
Ries: 7.3 oz
Yesterday we started the Bio-Sensor program with each puppy. The program consists of five simple exercises lasting between three and five seconds long and is administered once a day. The program introduces the puppies to controlled stress at a young age which results in adult dogs that recover from stress faster, have improved immune systems, improved heart function and greater social skills. The five exercises are holding the puppy in a head straight up position, holding them in a head straight down position, holding them on their back, stimulating toes with a Q-tip and exposing them to a temperature change by placing the puppy on a cold towel. The duration starts at 3 seconds for each puppy and increase to 5 seconds by the end of the fourteen day program. More information on the program can be found in Jerry Hope's book "The Breeder's Guid to Raising Superstar Dogs."
The puppies continue to grow
and gain weight.
Here are today's puppy weights.
Merlot: 11.6 oz
Syrah: 9.7 oz
Zin: 13.8 oz
Pinot: 11.1 oz
Ries: 5.7 oz
Since we are new to the Okanagan we thought it would be fun to name the puppies after different wines. So let me introduce the Okanagan Litter (or better know as the Wine O'Clock litter ;)
time was getting close, I was taking her temperature twice a day for about the last week. Typically a dog will start labour within 24 hours of a temperature drop below 99F, so it's a pretty sure sign that puppies are on their way soon. Spryte's first two litters showed a temperature drop in the morning and then labour started before noon. So when her temperature dropped to 98.6F at 5:00am on November 22, I was sure puppies would be born by lunch. Spryte had other ideas.
Spryte spent the morning nesting in our closet, and was rather restless, but other than that she was pretty normal all day. She even ate breakfast and lunch. It became clear in the early afternoon that Spryte was planning on breaking the cycle and making this one an all nighter.
I watched her closely all day, cuddled with her in the closet, read a book next to her and generally just waited impatiently for the moment to come. It wasn't until 11pm that evening that Spryte finally started to go into labour. She was panting heavily, nesting constantly, shaking, and contractions started to become visible. At this point we put her in the whelping box hoping to keep the delivery contained to one area. Spryte was not impressed by this move. She had picked out our bedroom closet weeks ago as her birthing location and she was determined to get her way. She refused to stay in the whelping box and would not settle down. Finally we gave in, put some blankets down in the closet, brought in the warming box and settled down on the floor with Spryte.
Once we moved to the closet it was only maybe half an hour later before her water broke and the first puppy appeared. Just as we finished cleaning up the first puppy, another was making it's way into this world. Spryte ended up having three puppies within about 20 minutes. Then she rested for around 45 minutes before the last two arrived. The grand total is 2 sable boys, 2 sable girls and 1 tri colour boy. All the births were smooth and effortless.
Once the puppies were dry and warm, momma Spryte and her crew moved into the whelping box and settled in for the night. It was now 3:00am on November 23.
All the puppies are doing well and gaining weight. Spryte is an attentive mother and rarely leaves the whelping box. She is a wonderful mother who truly loves her pups.
from L-R: sable girl, sable boy, sable girl, tri boy, sable boy
Syrah, Zin, Ries, Pinot, Merlot
We are excited to announce that we are expecting a litter of puppies on November 25th! Our Spryte has been bred to Quick (Just in Time of the Crazy Town). (http://www.ofthecrazytown.eu/sheltie/quick/)
I had the pleasure of meeting "Quick" a few times while in Luxembourg. Quick is a very outgoing and confident dog. He happily approached us and jumped up for petting and loving both times we met. He loved the attention and didn't want to leave our side. He was also great with Spryte. Very friendly and interested in his little lady.
Quick is the nephew of "Caja of the Crazy Town" ( Daughter of "Velvet" (Excellent Choice Red Velvet) who is Quick's grandmother). Caja and Silas Boogk competed in the 2008 and 2012 FCI Agility World Championships, and have attended numerous European Open Championships. Silas and Caja have had many EO placements including winning the individual Medium division in 2011.
A video of Caja's 2011 win can be seen at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVn8U_AVDM4
Quick is currently competing in agility in Luxembourg, France and Germany. He is a young dog and has just started his competition career and is already excelling at the sport. Quick is fast and loves to work for both food and toys. We are very exciting to have had the opportunity to breed him to Spryte. We are expecting very high drive puppies that will excel at agility and other performance sports.
We x-rayed Spryte yesterday and counted at least five puppies. We are very excited to have a large litter again. The more the merrier :)
Spryte and I will be going to Luxembourg in September for the Agility World Championships, representing Canada in the medium division. As you can imagine this means most of our training in the last few months has been for agility. In this sport it feels like there is always something that needs improvement, and always a new skill that needs to be mastered.
As always my frustration lies in my contacts. I deeply regret training a 2 on 2 off behaviour on my contacts. It was great and fine in the beginning when I wanted to Q and didn't need to push my dog too hard. It was safe and resulted in a high "Q" rate in our early agility career. Then I wanted more. Spryte was fast, and it made me dream big. I dreamed of having a world level dog. Suddenly stopped contacts just wouldn't cut it anymore. To keep this short and avoid a lot of rambling I will sum it up to say that I tried retraining my aframe to a running, I ended up with a dog that consistently hit within the top 1" of the yellow resulting in a low Q rate and a dog that then thought it would be fun to jump ALL the contacts on course. So now we are back to stopped contacts on everything.
Contact training now means working on getting Spryte to stop on contacts no matter how over stimulated she is. Working on proofing the contacts for front, rear and blind crosses. Working on having Spryte drive to the end when I am lateral of her (very difficult). And working on having her drive into the 2 on 2 off position with no hesitation on the down plank, and never stopping any where other than the one acceptable spot. We are also working on her only releasing on "GO" and nothing else. I then have to maintain my criteria at home and at shows. All this work that I wouldn't have to bother with if we just had running contacts. It's frustrating and not at all what I want to be training right now. I wish I had taught running contacts from day one, when I had the time and before Spryte had any history with contact behaviours. Now my biggest problem is finding the time to train it (raising two litters and upcoming big events put a real time restriction on retraining) and dealing with a long history of stopping or jumping contacts. When we get back from Europe the retraining will begin. I WILL have running contacts on Spryte or die trying!
We are also working on our handling skills. This is much more fun :) The team was given three drills to work on to improve mental and physical stamina, as well as technical skills. The courses all consisted of 30-34 obstacles. The idea is to see if we can stay just as focused and just as fast on obstacle 32 as obstacle 3! If we made a mistake during the course we were to keep moving and save it as much as possible, not starting again from the beginning. Saving it is such an important skill. It's amazing how much people want to start all over again when a mistake happens. But in reality at a show you can't just stop and you can't let it affect you. The run isn't over until you cross the finish line! These drills gave us a chance to practise continuing on after a mistake and staying mentally focused for the whole run. It also tested our ability to remember a long sequence of obstacles. I really enjoyed the drills and plan to start running longer sequences a lot more often.
Spark and I are mostly focusing on agility skills right now. We dabble in obedience and nose work when we need a mental break from agility. After reading my rant above it will come as no surprise that Spark is learning running contacts from day one. I am thrilled with our progress and after only a month of training I have her on full size equipment. The Aframe we do sparingly (she has had only 3 sessions on it), most of the training is done on the Dogwalk. I now need to start working on turns off the contacts and anticipate this might go a bit slower. Below is a short movie of Spark's contact training.
I am also waffling on breeding Spryte one more time on her next heat. I LOVE having puppies and I so
miss raising a litter. I love caring for and nurturing the puppies. Helping them develop into confident and outgoing dogs. And I love matching the puppies with loving homes and watching them become a team together and accomplish great things. It is the most rewarding thing I have ever done and it gives me so much purpose.
Originally I was not going to have a litter this year. I didn't want to take my top competition dog out of training and showing again for 4 months. It doesn't sound like a long time, but it does make a difference when you are trying to stay at the top of your game. But I miss puppies. So I waffle. Puppies, no puppies. It will also depend on when Spryte comes into season. It could happen when we are in Europe or shortly after we return. In Europe would be a problem. When we return home could work. But if its too late into the fall then it would mean missing Try Outs for next year. Which would mean no chance at world's for next year. So it comes down to what I want more. Puppies or international competitions. Big choices. For now I will waffle and wait to see when Spryte decides to come into season again. Decisions, decisions ;)
Wow it's been over a month since I posted last and there are so many updates from the Hyper Hounds litters that I need to brag about.
First Regionals results. Both Wendy and "Snap" and Susan and "Cricket" ran in the Alberta AAC agility Regional Championship in June. This was the first regionals for both dogs. They both handled it like seasoned agility dogs and placed 5th in their divisions. Snap 5th in 16" regulars and Cricket 5th in 16" specials. What amazing placements, especially for dogs who just started competing in March!
Since regionals "Cricket" has also finished her Starters Gamers title in AAC agility too!
Breeanne and "Izzy" participated in the famous Superdog show at the Calgary Stampede and the Red Deer Westerners Days. "Izzy" ran in several relay races, did some freestyle routines and even solved some math problems! After Bree and "Izzy's" Superdog debut, they then ran in a flyball tournament and earned the Flyball Dog Champion title! What a versatile little dog!
At less than 9 months of age Teresa and "Andy" took part in their first UKC nose work trial. "Andy" passed the Pre Trial on Birch, earned a leg and 4th place finish in containers and earned two vehicle legs with a 4th place finish, which earned "Andy" his very first title… Novice Nosework Vehicle! What a superstar at such a young age. This guy has a very bright future ahead of him!
time was getting close, I was taking her temperature twice a day for about the last week. Typically a dog will start labour within 24 hours of a temperature drop below 99F, so it's a pretty sure sign that puppies are on their way soon. Spryte's first two litters showed a temperature drop in the morning and then labour started before noon. So when her temperature dropped to 98.6F at 5:00am on November 22, I was sure puppies would be born by lunch. Spryte had other ideas.
I am also waffling on breeding Spryte one more time on her next heat. I LOVE having puppies and I so 
