Congratulations to Gunner and Jeremy

Congratulations to Jeremy and Gunner on passing their APLA Certified Pointer test yesterday in Okoboji. Gunner is out of Belle's 1st litter and is a senstational hunter. Most of my close followers have probably already heard stories about him, but he is fun to watch out in field! This is an old picture of Gunner in his younger years at about 5-6 months of age when he got his first taste of waterfowl hunting. (Hopefully I'll get a picture of Gunner and his 1st of many ribbons to come when he is here for the week) He was already retrieving goose and ducks out of the water at 5 months age and holding a steady point on wild birds. From then on my brother knew he had a special dog! Anyway I'll get back to the subject, Gunner passed his CP on his very first attempt in some very tough conditions. Yesterday was dry, windy, and hot, but he was definately up to the challenge. The waterfowl portion of the test was extremely tough becuase of the windy conditions and a lot of other dogs were fooled by the decoys floating in the pond, but Gunner is used to this type of a set-up and did exactly what he was supposed to do. I went along to watch and once I saw the whole process was wishing I was there with Belle. It was fun to sit back and watch as a bystander and hear all the positive comments from other people in the gallery talking about how great a looking dog Gunner is and how well he worked in his water retrieves! This was the first time my brother and I had seen the APLA set-up and was a great learning experience for us to see how the other levels (Advanced, Senior, and Master Pointing Retriever) are run for future tests. Jeremy strongly considered running Gunner in the Advanced this weekend as well, but decided to wait until next fall. Gunner just turned 2 years old on May 2 and is off to a good start in his young career. Hopefully this weekend I will be running Gunner in his first NAHRA hunt test set-up if everything works out!

Swimming Lessons

The puppies got their first taste of the water this afternoon and they seemed to enjoy it. It was hot and windy today so we took them all out to a pond near our house to see how they enjoyed the water. They watched from the ledge as Belle chased her dummy in and out of the water and eventually a couple took the leap and landed in the water. It didn't take them long to figure out they could stand. Eventually the girls took some of them out away from shore and let them go so they could swim a little ways. It was pretty fun to watch and something I really enjoy doing and exposing them to at a young age. It seems like they aren't afraid of anything whether its climbing up and down steps, or playing in the water. It does take some longer to make that leap of faith, but eventually they think through the best strategies to attempt a ledge or set of stairs and end up getting where they want to. Its fun to watch them run around the yard and see how they have stretched their boundaries from a week ago. They used to stick pretty close to the house and if Belle ventured out more than 15-20 yards they would sit down and just watch. Now they are pretty much following her wherever she goes and it takes a more watchful eye because they get out pretty far and move pretty quickly now. They were supposed to have the puppy checks on friday but the vet called me and went home sick, so they will go in tomorrow afternoon instead. More and more are starting to "flash point" and show those tendencies as well and it is really fun to see them growing in all aspects and into great dogs.

Puppy Video

May 27

The pups will be 5 weeks old tomorrow and the time is just flying by. It has been a fun five weeks, and they are getting to be a handful! Every time I go outside, I find about half of them have escaped the whelping box and are either roaming around the patio leaving little messes everywhere, or are snuggled up napping on the steps. It's not too big of a problem because there isn't too much they can get into in the patio. John Carstens and his wife came down Monday to look at the pups. John is the owner of Baker the male I bred to, and is getting another male out of this litter. He took Baker along, and once again we were amazed at the striking resemblence Belle and Baker have to each other. It was fun getting to know John and his wife Clare and I really look forward to getting to know the rest of you when you come out and see the pups. They were both impressed at how well the pups were doing. The pups are really starting to show their personalities and it is fun to watch them as they grow. I really look forward to the next couple of weeks when they really start to show who they are as pups and their future capabilities.

Feeding Frenzy

As you can tell from this group of pictures the pups are getting no lack of nourishment. I introduced them to some wet food yesterday and they absolutely loved it!!! I was feeding them again this afternoon, and left the can lay. Once they had their plates cleaned they all decided to attack the can. It was pretty cute to watch! One even went as far as to get her head stuck in the can! They are really getting tall the last few days! They can reach the top of their whelping box now if they stand up and it wont be long before I will be coming home to a couple escapies and probably a mess to go along with it. They all learned how to climb steps and yesterday two days ago I let them run free for a while in the patio. It was pretty warm here and eventually they tuckered themselves out and found a nice cool spot between the wall and the steps on the cold cement. They are getting to be so much fun! I have a video, but I probably won't get around to uploading this weekend and by that time I'll probably have a new one to put on!

May 19

There's no real big news at this time, the pups will be a month old tomorrow, and its amazing to see how they have grown in only four weeks time. Each day when I let them out the move faster and farther. I really struggled last night to get good pictures because they move so quickly now! Some of my nieces and nephews came over and played with the pups for a while. They love every chance they get to see them and hold them. It was pretty fun to watch the puppies chase around my younger nephew. They are now big enough to feed from Belle when she's standing up, so they follow her around and try get a drink every chance they get.

Loving The Great Outdoors

As you can all tell I got a few pictures of the pups today! It's amazing to see how much they have grown and progressed in just two days. On Thursday I dewormed them, and then took them outside for just a little while to see how they would react to their new surroundings. On Thursday they just all cuddled up in a ball and lay there. They had just eaten so maybe their bellies were full and were content, but today was a totally different scenario. I let them run outside for a while again and they were all over the place. They put their little noses to the ground and really explored the new environment. They were really investigating things and some of them were more content exploring on their own than others. Others would whine a little when they found themselves alone then would hurry to catch up with their siblings. They are growing up so fast and turning into beautiful pups! I also had to change from carpet to wood chips yesterday because the mess is continually getting larger. I changed carpet on Thursday and by Friday morning it was a complete mess so I decided it was time to put them on wood chips to make my job a little easier. They still have just a little square of carpet on top of the wood bedding that they really love to sleep on. Its pretty cute to watch how they all pile on top of each other when it is nap time. Now that they are really exploring I plan to take them out everyday to see how they react to different challenges outside. I also spent a little time and separated the males from females today to see who does what and get a better feel for the pups. This the first time I've done so and its kind of fun to compare the pups this way. I hope you enjoy all the new pics and they are all doing great! I don't know if you guys realized this or not, but if you click on the pictures in the blog it enlarges them so you can get a better look at the pups.

May 11, 2009

The pups are doing great and they are getting into their cute and cuddly stage as you can see from the video. They are getting pretty steady on all 4's and they are getting to be a lot of fun. One of these next couple days I hope to get them all outside so they can explore the outdoors for a little while. I don't think its possible to find a cuter puppy than a lab at this stage! They are a joy to have around! A few of you have been emailing me about times to come and either look at the pups and when they can pick them up. I know one of the pups is a birthday present and will need to go home by June 16-18 somewhere in there (Which is right at 8 weeks). That pup is the the 6th female, so all of the others should start thinking about when you would like to come out and take a look and when for sure you want to pick out your pups. You all should know your order, but if you have any questions about that just shoot me an email. I have one guy thinking about coming down Memorial Weekend and if there are others that are interested let me know and we could have a little puppy party! I know there are a few people coming from Eastern Iowa and a few others coming from the Minneapolis area so if some if you are interested riding out together let me know and I can give you each others contact info to arrange that. If another weekend/ weekday works better for you, let me know and we will start setting up times. At around 5 weeks of age, I will be marking the pups so I can keep them apart. I can tell most of them apart now, but they grow so fast and change so quickly that I want to have something to help me keep them separated. The time is just flying by and I am really looking forward to meeting all of you and seeing the new families of Belle's pups. It's really a blessing to know that all of you have a deep interest in the pups and will love them the way we love them and that makes parting with them much easier. Shoot me an email with when you think you want to come and look at the pups and when you want to pick your pup out so that I can start getting everything situated and in order for pick up dates. It seems like its a long ways off, but it is coming too quickly.

2 Weeks old

It seems like so much has changed in only two weeks time. The pups go from barely scooting around to starting to walk on all fours. They are a bit wobbly, and won't be winning any agility competitions in the next week, but they are starting to stand and get around pretty good. My daughter called me two nights ago all excited because the first pups eyes were starting to open up! By now they are all opened up but still a little hazy but thats probably ok by them then they don't have to stare at my ugly mug!

Here's a picture of a couple of the pups and my daughter Maddy. I'm not sure who is cuter the pups or her??? Here you can see their beatiful eyes and how much she loves them! They got to come in the house for the first time tonite, but only to get their pictures taken. The time is really flying by they're only 2 weeks old, but in less than 6 weeks they will be leaving us! Just wanted you all to see the face of the cute little girl you that you will be breaking the heart of!!




I also introduced the pups their first real bird tonite as you can see from the picture. Well, I guess if you call a mounted bird "real" then they got to see their first pheasant. I was honestly quite shocked they all got really birdy and 3 out of the 10 held a good 5 second point! I guess they are fast learners!!!! Ok then again maybe they weren't birdy and maybe they didn't point the bird yet, but they all kept wanting to fall asleep with their little noses in the direction of the bird so maybe thats a good sign. We had to keep arranging them because otherwise we had all butts and no heads in the picture.

Taking Belle for a Swim

Here's a couple videos of Belle in action. It was pretty nice out today, so I took her to Sandy Hollow to swim and catch a break from the pups. She's fun to watch, and I can't wait until its warm enough and the pups are big enough to experience their first swim with mom. Forgive my camera work, I was trying to throw the dummy and record at the same time. I thought you would enjoy seeing how Belle enters the water. She's probably a little slower going into the water than usual carrying those extra bags around on her belly, but it doesn't seem to bother her too much.

Day 11

As you can see from the pictures they pretty much eat and sleep and from what I can tell from the little guy on the right are living the good life! Looks to me like they are pretty relaxed and its always fun to go in and check on them and see what kind of weird position they are sleeping in. They have really grown in the last couple days and they are so close to opening their eyes. They are starting to move on all fours instead of just scooting themselves along. They are pretty unsteady yet, but it wont be long and they will moving along pretty fast and I'll need reinforcements to help me keep up with them.