DreamShot Aussies

7-30 Update

2010-07-30T12:56:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone. Sorry for disappearing for so long but things have been hectic. The puppies are doing just great. They have been wormed twice and will see the Vet for their first shots and second puppy exam tomorrow. They will have their CERF exams on Monday. I no longer carry them in from the yard after they potty as they all scramble up the steps to the porch and follow me inside to eat. They execute the large wobble board and several do this teeter looking thing that travels about 10" to a bang.

On Wednesday my friends and Viper's breeders, Mark and Anne, came by and we took all of the pups to instinct them on ducks. It was great fun. They all had some level of interest from just staring to going right after them but all of them were very brave and nobody backed down from the 10 ducks that we put in front of them. Since the environment was new they were also interested in the grass, fence, sticks, trees, etc. They were very perky until the heat got to them.

They now live in an area formed by two Ex-Pens with lots of stimulation. There are a couple of different tunnels, two pianos, toys, tug toys, babble balls, various other balls, some different texture items for them to crawl on, a teeter and a wobble board. In addition, there is a crate in there which they now sleep in so they are fast becoming crate trained. I also take them for a walk around the yard each day - they are very people oriented and follow quite well. I have been putting them back in the whelping box to eat so that I can clean up the Ex-Pen and they can already crawl over the edge and get out.

The pictures posted below are from last Sunday so they are already 5 days older and much more mature but you should be able to get the idea. I'll try to take some more tomorrow. Amanda asked me to take pictures from each side stacked so that is what we tried - what a pipe dream. I'd have to drug these perpetual motion machines to do that. I'll continue to do the best that I can.

No1 is a Blue Merle Tri Female who weighs 6 pounds.

No 2 is a Black Tri Male. He weights 6.5#.

No 3 is a Blue Merle Bi Male who now weighs 5.75#

No4 is a Red Tri Male. He now weighs 6.5#

No 5 is a Red Merle Tri Female weighing in at 6.5#

No6 is a Blue Merle Bi as well who now weighs 6.75#.

No7 is a Black Bi Boy weighing in at 6.75#.

This picture is even older than the others but this is what I look at every time I put them in there to eat.

7/11 Update and Pictures

2010-07-11T09:11:00.000-07:00

Good day everyone. Tomorrow the pups will be 4 weeks old and things are getting a little more exciting here. They started on "real" food on Friday - I grind it, add a mild supplement and water to make a watery gruel. They went right to it and made a major mess, walking into it and spreading it all over the whelping box. I included a picture of them at the trough below. As time passes I will transition the gruel slowly to regular kibble so that they will be ready to go home to regular food.

Their eyes are all completely open and it is obvious they can see what is going on. They all have nice sharp puppy teeth. Tails have healed from the docking and the scabs are all gone. The kids are getting more and more steady on their feet and moving very quickly. They climb all over everything in the whelping box. Not one of them is concerned about the movement of the wobble board, they plan the toy piano and not only climb through the tunnel but also up and over it. Their toe nails grow very fast so I trim 56 toe nails every week.

Once they are weaned from mom this next week I will eliminate the whelping box in favor of a crate and they will have a large area to roam and make a mess in. I will add lots more noise and texture stimulus, more tunnels, a bigger piano, more items to tug on and more items to climb into and over. They will be wormed on Tuesday and again two weeks later. At about six weeks I have scheduled them on ducks to check instinct, made a vet appointment for vaccinations and an appointment with the opthamologist for CERF exams. Potty training begins next week as well.

I put a couple of pictures of each pup below and four miscellaneous pictures that I liked of their antics. On the last e-mail I called No 3 pup a Blue Merle Tri but as I look at her I really don't see the tan other a little light tan on her face that looks more like dirt so only time will tell but she might very well be a Blue Merle Bi. Note that all of them look like they have tan on their feet but it is only residue from their food. Several of them sleep on their backs like their dad.

No 1 is a Blue Merle Tri Female.

No2 is a Black Tri Male.

No 3 is a Blue Merle Male.

No 4 is a Red Tri Male.

No 5 is a Red Merle Tri Female.

No 6 is a Blue Merle Bi Male.

No 7 is a Black Bi Male with lots of white on his chest and belly.

There were actually 3 pups sleeping in the tunnel together when I took this one.

Contented pups sleeping in the whelping box after eating.

Another picture after eating. Note the Black Bi sleeping on his back. Several of them do the same thing.

First solid meal at the trough (frisbee).

7/4 Update and New Pictures

2010-07-04T18:51:00.000-07:00

Happy July 4th! All of the puppies are doing great! We just got home from out second long road trip and once again they handled it extremely well. We were at a USDAA trial at Boone County Fairgrounds in Lebanon, IN. The pups had lots of visitors and enjoyed every minute of it.

All of their eyes are now wide open. They are all sitting up and walking. It is now a whole new challenge now that they are mobile.

So here are some new pictures taken this morning. Hopefully I will take some better pics tomorrow when Joan is here to help. Amanda asked for statistics on each pup so they are listed under each picture. The pups are way too cute.

This is No1, a Blue Merle Tri girl. She weighed 42.4 Oz this morning and has gained 209% of her birth weight.

This is No 2, a Black Tri boy. He weighs 46.2 Oz which is 235% more than his birth weight.

This Blue Merle Tri boy is No 3. He weighed 41.5 Oz this morning and now weighs 240% more than when he was born.

No 4 is a Red Tri boy. He weighs 45.6 Oz which is 200% more than he weighed at birth.

No 5 is a Red Merle Tri girl. She weighs 43.4 Oz which is 231% more than when she was born.

No 6 is a Blue Merle Bi boy. He weighed 47.2 Oz this morning and has gained 199% of his birth weight.

No 7 is a Black Bi boy. He weighs 47.6 Oz which is 238% more than when he was born.

UPDATE AND PICTURES 6/26

2010-06-26T12:42:00.000-07:00

Happy Saturday everyone. The litter is now 12 days old. Joan helped me take pictures today and we got our first good look at the color of the puppies outside so I have some color updates for you. The puppies now weight between 28 and 34.2 Oz and have gained between 113% and 139%. I had lots of people over for a bar-b-que last evening and everyone handled the puppies for their first socialization with humans other than family. They did great and everyone had a good time with them.

This is the whole litter outside.

No 1 is a Blue Merle Tri Female.

No 2 is a Black Tri Male.

No 3 is a Blue Merle Bi Boy.

No 4 is a Red Tri Male.

No 5 is a Red Merle Tri Girl.

No 6 is Blue Merle Bi Male.

No7 is a Black Bi Boy.

It looks like they will have their eyes open in the next couple of days and I'm looking forward to that. In the mean time let me know if you have any questions.

6-19 First Individual Pictures of Performance Litter

2010-06-19T17:07:00.000-07:00

The puppies are now 5 days old and all 7 are doing just great. As of this morning they weighed between 17.8 and 21.9 Oz. They have gained between 39% and 46% since birth. Here are some individual pictures, a couple of pictures of Stinger and Charlie from the last litter and a collage of Viper from a recent trial. Just like the first litter we got all four possible color combinations and like the first litter all of the colors are very vibrant.

All of the pups went on their first short road trip to the Vet. My friend and Vet Gary Yavitz came in on his day off to check them out and do the necessary tail docking and dew claw removal at exactly the right time. Aaron, my daughter Michele's boyfriend came to take Cougar on a walk to allow Gary and I to do the work. Louise was in on a rare Wednesday and got her puppy fix! Gary indicated that they were all doing great. Joan will see them for the first time on Monday and I'm more than anxious for her evaluation.

This is the first born. She is a Blue Merle Female.

This Black Male was the second pup born.

Number 3 is a Blue Merle boy with a big white blaze and collar.

Number 4 is a Red Male. Like the others he looks like he is going to be a Bi.

Number 5 is a Red Merle Female. I think she is likely to be a Tri.

Number 6 is another Blue Merle Male.

A Black boy was the seventh and last one born.

This is Charlie, a Red Merle female from the first litter. She is 16 months old today.

This is Stinger. He was the first born in the last litter.

This is a collage of Viper at a recent trial..

6/15/2010 MAJOR NEW ARRIVAL ANNOUNCEMENT!

2010-06-15T06:55:00.000-07:00

Early yesterday morning the second Viper/Cougar Litter was born. There were 7 healthy, robust troublemakers. There are 5 boys and 2 girls who weighed in between 12.2 Oz and 15.8 Oz. There are 2 Black boys, 2 Blue Merle boys and a Red boy. There is a Blue Merle girl and a Red Merle girl. All had 1/2 to full tails which will be docked tomorrow morning. Below are a couple of pictures of the litter.

As most of you know the first litter was 3 boys and 2 girls who are now almost 16 months old - all of whom are doing well and exhibiting every sign of becoming great performance dogs. All of them have started Agility and all of them have either begun herding or are planning to in the near future.

Over the next several days I'll take pictures of the pups individually and try to keep the posts up to date.

4/6 Update

2009-04-06T16:29:00.000-07:00

The pups had a very busy weekend that lasted right through Monday. They were at Purina Farms Friday, Saturday and Sunday and had lots and lots of visitors from newborns to nearly deads and had a great time. It felt like we provided the petting zoo but the socialization was terrific.

On Sunday they got their second worming. Today they got their CERF exams and first puppy shots in preparation for going home. Their eyes all tested normal and the Vet pronounced them all in excellent health and they got to play with their Uncle Flint. They weighed between 7.3 pounds and 8.4 pounds - chubby, healthy and happy kids.

Thankfully they are now sleeping so that I have time to write this blog. They stay awake for long periods of time now and like to play and have lots of attention. Yesterday Joan taught them to sit so they have a new game to play for treats. A couple of them figured out that they should just stay seated and the treat machine would continue to deliver without any work - pretty clever. Bye for now, I have to work on posting the Video that Lynn shot last week.

End of March Updates

2009-04-03T17:03:00.000-07:00

So much to report. Time has gotten away from me. I am posting pictures today from 3/29 and 3/30. The 3/29 shots are in the yard and just miscellaneous shots of each dog since I have been unable to pose them - they are way too busy. They are real dogs - walking, eating, drinking, running and, of course, pooping like real dogs.

Where to begin. They were 6 weeks old on Thursday and weigh between 6.5 and 7.25 pounds. They go out with the entire herd, Maverick, Jester, Dustin, Neil, Jody, Gracie and Amy. They go for long walks, tug and play like big dogs.

On Monday, I took them to Lawrence for some evaluation. First, Joan took them each for a walk and a little play time. Then, we went over to Ad Astra Farm courtesy of Grandpa Mark Hodges and put them each on a herd of 3 ducks. All of them showed very good to excellent herding instinct at 5-1/2 weeks old. Lynn Morgan joined us and took some video which I will attempt to post this evening. It was absolutely amazing and fascinating. Mark told me that he has seen many adult dogs back off an head for the other side of the arena and none of the kids showed fear.

We let them sleep a little while and then headed over the gym at Mark's school. He built a play area with mats of various sizes and shapes as well as tunnels. He also had various tug toys in there. Geneva, Mark's two legged granddaughter came to play with the pups as well. The pups made a Coppertone commercial by pulling her pants down. They were all over the place, up and over the A-Frames (triangular pads), climbed up the pads, jumped the gaps, untied the ropes, tugged against each other and just had a great time.

Joan kept them the next two days before bringing them back to my house and they went to Purina Farms today. She took them on walks and into her agility arena. They voluntarily went through tunnels and two of them went up a 5' 6" A-Frame - no fear.

3/23 Update and a few pictures

2009-03-23T11:16:00.000-07:00

Each day they are becoming more like "real" dogs. They sit and stand like small Aussies and it is unbelievably cute. I wanted to show that to you but I can't get them to stay still long enough to do it. Maybe when Michele comes over tomorrow, we can do it. On Saturday I put the whelping box away and made a large area in the kitchen/dining room for them to roam with a crate in it to sleep in. They found the crate immediate and it is where they sleep now. They now have lots more toys, tunnels, etc and love to play. They received their first dose of wormer and the next one will be in 2 weeks. They will get their first shots at 6 weeks and I have scheduled CERF eye exams for all of them on April 7th. The kids now tug, play with toys, walk the boogie board and sleep through the night. Cougar went home last Friday and there was virtually no adjustment period when they were completely weaned because we had been feeding them whole food for over a week before she left. I have posted pictures of all 5 kids with one of their tug toys and a couple of bonus shots of them sleeping in their crate and trying to escape a box where I put them long enough for me to clean up the pirahna pit.

Dad tried to get me to sit still but I moved before he got the shot. He just isn't quick enough for me.

This is where they sleep. They found it all by themselves. Took them all of about 10 minutes.

They weren't very happy about being trapped in this box while I cleaned up the pirahna pit.

3/18 Miscellaneous pictures

2009-03-18T06:45:00.000-07:00

Room at the Buffet is limited. Compare this to the picture from the first post.

Dining at the trough.

Sleeping in the whelping box. A chance for Grandpa to do some other work.

I took some miscellaneous pictures over the last couple of days. I thought you might enjoy them. See the captions below for more info. They are getting just too cute.

March 15th Update

2009-03-16T07:07:00.000-07:00

The kids turned 3 weeks last Thursday and celebrated with a road trip to Des Moines and then their first "real food" meal. After eating most of the first plate, Joan made a second. They ate quite a bit of that before proceeding to wear the food and spread it all around the crate - looked like the remains after a bad concert.

They are now on a conbination of ground up Wellness with a milk replacement supplement mixed into a watery cereal three times daily supplemented by mom's milk. Please send newspaper, trash bags and reinforcements! In the last four days, Thursday morning to this morning, they have gained between 10 Oz and 11.8 Oz net of the deposits they have been leaving for me.

Michele and Aaron met us in Kansas City on the way home and we took them out for their first exposure to grass. They were way too mobile. While we were taking pictures, it took 2 people just to keep track of them while Joan and I took pictures on a blanket that one of Loretta's friends made for Cougar's Puppies.

I enclosed a few more photos for you to share.

3-8 Visit to the Vet

2009-03-09T13:28:00.001-07:00

I had to take the older boys in for shots today so I took the kids along for a car ride and to socialize with Louise at the Clinic. As long as we were there, Gary looked them over, checked their hearts and pronounced all five of them in excellent health. He continues to marvel at their growth and how well they are progressing.

Update 3/8/2009

2009-03-08T15:53:00.000-07:00

The puppies are amazing - and getting to be a lot of work but I'm told I ain't seen nothing yet. I took some pictures the other day but didn't get them posted so here are some pictures that I took this afternoon.

First, the all now weigh in between 41.5 Oz and 46.8 Oz and have gained between 141% and 195% of their birth weight. My daughter Michele came over on Wednesday evening and helped me remove all of the stitches from their tails - everything is just fine. Over the past few days all of them have opened their eyes as you can probably see in the photos and they have started to walk. The red boy was first to walk and is getting around the best so far although they still all look like they are drunk. The funniest thing to see is when they get up, shake and fall down. They are all now flooding the whelping box and I change the papers every time they wake up. They got their nails cut for the second time today and did real well. Michele and Aaron came over on Friday and helped me move them into the dining room where they will have lots of room to roam as they grow.

I wish you could all be here to see and hold them as they are a real treat - and you could help me clean up after them.

3/3/2009 Update

2009-03-03T07:33:00.000-08:00

Good morning all. No new pictures today although I'll try to take some later. Just want to update everyone on the puppies. They all continue to do well and gain weight every day. As of this morning they weigh between 31.9 Oz and 38.3 Oz. Since birth they have gained between 85% and 129% of their birth weight. They are starting to try to stand up - looks like push ups on their front legs - Joan thinks they will be up and wobling around by next weekend.

We took them for the weekend in the motorhome. They took the travel and change of environment in stride. They had about 10 new visitors and each held all of the pups so we have begun socializing them in ernest. Joan and I cut their toenails for the first time on Sunday.

New Pictures 2/27/2009

2009-02-27T17:40:00.000-08:00

Puppies weighed this morning between 25.6 and 31 Oz. Gaining weight nicely. They came with us in the motorhome this weekend. New experiences and lots of visitors and admirors. As you will see in the photos Joan is already teaching one to speak and all of them to do the tunnel - got to keep an eye her as you can never guess what she will do next. You've probably already noticed one of the bad habits she has taught the boys.

2-23 Updates

2009-02-23T11:12:00.000-08:00

The DreamShot Varmints are all doing well. As of this morning their weights range from 18.1 to 21.8 Oz, all with a positive weight gain each day. Yesterday was a bit traumatic - my friend and Vet, Gary Yavitz met me at his office on Sunday to be sure that we docked tails and did dew claws at exactly the right time. He pronounced all of the pups in good health.

Here are some pictures of the herd. Good thing they are all distinctive colors or I would have a great deal of difficulty telling them apart.

Cougar is also doing really well and is a great mom!

Red Merle Girl - Fifth Born

2009-02-20T11:39:00.001-08:00

Red Boy - Fourth Born

2009-02-20T11:34:00.000-08:00

Red Merle Girl - Third Born

2009-02-20T11:28:00.001-08:00

Blue Merle Boy - Second Born

2009-02-20T09:40:00.001-08:00

Black Boy - First Born

2009-02-20T09:38:00.001-08:00

Proud Parents

2009-02-20T09:29:00.001-08:00

New arrivals!

2009-02-20T09:05:00.001-08:00

Joan Meyer, Mark Hodges and Lynn Morgan teamed up to deliver the first DreamShot Aussie puppies. Cougar and Viper teamed up to produce 5 big, healthy, robust puppies ranging in weight from 14.6 Oz to 17.4 Oz. The boys are black, red and blue merle. The girls are both red merles.