The Dackel Princess

Someone Got Lucky!

This morning Greta’s longtime husband came for a conjugal visit. The last time he was here she played hard to get and was really not terribly nice to him. I spoke to her and explained that it was her duty to be nice and accommodating and give me some more grand-puppies! I also promised her that I would not keep any of them!

I promised! Really!!

So today Bernie came back and once again she was not being very nice to him, and I despaired that I would ever have more puppies from Greta. However, Bernie had something else in mind. He kept at her and at her until my little Princess was over come with his charms and succumbed!

I’m not sure who was happier at this turn of events. Me or Bernie? Now Barbie will bring Bernie back one more time tomorrow so we can give them one more afternoon of passion, before we feel fairly certain that she is with pups.

Is all this more than you wanted to know?

Meanwhile on the puppy front, we managed to get them out in between rain drops and allowed them to run in the wet grass. It’s sort of like a mini bath as I wipe them off when they come in.

It’s tough because they need the exercise, and then the peaceful naps after.
Ali

Baron

Baerbel

Bogart

I had to run down to the Town Hall today to pay our taxes and so I decided to bring a puppy. Hmmm, which one to bring? Well I picked up Bogey, as he was the closest, and brought him. Everyone went wild, and he did very well meeting people. So far I have had thee of the four out to visit. The only one left now is Ali. So next time I go to the Post Office, she gets to go.

A Dackel Day

The dackels (all of them) woke me at 6 this morning. I was awake anyway, so I didn’t mind starting the day so early. I walked all the dogs and the puppies, cleaned the puppy room, and then made the puppies their breakfast. They ate and then immediately went outside into their pen. I can leave the door open and they can go out and come in at will. They love it and I sometimes find them collapsed in the sun sound asleep.

Fritz will go out and do his inspection of our yard and our neighbors yard and then come back and lay down by the puppy pen. Good old Uncle Fritz, babysitting the puppies.

Since I decided to spend today doing all the things I have been putting off, I amazed myself and completely cleaned the puppy room (including washing the beds), vacuumed and washed the kitchen floor and then because I felt the need to prove I truly am “Super Dackel”, I did 7 loads of laundry, and took my darlings out twice in the yard for good long runs.

Anneliese was out with us today and she was amazing. She kept all the puppies in a group, when they were playing too hard, she corrected them with a little bump, and then the sweetest thing, at one point she lay down with all four of them and cuddled. It was such a sweet moment.

After that she came in and snuggled with her Daddy in his chair. The position was too cute not to capture!

Makenna arrived and we played with the pups and ran them around some more, after which they fell asleep and stayed that way until dinner time.

Greta is still in the throws of her heat, and poor Arnie has really needed to be locked away. He hates this, but it is for his own safety, and hers. In the meantime, she lounges on the sofa cuddling her ducky.

Tonight I’m spoiling Hubby with a new recipe for potato salad, broiled pork loin and broccoli! Then I hope to make it an early night.

More pictures of my darlings tomorrow! Have a good week everyone!

Raining In The Sunshine

Most of the day was the usual business with the pups, and Greta’s boyfriend decided to come over to see if he could get lucky. Let’s just say, that the poor boy went home disappointed. That Greta is one very tough chick!

It was hot and humid here and towards the end of the day it was bright sunshine and suddenly I heard big drops of rain! I ran out and got the puppy toys inside, the puppies too, and closed up the door and windows. Then I stood staring out the window watching the sun shine and the rain pour! Okay, now that is just plain strange!

Poor Arnie is just beside himself with desire for Greta. I finally called our Vet and asked for help. He is currently sleeping in his crate in the guest room….quietly! Finally….quietly!

Sunday I am planning a quiet day, or as quiet as one can get when they have 8 dogs! LOL! I’d like to spend time in the yard with the puppies and the two girls and perhaps get Arnie out for a walk.

I hope Makenna comes over again too. She is a great help with the puppies. Here she is with Baerbel!

June 26 09 Makenna and Baerbel12

Also today is my Mom’s 80th Birthday! I wish her a Happy, Happy Birthday and send her all of my love. I’m sorry I missed the big party today, and look forward to seeing you soon!

What A Strange Day

It was a very weird day today. It started at about 2 AM when Greta woke me because she was all hot and bothered and wanted S.E.X.! I decided that this was a good time to put Arnie in his crate in another room, for his own safety, and I went back to bed, only to find that Greta thought my head would “do” in a pinch!

After pushing her off of me, I told her to go to sleep and eventually she did. Until 6 AM when she decided it was time to get up.

What I love about my dogs getting me up early like this is, after they visit the great out of doors they come in and go back to sleep in their beds. Of course by then I am wide awake, and ready for some coffee, and of course the baby puppies are ready to go out and have their room cleaned.

This is the toughest job and yet, I really do love it, sleep deprivation and all, and here is why:

Bogart

Baerbel

Baron

And Ali

These little ones and the love I get from my big dogs, make it all worth while.

Anyway, back to my day. It started sunny, but very humid and quickly got hot, 80+ degrees (F). They forecast thunder storms for this afternoon, but they never appeared, thus we still have the hot, humid weather, and apparently will all weekend.

I had the pups out quite a bit and Makenna was over helping to run them in the yard. She also held them while I was photographing them.

I cleaned and actually got two loads of laundry done as well as a meal of hot wings, blue cheese and celery and fries for dinner, with corn on the cob. It was an easy meal after such a strange day.

Arnie will be sleeping in his crate tonight and hopefully Greta will leave my head alone!

**Note**

It’s Saturday morning and Greta did not leave my head alone!

Apparently, my curls are very sexy!

Here Come’s The Sun!

The sun was shining brightly and the air was…well it wasn’t raining, but it was humid. However, the lack of falling rain gave me a chance to do some work with the puppies. I was so excited about this. You see I laid a track of deer blood again for the puppies. But this time I was able to hide the deer hide at the end and then see how they did.

Oh it was so much fun to watch them follow the trail and get to the end where a piece of deer hide awaited them. Every one of the dogs showed me a good nose. I am hopeful that their new owners will be successful as they continue their training!

I took a few pictures and you can always go to my flickr account to view them in detail, but here is a brief montage of the pictures.

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It’s pretty sad about Michael Jackson. I grew up with him. We were born the same year just a few months apart, so when he and his brothers started singing, I was right there listening. In recent years I felt sad that his life was deteriorating to the rather pathetic depths that it had. All that talent, wasted. All that talent, now gone forever. I hope that wherever he is, he is free from the paranoia and the pain that he was in.

Here We Go Again

Today Greta began giving off “the scent” that makes Arnie crazy. He’s been following her everywhere, and tonight he is barking, whining, and fussing like crazy. What this me3ans is that he will be spending the night in his crate, in the guest room with the door closed. I’m afraid after this he will need to be isolated from her until after she has been bred and is past her heat. It’s sad, really. I think Arnie would make a good Daddy. Just not with his mother or sister!

The puppies are all doing well and between raindrops we raced them out and let them play in the back yard. I was going to go for a walk with Arnie, but ended up having to come back home because it started to rain and I was getting soaking wet. Arnie liked it, but me? Not so much!

Here is a picture of Baerbel and Ali.

And here are the two boys. Baron and Bogart.

Hubby drove me out to shop late in the morning and besides food for us, food or the dogs and a few toys, we also bought Baerbel a collar. She was the only one who needed one. I found this adorable chocolate brown one with pink polka dots! She looks so cute in it!

Tomorrow we are supposed to start drying out. I sure hope so. I really want to have the pups out more and take Arnie for a long walk to work off some of his frustration!

Such is the love life of dogs!

Cherries and Puppy Dogs Part 2

This morning we needed to finish getting the nets on our cherry trees. Before Hubby would let me in our back yard he prepared me with eye protection of the most serious kind, and set Fritz to watch over me!

As you can see, I am truly protected…from myself!

Yes, I managed to assist Hubby without any further catastrophes! It’s terrible to possess this clumsiness gene! At least I have not passed it along to my daughter!

Meanwhile the puppies played on. They love the fact that they could be outside in their pen watching us, and playing with their toys and bones at the same time.

I love this picture because it shows Ali lying on her back completely relaxed while she plays. She often does this and you just want to reach out and give her a little belly rub! We couldn’t find a yellow collar for Bogart, so we put on a red one the other day when his new parents came to visit.

June 23 09 005

Baerbel, Ali and Baron show you just how much they love those little Dingo Bones. Wow! All my dogs love them (except Fritz, who likes nothing bone-wise!).

Oh and just so you don’t think I have forgotten Anneliese, I snapped this picture today too. She is getting back to her normal self, and I am enjoying having her in my lap again, as well as cuddled up to my knees at night.

June 22 09 001

Our schools close tomorrow for the summer and after that I imagine the kids will be here quite a bit playing with the pups until the go in early July. What will I do, what will I do, when the pups have gone?

Melli asked what Greta, Arnie and Anneliese and even Fritz are teaching the puppies. The biggest thing is they teach them socialization skills with other dogs. They learn what is acceptable and what isn’t. They learn to play, and to back off when they have made the adult dog a little angry. They learn to sniff and to play with the dog toys that we have. It’s a neat thing to watch.

Cherries and Puppy Dogs

Ever get hit in the open eye with an under ripe cherry? Well those suckers are really hard and it hurt like heck! How did I get hit in the eye by an under ripe cherry, you might ask? Well, we were putting a net over our largest cherry tree to keep the birds from helping themselves as the cherries turn a delicious red and get sweet and juicy, and as I was helping to tug the net into place the green unripe cherry fell and hit me square on my eyeball! I have no ability to deal with pain and I state here and now, I want morphine! Of course that isn’t going to happen, so some Tylenol will have to do.

I had the puppies to the Vet’s today for their next set of shots. They all did well and everyone was amazed at how much they had grown in the last two weeks.

Dr. K with the pups.

Ali

The puppies playing.

Bogey and Ali

It was quite an adventure for them and they did just fine. Although they fussed on the way over, they slept on the way back. They even took a good nap once they got back home.

It amazes me to think that in a few short weeks I will kiss their little heads good-bye and send them on their way. Yeah, I’m sure going to miss these little guys. I have to say, they are truly wonderful, each and every one!

Puppies and People I Love

Sunday was a weird day. Some rain, some sun, but lots of play times. We took the pups into the back yard as often as possible and allowed them to run us ragged! While they did that Anneliese, Arnie and Greta all worked at teaching them all the things that proper doggies know.

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If you would like to see the pictures to identify which pups are which, you can go over to my flickr account and see them here.

I also used the day to catch up on some laundry, some puppy room cleaning, including washing more of their soft toys, and cooking my sweet Hubby special meals to celebrate Father’s Day. I also gave him a book I knew he would love. It’s “The Berlin Candy Bomber” by Gail Halvorsen . He is the World War II pilot who dropped chocolate down to the children of Berlin during his flights into the city during the Berlin Airlift. Hubby actually knew Gail when he was based in Berlin, and played racket ball with him. He loved the book! And I am guessing the cooking too!

Also a big Happy Birthday to my favorite cousin, Janet! You are more like a sister to me than a cousin. How lucky I am to have you in my life! Go on over and wish her a Happy Birthday!!!

Puppy Playtime

I am so tired! As the puppies grow, they get more and more active and I work with them outside. So what happens when you bring 4 eight week old puppies outside to run? Well, they all go in different directions, of course! Which means that by the end of the day, Grandma is very tired.

I am amazed at the people who let their pups go at 8 weeks. I know that my guys aren’t ready to be away from their Mom, Me, or each other. I see them learning so much from us all every day. I will miss this batch a lot when they are gone. Each one of them has such a great and different personality and it has been so much fun!

In case anyone wonders, here is a short video I made with the movie cam to show a little bit what our outings in the back yard are like.

Happy Father’s Day to all the Dad’s out there!

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