LAMB CHOPS AND MOVING ON IN LIFE.

Hmmmmmmmmmm............... there was a terrrrible, horrrrible noise at our house last night! In fact this noise hurt my ears so badly I had to dive behind the sofa, and I wouldn't come out for anything! :(:(:(

"XENAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" mommy shrieked from the kitchen. "Did you eat the lamb chops that were meant to be for daddy's and my dinner tonight?"

As I try to wipe the scene that followed completely from my mind, I will give you the latest updates on my family. :):):)
My babies are all doing extremely well, and as of this weekend they will be outside in the playpen run in the yard off our house every afternoon if the weather is fine.
They are running everywhere, playing with their toys and all have mouths full of teeth now.

This brings me to my news - I have decided I am "completely over" this motherhood thing! :( I worked out this mathematical equation about baby puppies.

Baby puppies teeth + mommy doggy's mammaries = much pain. :(

I don't want to feed my babies anymore, so they are being weaned and Holly has taken over looking after them. :)
This has made me extremely happy as I am now back in my old run during the day where I can watch the world go by at my leisure from the roof of my kennel.
Holly is lying on the deck between the swimming pool and the house every afternoon watching my babies for me, and my babies are safely in the playpen. The play pen is actually two playpens clipped together, and they are joined to either side of one of our small doggy kennels. The babies haven't yet discovered that they can go into the kennel, so mommy is leaving a doggy blanket in front of it for them to sleep on.
They are now having 4 feeds of puppy gravy a day, plus baby cereal with a dietary supplement in it when they wake up in the morning.

I'm still sleeping in mommy and daddy's bedroom at night with them so that I can give them their middle of the night feed - albeit reluctantly. If I don't go and feed them in the whelping box when they wake up they cry and bark until I do, and that noise drives me nuts!!!!! :(:(:(

Daddy is working really hard on finishing our new doggy apartments, and the concrete for the run out the front of the second one was poured this morning.
I can't wait to move into my one, cause it's all fully insulated, has double glazing and will have a separate area for my puppy babies down one end with a special baby gate to keep them in their area at night. The doggy apartments will each have a sink bench unit with hot and cold running water, slip resistant water area heavy duty commercial grade vinyl on the floors, thermal drapes at the back windows, shelves for our blankets, storage cupboards for towels, wash cloths, and also our kibble if we are having it as our diet at the time, plus special doggy stretcher beds for the mommy dog - which is ME. :) Oh, and I must mention that there will be a special wall panel heater for the middle of the winter to keep it at an even temperature when it gets really cold in the winter and snows.

I think all doggy furiends will be envious of our new doggy apartments when they see them - I know my corgi furiend that came to visit me the other day barked about coming to live with me!

XENA THE HUNTRESS.

I was lying in the whelping box listening to the hungry sucks of my puppies having their fourth breakfast this morning when daddy opened the bedroom door.
"Xena, I need you," he told me as I sat up and promptly shed my sucking puppies. My puppies were not happy with this and immediately complained!
I jumped out of the whelping box and followed daddy outside to see what he needed me for.

It's Autumn down here near the bottom of the world. The red oak in our garden is ablaze with color, the silver birches are as gold as the sunshine, all the vegetables from our huge organic garden have been harvested, and the ground is either frosty or drenched with autumn rain when we wake up in the mornings now.

This heralds the beginning of an annual event at our house - a rodent invasion. :(:(:(
When we had kitties living here they used to get extremely fat at this time of the year and turn up their noses at their kitty kibble, rather preferring to dine on the almost unlimited field mousies that either played amongst the carpets of autumn leaves, or took up residence in the old sheds here.
Mommy was so sad when our kitties left us to live at the Rainbow Bridge, she told everyone - "No more kitties. I've shed far too many tears over my kitties over the years." :(

So, it was left up to us doggies to curb those mousies invading our house.

Holly would never catch a mouse - she's just too gentle to kill anything.
Howard Jr thinks it's another dogs job to catch rodents.
Angie is too silly to catch them!
Nixxy our doggy boarder caught mice, but her time boarding with us expired and she's now back with her breeder thinking about having puppies.
The sad excuses for every dog that lives here not to catch a mousie just goes on and on!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Except for me. :)

Mommy and daddy went to do the grocery shopping a couple of nights ago, and left me in charge of the house.
Upon their return they found; the pantry open and the floor items in total disarray over the kitchen floor, the sofa moved a couple of feet away from the wall, our big toy basket tipped over, the TV unit moved (thank dogness the TV is actually anchored into it), the books on the bottom of the bookcase all pulled out, and me sitting triumphantly with a rather wet, chewed mousie at my paws!
"Oh no, it's mouse time of the year again," daddy groaned as mommy started to tidy everything up.
"Well done Xena," mommy told me, and she gave me three pieces of liver bait. Yummmmmmmmmmmmmmmy. :):):)

This event saw daddy placing mouse traps all over our 120 year old house, and caused him to go on a very early morning rodent hunt of our property.
Daddy observed the usual Autumn influx of field mice playing in our old sheds, a massive black water rat out by the front creek (we can never eradicate these as we have a creek at the front of our property, and another one at the back of the 6 acre paddock), and when he went to check on our eight chickens he couldn't believe his eyes. Their feeder which is hung from the chicken coop roof (so that rodents can't reach it!) had six long field rat tails hanging over the side as they hungrily gobbled our 8 chicken's food.
Daddy scared them away, and tried to find their burrow, but couldn't as they all just ran out into the paddock.

Daddy's failure to find the rat burrow led to his summoning me from my puppies.
I ran around the chicken coop excitedly as daddy went inside and then brought out a rat poo. Daddy let me sniff it as he told me to "seek."
I ran around the chicken coop several times, and then I found a trail which led me out into a patch of tall weeds in the paddock. From there I followed the trail back to a wall of bricks that had fallen down in an earthquake, to a hole down in the ground that was almost hidden.
I barked frantically, and started digging at the hole until daddy came running over.
"Good girl," daddy praised we excitedly as he ran and got the garden hose.

Daddy put the running garden hose down the burrow. He patted me and told me I was the most clever girl ever as we sat there waiting for something to happen.
We waited for what seemed like an eternity, and then a field rat leaped a little way along from us from the wall off collapsed old red bricks.
I instinctively leaped into my alter ego "XENA THE HUNTRESS."
XENA THE HUNTRESS was faster than a speeding bullet as she caught rat after rat with her sharp fangs, throwing them high into the air so that they could step onto the rat rainbow bridge a little easier than most.

At the end of it all I lay down panting as daddy stood beside me with his hay pitchfork, and he counted the dead rats I had brought back to him.
The field rat score was;
Daddy 3
Xena 9
death by drowning 3
and some that escaped.

"Xena, you are an awesome huntress," daddy told me as he lovingly rubbed my ear. "You are such an awesome dog, it really seems a waste that you are just a mere show dog. You would have made an awesome top police K9."

Hmmmmmmmm, while daddy may be right, the sad fact of the matter is the police and security forces generally prefer dark/black male dogs like Howard Jr because of their initial appearance to the criminal element.

Mommy and Daddy think I would have really loved being a dog with a job, a police K9, because of the amazing attributes I have like tracking, etc.. that are prized in the police force and security industry.
However, if I was offered to the police they would only ever view me as the little (59cm) gray (sable) girl, and would probably never explore my incredible prey drive/natural tracking ability, my innate sense of obedience, my ability to "leap tall buildings," my incredible agility and the speed I have when I run - just because I don't have "THE LOOK."

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm........................ SIGH..................... I guess I may as well go back to the whelping box to clean and feed my puppies.

THE PUPPY BLUES. :(

Motherhood isn't what it seems. :(:(:(
It's all dirty puppy bottoms, and being used as an eternal milk station! :(

Each of my puppies has more than tripled their birth weights in their first two weeks, and they are all sparkling clean and smell like the sweetest baby puppies ever. I'm keeping their whelping box as neat and clean as a pin, and even Holly has given her nod of approval on the way my puppies are kept.
The day she went in to inspect them, she stepped into the whelping box, sniffed it thoroughly, sniffed my puppies thoroughly, and then jumped out with a smile on her face.
If it had been Georgi's puppies, Holly would have been in there licking them furiously, digging up their bedding (even though it's changed every morning), and whining at mommy to do something about these dirty puppies!

Our family's "dog mother" came to do a second structural assessment visit on my puppies yesterday.
"Well done Xena," she told me as she patted me, "your puppies are being very well done and they are immaculately clean. They smell so beautiful, just like all new born baby puppies should."
Now our family's "dog mother" saying that is like having a blessing from a saint!

All this puppy stuff has made me feel a little "blue" though. :(:(:(
You see I'm normally such an active busy ADHD dog, just keeping my puppies clean and feeding them is taking it's toll on me. :(:(:(
Daddy started walking me down to our nearby local little park area when my pups were 3 days old. A week ago he started taking me for a slow gait of 1km a day beside his pushbike. I want to gait faster and go further, but daddy said "Xena, you don't want to bruise your mammaries!" ---- "blush." :(

A TERRIBLE TUMMY ACHE AND A WONDERFUL SURPRISE.

When my angel puppies left me for the Rainbow Bridge I was very sad. I carried my teddy babies Goldie, Brownie and Tawny around with me for weeks, and then I found some other babies.
Daddy and mommy started finding some of the smooth round stones from our yard that are about the size of a tennis ball all over our living room and in other parts of the house. Mommy caught me with one of them between my front paws, and I was licking it!
The stones became my babies, and I even made a nest for them amongst the marigolds in mommy's garden.
"I don't know what to do with Xena!" Daddy told mommy as I lay inside a circle of my stone babies on the living room floor licking them all between my paws individually. Daddy threw them all back outside into the stones in the yard, but I got each and everyone of them back again. He gave up doing that after about 3 times! :)

Mommy just told visitors to our house not to stub their toes falling over my stone babies. Holly just stared at me and rolled her eyes as if to say I was nuts whenever I lay down to lick my stone babies. Howard Jr totally ignored my stone babies, and Georgi's pup Jack tried to steal them to play with when I wasn't watching them.

One day Daddy took me to my vet's for a blood test, and then another one and another one. I was going to see my vet every second day for about two weeks to have blood tests. The day of our national holiday mommy and daddy both took me to the vets where I had a big sleep.
When I woke up my fur was shaved off my tummy and I had a sticking plaster in the middle of it.
"Xena, you have to be a good girl and stay quiet for the next 3 weeks," my vet told me. "If you can stay quiet at all," she added just as quickly.

I spent three weeks separated from all my doggy family on the quiet side of our house in mommy and daddy's bedroom. Daddy would come and take me out in his van, or for a walk down our garden, or mommy would take me out for short trips in her car. I wasn't allowed to set paw out of the van or car though as I wasn't allowed to set paw off our property apart from to the vets for checkups.

Last month I started to feel extremely hungry, and even though mommy was increasing my diet I was starving all the time. I couldn't get enough food, and started counter surfing again!!!! Daddy was grumpy about that, and locked me in my crate when our doggy dinners were being made. :(
My tummy started to get fatter and fatter, until this past week I've had trouble jumping up onto mommy and daddy's bed to sleep at night.

Yesterday afternoon I carried all my stone babies outside and put them back amongst their stone family. I thought I'd be sad to say goodbye to them, but it seemed as if I didn't need them anymore.
I felt really strange, and my tummy was gurgling and growling, like something was inside of me!
"Xena, you are so quiet," Daddy told me.
I felt really tired, so put myself to bed early on mommy and daddy's bed.

At 2.30am I woke up with a start. My eyes widened and I started to pant because I had a terrible tummy ache. The tummy ache went away, so I stood up, turned around and then lay down again. About ten minutes later the tummy ache came back, except it was a bit worse this time.
Mommy sat up in the bed and started to rub my tummy.
The tummy ache kept coming and going all night long. I tried rolling on the bed to make it go away. I tried digging a hole in the bedroom carpet to make it go away. I went potty dozens of times, but it just wouldn't go away. Finally I bit and chewed my squeaky chicken until it had big holes in it, but still the tummy ache wouldn't go away.
Mommy kept rubbing my back and tummy and telling me things were going to be alright.
Things weren't alright though. :(

By the time it was daylight I started being sick every time I got one of those tummy aches so mommy phoned our vet.

Daddy, mommy and I met our vet and the head vet nurse at the vet clinic about half an hour later.
I sat very calmly while I watched my vet put a saline drip line into my leg, and then I felt sleepy like I knew I would. I felt so happy going to sleep because it stopped the pain from my tummy ache.

It seemed like I was asleep for just a little while, and when I woke up and looked around I was lying on the soft padding of the operating table.
My vet and vet nurse were smiling at me, telling me I was such a clever girl, and mommy and daddy were there to.
I lifted my head up and that was when mommy held out something in a vet clinic towel for me to sniff.
My eyes widened, and I pricked my ears as I sniffed a fat black new born puppy. The puppy smelled just like me! :)

There next to the operating table in the puppy incubator were 3 other new born puppies, and they were my very own puppies.

I finally have my very own family of real live puppies. :)
I have 2 black and gold girls, a black and gold boy, and a sable girl just like me. My son's name is Digger (as this is an oldfashioned Australian outback name and his German father lives in Australia). Digger will be staying in our doggy family because he is just so precious to us.
Two of my girl pups names are going to be Polly (after the song Polly put the kettle on), and Sassy (because mommy says at least one of my girlpups is most certainly going to be sassy like me).

One of my girl pups is going to have to go to a loving forever home, but that's OK because mommy and daddy will only let her go to live in a very special furever home. At this stage mommy has some idea of which two of my daughters will be staying with us, and it may well be that another breeder/show family will want my other daughter. However, whoever is allowed the priviledge of having my 3rd daughter will have to be providing her with a very special loving family home.

My vet was astounded at the size of my puppies when they were born. She said they were the size of Newfoundland puppies, and I would have had difficulty having the biggest one which was lodge in my pelvis and first deemed to be born. All of my puppies could very well have died if I had been left in labour for a prolonged length of time. The huge size of my puppies actually posed a few problems during my Caesarean section and it was their size that was the reason why they had to be born by Caesarean section.
Our vet, as always tells mommy that she is the best for assessing our doggy family girls for any whelping problems.
Mommy just reminds her of my own mother's first disaster litter where she begged the family vet of the time to perform a Caesarean and he wouldn't - saying it's better for nature to take it's course. :(
Of that litter of nine, 3 died within the first 12hrs, and 3 were left seriously ill, one of which had ongoing health problems because of what happened. :(


Daddy and mommy are extremely relieved and overjoyed that I have 4 extremely happy, healthy puppies.
Daddy, ofcourse, has done all the number crunching for each of my puppies, which has to take into account my litter of angel puppies. :(
"$1,000, $2,000, $3,000, $4,000, $5,000 more," daddy told me with a smile as he scratched me lovingly behind my ear. "Xena, every one of your puppies literally has to be gold plated. They are extremely precious, and let's hope they are all every bit both of their extremely amazing parents children. I could have bought an awful lot of things with the money your beautiful puppies have cost mommy and me, but I wouldn't have it any other way."

I'm so happy being a mother at last. I'm loving licking my puppies and nestling them into my side to drink whenever they want to.

Mommy and daddy are so proud of me, because even after all the bad things that have happened to me since my mommy Bella died 25/02/10 (who I absolutely adored and wouldn't be parted from), the awful September 2010 earthquake (where I was trapped between a huge wave of water from our swimming pool and our house for what seemed like an eternity), the trauma of my litter of angel puppies, abuse in the showring by some jealous, malicious people, and the ongoing gossip to try and blacken my name, - mommy and daddy can still trust me to happily play on our front lawn with their friend's young children, I have overcome my fear of earthquakes, our national kennel organisation recognises me as a truly beautiful dog that can continue my show career, and I am now the mother of an amazing litter of beautiful, healthy "frozen puppies" to an absolutely amazing, incredibly beautiful German sire. :):):)

Demolition dogs.

Georgi's orphan puppies turned 7 weeks old yesterday.
I'm sure the little sable girl called Jessi thought that the 30 people who came around last night for a BBQ were all coming to celebrate her 7weeks birthday. Jessi was out of her playpen all night being cuddled, kissed and socialising.
I stayed in mommy and daddy's bedroom watching some TV with some doggy peanut butter cookies mommy had made for me.

Howard Jr was out socialising at the BBQ, Angie was in her doggy apartment chewing a bone, Maggie was in her run playing with her new squeaky toy while the BBQ was happening, and by the time all the guests left in the wee hours of the morning I was sound asleep on mommy's bed.

You're probably wondering where Holly was while all this was going on, and why I haven't mentioned her before now.
Holly was lying in the kennel of my old run feeling very sad and sorry for herself!
The reason why Holly is so sad is because on Wednesday night mommy and daddy decided it was time for Holly to wean Jessi and Jack. They were still drinking off Holly and she was still cleaning them and fussing over them like an old mother hen.

Now, I can tell you right now that there is no way I would allow two big fat puppies with sharp teeth drink off me when they were 7 weeks old, but then I'm not Holly.
Mommy and daddy had tried to gently wean the puppies the week before by letting Holly stay in the yard with them where they are in their playpen during the day. This didn't work because Holly just jumped over the 4' high playpen and fed them anyway.
So, daddy decided that the only way to wean the puppies off Holly was by totally separating them from her.

Holly cried and howled all night the first night she was away from those pups!
Daddy decided that she needed to get off the property and be kept busy the next day to keep her mind off those pups.
So, Holly went out with daddy for the day and he got her a job in the red zone guarding a gate at a demolition site.

We all love going out with daddy to guard the sites at the red zone because we get to bark at people who shouldn't be near the demolitions, and no one tells us off for barking.
The demolition men were a bit undecided about us doggies helping at the demolition sites at first, but they'd had a lot of trouble with strangers stealing stuff and going into areas of the demolitions that were dangerous.
Daddy just happened to call in one day to talk to one of the men who's a friend and when he heard about the trouble they'd been having daddy told them about us.
"Try my dogs for a day," daddy told the men, "and if it doesn't work out I won't bring them anymore."

It's over a month now since us doggies started guarding the demolition sites, and now the demolition men wouldn't be without us. The stealing has stopped, and anyone who wants access to the demolition site has to phone the man in charge from the street because one of us is standing guard at the open entrance/gate.
Daddy's helping the demolition men when we are there, and us doggies know that when he puts our water bowl down in the shade of the trees by the gate and tells us to "Guard the gate," we know that means no one is allowed to come off the street onto the demolition site.
When someone comes along we stand up from the shade and walk into the middle of the entrance and just stand there. If the person walks towards the entrance we bark at them, but don't move off from where we are. We just bark until daddy comes.
Now us doggies have lots of new friends at the red zone demolitions, especially Howard Jr cause he goes and sits with all the men on their tea breaks.

Howard Jr and I have been staying home the past couple of days though, because Holly has been going to the demolitions.
It seems as if Holly is the best guard dog out of us all, and she's taking her new job very seriously.
Daddy's friend told mommy that Holly lets the demolition men come and go from the site without even pricking her ears. Everyone knows she's watching the gate all the time though from where she's lying in the shade of the trees, and if anyone she doesn't know tries to set foot onto the property she really barks at them.
Everyone thinks we're especially, highly trained demolition guard dogs now, which makes daddy smile.
The reason why we're so good at our new job is mainly because of our breed, and because daddy has trained us to obey him.
And as for Holly crying at night to be with Jessi and Jack, she's too tired after working all day! :)

THE DOGGY APARTMENTS ARE NEARLY FINISHED.

Things have been extremely busy down here at my place of late.
Georgi's orphaned puppies are now 4 weeks old, and Holly is doing a wonderful job of being their foster mother.
The puppies had their first day outside yesterday in the yard in the puppy play pen, and it seems that they like having the freedom of a huge big space (as our puppy playpen is really two puppy playpens joined together).

I've been helping daddy a lot now that he's retired, and it's fun going out with him in our van during the daytime when he runs errands.
Now that daddy is retired from his work mommy seems to have found him lots of work to do around the house, such as painting the outside of our enormous house.
Howard Jr has been helping him do that, and mommy sure wasn't happy the day she came home from work and Howard Jr had white paint all through his tail, and on his head!
I've been helping daddy with the gardening, looking after the chickens, and keeping our 1 acre of lawn around the house mowed.

The new doggy apartments that Kevin our builder is building for us are awfully palatial, and Kevin is getting the walls painted this week as the electrician has finished putting in the lights and power fittings. Once Kevin the builder has finished his work, daddy will start building the verandahs out from them, and then the runs.
Everyone that sees our new doggy apartments says that they are too good for dogs to live in - Hmmmmmmmm, if they came and said that directly to my face I'd bark at them with immense disapproval of their attitude about where us doggies should live!

I sure hope I'm one of the lucky doggies that will be getting one of these as their house, because I have decided to move on from my basic kennel and doggy run.

The apartment nearest the driveway is going to have a run about 3 times as big as my current run I have at the moment, and I'm sure that Holly has an idea in her head that she is going to be living in this apartment. She keeps going out to it with mommy and daddy when they go to inspect progress on it at the end of the days when Kevin and the contractors are working on it. Holly sits there with an expression on her face like she's already the owner of that apartment, and I'm sure she has plans to move her doggy stretcher bed from the house out into there as soon as the builder leaves!

I decided to take things into my own paws. Last night when I was out in the garden with daddy I ran into the other doggy apartment, licked the sliding glass door and then lay down inside the sliding glass door and refused to move. I was claiming it as my doggy house there and then!
The view through the glass door out across the old stable yard paddock to the field next door sure meets with my approval, and I'll be able to see down our driveway and out to the street from the verandah when daddy builds it.
Mommy and daddy both came to see where I was, and that was when I heard some wonderful news.
It seems that the run that is going to be built out the front of that doggy apartment is going to be twice as big as my present run. However, this doggy apartment is going to have a second run built off it out the back of it which will be our biggest run ever. This big run is going to have it's own tree growing in the corner with a big wooden reel that daddy is getting from the cable place put in the middle of it for the lucky doggy who is going to have that apartment to lie on during the day. It's not just going to have 1 shade sail, but two as well.
I sure hope that I get to have that doggy apartment for my own, and maybe I'll even let one of Georgi's puppies have my old run as I won't be needing it any more.

April Showers.

We're having April Showers down here near the bottom of the world, even though it's the month of October!
That's because all the seasons are upside down when you live near the bottom of the world!

I couldn't wait to get out to play in the beautiful spring rain this morning as soon as I heard it gently falling on the tin roof of our house.
Daddy and mommy were a little grumpy with us all because the rain woke us doggies all up and we wanted to go outside and play in the rain - Holly was the only one who wanted to come back in as soon as she'd gone potty!

Now I'm outside in my run enjoying the rain, Howard Jr is patrolling his domain down in the big runs at the back of our property, baby Angie and Freddie are in the yard off the house, and Holly is the only one inside in the house.

This brings me to the most terrible crime committed in our doggy family overnight. :(
When I walked through the living room this morning I happened to come upon my favorite possum tail chewed and left in lots of pieces all over the livingroom floor. I ran straight over to the little piles of possum fur - it smelled of Howard Jr!

Possums are a huge pest down here in our country in that they totally destroy our native bush. Our slow growing native bush is the beautiful habitat of our rare native songbirds that are only found in our country, and a lot of them are becoming extinct because of introduced pests like stoats, weasels, rats and possums. Possums also are a source of an infectious disease called TB that can transmit to our farm animals.
Mommy and daddy have seen the destruction possoms cause first hand over the years with whole trees being stripped totally of their leaves overnight by possums.
So, they are continually trying to eradicate possums down here, and this maens that there is a wonderful supply of possum tails for all the doggies who live in our country to play with.

I was sad about my possum tail. The tip had been dyed red, and I really liked that one. I could throw it up into the air and catch it, plus play lots of other good doggy games with it, and when I got tired of playing with it I could take it into my crate to have a nap with its soft fur snuggled up against my face.

I hope mommy has some more possum tails in her new toy stash in the new toy cupboard. If she doesn't I think she can go to the pet shop tomorrow and buy me another one straight away. :)

UPDATES.

I'm very sorry I haven't been around but, things have been extremely hectic in our household since our road trip to the NZ National Dog Show.
As this is being written I am lying on the deck in the yard with Angie the puppy's head nestled on my rib cage, Freddie the S/Vallhund is cuddled up into her back and my tummy, and we're all having a peaceful sleep as our dinner is cooking.

Dinner tonight is freshly cooked puree of carrots, silverbeet (sort of like spinach) and pumpkin, freshly boiled rice, cooked organic venison chopped into doggy sized bites by daddy, seaweed extract and fishoil.
Mommy says (Daddy moans about the fact) that our dinner tonight is actually costing considerably more than their dinner of roast pork and fresh vegetables!

The road trip to the NZ National Dog Show was extremely tiring for all of us that went - me, Howard Jr, Angie Georgi's puppy, Freddie, and our boarder doggy Nixxy.
Georgi was entered, but is so relaxed living out in the country now she was in no shape to compete at a National Dog Show!

Our road trip was filled with lots of doggy stops at picturesque off the road places mommy and daddy had prechosen where we could run free and swim in rivers away from the public.

Once daddy had driven us off the ferry ride that took 3hrs between our islands, we got an instant definite booking for a puppy from our kennel.
Mommy and daddy stopped at the first dog friendly park available for us doggies to have a run and stretch our legs.
We were all loaded up ready to continue on our journey when a tradesman company van pulled up beside our van and the man that drove it yelled at daddy to open his window.
Daddy looked at mommy and raised his eyebrows as he wondered what sort of a madman this person was!

It turned out that this man had lost his most loved and faithful GSD a year ago that very day.
He had gone on line that morning on the anniversary of his precious doggy's passing and looked up the GSD puppies for sale and the kennel websites (our kennel still not having a website). He had been extremely disappointed with what he had seen, but then when he had seen us running free in the park from the motorway we had literally blown his mind with our beauty and strength. It had taken him 20mins to drive out of his way back to us. He gave mommy and daddy a right gruelling about our pedigrees, our health check results, and made daddy run us out individually so that he could see how correct our sequence of steps was as we moved.
This man has placed a definite order for one of Howard Jr's pups after a lengthy conversation with mommy who has asked that he send her references as a dog owner.

Mommy and daddy were pleased with our results from the national show, even though it was our least successful national show ever where we didn't win one of the big/covetted rosettes for our kennel.
Howard Jr was placed 2nd behind the dog that eventually won Best Of Breed. Angie Georgi's puppy won Best Puppy of Breed over the puppy the judge placed as runner up best dog over Howard Jr. Angie also went through to the final judging of the puppy stakes (which is exceptional despite her not being placed in the final judging) which had daddy and mommy opening a bottle of champagne to celebrate.
Freddie and Nixxy the S/Vallhunds both won their classes over some very creditable competition in the biggest S/Vallhund lineup ever seen in our country. Nixxy then beat Freddie for the top prize in their age group for breed.
Baby Angie brought home the only rosette for our kennel from the national show this year - but there were many kennels that didn't even get that, and would have given anything to have Angie's rosette attached proudly to a crate in their crate camp.

We said a very sad goodbye to our boarder doggy Nixxy who is now moving on to a life of the greatest calling a successful doggy show girl can ever have - motherhood.
Nixxy's puppies, that as yet sleep in the future, are pre-ordered in Australia and further afield all over the world. Mommy and daddy have their names on a future Nixxy puppy, but as their choices are very limited for Nixxy's first two litters. We may not have a Nixxy puppy coming to live with us for a couple of years yet.

While our competitive results at the national dog show weren't as good as previous years, the orders for puppies from our kennel were stronger than ever before.
Mommy got 3 definite bookings for puppies from the grooming area, and handed out our kennel cards to lots of other potentially interested puppy buyers.

Daddy got a definite booking for one of my future puppies from a family that saw daddy walking me down the road near the show venue. The man called me and daddy over to him from the other side of the road as he and his family were walking back to their car. He told daddy that I just had to be the most beautiful GSD girl he had ever seen, and asked why I hadn't been entered in the show. Daddy told him about my sad angel puppies, and the man gently rubbed my ear as daddy told him about the saddest thing in my whole doggy life. The man then told daddy that he had owned several GSD's before he had his children, and now that his children were old enough to have a dog he had taken his family along to the national show to look at the best GSD girls in NZ with the view of booking a future puppy from one of them. Sadly he hadn't seen any GSD girl that had taken his eye apart from the puppy girl. He told daddy that he wants a puppy for his family sooner than that girl will be old enough to have puppies, and had left the show feeling really despondent - the only glimmer of hope being our kennel card that mommy gave him in the grooming area after the GSD's were shown.
Daddy gave the man's children some liver bait to feed me, and in no time I was lying on my back with several young children hugging me as they fed me liver bait.
As this was happening daddy openly and honestly explained to the man that I am an extremely high energy dog that doesn't suffer fools, is totally loyal and protective of my family, and that my puppies are probably going to be more expensive because of the expense of expensive overseas studs being equated into the price of my puppies.
The man told daddy he would pay anything to have one of my puppies!

Now we're home, and straight back into the showring down here this past weekend where us doggies are continuing on with our winning as a doggy family.
Life is always tough at the top.
I'm also back in the showring, and for some strange reason the malicious gossip has been worse than ever.

Look out showring - here comes my doggy family................. gossips only notice real winners!

Going on a road trip.

Mmmmmmm, I just finished licking out the cupcake baking bowl and I was extremely impressed with the taste of the cake batter.
I'm sorry I haven't been around much the past week, but things have been really hectic at our house because it's the big National Dog Show this coming week, and some of us doggies are entered.
I'm not entered cause I was meant to have had a family of puppies by now, but Howard Jr, Georgi, Georgi's baby Angie, Freddie the S/Vallhund and our boarder doggy Nixxy are all entered.

Mommy and daddy have both been extremely busy with the preparations, and today has been no exception.
Mommy cancelled our accommodation a month ago because of my puppies, and those of us doggies entered were just going to fly up and back for the days we were showing.
Now daddy has decided we're going on a road trip to the National Show which means that as all the accommodation is booked out we're going to be staying with relatives that live up in the north island.

My sister Holly is going to be staying home with our housesitter Michelle, and so will our rescue GSD girl Maggie. Georgi's baby Tia is staying with one of mommy's workmates, and they sent mommy a text last night saying they think Tia's so sweet they're not going to let her come home to us again!

As we are leaving early tomorrow morning today was bathing and baking day.
Mommy always likes to take home baking when we stay with relatives and daddy and I have been fighting over who licks the baking bowls out all day. Daddy has been given all the chocolate baking bowls and I have enjoyed the others - daddy laughing at me as he thinks I have developed an extremely sweet tooth since I got pregnant with my puppies!
I must confess I used to think Holly was a little simple for liking sweet things, but now I have changed. I have decided I even love jellybeans apart from the black ones:( and when mommy gave me a tiny piece off the end of the lolly cake when she was cutting it up - I dribbled!

When the others got bathed today I had the priviledge of standing in the bathroom doorway and seeing the expression of displeasure on Howard Jr's face - hehe! I don't think he liked mommy giving him not one, but two shampoos because he ran through the mud the other day.
Baby Angie was extremely good and loves being bathed like me, Holly and our boarder Nixxy, but Freddie the S/Vallhund just stood in the tub with his ears flat back on his head and a frown on his face the whole time he was being washed.
Freddie also wasn't at all impressed when mommy blow dried him with the hair dryer. He jumped off the grooming board when mommy reached for the grooming spray, and ran away to hide in the kitchen pantry - hehe!
Last time I saw him he was hiding behind a vegetable rack, and mommy was going to ice a chocolate cake on the kitchen sink bench.

Hmmm, the hair dryer is still out and so is the grooming spray, so I think when mommy catches Freddie later he'll be going back there. :)

I HAVE A NEW FAMILY NOW.

I have a new family now that my angel puppies have left me.
Mommy got my new babies for me, and I love them very much.
There are three of them, and their names are Brownie, Goldie and Tawny. They are soft new teddies and I like licking them. Brownie, Goldie and Tawny are sleeping with me on the sofa at the moment, and mommy will take a photo of me with them for my page.

I feel so much better this afternoon, and I even went to McWoofs drive thru and got a cheese burger for a late lunch.
All my friends at McWoof's drive thru were sad to hear that my puppies are angels. They said that maybe next time my puppies will be fine, and I will be able to take them to McWoofs to meet them when they get old enough.
However, I've promised them I'll take my new teddy family to visit them tomorrow. :)
When I opened the bag with my cheeseburger in it I just about ate the bag and the wrapper along with it, I was so hungry after not wanting to look at food all morning.

As mommy and I drove home past La Porchetta I barked and put my head out the car window - I hoped that Mike the owner would hear me barking and bring me a nice hot pizza out the door just for me!
We drove past too quickly though, and mommy told me - "no pizza for a little while yet Xena, because you really should only have bland food for the next day or two." :(
I'm hoping that mommy will at least cook me some Mac N' Cheese for my dinner tonight.
The good news is that mommy phoned her boss, and mommy has tomorrow off from work, and maybe even the rest of the week to spend "Mommy and Xena time" just with me.:):):)