Oisin at the Dog Show

Oisin spent the weekend at the Ingham County Kennal Club show in East Lansing. He is in the "always a bridesmaid, never a bride" phase of his show career, winning Reserve Winners Dog both days. This is basically 2nd place among the male dogs entered.

He did have fun so that is what is most important.

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Liam and Oisin

Liam likes his GrandPuppies, (he is especially fond of Miatias), but sometimes they need to be instructed in the proper respect for their elders.

Here, he is "discussing" the matter with Oisin, who takes the lesson well.

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Maitias

Maitias is able to go out without his shirt, at last


Several months ago Maitias had minor surgery on his right foreleg. Being the typical Irish Wolfhound puppy he tore out the stitches, twice, despite being in a shirt and watched all the time.


That left us with being forced to let the wound heal "by secondary intent." Wearing the shirt was no problem for Maitias, but keeping the shirt on him and changing the shirt daily was a pain. Although we tried to keep his sedate (everyone can laugh a lot now, he is a puppy) he would unroll his sleeves, step on them and then fall over.

You can also see that he is wearing a sock on his tail to allow his "happy tail" to heal. He doesn't like that and wants to pull off the sock and chew his itchy tail. I guess one could say that he is "high maintenance" now.

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Maitias and "Fairies"

Miatias had minor surgery to remove a benign lump from his elbow. Here he is in his super-cool T-shirt with the cordura patch on the elbow (to keep him from scratching the wound open.


We moved him up with the older dogs into the living room/bedroom to better keep an eye on him and he and Liam (his Grand-Sire) have become best buddies. Wherever Liam goes, so goes Maitias.

The milkweed pods have opened making "fairies" that float on the breeze.


When the dogs run through them there is an explosion of white.


Bidelia caught some; or they got caught on her beard.



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Vacation

It would seem that a staycation would be a good time to write a blog entry - not true. But, all is well and we will post more pictures next week.

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Liam:

Liam continues to recover from his bloat surgery and is doing quite well. Here he is with Bidelia.

Bidelia, while the smallest (and only girl) of the litter, is getting to be good size.

Here she is jumping on a 6' gate, with Maitias beside her.

Bidelia, Oisin, and Maitias, running back to Dad.

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No news is good news

Thank goodness it was a quit week at the Hounds of Heaven.
A few pictures to share:

Oisin, following his Uncle Finian

Oisin, practicing his wolf hunting skills, on Maitias, who is less than pleased.

In turn, Oisin being instructed on how not to be so big a pest, by Liam. Liam continues to make a great recovery.

Oisin, "Ok, I will be a good boy."

"Until you turn your back !"

Liam with the puppies, in the morning mist.

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Oisin at the Dog Show

Oisin went to his 3rd Dog Show Saturday.

"Smile for the Judge"

Who will be Best in Breed ?

Oh, the suspense.

At 7 months, Oisin wasn't really in the competition, but he seemed to be having a good time, and at this point that is all that is important. The psychotic poodles in the next van over scared him when we arrived at the show, but he got over that and did a good job of showing and enjoying all the attention.

Liam continues to do well in his recovery. He has started playing with the puppies again, but once across the yard chasing them is far enough.

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Liam - one week later

Liam, one week after coming home.


Thanks to the skillful hands of the surgeon, Laurent Guiot, DVM, and the attention paid by the veterinarians of the Michigan State University Teaching Hospital, Liam returned home 36 hours after his surgery. He was delighted to be home, but walked like a drunken sailor and had to go out every 2 hours - all night long. His ability to get himself up and going is always marginal and for the first 4 days he frequently required a little boost to get up (which is not easy with a 180 pound dog).

We gradually increased his exercise to the point that he is now going out in his paddock every morning and enjoying the scents and the grass. He is still not quite ready to romp with the puppies though.

He has the most marvelous line of staples that run from stem to stern, very much into heavy metal is our boy. He is scheduled to lose them on Friday, when the vet comes to visit.




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Liam

Liam, at 8 1/2 is not as active as he used to be. However, here with Oisin and Bidelia, he is willing to play...


... and give moral instruction about respecting your elders.


However, possibly related to the active play, possibly related to the phase of the moon, possibly related to ??? The next night, Friday, he was uncomfortable, and couldn't settle down for the night. He usually sleeps in the bedroom but he was restless enough that Bill took him into the living room.

He would have an hour of rest, and then become restless again. He had vomited the preceding afternoon, but that is not unusual, depending on what he eats that he shouldn't. By 4 am it was time and we trotted off to the emergency vet clinic at MSU with the suspicion of bloat. The emergency vet doubted bloat as he was not retching, but they don't all retch.

They did an x-ray of his stomach and found it to not be enlarged and apparently in the right position. But, his heart rate was 180, so something was wrong. Over the next 3 hours repeat x-rays did show his stomach swelling, so off to the operating room. By 10 am he was out of surgery with an incision that went from his sternum to his testicles and not a happy boy, but alive. The surgeon found that he was having torsion, but only (only !?) 90 degrees, that was periodically returning to the normal position, thus the unusual presentation of bloat.

The vet hospital does not have crates large enough for an IW, so he got the special bed. Here he is the next day, with 3 IVs running.

The staff at the emergency clinic loved him because he was so nice and well behaved.

On the evening of the 2nd day he came home, barely able to walk. Now, at day 6 he is doing MUCH better and even pooped. Those of you who have had surgery know how this pleases the surgeon - and us !

It is seldom dull around here.

---

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The St. Brigid's litter pups are 6 months old.

The pups of the St. Brigid's litter are 6 months old this weekend.

Seamus returns to spend the birthday weekend.

Oisin thinks he is just too cute, and he is right.

Oisin participated in his first dog show on his birthday.
He didn't fall down, run from the judge or bite him - a successful first show !
He also won Best male dog and Best Opposite Sex to Best of Breed.

Maitias thinks he is cute too, and he is.

Deborah with the pups' Grandsire, Liam, and Oisin

Bidelia making tracks with Oisin chasing her.

Bidelia leading Maitias and Oisin on a romp.

Oisin, taking a rest.

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We are GOOD Puppies

We are GOOD puppies. we are just trying to help in the garden. We saw you spreading the soil in the garden so we are helping - really !

We just aren't as neat as you are because we don't have hands. But nails open the bag just fine !


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Donegan and the Puppies

Donegan is the dog that is most likely to start a fracas with the adult dogs. Surprisingly, he is also best with the St. Brigid's puppies. He will take them out into the back and very gently play with them and show them some "moves."



In this picture he is lending his gentle authority to suggest that Bidelia give Oisin a break and that Maitias not join in.


Bidelia, asking for attention. Ok, it really is Bidelia demanding attention from Donegan.



Which he is perfectly willing to give her. Every time he would raise his head, she would bat him in the face again. After about 5 minutes, when he raised his head she streaked off, with Donegan chasing her. She is a fast little puppy, she made it back to the inner pen and under a bench before he could catch her. Of course, when he came back to the rest of us in the back, she noticed that she was missing the fun and made a running loop around us and back to the bench. This time Donegan just waited for her to return and the whole pack wandered off to explore under the trees.

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Oisin

Here is Oisin ("O-sheen") at 5 months, practicing to be a show dog. (He is the one on four legs, Bill is the one on two.)

He is now 85 pounds and 28 1/2 inches.



Here is Oisin, practicing to be a show dog at 2 1/2 months.

He does not yet show the grace and conformation he shows above.

But, he is having fun.





Oisin at 2 1/2 weeks, practicing to be a good (and sleepy) puppy.









Rhianon and the rest of the puppies are doing well and enjoying the mild weather.


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IW puppies love water

We all know that puppies love to play. IW puppies love to play in the water.



In their area we have a tub-shower combination water valve, you know, the kind where you pull up on a lever to make the water go to the shower or leave it down to fill the tub.
The "shower" is connected to a water hose that we use to wash down the area or to fill the water bowls. Sometimes Bill forgets to turn off the water after filling the bowls - the hose has a shutoff on it so no water is running.


Oisin figured out that he could bite at the spout and thereby press the button and start the water flowing - smart Oisin, bad Bill.


=


As if that were not enough, puppies love to splash in the water. This picture is not from the flood from Oisin turning on the water - it is from the puppies playing "splash" in their water bowls just after they are filled.









When we remodeled that room for the puppies, we put down rubber horse stall mats and glued them together. Wasn't that lucky. And, we put in a floor drain. Wasn't that lucky - and smart.

Liam and the Grandpuppies

This week Liam decided to lead the puppies around.

Liam and Bidelia and Oisin, who were glad to follow Gramps around.














Liam and Oisin

















Liam leading Oisin, Bidelia, and Maitias back to the pens - it is HOT outside today.



As you can see, the pups are growing and doing well. They are now going to office with us on a regular basis. They are learning that strangers (in the office) bring cookies and give nice cuddles. The patients are learning the meaning of unconditional acceptance and love.

Another quiet week

To paraphrase Garrison Keeler, "It was another quiet week at the Hounds of Heaven" - thank goodness. All the adults and puppies are healthy.


Rhianon and the 3 puppies that remain here are looking at what made one of the other dogs bark.

Rhianon leads them out to explore.

Maitias says, "Wait for me !"

Oisin snags a choice clump of decaying grass and has a mid-afternoon snack while walking with mom. He did return it to his proud human parents later that afternoon, together with all the cookies he had eaten.

The puppies are starting their training for the show ring. They just can't believe that we want them to stand still. So, they don't. It is said that laughter is the best medicine and puppies in the show ring are plenty of that medicine. It keeps us younger as there is laughter for all.

Brag !

It is always fun when we can brag a bit. Rhianon (the Dam of the current litter) finished her Championship in May. (we wanted to wait for the picture to announce the win.)

Getting an AKC championship is sometimes fun, sometimes difficult, and sometimes it seems that it is just never going to happen. The rules are arcane and complex and we will not try to explain them all here. Let it suffice that the dog wins a championship by being the being the best dog present of their sex at a number of dog shows. At all shows there must be at least one other dog of the same sex and at two of the shows there must be a larger number of dogs of that sex.

Well, Rhianon was cruising along winning her shows just fine until last fall. Then, for no apparent reason, she decided she didn't really want to be there and it was apparent as she was showing. We couldn't beg, borrow, or steal the last point she needed. We had a show in December, but she went into season....

Normally we would show her anyway, but as we were going to breed her this time we did not. We are very cautious about bringing home some nasty bug so when we are planning to breed, or have a bitch in whelp, or new puppies, we stay far away from dog shows.

When the puppies had received their second immunizations we decided to enter a show to see if we could win that elusive last point (of the 15 needed) and this time she decided showing was fun, and it was clear to the judge.

So now Rhianon is an AKC champion, and her puppies have two champions as parents.

Nothing exciting happened this week

Nothing exciting happened this week, thank goodness !
Puppy play time. Oisin ("Oh'sheen") in the lead, followed by Maitias ("Mattias") and Bidelia ("Bi deal'ia").

The weather has been lovely, just like Spring is supposed to be. Low 70s in the daytime, mid 50s at night. You would not think this was Michigan in late May !


Rhianon continues to teach them how to be Irish Wolfhounds.

Sometimes how to look, sometimes how to fight (which they then use on each other).

As we said, nothing exciting happened this week, thank goodness.