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.


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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.