The Dogs of Apropos

Merry Christmas from the Winns ...

2007-12-17T06:59:00.001-05:00

human and canine!

Introducing ... Emo

2007-12-10T21:05:00.001-05:00

Emo is from a different (working) line of Aussies, and a real treat. Pictured here at eight weeks, she is now eighteen weeks and is proving herself to be mature, sensible, focused and SMART.

More Photos of Tarzan

2007-12-02T20:27:00.000-05:00

Don't faint ... this is two postings within one week! Thank you Chase, for sending these wonderful photos of Tarzan playing at the park!

The Pearl of the Outer Banks

2007-11-27T22:23:00.000-05:00

Formerly known as "Diva" Pearl now adorns the Outer Banks of North Carolina!

Rascal

2007-10-30T21:23:00.000-05:00

I believe (my memory is getting fuzzy as time goes by) that this was the puppy we called Gentry. Is he not incredibly handsome? He is a young man's very special companion, and lives on a farm in Virginia. Thanks so much for sending me these gorgeous photos of him!

Photos of Kobe

2007-10-28T21:15:00.000-05:00

Kobe is the puppy we called Rush, the one who most reminded me of his sire, Itty. Thanks so much to Kobe's mom Jean, for sending all of these wonderful photos, that dating from present time back to his young puppy-hood!

Tarzan

2007-09-21T17:01:00.001-05:00

One more pix of Sunnie!

2007-09-21T16:59:00.002-05:00

Sunnie (the puppy formerly known as Ma'am)!

2007-08-24T19:19:00.000-05:00

Here are all of the photos of Sunnie (formerly Ma'am) that her very generous owners have been so kind as to share with me! Is she not a beautiful girl?!

Changes and News

2007-07-25T17:56:00.000-05:00

One thing I can say with certainty regarding my dogging life, is that things are always happening. When you have more than one dog, they can sometimes conspire to give you moments of victory, moments that are bittersweet, and moments of fear, too. This past week I have experienced all three.

The good news is that Acey earned her ASCA CD Saturday at the obedience trial at the CASC show in Mebane. I was pleased with her performance. I do not really consider her to be as polished as I would like for her to be before trialing, but ASCA shows in this neck of the woods are few and far between and I'm grateful to have gotten that beginning title out of the way. She is completely recovered from her spay and EAGER to work. As a matter of fact, she's patiently waiting out in the crate in the car for me to come and train her right now; she ws too eager to sit still since the time of day tells her it is time to go and WORK!

The bittersweet news is that Molly has gone to live with a new family, in Hillsborough, NC. She is with a family very similar in lifestyle to our own, where the mom homeschools the children and there are people home all day long most days. She is the only dog in a very dog experienced household, and they are delighted with her and she with them. I am certain of this because their reports of Molly's wiggling and grinning and snorting and cavorting could not be faked. Molly for all intents and purposes was "retired", and numbering five out of six on our dog hierarchy in terms of how much attention she got. Now she is one of one, and it is well deserved. We miss her, but are happy for her, too, and greatly appreciate the nearly daily reports we've been getting on her from her new family!

The fearful news is somewhat ongoing ... after noticing Monday night that Itty had a very swollen testicle, and that he had been off his food and not quite "right" for two or three days, I took him to the vet that took such good care of Acey on Monday. Today he had that testcle removed. Dr. Settle said she did not think it was cancerous, but she was going to send it off to be sure. She said in her opinion, he'd probably suffered a puncture or a bite, and had an infection. This is highly possible, as he runs on the farm, through the fields and woods and lies down to cool off in the pond on nearly a daily basis. He never did have a fever, so hopefully the remaining testicle is still good, and will produce viable sperm. We'll be checking that in a couple of months just to make sure. In the meantime, Itty is recovering quietly in a large crate, with an E-collar on, so he'll stay quiet and not lick the incision. So if you think about it, say a little prayer that he'll recover without incident and will retain his fertility in the bargain!

Photos are of Molly and Bahnsen on the morning of the day I took her to Hillsborough, and Itty upon is arrival home from the vet's this afternoon.

Heaven

2007-07-18T18:08:00.000-05:00

A friend sent me this in an email and I actually thought it good enough to put here ... enjoy!

A man and his dog were walking along a road. The man was enjoying the scenery, when it suddenly occurred to him that he was dead. He remembered dying, and that the dog walking beside him had been dead for years. He wondered where the road was leading them...

After a while, they came to a high, white stone wall along one side of the road. It looked like fine marble. At the top of a long hill, it was broken by a tall arch that glowed in the sunlight.

When he was standing before it he saw a magnificent gate in the arch that looked like mother-of-pearl, and the street that led to the gate looked like pure gold. He and the dog walked toward the gate, and as he got closer, he saw a man at a desk to one side. When he was close enough, he called out, "Excuse me, where are we?"

"This is Heaven, sir," the man answered.

"Wow! Would you happen to have some water?" the man asked.

"Of course sir, come right in and I'll have some ice water brought right up." The man gestured, and the gate began to open.

"Can my friend," gesturing toward his dog, "come in, too?" the traveler asked.

"I'm sorry, sir, but we don't accept pets."

The man thought a moment and then turned back toward the road and continued the way he had been going with his dog.

After another long walk, and at the top of another long hill, he came to a dirt road leading through a humble farm gate that looked as if it had never been closed. There was no fence. As he approached the gate, he saw a man inside, leaning against a tree and reading a book. "Excuse me!" he called to the man. "Do you have any water?"

"Yeah, sure, there's a pump over there, come on in."

"How about my friend here?" the traveler gestured to the dog.

"There should be a bowl by the pump."

They went through the gate, and sure enough, there was an old-fashioned hand pump with a bowl beside it. The traveler filled the water bowl for the dog and took a long drink himself. When they were full, he and the dog walked back toward the man who was standing by the tree. "What do you call this place?" the traveler asked.

"This is Heaven," he answered.

"Well, that's confusing," the traveler said. "The man down the road said that was Heaven, too."

"Oh, you mean the place with the streets of fool's gold and imitation pearly gates? Nope. That's hell."

"Doesn't it make you mad for them to use your name like that?"

"No, we're just happy that they screen out the folks who would leave their best friends behind."

Monte (the puppy formerly known as Strobe)

2007-07-12T16:35:00.000-05:00

The Family

2007-07-05T20:52:00.000-05:00

We have a visitor this week! Nelly has come to spend the week with us while her family is on vacation. It has been so nice to have her. She is a lovely little girl in both looks and temperament. I do believe she's had quite a nice week herself. Bahnsen didn't seem to remember her at first, and he was both possessive of me and quite interested in her. Now she's just one of the crowd. This evening I took Molly, Itty, Bahnsen and Nelly out on the farm and took these photos. Enjoy!

July in NC ... cooling it!

2007-07-02T21:58:00.000-05:00

Itty having fun at the pond.

Why I Love Puppy Class

2007-06-27T20:05:00.000-05:00

I love taking puppies to puppy classes. Most everybody knows I love puppies, and love training puppies. I love watching them learn and bringing them along the path of being a team. I love watching their brains turn, seeing them make connections. I feel so privileged to see a spark I planted in their little heads take hold and burn.

Bahnsen is in a puppy class, and after taking him the other night I got to thinking about why I like puppy classes so much. It's because they remind you of everything you already know ... but forgot. They remind you of the importance of actually teaching a dog his name ... even if he already knows it. Bahnsen knows his name. (That's the reason he's called Bahnsen, because when it came time to give him a "real" name, he was already responding so well to Bahnsen.) To sit politely for petting. To sit at the door before you go out of it and to respect your space. That you need to be more interesting when you're out for a walk with your dog if you want him to pay more attention to you than to his surroundings.

I've never yet been to a basic puppy class that I didn't feel sharpened me as a trainer.

Posted are photos of Itty on the farm this week, wet from swimming in the pond and ready for whatever.

What Not To Do

2007-06-25T21:15:00.000-05:00

The next time you're at PetSmart and you see those neat looking little CHEAP laser pointers with that nifty little belt loop clip at the check out stand ... don't, I repeat DON'T buy one! At least, not for your dog.

It can be tempting. Learn from my mistakes. I fell for it a few weeks ago and am going to tell you the story I'm living to regret.

Back when I was in college, I had a Border Collie named Megan. I lived with my grandmother, and would sit, studying, at the kitchen table where the light from the lamp would glint off my watch crystal and flash against the wall beside me. Megan would stand there and watch for the glint of light and repeatedly drive her teeth into the wall, trying to capture the glint. It was merely amusing until the day when I walked into the kitchen and caught her standing at the wall, staring at "the spot" ... waiting for the glint of light to reappear. Then it became hysterical.

Had I been a smarter person, and better able to draw conclusions, I would have remembered Megan, and never bought that laser pointer a month ago. But I did.

All the dogs loved it, at first. Four of them, within ten minutes had connected that red dot of light to the wand I was holding in my hand. Bahnsen, however, did not. Does not. Probably cannot.

Want your dog to spin? Nooo problem! Spin the laser pointer. Fastest spin in North Carolina, right there on cue. Want your dog to climb the wall? Well, we can arrange that, too! It's so cute, so laughable, his intentness on the carpet, the floor, waiting for the red dot to reappear.

However, assuming I keep Bahnsen long term, his future is that of a performance dog. I want his attention to be on ME. All the dogs' attention is always on me. They monitor everything I do. If I'm sitting at the computer, they're all lying around me. But let me go put on my shoes ... and they're all crowding me, dancing, the hope alive in their eyes saying, "Pick me, pick me!" (How I miss Clue, who used to bring me my shoes!)

Suddenly, Bahnsen's attention is no longer on me. He leaves my side in the mornings and is alone in the living room, staring at the carpet. I realize: he's waiting for the "dot" to reappear! He'll interrupt a nap to go and check if it's there. He remembers it. He watches for it. He hopes it will come. He checks for its presence upon entering the room.

Well, one thing leads to another. Bahnsen's sire, Itty, is a first rate fly catcher. He adores the challenge. It's great. I never have flies in the house ... Itty pursues them until they no longer exist. Bahnsen, with his attention on the ground, has suddenly clued into low flying flies, and he's as obsessed with them as he was the laser dot. At his puppy class tonight, he could hardly pay attention for chasing a fly that kept buzzing around, lighting on the pavement.

We came home, pulled off down the farm path and checked on the triplets (doing fine) and on back to the agility field where I parked and had him jump out to accompany me on my walk ... I'm trying to get a couple of miles in every day. It's getting close to dark. Darker. Almost completely dark. The lightening bugs are out. And ... guess who notices? Pursues? Gives obsessive chase? You got it. Bahnsen.

My work is cut out for me! The moral is: be careful what you let into those serious little minds. And leave the laser pointers at the store! (Besides, they're not really "fair" for the dog can never really win.)

Long overdue update

2007-06-21T19:22:00.000-05:00

It has been a long time since I last posted, and I apologize to any of you who check in frequently only to be disappointed. No sooner had the last puppy gone home when Acey came into heat and unfortunately for me, her season was was followed by pyometra, which is a uterine infection that females sometimes get following their seasons. I took her to Dr. Katherine Settle at Sanford Animal Hospital, our not so local vet who is also a dog breeder and trainer and exhibitor and who understands the semi-obsessions that we dog people can have about our canine friends. We tried to save Acey's fertility with a week of prostaglandin injections to help her expel the stuff in her uterus, but we ended up having to have her spayed as her cervix just wasn't open enough to let enough stuff out and her life was in danger. The whole ordeal was both frightening and sad, and afterwards I just grieved. Acey is an incredibly special bitch and I have looked forward for so long to her puppies. At first I could hardly look at her beautiful face without tearing up, but we're all doing better now. Acey has completely recovered.

Bahnsen continues to be a fun, intriguing puppy. He is quiet and serious and even sedate ... until I indicate it's time to work/play and then he's doing leaps and bounds, yet is extremely focused for a not yet five month old puppy. He gives a very fast "high five" now, shakes hands on the prompt "how do you do" ("pleased to meet you" is the response), gives a quick "sit" or "lie down", does a sit and down stay, knows what "load up" means, retrieves a ball, and plays tug with the best of them. And I really haven't spent all that much time in training him. He turned on to sheep a couple of weeks ago. He's been going with me to water and feed them for some time and this particular time he suddenly noticed how they moved off of his movement. He moved, they moved. He stopped, alert. He moved again. They moved again. He rushed them. They ran. He chased. He almost immediately split off a newborn lamb and ran it into the round pen where he pinned it to the ground. His expression as he looked up at me was hysterical ... I don't think he was quite sure just what he had done.

We had triplets born here yesterday, just a few days after I sold off ten sheep because they were getting so populous. I went from twenty one to eleven and now am back up to fourteen. The babies are precious, two boys and a girl, and from my favoritie ewe, too. It's the third set of triplets to be born here this year, but the only one to have all three live. Photos are of Bahnsen, Acey and the triplets with their mom, all taken today. Enjoy!

Remaining at Apropos ....

2007-05-09T23:21:00.000-05:00

Allow me to introduce you to Bahnsen, the puppy who stayed. He is pictured here at fourteen weeks, out on the farm. He likes to go everywhere I go and is intensely interested in all that I do.

Why did I keep Bahnsen? Well ... because he was different. I almost kept Rush (now called Kobe), because he was so incredibly like his daddy. However, I already have an Itty! Itty is a joy of joys ... but I've never had a Bahnsen before. Just for the record, I might not keep him forever ... but for now I've got the fun of training a puppy and should I not keep him, all that I will do with him between now and then will make him a blessing to whomever he does end up with permanently. I just love being a puppy's first teacher.

What's cool about Bahnsen is that he's sort of like a sports car. Until you turn the key, he doesn't run. He might idle, but he doesn't run. But all I have to do is turn him on and he's TOTALLY there, and I just love that. I think he's going to be a serious dog who also loves to play ... Itty is like that, too, serious about his play. Actually, everything is serious to Itty, and Bahnsen has a similar demeanor.

I also think he has "wise eyes".

ASCA Agility!

2007-04-06T21:37:00.000-05:00

The above photos are a photo journal of our day, today. Daddy Itty and I went to our very first ever ASCA Agility trial, over in Chapel Hill. We had a really great day. ASCA Agility is a lot different from AKC ... this trial was small and very laid back and we ran five runs instead of two. There were two Gambler runs, two Regular, and one Jumpers. I had never seen Gamblers before today. It's where you have forty seconds to accrue points by making your own course ... you get five points for contacts, three for tunnels and weaves, and one for jumps. You have to get twenty points at the novice level which is extremely easy to do. The idea is to end up near the "gamble" which is a series of four obstacles that the dog must run while the handler remains behind a distance line. Itty Q'd with a perfect score his first run, but the second one he did not. My fault. I hadn't realized that we might be faced with obstacle discriminations during the gamble (which we were ... I included a photo of the one that killed us) so I had not trained for that at a distance. We got perfect scores in our two Regular runs, and I'm reasonably sure that I totally screwed up our Jumpers run for us. By that time of day my mind was just blitzed and my body tired and *I* (not the dog) went off course. Or at least I think we did. LOL. But all in all, it was a good first experience ... we Q'd three times, with perfect scores and got three first places!

When we got home ... after making a pot of strong coffee ... I took Itty and the puppies out on the farm for a run. He's such a good dad, he shares the parenting duties! He took great fun in showing his kids all the good places to find the rabbit trails, and he demonstrated just how to best cool off in the pond! We ended up on the agility field where little Ma'am decided all of her own initiative to explore the teeter ... I was barely able to snap the photo and reach her to get her off before she tilted it to the ground. Wobble board upbringing or not, I don't think she's quite ready yet for a full sized teeter!

Three ... with a change ...

2007-04-04T23:12:00.000-05:00

We are down to just three puppies who are looking for their forever homes and I think they are truly three of the most special puppies in the litter. I have decided to make Ma'am available. I held her out for myself and have been all but agonizing over the decision, but only want to keep one and have found I cannot part with Bahnsen at this time. Ma'am and Bahnsen were the temperament tester's two favorite picks of the litter. Ma'am has by far the prettiest markings of any puppy in the litter with her even white collar, blaze and perfectly matched stockings and socks. I don't know that I've EVER seen an Aussie so prettily marked! Strobe ... well, just look at that handsome face. Only Gentry (now Rascal) had a handsomer face. And he has a sweet, smart, reasonable nature to go along with his good looks. And Knox ... lol ... what can I say? He is just about to bust wide open with himself. He has a BIG personality, as I think the photos show, and is very quick to learn. They are all dreams to teach things to, and are well on their way to knowing "sit", "lie-down", "spin", "turn" and what the "no-no" sound means (I can't spell it, lol, it's just a sound I make when they're doing wrong that means cease and desist!). We're taking long rambles on the farm daily and they've had all sorts of adventures. They're all retrieving a ball and playing tug. I just adore working with puppies of this age as they're as capable of learning as an adult dog although their attention spans are short. They're little blank slates getting off to a good start! In the next few days I will be giving each of them that remain their own page on the website, so be on the watch for it!

The photos, in order, are of Strobe first, then Strobe and Knox, then Knox and then Knox playing with the others, followed by photos of Ma'am. Don't forget that if you click on the photos you will get an enlargement!

And then there were four ....

2007-03-28T22:44:00.000-05:00

The time has gone so quickly, I can hardly believe that some of the puppies have already ventured out into the world into their very own new families and homes. Wonderful families, I might add. I hope each puppy will bring special blessings to his/her new family and vice versa.

Only Bahnsen, Calvin, Knox and Strobe are left. (There are still a couple of puppies awaiting pick-up, but for now I'm going to focus on those who are still looking for their very own special people to find them.) These puppies are pictured in order, and are distinct enough now that I feel sure everybody will be able to tell them apart. As you can tell, they really enjoy playing tug, retrieving balls (and chirping chicks) and while not pictured, are learning to walk on a leash.

Enjoy the photos ... I've feeling it won't be long before these handsome fellows are off on their own, too!

Seven Weeks

2007-03-23T18:52:00.000-05:00

What a whirlwind week this has been! Not only are the puppies larger than ever, but they are more mature. They are showing readiness for relationships, and it has been SO sweet to realize when they're trying to specifically engage me for "special time". (They're still in my kitchen, totally underfoot, and my computer is in the kitchen too, so they're always trying to engage!)

On Tuesday they had their CERF exams. Three of the puppies had Iris to Iris Persistent Pupillary Membranes, which are leftover remnants of the membrane that covers and nourishes the pupil in utero and while their eyes are still closed. They are generally dissolved by the time a puppy is eight weeks old, however they were still six weeks when I took them in. If you wait until they are eight weeks, then the CH factor of Collie Eye Abnormality can be masked by pigment at the back of the eye, so I always take them in early as that is the weightier concern. The eye doctor, Dr. Mark Nasisse at Carolina Veterinary Specialists in Greensboro, said that they had the mildest form of PPM and that they would probably outgrow it within a couple of weeks, that it was nothing to worry about and not considered to be hereditary. Still, it was somewhat disconcerting as our other two litters had totally perfect eyes all the way around. Here is an interesting article for anyone interested in learning more about Persistent Pupillary Membranes: http://www.vmdb.org/dx1.html

On Wednesday the puppies had their temperament tests. Now that was fun, to observe them, one after the other meet the tester, whom they've never met before, in a strange place, and watch how they interacted with her, responded to different stimuli and solved problems. There were very few surprises but it was still fascinating to see. As expected, Knox was the boldest puppy in the litter. He has a lot of attitude, is QUICK to solve a puzzle, but is still forgiving when you do something to him that he doesn't like. He will be a joy to train, and would be most appreciated by someone with a good bit of prior dog training experience. Ma'am and Bahnsen were the tester's two favorite picks in the litter. It took over five hours to test them all.

So ... if you're wondering why the photos are late this week and why they're just head shots, now you have an idea! It has been a BUSY week, but the weather is supposed to remain nice over the weekend so I'll try to post some additional candids of the puppies at play!

One more pix ... too cute not to include ....

2007-03-14T22:58:00.001-05:00