Landmark Tervs Litter Blog

Green Boy has decided that being an only puppy isn’t such a bad thing after all.  Abrah has decided that he doesn’t need disciplining and she can just play with him.  Big sister Roxanne is being very good about pretending to be small and let her little brother climb all over her and teeth wrestle.

Having the run of the house is a blast!  Green can run all over and assist in household chores.  Playing with the reflection puppy in the dishwasher is a fun, new game.

Puppies had a very busy weekend.  Patty Biggins and Sandi Geary came down from Salt Lake City to evaluate, play and take home their two puppies.  Black Boy and Little Girl went home with them.  Green Boy is going to his new home in San Diego next weekend. 

Poor little guy.  He misses his siblings.  However is very happy that he gets lots of time out running around and pretending to be a big dog.  This morning my allergies were bothering me quite a bit.  Green Boy was a little concerned that I was blowing my brains out everytime I sneezed. 

Today was the first trip in the van for the puppies.  They all mightily complained for the first few minutes of our drive.  Once they had all pooped and I cleaned up the mess, everyone was much happier and no more screaming.  I put them in the crate to roll into the vets office.  Puppies were interested in the new feeling of rolling in the crate along with the noise. 

Once we got in the waiting room, puppies were bakring and flinging themselves against the side of the crate.  They wanted out!!  Every time a person or dog would walk by they would leap harder and their tails would go faster.  Our vet was running behind which gave the puppies lots of time to watch Doggy TV. 

Black Boy lay down about 30 minutes into our wait.  Green Boy and Little Girl were really fighting the sleepiness.  After 45 minutes we went into an exam room.  Black stayed asleep and Green conked out.  When Little Girl finally laid down (and stayed down) the vet came in for the exam.

Puppies gave her kisses, wagged their tails and tried to chew on her pen while she was writing in their medical records.  Little Girl thought the wormer tasted wonderful.  Black Boy wasn’t impressed and threw it up.

More wagging on the way out of the clinic.  Puppies didn’t make a peep on the ride home.  They were completely wild when I let them out in the backyard when we got home.  They felt so tough.

Everyone came back in the house after their dinner.  Black Boy stole my tennis shoe and then sat in the ex-pen barking and play bowing at the rawhide rolls.

For some reason the big dogs decided to let me sleep in this morning.  I’m laying in bed enjoying a pleasant dream when I hear the sound of thundering pawprints and thunking up against the wall behind my headboard. 

What the heck?  Oscar Kitty doesn’t normally thunder behind the couch and she only pounds around when people are up and she is trying to get one of the dogs in trouble.  Oh no!  The puppies are out!

I lept out of bed and ran to the living room.  Abrah and all the puppies were having a grand old time in the living room.  Evidently my son didn’t ensure the ex-pen was snapped when he let Abrah out last night.   The puppies were so proud of themselves.  Once I got them rounded up they took a very long nap to recover from their morning activities.

Puppies are just a mess of wiggly, silly things.  Black Boy is going through a little phase where he likes to grab a toy or rawhide and take it off someplace to play alone with it.   Green Boy flies off in every different direction, happy as can be.  His favorite new thing is a little racetrack he’s created around the doggie beds in the living room.  Little Girl is still a happy, wild thing.  All puppies are immediately responsive when called.

Green Boy has always been a few days developmentally behind his siblings.  Today he caught up.  When my son got home from class, we went outside for a photo shoot.  Green Boy was racing up front.  When we got to our photo location, he kept running up  and giving one bark.  “Pay attention to ME!”.  Then he’d run to the other person and bark at them.  He would race off on solitary expeditions and be so pleased with his discoveries.  It was very cute to see him come into his own.  Last night he got his rotten little sister in an ear pinch and made her scream.

Black Boy had a grand time with the water bucket.  He dunked his head in and started blowing bubbles out of his nose.  We laughed our heads off and then started to get a little concerned.  The thought crossed my mind that he might be drowning because he was doing it for quite a while.  When he went back and did it a second time, it was obvious he thought it was a fun game.

The photo location was very close to the back fence (the fence is up an embankment, train tracks on the other side).  While taking photos, a slow train rumbled by.  The puppies had never been so close to the trains before.  All the puppies stopped, cocked their heads and listened to the train.  That was what we thought all the puppies did, until we downloaded the photos.  The tough cookie that is Little Girl, raised her hackles and showed some teeth - just to show whatever was making that noise who was boss. 

Lots of photos from today posted on:  http://landmarktervs.zenfolio.com/p642088265/

Took the puppies out in the backyard this afternoon to capture them on video.  They made a pit stop at the water bucket first and Black Boy was in the bucket up to his elbows.  He was also the first to slide off into the ditch.  When my son went to retrieve him, of course Little Girl and Green Boy slid down to assist.

Little Girl is the lightest colored.  Black Boy has a deeper red base coat than Green Boy.  Black Boy also looks slightly lopsided since his ears are starting to come up at different rates.  Both boys are quite chunky.  Here are links to their videos:

Black Boy on Left/Green Boy on Right
Black Boy and Girl/Green Boy at End
Black Boy and Girl/Green Boy at End
Green Boy
Little Girl
All Three
All Three
All Three

For those of you that were wondering how nail clipping was going in the litter . . .  it went just fine!  They were really getting needle nails, so I broke down last night and did them.  The constant reptition of flipping these puppies over on their backs made nail clipping a breeze.  I’ll admit I was surprised.  I fully expected a battle of wills with Little Girl and Black and all I got was tail wags and kisses.

We did not go on our expedition to a friend’s house since her dogs have recently been out in public.  Better to stay home and be safe.

After I got back from my root canal this afternoon, I took the puppies on a jungle expedition of the back yard.  The weeds are about a foot high except for a few paths that the big dogs have managed to put in since we got the back fence fixed.  The puppies have previously been on the patio and the small bit of groomed grassy area next to the patio.

 I took Abrah and Roxanne out to “help” with the puppies.  Black Boy immediately followed me, Little Girl took off down the patio and Green Boy brought up the rear.   Roxanne was pretty good about going back and picking up stragglers, except every time she went back to get a puppy, another puppy would get sidetracked.

Puppies slid off the track and went down in the drainage ditch (small ditch with fairly sloped edges).  Whee!  Everyone thought that was pretty cool.  It was so funny trying to watch them crawl back up the hill through the weeds.  It really looked like they were in a jungle.  I will have to try and get photos tomorrow.

Back up on the flat area puppies ran around and chased Roxanne.  On the way back to the house, Little Girl went right up the hill.  The boys got a little sidetracked and started going up a steeper path.  Roxanne laid down crosswise in front of them, so they couldn’t go up that way and had to take the easier way.

Back up on the patio the puppies were wrestling and I went to fill the water bucket.  I didn’t see that Black Boy had followed me.  He got squirted with the water hose.  He just stood there and thought it was cool.  I put his feet up on the water bucket and that was cause for some serious tail wagging.   I haven’t removed all the river rock we excavated during the fence building project and the rocks are providing some wonderful puppy climbing toys.

Black Boy got his teeth caught in the ex-pen after we went back in the house.  He screamed, but was very calm and didn’t panic while I turned his head to unstick him.  The instant he was free, he wagged his tail and went back to get a closer look at the ex-pen to try to figure out what had bit him.

This weekend I am going to take the puppies over to a friends house for their first car ride and to see how they do in a completely strange surrounding.  I will have to remember to charge the video camera up to capture the experience.

Puppies are getting cuter by the day if that is possible.  Green Boy is starting to assert himself more and even spent a tiny amount of time upside down today after a little snarking episode.  Black Boy was very snuggly today.  Little Girl spent time running back and forth behind the couch.  She’d start barking as she came out the end. “I have arrived!”  Bark. Bark.  Too cute.

It had to happen sooner or later.  Black Boy got stuck today.  Towards the end of our photo session this morning, he wedged himself between a 5 gallon crock, a chair and a little bit of the hearth.  Black Boy was just sitting there, not struggling because he couldn’t move, nor cyring becuase of his predicament.  I pointed out to my son that it would make a cute picture (more concerned with the cute picture than extricating little puppy).  I removed the dog beds in front of puppy, got the camera off the coffee table, took the lens cap off and then started taking pictures.  After I got a cute one, I decided to free the little boy.  He just trotted off.

Puppies are learning how to run behind the sofa.  That’s always a favorite game around here.  Puppy racetrack around the living room and behind the sofa.

Little Girl woke me up this morning screaming her head off.  She wanted OUT of the puppy pen.  Her brothers were asleep, Abrah was trying to ignore her and after I figured out that she wasn’t dying, I tried to ignore her too.  She eventually gave up and I let her out after she was quiet for 10 minutes or so.  She had probably just lost her voice.

Green Boy was feeling very frisky and attempted to pick on both of his siblings.  Black Boy and Little Girl both gave him direct bites on the ear which immediately stopped the bullying.   All three of the these puppies are pretty darn smart.