New puppy!

On April 17th I will be getting a male black lab, from the "M" litter.  There are two out there, but the 2/18/09 Cabby/Elsa? litter is the one I think I am getting.  I will now have 3 "M" dogs in the house: Marley, Millicent, and "M" boy.  Oh, and Milo, the cat.

Our club is also getting a MYL "J".  No idea who his parents are.

Can't wait for this new puppy!!!  I am pretty happy I am getting another black lab: another raiser in my club is raising her first yellow lab after a shepherd and 3 black labs, and she says he sheds like no other!  

How do you handle the hair if you are raising a yellow lab?  Or do they not all shed that bad?  Anyone else find that black labs shed less than the yellows?

The "S" Litter

Sterling's litter mates are doing awesome! Sunset and Sarita were on breeder-eval, Shaw has graduated, Sammy is in phase 8, and Sparky and Selleck are both in phase 1. It will be so much fun to watch everyone progress!

I am off tomorrow for the Western Caribbean. My cruise goes to Belize, Guatemala, and 2 ports in Mexico. Hopefully I will not get too burnt! When I get back, only 3 weeks till I pick up my starter pup.

Spring is on the way...

Spring is almost here! It is going to be so nice to housetrain in warm weather!

Dante is loving soaking up the sunshine. I have one more week and I am off on a cruise in really warm weather.

Starter puppy

There is an awesome program here that allows high school students to raise a guide dog as part of their curriculum and earn high school credit. The students receive their dogs at the beginning of the school year in October, and keep them through June. Next year will be the third year of this program! Because the students start taking the dogs to school right away, they need to be carefully screened older pups.

More dogs than needed are therefore started by starter raisers so that they have a pool of appropriate age dogs to pull from. To give myself something extra to do this summer I have decided to raise a starter pup! I will still have Millie: since Tom and I are both adults and have experience, it is like having two raisers in the home.

The pup will be arriving April 17th on the puppy truck. Looking at the recent litters that would be ready for this truck, there is a chance I could get a Sterling half sibling or a Millie half sibling!

We will see what follows!