Exciting News

We are so excited to share that Valentina has been in her season and we hope that she is pregnant by Parker. We have an ultra sound booked for August 31 and hope to be able to share some happy news after that. Once again Valentina brought Meribell into heat, but as it had only been four and a half months since she gave birth we decided to skip this round for her. Right before female dogs come into heat their hormones fly everywhere! I picked up that Valentina was grumpy in the play yard with the other dogs and sure enough the next week she started. Then I saw Meribell being grumpy too and a week later she came on. It did make it nice for the two of them to be isolated from the pack together.

We have a date for the public hearing in regards to the zoning permission for the new kennel. It will be Thursday evening August 27 at 7 pm at our local township office. I have also met the kennel inspector for our county and will be meeting with him again to go over our plans right after the public hearing. There are so many moving parts to this process and we will be very glad when the project is complete!

Next weekend we are heading up to Manistee National Forest in Michigan to go backpacking. Parker and Meribell will be coming along with us. 20 miles in one weekend is a bit too much for Valentina now that she might be pregnant and definitely too much for the puppies. Over the next week I will share daily updates on Instagram about our progress of getting ready. Not sure of coverage while we are there, but will be able to share about the trip once we get home. Today we have begun by introducing the tent-crates (see picture below) to Parker and Meribell. This is going to be interesting with Parker as he has never liked to be in a crate. We will have to take it very slowly and offer him lots of rewards.

I had a couple of outings with Becky. We went to a Bible study, an afternoon of resting at a park and then to Tractor Supply. She did well for her first time. We are particularly working with her to greet people politely and to slow down, rest and watch the world go by (that is so hard for her:)). Once she can master these two things, then the leash walking skills she learns at home can be taken out into the world.

A few pictures of hanging around the house. In the first picture you can see how big the puppies are getting. From left to right is Parker, Gilbert, Becky and Lilly. To the right is Gilbert. On the middle row is Lilly to the left and Becky and Parker to the right. On the bottom row is Becky, Lilly and Parker playing tug of war and then Becky and Parker working with Patty of Patty's pack.