back to puppy business..

Little miss Ellie is turning into super fun puppy now! In 2 weeks, she's had 1 accident in the house, she sleeps through the night pretty well and was moved up into the big girl crate (Russell is much happier about that) and she's picking up on commands amazingly quick! After only 5 times of "practice" asking for SIT, she now does it on command.. I am just blown away with how quickly she picks up on this stuff. She will be all excited and put her front paws up on me for attention and I can ask her to SIT and she will get off me and sit.. I cant wait to see what else I can teach her as time goes on. She's not so good on the "come" command but I think that is more out of being a little timid/shy than being disobedient.

She definately has the "outdoor dog" smell going... lol Whew that girl stinks when she gets wet and I just gave her a bath about a week ago! She's a little digger, the other day when it was rainy out early in the day, she must have gotten wet and then spent some time digging because when we got home, she was covered in dry mud! small clumps of mud all over her underside and legs.. She will definately be getting a weekly bath, I cant handle outdoor dog smell.. :)

I am really happy we got her, Russell is much happier (most of the time!) and she filled that void. I am not too worried about our 3rd dog and how we will handle it, I just know we will.

We have been educating ourselves about "Hunt Tests" which are tests for bird dogs done out in open fields and in ponds, to judge their ability to retrieve birds and listen to commands etc.. We found a couple clubs that run shows in the area, Monroe/Carnation is the hot spot of the state for these events.. how lucky is that! We will be joining atleast one of these clubs in the near future and attending as many tests and practice days as we can to get educated on what we need to do with our Cooper in the future.

There is a big Hunt Test coming up soon and Derek is going to go (I will not be able to make it :( bummer) and he is going to get to see other Boykins work. People come from out of state and we are really excited that Elroy (who owns Earl, the pappy to our future puppy) will be up here for the next event!!! We have been wanting to meet Elroy and his dog Earl in person... Derek can take pics in person, ask questions and get information about these Hunt Tests and meet the dog we are so proud and excited to own a puppy out of. Earl has accomplished a lot and we hope to be able to train our pup to accomplish great hunt test scores as well..

As far as the other animals in our life, the goats seem much happier now.. my parents have finished half of their fencing so they are turned out to the big pasture now and then my parents also went out and bought 2 sheep and 3 goats, threw them all together and they've established the pecking order and are happy to be a group. My boys were a bit chicken, rarely venturing out in the pasture very far but now that they are a full "herd" they all support eachother and have no problems leaving the barn.. I'm not sure I will want to break up the little herd and bring them back home, maybe we'll have to buy a couple new ones to put back at our place... hmmm

...the plan for next year (well actually as soon as we get our fencing done which we are starting this week) is to keep the horses home 24/7 instead of putting them out to pasture.. in keeping them home, it would mean feeding hay year round but we realize that having them away from home, we are not riding as often as we could be, the boys are now in "out of shape" status.. and with getting another dog and getting involved in training that dog next year (and potentially working/training Ellie as well for agility), if we dont keep the horses home, we may never squeeze in riding.. oh what have we created for ourselves? I dont want to be so busy we forget about the one activity that soothes my sole.. riding!