Boy has it been a long time since our last post!

Not that Robin has not tried to keep us on track but there never seems to be sufficient time. Since I wrote last all the puppies went to new homes except for 2, Aiden (the first born) and Cayla (the third born). Brynn (#2, female) now lives in Memphis, Dara (#4, female) lives in Texas and Flic (#5, female) is in Mississippi. The two puppies known as Elva (#6, female) and Gavin (#7, male) are now known as "Julia" and "Bentley" and having originally moved out to L.A. are both in Washington State being a "terrible twosome" like my Aiden & Cayla (in the picture Aiden is on the far left, Cayla is on the far right; the parents, Jura and Ailsa are curled in the middle).

I always tell students that you-should-never-have-two-puppies-from-the-same-litter as one is always told they will become more focussed on each other and not on the humans. Likely this is true BUT I must admit that Miss C & Master A can be quite happily focussed on humans - especially if they have something they deem worthwhile. In the case of Master Aiden, it is FOOD that is valuable; in the case of Miss Cayla, it is a good word & kind touch that she covets.

I was about to bemoan the lack of time to train and have to take back the thought. Yes, it is true that with 4 dogs one does not accomplish as many things as one would with one dog. Further, letting Ailsa have her litter and having them stay at home until they were 12 weeks old, meant that she missed out on a load of training and performance time but I have to realize that we did make headway this year.

Jura: the is going to be 8 in February and we completed his "companion dog" (CD) titles in both AKC and UKC in addition to his Rally Advanced (RA) and Excellent (RE) in AKC and his Rally level 2 in APDT (RL2). He started working Nosework and began dock diving so there are new activities in his life and we are working on his tracking, CDX and field activities.

Ailsa: is conquering her distrust of jumps (knocking bars can be uncomfortable) and is figuring out her style for weaving (2x2). She completed her UKC AG1 and got her first AKC novice legs. She too like throwing herself into the water and strutted her stuff in conformation to earn her UKC CH in 2 sets of shows. She also passed her CGC and we intend to see if she is ready for her therapy dog certification in January.

Aiden: Is SOOOO the adolescent male - gets himself into trouble with his pater, his mater and his sister on a regular basis but is such a boy. Raised his leg to pee for the first time on Christmas! Nonetheless, he has been training with Josh Freeman - together they took best of breed at the UKC Purina show resulting in a tie for 7th place ESS for 2010 (as of 12/28)! He passed his AKC S.T.A.R. puppy last spring and earned his APDT puppy rally title in November and his first leg towards his AKC RN so I can not complain.

Cayla: The sleeper :) She too was not to be outdone by Brynn or Aiden and passed her S.T.A.R. puppy. Where she excelled was in Dock diving - earned first place and her novice dock diving title at the UKC Gateway show when the others freaked out having a pool to jump in rather than a lake or pond. That same weekend she earned her UKC CH and her first Grand Champion leg so again, I can not complain.

I do try to bring the dogs up to the building and give each one session of undivided attention. Now I need to add in time with each for a walk in the neighborhood - all that we do requires teamwork and I need to focus on my team members rather than the "clutch". If I do that we might not be surprised by what the new year brings :)