Dispelling Myths

Don't ever forget how lucky we are to have been entrusted with such great dogs!

Da Girls

We've been fortunate to have two of the girls come back and visit for a while over the last few weeks. OK - we ditched Cheddar to the Lenoci's while Pekoe was in season and again now while Amber is in season,   Kona came back to visit while Jackie & Clayton went skiing in Colorado and then to Miami for Christmas. Meanwhile I got the chance for some training and a visit. Both girls are growing nicely and are about 19" tall and about 36#.  This is Sweet Tea stacked up for show and Kona ready for Christmas.

Sweet Tea will go to her first show on January 9th!

Kona has enjoyed Christmas!

Siren's First Snowfall

Siren saw his first snowfall. He did an admirable job of trying to catch all the snowflakes before they hit the ground!

Definitely have to do jumpers with him!

Rear legs about 2' off the ground
Contender for dock diving extreme vertical?

Gotcha!

Lateral attack!

Poetry in motion...

Fire Prevention Week

This week we conduct our Fire Prevention program with the local public school. Our introductory presentation before the entire school went very well. Siren's tail was wagging a million miles a minute even with all the kids "ooooh-ing" and "ahhhh-ing".

After the presentation we have been teaching individual classes. Once again Siren is doing great. He always has kisses and likes to make friends. He warms up to the children much faster than adults.

His "stop, drop and roll" routine is always a winner with kids and adults alike. Many adults have commented on how well behaved he is. When Siren sees that bit of hot dog he sits at attention until commanded to drop and roll. I think he'd snap a salute if he could!

From 90 to nothing in 2 seconds flat!

What's that you say? I'm all ears.

Thank you! (A HUGE one) to Aaron Zegelski for sharing this photo!

Cleared for Active Duty

Good news today. We received approval to put Siren on active duty during this year's Fire Prevention program. We have a little over a week to practice before we'll be working with the kids.

Growing Like a Weed!

(I just aerated the lawn, so no comments on the grass!)

Siren now has his show name: "Woodwynd Infini-Tea Imaginable"

He's grown quite a bit since our last update. He's also developing his dalmatian "bounce"-- that nice little up-and-down motion (or is it a lack thereof? I don't know, but I recognize it when I see it) when he's gaiting nicely.

We've been working on some basic obedience. 'Sit' has been proofed pretty well, and he will do it on hand command. It's also his preferred solicitation gesture.

He's also good at 'roll', where he rolls onto his back. This was a behavior he displayed on his own when we were outside. He'd run around the yard, leap into the laying position and roll over. I just began to reinforce it with a click and treat. Now he can perform it on command with some reliability. The gesture I've chosen to initiate the roll is an exaggerated tilt of my head to one side. He usually gets it.

We're working on 'down', but it usually takes putting the treat on the floor. It's also not very successful unless he is already in the 'sit' position. But we'll keep working on it.

He also is getting better at 'off', which is what we tell him to do if we want him to get off the couch or get down if he jumped up on us. We get a lot of practice with that one. I'm beginning to think he knows exactly what it means and that he is just beginning to develop his dalmatian stubbornness.

While working on these three behaviors, Siren would intermittently spin in a circle. Here is a dog in the sit position, I tell him 'down' and he stands up and spins in a circle? What the?

The giggling of my wife gave it away. Apparently my daughter has been teaching Siren her own tricks!

Tonka! Tonka! Tonka!

Tonka is doing well in the Merz household! We has a rough couple of first nights in the crate. Now we are doing wonderful at bedtime!!! He is sleeping through the night without having to go potty! The latest he has slept is 8:00 a.m. and it was wonderful!

He is good friends with

our landlord's big black lab, Beau. Tonka follows him around whenever he gets the chance to!

We have taught him to sit, lay down, shake, and jump up! He is such a good pup and a hit in Celebration. He is like a celebrity in our neighborhood. People come up to him and know his name!

He is a spoiled pup, but not TOO spoiled. He loves anything that has a tag, flip flops and toilet paper :)

He LOVES HIS FIRE TRUCK TOO! :)

Stacked at 12 Weeks

He's getting big! He also has this thing where he rears up on his hind legs and then hops.. Something inherited from his tree-climbing mommy perhaps?

A Large Glass of Tea Please

Got the attached photo of Sweet Tea and wanted to share them with everyone.  SweetTea has "trained" her person, Sarah Lenoci to sleep on the floor next to her crate.  Bet they'll both be glad when potty training is complete and they can share the bed!

Learning to Stack

And then there were none....

This morning was one of those bittersweet days.  The last pup, Alpha Romeo, left with her new Mom, Jeannine Kerr for St Louis.  Although she'll be formally known as Woodwynd's High Tea at Crossroads, she has not yet chosen her call name.  Jeannine will be "trying on" a variety of names to see what she'll respond to (besides Pup Pup and Little .  This pup will be a very busy girl and will play in the conformation ring as well as obedience and agility.  We look forward to seeing her at the DCA national specialty in Lawrence in April.

Ormond Beach Amber

Wanted to share our Amber with everyone. This was one of her first "girls want to go for a ride in the car?" and hanging out with sister Maggie. Enjoy, we are having loads of fun. We sort-of forgot what it's like to have a puppy....Beth & Steve, Ormond Beach, FL

Stacked at 11 Weeks

Hard to believe it's 11 weeks already! Already hard at work trying to teach Siren (aka Aston Martin) all about stacking, which isn't all that impressive as I am just learning myself!

Show Side


Off Side

Having difficulty lining him up over his front feet. He keeps wanting to 'lean back' and put his feet in front of him. We'll keep working on it!

Baby Got Back!

Although I really enjoy grinding chicken backs, after the snafu with the butcher I decided to try whole chix backs again. Looks like we have a winner!

Aston Martin is now officially "Siren"

Firedog "Siren", to be exact.

Go Baby Go!

This is our last week with Alpha Romeo, soon to be known as Woodwynd High Tea at Crossroads.  She's doing fanstastic and after a DISASTEROUS first night in a crate alone, is now sleeping through the night most nights.  She's learned to sit and to walk on a leash and plays (quite roughly) with her mother as well as with "Uncle" Cheddar and "Aunt" Amber.  Her new mom, Jeanine will arrive on Tuesday to take her back to St. Louis.  The house will seem empty after that - OK there will still be six adult dogs so that's probably not true!  But we'll miss her nonetheless!

Chicken.. It's What's for Dinner! (and lunch,, and breakfast)

Pup was urping on the big hunks of chicken he swallowed when I gave him whole backs, so we're grinding. I must have a good wife to let me deflower her KitchenAide like that! Yeah, that scrunched up 'eeeewwww' face you're making right now.. I made that face the entire time.

I think this will be the last week for ground chicken. Hopefully my butcher will have the chix necks this week; I've been waiting about a month for them. He can get backs, but necks are difficult for some reason. Is there some neckless breed of chickens that I don't know about? Seems to me that where there is a back, there should be a neck. *shrug*

Aston Martin is Living It Up on Long Island!

Aston Martin has adjusted well to his new home here on LI. We've been to the beach where he was not too sure about the water, but was happy to greet people and didn't seem to be bothered by the crashing waves created by Bill.

Still undecided on a call name. Dad was calling him "Marty" ("Martea?"), as his puppy name was Aston Martin.

After 30mins of screaching in the crate at 2am the first night we had him (how many of you share my pain???), I remarked to my wife, "we should call him Siren with all that racket." Since a week has gone by and we haven't had any other proposed names, we will probably go with Siren. But we're going to give it a few more days.

"No name? 'Your Highness' will do just fine!"

And then there was one.....

The next to last puppy went to her new home this morning. Ferrari has gone to the east side of town to live with Jackie Herrera and Clayton White. She'll be co-owned with me and shown under the "stagename" :>) of Woodwynd Amnes-tea. I'm not sure what she'll be called on a day-to-day basis, but I know she'll be telling Jackie & Clayton what it is pretty shortly! She starts puppy kindergarten tonight at the University of Doglando, a progressive training facility in east Orlando. Can't wait to see how she does!

Alpha Romeo is now the last puppy with us. The puppy pen will be cleaned out, folded up and the pool will go on to the Hallorans for the Brittany litter to move in (they were born in the same whelping box as this litter). Pinky as we've been calling her will move into her very own crate and spend the night in with us and the days either with me in the office or in the kennel room with the ''big dogs." Her new mom, Jeaninne Kerr will be coming down over Labor Day weekend to pick her up in person. She'll be living in St Lous and will be going on to (what we suspect will be) a stellar career in both conformation and obedience with agility as a possibility. She's going to be a do it all gal, like many of the Woodwynd Dals.

And so it continues

I've been having a number of computer problems so not much posting lately. My apologies. My laptop died last week and then on Thursday the external hard drive back up also died! How did we ever live without computers. Several more pups have left for their new homes.

Maserati now lives in Lake Mary, FL with Murial Meredith and will likely now be called Oliver.



















Rolls Royce has gone to Celebration, FL to live with Chris and Abby Merz. He'll be called Tonka and will be registered as Woodwynd Model Tea. I'm going to co-own and show Tonka in conformation.














Austin Healy left this morning for Tennessee where he'll live with the Harrison family and be called either Patrick or Patches (depending on which family member you ask). He's going to carry on the Woodwynd family tradition of Road Trials (yeah!)

Another One Bites The Dust.....

One more pup left todaay to her forever home. Porsche will now be known as Colby and has gone to live with the Zigelski family in Jupiter, Florida where she'll have a Golden Retriever and a Newfoundland buddy to live with. We'll miss her, but know she'll be treated like a princess.

And so they go

Today is one of those bittersweet days. The puppies have started leaving for their new homes. Jaguar is now Amber and will live in Ormond Beach with Beth and Steve Moetzel. Lotus is now Sweetie (aka Woodwynd Sweet Tea) and will live in Mt Dora with Sarah Lenoci. Sarah will be showing Sweet Tea in Juniors and I'll do the honors in the breed ring (at least until they're both ready for the breed ring together).

Amber with Beth & Steve Moetzel

Sweet Tea with Sarah Lenoci

Crunch & Munch

Yesterday, the pups had their first real raw meaty bones meal - chicken necks! You should have seen the little carnivores go! If a picture says a thousand words, here's a couple thousand. I'm very pleased with how my adults do and how my pups grow up on a natural raw diet. I know that a couple of the pups will be staying on a raw diet and hope that the other owners will consider it too.

BAERly There

We spent the better part of today at Affiliated Veterinary Specialists having the BAER test done. As you all know, Dalmatians as a breed are prone to deafness issues with approximately 8% being born bilaterally (both ears) deaf and another 13% born unilaterally (one ear) deaf. Hearing status can be medically checked using a process called Brainstem Auditory Evoked Response or BAER test. Today we were dealing with both neurologist Dr Mary Smith, but also Dr. Amanda Reichman, a neurology resident so the testing took a bit longer than we'd planned. BUT it was worth the wait. We have EIGHT bilateral hearing pups and one unilateral hearing (one ear) pup and no deaf pups! Once again, Pekoe and William have beaten the odds.

We did the 7 week photos yesterday afternoon and I hope to get them edited and up tonight. Temperament testing is also taking place this afternoon. But for now we are happy, happy, happy!

Free at last!

Yesterday, the pups got their first taste of outside and spent the late afternoon/evening in a large (double sized) ex pen on the porch/screen cage. Although it's been quite warm here (90's) they're under the shade of the porch and the ceiling fans. They LOVE the additional space and have been playing wildly with new toys. The favorite appears to be the rubber squeeky football. So if you're looking for a toy for someone in this litter - that'd be a great one.

The BAER test is actually Tuesday, not Monday like I thought (that's a homeopathic vet appt for Lager & Mouse!) and the temperament test will also be done on Tuesday. So by Wednesday, we should have a very good idea of who will be going where.

Six Week Photo Shoot

Well here they are...... Six weeks old, all dressed up and no where to go (yet)!

Jaguar - liver female

Lotus - liver female

Ferrari - liver female

Alpha Romeo - black female

Austin Healy - black male

Porshe - liver female

Aston Martin - black male

Maserati - liver male

Rolls Royce - liver male