Ultra Chipsy

Today was ultra cool. We got our first glimpse of the little bags of cells Chipsy is carrying. Dr Woolman of Lighthouse Veterinary Imaging came right to the house to take the pictures, and here are the results. The first is a picture, you can see the scull, body and paws, legs, and in one we could clearly see the snout. It was very cool! They are in various positions, and we could see the hearts beating. Check out the short video clip to see the live performance.

Romp in the hay

Today we had a play date with Goran. We hiked through the hay fields, played chase in the stream, got muddy, wet and had serious amounts of fun. We also managed to take some time out for photos, and Goran is getting more relaxed with the camera. Chipsy is learning to ham it up when the camera comes out, how do they figure it out? Goran loves the water, Chipsy prefers the pathways.

Chipsy asks: Does being pregnant make my butt look big? Cheeky girl, ha.
I wish all of you could see them running and playing, but still checking in with me often and still responding to call backs when I get lost. Really. They know exactly where I am all the time, it is us who don't trust them. I still play hide and seek with them, although they have learned the game so well that it is rare I can hide before they spot me and come running back. Fun.

NC motivation

We have returned to NC and have attended a local dog training workshop entitled "Are we having fun yet?". The first day was a 6 hour ordeal filled with contradictions and confusion and poor methods. Here are some direct quotes, so you can judge for yourself. "Teach the dog that a "pop" with the leash can mean a correction or a good thing, like a motivational "pop"." "How do you keep your dogs attention: never let your dog look away from you." "Pinch collars is the only way to get precision on the heel." "Teach the dog to bark, but only in a motivational way."
It was such "fun" and "motivating" that we did not return for day 2.
So to keep all of you motivated, here is a video of Chipsy, self rewarding, looking away from me, and having fun, all thanks to the great Molecuball toy, one of our favorites.

Road trip with Chip

Our roadtrip between Winnipeg and Chapel Hill takes us through some very interesting territory. We travelled off the freeways and found ourselves taking a ferry across the Ohio river at a place called Cave in Rock. The ferry goes between Kentucky and Illinois at this crossing, the heart of Amish country. Here Chipsy poses with myself and our travelling companion Megan on the cliffs high above the Ohio river.

What's in the oven...

Many folks have asked how many puppies will Chipsy have? As much as we would like to promise cookies and milk, if the oven is broke, we can't give cookies. To help make sure we can give the cookies, we plan on doing an untrasound at 30 days along, which will give us a picture of the little ones in the oven to confirm pregnancy. However, she does look a little thicker around the abs, and it is not from doing sit ups.... Here she is sleeping, which she is doing quite a bit..... Hmmmmm

Back n blog

Taking care of family buisness has taken me from the blog, but returned me to Manitoba for a short time. With pregnant dog in tow, I made the four day drive to arrive to experience spring like weather for quite a few days. We modified a dog jacket for Chipsy so she could keep up her incubating temperatures on our daily walks. Here we see the dogs and Chad sporting the latest in Manitoba outdoor gear.

So.... who's the guy?

The lucky guy is V Goran von Haus-Klonne. AKA: Goran. He is a gorgeous Sable (that is the color reference) German Shepherd who has more titles and probably more training than most police dogs. He is also a fantastic companion dog with calm temperament and excellent nerve strength.
Here are his titles and what they mean. His titles were obtained in Germany before he was imported. Click on his picture to see his pedigree.

Here is what the letters after his name mean:

SCHH 3 is Schutzhund 3- very impressive training and amazing to watch.

Here is a link to read about Schutzhund:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schutzhund

FH 1 is advanced tracking title of which there are 2 levels. FH2 being more advanced.

ED is elbow dysplasia
KK1 is: A registered German Shepherd dog that has a Schutzhund degree would have demonstrated sufficient ability as a working dog to qualify for breed evaluation. The breed evaluation is an in-depth examination of the dog's structure, temperament and pedigree, which requires both a certification of good hip joints and sufficient performance on an endurance test (the AD).

Dogs that do well in the breed evaluation receive a Koerklasse I or Koerklasse II. This is a recommendation and evaluation by a trained and acknowledged "breed warden" judge who is qualified to certify the worthiness of the dog for breeding.Dogs rated Koerklasse 1 (Kkl1) "recommended for breeding".Dogs rated Koerklasse 2 (Kkl2) are "suitable for breeding.

With this method, the process of choosing the select parents, both certified for breeding (KKLI/KKLII), will help to maintain or improve the quality of the breed at a top world-class level.The German shepherd puppies born to Schutzhund dams and sired by Schutzhund dogs are more likely to have sound temperament, high intelligence.