The boys are no longer on house arrest!  Mini is no longer in heat; they can now join the rest of the household.  Tim had the girls out today: Mini, SoBe, Miata, Mighty, Kane, Beret, Kahlua, and Trixie (Kane is not big enough to be interested in Mini so, we count him as a girl….shhhh, don’t tell him that though).  I think that it is time for me to retire the pigeon I am using…it is missing the head and a leg; it is a pitiful site but, still great to use for puppy retrieves.  Mississippi is retrieving great for her age.  Mighty, Kane, and Beret are testing the waters but, I am keeping them in the shallow end for now. Beret is carrying around a beer can and is proud to show her support for Hamm’s; yes, i said Hamm’s, it was all Tim could find at the time.  Mighty is teething on a cranberry Ocean Spray plastic bottle; that will keep her entertained for a half hour or so.

The house is full of dogs; they have cabin fever and so do I.  The weather has been cooperating the last week or so; I was able to train the puppies on live pigeons out in the field.  Mighty, Kane, and Beret had a blast!  Mighty quarters the field well and is learning to use her nose; I planted clip wing pigeons for her.  Kane is a little hesitant in his run but, I believe that he will open up.  Beret is a little running machine; I think that she is going to make a great trialing dog.  Tim clipped the dogs toe nails tonight; some found it to be nothing special while others thought they were going to die….oh the drama.  Beret got a nice warm bath; she enjoyed the nice toasty water with the help of the jets that is.  Mighty, Kane, Beret, and Mississippi all did their pigeon retrieves tonight; they really enjoy it.  Not only did we work on retrieves but, we are teaching them HUP.  They are all fast learners. Trixie, Mighty, SoBe, Miata, Kahlua,and Mini are all out lounging on the couches….Mini is a little irritated that I am not letting her sit in my lap while I type this; I tried explaining to her I can’t type with her in my lap but, I don’t think she believes me.  I have made plans to send SoBe out to Ohio to be run by Chuck, that is if she doesn’t come into heat….keep your fingers crossed.

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Mighty playing in the living room with Tim….it is amazing that she does not touch the floor….it must be made out of lava!

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Never a dull moment in our house…as you can see even when the puppies are in their crate they are active and vocal.  The noise level increases while they terrorize each other.  Today Mississippi and Mint played int he kitchen with intermittent breaks of sleeping and trips to the cold outdoors.  Potty training is going great!  Mighty got into some trouble today; she went into stealth mode ( impressive for her age) and jumped up onto the stove where a nice pot of frying oil was waiting for her to slurp down…..she was able to consume 2 cups before Tim realized that she was missing from his lap…..lets just say that she is grounded to her crate for the night.  I can only imagine how icky her tummy is going to be; as I type, she is sitting in her crate right next to the door, walking circles,  ready for quick evacuation to go out.  Tim is over being upset now, and feels bad that she is going to have an unpleasant experience soon….poor baby.  The dogs spent most of the day in the house with us; we rotate them from their room co everyone gets plenty of attention.  I am still finding pieces of stuffing through out the house from their Christmas presents….the one day that we let them destroy stuffed toys….it looks like a cotton ball exploded but, they have a great time doing it!

Yes, each one of our dogs gets their own stockings….there is 12: Trixie, Tyrael, Ace, Baker, Mini, SoBe, Kahlua, Jimmy, Miata, Mighty, Beret, and Kane!  Tim and I are looking forward to stuffing their stockings with all kinds of fun treats and toys….stay tuned there will be video!

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Here is a peek at a typical evening at our home…I am doing homework (for nursing school) and Tim is playing with the “kids”.

The field trial went well….Mini did ok; she barked on a long retreive ( it was an 85-90 yard retrieve, across course).  She made it through the 2nd series.  SoBe had a great trial going through the 1st and the 2nd series.  The judge sent me on a retrieve that was about 150 yards over a hill.  SoBeworked hard for 5 minutes until he let me walk up the hill onto the other course.  He had me pull her because she was covered in blood from a tongue wound and she was overheating.  She gave me a 110% and she did not want to give up….but I dont htink the bird went down….so, it is hard to retrieve a bird that is not there.  Miata took 2nd place in the puppy; she did great!  She had a trap and a flier pigeon.  She ran the course fast and with animation.  What dog!  Tim stayed home with the others and is building Kahlua a whelping nest for her upcoming litter; she is still waddling around the house.  Tim said that she woke him up about 4 different times to go out the the bathroom from 3am-7am (he never got back to sleep after I left @3am for the trial).  The poochies that stayed at home spent the entire time out with Tim; they got lots of attention and love!  I have to say that I am very proud that my girls gave me the effort they did out in the field; you can not train that kind of drive and dedication!

I wagging tail and smiling dog greeted me at the door when I got home from school; Mini was very happy to see me.  She was left out during the day to sleep on the comfy couch.  Trixie, Kahlua, Baker, SoBe, and Mini all snuggled up with each other on the couches while I did my homework this evening.  Tim and I took Mini, SoBe, Mighty, Kane, and Beret out to the field to romp and do some steady work.  The puppies are starting to open up in the field and quarter on their own; I would not have been the least bit surprised if they would of flushed a rooster.  I am getting excited to run the last field trial of the season this weekend; I might be able to run some in Texas when I have a break from school but, until then, this is going to be it.  I don’t have the luxury of being able to travel everywhere I want this year due to nursing school; I have to say I am a little bummed out but, it is only for a year….that is the good news!

Tim has affectionately named Beret (female) and Kane (male) Yick and Yack.  They are the two puppies that we kept out of Mini and Amos.  They are having a great time with Mighty who is only 3 weeks older them ( she is from Chuck Nelson’s Jake and Chance).  I have to say that there is not a silent moment in our house; here I was worried about having empty nest syndrome when Mini’s puppies left….yeah right…. The puppies do their pigeon retrieves in the morning before I go to school at 6:30am; yes, they are awake and rearing to go.  I have started the quartering process with Mighty in the field; she is doing great…she is a fast learner.  Kane and Beret go out to the field and we are introducing them to quartering; they are still a little small to make it through the grass right now; they try so hard and make it but, I have to say it is more comical than training at this moment in time.  Give Yick and Yack a couple more weeks and they will give Mighty a run for her money!  I am still amazed at how our family has grown these last months; we have added 3 new “children” and I have to say that Tim and I are still sane!  My bird bill is going to be astronomical soon with running 3 all age dogs and 3 puppies!  Nothing better in life than to train and run your dogs….I promise!

My fingers are frozen and that makes it a little challenging to type this; I am in from training and it was wet and cold.  I would of much rather been snuggled up with the dogs but training needed to be done.  I am entered in the Minnesota Field Trial this weekend down by Bixby, Minnesota; Mini, SoBe, and Miata are entered.  I trained with the usual group in Brandon and lots of good corrections were made; I have to say that SoBe’s ears are a little bit longer.  Mini had 2 flyers; she moved well up the course and worked the wind great, I cast her off and put her in auto pilot….she can find birds like no other dog, she doesn’t need my help.  SoBe had 2 dead birds and 1 flyer; then we worked on her staying steady with a bunch of drills.  She moves up the course FAST and covers the grounds awesome.  Just need to work on her listening and we will be good to go.  Miata is my little bird finder…wow….she is great; pigeons don’t stand a chance against her nose.  I am excited to run her in her 2nd puppy stakes.  I am hoping for a placement; we will see, keep your fingers crossed….I cant cross mine right now they are frozen still….if that is any indication of how cold it was training.  Kahlua is waddling around very pregnant…she has 2 more weeks to go!  Tim is building her a new whelping nest this weekend while I am at the field trial.