Provided by Vegas:

and a tired Charlie (also with Vegas, who’s a mush), who I think would stay planted right. there. if I didn’t pry her out with a crowbar every once in a while.

Small update on Pickles, she gained 1.5 ounces yesterday so no big deal!  Apparenty, she was just the normal one…all the rest are piggies. 

after giving birth. And, umm, I wasn’t carrying nine.  A little thinner in the waist, but not skinny at all really from feeling her ribs etc.

I am so proud of Lizard. She’s being a GREAT mama dog!

Just trying to get everything switched over.  Wordpress here we come!

Traum’s momma, Molly, as a puppy…maybe 6-8 months? I’m not entirely sure. Hard to believe that she grows into a moose.

and at about 4 months, when she first arrived:

ETA: Yes, Molly is a red-headed tri. VERY red-headed, obviously…you can see between the bottom pictures and the top ones how much her red “crept” backwards on her head until it enveloped the whole thing. The undercoat on her monk’s cap as a baby was always red. And yes, fuzzy ears. Her coat was a bit feathery…not TOO bad, but her ears were really soft.

Also for funsies, here is Zach at probably around 8 months? You can see he had the long pastern problem as well:

His front stayed pretty much the same, though, even after we started agility and competed.

Heidi and I are in Atlanta at a show, mostly for fun and socializing. ) There’s an entry of 24 here including 8 specials. Today, Rush was pulled out for comparison with the eventual BOS, so not bad for a youngster! Grats to Heidi. We also took some photos of his front for posting later, but I don’t have my camera cord with me so it will have to wait until we get home.

As far as fronts go…I absolutely think that shorter pasterns are a key to a nice front. Lizzie’s are moderately short, but I think could be a bit shorter. She does have nice round bone and good feet. My biggest want for her front is a better chest shape, because she’s somewhat barrel chested. And shoulder layback, but that’s a different discussion. )

Maybe Heidi can pipe in (and, ahem, start blogging again) with Rush’s front, because his is gorgeous.

Talk about turnout etc by Kate & Joanna got me wondering what Lizzie’s front TRULY looks like these days. I mean, I know it was really nice when she was a puppy. And I know that day-to-day it looks nice. But photographs are always interesting.

And here she is today, at 2.5 years old and just getting blown dry in the garage for our show weekend. Please ignore the expression, as she was most disappointed that I didn’t have cheese. Here it is stacked:

and unstacked:

You can see that she turns out a bit more on her right foot than on her left (and I actually think the way she’s leaning and turning in this photo makes it look a little more so than it really is). That definitely wasn’t there, even in casual everyday life, when she was a puppy. I suspect that most Cardis don’t have exactly even fronts?

I meant to do this earlier, but was reminded by Kristine today. )

BRADY
If I had to describe Brady in one word, it would be “intense”. We always joke that Brady will not get old gracefully and then pass away in his sleep sometime…an aneurysm in the middle of the yard running after a squirrel would be more his speed. At age 10.5 he IS finally slowing down a little bit, but not really all that much. He’s my Cardi who has been through the most obedience classes (4), yet is the one least apt to listen to me. Can you say hard headed? That said, he did teach us a lot. He’s also endearing in a lot of ways, but has always been Dave’s dog. His stubbornness and drive frustrates the living heck out of me. Through his life we’ve tried flyball, agility, and herding. All of which he is fantasically driven to do, but woefully falls short in physical ability. Brady is perfectly built for stamina (and is a fantastic hiking dog)…balanced, not extreme, and light on his feet. But his extreme drive when coupled with a strange inability to judge distance (I swear there is something odd with his eyesight, and not just as an old dog) equals a dog that is constantly injuring himself. A very memorable moment was during our first flyball demo at a local park…he was so worked up that when his turn came, he tried to run and jump so fast that he simply landed on TOP of the jump, completely taking the whole thing and himself down to the ground. Undaunted, he popped up and finished the rest of the run. We repeated the experience in agility training, even though I took him to several classes and trainers just for jumping. So despite a fantasic amount of drive, Brady has always been a house dog. He’s our official greeter and has always been the undisputed alpha of our house. Not a nasty bone in his body, he nonetheless will tell other dogs plainly what they should and should NOT be doing. He adores all humans, small or large, as long as they pet him.

LIZZIE:
One phrase to describe Lizzie would be “Suck Up”. Lizzie is a lover, not a fighter, and 100% a people dog. She loves people and will do her best to get them to either pet her, or give her food. She believes that she belongs in someone’s lap, and when we have friends over will spend the better part of the visit trying to work her way into one. You simply have to look at her at any point in the day and she’ll roll onto her back, asking “want to rub my belly?” She loves dogs that are in her pack (or extended pack), and tolerates other dogs for the most part as long as they don’t try to play with her too much, at which point she tells them in doggie terms to “buzz off”. Remember, she’s a people dog, not a dog’s dog. ) She’s also a chow hound extraordinaire and has been known to swipe food off the table if, say, you have to get up for a moment to keep the toddler from killing himself. Not that I speak from experience or anything. We joke that she’s our cat because she’s such a quiet dog…not just that she rarely barks, but she moves quietly too. This trait helps her with the aforementioned food stealing, otherwise known as “sneaky”. She has so far turned out to be surprisingly good at agility, despite her couch potato tendencies. Mostly she loves to please me, but her excitement about the sport exceeds simply wanting to do what is asked, and I’m thrilled!

After a long break for the holidays, we started another agility course today. Heidi and Rush were supposed to join us, ahem, but somebody needs to check their email more often. LOL

It took Miss Lou a little while to settle down…at the beginning of the class she was SO excited to be there that she had no idea what I wanted her to do. Those of you who have met Lizzie I know are saying, really? Excited, exuberant, bouncy…Lizzie?? But indeed she was. After she settled down we had a good hour of practice doing all the things we learned in the last set of classes. And surprisingly, knock on wood, she has no problem with the teeter so far. I’ve been very impressed with her boldness, because traditionally she’s not a brave dog. Not a true chicken, no, but not brave or opinionated either.

My biggest complaint at the moment is that the assistant instructor that has been working with us (the “small dogs” in the class) seems to only think of one way to train. When I suggest something different for my dog, she seems offended that I’m questioning what she tells us to do. Sigh. No, I don’t want to train two-on-two-off, I prefer running contacts. I’ll take the random chance that she might occasionally miss a contact, but I think it will be one in a thousand LOL. No, I don’t like to train my dog to run all the way to the end of the teeter and stop. Especially not a softer dog that doesn’t have high drive, because she may not get back on it if she gets bounced off. I really like the main instructor, but we don’t usually have her with our group. Oh well, at least I know what I’d like to do, as opposed to someone brand new, and am not afraid to speak up. Even if it does annoy or offend her.

Heidi tagged me to post the 6th photo from the 6th photo folder on my computer. So here it is…JackJack at around 6 months old, before he had any hair LOL.

I’m not sure there’s anyone left to tag, but if you’d like to play along I’d love to see!