Zzzzzz…. zzzz… zzz… zz… z… oh! I didn’t see you there… Hope I didn’t keep you waiting for too long!
I am aware that we have been MIA in the blogosphere for quite some time. But we are back! And no, unlike the picture above might lead you to think, we haven’t just been doing SFA! Get comfortable, grab a cup of coffee and let me catch you up on all that has happened since mid-January…
As Jaz was happily rolling around in the snow (which, sadly, only lasted about a week), leaving a trail of bloody marks on all of her toys as she was still teething, I noticed that her upper adult canines were coming in alongside her baby ones. In fact, the baby canines seemed still firmly in place, not letting the adult teeth come in properly. So we took Jaz to the vet, and he recommended pulling the baby canines. If we left the baby teeth in, they might prevent the adult teeth from coming in in the right place. And if that were to happen, we’d have to have the adult teeth pulled at some point down the road.
Thus, towards the end of January, our little pup had to go under full anesthesia to have her canines pulled. It was amazing, though, how quickly she bounced back. The day after the procedure, Jaz was back to her old self, destroying her toys, taunting the cats and leaving more bloody marks (try telling a puppy that just had oral surgery not to chew on anything… yup… a lost cause).
As it turned out, we made the right decision by having her baby canines pulled. The picture below shows the teeth I managed to collect (finders, keepers! except for the canines, which were courtesy of the vet). You see those two long canines? Those were Jaz’ upper canines, of which the roots hadn’t dissolved yet. They had settled quite comfortably in Jaz’ mouth, and sure weren’t planning on going anywhere. It was such a relief to know we didn’t put our baby through all of that for nothing. These canines had to come out, because otherwise they would definitely have ruined her adult bite.
Quite the collection of pearly whites!
It was a good thing that Jaz bounced right back after the surgery, because February was going to be a big month for her. Jaz needed to get plucked, polished and primped for her upcoming shows. The breeder had arranged for her to participate on two occasions that month: the weekend of February the 18th in Chilliwack and the weekend of February the 25th in Cloverdale. Our still very shaggy looking dog (for I was only keeping up her flats (i.e. the parts were the hair is shortest on the head and the bum) at that time) was transformed into this skinny but streamlined looking Lakeland:
Our little pup looks so grown-up!
She participated in both shows, and although she didn’t get any group placements, she did place 1st in Chilliwack and 4th in Cloverdale in the puppy sweepstakes. We have it all on video, which brings me to a small administrative announcement: we started our own YouTube channel called “LakieLoveVids”! Not only does this allow for easy uploading and higher quality of the video material, but it also allows you to watch the videos on your phones and tablets. You can find us @ https://www.youtube.com/lakielovevids or by clicking on the YouTube link in the sidebar (just off to your right —>), where you can watch all the videos we took of Jaz’ shows as well as some random fun clips we took of her.
See the video below, for example, which shows Jaz playing at the dog park, stealing a stick from a Schnauzer twice her size called Stella… Cheeky!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6DD1yc_Mw4&feature=plcp
The quality is pretty good, right?
Now back to catching up…
After the last show at the end of February, Jaz was done teething. I found no more bloody marks on her toys, and she was happily eating her kibble without the need for us to soften it up with warm water. You’d think we were out of the woodworks… but nothing was father from the truth. Once Jaz was done bleeding from one end, she started bleeding from the other. Oh, the joys of womanhood!
“Be honest… do these pants make me look fat?”
At approximately seven months, Jaz came in season/heat for the first time. Unlike us humans, dogs only have their period once or twice a year (depending on their size) and it lasts around 3 to 4 weeks. And, much like humans, Jaz was not a happy camper while on her period. She was a little grumpy and seemed very tired, especially the first few days.
Still being a puppy complicated things as well, because the second day she wore her girl-pants, she peed in them! I was upstairs when it happened (of course! that’s always how these things go), only to find a hysteric dog in wet pants and a racetrack in the living room composed of drops of pee when I came downstairs… Needless to say, this was the first and last time it happened. Jaz decided that wet pants were no fun at all, and we decided to give Jaz extra potty-breaks. I read up on the subject, and as it turns out, a dog in heat has to pee more often than usual, let alone a puppy!
It took some getting used to, but after the first week Jaz had accepted her pants and her behaviour was pretty much back to normal. I gave her a break and refrained from grooming her during this time, as you can tell from the next picture:
Relaxing in the last rays of afternoon sun.
A showdog, however, never gets to rest for long, even when she is in season. Two weeks into her period, we had to get our asses back in gear as far as grooming was concerned, because we had another show planned April 7-9. The show was in Chilliwack again, but this time it was much bigger. More than 800 dogs participated over the Easter long weekend. We didn’t win anything, because the competition was plenty as well as proficient, but we did have a lot of fun (the clips will be uploaded to our YouTube channel in the next few days). I handled Jaz myself for the first time (which might have also lessened her chances at winning… I hadn’t had any training whatsoever, and being a dog handler is not as easy as it may look!).
We might not have come home with a pretty ribbon, but we did come home with many compliments. Everyone keeps telling me how promising she looks, and how, once she matures some more (she is still very juvenile-looking at the moment), Jaz will do extremely well. Quite exciting, although we don’t mind if she doesn’t win anything… she’ll always be the prettiest dog in our eyes! 😉
