Making new friends

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Sometimes, things are meant to be. Last week was an example of such an instance. The universe decided it was time for Jaz and myself to make new friends. It all went down yesterday. But for me to be able to tell you about what happened, I’ll have to take you back in time to when it all started.

A few months ago, Jaz and I decided to walk to Tisol, our favourite local pet store. The goal was to hit two birds with one stone: take Jaz on her afternoon walk and pick up some cat grass for Jaz’ feline sisters. However, before we even made it to the section with the cat grass, we stumbled upon a gorgeous Welsh terrier: confident, muscular and (which is most extraordinary) perfectly groomed. You don’t see many Welsh terriers around here that are hand-stripped. In fact, almost none of the wire-coated dogs that you see are hand-stripped. It simply is too much work for most people to dedicate several hours a week to grooming their dog, which is why most pet owners have their wire-haired pooches clippered. After talking to his lovely owner, Emma, I found out that her Welsh, although he isn’t shown, is being hand-stripped to perfection by Emma herself.

As Jaz and I walked back home with a bag full of cat grass and our minds full of terrier thoughts, I regretted not asking Emma for her phone number. After all, how often do you find a fellow terrier owner dedicated enough to hand-strip their own dog, even when they are not showing? Exactly. Hardly ever.

A few months went by, and the encounter at Tisol had travelled to the back of my mind when I was browsing the website of a local dog training school and saw a picture of a Welsh terrier named Miles. Wait a minute! Miles looked very familiar. Could it be that we had met before? In the photo’s description I read that Miles’ owner Emma kept a blog called “Miles & Emma”… Lo and behold! When I clicked the link and perused the blog, this Emma was the same Emma I met with her Welsh at Tisol a few months ago!

It goes without saying that I wouldn’t let this opportunity slip by like it did the last time. I just couldn’t. This girl was a terrier-lover, hand-stripped her own dog AND blogged about it… hmm, who did she remind me of? At the risk of coming across as a stalker, I went ahead and emailed Emma. And, as a result, Emma, Miles, Jaz and myself met up yesterday to walk and talk terriers. Emma and I hit it off right away. Jaz responded a little hesitant to Miles’ advances, but I’m sure she’ll warm up to him on their next date. I’m so proud of her; she’s growing up to be the kind of girl that likes to be wined and dined first. 😉

Please enjoy some of the pics that Emma took while our four-legged friends got to know each other, and don’t forget to check out their website for more Miles!


Posing for my close-up!                    “Wait… who’s that around the corner…?”


The meeting of two great terrier minds… Jaz (little over 8 months old now) & Miles (almost 3 years old) make a stunning couple!


Jaz is playing hard to get. Look at Miles’s jacket; tight and pitch-black!

Two can play that game… Miles seeking higher ground.


Terriers on the prowl… Jaz is showing off; a perfect free stack.

Thanks Emma & Miles!

Why a Lakeland?

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After my general post about the Lakeland terrier (read it here), some of you might have wondered: why? Why a Lakeland terrier? There are a lot of terrier breeds. And there are quite a few terriers that have a look similar to that of the Lakeland. Why was she so sure about Lakies? Well, the answer to that is embarrassingly simple!

I formed this conviction years ago. As you might know, I grew up with terriers. In particular these two gorgeous Kerry Blue terriers:


From left to right: Matchless Moyna of the Three Corners, aka “Mo” and Perfect Patricia of the Three Corners, aka “Tris” (Photo courtesy of Jaz’ grandpa! Visit his Lakeland terrier database here.)

And in a terrier-lovers’ home, you will find books about terriers. Growing up, my sister and I would flip through their pages, looking at and commenting on all the different terriers. My favourite book (which I inherited once Jaz was born) is the following one:

This is a Dutch book (I was born and raised in the Netherlands) called “Hoogbenige terriers,” which means “long-legged terriers.” [Fun fact: the Lakeland is the smallest of the long-legged terriers!] “Fokken – Houden – Verzorging – Opvoeding” means “to breed – keep – groom – raise.” Now you won’t even have to open this book up to find the reason why I have known since I was a teenager that I wanted a Lakie. You can find your answer right here on the cover. Just look at the picture.

From left to right, we have a Bedlington terrier, a Lakeland terrier and an Airedale terrier.  Obviously, the goal was to line the dogs up and have them stand pretty, all looking off to one side. I imagine there must have been someone off to the left trying to catch the dogs’ attention by making funny sounds or squeaking a toy, while the photographer was snapping away. Although the Bedlington and the Airedale are cooperating by paying attention and staying put, the Lakeland has his own agenda and is facing the other direction while laughing or barking at something else entirely! The other terriers are behaving, but not our beloved Lakeland… he is being very naughty and might even be purposely (never underestimate a Lakie!) hijacking the entire photo shoot!

When you look at the picture even closer, you might find that the Bedlington looks a little sad, a little scared even (it’s that tail and those ears, I tell you!). The Airedale is assuming his usual calm and noble stance (he is, after all, the King of Terriers!). But the Lakeland… the Lakeland just looks like he’s having a ton of FUN! And that (besides the undeniable fact that a properly groomed Lakeland is simply stunning), is how I knew I wanted a Lakeland.

Like pulling teeth

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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! 😉

Winter has arrived

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Over the past few months, the weather had us all confused here in Vancouver. For, up until recently, it has been surprisingly mild. No white christmas in 2011, and no need for tuques or mittens until a few weeks ago. Then, finally, two days ago winter actually started…


“What is all this white stuff?!”

Jaz was ecstatic to discover this mysterious white blanket that had spread itself out over our yard!

“It’s everywhere! Wow!”


Running around like a madman (or should I say madwoman?) …


… multi-tasking puppy: playing with sticks AND snow AND finally getting to that itch on her bum …


“What are you looking at? Go get your own!”

I’m hoping to get some more action shots soon, since Jaz has made a new neighbourhood friend: Carl. Carl is a Welsh puppy that is a few weeks younger than Jaz. They met at the local pet store and bumped into each other again in the park yesterday. Hopefully they’ll get to chase each other around soon and we’ll be witnessing some serious terrier-on-terrier action!

WHAT kind of terrier…?

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Happy New Year, everyone! Hope you all made it through the holidays and into 2012 in one piece. We sure did; we kept it really low-key and relaxing (except for Jaz, of course!).

I figured it was about time I told you some more about Lakeland terriers. It has become evident during our walks around the neighbourhood that a lot of people wonder about little Jaz…
“Welsh?” “Wheaten?” “Irish terrier?” “Mini-Airedale?”
“Nope! She’s a Lakeland!”
“Lakeland? I’ve never heard of it!”

Here are some spiffy facts for you, which will make it easier to understand Jaz and her kind…


Lakeland terrier (source)

Lakeland terriers originate (as their name indicates) from the Lake district in northwest England. They were bred to kill vermin, foxes in particular, since these had their eye on the farmer’s lambs. The Lakeland’s job was to enter the fox’ hole and exterminate its occupants. For this very reason, Lakelands had to be small yet sturdy and strong. Where the head can go, the body can (and will!) follow. However unlikely it may seem, an adult Lakeland can squeeze itself through a cat-door. You know those handy baby/dog-gates that have a little cut-out for your cat? Not an option if you’re trying to hold back a Lakie!

Another result of the fact that Lakelands would often be deep underground (and could possibly get stuck there), is their piercing bark. Don’t judge the book by its cover, because these little guys can be LOUD. This is not only handy underground, but also when it’s time for your little pup to sleep in it’s crate downstairs for the first time. No need to purchase a baby-monitor… your Lakeland will have no problem waking you up at 3am to let you know it’s time to go pee-pee!

Aside from being strong and compact, it was required of the Lakelands to be sociable as well. Because, unlike most other terriers, Lakies weren’t mostly hunting independently. As a matter of fact, they were often used by hunters to run with the hounds in attempts to clear the countryside of four-legged vermin. As a result, Lakeland terriers are great with other dogs. And as Lakies are blind to size (in fact, most terriers are), they will run or play with the largest of the large and the smallest of the small without thinking twice.

Apart from size and temperament, a Lakie’s coat needed to be of a specific kind as well, Since the weather in the Lake district is fickle and often cold and/or wet (not too different from the weather here in Vancouver!), Lakelands benefitted from a double coat: a soft, furry undercoat for warmth, covered by a hard, wire coat to stay dry. This is great for the dog, but perhaps not as great for the owner. If you want to keep your Lakeland’s coat looking vibrant and properly groomed (i.e. if you want your Lakeland to look like a Lakeland), a little more effort than the occasional brush-through is required. As for myself, I am quite intrigued by this and eager to learn the tricks or the trade. At the moment, I am working alongside Jaz’s breeder to learn how to hand-strip a Lakeland. It is time-consuming, but very rewarding. I promise to do a separate blog post on this in the future.

The main thing that has people all confused, I think, is that Lakelands come is such a great variety of colours. There are solid coloured Lakelands (such as Jaz) as well as two-toned ones that have saddle markings. Since Jaz is all red, people think that Jaz is an Irish terrier, because Irish terriers are all one colour (plus, while they can be wheaten, most are in fact red). And although Irish terriers are significantly larger and have much shorter hair than Lakelands, this is easy to overlook since Jaz is still a puppy and her furnishings (viz. the longer hair on the snout and legs) still need time to grow in. As Jaz grows older, I anticipate that less and less people will think she is an Irish terrier.


Irish terrier (source)

It is a also clear why people mistake Jaz for a Welsh terrier. The Lakeland is closest to the Welsh terrier in looks and size. However, Jaz could never be a Welsh terrier, because all Welsh terriers have saddle markings. Apart from her colour, as Jaz grows older, I’m sure she will look more and more like a Welsh to people, especially because the Welsh terrier is more popular (and people therefore are more familiar with them).


Welsh terrier (source)

In the end, of course, all this confusion stems from the fact they are all terriers, and, at one point or another, have shared ancestors. It is interesting to trace back a dog’s pedigree. Take Jaz, for instance. Remember that we visited Alan and Angela Johnston from Oregill Kennels back in May (post)? Well, some of their dogs turn out to be Jaz’s ancestors! Because the Lakeland is such a rare breed, their world is very small. Trace the roots of any Lakie and the same kennel names and ancestors will pop up. If you’re interested in this kind of stuff, please visit Jaz’s (human) grandpa’s website, which contains the most extensive online Lakeland pedigree (https://www.ebbarkj.com). Enjoy!