Do Newfies Shed??? Just a little...ha!

People that Katie and I encounter on our walks usually admire her pretty coat and then ask if she sheds a lot. I always tell them that she sheds quite a bit when I brush her, but that I don't see much Newf hair floating around the house. Lincoln and Scarlett, the huskies, used to leave copious amounts of hair everywhere they went. I was expecting the same from a Newf, and I am really pleased that I don't find Newfie hair in our butter as most Newf owners do. I brush Katie throughly twice a week and try to do daily touch ups. Tonight I really went crazy with the furminator as you can see. This is all from her rear end. Isn't it strange how the dead undercoat on the table looks grey instead of black?

If you are ever considering getting a Newf refer back to this picture and remember that they are high maintenance and not for the faint of heart or arm. I am building up some serious arm muscles from all of this grooming.

I've Been Tagged - 7 Things...

I was tagged by Journey With Reese

~The rules are to link the person who sent this to you and leave a comment on their blog so their readers can visit yours.
~Post the rules on your blog
~Share 7 strange/weird facts about yourself
~Tag 7 random people at the end of your post, linking their blog
~Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog

1. I sometimes prefer the company of animals to people. Of course, I frequently have the need for a "human" conversation with one of my dear friends.

2. I am an avid reader now, but as a child I was a voracious reader. One summer I read over 100 books - at least a book a day. My mother would sometimes bribe me with buying me more books if I would take a break from reading for a few minutes to talk to her.

3. I have lived in 21 different houses and apartments during my 37 years on the planet. I'm planning on staying in the Happy Haus until I can no longer walk up and down the hill that is our backyard.

4. My favorite thing to do is hiking with my sweet husband and my dogs. Being out in nature is what best helps me to remember that everything is One.

5. As a child I was terrified of dogs. I got my first dog, a Siberian Husky named Lincoln, at the age of 21. Now my dogs are like my children and I love most dogs I meet.

6. I am fascinated by Buddhism and consider myself to be about 50% Buddhist. (I'm not 100% because I haven't reached that level of self disipline yet :-) Note to conservative family members: Buddhism is NOT a religion. It is a philosophy, which if followed by everyone just might solve most of the world's problems.

7. By the time our daughter Lily comes home I am planning on having our Newfies trained to pull her in a little red wagon. She will be the most stylin' and very loved child. I hope she doesn't mind having dogs as her only siblings :-)

My seven random people/blogs are...
Ni Hao Y'all
Charlotte's Angels
Lily and Kate
Pickle Chatter
Not So Nuclear
One More Day to Forever
Always in My Heart

Today is Louis' BIRTHday!!!!!

Our precious little Louis was born today. His Newf Mama Robin gave birth to 7 boys and 3 girls. One of those 7 boys will join our family in 9-10 weeks. We are so excited and thrilled :-)

Happy BIRTHday to Louis and the other 9 puppies!

Katie and BearBo

Newfoundland Club of America

I recently received acceptance into the Newfoundland Club of America. I am so excited to be a part of a group of people who share the common goal of further improving this wonderful dog breed. There is a link in the list on the right side of the page to the NCA website. They have some great information about Newfies and also have a list of breeders who have been members of the club for at least five years and who have agreed to follow the NCA ethics guide. Our breeders, Wilbon Kennels, are the first on the list. After Gary met Bill and Bonnie a few times he commented to me that they were among the most ethical people he has ever met. They do take wonderful, loving care of their dogs. I feel so fortunate to have them as our Newfs' first human parents and as my teachers, mentors and friends.

I'm looking forward to delving into some Newf related activities with Katie and Newf2. First on the list is carting. We can't officially start draft work until the dogs are two, but Katie and I are going to start some training to allow her to get used to the harness and the feel of something lightweight dragging behind her. Eventually, I hope to have her pull a small wagon and give rides to children. There is one child in particular who will probably get hundreds of rides of the years from her Newfie siblings :-) I love to visualize little Lily being pulled around by our Newfs. I think they will all be the best of friends.

Speak!

Last Thursday I tried to teach Katie the "Speak" command like I taught Lincoln, the Husky, by saying the word and then giving an example bark. Katie looked at me with a puzzled face and could not figure out what I was trying to ask her to do. Friday I went on the internet and found a tip that said you should say speak right before you have someone ring the doorbell. Gary and I did this routine just twice and Katie grasped the concept in less than two minutes. We did some more practice today and Katie decided this is great fun.

Waiting for a Command

Woof!

Full Body Woof!

Howling Woof!

Yummy!

Katie says, "Yes, I am drooling just a little, but you would too if your mama feed you yummy wheat-free organic treats like I get. See my older, but much smaller, sister Scarlett in the background? She gets treats for free because she is a very senior dog. Mama makes me work for mine. Don't tell her I said this cause I don't want those pup treats to stop coming, but to me the "work" is a treat in itself. After all I am a working dog and we are happiest when given a job."

Blog Change

There were somethings I loved about using iWeb for our blog and other things I hated. I finally made the decision to switch to Blogger and now have comments turned on. Please leave a comment and let me know if you think the new format is better or worse than the old one. It should definitely load faster. I'm kind of new at all this, so I'm open to suggestions. I wanted to make the blog easier for everyone to load and read because I'm sure I will be posting a lot once Newfie2 is born :-) I started blogging after we had already had Katie for awhile, so I missed the tiny puppy phase. Katie has turned into such a blog hog though; I don't know how she is going to bear to share the spotlight. See... she is pouting already.

Don’t Mess with My Favorite Watering Hole

We recently replaced our old 1940 Kohler clawfoot bathtub (which was in rough shape) with a beautiful new clawfoot tub that has a fancy faucet and handheld shower combo. Above is a picture of Katie drinking from the original bath/faucet combination when she was a much younger pup. Ever since Katie has been tall enough to reach the faucet she has come to it every evening and looked at me with sad eyes until I turn it on to give her a drink. I can resist her sad, pretty eyes for almost a full second on a day when I am feeling particularly strong. In other words, Katie usually gets instant gratification when it comes to her bathtub drink. 

When we moved the old bathtub out and the new one in we had to wait a few days for the plumbers to come install it. Katie cracked me up by going to the tub where the faucet would be and giving me her sad eyes. Could you resist this sweet face? And she did this EVERY evening until it was installed. One night I got a big plastic cup full of cold water and held it near where the faucet would be. It seemed to satisfy her since she stopped the sad eyes routine for the evening.

Finally, the plumber came and installed Katie’s new drinking fountain. She tested it throughly and has given it her Newfie slime of approval.

We’re Not Going to be Lily’s Parents Anytime Soon

There hasn’t been much news to report about our adoption and certainly NO positive news. Most months I don’t even bother to post about how many days were covered by the latest batch of referrals from China. As you can see from the chart below the trend is not looking very good. January has typically been a big month for referrals. In 2006 they covered 18 days and in 2007 (which overall was an extremely slow year) they covered 19 days in January. This January they only covered 5 days. Yikes! This is not looking good at all.

This is sad news for us as waiting parents, but even more important is the impact this has on the lives of the children who are living in orphanages desperately needing loving families of their own. One of the lessons I have learned from this experience is patience, and I can wait as long as it takes for Lily to come home. I breaks my heart though that there are likely tens of thousands of children who need families and tens of thousands of families who are waiting to welcome them into their homes and hearts and bureaucracy is keeping them apart. I hope that in the near future decisions are made at both the local and the national level to reform the adoption system in China in a way that truly puts the children first. I don’t expect this to happen because I know it is an incredibly complex, highly political situation, but I am going to keep holding on to the hope that it will.

Hooray! We’re Going to Be Newf Parents Again

(Picture is of Katie’s litter at 3 weeks old... can you spot Katie with her cute little white foot?)

I received a call from our dear breeders yesterday saying that their bitch is definitely pregnant with “too many puppies to count”. Yeah!! That means there should definitely be a pup for our family in this litter. We have been waiting a while for another Newfie and I think the timing of this one will be perfect. Katie is maturing quite nicely and should be a great help to me in training the new pup. She will be able to help show it the ropes and the house rules. Plus, the pup can chew on Katie and save our hands from its needle sharp teeth :-) Katie has so much hair that she will never feel those tiny fangs. In fact, Katie has had a lot of exposure to many little puppies and she loves it when they jump on her head and bite her neck. Sometimes she will lay down on the ground to give them easier access.

I was planning on waiting to announce this news until the litter was actually born (which should be in about 3 weeks), but I was just too excited to hold it in. Newfie2 should come home around the end of March.

Here’s a picture of Katie at 6 weeks to tide you over until I have a picture of Newf 2. There aren’t very many things in the world as precious and cute as a Newf pup. Although Katie is every bit as wonderful at 14 months old... just cute in a different way.




Katie at 8 weeks

Big Bones and Little Spaces

On our last day at work before the long Christmas weekend one of my coworkers asked me what I had gotten Katie for Christmas. I said “Nothing”. After looking at her appalled face, I said “What do you get a dog who has 30 different dogs toys, six dog beds scattered throughout the house, 5 different kinds of pup treats and endless cardboard boxes and plastic milk jugs to chew on? She is definitely not in need of a doggie sweater.” She admitted that I had a point. However she did get me to thinking that Katie should have something special on Christmas Day. I remembered that I had a huge Old Mother Hubbard dog biscuit in a drawer in the kitchen. I had been reluctant to give it to Katie because I have to watch her weight closely and that thing looked like it had way too many calories. But since the holidays are a time for indulging I decided that Katie should have her chance to join in.

We spent Christmas at my Mother’s house. Shortly after we arrived I brought out Katie’s Christmas Biscuit. In the first picture she appears to be taking her prize enthusiastically, but I think that was just because I hyped it up. She ended up sitting on her dog bed and putting the biscuit on the floor in front of her just looking at it. Here I am trying to talk her into eating it. I think she didn’t know what to do with it since she usually only gets tiny biscuits at home. But once she finally sunk her teeth into it she had it demolished and happily in her belly in less than two minutes.

It seems that Katie thinks she is smaller than she really is (maybe that's why she didn't know what to do with the big biscuit). Last night when I was sitting at my computer she decided to crunch past my legs and squeeze her huge body into the space under my small desk. It was hilarious to see her contorting her huge body in order to fit her big behind under there. That’s my silly girl :-)

Hiking with the Hounds

On December the 8th, Gary, Katie and I joined some members of the Little Rock Dog Training Club for a hike at Mount Nebo State Park. As you can see in the pictures, it was a very foggy day. There are supposedly beautiful views from the top of Mount Nebo, but we couldn’t see any of them. In spite of the weather we managed to have a wonderful time on our hike. Afterward we had a great cookout with our group.

Katie had an absolute blast being with the other dogs and all of their lovely humans. Katie loves any outdoor activity, but she loves us even more than being outside. When we are home she is always wherever we are. She doesn’t want to go out and play unless we go with her. So to Katie this was the ideal day... getting to romp outside with her two favorite humans all day long. And then a long car ride home - perfect for a cozy Newfy nap.

Inside the Visitor's Center

A Day With Dad

Gary, had a day off work a few weeks ago. I think he was doing some work in the yard and the girls must have been hanging out with him. These cute pictures were on my camera... looks like they had a nice day. Katie loves to play tug the rope with Gary. Scarlett just likes to be queen of the yard.

Confession: My Dog May Be Smarter Than Me

(Katie pictured above at five months old. You can clearly see the intelligence in her beautiful brown eyes :-)

Last night when Katie and I were at dog school, I spoke to our lovely sub-novice teacher, Lois, before class. I was asking her advice on what class Katie and I should take next. Larry, our basic obedience instructor, previously told me that most dogs benefit from repeating sub-novice two or three times. So, I asked Lois if she thought we should do that. Our conversation was interrupted, so she did not get to answer my question right then.

Class started out with a heeling exercise. We were walking in a large square practicing our turns, with some about turns thrown in, sits, downs and lots of variation to our pace. Katie was doing beautifully. After that exercise was complete the teacher came up to me and commented on how well Katie was doing. She told me that she thought Katie would get bored if we repeated and that her recommendation was that we go on to Novice next. Funny, that’s the same thing Larry said when I asked if we should repeat his class, “No, Katie would be bored”.

After Lois told me we should go on to Novice I was feeling pretty good about my training partnership with Miss Katie. We did the figure 8 exercise and Katie did a great job. Then Lois suggested we try it without our leashes. I was thinking that it would be easy since Katie and I do some off leash work at home and she usually does pretty well. I was so wrong! It was not easy for ME at all. I couldn’t get Katie to do anything even by luring her with her favorite homemade salmon cookies. Lois saw exactly what the problem was and to prove her point she removed ME from the equation. She led Katie though the exercise herself (still off leash) and of course Katie did it perfectly. Then the same thing happened when we were practicing our fronts. I just couldn’t get Katie to sit straight, but of course she would sit straight every time for her teacher.

Poor Katie... always having to wait on her mama to catch up. I have noticed that when I finally get my mind wrapped around what I am supposed to be doing Katie usually falls into place immediately. The learning curve seems to be mostly on my side. I’ve never trained a dog before (beyond sit, shake hands and down), so I have a little bit of an excuse. There really is a lot for the human to learn...dog school isn’t just school for dogs. Tons of information gets thrown at you all at once in sub-novice. It’s fascinating though how the smallest turn of your shoulders can be the difference between success or failure for you and your dog. I think with Newf2 I will do a much better job since I will have a lot of this down by then. In the meantime, Katie will just have to put up with her slow mama... thank goodness she is such a patient girl. I’m going to have to get very serious about training myself so that I don’t cause us to get held back in sub-novice. If that happened Katie might decide to do novice by herself.

Thankful for Family Love

Katie pictured above with her Auntie Leah on Thanksgiving Day.


Leah, Katie and I went to visit Katie’s Newf family the day after thanksgiving. Katie is pictured above on the right next to her sister Rose. I’m not sure who the third Newf is with the glob of drool on its head. We were trying to get a picture of the three siblings (Katie, Rose and Milton), but it’s hard to get them in the right configuration.

Scarlett and Her “Little” Sister

See the difference between a dog that knows sit stay and one that doesn’t? The sit stay command definitely comes in handy for taking pictures.

If you look into the blur that represents Scarlett in the first picture you can see her eyes glowing with what I interpret to be a mixture of enthusiasm and contentment. Scarlett is 14 years and 8 months old. She is still very spirited and likes to give us a good tongue lashing if we fail to follow her royal orders.

Before Katie joined our family Scarlett had been without a dog companion for about 6 months since we lost Lincoln (her lifetime friend) last summer. Scarlett had always been nice to little puppies in the past, so I thought she would welcome Katie into our pack. I was wrong. After Scarlett figured out Katie was home to stay she resented her and would growl at Katie just for being in the room.

I was so depressed about this unexpected behavior that I was at my wit’s end. I had absolutely no hope that these two could ever live together harmoniously. Gary was much more practical about the situation. He helped me to put up some fencing in our yard to divide it into sections so the girls could each have their own space. We also put a barrier all the way down the middle of our kitchen because that is the room where I spend most of my time. This allowed me to be with both dogs at once. Katie’s puppy school teacher suggested that walking them together was probably the only chance I had of getting them to bond as a pack. So, we walked, twice a day every day. The growling from Scar lessened continuously until one day I realized that she had stopped doing it completely. It took about 3 months for them to reach this stage. During the next 3 months I would classify their relationship as neutral. There wasn’t any hate there, but there also wasn’t any love (on Scarlett’s side anyway).

Now the love between these two has blossomed. Katie loved Scarlett from day 1 even with all of her growling and posturing, and for the past five months Scarlett has actually started showing Katie love in return. Katie has become Scarlett’s rock. I think Katie helps Scarlett to feel secure and safe both at home and out in the world. They play crazy games together every day as they rejoice when we come home from work. They lounge around together all day while we are gone. They take turns getting treats and love from mama. When I am training Katie in the house Scarlett tags along after us and every time Katie gets praised for doing something good Scar gives a little hoot as if to say “Hey, I should get something just for being cute and gracing your space with my royal presence.” Of course she gets a little treat every time. When you are going on 15 (about 90 in human years, according to the modern dog/human year equation) you have earned the right to be a little spoiled in the Happy Haus. Hopefully, when we add Newf2 to the pack mix we will have a smoother transition, but if it is rocky at first I won’t be without hope this time. If Scarlett could have this dramatic of a turn around with Katie I think almost anything is possible. 

Scar says “Finally, those crazy folks let us get on with our walk. Let’s go sister Kate.”

Smart Dog

I know lately my blog and a lot of my conversations seem to be “all Katie, all the time”, but when you share your life with an animal that is as sweet, beautiful and smart as Katie you just can’t help yourself. Plus she is playing a critical role in helping me to keep my sanity during this increasingly long wait for Natalie. Also, since Natalie will be an only child Katie and Newfie #2 (to be introduced at an unknown time in the future) are going to have to act as her siblings. It should be an interesting childhood for Natalie. I can just see Natalie now riding in a little red wagon being pulled by Katie or Newf2. We will all have a blast together. But I digress from the main story...

The latest act of Katie’s brilliance occurred yesterday when she and I were hanging out in Natalie’s room. All of the sudden Katie let out a huge bark in the direction of one of the walls. Then she stood at attention staring intently at something. I looked around to try to figure out what caused her to bark (she only barks about once every other day, so there is usually a good reason for it). The only thing I could see that was unusual was the red dog pictured above that I had placed on the shelf that morning. I thought surely she didn’t possibly notice that new dog I put on a shelf about six feet off the floor, but I didn’t see anything else out of the ordinary. I took the red dog off the shelf and showed it to Katie. She took a step backwards and barked at it. So, sure enough, it was the red dog that she noticed as being different. Has she memorized every decoration and object in this house? I am just astounded by her observational skills. I showed Katie the dog and told her to “Check It”. This is a command we learned in puppy school that Katie came to understand as “even though I’m scared of this thing mama says check it, so that means it’s not going to hurt me”. After she gave it a good sniff she decided it would make a good toy, and I had to tell her that it was my toy. Sorry Charlie, go play with one of the thirty toys that are yours :-) Maybe it was a scheme she was plotting all along to get a new toy. If so, she didn’t outsmart me THIS time, but who knows what the future holds.

First Birthday of our First Newf

One year ago today our precious Katie was born. I was able to visit Katie's mom, Berta, a couple of times before she gave birth and saw Katie for the first time when she was one week old. I visited the litter about once a week until Katie was old enough to come home at about 10 weeks. Katie was always easy to spot in the pile of ten black puppies because of her pretty little white foot. I thought she was so cute and I really wanted her from the beginning. However, I kept reminding myself that I wasn't looking for the cutest puppy; I was looking for the one with the best personality. When the pups were 6 weeks old I was finally allowed to hold them. When Miss Katie was in my arms for the first time something inside me melted. She truly felt like my dog. Each time I would visit she would spend more time with me than any of the other pups. I think she was picking me as much as I was picking her. To me, she seemed to be the sweetest one in the litter. So, in the end we got the sweetest AND the cutest one :-)

My husband, Gary, thought I was a little bit insane when I told him last summer that I wanted to get a Newfoundland. Now, he jokingly takes credit for the idea and always brags about what a great job he did in picking Katie out. Katie has even won over the heart of our 14 1/2 year old Siberian Husky, Scarlett, who at first didn't have any appreciation for the crazy puppy we brought into HER house. Dearest Katie has become our pride and joy. Gary and I are so grateful for her presence in our lives. Our deepest thanks to the Bennetts for entrusting us with this wonderful girl.

Tonight Katie celebrated with a fish snack, lots of extra love and her own special princess birthday hat.

Happy Birthday Dearest Katie! Here’s to Many, Many More Together!

Albert Pike & Little Missouri Falls Hike

Gary, Katie and I had a wonderful time Saturday on a day-trip to Southwest Arkansas. It was a perfect October day. Katie got her first taste of being a superstar. Everywhere we went her admirers flocked around her asking the usual questions: What kind of dog is she? Is she a Saint Bernard??Huh? How big will she get? How much does she eat? What made you pick out this breed? The answer to the last question is that I wanted to get the sweetest dog possible and I knew that Newfs were known for their sweet temperments. And, it sure is true with Katie!! She is such a happy, precious girl and is glad to soak up all of the affection that people want to give her while Mom and Dad get grilled by her fan club.

And the Winner is...Wilbon’s Katie Scarlett O’Hara

Tonight 11 month old Katie completed her basic obedience training. For the last class we had dog olympics. There were four events: heeling with auto-sits, sit stays, down stays and recalls. Katie won the GOLD in the first two events: heeling and the sit stay. I was so proud. I was just as proud when she won a bronze in the down stay. I was further away from her than I ever had been and she held the down stay without moving for several minutes. She even stayed when the teacher bounced toys right in front of her with me far away. Finally she couldn’t take it any more, and wanted to be with her mama. The gold and silver winners broke less than 5 seconds after her, so it was close. For the last event she did a beautiful recall complete with the cutest little bounce into a sit. Her sit was a little crooked so she didn’t win a medal. I thought she should have won a special award just for being so darn cute :-) Katie and I both had a total blast through out the 8 week course. We trained all of the other students in the class on the importance of carrying a drool rag. Everyone loved Katie even with her slime.

Now Katie and I are off to seek new adventures in the sub-novice class.

Katie and Gary Doing Yoga

Last night Gary and I both decided to skip our respective yoga classes and practice together at home. Miss Katie plopped down on my mat and seemed to be mirroring her dad in extended child’s pose. She ended up spending most of the class lying in that little strip of space right between our mats.

Whenever we do yoga Katie always goes into Lily’s room, grabs a few toys out of her toy box and brings them into the room where we are practicing. Every time we bend down into a forward fold we pet her as our arms are coming down. She loves the whole routine.

A Weekend Full of My Favorite Things

This last weekend was so much fun. Some of my favorite things in the world are my mother, children and dogs and this weekend was full of all three. My mother stayed with us for the entire weekend which is a rare, and very special, occurrence.

Friday night we got to see my cousin Marilyn, who I always called Aunt Marilyn as a child because she is close to my mom in age. It was wonderful to see her; she is such a lovely woman.

Saturday, Mom and I volunteered to help at our local FCC (Families with Children from China) Moon Festival. We ran the temporary tattoo booth. It was really good for both of us to get to spend some time around all of the precious Chinese children. Mom has been excited about our adoption from day 1 back in Feb of 2005, but seeing all of those children had an impact on her. Now she is more ready than ever for her granddaughter to come home. She was so cute pointing out one child after another saying how beautiful and sweet they were and wondering what Lily will look like. Seeing those children just makes it all seem more real to me. Someday Lily will be home and we will be going to the Moon Festival, Chinese New Year and playdates with her.

Sunday, we drove to Hot Springs, AR and went to our first dog show. Katie's breeders were showing a couple of their Newfs and let us come through the back door to keep them company during their preparations. I was the official spray bottle, treat and drool rag carrier :-) The two Newfs they had there were such sweetie pies. It was fun to get to see the show and the behind the scenes preparations.

Natalie’s First Gifts

My cousin Marilyn brought Natalie her first gifts when she came to visit this weekend. I can’t wait to dress Natalie in the clothes and put her into the incredibly soft jacket with the cute little ears on the hood. I really like the diaper bag too... pink and brown are some of my favorite colors.

Playtime

Katie, Gary and I went to visit Katie’s sister Rose and their wonderful breeders. In the first picture Rose is chasing Katie. In the second one the roles were reversed. I know the second pic is a little out of focus, but it’s hard to capture these two crazy girls on camera. They don’t like to be still when they are together. I love how Katie’s tongue is pointing straight out and Rose’s ears are flapping like wings.


Sisters enjoying the view together.

Rose is in front of me saying “Hey lady, how about some more of those yummy salmon cookies? I’m drooling just thinking about them” Katie says “Don’t forget about me, your best girl, while you are doling those out.”


Katie got a little bit jealous today whenever she caught HER mama petting sister Rose. She would come up and give a little perturbed bark as if to say “Hey, we may have the same dog mama, but this human mama is Mine-All-Mine.” Then she would beg for some lovin’ too. Hopefully Katie will learn I’ve got plenty of love to go around.

Katie says:
Do you think my tongue is long enough or should I consider getting a tongue extension? You know - like some people get hair extensions :-)

Getting to visit my sister Rosie is one of my favorite ever things. What a wonderful day!

Big sloppy kisses and love to all, Katie