Happy Spooky Birthday from Lady Elsinore to all you Halloween dawgs celebrating their birthdays on this most excellent of days. My best day of the year.
Happy Birthday, Halloween Girl
|
|
|||
|
The Kooikerhondje Club of the USA (KCUSA) held it’s fourth Fun Match last weekend in Weyers Cave, VA. Participating were 10 dogs from five different states: Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia. Next year’s Match will be held in a different geographic location to accommodate the kooiker population not on the East Coast! AKC judge Carol Noe was the professional eye evaluating the animals on that sun-splashed autumn afternoon. Many of the dogs and owners were in the ring for the first time, and Carol was patient in explaining what was expected of everybody.  Fall Fun Match Participants We took four Rosewood dogs to the Match: Hamlet, Elsinore, Yorick, and the new puppy, Rosalind. One of the advantages of having a very small number of participants in each category was that every dog placed and got a ribbon!  Hamlet and my niece Carissa Taga’s Quarto-Hamlet, Prince of Denmark: ……….. First Place, Altered Adult
 Joyce and Elsie Taga’s Weika, Lady Elsinore………………………….First Place, Altered Female  Rose and Yorick Germanic (Yorick)…………………………………… Second Place, Intact Male
 Pat and Dwayne Martin with AKC judge Carol Noe and Rosy Ammervills Rosalind……………………………………………Best Puppy Two other Rosewood dogs were there–Duncan and Dragon, litter-mates from Bianca’s and Yorick’s litter this June.  Dragon takes Nathan for a turn around the ring.  Wayne and Duncan show their confidence in the ring.
After nine years of pussy-footing it around the water, Elsie decided she likes to swim after all. The only time I’d ever seen Elsie launch herself into a body of water was when someone dropped a hotdog bun off a dock into a pond. Otherwise, she’s been at best a timid paddler. This summer the frogs have been out en masse on the ponds and Elsie has found a new passion. She never catches them, not even close, but she has been wading further and further out. And one day I threw a stick for her and she swam out and brought it back. Once started there was no turning back and she now swims like a pro. Her doggy paddle is still a little rough, though.  Elsie decides she likes to swim after all  Shaking it out  Spot the Frog Elsinore has taken the title Emerita and has retired from breeding. I, and the rest of us here at Rosewood, found it most difficult to take this step, even though, having recently turned nine, she had every right to step down. She is often mistaken by other dog owners as much younger. Because of that, along with her sometimes ditsy temperament, I often think of her as newly minted. Besides her age, several of her offspring have had health concerns that most likely were passed on through her. Preventing the possible re-occurrence of these problems was the most important factor in the decision to retire her. I was experiencing a stand-off between head (don’t risk passing on health problems to puppies) and heart (she, and her offspring, have so many other terrific qualities) when our vet made a discovery that prompted us to act: several growths in her mammary tissues. While dogs are prone to canine breast cancer, it occurs almost exclusively in intact (unspayed) females. While we didn’t know if the growths were malignant, we couldn’t afford to do nothing. Within a week, she had combination surgery to be spayed and to remove the growths.  Elsie puts up with wearing The Cone after having surgery to be spayed. Sublimely oblivious to the swirling decision-making that has gone on among the humans charged with her care and well-being, Elsie continues to be her happy, confident self. She seems to have bounced back from the required surgical procedures. We have been charged with limiting her physical activity and creating a serene and quiet environment during her recovery. Staying calm has been the most difficult for her, much worse than wearing “The Cone,” a lightweight clear plastic shield. What lies ahead for Elsie? The lab results indicate that while the lumps were a low-grade form of cancer, they were completely removed and it’s likely we’ve seen the end of that story. We both look forward to resuming our pleasant hours of rambling in the woods. More than that, I have been threatening for years to start her in agility classes and this seems like the opportune time. Will you hear from us next from the training ring? Watch this spot. —Joyce
 The Fuller family came all the way from Texas Rod and Marta Beckstead hosted the third Kooiker Match on July 24, 2010, warmly welcoming us to their hillside home in Allentown, PA. Yorick and Elsie, Benvolio (litter B) and Cato (litter C) represented Rosewood at the match. Continue reading Joyce’s Dog Blog–Kooikerhondje Fun Match, July 24, 2010 A Call About Dogs 101, Spring 2008 In the Fifth Avenue studio for Powderhouse Productions I was sitting in my sister-in-law’s living room when my cell phone rang. It was a producer from Powderhouse Productions, who creates Animal Planet’s Dogs 101 series. They were featuring rare breeds in an upcoming season, and had seen the Rosewood website. They wanted to know if we were interested Continue reading Rose’s Dog Blog—The Animal Planet Dogs 101 Story Happy Halloweenish Birthday from Elsie to all you other folks celebrating your birthday on this best of all days. Elsie celebrated by walking around the neighborhood this evening and barking at trick-or-treaters.  Happy scary birthday  Me and my buddy, Elmo, hanging out on my birthday Today Justin from Dogs 101, Animal Planet, filmed at our house for an upcoming Dogs 101 clip. We invited all the kooikerhondjes we know in New England: all four made it.  Filming at Joyce's house for Dogs 101 Continue reading Joyce’s Dog Blog–Filming for Dogs 101 in Boston, Sept. 13 Knowing that, like many Kooikerhondjes, Elsie is agile and surefooted, we have tried rock climbing.  Elsie's rock climbing album
After two years of trying to breed Hamlet and Elsie with no results, we faced the possibility that we were dealing with infertility issues. The easiest thing to do was to test Hamlet. We did so, and realized that, in effect, he was shooting blanks! A microscopic investigation revealed that he had a very low sperm count, and the sperm that were visible were deformed. Thus, Hamlet’s excellent qualities were unhappily retired from the kooikerhondje gene pool. We began to look for another stud dog. At the time, we were living in Charlottesville, Virginia, and found a Finnish couple, Ari and Virpi Partti, working in Washington, DC. They had their Finnish kooikerhondje, Unto, with them. We made arrangements for a breeding. Elsie came into heat right before Christmas. I knew that Ari and Virpi were planning to spend the Christmas holidays in Finland, and were taking Unto with them. We looked at the schedules and realized that they would be leaving a day or two before Elsie’s fertile days in her heat cycle. This was maddening. After two years of trying and failing, and disappointing all the people on the waiting list, it looked like we would miss the opportunity yet again! We decided that we would try it anyway, the day before the Partti’s departure. We lined up a reproductive vet in case Elsie would not stand for him and we would have to do a semen transfer. Since a male dog’s sperm can live for several days, even if the mating occurred before Elsie ovulated, there was still a possibility of conception. Elsie did not accept Unto’s advances. Veterinary intervention was required. The semen transfer was accomplished. Champaign was served! Ari, Virpri, and Unto departed for Finland, and Elsie and I returned to Virginia. We waited. Elsie began to raid the trash cans, consuming objects both edible and questionable. Her appetite was insatiable. We built a whelping box. And on February 20, she delivered Rosewood’s first puppy, Ambassador One!  Amy, three months Click on Amy’s picture to visit her blog. |
|||
|
Copyright © 2013 Rosewood Kennels – Kooikers – Kooikerhondje - All Rights Reserved |
|||