Breeding Plan Update—Spring 2022

Unfortunately no puppies this Spring. 

Uncle Charlie, Mama Bella, and daughter Kadee

No Spring 2020 Breeding Plans Due to Covid-19

Dear Artist Wood Springer families and fans,

It's been pretty quiet in Vermont as like most of the rest of the world this Spring due to Covid-19. Addie, Bella, and Charlie are enjoying the frequent walks though they are not sure about the recent hair cuts I just gave them - a bit uneven.

Jim and Addie before her new haircut

Top to Bottom: Addie, Charlie, and Bella with their new haircuts

The groomers closed the day before we were set to bring them in. Our vet has reduced appointments and we just curbside picked up both our anti-flea and tick medicines as well as our first order of dog food and biscuits.

As you may know we breed Bella back into her father's line, Waternymph Springer Spaniels in Nova Scotia.  So now that the U.S.—Canada border has closed as well as due to the complicating factors in the U.S. (getting vet support, supplies, and not too mention the ability to properly socialize the pups with other folks), we've decided not to breed this Spring. We'll definitely miss having the puppies this summer running about but it is best to skip this season.

If you are still interested in a pup in 2021, do contact us to be included on our list.

Stay safe,

Ann

At Six Weeks Old, We Sleep and Play!

We don't know why Ann hasn't posted for us in 2 weeks but we think it may be because she's been busier and busier taking care of us since we learned to walk, run, eat, and play! Every nice day, we get to go outside into our beautiful play yard and we even follow Ann and momma Bella out to our pen! Look Ann got a picture of the whole family: Grandma Addie, Uncle Charlie, and Momma Bella with all of us!

The Whole Family!

Momma and us!

We're happily playing in our outdoor pen.

If it's chilly or rainy, we play in a special pen in the garage. Ann, Jim, and Tegan specially cleaned and painted the garage for us.  Ann says the garage has never been cleaner. At night it's back to our whelping pen to sleep where it is nice and warm.

One thing Ann has been teaching us about is crates! We have our special wicker play house and we have a crate attached to our pen in the garage where we like to cuddle up in a big puppy pile. Unless of course we see Mommy then we can't help but call her to us! Ann says that all dog families should consider crating. Here's what she says:

One of the aspects of dog ownership that I’m a proponent of is crating. It helps the owners considerably from the stand point of training, particularly potty training but also in the ability to leave the pup during times you are away or in the evenings without worrying about it endangering itself or eating/chewing something it shouldn’t.
The other benefit is from the puppy's stand point, they love having their own secure, private “cave” especially if you have other pets. It's like a teen with their bedroom. Our Addie likes to be under our bed, Bella loves her crate by our bed & then her whelping box, all three love the crates in our garage & on hot days they often put themselves in them to nap. 

So we start our puppies out first with the wicker basket & then with a crate attached to a pen in the garage for bad weather days. Outside they have the kennel and of course the whelping pen again.

But we just think it is cozy! Speaking of crating look what we did to her two weeks ago! We were playing hide and seek. Don't you think we fooled her?

Hide and seek!

We see Mommy!

What we really love to do is play, play, play all day! We play with toys, with each other, and with all the folks who have been to visit. Ann says it's good for us as we are learning how to behave in all sorts of situations! Right now our mouths hurt a bit as our baby teeth are coming in. We like to chew everything—including each other, toys, our paper, and our visitors! Momma Bella gently holds our noses closed when we try it on her. Sometimes Ann and Jim do the same - then we cover them with kisses to say we are sorry!

Momma is so patient 

Indy loves cuddling with our visitors

Our friend Kelly gets kisses from Sienna

Here's what Ann posted on our Facebook page from the Monks at New Skete about how much we play:

“Puppy Play is anything but frivolous. Not only does it develop muscle coordination but it also exposes the pups to spontaneous social situations that they must learn to handle. When Sunny rolls Kairos over in his back & playfully bites him, they are beginning to learn social roles... If a Sunny bites too hard, Kairos retaliates, letting Sunny know he has gone too far. This happens often with all the pups & teaches them how to use their mouths gently....” —The Art of Raising a Puppy, Monks of New Skete

 

Yes, we're a rough and tumbly lot! That's why our visitors are so important! Ann makes sure they all wash up before they visit though as we get our first shots this week! It can be pretty tiring though and soon we need to take our naps.

We're getting our portrait done as we sleep.

Our young visitor is one of the owners of our Aunt Jeri, momma's sister!

Josie just loves being with us all the time!

Pretty special to get so much tenderness

Look at all our guests—including another young artist!

Tegan sure does love us

Wow, little artists came to Artist Wood

That sunshine sure wears us out

Sure is cuddly here

KD

Sienna

Orchid

Violet

Sienna

Indy

Nap time again

Look at all our friends!

KD and Indy are snoozing again.

Kevin and Gary came to play!

That wore us out

Oh we almost forgot to share—we also took tests with our friend Carolyn this weekend. The tests are used by the monks at New Skete and are called the Volhard puppy tests. We aced the 10 tests and came right in where good Springer puppies should ---all 2s, 3s, and 4s. It measured our willingness to be with be restrained by(like at the vet), picked up by, and follow people. We bet you knew we would be really good at this, didn't you? It also measured our sensitivity to unfamiliar sights, sounds (like thunderstorms), being touched, and retrieving. None of us were really that scared of the umbrella or the loud noises. We went up and sniffed the umbrella but most of us decided to stay near Carolyn when we heard the very loud gong. And we all loved chasing the paper ball but Orchid and Goldie got straight A's on that one as they brought the ball back to Carolyn.

We heard that next week many of our new owners are coming to visit us. Today and tomorrow, Ann will decide which families best fit us! We're excited because we really like getting one on one attention. We hope they fall in love with us!

We're Now 4 Weeks Old!

We now have one female pup available!

It's all about social now!

Wow, we are 4 weeks and time has flown and in another 4 more weeks we go to our new homes!

Ann thinks we look a lot like the Poky Little Puppy. What do you think?

It's amazing how quickly we are getting to know our new world! Our biggest changes have been, in no particular order:

• we love to play with each other,
• we love to play with toys,
• we love to play with the humans, 
• we love to eat puppy mash,
• and we love to cuddle and play with Momma!

We love to sleep

Momma always keeps her eye on us.

Tegan is going to keep one of us!

We heard that Ann and Jim are working on our new outdoor play areas too so we can run and play tag and hide and seek. Won't that be fun! And every day, Ann and Jim have talks with us. They're getting us ready for our new families. But we're not quite ready yet, see how Momma still loves to be with us?

We love our tails!

Folks sometimes ask why our tails aren't docked like some American Springers. Ann says because our tails are important for our balance, express our emotions, and are very beautiful. She also says it is in line with European and Canadian standards (we're from European and Canadian lines) where docking is illegal and it's also opposed by the American Veterinary Medical Association. Here is a link to an informative article. What do you think?

Look at our cute tails!

New Portraits!

Today Ann tried to take our portraits again because she says we get cuter and cuter every day. She placed us against a pretty piece of fabric which was fun to explore and play with but we just wanted to crawl all over her instead. It was also once again our nap time. Take a peek at us now

Ann trying to get our portraits

We really didn't mean to make it so challenging!

Two is always more fun!

Three is even better!

Whose hiding behind the curtain?

So here we are at 4 weeks old:
___________
Sienna

Sienna

___________
Orchid

___________
Goldie

___________
KD

She was ready for her nap

___________
Indy

___________
Violet

Yikes!! We Are 3 1/2 Weeks old!

Time certainly has flown since we were born and we are getting busier and busier (although it might not look it here)!

We still snooze 70% of the time even with the going ons.

Visitors

The last two weeks we had visitors: Carolyn who is a BFF of Ann's and an incredible Springer field trialer checked out how cute we are, and Ann's sister Mary and their friends Pat and his twin 7 year olds came to visit from Montreal. Since we're half Canadian that was fun to play every day with our Canadian friends!

Mary helps us get our portraits done while Uncle Charlie looks on.

Charlie and Momma get some much need personal attention.

Goldie getting loved.

Tiny hands and tiny paws

Ann and Jim left us for just a little bit when they went to the fair with everyone. And guess what Ann found there? GIANT Springer puppies. She wanted to take one home to us but she just couldn't win one!

Look at all those BIG Springer puppies!

Glad we aren't way up there!

Progress Report

With all of that though a lot has been going on inside our pen. First off we began walking, then our eyes began to open (see our new portraits below), and we also began to hear!

Since we now can hear and see, we started rough housing - though we're still a bit wobbly! That meant time to introduce us the solid food.

Right now we have puppy gruel in the morning and at dinner but Momma Bella still nurses us at least 4 times a day or more. She also does a great job of cleaning us and our pen - we get pretty messy in the food dish! She still doesn't want Uncle Charlie or Grandma Addie in our "bedroom" but she does let them sniff us if Ann or Jim are holding us. And of course nothing like cuddling with Mom.

Nothing like a cuddle with Momma

Orchid has Momma all to herself (Orchid looks A LOT like Momma!)

Momma is the sweetest, she's always watches us as Ann cleans our bedroom!

And Ann realized it was time for us to have a bigger pen. Jim and Ann changed it all out last night. Ann's hoping we soon learn to use the paper instead of our blankets for eliminating but really?! We hardly know how to do this ourselves yet without Mom cleaning us and our walking is still wobbly especially on newspaper! The cool thing is that when Ann cleans our bedroom, we get to hang out by Jim's piano — we're in the music room! So any piano you hear in the background — well that's Jim playing for us!

Snoozing again while our new bedroom and play area get cleaned.

Momma checks out our larger room to make sure it is up to snuff!

 

That was tiring moving in!

Orchid and Indy cuddle up 

Uncle Charlie keeps watch.

New Portraits!

So how would you like to see our cute portraits from a week ago when our eyes barely first opened? Well here we are!

Setting up the shots: Ann used her iPhone while Jim used his Canon. Mary and Ann took turns holding us!

It did tucker us out a bit.

____________________

Sienna (liver and white)

Sienna at 3 weeks old

Sienna at 3 weeks old

____________________

Orchid (tri-colored liver and white)

Orchid at 3 weeks

Orchid at 3 weeks

____________________

Goldie (tri-colored liver and white)

Goldie at 3 weeks

Goldie at 3 weeks

____________________

KD (black and white)

KD at 3 weeks

KD at 3 weeks

____________________

Indy (tri-colored black and white, only male)

Indy at 3 weeks

Indy at 3 weeks

____________________
Violet (black and white)

Violet at 3 weeks

Violet at 3 weeks

Violet at 3 weeks

PS You can now find us on Facebook!: https://www.facebook.com/artistwoodspaniels

And on Youtube!