We are a responsible small family breeder of English Springer Spaniel puppies. Our goal is to place high quality, biddable dogs with joyful, gentle temperaments in dog-loving homes.
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!
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
