Australian Shepherds by Bit O’ Blarney: Dog and Cat Grooming, Boarding, and Loving in the Salinas, Monterey, and Santa Cruz Counties of California

I went up to the NNASC show in Carson City, NV this past weekend. It was quite a road trip for little Tush! To a 6 month old baby, the world is pretty amazing! Tush did very well with the long trip, and was very well received at the show. It was very hot, and very windy on Friday, then on Saturday the heat & humidity went way up as a storm front was moving in. She went RWB on Friday! I was thrilled that she was competitive with the mature bitches. Then on Saturday afternoon, she was WB, and on to BoW! It was a 4 point major, one dog shy of 5 points!! Now THAT was a thrill! She knew something was up and that little fuzzy tush was really wiggling!! We decided to pack up after the show on Saturday and get ‘down the mountain’ and take the dogs to the river to swim and then head home. This little girl is a Tanner daughter out of Chilly, and I am SO proud of her. She is just in the 6-9 class so she has a fun show season ahead of her.

Little Bubbles, (AKA Bit O’Blarney Effervescence) went to her first show this past weekend. It was a zillion degrees in Santa Nella. Regardless, she had fun, which is the idea, right? She was accompanied by her two 1/2 sisters, Tush (Bit O’Blarney Badonkadonk) and Eyes (Bit O’Blarney She’s Born With It) and of course Dad, Tanner (AKC/ASCA Ch Heatherhill Dazzle Me Montana DNA-VP CGC) The whole thing, of traveling, being confined to ex-pens, seeing different things, all need to be OK for a dog who may be a show dog. It is a learning process. All the girls were well received, and Tush won a large class, and came in second in the others, with her sister, Eyes coming in right behind her. The only less than thrilled member of the group was Dad, who is NOT used to sharing his trailer, his Mom, or the attention with anydog. He will get over it, because he really does enjoy his puppies..I have added a picture of Bubbles, so you can see what HER opinion was of her first dog show.

Tanner & I would like to introduce “Bubbles!”

Bubbles was born on April 20th and her biological mom (Chaos) had a really hard time whelping. She was confused and didn’t seem to want the baby, so Tanner and I had to intervene. We forced her to allow the newborn to drink every two hours for the first 48 hours, so that she would get the colostrum, but I have bottle raised her from the beginning, and she is the highlight of my life right now. We spent several weeks getting little uninterrupted sleep, but it was worth it. I hadn’t thought much about it before, but without having a dogmom to show her how to do things, I have had to improvise a little. Example: Drinking water from a bowl….I had to swish my fingers in it to show her and then let her lick my fingers. Putting her first solid food in her mouth. Dog things, that she doesn’t have an example to follow. Her Dad did show her how to go up and down steps. He trotted out one day and she followed him, stopping just short of falling down the step. He stopped at the bottom, and waited, and she fussed and cried. He stepped his front feet up on the step and nosed her and I almost could hear him say ‘come on, be brave, just step down’. She did and he bounced all around her with joy. She thought she was pretty hot stuff, too! She is a little show off, she steals things from her Dad, and he allows her to get away with it. He seems to enjoy baby sitting and plays so gently with her. Please go to my overflow website www.dropshots.com/bitoblarney to see some video of Bubbles and Tanner playing! Her BFF is Biscuit the little kitten Tanner and I raised last year. Biscuit was a little jealous, watching Bubbles get a bottle ( I think she remembered getting HER bottle) and being babied…but they play so cute together.   A couple of people have asked me about her name…”Bubbles” was my father’s nickname for me when I was young.  When I fed her her bottle she would get so excited and slurp and suck so wildly bubbles would come out of the sides of her mouth.  I started just calling her Bubbles.  Usually breeders decide on a full name, a ’show’ name first, then come up with a call name that goes with it.  This time we were backwards…the call name came first.  So then we had to come up with a ’show’ name to go with her call name.  So, may I re-introduce you to “Bit O’Blarney Effervescence”.  And she IS effervencent! Anyway, here is a picture we took in the garden last weekend…

After a good rain, today was a beautiful day. I really think we have the best weather on the entire Central Coast!! The Monterey Peninsula gets more fog, (too cold) and the valley gets more heat, (too hot) and we are (to borrow a phrase from Goldilocks) “just right!” Perfect weather to watch the puppies grow. Nothing cuter than an Australian Shepherd puppy! They really love running around and exploring things, (translation, eating it, dragging it around, or tearing it up) I feel kinda bad for those Aussie puppies that don’t get to run and play in our beautiful weather…besides the sunshine makes the dandelions grow and those yellow flowers are a favorite thing to grab on the run, while your litter mate is chasing you. I am so enjoying this litter… but they are time wasters! Wooly bears are peaking out from under furniture…. and where is the housekeeper (me)? Outside, playing with puppies!! Puppies will not be around forever, but the wooly bears sure will be, so it isn’t much of a choice, now is it? Sunshine, green grass and blue merle and black tri aussie puppies….. it can’t get any better than THAT!

He has been patiently waiting for his kids to be old enough to play with him.  He adores babies of any kind, (see his kitten in other posts) and he has been watching and waiting.  I knew he was really REALLY wanting to play with them when I saw him do something adorable.  Evenings after all the kennel dogs are put to bed, is ‘our time’.  He selects a toy and we chase around, play keep away, catch, etc.  That night, he picked his VERY favorite, “Rodney” a gurgling lobster.  He picked out that toy at a dog show, and loves the noise it makes.  Anyway, he threw Rodney around for a few minutes and then had an obvious ‘light bulb moment’. He took Rodney down the hall and put his feet up on the puppy room barricade and dropped it over the side, for his kids to play with.  It was SO obvious that he wanted to play with them….so the next day was THE DAY.  We all went out into the back yard and was he ever HAPPY!  He tried to get them to chase him with a pull toy, but they were not fast enough yet.  So he just got down on their level and had a ball.  He needed to teach them that he wasn’t momma, and couldn’t feed them, but once that was established, they had a ball with their Dad.  He was so gentle and careful, and they were little sharp toothed demons!  I really enjoyed watching them together.  I hope you enjoy the pictures I took!

Tanner’s second litter has arrived, with a bang!  They are out of Heatherhill’s Still Crazy (Chilly) a lovely BMB.

We have 7 nice babies, 3 BMB, 2 BTB, 1 BMM, 1 BTM

Tanner really wants to be a ‘paws on’ Dad, but Chilly has told him he will have to wait for awhile, before he can interact with them.

It has been years since puppies were born here at Bit O’Blarney, and we are all thrilled with this litter…stay tuned for updates and more pictures!

Tanner's first look at his kids!

1st place, Conformation Finals 2008!! What an honor!!!

We had a wonderful time in Las Vegas.  We stayed in the trailer @ the Oasis RV park.  What a nice place!  Very clean, and totally dog friendly… many clean, well fenced dog yards placed around the large park, laundry facilities and beautiful palm trees wrapped in twinkle lights…If you are ever in Vegas, and need a place to park your RV, Tanner & I can totally recommend the Oasis RV Park! Tanner was a ‘hit’ from day one!  Several people inquired about puppies and stud service, even before his “big win” on Monday night! From a huge entry, Tanner and Regi received a Premier on Friday at the Cascade Pre-show! Regi shows Tanner beautifully, and the pair of them look so ‘together’ in the ring… they both like to move out, and Tanner and Regi have ‘danced’ together often enough that they pretty well know each other’s moves, etc.  Kind of a Fred & Ginger sort of thing, I guess… it is really fun to watch!

Then, being one of the top 30 highest scoring dogs in the country, Tanner had qualified for and been invited to the conformation merit finals, on Monday night.  For those that aren’t familiar with this event…it is by invitation only…. for the top scoring 30 dogs in ASCA.  There are two categories, one for altered/neutered dogs and one for intact/unneutered dogs.  What a pageant! That gave a new definition to the term ‘3 ring circus!’ A panel of 3 judges each evaluate the dogs separately and award points on tally sheets.  Then those sheets are added up and the dogs are awarded in order of the total number of points they received.  Tanner WON it!  I was pleased and honored to have Tanner’s breeder, Alan McCorkle show Tanner for this special event.  Of course, I KNEW he was the best, but it was wonderful and such an honor to have the esteemed judging panel agree with me! (pictures posted soon, I promise!)  For the Best of Breed judging on Saturday, the judge found other dogs he liked better….(how is THAT possible?  <VBG>)

Chris & Ference Marki are great friends & traveling companions, and their dogs did well, also!  Maverick received a Premier award at one of the Pre-shows, and was also invited to the conformation merit finals for altered dogs!  He was awarded 4th place which was a wonderful honor for Chris.  She has showed Maverick herself all along, and done very well with him!

Delilah, Chris’ blue girl, had her first agility outing and received 2 Q’s!  Go Delilah!  She was also awarded a Premier in the Best of Breed judging on Saturday. ( I guess the judge wasn’t TOTALLY wrong…<VBG>)

We got to eat some fabulous food and see some amazing sights.  We met many people we had ‘met’ before, online… but now we have faces to put with names…all in all it was a great trip and a very successful one!

Tanner has been having a wonderful show season.  We would like to thank the judges who have selected him for top honors recently… from large entries of quality dogs! Regi is a fabulous handler and although she admits she prefers to show girls, Tanner has managed to convince her that boys are OK, too!! The two of them have allot in common, they both love to move, show and WIN!!

This past weekend, in Dixon, Tanner was a little distracted, as we had an ‘extra’ body on board for the trip… a tiny little orphan kitten that we are raising.  When she was found, her eyes were not yet open and she still had an umbilical cord!  Tanner was at first fascinated with her sounds, now he has appointed himself guardian and protector.  She is eating well and gaining weight… her eyes have opened and the first thing she saw was a big pink Tanner tongue!  It only takes a swipe or two of that tongue and she is soaking wet!  We have had a hard time deciding on a name, so right now we just call her “His”…(Tanner’s)

Although worried about his kitten, Tanner managed to take 2 BoB’s and one BoS in Dixon!!

Please go to Tanner in the Winner’s Circle to see pictures!

l-r Delilah, Hobie, Tanner & Maverick... doggie BFF's!!!!!

Tanner and I BOTH want to congratulate Chris Marki on her brand new Champions!!  Delilah finished at Santa Nella going WB twice, both for 5 point majors!  She was beautifully handled (as always) by Regi.  The best part was the look on Chris’ face when we both said “Congratulations!! “  We were pretty excited, and Chris seemed a little curious why we were SO excited… then we realized she didn’t realize that the last WB finished Delilah’s Championship!!  That little girl finsihed with three 5 point majors!

Then at Turlock, Maverick finished his ALT-CH!! Poor Maverick had about a million points, and 2 majors… but majors in Altered are very hard to find.  He went BoS in Turlock, and there was one male Special, so it made the required number and he finished!  It was such a thrill! Now it is Hobie’s turn……

We also want to congratulate Nancy!!  Little Slide, (Chance’s daughter) did really well in Turlock also… she and Regi hit it off right away and made a nice team.  Slide won her (large) class once and placed right up there in the other showings… I thought it was really great of both Regi and Slide, since they JUST met!

Believe it or not, she’s “smiling” and wagging her Braille tail!