Girl Talk

Ok, no offense to our brothers Milo and Hank, but Swing wanted to talk about some things that only us girls wonder about.  Now I'm sure the boys scratch their heads about things at times, or perhaps they are just scratching because, well, their head itches!  Or maybe the feeling of a foot stuck in an ear, digging away at who knows what, is kind of euphoric.  Swing doesn't know and she's not about to ask...

So here are some things she is wondering about, girl things that is -

• What's the deal with peeing?  Seriously, is it necessary to pee on us when we are checking out that smelly spot you just spent 2 minutes snorfing at?  Didn't you see our head there?  A little warning, maybe a shout of "INCOMING" would be much appreciated.  And while we are talking about it, can you at least wait until we are done squatting before you let 'er rip?  It isn't like that spot is going to go anywhere once we are done doing our thing.  Geez!  Oh yeah, and do you ever run out of pee?  Good grief.

• Can't you spend 30 seconds away from your mom or dad without fussing and whining and basically showing what a big BABY you are?  You really are pathetic when she/he is just 2 feet away and you can't control yourself.  It isn't like they have abandoned you on the side of the road or anything.

• Ok, I may be your "sister" whom you enjoy playing with and even snuggling with (sorry, does revealing that embarrass you?), but I notice that you have no problems dropping me like a hot tamale when there are other girls around!  Yeah, I'm like mud when we visit grammy's house or our friend Gayle.  Thank goodness I'm comfy in my person or I might take offense at that!  Just remember, your sister will always be there when those other floozies move on.

So there you have it, some things that Swing has wondered about and wanted to get out there.  She realizes that you boys are a work in progress, so for now a little forgiveness for these minor shortcomings is in order.  She's sure there are things about the girls that the brothers wonder about, or maybe not!  After all, while she too is a work in progress, she thinks that she is just about perfect.  Of course ask her mom and she'll just grin and wink.  Hmmmm.

 Hank thinks he is winning!

I'm gonna catch you!

Swing, Dodge, Dirk and Jill hope the M&M siblings and their families have a wonderful New Year.  We look forward to hearing of the adventures of the rest of the gang in 2012.  Happy New Year!!!!!

Snoring?!?

Ann sends the following...

Do any of the other M&M puppies snore?  We've gotten plenty of chuckles out of listening to our little girl snore away when she's sacked out. Maybe it's her long nose - but whatever it is it's pretty adorable.

Ella snoozing (snoring away)

When she's not enjoying snuggling up in front of the fire Ella's been busy learning lots of new things in her obedience foundations & puppy agility classes. We're doing shaping & manners work which is all very different with her than it was with my male Weim, but I love her attitude & we're having lots of fun together. She loves to work.

Ella enjoying the fireplace

It was good to get a report from Ann on our sister Ella.  She sounds a lot like Swing who does indeed snore at times.  And Swing enjoys working too!  Thanks for sharing with us Ann, now how about the rest of the siblings?

Florida, the adventure...

Swing, Dodge and I (along with our friend Joan) headed to Florida to participate in the Brevard KC show (Swing's debut), the Orlando DTC obedience trial and Eukanuba.  We planned to take two days to get there and we pretty much met that schedule even though it did take a bit longer than I remembered from the last trip.  We made it to Rocky Mt, NC the first night which was about 100 miles less than originally planned, but we were safe and that is what was most important.  Swing and Dodge traveled well and she did very well for only her second time staying in a hotel (although the first two nights we didn't get a lot of sleep because she had to vocalize her uncertainty at every little sound that wasn't familiar).  We arrived in Orlando around 8pm on Wednesday evening and settled in to our nice suite at the Embassy Suites about a half a mile from the convention center.

On Thursday morning we were up and out the door early since Swing's ring time was at 8am.  I figured we would get there about an hour early so that she could settle and get ready to show.  WELL, little did I know that parking is what seems like a MILE from the show rings!  From the directions we were given it honestly took us around 15 minutes to find the hall where the rings were.  Needless to say, my plans of being ringside an hour early fell to the wayside.  We did get there with about 20 minutes to spare which gave me time to put on her show lead, get out the bait and pick up my number.  First up was the Sweepstakes class where she got a second place out of two followed by the regular class where she again got a 2nd place (out of 3).  Holding the stack while being examined proved to be challenging, but her movement on the down and back as well as the go around was very nice (she did a little bit of pacing but I was able to fix that fairly quickly.  The important thing was that the ring experience was positive and she appeared to have a good time.  Video of her performance is coming soon.

Dodge was in the obedience ring on Friday (we did not qualify in Open) before going in to the breed ring on Saturday for the Eukanuba show.  He did not make the cut but showed well (as he always did in the breed ring) and looked good.  It was a good way to finish his conformation career.

We logged a slew of miles over a 6 day period, met a lot of nice people, walked a LOT and ran in to folks from our area.  I am always amazed at how far you can go from home and still manage to run in to someone that is either from Pennsylvania, has relatives in Pennsylvania or has a funny story about Pennsylvania.  Cracker Barrel was our go to place for stopping to eat (Joan wondered just how many of them there are), gas prices where a lot cheaper as you went south although every now and again you would see a place where it was more expensive (we saw $2.99 in NC and $3.47 in SC), and we managed to see license plates from 30+ states!  Traffic was manageable, no accidents or scary moments.  All in all I'd say the driving portion of the trip was uneventful (ok, there was this one incident where I got on I-95 and drove in the wrong direction for a good 30 miles...).

I hope to return to Eukanuba some day, maybe with Dodge participating in the NOI (National Obedience Invitational) or Swing in breed.  But before then I think I'd like to go as a spectator just to take in the sights and enjoy sitting at ringside watching great dogs and handlers (that applies to ALL disciplines).  Video to follow!

Mystery solved!

I received an email from Amy this morning with this picture...

Indy-Anna on her "perch" - around 12 months old

Howard and I have both wondered where our pups got the "mountain goat/perch" gene and lo and behold here is half sister Indy-Anna demonstrating couch perching!  And I must say that I think the girls all bear a striking resemblance to her (Swing's nose is a tad longer at the moment, how do Ella and Gracie Dot look ladies???).  Anyway, if you look at the pedigree you will see that Indy's sire is Maestro (who is also our puppies sire) and the puppies dam Mia is Indy's great granddaughter.  So these guys have a double dose of that "perch" gene.

So there we have it, mystery solved!  Indy-Anna's obviously was not going to let that awesome sunbeam (looks like this picture was taken in the winter, trees seem bare) go to waste and the couch just happen to be in the way!  Thanks for sharing the picture Amy.

Cookies!

This past weekend Swing and the boys and I hooked up with our friend Sallie for what may turn out to be an annual event... Christmas cookie/goodie baking!  Now I hope Sallie forgives me for revealing this, but she's not an early riser so unlike "marathon baking" at my sisters, we didn't get started until after 10am (at my sisters you start around 6:30 am!).  Sand Tarts were first to go in the oven since I had prepared the dough the night before and we had to wait for Brad to finish the grocery store run (he was put on notice that he may have to make a run, or two, to pick up missed items).  Before I go any further, this was the first time we had tackled holiday cookie baking, so the wheel was far from greased to perfection.  We got off to a slow beginning but before we knew it we had two types of dough setting up in the fridge, one batch of cookies done, Heath Bars and fudge well on their way and that was all by early afternoon!  The dogs entertained themselves (Swing thinks Sam the shorthair  is quite the man, I'll have to get pictures of them playing for a future blog entry) and pretty much stayed out of our way.  Very few cookies were broken, the old hand held mixer made it through some intense dough mixing (those old Sunbeam mixers, they can take some abuse!), and no human or dog was hurt in the process so I'd say it was a success!  We are ready to do it again (right Sallie?), maybe sooner than later!  :-)

Since the last entry I have noticed that Swing has gone through another growth spurt and Howard reports the same with Hank.  Must be the 6 month jump or something like that.  Howard and I wonder if there isn't some mountain goat in our pups background (or maybe some distant relative was part of a circus act or perhaps a gymnast) since one of their favorite things to do is perch on top of the couch or lazy boy.  I have even caught Swing sprawled out across the top of the couch like a cat!  She's the first Weim that I've owned that does that and she cracks me up every time I turn around from sitting at this computer and see her perched.  Pictures will follow!

I have received updates from a couple of  you and will post them this weekend.  But if you have more to tell us please drop Swing and I a note, with pictures, and I'll pass the update along.  For now you'll have to be happy with this somewhat boring post, with no pictures.