Wow - it's doing just that!  Snowing like crazy!   Forecast is for 4-8 inches, and of course, my daughter is hoping for the 8 inches, the high winds, and a snow day from school!! 

 The poodles enjoyed the snow tonight.  They run around like they're crazy out there!  Running, leaping in the air, tossing snow with their noses. They're hilarious.  They don't get to be outside for as long when it's cold and snowy and windy so they're pretty wild when they get to go out and play.

I'm looking forward to having our big snow hill.  My husband plows all the snow into a big hill for our grandson to play on, and the poodles think it's about the best thing in the world.  They race up to the top and down the other side, burrow into it, tumble down it - they just have a blast. I love being out there there with them. Tonight I was tossing handfuls of snow at them and they just went nuts.  It's so fun to see them so carefree and happy. 

And then of course they crash when we come in the house!  Suddenly we have 4 large poodles sprawled all over the living room.

So, we'll see how much snow we wake to in the morning!  One thing's for sure, the poodles will enjoy whatever we get!

Well, 'ole man winter has moved in it seems.  It was so cold and windy today.  The wind just howled.  I let the dogs out to potty, of course, but didn't let them spend any time out in the fenced in yard.  It was snowing and blowing and miserable.  They seemed very happy to do what had to be done and get back in the house!  But... oh the energy that 4 young poodles have when they're cooped up all day long!! I broke out some new toys and bones though, and they soon settled down to play tug of war with each other, or quietly chew on their bones.  It was such a nice day.  At one point I was sitting in my recliner, with an occasional poodle draped across my lap, just relaxing.  I looked around the living room at all 5 dogs, and thought, 'how lucky can you get?'. 

Zoe, my 8 month old Standard Poodle pup, had surgery to repair her umbilical hernia. The vet said it's the largest hernia she's ever repaired on a pup.  Zoe was able to come home the same night, which I was very happy about.  She's doing great.  She is a little interested in those stitches though.  I bought her one of those inflatable 'collars' but they do not work as well as the nasty plastic cones.  We may end up resorting to one of those, which I was hoping to stay away from.  Not fun in a crate. 

Yesterday and today were 'bathe the poodles' days.  Yesterday I bathed Lacie and Keisha and groomed both of them.  Today I bathed Zoe and Rex.  Zoe is partially groomed - I will finish scissoring her legs and top knot tomorrow.  Rex is bathed, dried and brushed out - I will begin grooming him tomorrow.  It's a job getting all 4 poodles done!  But it's also a lot of fun. I love the one-on-one time and I enjoy the challenge of doing a good job of grooming them. 

They're all doing very well for grooming and we only have a few little problems: Lacie hates her legs being touched for some odd reason.  Keisha wants to lay down all the time.  Rex hates his face being shaved.  Zoe hates her face done too, and she hates the drier.

Tomorrow I will have 4 newly groomed dogs - I love how they look when they're clean and clipped.  I'll get their Frontline on them tomorrow too.  Then they can go outside into their pen and run off all the excess energy they have from staying in the house these past couple of days.  They love their exercise time outside! 

I was running around town today with my grandson when he pointed out a car in the next lane that had a dog in the back seat.  It was a very cute black and white long haired dog. Suddenly this dog is leaning out the window - I mean, really leaning out the window with his whole body out there.  The only thing in the car was the two hind legs and tail!  I couldn't believe that someone would jeopardize their dog like that.  One quick step on the brake and that would have been it for the poor dog. Scary what people will let their dogs do.

We went to Kentucky to visit my son last weekend.  He is at Fort Knox and just finished Basic Training - it was family weekend so we went to pick him up and spend a nice weekend with him before he went back to Fort Knox for 7 weeks of tank training.  It was a wonderful weekend.  But as with whenever I leave, there are the dogs to think about.  We have our 5, plus my son's dog is there. Thankfully my older daughter is wonderful about taking care of them.  She was there early every morning, letting them out, feeding them, and letting them out again.  She stayed there for a few hours so they could be in their outside run to get some play time and exercise. Then she got them all back inside and was back in the afternoon to let them all out again.  And then there was the evening feeding and letting out.  She truly went above and beyond and the dogs were so well taken care of.  It was not fun for her - Lacie was just coming out of heat and Rex was still pretty interested, so they had to be kept completely separated.  Not really hard to do, but still a pain.  It was nice to get home and see all those excited faces!

As the temperatures and humidity rise, so alas, does my electric bill as I turn on box fans, ceiling fans, and then - thankfully - the air conditioner!!  I just don't care about the $$$ - it feel so good to cool off!

My male Standard Poodle, Rex, is also trying to find a way to cool off!  He is living with two female Standard Poodles that are in heat.  Not a fun situation for a boy to have to live with.  Separation is not fun.  It is the price he, and we, pay for having unaltered dogs.

When Rex is two (next spring) we will begin his genetic testing to see if he is a good candidate for siring a litter.  He excels at obedience and rally, and has a wonderful personality. So we shall see how his hips and eyes and blood work turn out.

We have 3 females as well.  And they too will be going through testing next spring.  I am excited to see what the tests on all of our dogs reveal.

Until then, poor Rex is separated from his ladies and getting tons of extra attention and exercise with us.  He LOVES that part of it all!  The girls are together and to be honest, I don't think they are missing Rex all that much! 

 SO, we are enduring and surviving heat - both the temperature kind and the messy kind!  I just keep thinking, this too shall end.  (someone did tell me that we are halfway to Christmas already!)  :)

It has been so hot these past two days.  The dogs still can't wait to get out to their play area and run around, but they are barking to come back in within an hour, which is unusual.  It has to be the heat.  They come in and flop down on the tile floor in the kitchen to cool off and then it's back to the door, ready to run some more!

Poor Keisha is in heat - her first one.  She is 16 months old so we were beginning to wonder if she was ever going to come in or not. Lacie had her first heat cycle at 7 months of age!  So poor Rex has to be separated from Keisha now.  I think he is enjoying the one-on-one that he is getting, spending all this alone time with mom!  The girls are outside playing and he is soaking up the attention in the house!  Then we rotate dogs and Keisha comes is so Rex can run around and rough house with the rest. It works out well. 

Well, tonight I bathed Zoe, our 5 month old Standard Parti Poodle. She is so darned cute.  She did not enjoy her bath at all and enjoyed the drying session even less!  But we got through it with lots of petting and praise.  The we trimmed nails, which she was great for, and pulled hair out of her ears, which she was actually quite good for as well.  Then we began clipping. She was quite good for that until we got to the face.  Not a happy camper.  But she did pretty good.  I have to have my daughter help hold her for a bit.  She looks so cute!  Her top knot is a bit shorter than I like but it looks nice.  I actually clipped her shorter than usual but it's so hot and so muddy that I decided it would be easier to keep her clean this way. 

Tomorrow I will groom Rex, my brown male.  He's easy to do - he's such a good boy.  I brought him to the vet today to weight him.  He's 64 pounds.  I sure love that boy! 

I love them all.  They bring me such incredible joy. Sometimes they get crazy and they drive me nuts,but they still always make me smile.  They are so full of love.  I feel incredibly lucky and blessed.

It was another very nice, relaxing day.  We worked around the yard all day and the dogs played outside.  It was sunny and warm and windy.  The dogs did their usual crazy running around but soon settled into exploring the woods and digging and snoozing in the sun.  Their pen is big and they have lots to do out there.  They dug up balls that they forgot they had, dug craters that I had to go fill in, and just had a nice day. 

Poor Zoe can't go in the pen with the big dogs - they are just way too rough for her. So she was a bit lonely.  But we played with her and she seemed content to snooze in the shade or lay and watch us work. 

Jazzy just followed us around all day - she doesn't go in the  pen with the poodles very often because they are so wild.  Her hips get sore.  She stays right by us and isn't a wanderer or chaser, so she has her freedom.  She does enjoy torturing our Belgian though - she'll run the fenceline back and forth and poor Tucker can't stand it. Pretty soon he's thundering up the fenceline too.  And it does sound like thunder when that big boy gets going! 

We just got two miniature horses - one came a couple of weeks ago and we got another one yesterday.  They are adorable!  Tucker, at over 17hh, looks enormous next to our little guys!  And they just tease the dickens out of him, just like Jazzy does.  The other two horses, Lucky and Rocky, they ignore both the dogs and the minis.  But Tucker just can't stand it.  He has a ball running around and kicking up his heels.

 Today was a good day.  My favorite part of the day is when I sat down on my swing with a cup of coffee and just watched the dogs and the horses, and then my little grandson riding the minis, my daughters talking and laughing, my husband doing this and that - and I realized, as I always do, how lucky I am. Life is good.  

All you could see were streaks of color as the three older poodles raced around their pen today.  They ran and jumped and just tore around in joy of being outside.  Thankfully we have very sandy soil and the rain soaked in quickly, so they weren't muddy or even very dirty. But their tongues were a hanging, that's for sure.  They were tuckered out, happy pooches when I brought them in the house.  They even had visitors to play with tonight - my best friend stopped over with her two Standard Poodles, Toby and Teddy.  Oh boy - 5 Standard Poodles in one big pen!  They are truly a joy to watch.  Such exhuberance and energy!  I'm sure all of them are going to sleep very well tonight. 

Last week I bathed and groomed all the poodles. Now that is a time-consuming job!  I let them play outside most of the day and then one by one, they got their baths.  I trimmed their nails then partially dried them and then let them all finish drying throughout the evening, brushing them periodically.  The next day they were dry and ready for grooming.  One by one I got them groomed and I have to say that this is one time I was very proud of myself - all of them look better than they ever have before. I like to shave their bodies and faces and then scissors their legs. I'm finally getting very comfortable with the whole process and when I compared the pictures of their professional grooms with what I did, I was extremely happy.  My daughter stopped in that night and she was impressed.  I do find grooming the dogs to be very relaxing and satisfying.  The 3 older poodles are so good - they stand, sit or lie down when asked and are just very nicely behaved for the whole thing.  Zoe, my 5 month old, is a screamer and squirmer.  She's getting better though.  I had to have my daughter come down and help hold her for some of it.  But all in all she did pretty well. And I have 4 pretty pooches (whoops, 3 pretty ones and 1 handsome one!).

Poor babies are wanting to get outside so badly. It's been so rainy and stormy that they didn't get to go outside and run today.  They just hover by the door waiting to go into their fenced in area and tear around.  It's wonderful to watch them out there - they have so much fun.  If I put Zoe in there (she's only 5 months old), I can only put one other poodle in with her or they just mow her over.  So our routine is to put Zoe and usually Keisha together and let them play for an hour or so.  Then I take Zoe out and put Lacie and Rex in with Keisha and then the fun begins - they are absolutely crazy together.  They run laps around the yard (which is huge) and then they jump and twist and turn, it's crazy.  They sure do have fun.  Meanwhile, Zoe is on her outside long leash and she's right there by them.  I let Jazzy out with her because Jazzy will stay right in the yard with me.  So everyone is happy and gets their exercise.  Hopefully tomorrow will be nice so they can run around and have fun. 

The mosquitos and gnats sure are getting bad.  And the wood ticks.  Thank God for tick and mosquito products to protect our pets. 

I am leaving town on Monday and will be gone for 6 days.  I am already missing and worrying about my dogs.  My husband will be home to care for them but it is just not the same.  He is good to them but not as careful or attentive as I am.  My older daughter is coming over every morning and afternoon to help feed and let them out, so that's really nice.  I just worry that they will get out and get away, or that they won't remember to fill their water bowl, etc., etc., etc.  I know they'll survive, but it sure is going to be hard on mom!

Today I went to an AKC dog show that is being held here. I had originally planned on showing Rex in obedience, but he just isn't ready.  He has had so many allergy issues and we really kind of just put training on hold.  

I enjoyed watching the show and seeing all the dogs.  I, of course, mostly hung out by the poodle ring and I met some very nice people. I got some good insight into the show world and learned a lot.  I have never shown my dogs in conformation, mostly because I don't want to have to do the fancy poodle clip that is required now that they are older.  I wish I had shown them in conformation when they were younger. I have to say that I was so impressed with the beauty of these dogs.  They make mine look very 'plain' and boring.  But after really thinking about it today I realize that at this time in my life I don't have the time to devote to caring for their coats in a special clip like that.  I will just stick with obedience and agility for now, and maybe sometime in the future I will have a pup that I will show in conformation.