Terrible Irony

Well, I finally posted on my blog for the first time last week since August. Unfortunately, the very day I posted was also that last time I saw Chuy. While on the phone with my wife at 4:45pm, she went to let him inside and noticed that he was laying down next to the back door. We are not sure what killed him but he was extremely healthy and very happy to the minute he died. It is very strange and pretty awful.

Holy Cow

Well I am a pretty terrible blogger. Here is a quick update:

• It took me 4 months with tons of help to finish my fence.
  
• Chuy has grown to about 40 lbs. It did it really quick.
• I learned that I am no good at dog training.
• A 55 foot pine tree fell down on my fence.
• It took me 3 weeks to repair said fence.

So, that gets you caught up on my blog more less from August to December.

In the past couple of months I decided to stop getting frustrated with how my training was going and get some help. So, I have taken myself and Chuy out to my friend Don's kennels about 5-6 times. Don is amazing. He has really straightened me out and helped Chuy in the process. I had some retrieving problems to correct and unfortunately are still working on them. It all stems from me allowing my kids to chase the dog when he had a toy in his mouth. He has really improved though with his retrieves. He is doing really well on his Heal and Woah commands. Now I just trying to get him to Heal and Woah with distractions, but I am really pleased with our progress in the past couple of months.

I will try to get some current pictures the nex ttime I go out to Don's. In the menatime here are a few pics for this blog entry:


Here's Jeff. One of the weekend warriors. I think he spent 2 hours on this corner.


The backyard is pretty good size. The roots of those pines nearly killed Christian and I when we were using the auger to drill those post holes. Seriously. I thought we had gotten hit by a truck once or twice.

Here is Cody imparting some more wisdom to Dave K. Dave C. is in blue and worked like a dadgum beaver on the saw.


First tree in the line of this picture is the one that fell across the street snapping a telephone pole in half and taking out power, cable and phone for my entire neighborhood for 14 hours. They love me.

Here is the engineer of the group. Patrick is my neighbor and is pretty amazing. He has every crazy little tool you can imagine and he helped me with rails, pickets, and most importantly the double gate.

Much thanks to all these guys. There is no way I could have done this solo.


Here is Chuy in November.

This is him in December. Mary Alice loves Chuy...when he is still and laying down on his bed.

I will get some fresh pics and traing stuff up soon.

The Votes Are In!

The voters have spoken! Well when you subtract my wife and someone else (Kathy). CHUY it is! First and foremost it reflects my South Texas heritage and our favorite restaurant in Austin. It also happens to be for:


The kids are all of the sudden big fans of Star Wars. Especially Charlie who only wants to wear the $25 Star Wars retro Gap t-shirt that will probably only fit for a couple more months.

We went into puppy naming crisis mode when Mary Alice assigned her default name, "pupcake".

Chuy is doing well even though he has no control over his bladder and bowels. That will come. He is a firecracker. There is no quit in this pup. I'll get some pics up soon.

Very good suggestions by the way from everyone on the names. I liked: Buzz, Dieter, and Cato from the Harris clan. Out of the patriotic names Libby and Bell would have been good girl names.

It's about time.

Here is our boy. I have heard people say that it is difficult to have the pick of the litter. I had no idea it would be this difficult. I really think that it came down to our (still) nameless puppy below and the ugly puppy. There is something about that white faced dog. Someone will get an ultra athletic pup in the ugly dog. He is going to be a big one, too.


Here's Ugly...

I would love to tell you that I had picked up on all kinds of clues that he was going to be a great companion for the family and for quail hunting next year, but I had no idea. I really did not have very many clues about anything. He has a pretty strong will, but he did submit to Don after a few minutes of Don gently holding him down. All the pups come to a whistle pretty well.
I asked Don to hold on to him for another week since Kay-Lynn and the kids were going to the beach in South Carolina this week, but it looks like the latest tropical depression/hurricane is going to throw a ton of rain throughout the Southeast this week. So I say all of that to say this: we will probably pick him up Wednesday of this week. We are really looking forward to it.



So I have been "working on building my own fence for the back yard all summer. Here is the update. Posts are up. That is all. I was supposed to have two nights and a Saturday of working on the fence the other week until a huge storm came through and...

...took out a 50 foot white pine landing on and splitting one of my dogwoods. So, with the help of two friends, for two nights and a Saturday, I was able to cut up these trees and haul them down to the street. I am picking up a compressor and framing nailer Tuesday evening. So, hopefully that will force me to find time to get some fencing done.
Here is the trunk that I had to cut down. It came down fairly easy, but I really wish I had old' Babe to haul it off for me. Each piece of the trunk was north of 100 lbs. I only attempted to lift one into the wheel barrow. That was enough. Notice the fence posts? Nice, huh?

Puppy Love

Well, it's pretty easy to see where the term "puppy love" comes from. It is sweet, innocent and wholesome. The kids really enjoyed seeing the pups at 3 weeks. Charlie is starting to get used to dogs a little more and it shows in his confidence. Before we left, I looked over to see him sticking his arm in one of Don's kennels to pet Lottie, one of his sweet black labs. Three weeks ago he would not stand near the kennels.

Mary Alice on the other hand...was born with our black lab, KAVU, in the house. So, she is very affectionate, yet respectful to all dogs. She has been making her bed and sometimes her brothers bed for weeks now...all in hopes that we will notice and get another dog. Bless her heart. She has not idea that I have planned on getting a dog for months now. I think I am going to keep it from the kids and just bring home our pup.

Charlie is trying very hard to remain motionless for the sleeping puppy.

Here is my old lady favoring the females.

What a sweetheart.

Almost 3 Weeks Old

We went by to visit the puppies today. I took the whole family this afternoon. The kids did not want to leave and after about an hour Kay-Lynn was asking if we could possibly get two puppies.

They are very cute. I feel like we have narrowed it down to four pups but I still do not want to commit because there was a huge difference in their appearance between week one and week three. I will wait a couple more weeks before making my decision. They should be ready to go around August 15th.

Here is liver and white female #1. I still think she is the prettiest of the litter.


Here is liver and white female #2. Both of the female's faces have become more liver in the last couple of weeks and you can now see heavy ticking.


Here is male #1. This is the boy that had three small patches on his crown. It has grown into a Y. He has become a fine looking pup.


Male #2's head band has almost connected. He also has the biggest head of the litter. He probably will not be the first pup chosen but he is unique looking.

Here is male #3 . His white stripe is slightly to the right, but the far right of the stripe is becoming more liver. It will be interesting to see his coloring in another couple of weeks. I really like his two patches. They are on his tail and hind end.


The liver females are all VERY similar except liver female #3 who is a lighter shade of liver and has a higher sock on the front right foot.






I think it would be interesting to see if there is any change in my poll. I may put up a new favorite puppy poll.

July 4th Puppies!

The pups arrived on independence day, but it took me a while to get some pics of them. The boys look pretty good, but the girls are so pretty they have me rethinking my decision to get a male. There were ten whelped, but one male was lost on the third day. Here is the break down. There are three males - all are white and liver with ticking. There are two females with white and liver with ticking and four liver females with a blaze on the chest and some socks.

Here are some pics:
These are the liver girls. Believe it or not each of the four pics below are four different dogs.
#1

#2

#3

#4

Here are the boys:
#5

#6 has three small patches on top of his crown.

#7 with the white face:

And here are the three boys just broin' out.

Here is one of the two girls that has me reconsidering:
#8

Here is the girl that I think is really pretty. Her face is most similar to the sire.
#9


I am going to attempt to add a poll. Let me know your thoughts. I won't be making a decision until I can see there personality develop and begin to see their level of dominance.