Adventure box

In early March my daughter and I attended a seminar on "Transformational Dog Breeding" with Dr. Gayle Watkins. While the focus of this seminar was on genetics, the goals of a breeding program, and puppy evaluations, she had a sample of an "Adventure Box" that she created to help stimulate puppies and give them new experiences and ways to interact in their very early days, after their eyes are open but before they develop fear.

The plans are available on her website for a small fee, or if you're not handy you can buy the boxes pre-made. But it's not too hard to build (espeically with a dad like mine!!). So last Saturday we went out and bought the supplies at Home Depot and the Dollar Store, and spent a couple days cutting, drilling and stringing.

The "box" is an open frame of PVC piping from which a multitude of items can be strung, either loosely or securely from top to bottom. Gayle recommends using items of different sizes, shapes, textures and colours, so the pups can experience all kinds of different sensations.

Once they are able to walk - at 3 to 3.5 weeks of age - you introduce them to the box at first singly and then all together. They learn to walk past and through the strung items, getting to sense different textures against their skin, getting bumped and squished (a bit!), hearing different noises as the objects bump each other, and having lots of different objects to paw at and chew.

This is a means of exposing the puppies to positive stress. The goal is to help them learn to handle stress in a good way, to learn not to freak out when unfamiliar objects touch them all over, to get used to new situations and react without fear to new sensations and environments. Overall, this is geared to creating adaptable, resilient, courageous and curious puppies that will be excellent family companions!

We are using the Adventure Box for the first time with Phoenix's puppies. We will be introducing it to them starting next week and will be watching to see how they react and learn to interact with all these fun toys!!

Doodle Romps

July Doodle Romp

The July Doodle Romp will be held this coming Sunday, 8 July, from 4-5pm. For this one, we`ll meet at our house and then proceed to romp through the nearby forest and fields. It’s an “accepted” off-leash area (i.e. not official, but all the neighbourhood dogs go off-leash in that area). We likely won’t meet up with too many other dogs, and this way our two remaining little pups can tag along too. It will good for them to meet a number of other dogs and people while they’re still in their prime socialization period.

At this point we are expecting Cassi, Galaxy, Carny & Galena, and Kodiak, along with their people, to join us with our five (Mo, Phoenix, Leo, Topaz & Obsidian “Sid”). Should be a nice gang!

June Doodle Romp

(All photos courtesy of Martin L.)

The June Doodle Romp occurred on Saturday, 23 June at 9:30 at Conroy Pit. We met Galaxy, Lily, Lyra, Carny and Galena, and their people. Mo & Phoenix joined in from the DragonRam household. It was a fine morning – sunny and hot but not excessively sweltering.

We stuck as much as possible to the forest trails, where the trees offered some relief from the sun. Occasional breaks for water (dogs and people) and just to chat kept us all refreshed. As it was so nice and nobody was in a big rush, we walked all the way to the bottom of the sliding hill and then back up the north side of the Pit, taking a good almost two hours to finish the circuit.

The dogs started out with lots of energy, running like crazy, playing tag, doing the wild and crazy circle run, and just generally having a blast. By the end of the Romp they were all worn out, walking quietly by us and not indulging in too many wild chases.

And here are a couple of videos of the dogs in action!

Future Romps

After July, the next Romp likely won’t be until late August or sometime in September, after we’re back from our summer holiday. Watch for a Doodle Poll after August 18^th!

Introducing Phoenix!

DragonRam Doodles would like to introduce Canadian Doodles Phoenix as a new addition to our breeding program!

Phoenix is a lovely 9-week old pup (born 4 March 2012) that comes to us from Canadian Doodle Puppies, also here in Ottawa. Her dam is Morning Smile Cassonade, a cream girl with a sweet, gentle and loving disposition, and her sire is Halton Hills New Beginnings, a chocolate phantom boy.

Phoenix herself is a lovely apricot colour with a stocky build, blunt nose and teardrop eyes. She carries for black and chocolate and also for phantom.

Phoenix joined us this past Saturday, May 12^th, during an afternoon birthday celebration with (adult) friends for my kids’ 9^th and 12^th birthdays – and indeed, she is to be my son’s special friend and was his best birthday surprise!!!

Phoenix will be a canine companion to Amore, our 4-year-old foundation dam. At the moment Amore thinks she is just another nuisancy puppy but they will soon grow to be best buddies and have lots of fun together! Last night out in the field Phoenix was doing her utmost to interest Amore in playing with her, but Amore just ignored her. So my son tumbled and ran with her instead which she just adored!

The older puppies (Leo & Scarlett) will play with her – though as Phoenix is still much younger and smaller, she usually ends up rolling on her back and acting submissive! Once our little pups have grown a bit bigger – and Mama MoMo isn’t quite as protective – we will let her in to play with them. They are closer in age and will likely have lots of fun together!

We will give Phoenix lots of time to grow and mature and – providing all goes well and she passes her health testing – we will expect a first litter from her sometime in 2014.

Amore: Agility star!

Amore just completed Agility Level II classes on Sunday 12 February. She had a super last class, performing the best she has since this round of classes started! One of the other dogs picked a fight with her and some of the others a couple of times – nothing major, but some unexpected growling and snapping – which had seemed to cause her some anxiety. But this last class she outdid herself, managing very well with all the obstacles including the weave poles, which are the hardest to learn. 

I'm getting dizzy with all this back-and-forthing!

Down I go!

Her forte is the dog walk (bridge) and A-frame. We think it’s because every night she climbs the ladder – with some assistance – to get into the top bunk of the bunk bed to sleep with my daughter. So climbing heights is old hat for her!! She also loves the jumps. She started off quite hesitant with the teeter, but by the end of the session she was doing okay – still cautious, but willing to take it at a slow pace. For some reason she was very hesitant with the tunnel this session after loving it in Agility I – who knows why? But at the last class she performed all the obstacles very well and with little hesitation. 

Whee!!!!

Way to go, Mo!

Aspen & Amore meet Santa

Last Saturday afternoon, after the morning romping at art lessons, we headed out with Aspen & Amore to cut our Christmas tree. It is an annual ritual with us to go to a local tree farm and select and cut our own tree.

Last year we had taken Amore along to the tree farm we have been to many times in the past, along with our friends and their little dachshund, Jenna. In previous years no one had commented on Jenna’s presence and we had met other dogs there, too, so we expected no hassles, but we disappointed upon arriving to be told “No dogs allowed.” So this year I hunted for another nearby tree farm and called in advance to be sure we could bring the dogs. Fallowfield Tree Farm was happy to welcome the dogs and we even met their German Shepherd roaming freely around the property.

While we waited for the tractor wagon ride to take us to the tree cutting field, we roasted a couple of marshmallows by the fire, and then along came Santa, so of course we had to introduce the dogs!

(We found the perfect Christmas tree, and it’s now standing well-decorated in our loft, where Aspen can’t get at it as he’d no doubt strip off all the ornaments he could reach and chew them to bits… )

When we got home that evening, Aspen was totally exhausted after all that activity! He went into his crate (something he doesn’t often do voluntarily) around 7pm and didn’t make a noise (highly unusual when crated!!) until 10pm when I let him out before hitting the hay myself. Then he went straight back to bed and slept soundly all night long!

Playtime!

Last Saturday, as usual, we took Amore and Aspen to play in the ball field outside the place where the kids have art lessons. Since their lessons overlap only half an hour out of a three-hour stretch, most of the time there is one kid with me and the dogs to play.

This past Saturday there was a bit of snow on the ground, so we put jackets on the dogs, parkas on ourselves, and headed out. Aspen’s jacket didn’t stay on long, what with the rip-roaring good time he and Amore were having. Amore loves to chase the ball, but Aspen isn’t really into ball – not yet at least. He just wants to tussle with Amore! (Typical guy.)

  

My son was also very tired after a VERY late night the previous night, so after making a couple of snow angels he mostly just lay on the ground and rested, while I threw the ball or just watched the dogs play.

 

Some nice pix

Here are a few pictures I didn’t get around to posting earlier. These are from our gorgeous Thanksgiving Saturday back in early October. It was 26 above (Celsius) and just like a summer day!!

Autumn leaves

Every autumn we carry a rake out to the small urban forest near our home and pile up the leaves for some autumn fun. With Thanksgiving weekend so lusciously warm, we headed out on Sunday afternoon (yes, back three weeks ago!) for our annual celebration of fall colours.

The pups had a grand time romping through the woods and fields, and once they learned that a pile of leaves makes a soft landing, they jumped and frolicked in it with abandon.

The kids also buried me in leaves, which took a passing couple rather by surprise when I greeted them from under the pile!!