Easter puppies

After an extremely long labor, Tara whelped 7 healthy puppies between 8am and 12pm Easter Sunday.

She and her new litter are all doing well. I must say, I was more than surprised to see four red tri colored pups! Her past two litters have been so colorful in comparison. Nevertheless the puppies are gorgeous and I'm sure they'll mature to be wonderful little dogs.

I didn't want to mess with them too much (other than to make sure they were healthy and to get individual weights on all of them) so I'll have to post better pictures at a later time. For now, a group shot!

From left to right: Red tri female, Black tri female, Red tri male, Red tri male, Red merle female, Red tri male, Black tri male

Happy Holidays

With the holiday season already upon us I find time to be scarce. Between teaching classes and working with my own dogs I haven't had much time to update! Now an entry is well over do so I'll try to post something now!

Even though the weather has gotten drastically colder, I still take the dogs to the river to walk a couple days out of the week - this also gives me the opportunity to fine tune some cues and behaviors.

My pack doesn't seem to mind the changing weather, in fact, I think they are really enjoying the cold! By the time I'm frozen and ready to turn back they are still pressing to go on and continue the walk so I will often let them off lead to run around in an open field halfway through the walk.

As far as the next breeding... I have gotten plenty of emails with questions in regards to Tara and puppies. I'm still waiting on her, I don't think it'll be much longer before she is ready, but she is always full of surprises. Never the less, that is an event I will not delay to post about - and for all the people on the waiting list - you will be receiving an email as soon as I know something!

Now on to pictures! The dogs are festive and awaiting the upcoming turkey day feast! .. I think they have their holidays a bit mixed up though :)

Since it's been awhile since my last post

I figured I'd update with a few pictures I took today.

Four dog outting

So since today was a nice (albeit hot) day I decided it'd be a good idea to take all the dogs to the local nature walking trail. I don't often take them all out at once, so today was a new experience for all of us. It does help that they are all well behaved (with some exceptions from the youngest two who are still learning!!)

We had to stop for photo opts!

Tara's expression is priceless... there were some people on the river and she could hear them, but couldn't see them and it confused her.

Since it was so hot, there weren't many people on the trail ... I suppose that's why at one point there were a bunch of ducks on the walk and near the shore line of the river... I couldn't help it, I let Madison and Jefferson (who I take herding and who have both had exposure and practice with ducks) offleash to have a bit of fun...

She's not really a water dog, but didn't seem to mind going in after the ducks!

Apparently, neither did Jefferson!

After an hour on the trail we stopped at the local Petsmart for some treats and to cool off!

Lundy November 27th 2007 - July 21st 2008

This is going to be an extremely difficult post to type... so much so that I don't know where to begin.

Lundy (once known as Charlie) was born to a litter of nine puppies. He wasn't born with much going for him as he was very small and seemingly underdeveloped in comparison to his litter mates. The second night of his life found him cold and barely breathing pushed far away from all the other pups. I remember rushing him to the vet hoping they could do something to increase his chances of survival. By the time we got to the veterinary clinic he was hypoglycemic and seizuring. I spoke at length with the vet and they didn't give me much hope, they even wanted to euthanize him then and there to 'end his suffering' ... being the hard headed and stubborn person I am I wanted to give him another chance at life so for the next week I spent hours with him, bottle feeding him, trying to keep him warm as he was often pushed away by the other much stronger pups.

By week three, my efforts had paid off and he was proving to be a fighter. During the entire ordeal I had put off getting his tail docked with the rest of the pups - he was truly a special little pup.

On Feburary 18th of this year, he found his new forever home with Allison and Robert, a young couple from DC; and I'm glad he did. They didn't mind him still having a tail, or the fact that he was the runt of the litter.

The short while they had him, he was given a life that any dog would wish for. He was allowed to be the free spirit he was always meant to be.

Sadly though, before he was even eight months old he lost his life in an accident on the way home from a dog park. Despite however much pain I feel, I can't even begin to imagine the sorrow and misery Allison and Robert must be feeling now. I want to let them know that my thoughts and prayers are with them, as must be anyone who knew them or Lundy... he will be greatly missed...

Enjoying his first semi-solid meal with his brother Chewie.

He was a very sweet puppy.
He's about eight weeks old in the above picture... still very small!

The one above and quite a few below were taken the day he was to leave for his new home!

Lundy, greatly loved.
And spoiled rotten.
11.27.07-07.21.08

Our weekend excursion!

This is going to be mostly a picture blog of my weekend. I went to NOVA for the weekend with some of the dogs to visit Chewie's owners Desiree and Chris. We decided to make it a dog filled weekend and took the dogs to a variety of dog friendly places.

One of them being a dog 'beach' in Annapolis, MD. All of the dogs seemed to really enjoy it, though it did seem a bit busy!

Chewie, the seal!

Reagan

Jefferson, still the smallest of the bunch (he's a little over five months old now)

Madison

Chewie has extreme focus when it comes to balls!

The dogs, pictured with Des. From left to right: Reagan, Madison, Jefferson, Chewie

After the dog beach we decided to walk around Annapolis and got some lunch at a dog friendly restaurant. While we ate, the dogs just chilled under the table.






I love this picture. We were stopped at a Carvel ice cream place to pick up an ice cream cake. We also got one from DQ to have our own 'cake off' since I had never had a Carvel cake and Des had never had a DQ cake. The dogs were all very interested in what we were doing.

Gorgeous Chewie.

Then, later that night we took the dogs to Shirlington Dog Park in Arlington, VA. It was late so there weren't too many dogs there... which was great for us!

At the end of the day, the dogs could barely hold their heads up they were so tired!!!

November puppy reunion

Yesterday (Sunday) I was in Charlottesville, VA and got the opportunity to meet up with three of the puppies from the November 2007 litter. They're all a little over six months old now, but wow have they grown!

Ginger (formerly known as Molly) is sweet though somewhat reserved. I think she has a very mellow personality!

Chewie (formerly Peter) is great; I got to see him last month when I was in Arlington, VA!

Chewie

And we all know Jefferson! It was hot, but in the shade it wasn't too bad. Still, here he is exhausted!

The only one missing in this picture (that was there) is Reagan. He found a nice cool, shady spot and didn't leave it to go chasing the others!

This is Ridge (formerly Hiro) she's the smallest from the litter (even smaller than Charlie!) She was extremely adorable!

And now, all the litter mates together!!!

Starting on the left! Chewie, Ridge, and Ginger!!

After the play session I went with Chewie's owners to Main Street in C'ville. It was a great opportunity to get the dogs out and about for socialization!

From left to right: Chewie, Jefferson, Madison, Reagan

Hiking

Yesterday Nathan and I decided to go to Beford, VA (no more than an hours drive from us) to go hiking. The Peaks of Otter are gorgeous this time of year, and I haven't been there since I was a kid. That being the case, I didn't remember just how the hike up Sharp Top would be so I only brought Madison with us. She did exceptionally well, she was off leash for most of the climb - however, to reduce any and all nervousness on my part I put her back on leash when we made it to the top!



The mountains seem so small in comparison!








My husband is the person in the above picture; I think it's an interesting shot. Notice the gorgeous background, then notice how my husband is ignoring it to review shots he had taken on his own camera. It would appear that the actually isn't as interesting as the digital representation... or so the picture portrays.


Madison decided to strike a pose all on her own... she's quite the character!

Update

I was recently made aware that it's been quite some time since my last post here - so I decided I'd update.

First things first, back in April I took Madison and Reagan to our first show ever in Norfolk, VA. Both of them placed first in their class and Madison took best of opposite sex.

It was an experience, and I look forward to doing it again. I must admit though, I think I enjoy agility and herding a lot better than showing!

Everyone here's been doing great; I've been working long hours as a dog trainer so I haven't had much down time! Of course, training other peoples dogs is in addition to all the work I still enjoy doing with my own!!

Jefferson's getting bigger - he's still rather small and I hope he'll get a bit taller, but overall he's a great puppy!


He's still as goofy as ever, only now he's become quite the lanky little puppy! I've been taking him with me to act as my demo dog as he's great on basic obedience and we've been working on more advance commands as well. He's not even six months old yet!

Happy Easter

It's been awhile since I last updated. Everyone's doing well, Sylar's getting big - as is Jefferson! We've been working on training - I would say that Jefferson is extremely treat motivated, but at the same time, is somewhat particular about the type of treat. He does pretty well with the commands 'sit', 'down', and 'touch' and for fun we're working on 'roll over' which he's getting better at. As far as recall, Sylar's recall is much better than Jefferson's. I'd say Sylar has a 95% recall whereas Jefferson's is around 70%. I'll need to get video of Jefferson's training and post that. In the meantime, I'm including a recent picture of Jeffers to show his size. He was a little over four pounds when I brought him home; currently he weighs a little over eight pounds!

DailyPuppy.com!

Check out the new daily puppy!

Just a couple pictures of the new guy

Jefferson's doing well, he can be a bit of a trouble maker at times - but it seems everyone loves him anyway! Can't wait till he gets old enough to start puppy K!

CuteOverload.com

Check out Reagan and Madison over at CuteOverload.com today!

Reagan the Trickster!

Madison's on the Daily Puppy!!

Madison is the Daily Grown up Puppy for today! Go check her out at The Daily Puppy.com

A short video of puppies at play!

Madison is the older blue merle female, Sylar is the small blue merle male (currently 13wks) and Jefferson is the red tri male (almost 9wks).

Westwood Aussies' Matriarch!

This is Tara, she was my first Miniature Aussie and currently my only breeding female. I hope to have two breeding females in the future, both out of her and Reagan. The entire point of breeding is to better the breed, and their puppies have been exceptionally high in quality both structurally and temperament wise!

Westwood's Reagan

I cannot say enough about this dog, he's everything I could want in a miniature Aussie - and I hope to pass along his wonderful traits in litters to come same as in previous litters.

2-25-2008 update + pictures

Well, they played together well for part of the day. We only had one scuffle I felt the need to break up; not bad considering they are both rather assertive little pups! Sylar's doing much better about being put in his crate. Also, sometimes he amazes me at his interest in the things I say and the things I do - he's a very attentive puppy.

Claire left for her new home today.

It's always a bittersweet feeling when a puppy leaves for its new home. I'm sad to see the pup go, but at the same time I know that the puppy will now be in a home where it will be given attention full time. Where it will be loved and trained in a way that I am unable to fulfill when I have a litter of puppies all vying for my attention! It's nice to know that now a pup will be the focus of attention and affection in its new home!

Today, Sylar got extra hugs, treats, and an extended playtime. He's showing an excellent tug ability and a good shake prey drive. I really do believe he'd excel in agility and I'm hoping he'll prove to have a very strong herding instinct!

Establishing a peaceful coexistance!

In my household, it's understood that all animals must get along by coexisting peacefully... but for some reason, this seems to be easiest done with the dogs - it's only the cat that presents a problem!

Sylar (blue merle male) didn't take too well to Jefferson (red tri male) which is understandable; Jeffers is full of personality at just seven weeks old. He is rather submissive with people, but put with another dog he tries to assert himself. Sylar, at just a little over 12 weeks was none too tolerant of this dominating little pup, but after a quick and well placed correction he has a completely different view. I know I should have broken up the pestering play earlier, but it was just too funny to see Sylar tolerating Jefferson as he (Jefferson) grabbed a hold of his fur on his back leg and tried to pull him across the room.

Sylar's a great pup, and I think the longer he stays, the more attached I'm going to get to him!

The newest member of the bunch

Introducing Jefferson, Thomas



He's a red tri miniature whose dam was a red merle and whose sire was a red tri. We're hoping he matures to between 15 - 16 inches. When he gets a bit older he'll start puppy k with ambitions of later starting him in agility. He'll also eventually be instinct tested and if he passes he'll be taking herding lessons along with Reagan!

A farewell to Shanti

Shanti left today for her new home in Maine.

She was a great puppy, she will be missed!

First post

Westwood Miniature Aussies is a small hobby kennel intent on bettering the breed. Our dogs are our family, they are not kennel dogs. I am active in agility, herding, and obedience with my dogs; I hope to soon incorporate flyball as well!

This blog will be used for updates, both text and pictures as well as the occasional video.