I meant to do a post about my performance puppy class over the weekend, but Saturday I was busy preparing for the Nor’easter. We lost power at 4:30 am on Sunday and haven’t gotten it back yet. Apparently 9 out of 12 power loops in the Wrentham, Franklin, Foxboro area are down. Best estimate for return to power is Thursday. Hopefully it will be sooner.
We also had a minor boiler/furnace emergency. John came upstairs from the basement and said, “Wow, you can really hear the water coming in.” I thought, huh? It usually seeps in, which you do not hear. I went down to check it out and water was draining from a pipe on the furnace/boiler at a decent pace. I put a cooler under it and went out to shovel. An hour later I came in to check and the cooler was full. Uh-oh. Call the oil company. They say they will be out in a couple of hours and to stay on bucket duty until then. Turns out the expansion tank went and a valve related to it. The oil guy was able to replace it and double-checked everything, but of course since we do not have power he couldn’t actually test it. It was not related to the power loss, just bad luck.
My in-laws’ power came back around 1pm, so I made plans to bring the birds there if our power didn’t come back in the afternoon. It didn’t, so I evacuated the birds around 3 pm. I am going to pick up the g-pigs tonight. Hopefully our pipes won’t freeze (they are saying there will be a warming trend over the next few days) and I can get some practice in with Irie.
Irie is entering a temper tantrum phase. She is very, very smart and has no fear. Today she figured out how to climb the short x-pen I am using in the office. She has also been chewing (dog appropriate items) like a maniac. I would say she is very oral. She runs around with a large Himalayan Cheese Chew hanging out of her mouth. How she doesn’t trip, I do not know. No ears yet, which is a bummer - I think they might have to be taped. When she gets up from laying on her side they stand for a second before falling.
Cross your fingers power comes on sooner than later!!
13 comments:
Hope you get your power back asap!
I never taped ears on any of my 3 Cardis, and their ears all came up.
Dylan's at around 4 months over the course of a weekend. Wilson about the same age maybe a bit older, and Jimmy had his all the way up at 7 weeks.
Interesting! I would be really curious when people's pups ears typically come up. I think Holly's last litter they were all up between 8 and 10 weeks. Irie was 10 weeks on Saturday. But if they can come up as late as 4 months maybe I should stop obsessing!
Comments like yours about the ears makes me wonder if Pallo was supposed to have prick ears like the corgis and vallhunds do, but they just never came up (even more likely because of chronic ear infections that caused him to shake his head so much he got permanent lumps in his ears from hematomas that were never treated). I'd be interested in what a corgi's ears look like if they don't stand up.
No power is a bummer -- I hope it's back on soon.
Ears are a topic on which different breeders have widely varying opinions. I follow the Cathy Ochs-Cline regimen for taping. If they aren't up at 14 weeks, I tape; other breeders tape at 10 weeks. I have had no ears that failed to come up. I attribute it to the parents' ears and to feeding raw. There is a taping segment on my blog if you want to look at what I use when I do have to tape.
Thanks, Penni. I will check it out. I am hoping they pop up by themselves. As Katrin said, if Bug's ears could stand up, Irie's can! I think his were taped though.
@ K-Koira, I swear I saw a pic when I was googling the other day, but now I cannot find it.
I was always told to start taping at 7 weeks to get them started but as you know with the last litter, only one had to be taped. It is easier to tape them as they leave for their new homes - 1. to show the new owners how to do it and 2. no littermates to rip it off.
With Tristan I waited and waited (over 12 weeks old) then had my hands full to get them up. It took forever to get them up because I waited so long.
OMG that sounds like quite the weekend, yikes!
totally different breed but Crickets border collie ears were down to the point everyone said they would not come up at 7 1/2 months--perhaps an old wives tale or misinformation but I had read that feeding things like chicken necks because there is a lot of cartlidge, or glucosomine or something helped, so I did go out of my way to feed those when I could have fed chicken backs, so ya never know....ears are fun to watch when they are trying to decide what to do ;-)
Cottage cheese supplementation will help, although I would not worry overly much yet. I glued the boys up but that last for like three days until they tore them apart. They are all up at the base now. Zen has one totally up. The others look like Borzoi ears at the moment.
I do feed raw and I have been supplementing breakfast and dinner with at least a tablespoon of cottage cheese. I am just afraid of missing the window. I remember when Bug was finishing his championship Kerry was handling a Boxer who's ears hadn't been taped correctly. It was a nightmare for her because they were so soft. And I know a Pem who's ears never went up. :(
Here is the link with the Cardi ears that never came up, K-Koira:
http://my.voyager.net/~farrago/Articles/Ears/EarTape.html
Irie's breeder posted the link on her website!
Thanks Jules! Those ears look just like Pallo's ears, so I'm thinking maybe he did just fail to stand. Its kind of an adorable look though.
We were discussing ILPing Pallo, and that I would need to have him ILP as a Vallhund, and post his ears for the picture.
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