This is Man Ray, our new 'keeper' puppy from Solo and Trouble - we opted to have his ears cropped, the first since Solo's disasterous crop - and hope he continues to grow into the dog we think he will.

After 2.5" of rain in the past 24 hours, we were astonished this morning to see our Nelly Moser clematis in bloom!  This has been a reliable clematis for us ~ maybe not the showiest but a delight nonetheless!

Dog Bite Prevention Week: Dogs Don't Like Hugs

By Joan Orr on 05/22/2012

Filed in

A different kind of love

One of the most important things you can teach your children is that dogs don't like hugs and kisses. This is a tough lesson, because many (if not most) dog owners simply do not believe it themselves.
Children learn early on that giving hugs to parents, siblings, and stuffed animals is a way to show love and affection. The desire to show affection extends naturally to the family dog. To a child, the family dog is just an animated stuffed animal.

Sadly, this desire to show affection to the family dog is a major cause of facial bites to children. Dogs may tolerate hugs from kids, but few actually enjoy this type of attention. If a dog does more than tolerate this inappropriate handling, it is only on the dog's own terms—when the dog comes to the child for attention, and only if the child does not hug tightly or hang on too long. There is no dog that loves hugs from kids anytime, anywhere, anyhow.

Listen to the experts, including the dogs!

How do we know this about dogs? In part, because every dog-behavior expert tells us. For example, in her wonderful book For the Love of a Dog, world-renowned author Patricia McConnell says that she has at least 50 photos of kids hugging dogs—and in not one of them is the dog happy about it. We also know because dogs tell us, and dogs don't tell lies!
If your dog is enjoying a hug, he will do one or more of the following:

• Ask for more if you stop
• Lean into you
• Relax and close his eyes
• Pant and wag his tail with a loose body

If your dog is not enjoying a hug, he will do one or more of the following:

• Turn his head away from you
• Lick your face repeatedly
• Lick his lips or flick his tongue out
• Yawn
• Lick or chew at himself
• Sneeze
• Wriggle to get away
• Hold his body tense
• Shake off vigorously when you let go
• Show a half of moon of white in his eye
• Wag his tail stiffly

The dog in the video is typical of a dog about which owners would say, "He just loves the kids; they can do anything to him." If you hear yourself saying these words, take a closer look and see what the dog is really saying. In the vast majority of cases, the dog is saying, at least some of the time, "I don't like this—please make it stop."

Prevention is the key

When a dog tells us something and we don't listen, eventually the dog may not be able to take it anymore. At that point, the dog's only recourse is to use his teeth to say, "Stop that."
Be an advocate for your kids and your dog. Intervene as necessary, and allow only interactions that the dog truly enjoys.

I don't have a more recent picture of Briarlea Reina de la  Noche' BN (Solo x Ruby) or I'd use it to let you all know that she got her JHD title yesterday on a mixed sheep/goat flock.  This is a beginner title in herding for young Noche who turns 2 years old in June!  She is also entered in AKC trials in June -- results to come!  Noche' was the puppy I kept from that litter and she's turning out to be not only multi-talented but a beauty as well.  She lives with Susan Yochim in Woodbury, MN.

New obedience title with placement to finish for our good dog Solo!

cluck cluck cluck

The chicks have finally figured out how to use the little door in the east side of the coop!  They are truly 'free range' chickens, eating, growing, sunning themselves, finding bugs and worms in the ground.  A great life if you are a chicken destined for ... you know what and where...

 No rest for the weary!  Here is the little side garden we're working up near the dog yards.  Raspberries are on the left, a lilac hedge on the right protects us from the north winds and a load of compost needing leveling and tilling up is what you can see here.  We will likely plant tomatoes for the Cafe in this spot.

And here, our root cellar which doubles as a tornado shelter if need be.  There are still potatoes inside from last year which are holding well!  I tried using it to ripen cheese one year but the cheeses had quite a bit of not-so-lovely brown mold on them.  The face 'sculpture' on the left is a piece we brought home from New Mexico - he gives us constant delight as the snow or shadow molds his mood!

New Trouble video live!

Yesterday it was a warm 71F, we brought the stock into the barnyard since it was forecast to get cold and snowy and Jim took this little picture of me and some of the sheep. We currently have 31 lambs born and were finishing up checking tails on the rams. This is the last year we will fool with 'hair' sheep, I suspect.

Chica, our lovely new horse was helping herself to a little grain :)

New Trouble pup video today!

Blade from last year's Solo x Birdie litter! His owner writes: "He now stands at 26 and half inches at the shoulder and is developing nicely. He's still doing very well in agility and loves to bike and go to the beach. I'm working on a couple of issues with him but he is a wonderful dog and I couldn't be happier with him."

From her home in Montana comes a picture of Tillie and her friend, helping clean up the National Forests! Tillie is from our Solo x Ruby litter, a littermate to Noche' who just got her AKC Beginner Novice title.

A new puppy video and pdf file posted on Trouble's page! I'll be in and out tomorrow, picking up a new hay/manure bucket and having teeth cleaned on one of the Papillons. Good things to do since the weather's turned quite cold!

Congratulations to Susan Yochim and Briarlea Noche' on their new AKC BN title, finishing it with a 196.5 today! We also took Solo to an obedience trial yesterday where he got a leg with a 192.0!

Friday already! Where does the time go? Trouble's puppies are doing well, they are thriving ~ eating and sleeping. I cut Trouble's coat down today and filled an entire trash can with dead hair. Dogs generally blow their coats when they have pups and holy cow, did she ever decide to blow! We sent in entries for a herding trial in June so now we'll have time for her coat to grow back in and make Bouviers everywhere proud to call her one of our own :)

This week we sent some raspberries and some of our brown leghorn hens over to a new farmer in Deer Park, WI and our new neighbors down RR 4 stopped by and took Jim's beehive and supplies to their farm...they will bring us some honey some day..a good trade, I think. Part of today was spent cleaning the barnyard as I figure out how to use the manure bucket on the tractor; a new hay bucket is coming here next week to finish the cleanup project. Thanks to my son Seth for watching the craigslist ads!

With our weather returning to seasonal norms, it is time to put some cabbage and lettuces in the garden - maybe this weekend?

Larry, Moe and Curly.

Supreme Champion Dorset Ram

We decided to go back to Dorsets with our little flock having had mixed success with hair sheep (Dorpers) so today I went to Rocky Knob Farm in Roberts, Wisconsin and picked out our new flock sire.  Picture to the left is his father - a dandy fellow.

Trouble helped me once again this evening to put the ewes and lambs back in the barnyard after they had been on pasture for a few hours today.  And finally, a set of twins and another set of triplets from our old girls.

New chicks!  This year we have meat birds as well as some replacements for our hen flock.  Our hens are laying well but when I incubate eggs my percentage seems to be overwhelmingly cockerels!

I have the chicks in the kennel building for this first chilly week then they will go out to the coop.  The dogs are, in the meanwhile, fascinated!

Nine new puppies!  5 girls, 4 boys!

We started the morning by going out to the barnyard in the wee dawn hours to put the sheep in the barn in preparation for shearing.  I was so pleased to have Trouble help me - she moved all the ewes, heavily pregnant ones as well as the yearlings with their new lambs - quietly into the barn.  We were done in all of 10 minutes and back in the house for coffee.  What a champ!  I decided she should stay in the house while we did the shearing and let the sheep into the pasture.  This early evening she brought them back into the barn, again very quietly.  She's turning into an excellent farm hand.  About 8:30 p.m. she decided it was time to get with the program and have those puppies - the first one was born and we will check back in tomorrow with the rest of the story!

Trouble moved into the kitchen yesterday and I moved to the TV room and slept on the fold out couch.  It wasn't too bad since I was able to watch TWO movies!  Jim generally is up and out of the house by 5 a.m. so I suspect he also slept better.  She's not due until next weekend but today would be the first day she could have viable puppies and it just seemed like the right time.  She was restless all night trying to convince me she should come sleep at least NEXT to the couch if not exactly IN it but no, I held firm and she stayed in the kitchen, baby gates at every exit.  This morning she thought she should check on the lambs and ewes with me so off we went, sure enough there were a couple new lambs to move out of the barnyard so we had a little job to do.  She also met Clover the new goat who was NOT HAPPY to see this big black dog.  She didn't remember her from when she was a kid, I guess.  Trouble thought having goats back on the farm was a good turn of events and after all, she is the one in charge of keeping them in line so its good she approved.

You can see by the pictures that she carries her pups up under her ribs rather than back farther - she doesn't stick out on the sides much at all but rather down.  She's in very good spirits and is eating well although I can already see that she's getting a little thinner than I like to see.  This morning I supplemented her kibble with 2 eggs (those hens are laying like there's no tomorrow) and also about a cup of goats milk all cooked to a kind of custard.  Actually, this is what I start pups on when I have had goats in the past and they eat it readily.  Imagine that!

Here, also just for fun, is a pix of Mr. Pea as Jim calls him.  He's displaying for the pigeons.  Silly bird.