New Puppy Blogs!

For anyone who still visits this blog looking for a quick puppy fix I have great news - there is a new puppy blog. Sheba, another Helping Paws breeding dog, has just had her first litter and you can watch these five adorable Labrador Retrievers grow up at http://shebasfirstlitter.blogspot.com.

Another blog to watch is http://faithhp.blogspot.com. Faith is the breeding dog from Tiga's first litter and a litter mate to Charlie. She has already started a blog in anticipation of her first litter, which hopefully will be soon. The blog is entitled, Tiga's Legacy - Faith. What a nice tribute and yes, it did make me cry.

Here are the latest photos of Tiga's last puppies.

Dixie (formerly Fatty Patty)

Jazzy (formerly Brenda)

Rio (formerly McHenry)

Tessa (formerly "The Peanut")

Trooper (formerly Notorious BIG)

Service Dogs-In-Training

First off, thank you to all of you who have followed us on this journey. This blog has not only had visitors from 33 states within the US, but also visitors from Canada, UK, Brazil, Iceland, Columbia, Australia, Spain, Japan, South Africa, Ireland and Germany. Truly amazing.

Four of Tiga's puppies are now officially Helping Paws service dogs-in-training. The Peanut was chosen to be a potential breeding dog and placed with a caretaker home. She will go through the same training as the other four and eventually be used for public education. When she is two years old she will have her hips, elbows, eyes and heart checked and if everything looks good she will become a Helping Paws breeding dog.

The other four puppies were placed with their volunteer foster homes. Foster homes are very special people who take these puppies into their homes and hearts, work with them daily, attend weekly training classes, socialize and train them in public and of course, love them. They will teach them approximately 80 skills, including retrieving, turning on and off light switches, opening doors, snuggle and getting help. After two to three years the foster homes will give these well trained, wonderful dogs to an individual with a physical disability, other than sight or hearing.

At the end of the training, a Helping Paws dog is valued at $15,000. The people who receive them pay only a $50 application fee and an equipment fee of around $200. This is made possible through the generous donations of individuals, corporations, foundations and grants. If you would like to follow these puppies' progress as they develop into life changing gifts, please consider sponsoring one of them through the Helping Paws Blue Coat Benefactor program. For more information on how you can help, please visit the Helping Paws website, http://www.helpingpaws.org/ or email me at jmichurski@helpingpaws.org.

Things at our house are now pretty much back to normal. I am able to sleep later than 5:30. My dining room is now usable again and no longer contains a urine trap. Our deck is no longer boarded up and has been power scrubbed to remove any remaining evidence of five puppies. Charlie has his Tiga back and they are playing and wrestling again and never far apart. And last, but not least, Tori has found something new to obsess about. There is a bird's nest under the deck that now occupies her time.



It is nice to not have our lives consumed with puppies but I do miss them. It is a little strange to think that Tiga is no longer a Helping Paws breeding dog. As one of the foster homes pointed out to me, she has lived up to her name. Tiga in Indonesian means three and she has provided Helping Paws with three wonderful litters. She is now retired and will live out the rest of her days as my much loved buddy. I can't thank Helping Paws and Tiga enough for giving us this experience.

Our Last Day Together

No poop in the puppy pen! That is what I was greeted with on our last morning together, five smiling little faces and NO POOP! That makes it even harder to day good bye to them.

We had breakfast on the deck and played and played. Later the bathing crew showed up and we fluffed and buffed them so they would be all ready for their new foster homes. They all tolerated the bath really well but didn't like the dryer too much. Thanks to Brenda (the person, not the puppy), Catherine and Melanie for helping.


After lunch I spent some time in the yard with them. I really wanted to get a few last photos of each of them. They haven't been on grass too much and it was so fun to watch them discover the yard. I was amazed at how independent they all were, going off on their own and exploring everything. Fatty Patty hit the ground running and never stopped as you can see from her pictures. It was the perfect way to spend our last day together.

The Peanut

Fatty Patty

Brenda

The Boys

McHenry

Notorious B.I.G

Pictures from Yesterday

Three More Days

Just three more days left with these guys. This morning I put them on the deck and sat down with them. All five were all over me giving me kisses, biting me and pushing each other around trying to get to the best position, which apparently is closest to my face. It was before 6:00 and I was really tired, but I still thought, "Boy, I am really going to miss them." I think their leaving will be a little harder for me this time around as this is the last litter for Tiga. There won't be another litter for me to look forward to next year. Having a litter of puppies has been a life long dream of mine and I can't thank Helping Paws enough for giving me this opportunity. All three litters with Tiga have been wonderful experiences for me and my family. How could you not love having these adorable faces greeting you every morning, no matter what time it is!

Going Home Day for the Labs

Last Friday was going home day for Peaches' puppies.



Steve, the caretaker home for Peaches and her puppies, arrived at the Helping Paws training center with seven adorable Labrador Retriever puppies. Seven foster families were there, anxiously waiting to meet their new puppy.





Seven more puppies are now Helping Paws service dogs-in-training and have started their journey to one day being a life changing gift for someone. I love going home day.

I can't believe it is only five more days until the puppies go to their foster homes. We have a busy week ahead of us. Today we are going to the vet for a check up, their first shots and microchips. Thursday we will go to Helping Paws for puppy testing. This will help Eileen determine which puppy goes to which foster home and which female will be kept for the breeding program. Then Friday is the big day. We will fluff and buff the puppies in the morning and then take them to Helping Paws where they will meet their new families. This litter has been so easy and so fun that I am a little sad about their upcoming departure. I will miss being greeted in the morning by their cute little faces and puppy kisses. It will be nice to sleep past 5:30 though. I hope all of the foster homes are resting up.

B.I.G.

B.I.G. and McHenry

Brenda

The Peanut

Tiga has really started playing with her puppies this last week. She runs around the deck with them and swats them around. The deck furniture is her safe zone where she can escape the puppies so they can't nurse or get their toys away from her.


Eventually she will give up the toy and share.



But before too long she will take it back - just to let them know who is really in charge.

Early Mornings on the Deck

The puppies have been waking up at 5:30 this week and it is not because they are hungry. They just want to get out on the deck and run. They are not even interested in food until they have had some time to explore and romp on the deck. Fortunately we have had some really nice weather and they are able to do that. Unfortunately, running on the deck is not something I am interested in doing at 5:30. Sleeping would be better in my mind.

The puppies are starting to get the hang of the skateboard. They tend to do more solo riding than group riding like the litter last year. And fortunately, they don't have the speed that last year's puppies had so I am not as worried about skateboarding injuries.

Wrestling with each other is still the favorite activity. Here is The Peanut showing her feisty side.

Brenda

McHenry

Playing with Mom's tail is a really fun game (for the puppies, not Mom).

. . . and in our spare time we have been working on a few more Helping Paws cues.

"Tug"

"Rise"

"Shake"

"Speak"

I apologize for being lax about getting new pictures posted. Now that the puppies are older I am spending more time taking care of them and less time taking photos. We only have a week and a half left before they go to their new homes so I will try and post more often.

The puppies really enjoy having the run of the deck as you can see in these next few photos.












After the being on the deck, the inside pen is just not as much fun. Fortunately, the weather has been better and they are getting outside several times throughout the day. This makes for a much cleaner inside pen and that makes me VERY happy!

Five Weeks Old

I can't believe the puppies are already five weeks old. They have been such an easy litter and so much fun, the time has just flown by. I haven't taken a lot of photos this week so not much to update right now. The puppies are loving being on the deck. They have lots of room to run and romp and attack each other. They are turning into little piranhas, fortunately most of the biting is on their litter mates.

Even Tiga's ears are fair game.

Tiga now visits her puppies from the safety of the platform. She is nursing less and less and who can blame her - those teeth are sharp!

The tunnel is by far the favorite play place. They run in and out and tumble all over each other. They even roll it around, giving those inside an exciting ride.

They have really mastered the hoop . It took them awhile to figure it out , but once they did, they starting easily jumping in and out of it.

I plan on taking a lot of photos this weekend so stay tuned.

A Whole New World

Finally it is warm enough here in Minnesota to get the puppies out on the deck. We puppy proofed the deck by putting boards up and gated off a small section so it wouldn't seem to intimidating. After a few tentative steps the puppies started exploring and had a ball. They checked out all of the puppy agility equipment and even had their dinner outside tonight.

A very long puppy!

Charlie was more concerned with protecting his toys than playing with the puppies.


These exceptional puppies have even started learning some Helping Paws cues.

"Rest Your Head"

"Shake"

"Watch" and "Shake"

and almost "Kiss"

Introducing . . .

We have finally found names for all of the puppies. Even though these names are only temporary (the foster homes will have the honor of giving them their permanent names) we put a lot of thought into the names they have while they are with us.

So I'd like to introduce you to . . .

McHenry.

A class of kids in McHenry Illinois has raised money to sponsor a Helping Paws dog. After viewing this blog, they have chosen BLH and in honor of them we have named him McHenry.

Notorious B.I.G.

Okay, I am not a closet rap fan but I do have teen age kids and because BRH is so BIG they have dubbed him Notorious B.I.G., Notorious for short.

The Peanut

Each of Tiga's litters has had a puppy named The Peanut. The other Peanuts were the smallest in the litter but they were also feisty, little go getters with a lot of spunk and personality. PRS is not the smallest but she definitely has the Peanut personality. One day I just naturally started calling her Peanut and it stuck.

Fatty Patty

This picture of PT pretty much says it all.

Brenda
Yes, PLS was named after Brenda. Feel free to give Brenda a call at the Helping Paws office if you want to know why.

Here are a few more photos from the last few days.

Mug Shots

Here are the 3 1/2 week old portraits.

"The Boys"

BRH


BLH

"The Girls"

PRS


PLS


PT

More Cute Photos - Again

Last night the puppies had their first meal of solid food. There was no hesitation. They all just walked up to it and started eating as though they had been doing this for weeks. In Tiga's past litters there were always a few gluttons who pushed everyone out of the way and ate their share and more. Not the case this time. Everyone ate in a pretty orderly and polite fashion. Nobody was overly pushy or laid in the dish. I guess with fewer puppies that have always had more than enough to eat there just isn't the need to fight for the food.

After eating it was time to clean up . . .


. . . or help a friend clean up.



Another perk of motherhood for Tiga, she gets to clean up the left overs.


PLS desperately wanted to wash down her dinner with a little milk and just wasn't quite tall enough.


After the dinner mess was cleaned up they all crashed.