Arion's Fast Fire Remington at almost one year

I Want that Cheese

I was sitting on the sofa eating some bread and cheese while watching TV, a puppy with me on the sofa, on top of a couple of layers of bath towels just in case. On the table in front of me, close to the sofa, was a plate of delicious Manchego and some olives. The pup sniffed the air. He suddenly became animated and started moving really fast, with a determined attitude. His front legs slipped down off the sofa, but I caught him and pulled him back. He immediately dove forward again but this time I pulled the table closer and his front feet reached the table as he grabbed the cellophane wrapper from the cheese and started to pull on it as hard as he could. I pulled him back to me and he immediately set off again, determined to get the cheese. He was only 16 days old and had never eaten anything besides mother's milk....but he is a cheese lover already.

Three Weeks Old Update

We are left with four happy healthy pups after losing one to internal injuries suffered when a very exhausted mother plopped down on her accidentally. Despite intensive care for two days round the clock, she left us peacefully.

The remaining four have been growing like wildfire and happily spent their time eating and sleeping and then doing it again. Eyes opened late...I guess because the pups were born several days premature. But most of them only opened their eyes on the 15th and 16th days. Behavior started to change with much more interaction with each other. Then ears started opening last Friday, at 20 days of age. You could see that a loud noise produced a slight head movement. Now they are fully engaged in seeing, hearing and interacting.

Play fighting has started and they appear to be fierce little drunken gladiators, lunging at a sibling and collapsing in a heap of uncoordination. "But it seemed a good plan, why won't my body cooperate?" But then they get up and start all over. I recall a line from a motivational talk by Wayne Dyer on not getting discouraged when life knocks you down, and not saying that you can't do something, nor even judging what others can do. He said, "How many times did you fall while learning to walk and then decided that you wouldn't ever be able to walk?" It is this wonderful innocent life force of forging on. Watching these little souls develop is endlessly fascinating and entertaining. Batuque is a great mother. The pups are so well fed and cleaned. But I can see she is bored out of her skull and wants to work. Her pumped up diet is keeping her in good shape. She is eating Evo Red Meat, Taste of the Wild Sierra Blend, cottage cheese, yogurt, cooked ground beef, cooked turkey, cooked liver.....and she eats like she's never eaten a meal in her life before. If I am a little late with feeding, she starts to throw things on the floor from the counters. She is such a wonderful diva....the local royalty.

PUPPIES! YEAH!

Batuque had 5 pups on July 30. 3 males, 2 females
Stay tuned for photos, videos and fun posts.

Gooch (Batuque x Athar)

This was Gooch when he was nine months old. He and his owner Linc have had to postpone training due to an injury to Gooch and an illness for Linc. My best wishes to them and hope to see them back at training soon.

The Gooch when he was 9 mos old

This was from when Gooch (Arion's D'Judge) was nine months old. I could not get this to download before...hope it works now.

Some great pics taken by Tyler Verlander

See more Batuque pics at facebook at Atlanta Working Dog Club