First Swim!

I should have known that taking the pups to the river for the first time would be interesting...

The pups have been on a couple of runs following the 4-wheeler lately, they are still a little unsure of it and walk right in front of it while it's moving, much like their momma does. It's a great trait she's passing down(/sarcasm). But I won't complain too much, most other things (other than the HOWLER SCREECHING) are good habits that I am glad she's passing on!

Here she is with 3 of the crew (more on where #4 was later...)

A run with these guys to the river takes about an hour, whereas the other crew, it's about 20 mins max! Anything with puppies is extremely slow right now... they have to stop to play along the way 50x and then there is the stopping & sitting for no apparent reason thing.

Playtime about 3 minutes from home.

This is them leaping in front of me!

Finally, PB is up ahead so the little rugrats go to chase her.

And the playing withe new blades of grass distraction

"Oooh weeee! We've never seen this patch of grass before!!!"

And the "let's-just-stop-for-no-apparent-reason" breaks.

Then as we headed to the river, Louis - who is the most adventurous of the pack so far, followed the 3 big dogs ahead of me. I was a bit worried about their first river trip so I wanted to be there when they got to it. He beat me, was gone a few seconds and by the time I got there he was out and soaking wet. Puppy swim #1!

Louis learned his lesson quickly and stayed out of the river, but Maggie and Howler were up next. They've never met water that was deeper than them, so Maggie just stepped right in and SPLOOSH! Under she went. She didn't go far and clambered to get out of the water ASAP. She didn't mess around.

Then Howler had his turn, you'd think they'd learn from watching, but no.  Got this dip on camera! Here they are walking up to the rivers edge.

Maggie, you can see is already wet, just had her dunk. Howler is in front of her checking it out. It was HOT today so the water was a welcome sight.

Ooh, water, yay!

Annnnd here he is taking a step and unexpectedly finding nothing but water underneath his foot!  Maggie looks on as if to say "oooh, I just did that..."

Before I knew it the current sucked him wayyy out almost into the middle of the river and he was motoring downstream at a surprisingly fast speed! Got this pic then realized I might have to run along the bank to keep up with him. His little legs really started going and I was amazed at how freakin fast he turned around and shot back to the bank. He only really went about 6ft down river, but he was NOT going much further. And of course, he tried to get out in the bushiest, steepest spot, so I managed to grab the scruff of his neck and yank him out.

It was pretty funny and I praised them afterwards for being "such good little swimmers!"  They shook it off and we ran/waddled/walked/sat/played all the way back home. What an adventure!

Here's what's up with little Fossey. It only took them about 11 weeks to injure one of the pack! She is on lockdown as she injured her leg somehow. I came home to her limping and not bearing ANY weight on it.  After a couple days of implementing Operation: Fossey Lockdown, she is much better. But still no playing allowed and that makes for a pretty cranky puppy.

But she IS getting lots of one-on-one time with me, and she's been so good inside. She's been cuddly and adorable too.

 

Us leaving on a walk without her, poor little thing!

And here she is at night, passed out on the dog pillow. She missed the swim fiasco today, but I'm sure she'll be back with the pack soon!

The howling

A short clip of what that 50km ride was like. You can see the aptly-named Howler doing what he does best! Maggie is looking at the camera as if to say "get me away from him!" but really, she was mostly just vomity.

Pups first road trip!

And it was to the vet clinic for shots! Lucky pups. Haha. Then we went to Aunty Steph's so as to make them realize road trips can be FUN and not just full of sterile clinics and things poking them.

EEK! Where ARE WE GOING?!?!?

They were slightly traumatized and howled for the first 50km into town, ugh!

 No pics at the vet clinic as it was a bit of a gong show bringing them all in and stuff but they were brave little troopers!  Not one pup squeaked at getting poked with the needle, Maggie let the vet check out her war wound (thanks to Aunty Esther, she has a bit of a hole on her nose...), they were perfect little puppies!

And because it's all about socialization and trying new things at this age, we went to visit Aunty Steph and Herschel!

Howler (in front, Maggie behind) was SO freaked out before this, his hair was going up on his back, haha!!! First time I've seen any of them react that way. 

Herschel is just a young guy himself (about a year) and we weren't sure how he'd react, he's VERY playful, so we kept him (and PB) on a leash for a bit.

We went for a walk and this is how it looked:

 Scaredy-pups think that if they all stick together, they are tougher as a "pack"! It was too funny.

NO! We are not running ahead! That big, strange black dog is up ahead...

Herschel is all like "c'mon guys!" Pups are still keeping their distance.

 Herschel is now loose, but let's still stick by momma... just to be safe.

Ok, now they start to loosen up a bit

PB is now loose and the pups stick by her, but are getting closer to Herschel.

Hellooooo...

Herschel was amazing with them! He seemed to realize they were a little freaked out and he didn't scare them too much at all. He was really careful with them, what a good boy!

Everyone is now relaxed and enjoying the lovely walk.

Puppies venture a bit further from momma, good to see a bit of independence, just when I was thinking they are all way too attached to each other! Momma Bear cannot be out of the pen without them for very long without freaking out, it's crazy!  PB's personality has changed, but in a good way - she is not as annoying now, haha.

Wheeeee! Walks with new dogs are fun, not scary.

haha! This picture kills me.  Louis is the brave one and the one closest to Herschel.

 Herschel does some back rolling and the pups became SUPER interested - it was like they knew it was playtime.

Here's a video of the back rubbing, puppy-wanting-to-play-but-not-sure so they hide at my feet incident:

Okayyyy, not sure what to do here... maybe we should just stare at him? Check him out. He's kinda different.

Howler sneaks closer... as if Herschel won't see him if he becomes crouching tiger.

Contact!

Yay! Big, brave puppies! And with this, they slept ALL the way home and for most of the afternoon! :)

why huskies sleep on straw

They destroy everything else!!

Louis looks WAY too happy here. That is Maggie(l) and Howler(r) mowing down on what's left of the dog pillow.

This is what I came home to:

Let us ouuut!!! We'll be good, we swear.... (heeheeheeeeeee)

Oh there is probably some stuffing in this hole I should tear apart a bit more...

We had so much fun today while you were at work!!!! :)

 

Fighting over what remains of the zipper...

Puppies anyone? They're FREE!!!!

Puppies visit the pond

It seems I jumped the gun last week, the pups are only 8.5 weeks now, duh! They are still gigantic huge dogs though, and it is hilarious to see them navigate many "firsts" in life!

Here they are checking out the scungy pond for the... well, second time. Our first trip was kind of a spontaneous event. Here they are heading to the pond by the cabin - this is the bushy trail to the pond.

 Raising these little guys without Momma Bear would not be very easy. She has always been (annoyingly) good at sticking close to me, I'm sure most of you know. Well this is one trait I hope she is passing onto the little buggers!

 So they follow her to the pond

And almost in the pond....

A wee video:

Ummm... we're not so sure about that...

 Someone goes in a little further than the rest...

I think that's Maggie!

The boys - Louis is usually the first to try everything. And Howler, true to his name, whines about everything. 

Follow Momma!!

Fossey gets a little wetter than expected. That'll teach her to follow PB EVERYWHERE.

She wasn't sure what to do here, so she just sort of froze in the water for a few seconds.

She came out not too terribly impressed and whining (she is the other whiney one), but then she snapped out of it and attacked her brothers.

This is where PB decided to go BATSH*T CRAZY!!!! Can you see the crazy in her eyes???

It turned into "let's rip around 100 miles/hr and attack puppies" hour!

As much as the puppies love the momma playtime, even this was a bit much for them. And they sometimes cowered to protect themselves as she came careening over them.

Then her nurturing side came out and she noticed the puppies were wet. Well, wet puppies need to be licked! So crazy-assed playtime stopped momentarily.  Oh how I love ADD dogs.

Here's a video to help you understand her craziness:

keep your distance, she's CRAAAAAZY!!!

 I think the puppies spend about 50% of the time rolling around on their backs because they've either been attacked or trip on their own.

 The deep grass was hilarious - you could barely see the pups!

Look really hard and you can see some puppy heads in behind PB.

A little bit more visible now, as they wondered where we were. Look at PB watching them, haha!

 Well, it's been 10 seconds since I attacked you guys - time to beat up puppies again!

Maggie and Fossey are in the lead with Louis close behind. Howler is... well, who knows. Probably mesmerized by some grass.

I love the leaping Maggie on the right here!

There's the little dude!!! He is definitely the "baby" of this group - and the brat. And the whiner. And the character.