Earthquake News 5.1

Hi Folks

As a number of folks know, we had the largest Earthquake in our area in over a hundred years yesterday afternoon, it was very! clearly felt and shook the house, knocking down rocks in display cases, and rattling windows, pictures and causing my metal roof to pop up and down with a huge very scary bang.. We have a small hairline crack in two ends of one of our buildings but overall, we got off very easy compared to many others.

Hubby was evacated out of his work building, which appears to have a few parts shook off of it..

The dogs were excited before (perhaps the knew something was up) but when it happened.. everyone was dancing and barking including the puppies.. and then all followed me from place to place as I checked the house.. A few times last night, for no reason we could feel.. all the dogs would jump up and bark.. Aftershocks?

Anyway these are some well rounded storm puppies, we have had windstorms, multiply Thunderstorms and now a Earthquake.

We had rain last night and most of today and the puppies were just mucky little puppies, so we did a marathon bath, all pups in the tub, one wetting and one scrubbing and then taking turns rinsing.. It was so funny.. we put down huge towels on the floor and they all had puppy wet bath zoomies all over them.. but wow the humidity was already at 98 percent, so took the floors forever to dry out.. thankfully we have lots of fans to turn on across the house to get that air moving..

They say we are going to have sunshine this weekend, so expect a ton of new photos to come up shortly there after.

Top dog Stats are out! for 2009- Top Icelandic Sheepdogs in Canada

Iceland Sheepdog (12) 2010

#1 Greenstone Blackmore Knight BB 6 G4 1 Pts 26
#2 Ch Solhunder Elska Ljosstjarna BB 9 Pts 11
#3 Ch Cira's Valhalla BB 3 Pts 8
#3 Belglen Undri Ari BB 6 Pts 8
#4 Ch Greenstone Rudolph Valentino BB 6 Pts 6
#5 Heimskauts Eydis CGN BB 5 Pts 4
#5 Kersins Midas Touch BB 1 Pts 4

What a Thrill to see Greenstone Dogs in the Top Five Dogs Canada, we are so proud that we have had at least one or more Greenstone Dog in the Top Five Dogs in Canada since the breed moved over in 2006...Looking forward to what the future brings in both CKC and AKC Rings in Conformation, and Working Dog Sports.

Warning about a new dog food

Thank you Cheryl for sharing this info on our ISD yahoo groups, I did feel that it was important to put up on the puppy blog, I don't know if anyone was planning on feeding this food but in case they were, please consider waiting till your dog is an adult or choosing a different brand of food.


"Sorry this is loooong....

I'm not merely passing this info along second hand, this is my experience with my dogs.

Two of my dogs, a 11 week old ISD puppy and my 7 month old Chinese Crested Sully developed partial digestive system blockages apparently from eating Purina's new SmartBlend foods. The new food has been on the shelves for approximately 2 weeks and we've been feeding it for about 7 to 10 days.

I have x-rays taken yesterday that appear to confirm that the new "tender meaty morsels" are causing a partial blockage in 2 of my smaller dogs. My vet agreed that it appeared to be the new "tender meaty morsels" that were causing the problem even though her pre x-ray opinion was that it couldn't be the food. All her plans for all sorts of tests were immediately cancelled after viewing the x-ray.

The new "tender meaty morsels" are very rubbery in texture and don't change much even after soaked in water for 8 hours. Even when soaked for hours they were difficult to break up well even using a fingernail.

My smart little ISD puppy, Tofa, alerted me to the apparent cause of her distress when she ate around the new "tender meaty morsels" yesterday morning after suffering with severe digestive tract distress for the previous 24 hours. My puppies typically act like every meal may be their last and gulp everything down and plead for more. Leaving food behind was very unusual. Her appetite had remained good even while experiencing the digestive distress.

I got out the bag and read it after Tofa gave me a not so subtle clue as to the potential source of her distress. Did I miss something, did they not recommend that this new formula be fed to puppies? Nope right on the new bag it stated... "start puppies on Purina ONE as early as they will nibble at solid foods, generally three to four weeks of age.....".

I begin switching all my puppies to adult food at 7 to 8 weeks after Pat Hastings suggested while evaluating my 2007 litter that no puppies be fed puppy specific foods....ever.

In spite of the fact that Tofa had not held down any food for nearly 18 hours the x-ray showed her stomach quite full (the vet said her stomach was over full taking up much more space than it should) of what appeared to be the rubbery "tender meaty morsels". Her intestines also contained areas of what looked just like the rubbery "tender meaty morsels" mixed with pockets of gas. The only thing that had been moving past all this was very watery diarrhea the color of the more digestible kibble propelled by gas, IOW projectile liquid diarrhea.

The first symptoms with Tofa were watery diarrhea. About 24 hours later she started vomiting all food after which the diarrhea and basically all bowel movements stopped, yet her appetite, color, temperature and attitude remained good other than some initial signs of discomfort.

Tofa finally kept her dinner down last night (we changed food) and so far has kept her breakfast down today, and at 2 am last night she finally had a normal stool! YAY!!

My poor chinese crested Sully is still having liquid diarrhea, vomiting all food and is very uncomfortable. It hurts me to know that it appears the food I gave him is hurting him.

Purina wants (me?) to believe I caused the problem by not doing a gradual enough transition to the new food. Well that's kind of difficult when you open the new bag and go holy crap what is this?! We did mix what we had left of the old formula with the new, but yeah, it wasn't 10% new 90% old day 1, 20/80 day 2, 30/70 day 3, etc.... 10 day transition like they said I should have done.

I've feed a LOT of dogs a LOT of food for a LOT of years. I've switch back and forth between Purina products and even a few other brands over the years and never had a problem with or without a 50/50 for a couple of days switch over.

Needless to say we did an immediate switch to new food, NO transition period, yesterday evening and Tofa has shown nothing but immediate improvement. My poor Sully still needs to turn the corner.

My vet feels that they will digest the food just very slowly. So I'll monitor Sully for signs he's worsening rather than improving and seek help immediately if needed. Thank goodness we finally have an after hours emergency vet in a nearby town.

Anyhow I just want to warn those of you with small or young dogs to feed the new Purina SmartBlend foods with caution or not at all until this is all sorted out.

PS I just took out my sweet Chinese Crested Sully and he had what started as a gooey bowel movement changing to almost a formed stool, a huge improvement over the squirting liquid diarrhea he has had for the previous 24 hours! Apparently the sudden change in food last night was a good move! So much for me making a not gradual enough change in Purina One to Purina One being the source of my poor babies' distress or in other words partial blockages!

Cheryl... hitting send & NOT proof reading again or it will never be done! LOL

Sand Creek Icelandic Sheepdogs"

How Many little Icelandic Sheepdog Puppies can you find?

Hi Guys

I know that folks are waiting for photos but its been raining all night and into this afternoon, the sheep did a break out, and so thanks to a wonderful sheep dog, they were rounded up (out of the next door hay field) and put back into the barn, got to fix fence in the rain, soaked to the bone and now a big thunderstorm is moving, so no outside photos of the puppies today and to grey and overcast for house photos.. so to tide everyone over.. a bed full of pups after their latest time outside getting wet.

Dreams on Fire vs the Dark Leghorn Hen

Morning Folks

Well, lets see so far today we introduced a new footing surface, (being a old fridge grate) to that they are walking over and play on and off small wire footing, it also rocks slightly, the pups now have free run of the deck off the kitchen and are able to do both steps up and down on their own, and seem to be quite enjoying their new outdoor room

The other new thing this morning, was that while floors are drying, I took sets of two puppies out for short little yard walks, the idea being instead having the comfort of the whole puppy pack, they got much more one on one time, and instead of being just allowed to play as they wish, I called them to follow me as I walked to the garden, and did morning chores with the other critters (not the barn, its to far of a walk yet for any of them)

Its always so interesting to me on how each puppy reacts to being away from the main pack and in dealing and learning with new things, some of the bolder pups in the house become the sucky stick to you or look to you to see how to deal with things, while pups that seem more laid back in the house come out of their shells when given the chance.

So the two pups that were out where Fire and Cal, and both were keeping up well and exploring different things on the way.. chew this, climb the rock, roll in the nice dewy wet grass, carry a twig, fight over twig, attach the flowers etc

I look up and realize that on my last round of putting out fresh water in the chicken pen, I had left the gate open just a little bit and I have a few smaller hens that are now out and scatching up a storm around the rabbit hutches

So I walk back to the other end of the building to open the chicken pen so that everyone can get back in and Cal comes with me.. but Fire.. o no.. he spots the chickens, and runs to get to them.. I took photos, sorry the first one is so blurry, but I was quite a good distance away from him, they get better as I get closer.

So here is the play by play.. See's Chickens, Runs straight at them, stops about eight feet, tail up, looking at all three of them.. starts barkings at them.. The two hens split off to the right.. he stays on the main hen (my Dark Leghorn Hen), and in the photos, you can see him coming in on her (Photo One), Photo Two, he is so! pushing her flight zone, still barking, still upright, still got tail up and over back, totally bold little bugger.. Third photo, He pushed in on her to the point she flies right over his head, he looks around.. so proud of himself and runs right back to me and hits this pose, Which to me looks like very much like..

That was so fun.. what next?

Showing my alberta Roots.. this is just to funny not to share. .

A cowboy named Bud was overseeing his herd in a remote mountainous pasture in Alberta when suddenly a brand-new BMW advanced toward him out of a cloud of dust.

The driver, a young man in a Brioni suit, Gucci shoes, RayBan sunglasses and YSL tie, leaned out the window and asked the cowboy, "If I tell you exactly how many cows and calves you have in your herd, Will you give me a calf?"

Bud looks at the man, obviously a yuppie, then looks at his peacefully grazing herd and calmly answers, "Sure, Why not?" The yuppie parks his car, whips out his Dell notebook computer, connects it to his Cingular RAZR V3 cell phone, and surfs to a NASApage on the Internet, where he calls up a GPS satellite to get an exact fix on his location which he then feeds to another NASA satellite that scans the area in an ultra-high-resolution photo.

The young man then opens the digital photo in Adobe Photoshop and exports it to an image processing facility in Hamburg , Germany .

Within seconds, he receives an email on his Palm Pilot that the image has been processed and the data stored. He then accesses an MS-SQL database through an ODBC connected Excel spreadsheet with email on his Blackberry and, after a few minutes, receives a response.

Finally, he prints out a full-color, 150-page report on his hi-tech, miniaturized HP LaserJet printer, turns to the cowboy and says, "You have exactly 1,586 cows and calves."

"That's right. Well, I guess you can take one of my calves," says Bud.

He watches the young man select one of the animals and looks on with amusement as the young man stuffs it into the trunk of his car.

Then Bud says to the young man, "Hey, if I can tell you exactly what your business is, will you give me back my calf?"

The young man thinks about it for a second and then says, "Okay, why not?"

"You're a Member of Parliament for the Canadian Government", says Bud. "

Wow! That's correct," says the yuppie, "but how did you guess that?" "

No guessing required." answered the cowboy. "You showed up here even though nobody called you; you want to get paid for an answer I already knew, to a question I never asked. You used millions of dollars worth of equipment trying to show me how much smarter than me you are; and you don't know a thing about how working people make a living - or about cows, for that matter. This is a herd of sheep. ...

Now give me back my dog.


"I know, I know so off-topic but its got Sheep and a Dog in it.. LOL, that's my story and sticking to it..."

Ahhh, its raining... and I'm Melting!

Ok, so we are finally getting some much needed rain and the reaction on behalf of the pups has been quite interesting.. the older litter plus two had water zoomies.. If you have dogs, and bathed them, you know what I am talking about.. the running, the sliding, the rubbing and the butt tucked under zoomie of joy, well the older litter loved the rain (I took them out under my big huge willow tree's so that it was as sheltered from the rain as I could get (still to wet for me to have the camera out sorry.. and just laughed at the ones that played and enjoyed the rain..

However the younger litter.. other then Cal and Dreamboat, who joined in the play in a more careful way, went.. NO.. what is this wet stuff.. get me out and were quite unhappy to be out in the rain.. so I brought them all back inside to the safety of the living room and then went back out to watch the playful older crew have a blast.. I finally brought them in when they started to look like soggy doggies, takes a good while for the water to get though that puppy coat, didn't want them to get a chill..

So the hit of the day when it came to toys was from the dollar store, they had this little bag of colored stuffed balls with a thing for kids to play a tossing game but they also sold the balls in a extra way.. six for one dollar and they are the perfect size and softness for the pups, they can chase them, carry them and toss them around.. so far, no one is chewing on them, just play and even starting to fetch and carry back to me, to play again -Good puppies.. Second major fun toy.. a one dollar big feather duster.. I run it along the ground and they chase and catch and tug and pull on it, my best so far.. five pups at once, got to try and get a photo of it.

and lets not forget their total favorite new toy.. the cardboard box, with holes cut in it from getting grocery's last night. While the stores come up with some amazing wonderful toys and I have a trunk full of them, never let be said that a puppy is fussy on having fun, be it a twig, a leaf, a cardboard box, a old water bottle with rock inside to rattle or a bought doggy toy.. joy can be found in all of them and many more..

Morning Musings

Happy Monday Morning

So this weekend got out to the ottawa dogs shows, Sweet Dreams (the Dream litters daddy) took BOB on Saturday at the shows, and Grima Gloa (half sister by the same mother as the Dream litter) took BOB on Sunday and made the cut in group but no ribbons..

However in Related Show ISD news, Gold Rush in Valhalla owned by Llie in B.C. won his first Group placement a Group 3rd under CKC Judge Leslie Rogers! Way to go to this wondeful team, I was thrilled to have been sent photos of their ring time the weekend before this win and all I can say is that it was SO clear to me that they have such a loving bond. Congrat out to his co-owner and breeder Maragret at Valhalla Kennels in Washington.

So little Provocative in Pearls was out playing in the yard and found a little duck poo to roll in..yuck and so she got her first full bath and blowdry and I snapped a little photo of her, looking all puffy and sparkly, sorry that its dusky, and I didn't use the flash so a little dark.

The puppies are amazing to me, they are all up to their four meals a day and eating very well, and that means I am washing floors all the time and spend a great deal of time moving them in and out for bathroom/outside time.

Their develop is wonderful to see.. they are starting to play with their toys, and interact with with everything, the two litters got introduced together this weekend and at first the bigger older litter was a little bossy but then the younger litter seemed to figure out that numbers count LOL and they got a little bossy by ganging up, but now everyone is great friends, Minnie Pearl is heaven, finally all these friendly playmates just her size!

I was able to visit with fellow ISD owners at the Ottawa show and we introduced two females that had not seen each other for about eight months and it was so nice, they just loved each other like long lost friends, so nice to see the dogs meet and greet new dogs with such openness.

I was thrilled to be able to visit and introduce the breed to a number of AKC judges who were up for the shows, and they were able to have a hands on mini Judging seminar on the breed both days of the show, they were quite interested as the breed is moving over in AKC on July 1st and all the judges at the show have applied to be able to judge the breed, this was the first time that many of them had got to see the breed in person, a few had been to breed seminars in the states but still were interested in learning about the Canadian Dogs. I was pleased to hear so many nice comments from the judges on the quality of the dogs they got to meet this weekend, its so important to get that non-breed related feedback in regards to your breeding program.

Well the newly washed floor is dry now so on to more morning chores, have a great day..

Crate Training/Housebreaking Icelandic Sheepdog Puppies

Hi Folks

As many of you know having spoken to me in person, you are aware that I am a fan of correctly using a crate for help in housebreaking, if you can't watch the puppy and be there to read cue's having a safe place to put puppy is a awesome thing

Live example of just how EARLY a puppy can show signs of housebreaking, so as you can imagine, I am on extra floor washing duty and I use different cleaners for different things but my main rinse is normally hot water with bleach, and I don't like the pups on the floor when doing so

Adult dogs went into the kitchen (while doing the livingroom floors) and I woke up the oldest litter, let them have their wake up pee's outside and brought them in and crated them in their nap/feed/put away big crate in the living room (they can already climb over the side of whelping box)

Anyway, these little tikes are normally quite good about this but Prevocative in Pearls would not settle down, she was fussy, but I washed the floors and then turned on overhead fans and the big floor drying fan (takes about 15 min or so to dry the whole floor, and she was fussy the whole time.. I said at least three times.. " you know you don't get let out when making that kind of fuss" well the floor was dry and she was in the howl stage of let me out of this crate.. so I am standing there.. three sleeping, one fussing and waiting, for that one second of quiet/good behaviour that I can reward, when final she stops and looks at me with these wide eyes, and I take it, and open the door.. out she runs, two steps out of the crate and she goes #2..

First.. BAD, Bad me for not figuring out that this might have been the issue but WOW baby girl to have held on for close to twenty min and not mess your crate.. you rock little girl! Breeder Mom promises that she will listen to your cues better in the future.

So I stand by the fact that properly used crates are wonderful training tools for many things, and that its up to us to keep our little ones on schedules and to read their cues, and they will do their best to be clean for us, its breed into them to keep their Den and Area clean, its up to us to teach them that means the whole house :)

Snuggle Time Icelandic Sheepdogs

Hi Guys

Was insteading on a good photo shoot this afternoon, big old thunderstorm and rain has moved in.. we could use the water to be truthful and it will take the heat down another notch.

So here are two cute photos of the little ones to tide you over till I can get more soon, don't know how but my battery was low, I guess I do use it alot.. anyway little Follow the Dream posed very sweety for the one photo but my favorite is little dream's grin..

He was playing with me and rolled on his back and I found his little spot, (you know, the one that makes them kick and grin and wiggle with joy all at the same time ) and I snapped this photo, laying down myself and from above, didn't even look to see if it was angled right or not.. anyway not perfect but his joy shines though it for me.

Icelandic Sheepdog Puppy -Getting lessons in mannors.

This photo cracked me up totally, Aunty Gloworm, Aka Greenstone Grima Gloa, was playing with Greenstone Provocative in Pearls Aka(my nickname) Petunia Applebee :)

Petunia wanted to play so Gloa lays down for her, but she is still to big looking, so then she rolls over giving belly, so Petunia starts playing with her ears and Gloa is still letting her be the dominant, and so they are play a adult/puppy version of foot and mouth, the only catch is that the size difference means that little Petunia's whole head can go in Gloa's mouth and here's the proof.. in case you are wondering part of the lesson is teaching to play with your teeth but not hurting anyone while you do so.. this is a important lession for the adults to teach as it helps greatly on teaching the puppy to be gentle with their mouths and that is important when we transfer those lessions to the fact that humans have very soft hides.

I love how the younger females teach and play babysitter and aunty to the puppies, its such a great thing for the puppies to have more then just mom to teach them, they learn different lessons from the whole pack.

Do Icelandic Sheepdog Like Water?

Why Yes, we do.. here is Greenstone Blackmore Knight (the #1st in CKC for 2009) who has two of her legs towards her first obedance title owned by Vari, who we got to have visit with yesterday afternoon, showing her very wet self after dock driving after sticks! She is related to both current litters, and given that they are already dipping paws in the water bowl and splashing I think its safe to say, they will all love their water time as well.

Icelandic Sheepdog Farm Dog to the Rescue!

On Misty Morning Farm News Today--Chicken Saved due to the efforts of the farm dogs!
Full story below....Reporting by Farm Momma

So last night at 8:30 ish (mom in bed..and asleep) Dad on computer, and Gloa gives a three bark alert woof, as she stands guard watch out the one big window, two second's later a screaming clucking feast starts outside.. We have a lovely red speckled half banty and half dark leg horn hen who can easily fly over our fences and who for the last week has been sure she wants to settle down and go broody in the bush pile by the brown shed.. Bad choice..

So out the door fly's Dad and Odinn with the mighty Staff (aka Walking stick) and the fox who is running with said chicken in mouth, drop's hen with Odinn hot on his heels, and darts straight threw a spot on the fence that I honestly didn't think anything but a cat could get though.. Chicken runs off into the high grass/bush area.. Fence stops Odinn who runs along it, postive if he would just be allowed to follow that he can make that Fox PAY LOL

So in come Dad and Odinn but its dusk and chicken in hiding.. out goes Freyja, taken to general area and told.. Find it.. now if put on a track she is even better but she does not need one.. Just tell her to find it, and she trusts me that something is there, and she starts weaving back and forth like a bird dog and she finds the chicken and does a freeze. nose right into the big clump of tall grass that the bird is playing dead in.. so she gets called off and Jason catches chicken, who is missing a few feathers and has at least one tooth hole from fox.. so into one of my growout rabbit hutches she goes to recoup, because there is a reason that we call the chickens the mini velociraptors, never put a bird that is bleeding back into the flock unless you want trouble.

So there you have it.. hen is up and eating an drinking this morning, took her a handfull of fresh greens and looks to make a full recovery, thanks to Gloa on guard, Odinn on defence, and Freyja on Point :)

Ah life on the farm..

Yummy in our Tummy-Breakfast Time for little ones

Half-sister (Same Momma) as the Dream litter at just over a year in Age..

Well the puppies got me up bright and early this morning.. they don't care that its Saturday and I wanted to sleep in.. they loved their mash banana and whole live active culture yogurt mix this morning.. it was gobbled down with great desire but they got it everywhere and so they all needed a wet wipe down of face, chests and paws.. thank goodness for Donut hole puppy feeeding dishes, so that everyone can get their place at the bowl at the same time. Momma dog finished up all leftovers, Freyja has never been very friendly about other dogs coming near her food bowl, but she is so polite to her own puppies, just backs off and lets them eat.. she really has been such a good momma..

Well my kettle is starting to whistle so time for my breakfast and pot of fresh tea and then on to all the extra floor cleaning.. ah one of the not so Joy's of puppies :)

Watch for lots of new photos over the long weekend and have a good one..

How do you figure out Adult Color on the Icelandic Sheepdog Puppies

Follow the Dream, is clearly taking after her mother Folda, Gonna be a Red Head!

Provocative in Pearls Color behind her ear, taking after her Sire

Keepers Ear color, I can track this color in the pedigree back four generations.

Question: How do you tell what the adult coat color on the puppies will be?

Answer: I have found over the years that looking at the back of the ears for what color they are as a puppy gives us our best clues. You need to take these photos in a natural defused lighting, no flash, and no lamp light otherwise it will mess with what the photo shows, so here are photos of the oldest litter , I will do the Dream litter when they are old enough to head outside for some play time.

On average the adult coat color will be either, the same as seen above or one shade darker or lighter then what is seen above.

Healing power of puppy Breath!

Last night, we wormed the sheep, and I got a really good knock to my jaw by one of my big ewe's well at about 1am, woke up with a wicked tooth ache, took over my jaw, whole left side of face and was so painful, it was not funny.. Jason was a doll and got hot compress's and rubbed feet in the dark, as I could not stand the light ahh.. so after a double dose of pain meds, I am laying there feeling like I want to cry but it would just hurt more to do so..

Then Jason brings me a puppy.. and lays it on my neck.. snuffle, snuffle and back to sleep she goes.. Little Pied female with the color on one side of her body and white on the other.. (really need to name the dream litter) and I can't say that it took out all the pain but it was so comforting.. laying in the dark, feeling her warmth, and little sleep baby twitches, smelling that sweet, sweet baby puppy smell, feeling that soft baby fur.. it really helped, and after about 20 min, I was able to drift back off to sleep.. so tired today, after I get all the morning chores done, I am so having a nap.

Poor hubby was up for a good hour and he of course went to work, no nap for him today, will have to make a extra special dinner to say thanks tonight..