Happy 1st Birthday to the Wonder pups!

Happy Birthday to the Wonder litter!

We can't believe these pups are one year old - the year has flown by! They are all doing well and loved beyond belief by their families.  The Wonder litter is out of Fala, GCH A GraytSky A La Fala Love'A and Jam, GCH Grayhart's Purple Haze, CD,JH,AX,AXJ,SD,VX.

A few of them have even started showing and earned titles.  The seven Wonder pups are: 

• Quest, Canadian CH Grayhart's Travelin' Man
• Presley, Grayhart's Another Star, JH (pointed)
• Siri, Grayhart's Conversation with GraytSky (major pointed)
• Zoe, Grayhart's Pretty Little Angel, CGC
• Blaze, Grayhart's Beach Stomp
• Brody, Grayhart's Master Blaster
• Ensign, Grayhart's Ebb Tide (hunting dog)

Quest is a Canadian Champion!!!

Exciting News from up North!  Quest, at only 10 months of age, is now 

Canadian CH Grayhart's Travelin' Man!  

Quest completed his Canadian championship in only three weekends of showing, handled expertly by Hailey Griffith, winning multiple Best of Breeds over specials and also multiple Best Puppy in Group wins.  Quest, is out of our Wonder litter (Fala x Jam), and is the first to title in this litter.  His littermates, Siri and Presley, have been shown in the US and both are pointed, with Siri, major pointed.  

Quest is owned by Heather Fyfe and Linda Hartheimer.  He will be shown in the US and will be training for obedience, tracking, agility and field work.

Major win for Siri!!!!

Exciting news from the Penn Ridge Kennel Club show. On Saturday, 8 month old Siri, Grayhart's Conversation with GraytSky, went Winners Bitch and Best of Winners for a 4-point major handled by Melissa Hungerford, under judge Vicki Abbott!

Siri is from our Wonder litter (Fala x Jam) and owned by Kristen Bardell and Amy Anderson (Fala's owner).  Huge congratulations!

Siri, 8 weeks

Wonder litter - Six months already?

Quest, Grayhart's Travelin' Man, our Canadian pup

Hard to believe that our Wonder litter pups (Fala x Jam) are six months old already!  Actually, we are behind a few weeks as they turned six months on May 29th.  All the owners report how fabulous their pups are and absolutely adore them.

Turning six months is a big deal in our world, as six months is the official age when dogs can be entered and shown in AKC conformation shows to compete towards earning a show championship. They can also compete in hunt tests, obedience and rally trials.  Agility will have to wait as the pups need to be at least 15 months to compete in AKC Agility but for safety sake, I personally prefer to wait until a pup is closer to two years old to make sure their growth plates have closed before competing.  In class, the pups can practice and learn many agility foundation skills jumping at a lower height.

Presley

Presley, Grayhart's Another Star, made her show debut last weekend.  We've been working on getting her to stand still and stay in stack (show) position and stay for exam.  At this age, pups have the attention span of a nat so it can be a challenge to get them to stand still.  I was proud of how Presley showed, solid for the judges exam and moved beautifully on the show lead.  We had serious competition, with the bitch that beat her for the points, going Best of Breed over specials.  A great way for Presley to kick off her show career.

Siri

Siri, Grayhart's Conversation with GraytSky, owned by Kristen and Amy, will be making her show debut mid-June, handled by Michael, the owner of daddy Fala.  Both Siri and Presley are growing up to be lovely girls and we are excited to get them out into the show ring.  Quest is in training for show and other venues and will be competing in both Canada and the U.S.

Presley at 11 weeks!

Presley, formerly Miss Teal, is Grayhart's Another Star, from our Wonder litter (Fala x Jam)

The Wonder litter - 8 weeks stacks, Puppy Party & so much more!

Wonder litter 8 week stacks

The last few weeks were a whirlwind as the Wonder Pups had their Avidog Temperament Testing, Breeder Evaluation and after the Grayhart Puppy Party, have all gone to their new homes.  We will catch up on all the exciting events but just wanted to post our last stack shots.  These pups tested well as performance prospects and many of them have gone to show and performance homes as well as to Wonder-ful families as great companions.

Lucy Wainwright Roche & the Wonder Pups

What an exciting day for the 7 week old Wonder pups when our friend and amazingly talented singer/songwriter, Lucy Wainwright Roche came to visit and put on an impromptu performance!

J-F Pups Day 42: The Wonder Litter 6 week stacks

 We continue to take our weekly stack shots of the Wonder litter to see how they are developing.  It is hard to believe that they will be going to their new homes in two weeks, although our puppy families will not find out who their special pups will be until right before the puppy party.  We are very happy with how promising this litter looks.  The pups have lovely breed type, nice bone, angles and balance.  

 Cream cheese is the best!

J-F pups Day 35: Wonder litter 5 week stacks!

We began stacking the Wonder pups on Friday when they turned five weeks old. The purpose of stacking or making the dog stand in a specific stance, it to to see all parts of the dog's structure to determine if he follows the standard of his breed. When a dog is shown in conformation shows, the dog is stacked so that the judge can lay "hands on" the dog and examine him to feel his bone structure and muscular condition. We stack the dogs to get an idea of their conformation each week with the final evaluation at eight weeks. 

Conformation also impacts how the dog functions in any performance sports they may do and as we say, form equals function. A dog that may not be build correctly, could be prone to injury.  

We are very excited at how great these pups look at only 5 weeks and look forward to seeing how they develop.

J-F Pups Day 35: The Wonder Pups are 5 Weeks Old!

The Wonder pups are growing likes weeds and spend their days eating, sleeping and playing. They are weaned from Momma Jam and eat kibble three times a day and have to say, they literally dive into their food, no table manners for these pups! They now engage with each other as well as play with a variety of toys including a tippy board which didn't faze them a bit and some of them think it is a spring board to jump off of onto the pups in the dog bed!

 

The pups have been using the litter box 90% of the time, making cleanup much easier. They adore the dog beds and sometimes they nap in the crate. It has been a busy few weeks for the humans with a trip to California, where we saw Bravo, from our 2010 Clay x Trixie litter, so not much time to update the blog but as you can see, lots going on with the Wonder pups.

 The Wonder pups had a busy social schedule on New Year's Day, with old and new puppy people visiting. The Voltaggio family, who owns Savi's littermate, Memphis, (Clay x Trixie) and will be getting a girl pup from this litter, came in the morning to return Savi, who had been staying with them for 3 weeks. The pups were amazing with their small children who were very upset they could not take a pup home that day. Our good friend, KellyAnn made her weekly visit and brought CeCe, 7 1/2 months old, (Parker x Savi) to see the pups. CeCe was mesmerized and the pups were adorable reaching through the expen to engage her in play. The Hochberg family joined in on the fun in the afternoon with their three older kids, trying to guess which adorable pup will end up as part of their family.

CeCe was mesmerized by the puppies and kept play bowing and trying to engage them.

 The pups have become expert kissers and lap dogs!

 The pups now have sharp little needle-like teeth and no body part, especially toes are safe!

 How many pups will fit on a lap?

J–F Pups 4 weeks: Wonder Pups Weimaraner Wrestling

J-F Pups Day 23: Potty Box Training

The Wonder pups had a big weekend.  They moved up, literally to our upstairs living room to the big puppy pen which will be their home until they leave to go to their new families.  They had more firsts, at three weeks we began feeding them weaning formula, they experienced their new pen which has rubber flooring and xpen (metal) sides and their first crate!  The pups are learning to use the litter box that is filled with wood pellets.  The wood pellets act as kitty litter, absorbing urine and attracts the pups to do their business on it, is easy to clean and safe if the pups decide to sample the pellets.  We use a cement mixing box to keep the mess to a minimum.  The size of the box is great as it makes the pups use their problem solving skills to figure out how to get in and out as well as lots of muscle movement.  The pups also have a big TV overhead and get to hear all kinds of noises from Saturday Night Live,  to various music and TV shows plus being upstairs, close to the front door where the big dogs bark at passersby and the kitchen.

J-F Pups 3 weeks old: First photo shoot!

 Always a challenge working with dogs but three week old pups are something else.  I have to say, I was quite happy that I managed, working alone, to get some super shots of our Wonder pups - many are truly Wonder-ful!

Mr. Orange

Mr. Orange

Miss Purple

Miss Pink

Mr. Blue