2013 Litter: the Aftermath

Zo, the last puppy, went home yesterday. Here are some pictures from the morning walk before his departure:

We wish all seven pups long and fulfilling lives and them and their owners the very best:

Cheerful Zo (placeholder name was Rex) is a companion to an active older couple who have had poodles before.
Calm Rana (placeholder name Lavender) now lives with a couple with older children and a German Shepherd. They have had several dogs before but Rana is their first poodle.
Adventurous Leisha (placeholder name Benna) has gone to live in North Wales with a lady who is going to do obedience and heelwork to music with her. Leisha has her own web page here.
Inquisitive Laurel (placeholder name Pink) has gone to live with a lady and a toy poodle. Laurel was my favourite pup and is co-owned so she can come back here to have one litter if she turns out to be suitable.
Sweet Fleur (placeholder name Midge) has gone to live with a couple who think they might try showing her for fun.
Happy Dubh (placeholder name Buxton) has gone to live with a couple in Ireland, where it is hoped he will be shown.
Serene Theo (placeholder name Cacophonix) has gone to live with a couple who have had poodles before and sadly recently lost their last one.

All that remains is the pup room to clear up. Pasha watched me remove the pen and came outside to smell the toys I had put to soak and the puppies' bed, perhaps to remember them.

I will probably repaint the walls and skirting board. Leisha liked to jump up and try to get the metal hook for securing the pen to the wall!

Pasha and Twiggy watching.

Pasha, thinking of her pups perhaps?

I made this video while walking with Pasha, Loki, and Cally the other day. I get rather exasperated when some people rant about how much they hate the show trims on poodles and claim the reason for this is because they are somehow inhumane, make the dog look stupid, or prevent it from doing normal activities, and all of this seems to have recently come to a head with Afterglow Maverick Sabre winning Crufts. As you can see in the video, Pasha is in a long show clip. She is allowed in the woods and in the ploughed field and the meadow, just as the other dogs in shorter clips are, and her coat doesn't impede her or stop her from running with the others. The only one who you might say is having a problem with his coat is Loki, who had a band holding his hair out of his eyes, but it fell out and I forgot to redo it (if he runs fast enough the wind blows it out of his eyes, and he is more interested in dawdling and smelling everything than looking at stuff on walks anyway). If Pasha is 'embarrassed' because she looks 'stupid' I can't see how, and the other dogs do not ostracise her because of what her fur looks like.

I generally do not encourage my dogs to go to places where it is very soggy and dirty during spells of wet weather, or into thick undergrowth where there are burrs and thorns etc. I don't really see how this is different from any sensible person who owns any breed other than a poodle -- dirty water is potentially a lepto risk and wet weather breeds ticks, and all dogs can be harmed by burrs, seeds, etc. getting caught in their coats or working their way into the ears. Nobody I have met whose dog lives in the house wants it to be routinely covered in muck so they have to hose it down after every walk. As for the show clips that aren't clipped short on the hindquarters and part of the front legs (there are various names for them) I used to have all of them in this style at one time, and to be honest it was much more work than the Continental clip.

People are entitled to hate what they want, but I don't think there is any justification for the excuses commonly posited as justification for this particular hate. Or as 'TotalBiscuit' puts it: