Puppy & Kennel UpdateOur Border Collie puppy, Jake

Jake sleeping, living a tough life!

Jake sleeping again, one of his favorite activities

Ana with all of Fender's 3 week old pups, Libby, Dee Dee, Susie, and Roxy

Roxy (top) and Susie

left to right: Libby, Dee Dee, Susie and Roxy

me with Roxy and Libby

Larry after our final sanding of the drywall in the basement

The starting line up, all ready, for the start of fall training August 20th

The summer has gone by so fast!! I can't believe it is already August and fall training is only 13 days away! It has been a cool summer, but I have LOVED the weather! The drywall in the basement is finally done, it took us a month. Just Larry and I did all the work. I will NEVER do it again! Now I know why people hire this terrible job out to a professional. It turned out awesome though and was well worth the work. Plus, we saved $$ doing it ourselves. This weekend, we will be cleaning up and painting the walls. There is still a lot of work to be done before training gets too far underway.

We have a new addition to our kennel, a Border Collie pup that Ana named "Jake". We have been looking for the right one for a few months now. We finally found a breeder from River Run Border Collies, 30 miles North of Grand Rapids. Jake, being a medium energy BC, fit us perfectly. He is sooo smart! He learned his name on the first night we had him. He comes when called, sits, lays down, fetches his toys, shakes, and a few other tricks and he is less than 10 weeks old. He is also doing very well with potty training. Ever since our 12 year old, beloved Border Collie, Bailey, passed away from Cancer 2 years ago, we knew we had to have another one. We waited until Ana was a little older first. With Fender having a small litter this summer, it was the perfect time for us.

Fender's pups are now 3 weeks old and getting around very well. Dee Dee is the most adventurous and eager to explore, with Roxy right on her heels. Libby has just started to explore more and Susie is the most shy. We will have to work on that!

As you can see from the last photo above, I am more than excited to start training again. After all of last year's hard work, we REALLY needed a break. Now, I am ready and I have had their line up ready for about 2 weeks. We have a magnetic board with all the sled dog's names on it. We stick it to the pole barn so Larry and I both know who is in which team. It makes it much easier and faster to hook up 2 teams of crazy dogs!

This weekend is also the "Meet The Mushers" event at Russ and Sherry Sutherby's. I cannot wait to attend! We will get to meet Iditarod Mushers: Dee Dee Jonrowe, Ryan Redington and Jason Barron. It will also be nice to take a break from all the work we've been doing, relax for a bit, and of course, talk dogs!