My friends just had their first litter at Three Sheep Swissies and the puppies are a month old. This is prime socialization time, so I offered my children up as socialization candidates. You didn’t have to twist my arm much either.

It’s kind of funny thinking back to my state of mind over a year ago when it comes to Swissy Puppies. There was so much longing to have this experience back then, and part of me wonders if i had just waited a year.. I could have had it from the beginning. But then I wouldn’t have had Zen and she is turning into such a special dog.. I feel very fortunate my breeder chose me as her person. Even though we had to fly cross the country to get her…

If there was one puppy calling out to me in this litter, it was this little green boy. I can’t wait to find out who his person will be.

Maiwenn was really into this little girl pup. She kept wanting to hold her over and over again and when we left that evening, she was lamenting about how much she wanted another puppy. I see how swissy people end up with multiple dogs; They really are like potato chips! Fortunately for my husband, we don’t have the room, the time, nor does he have the inclination for another puppy.

Gavin thought they were cute too. But he was more interested in his friend’s toys..

If I were to advise any newbie puppy owners based off my experience, I would say that it really DOES matter who their puppy’s parents are. Especially in terms of temperament. I’ve been told that Zen’s father (even though he himself can be quite rowdy) throws off sweet-tempered pups. And my breeder has told me time and again that Zen’s gentle personality comes from her mother, who is a very gentle dog. But lineage is only half the story when it comes to temperament.. the other half is socialization.

These pups are coming from some amazing owners. True, they have never bred dogs before.. but both of their swissies have been incredibly well-socialized and active with their training. Already, these little ones are getting exposed to people, animals and strange sights and sounds.

This was the first born of the litter, and he’s the fattest of the bunch. He slept the whole time I was there.

Here’s little girl pup, getting weighed. Time for a new scale, me thinks!

They were waking up here.. and getting ready to swamp us. In a few weeks, these beauties will be temperament tested and the final decisions will be made as to who gets which pup.

Mom dog wasn’t too thrilled about stepping in there and feeding them again. I can’t say i really blame her..

This little guy supposedly has the most easy going personality of the bunch. Maybe he’ll go to a family like mine. A family who has never had a dog before, but tons of desire to give the best home possible. I wish him luck. I wish them all luck. Maybe they spend their whole lives happy and healthy, with people who love them and treat them like family members. Maybe some of them will do great things in the dog world and maybe they’ll know failure too. Either way, I feel privileged i got to visit them in the beginning and help them get used to the world they will eventually live in.

Big Dog near Big Trees.

In a little over a week, Zen will be one. I can’t believe it’s already been a year. We’ve come so far..

She’s had the runs for the past day.. Here’s probably why.

I haven’t been very good at updating the blog lately. Chalk it up to the loss of my mom and then a very busy schedule with work. But Zen has been steadily growing into the big girl she will eventually become. In a couple of weeks she’ll be 8 months old. We haven’t weighed her in awhile but my guess is that it is somewhere between 55-60 pounds. At the shoulder she stands 24 inches. Height standard for girl dogs is 23.5-27 inches so she is right on target. She’s skinny as she should be at this age, and very leggy.. but I definitely see more substance of bone starting to develop which is kind of neat. Maybe people will stop asking me if she’s a Great Dane mix now…

She graduated her second puppy class a couple of weeks ago but came down with kennel cough the same week so we weren’t actually able to go to graduation. Since then, we’ve been slacking in terms of her training and the Swissy willfulness has definitely raised it’s head because of it. She doesn’t always listen very well, and sometimes is downright rude in how she defies us. (I’ll do a more in depth post about her training later.) But mostly, she’s just a sweet cuddle bunny who is quite happy to sleep most of the day as long as she’s near you.

We’ve been hiking in our back woods alot. I made this little video this week just to show how big she’s getting.

Mainly we are getting ready for Christmas. We decided to put the tree in the back room this year… just so Zen isn’t tempted to eat the ornaments. So far she’s doing ok with it. Santa is even bringing her a present for her stocking. She’s getting a BIG GIRL collar…

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I’ve been really bad at updating this blog lately but I have GREAT excuses. I’ll spare you the whining however…

Zen is 6.5 months old and lanky as a newborn colt. She’s probably a little too thin, as people who should know better can’t tell she’s a Swissy. We took her to a drafting trial today to let her sniff carts and see dogs being hooked up to them. Apparently all the Berner folks were trying to guess her breed. (the guess today was swissy and great Dane.)

She’s finishing up her second puppy class this week. Obedience-wise… She’s doing pretty well. She listens 60% of the time. She can get a little too pully, and she’s reDiscovered how to jump up on people. But overall, she’s a really good girl. Everyone remarks how sweet she is and what a good temperament she has. I would say… Score one for Brian and I for making sure we didn’t wreak her somehow.

At 5 months, zen weighs 48.6 pounds. I need to measure her height but she’s leggy, long backed, and slightly ribby. Overall, she’s doing great! Adolescence has hit and her hearing has gotten selective. She doesn’t always do what we say… and sometimes she gets fearful about new things. But we have been keeping her active and really working on her dog shyness. She made a break thru last weekend and actually started playing with other dogs at her puppy social.

And people? She LOVES everybody.

Today was the last day for Zen’s first puppy kindergarden class. I can’t believe it over so quickly! It was kind of sad for me because I really have been enjoying it. We’ve seen such a difference in her since the first day of class when she sulked around the room, too afraid to jump in and play. Now she jumps right in. She’s a submissive player; she spends most of her time on her back.. but she seems to love it.

She also learned how to run thru tunnels today. Some of the dogs were a little spooked by the things… but Zen had no problem with them.

Here’s a video of the very first one she went through:

Overall, it was a great class today. And at the end we had a little graduation ceremony. Zen LOVES our trainer so she was really excited to be getting attention from Janelle. So much so, that she kept giving her paw and then trying to give both paws.

Next class is not until October. But her quarantine lift is over next wednesday so in the meantime we’ll be working with her on our own.
Congratulations Zen! Well done!

Zen is 15 weeks old and we have been diligently going to puppy class and socializing her as much as we can. The restrictions have been tough. It’s a huge balancing act to get her out and public with the risks so high in this area for Parvo. But we’ve been doing much more than our vet would like.. and at the same time trying to avoid obvious places where unvaccinated dogs may defecate. If we listened to our Vet, she wouldn’t have even gone to Puppy school until 17 weeks.. which is waaay out of the realm recommended for Swissy puppies.

In Puppy School, Zen has been a lurker. Not cowering by any stretch of the imagination.. but not exactly getting involved either. She seemed much more interested in the people than the other dogs. So i bumped up her dog time by taking her to a puppy social once a week. Its far for me on a Sunday, (all the way in Sunnyvale) but it’s been good for her. I met another Swissy owner there, and she’s been exposed to all kinds of dogs of all shapes and sizes.

Still, she’s hung back and just watched all the fun. So last week, we found out one of the women who attends our class lives “relatively” near us. She owns a 14 week old Viszla pup named Zola. If Zen is the wallflower.. Zola is the popular kid in class. We’ve met up twice this week, and these one on ones have been awesome. Both times, she and Zen just played and rough housed like no tomorrow.

It’s been a busy four day weekend for sure! Not only did we have friends visiting but it was the 4th of July which in our town means PARADE DAY!

Every year Boulder Creek has a big 4th of July parade that the entire town comes out for. There are blaring fire trucks, logging trucks, motorcycles driving on top of cars, crazy cars, floats, prancing horses, costumed dancers and tons and tons of people.

We brought a blanket and had the Pixie out before the festivities so she could meet people.. but when the actual parade started, we kenneled her.

She’s getting too big for this kennel so our vet visit today will probably be the last time she uses it. But she did really well with all the sirens and noise. She even fell asleep for the 2nd half of the parade!

Today was her second vet visit. She got her second round of shots and the once over by her vet. I absolutely adore this man… he is so nice and good with her and really likes the breed. He also was right in line with us in terms of timing of shots and put up with my crazy ideas and questions.

Other than that, we’ve been spending lots of time working with her. She’s a really responsive puppy. She already understands how to go into a sit and stay. She’s getting better at “come” and she’s getting better with “lay down.” Our friend who used to train GSDs saw her this weekend and was pretty impressed how well she’s doing for a 11 week old. I’m most proud of my daughter, though. She’s getting over her fear and she’s really liking working with Zen. She’s been watching me and trying hard to emulate. Here’s a picture of her getting Zen to “stay” and then “come.”

Today we took Zen to Roaring Camp Railroads. It was tricky because as a public place we still can’t walk her around with the fear of Parvo looming. But we brought a couple of car blankets and stretched them out and then carried her to the spot. It worked out well because it was a hot day, a shady spot and there were tons of trains and people to see.

It was a really hot day. So really, she didn’t want to do much except lounge, meet people and watch the trains.

Swissies don’t like the heat and Zen is no exception. But she did like the ice in my snow cone. You can just hear her thinking in this one.. “You must give me the ice.. you must give me the ice..”

Ok. Its too hot. Can we go home?

Back at home, she and the kid are doing a little bonding.