Mud Glorious Mud.

The hot dry weather has come to an end and we now have rain and lots of it. Pregnant dogs often take up digging to help relieve any discomfort and as a sign of nesting and Amber is digging big style! Add in rain and you get a very muddy dog.

The sun then came out this afternoon and dried all the mud on her nose so we had to rub vaseline on it to get it off.

She is enjoying the cooler weather though and it's only the humans who fuss over a bit of mud...

Getting Ready For Pups

 Anna has been telling us for ages that Amber needs her whelping box, the place where she will deliver and then care for her puppies, ideally a couple of weeks before the expected date of whelping so that she will accept it. Having consulted various books, websites and breeders blogs, we came up with a design which Justin has been working on in the evenings. However this weekend was crunch time as she was then within 10 days of her date so we abandoned all other jobs and focused on 'project whelping box'.

 We wanted it modular as we may need to move it as the puppies get older and their needs change. Justin made the panels out of plywood and then fashioned strips and blocks out of softwood to make corner pieces which would hold it all together. Fortunately for us, Justin is very good at designing and building or adapting pieces of furniture etc. and he came up with a design by which the corner pieces lock the panels in place but can be removed for relocation.

 As it needs to be waterproof and very washable I found the hardest wearing gloss paint I could and ended up having to paint 4 coats on each panel, helped by Beth and Eoin. The weather was so hot that it was virtually drying as we were applying it and poor Amber was lying flaked out on the driveway trying to get cool.

We then laid out all the panels in the living room as so many bugs were dive bombing it outside and getting stuck in the paint!

This evening we have assembled the box, a week after we intended having it done but still with hopefully 7 days to go! It has no base so that the weight of the box holds the Vet Bed out-stretched, thus preventing Amber or the pups ruching it up and creating folds which could potentially cause suffocation. I will also source an off-cut of lino to put under it all which will protect the floor and be easily disinfected.

We now need to get Amber to accept and be comfortable with the box. Anna managed to get her into it with a treat but she only stayed half a minute so that's our next challenge over the coming week!

Canine Catch-Up

We have had a busy few weeks with our dogs. Last week we were invited to Skye's graduation. Skye was our foster assistance dog from Autism Assistance Dogs Ireland who left us to go into specialist training at the beginning of March See here :). She has now completed her training and graduated as a working assistance dog. We were invited to go along one evening last week and meet the family she has been matched with. Skye has matured into an amazing dog and the children were delighted to see her again and were presented with this photo as a keepsake.

Although the guys still miss Skye they can at least now understand a little what it means to a family with an autistic child to be given an assistance dog who will hopefully change their lives for the better and they can feel proud that they have been part of the journey.

We then had to also say goodbye to Bramble, two trauma's in the space of a week! She is the foster puppy we have had since just before Skye left and as she has now completed 6 months with us will move on to another foster family before also entering advanced training. She is a genuinely lovely dog who will also make a wonderful forever friend for an autistic child one day.
In May we then brought home Wilson, a then 10 week old Cavalier puppy who is ours to keep! We decided that Holly would love a playmate more her size and that Beth would benefit from having a dog which she was responsible for.

He is a lovely little dog and settled in right away. As you can see he and Holly also get on very well.

Our final and probably biggest bit of doggie news is that Amber is expecting puppies. Last Autumn we had her hips and elbows x-rayed and scored as hip dysplasia is a big issue for Bernese Mountain Dogs. Happily she had excellent scores ( elbows 0/0, hips 2/2 for those in the know!) and with a  family history of good health and sound temperament, her breeding restriction was lifted from her kennel club registration. Amber is an amazing dog and we would love for her to have a companion who doesn't leave to move on to training and so began the hunt for a sire. Through the Bernese Club we heard of a lovely male, aptly called Mr Darcy, and had her mated just over 7 weeks ago now. So in 10 days, or there abouts, Amber will become a Mammy. The children are wildly excited at the prospect whilst Anna, Justin and I are madly reading breeding books to gen ourselves up on whelping and puppy care. Amber meanwhile is finding this current heatwave a bit hard to take. In the picture below Anna is shaving Ambers tummy, which will be required anyway and also cools her down as she lies on the cool concrete or tiles. We are also busy building a whelping box and I will put up some photo's soon!

We survived!

Okay so the last little while has been tough, but we survived. The guys found it hard with me being in hospital and all their 'normality' turned on it's head. Whatever my shortcomings may or may not be I am always here. In another room, outside maybe or busy, but always at the end of a 'Mammy' yell. Even if I occasionally pop into town with just one or two of the guys, one of  the others will invariably ring me with a query or 'when will you be home?'. So it was tricky. Then once home I was still out of action with Grandma running the show when Justin was at work. Handing over the mantle and letting someone else call the shots is hard but I just had to keep in mind the big picture and run with it. The children were brilliant, really stepping up to the mark and doing their best to help. Although we believe strongly in working together and developing a strong work ethic there were often times in the past when I took the path of least resistance and would end up doing clean up solo. With that not having been an option we had to have a bit of a shake up with sharing the chores and even though I am now well, we have a better ongoing balance of the workload. The guys are also more appreciative of the little things now, like my being able to drive again after 6 weeks ( they found that one tough) and us all being well, able and together.

Post by Anna, from a few weeks ago.

This is Anna here, as Mammy is still away in hospital and she asked me to do a guest post. So here we go!

Well, as you know, Mammy is gone for a few days so Daddy is here minding us. We were told we could be in charge of the cooking, so we went for it!

We did a Tesco shop and lets say Grandma was surprised to see what was in the cupboard - lots of junk food. We saw no point in getting healthy stuff when we could choose whatever we wanted!!

Although, the deal was, the younger ones had to have their 5-a-day (my parents couldn't cope with all the junk food otherwise!) so I printed out some charts and got them some stickers.

They're doing well, I think!?! They particularly like the farm stickers we got. Not sure whether it's the stickers or the chocolate bar at the end of the week that they are more motivated by. Anyhow, they seem to love it.....

We went to see Mammy yesterday, it is a bit crazy here without her around. At least it's only a few days.

Although the idea of kinda being in-charge at first made me feel slightly sort of looking forward to it, I have to say it's not as fun as I thought it would be. There's a lot of clearing up after the younger ones have eaten and put tomato ketchup everywhere!

I really miss having Mammy here as she is always there to listen to your feelings about life, and just to chat too. I have realized how much I enjoy her company.

At least Daddy is here. He is trying his hardest. Saying that I still HATE it!!!

Amber is always there to listen to all my gobble-de-gook. She likes to plonk herself on my lap. And let me pet her for hours on end!

I hope that was an OK post, on my blog I am always writing about the dogs (which I have to admit is much easier) and it's weird writing about how you feel about stuff.

Trying to convince Daddy to go and see Mammy again.

Goodbye,
Anna

New Quarter Masters

Tomorrow I go into hospital for a few days for surgery. Anna and Beth have decided that they are going to take over 'quarter master' duties for the next couple of weeks or so and are looking forward to the challenge! Our one stipulation was that everyone needed to achieve their '5-a-day' but other than that they could have a fairly free rein within reason. They therefore drew up the following charts;

The younger children were very excited at the prospect of a sticker chart, especially one which came with the promise of a chocolate bar at the end of the week!

They then drew up a menu (of sorts) and ordered a delivery from Tesco. It arrived this morning and they gleefully unpacked, not having seen so many treat foods in one place at once. We are usually quite strict about our diet; wholegrain cereals and bread, no crisps or chips unless it's a birthday etc. We had left the girls to the ordering, with a set budget of course, but were a bit surprised to see 3 boxes of Coco Pops! Anyway, we think it will be a good learning experience for them and so have not picked them up on their interpretation of 'within reason' and will see how it goes. At least they'll get their fruit and vegetables and hopefully they will have got their fill of processed food and welcome more wholesome meals in a few weeks. In the meantime luckily Justin is a doctor and so can deal with any constipation issues......

Anna turns 14!

Anna turned 14 this week! 14, I can't believe it!

Her brothers gave her a Lego City book as they are of an age of thinking that everyone loves what they love! She was very gracious about it though!

Her cards reflected her passion for dogs and Beth put three figures representing Amber, Hermione and Jessie on her cake.

Our beautiful, wonderful 14 year old!