This week flew by and the weekend is here again.  We hope to get out tomorrow and train with the 2 brown dawgs.  With hunting season over, they returned to their training group last weekend.

Thunder (from early Spring)

Their handler felt they had slipped a lot over the hunting season, but the trainer said he thought they did fine. (The trainer felt it was the handler that had slipped a bit. 😆  As always, half of the training is for the handler. :))  I couldn’t make it last week, but I understand they worked on handling with some challenging set-ups.  I plan to try to take some pictures this week since the weather is supposed to be dry.

Go Storm! (from last March)

We also hope to see the pups and take more pictures.  🙂  (These puppy pictures, thanks to Cindy.)

Smokey and Pups-Day 9

Their eyes should be opening soon.

Girls-Day 9
Boys-Day 9
Cute!-Day 7

And now for some follow-up…

Thanks for all of the supportive comments on yesterday’s post.  I wanted to say that all we have learned is thanks in large part to all of the breeders, (especially Thunder and Storm’s breeders), trainers, (especially Darrin of Farpoint Retrievers), and fellow hunt test and dog enthusiasts who have shared all of their years of knowledge and experience with us.  There is definitely always something to learn and consider when it come to our furry friends.

keely aka LKP commented about the crate the pups were in.  The official name is “whelping box”.  This is just one of the things we have learned in recent years.  It is constructed so that there is a rail around the sides to provide a space so that the pups are safe should mama like to lean up against the side.  This one also has a flip down side to make it easier for mama to get in and out.  It can be flipped up later to keep the pups in, (well for a bit at least).  Cindy, (the pups breeder) shared that they built this box many years ago and it has been a very good one for them as they have successfully raised many litters over the years using it.

Smokey and Pups In Whelping Box Day 4

Many commented on the ball Storm was playing with in this week’s Wordless Wednesday post, here.  

Snoopy@snoopysdogblog commented that Storm might pop it, and Bongo commented that she could probably pick the ball up now.  Actually, that ball is a horse stall ball and super hard.  We bought if for Thunder who is not much for chew toys, but he does like to play with that ball.  He pushes it through his legs and barks at it.  We don’t give it to him often because for an otherwise silent dog, he gets quite loud and crazy with the ball. 😆

Take That Ball

Storm played with the ball that one day and then never really cared about it much after that because she discovered Kong which is, and will always be, her Holy Grail of toys.  In fact, snow and Kong are two of Storm’s favorite things.  Check out Storm and Thunder’s demonstration of the Proper Way to Play With A Kong During A Snow Storm, here.  Can’t wait to figure out which toy is the new pup’s favorite. 🙂

Storm With Her Favorite Toy

Teje and Sam asked about a name for the new pup.  We are still mulling over names.  I’m not sure what the name of the day is today.  😉

Speaking of names….Jodi Stone remarked that it won’t be “the 2 brown dawgs” anymore.  True.  I thought long and hard and I am not going to change my blog name because I have it memorized now.  😆  Just kidding.  I plan to keep it in honor of the original 2 brown dawgs.  🙂

Finally, thatjenk wondered if we had already ordered a dog house.  Not yet and we are not sure we will.  For the neighbors sake we are not sure we want to put another run in the yard.  We may just change the dogs out and see how that goes.  It will be some time before the pup would be left out alone anyway and he will eventually be going off for training so we have time to think on it.

Have a wonderful weekend!

29 thoughts on “Weekend Plans”

  1. I love all the pics, but especially that last one of Storm with her favorite toy. Such a beautiful shot! It should be on the cover of a magazine! 🙂

    I noticed that all the puppies have a raw spot on their shoulders. Did they have GPS chips implanted already?

    Have a wonderful weekend!

    1. Are you referring to the red dots? I should have explained that it is red nail polish. It is the way the breeder identifies the puppies, say to monitor weight and growth. One may be “right front boy”, or “left rear boy”, or “tail girl”, or “no mark girl”, etc. (Thunder was “right rear boy”. :)) Some breeders use colored yarn/sting, but SRR uses nail polish.

      1. Thanks for solving that mystery! It never occurred to me that you’d have to keep track of who’s who, but it certainly makes sense. All this stuff is so interesting. 🙂

  3. I think that picture of Storm with the Kong is my all-time favorite picture of her (my 2nd favorite is the one of her in her camo standing in the corn).

    I was wondering the same thing about the kennel, so are you saying one dog may stay inside the house while two go into the kennel?

    Oh and thanks for the shout-out. 😉

    1. Our dogs are only outside for part of the day. The rest of the time they are under our feet hanging out inside with us. So yes, we may just swap one or the other out. Eventually Thunder won’t be out that much anyway, as he gets older, (but that is a few years away still :)).

  4. LOVE that picture of Storm with the Kong in the snow. SO cute! It usually is the handlers that need the help. Rugby reminds me of it constantly!

  6. Hi Guys,

    Happy to hear that you can’t pop that ball!! Cool!!

    I’m loving how you’re keeping us up to date with pup pics!! Yay!! 🙂

    By the way, I hope you get your handler all trained up again soon, those humans, you really have to keep on top of them! Tee Hee

    Have a fun weekend,

    Your pal Snoopy 🙂

  8. love the kong picture–you guys are going to do so great with your new puppy! Good luck!

  10. These pictures are so fun! I love the one of Storm with her Kong. Kongs are the house favorite over here. Love the baby pictures. Good luck with your name- I know how hard that is. “Chelsea” was originally our foster puppy so we called her that. Now that we’ve adopted her, we want to change it but we still haven’t come up with the perfect one–good luck to you!!

    1. I’m so excited! We’re adopting one of the puppies and for some odd reason, we only give our dogs “M” names so it was easy for us. Our Little Man Mich will be joining us and making us a 3-dog family too. (Short for Michigan of course. ;-))

      1. Jenna–that is a great name! (we are never so clever) I guess we will be counting days to the pups come home together. 🙂

    2. For the Love of My Dogs–We got our Golden when he was an adult and did not like his name. (It was the same name as my husband’s uncle…Gus.) We changed it to Gordie and he never seemed to care. My guess is they called him Gussie (yuck) and Gordie was close enough.

  11. Cute photos!

    And thanks for the reply – now I have a follow up question: how long is the training program and when do they go there?

    1. The age and the length of time will be determined closer to when we leave the pup and after the trainer has a chance to work a bit with him. It also depends on what we ask the trainer to work on. Could be a couple of weeks or a couple of months. It probably won’t be until the pup is 6 or so months old and by then he should be very well antiquated with the trainer because we plan to be there a lot training with our older dogs. The trainer will tell us when he thinks the pup is ready for basics. Our trainer happens to have a new pup of his own and works with a lot of puppies.

      With Thunder and Storm, we waited until they were older to send them to the trainer for basics and it put us behind from the start. There are many things that you can’t move ahead on until they have their basics are are properly introduced to gunfire and birds (which we cannot do in the city).

  12. All of those pictures are wonderful!! Those adorable little puppies are growing so fast. They are going to be going all over the place very soon and having so much fun. You all have a great weekend. Hugs and nose kisses

  14. Hi Y’all,

    I have some big horse balls too and only played with then once or twice. In the low country my Human has a basketball (she’s pretty good shooting it too). I like to play with it, especially inside while she’s running on the treadmill on a hot day.

    You reminded me we haven’t played with the Kong toy in a long time!

    Y’all come back now,
    Hawk aka BrownDog

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