Our girl is growing up way too fast….where is my cute little puppy???? She now weighs 32.8KG or 72.3lbs.
How about a celebratory roll in the grass….
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Tag Archives: Berner
8 Months old…time is flying
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Camo Puppy
Camouflage Puppy
It has been so stinkin’ hot that Spirit has found herself a cool, shady spot under the weeping birch to get out of the sun and chillax.
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7 Months Old
What a difference 5 months makes…..
10 weeks old
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My girls chill-axin’
Tilly and Spirt hanging out together on the couch
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Little Rock Star
This is not exactly a “Wordless” Wednesday post. This weekend Spirit participated in her first dog show. It was the Northern Alberta Canine Association All Breed show. Everything started Thursday night when Coreen (the breeder) gave Spirit her second bath and groom in less than 2 weeks. She was a lot more relaxed and less stressed for this bath than her first one. Even the high powered blow dryer didn’t phase her.
On Friday morning, Jo-ann (the handler) showed her and Spirit worked with her beautifully. So well in fact that she got a best bitch in the 6-9 month old puppy category. She then went on to compete with all the winning female Berners and she got reserve (second best) which gave her two ribbons for the day. Coreen and Joanne were so happy with how well she showed that they nicknamed her “Little Rock Star”. Spirit’s Mom Sophie was amazing in the show ring and her nickname is “Rock Star”
On Saturday morning Spirit won best bitch in the 6-9 month old puppy category again. Then she went on to compete in the winners bitch category only this time she won it beating the dog that beat her on Friday. The win gave Spirit her first two points towards her championship.
I was in total shock. Spirit was absolutely horrible for Jo-ann…the complete opposite of Friday. She constantly sat in the ring and she was just not listening to her. I barely had a chance to digest the win when all of a sudden Jo-ann is handing me the leash and telling me that I have to show Spirit in the best of winners category because she will be competing against her older brother Axl (previous litter) and she had to show him instead.
It was almost a blessing because I had all of about 30 seconds to panic and then I had to grab the leash and run into the ring. I felt like a fish out of water. I kept apologizing to the judge for not understanding what she wanted me to do. The good news is that Axl won the best of winners category and it gave him all the points he needed to finish his championship.
Next came the best puppy in breed category where the girls compete against the boys for the first time. I handled her again. Her brother handsome Samson had won his 6-9 month old puppy category too so that meant Spirit had to compete against her brother. Although she won, it was a bitter sweet victory. It just didn’t feel right competing against her beautiful brother.
Sampson and Spirit NACA 2015
Spirit’s first in the Winners’ Bitch category meant that she moved on to compete in the best puppy in the working group. Since she was so horrible for Jo-ann and worked beautifully for me both times, we all decided that I would show her in the afternoon. She competed against 8 or 9 different working dog breeds and she came in fourth which gave her a beautiful big white ribbon.
Here is her official winners picture.
Sunday morning was an exact repeat of Friday except that I showed her in both rounds. She got a best bitch in the 6-9 month old puppy category and reserve (second best) in the winners bitch category which gave her another two ribbons. In total she won six small and 1 large ribbon.
Here are just a few more pictures of Tailspin’s Berners at the show:
Spirit and Axl
Axl, Spirit, Samson and Bentley (Axl’s brother)
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Wordless Wednesday – First Bath….yuk!!
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June 3, 2015 · 07:18
Bait & Gait Class and Mock Dog Show
Samson, Axel, Ryder and Spirit
This morning Spirit and I took a Bait and Gait class as a warm up for the mock show this afternoon. She did pretty well for a dog that loves to sit….a big no no for the show ring. Then this afternoon the handler took her and worked her in the mock show. Her brother Samson, her big brother Axel (same parents first litter) and the breeders’ Newfie Ryder were all in the same show. Axl made it to best in show but lost to a beautiful Golden.
Spirit was so wiggly every time the judge touched her and when she tried to look at her bite. She made the cut for the female working dog group but ended up losing to a cute boxer. I think it was a great experience for her that hopefully will have her better prepared for the real show. The handler Jo-ann said she did a good job so hopefully she will do her breeders/grandparents (Steve and Coreen Johnson of Tailspin Bernese Mountain Dogs) proud next week at the Northern Alberta Canine Association all breed show. This video is for you Coreen since you didn’t get the opportunity to see your grand-daughter “strut her stuff” in person.
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6 Months Old
Our girl is 6 months old and full of herself. One minute I love her to bits and can’t smooch her up enough and the next minute I would like to give her away to the first person I see. I guess it is the joy of adolescence. She can be so sweet and then so rotten a millisecond later. We went to the Vet for our monthly weigh in and she was 28KG or almost 62 lbs. She now weighs the same as Wally and she is almost as tall as he is.
Next weekend she will participate in her first Dog Show (All Breed). We are doing a mock show on Sunday to give her a chance to work with her handler for the first time.
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Mmmmm Watermelon
Technically it is supposed to be spring but we just had a huge dump of heavy, wet snow. The cool temps didn’t seem to dampen Spirit’s enthusiasm for trying watermelon for the first time. At first she just tried licking it. She watched her big brother chomping on it and then she started inhaling it as fast as she could. It seems odd to be eating watermelon when there is snow on the ground. I managed to capture a bit of the action on video.
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Spirit the Cheerleader
We all got up bright and early to head to St. Albert so that I could participate in the Run Wild Half Marathon. Spirit was a great cheerleader at the start line and attracted tons of attention. There is something about a Berner puppy. Everyone just wants to meet her and smooch her up.
After the race we had to go to Spirit’s conformation class. Her brother, handsome Samson, was in the same class so we finally got a picture of the two of them together. Although Spirit is about the same height as Samson she looks dwarfed beside him. He also weighs about 13lbs more than her (that’s about 20% heavier).
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5 Months Old
Our little girl is 5 months old today. On the way home from a play date at the off-leash park we stopped at the Vet for a weigh in. I was shocked to discover that she was 54 lbs (see Grandma….no worries). I took a bunch of pictures of her and the rest of the kids so that you can see how much she has grown and how quickly she is catching up to Wally.
Spirit, Wally and Tilly
Wrestling with my big brother
Spirit loves to cuddle. Unfortunately she is so big and klutzy and she doesn’t recognize her own strength. She usually ends up hurting me when she is trying to give me lovin’.
Look out….here I come
Mmmm ears!!
Giving Mom a big wet willy
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Our first water adventure
Now that the ice jams are gone, I felt it was safe for Spirit to be introduced to the river at the dog park. The first time she followed a bunch of dogs in and came bounding out. The second time she ran in and hit a deep spot and her head went under the water (at 2:14). She was a bit surprised but recovered quickly. It took an extra 30 minutes of running around to get all the dirt, mud and excess water off her coat before I would let her back into the car.
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Spirit Goes Home Again
This afternoon I took Spirit back to the breeder (Tailspin Bernese Mountain Dogs) so that Coreen (Grandma) could see her. I could see that Spirit definitely remembered her and was curious to be back at her birth home.
She was very excited to see her Mom Sophie again….unfortunately the feeling wasn’t mutual. All was not lost because Jake, a beautiful 6 year old Berner, was quite nice and gentle with her. She looks dwarfed by his huge head and 110 pound body.
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4 Months Old
Our “little” girl is officially four months old today. She had her final set of shots on Friday and she was 40.5 lbs. Although she has grown quite a bit taller, her weight hasn’t changed in 2 weeks.
We have been puppy sitting a friend’s dog for the last week. They have been getting along famously. They wrestle all day at home and the two of them have spent many hours running at the off-leash park. I think I am going to miss her as much or even more than Spirit will. She not only kept our little girl busy and out of trouble but all that activity made for a very tired and sleepy puppy when they weren’t running around.
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Can you caption these photos?
When I saw these pictures I couldn’t stop laughing. It looks like Spirit was trying to give Hope a clear message. In the first picture she is sound asleep with her nose parked in Hope’s behind and in the second one her eyes are wide open and see appears to be pushing her paw against the area that is offending her.
Sleeping blissfully unaware of what is about to happen
OMG….Hope farted in my face
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CPR Spirit Style
Yesterday we renewed our First Aid certification. We are very lucky that one of our SAR group members is a certified instructor. Dawn very graciously agreed to come to our house to teach the course so that we wouldn’t have to leave Spirit at home all day. Although it was a little bit of a challenge to do the course with 3 dogs helping, I think it may have added a little bit of spice to the class. Spirit was very interested in the AED, especially when it was talking.
Time for a break
Flirting with the instructor hoping to get Mom and Dad a good grade
Time out for a little butt scratching
Learning chest compressions
I am enjoying the course so much that I am smiling!
Practicing mouth to mouth
Our not so little girl is 3 months old today. Yikes time is flying by too fast!!!
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12 Weeks Old
I am shocked at just how fast Spirit is growing. She looks like a dog…not a puppy. Her big furry coat makes her look huge but if you touch her there is just a little skinny body under all that fur.
This is a cute video showing Spirit’s first time going down the stairs and how much better she was the next day. Both Wally and Tilly got in on the action.
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11 Weeks Old
Happy Valentine’s Day
What a difference a week makes. Little Spirit is gaining a little more confidence each day. We’ve been for several short car rides and each time she shows less signs of stress. We’ve gone from being afraid of going up and down 3 small steps on our deck to mastering all the steps up (and down) to the second floor of our house. She’s gone from 22.5 to 26 lbs…and Friday night was the first night that she slept through the night without needing a potty break. Yippeeeee!!. Getting up at 2am, dead lifting 26 lbs and schlepping her down the stairs was getting to be really hard on the back. And I’ve saved the best news for last….we’ve made it two days in a row without any potty accidents in the house.
Here’s a fun video of Spirit running in slow motion. I giggle every time I watch those ears flap up and down.
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Ten Weeks Old
This is Spirit’s third day with us and she is settling in just wonderfully. I’ve always dreaded getting a puppy in the winter because potty training can be a nightmare when they don’t want to go out in the cold. Well this doesn’t seem to be an issue for Spirit. She loves the snow and never seems to be cold. I’m freezing but she is sprawled out on her belly luxuriating in all the fluffy white stuff.
I’ve been playing around with the GoPro and the head mount. I don’t seem to be able to get the angle adjusted properly so that I can keep her in frame most of the time. Frustrated, I gave up and used my old Canon Powershot and got this short video of her playing in the snow.
Filed under Baby Pictures, Birthday Pictures, Playing
Meet the Parents
This beautiful girl is Spirit’s Mom Sophie, more formally known as Can Grand Champion Werlwind’s Playing with Fire. Spirit’s registered name is Tailspin’s Winter’s Spirit. Here are a couple more pictures of Sophie at different shows.
This handsome fellow is the sire Bacchus or Am GCH Alpenspirit Sweet Celebration. I didn’t realize until I was typing this blog post that Spirit’s name is also part of the Kennel name of her Dad….that’s neat and totally by accident. While it is lovely that both of her parents are grand champions, the most important things for me was to find a breeder who really cared about their dogs and participated in Berner Garde. Berners have so many health issues and such a short life span. After watching our poor Tango suffer through DM, it was important that our breeder tested her dogs to see if they were carriers of any of the major diseases Berners are prone to. Healthy body and good disposition are the most important to me.
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Day 1and training begins
We had a pretty good night considering how stressful the drive was for her. We just hung out for a couple of hours letting her explore us and the dogs. We did one quick ‘charge the clicker session’ and then headed to bed. She whimpered for a couple of minutes and then fell asleep. All night I kept looking over the side of the bed wondering if she was awake and needed to go out. I woke her up at 4 am and and took her outside. She peed and pooped and then we just hung out on the kitchen floor for a couple of hours. Just before heading back to bed I did another quick ‘charge the clicker session’. I knew she already understood the game. As soon as I clicked she was looking for the treat. Again she settled in just a few minutes and I got to stay in bed until 0730. That’s unheard-of for me.
I decided to start our first training session with the Staples easy button. I put it down and she went to sniff it. Click – treat….and she had the game. I got Don to video our second session. You can tell from the first moment of the video that she knew what she needed to do to get the click. Once I raised my criteria and didn’t click for a nose touch you can see her mind working to try and process what was going on. She looked at me and then at Don…thought about for a few seconds and then came back to the button. That is just what I Iove to see. She didn’t give up and walk away from the game.
After her lunch, I brought out the easy button again. She accidentally hit it with her paw and the recording went off. I made a big, happy fuss and she was so pleased with herself. The next time I put it down she immediately hit it with her paw. I just wish Don had been video taping.
Here is one more quick video of her playing. I can’t help but laugh as I watch her pounce on the ball.
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Surprise…she’s here!!!
Last night the breeder called and asked us if we would like to pick up our puppy one day earlier. We have a snow storm coming on Thursday and she was worried about us making the hour long drive out to her farm in a blizzard. Very thoughtful and of course I would love to get Spirit as soon as possible. Well here she is. It was a very stressful ride home in the car. It looks like I am going to have my first puppy who is terrified of being in the car. We’ll work very slowly and hopefully get her more comfortable. We took just a few pictures when we got home and now she is crashed. Hopefully we will have a quiet night. Welcome to your new family Spirit.
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Welcome Spirit
Meet our newest family member Spirit. She is a Bernese Mountain Dog and she will be 10 weeks old on Feb 7th. We just picked her up tonight and brought her home. She already has her own blog. You can find her at LIFEWITHSPIRIT.CA
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Bonus Puppy Visit
We made an unplanned visit to Johnson Farm today. We dropped off a blanket and a bunch of plush dog toys. The hope is that they will develop Mom Sophie’s scent and other comforting scents from around their home. These scented items should offer Spirit some comfort during her first fews days in our house. I managed to capture a few pictures of our visit on my phone. The adult Berner in the last photo is Journey. She let us know that she needed loving and attention as much as the little ones. Just two more sleeps!!!
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Nine Weeks and growing
I went through severe withdrawal last week because we didn’t get any pictures of the puppies at 8 weeks old. I saw this one on Facebook yesterday and just fell in love all over again. It’s their official 9 week old picture and the last one of the litter together. They are starting to move on to their adoptive homes now. Look at them….so beautiful. Spirit is the one on the far left. Her brother, the one of the far right, is just gorgeous with the wide, white flash on his forehead. He would have been my first pick but he was already spoken for. Only 4 more sleeps until Spirit comes home with us!!!!
A big thank you to Coreen and Steve Johnson from Tailspin Bernese Mountain Dogs for allowing me to share their puppy pictures on Spirit’s blog. Soon I will be able to take all the pictures I want of our little girl…..ok…not so little.
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Seven Weeks
We had our second visit with the puppies today. It was only a few degrees below zero so we got to play with them outside. I was shocked to see how much they grew in 2 short weeks and to see their individual personalities emerge. Spirit is a little timid and quiet but she played a little with Don. They were getting over some tummy troubles so that may have contributed to her quietness. I was able to get a couple of good pictures of her.
We now have an official adoption date. Thursday, February 5th at 1830hrs. It is only 17 days away but I know it is going to feel like a life time for me. I’m used to getting my puppies much younger but I am sure she will be worth the wait.
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Six Weeks Old
Oh gosh she is so darn cute. We get to go and visit them again next Sunday. I can hardly wait.
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Five Weeks
On New Years day we finally got to meet the puppies. It was heavenly to smooch those little, fat bodies and to smell that amazing puppy breath. We also got to meet Tailspin’s 5 adults and 1 teenage Berner and their beautiful Newfie.
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Life In The Dog House 