These photos were taken between 5 & 9 weeks. This is NOT what I would call a uniform litter. There are two small pups, (but they are catching up), one medium sized one, and two big'uns. They all looked so different that even Richard had no trouble telling them apart without their color-coded collars.
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Green is the second smallest and the most personable. She's the one who always came when called, happily wagging her tail. She also had the biggest mouth, insistent and demanding. Did not like confinement, and let us know about it...quiet and affectionate when allowed to run free of the puppy pen. Should definately have a job to do. We felt she was the smartest and should make a good obedience prospect.
Here is "Yellow"....the smallest...and my "bottle baby".
Yellow was just not able to get enough nourishment from momma....Bunka's nipples were too big for her tiny mouth, and she was pushed away by her stronger littermates. But she worked SOOO hard, it was if she were trying to tell me "Pleeeeze don't give up on me, I want to live soooo much."
I couldn't let Nature take her course... so I supplemented her with a bottle, which she learned to drain in SECONDS!!
She quickly caught up with Green and became the best eater in the bunch. She looks and plays like a kitten, so Richard dubbed her "Miss Kitty".
Yellow has had her ears up since she was 3 wks old and has been the most agile. She is apprehensive about new experiences but seems to recover quickly. She is incredibly affectionate and would make a great companion. IF we can bear to part with her, we will be very selective in finding just the perfect, loving and gentle owner for her
Next is Purple....she's the "middle child" in weight, but the last one born. She had a rocky start, as momma was tired and Purple was a long time coming. She needed reviving and has been a sentimental favorite of mine.
She has the shortest back, the broadest head,the highest tailset and the cutest little face... she's loaded with self-confidence, has such a cute, funny personality and a lovely clear color, and is loving and cuddly. However, though it may not show in the next picture we feel her angulation to be less satisfactory than her sisters and HEY, we couldn't keep ALL of them!!
The last of the girls is Red. She's the biggest, has the longest back, but the best angulation and may have the longest legs. She lacks self-confidence and is slow to adjust to new situations but has an excellent personality on familiar turf. We know we have work to do, but we think she has enough potential to warrant giving her a chance to live up to it.
And then there's PigBoy! The only boy in the litter, he has been such a worrisome little guy! First we were afraid he would never walk....he just stuck his little hind legs out behind him and suspended himself on his big fat belly, like a hairy little beached whale, or a tiny walrus. I had to wonder how he ever GOT that fat, since he could barely get TO his mother. All the girls would beat him to the dinner table, but once he managed to hoist himself into position with his front legs, he could knock them flying in all directions.... and he must have had some serious suction going on, because he outweighed the girls by a LOT!
Then he would drink soooo much and soooo fast that he would sneeze and blow milk out of his nose! That gave him a slight infection in his nasal passages and got his name changed temporarily from PigBoy to SnotBoy.
But his legs finally started working just fine, and he learned to eat without refluxing, and at five weeks he looked like this.....
He is such a cool, little guy.
Had a little bit of an smartass attitude going on though....could've been from being the only guy in a room fulla wimmen.
Could also be his daddy's influence....I already see similarities in personality, (laid back, sweet natured, but stubborn), and "traits"...(such as peeing in his dish after he eats!...arrrrggghh!!...I guess that's a "GUY" thing.)
This is "Green" at 8 wks. She is now "Daisy" (Alpha's Heavenly Days), and we couldn't have asked for a more perfect home. She will be living with Ed and Donna Jagodzinski, and will be trained in Search and Rescue and anything else she has the aptitude for.
Here's Daisy in a more natural stack...we think she's got a lot of potential. Donna say's she's a fearless little BEAST, but I'm sure she and Ed can handle her.
We hope that Daisy will be seen in the conformation ring. We love her short back, high tailset, her abundance of "attitude", and her overall conformation.
So far her movement seems very nice and she has a very high tailset.
She has become part of the Theby family, in Evansville, Indiana and her new owner honored our theme by naming her Alpha's On The Road Again...
aka..."Willie".
A "portrait" of Willie
Red at 5 weeks.
8 weeks. We are calling her "Austin"....
registered name: Alpha's This Is Austin
At 8 weeks he STARTED to get some legs....
(And the rear ones don't look this straight when I don't have my finger stuck up his butt.)
Then, either someone brought us a nasty 24 hour virus, or he had mushroom poisoning, (he found them before we did)....and for several scary hours PigBoy/SnotBoy became BarfBoy/SquirtBoy.
We thought he was a goner but just as we were getting ready to head for the emergency clinic he started mildly complaining about being in Solitary. The next morning he was not only well, he was loudly telling the world that we were abusing him by making him sleep alone, and that we were starving him to death. (Music to my ears!) He had also had a change of personality from Mr. Cool to Mr. Lovey-Dovey....(maybe from all the individual attention)..... and his ears had popped up overnight.
Here's the little cutie at 9 weeks. We've named him
Alpha's Shoulda Been A Cowboy....aka..."TEX"
He finished his AKC Championship in 8 shows, and became the first UKC Grand Champion in the breed.
This picture was the inspiration for the pastel...."Flower Child".
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Yes, this is the photo that the "PuppyButt" was drawn from....and no, we aren't sure who it is. This is a still taken from a video of five pups moving too fast for positive I.D., but this is either Tex, or Austin.
