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Saturday, March 22, 2008

Helmut at June Mountain

Helmut taking off with his family for a June Mountain (California) ski vacation this March.

He was a grinning California beach boy last month and a happy snow doggie a month later! :)

Helmut at June Mountain
Helmut sporting his doggie backpack in the snow.


Helmut at June Mountain
Enjoying a good run!

Helmut at June Mountain
Gangway!!!!!

I asked Geno if he got bowled over but he said Helmut never bowls him over, he's so agile.
I'd probably still want to duck or something! eep!

Helmut at June Mountain
These big dogs really love snow!!

Helmut at June Mountain
Powder faced, Helmut.
I absolutely LOVE this pic!
Isn't he cute?! :D

Thanks Geno!

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Semavi Lady woofed at @ 3/22/2008 11:24:00 PM | Permanent link | (4) Comments

Blogger Judy sent us a woof // March 24, 2008

What a wonderful life Helmut has! A well-rounded dog-of-all-seasons. It's so much fun to see how the litter is growing. Thanks for sharing -

Judy   

Anonymous Anonymous sent us a woof // March 29, 2008

Helmut seems like a natural in the snow. I'm glad to see he is still doing well. You raised a good pup there, Janice.

Mark   

Blogger doubleh sent us a woof // April 06, 2008

He is so happy.. what joyous pictures!   

Blogger Semavi Lady sent us a woof // April 06, 2008

Thanks everyone. :)

I think he's such a cool dog!   

Saturday, October 06, 2007

The Semavi Brats at Eleven Months - Comparative Musings

Coco. Her chocolate color looks deeper in this light.

Pics below compare the siblings with each other.

Helmut
Helmut, looking ever sooooo handsome!

He's a pet quality boy, but we're hoping he will fill out and eventually become nice and solid. Slow growth is typical and this particular boy needs the muscling and bone that naturally comes to a male that isn't neutered. He's much too leggy to neuter now.

Helmut
Helmut, all gangly and awkward! Angle of me to him is a bit weird in this one, makes him look oddly proportioned.


Helmut
All gangly Helmut. This shows his length of body better.

Helmut
Checking the view away from the corral.

Helmut
Helmut with his sister Coco. His coat is longer, silkier.

Despite the same birthdate... they seem to be growing undercoat at different times. She had little undercoat for a few months -- and that only lasted for only a few months. Helmut had more fuzzy texture to his coat while Coco's coat was rather thin. Now Coco's undercoat is getting dense, while his is silky thin. Coco's coat quality, length and texture compares to her older sister, Ruya. If not for Coco's feathered ears and her silky tail, you might not be able to tell she is longer in coat genetically when she is standing next to Ruya. She and Helmut are homozygous for the recessive rough coat. Both parents and half their littermates were standard coated so each parent donated a rough coat gene to both Coco and Helmut. See littermate Marlowe for his 5 month photos. He has the rough coat as well.

Curly tails
R-L: Coco and Helmut. Right now, the tails are both silky. They have undercoat on the tails, but it is not dense. Nice light diffusers! :)

Sisters
Sisters. Coco and Ruya. Same mom, different dads. Body hair on both coats have similar feel and texture although Coco's coat is slightly longer. This angle also distorts Ruya as it did Helmut.

Coco is 11 months above. Compare Coco to Ruya when Ruya was about a year old.
Ruya
Ruya at about a year.

Coco
Coco's enchantingly lovely face.

Her grandmother on dad's side (Boone is Dad) was also chocolate. Chocolate is just a 'shade' of black, which just didn't have "all the parts" to make a black as dark as true black. Way over simplifying but the idea is that chocolate is another shade of black. Think of some black breeds you know that have black and also come in chocolate. Labs, Newfoundlands, Springer Spaniels, Flatcoats, American Pit Bull Terriers. Sometimes chocolate is called liver and in some breeds chocolate is also called 'red' (red, red nose pit bull). Some breeds are are entirely made up of chocolate dogs, Chesapeake, Viszla, German Shorthair Pointers and more.

Coco's eye
Those eyes! Since the eyes (and nose-skin and hair) of chocolate dogs, also don't have all the genetic parts "to build" true black, the color of the eyes stay a light amber although they are a crazy blue while the puppy is very young. So monochromatic. It is enchanting!

Coco
A bit excited in this pic, Coco.

Coco
Coco moving around...
Coco
Moving. The lighting in this one has more contrast. This enhances perception of the length of her hair.

Coco
Coco at 5 months. Dense undercoat. WAVY texture to her topcoat. It had a harsh feel to it.

Coco
Top view of Coco's coat at 5 months. Looks like she had a body wave.

Here's a similar topview of Helmut's coat at 5 months. It was very plushy soft.

Helmut
Helmut at 5 months. Always gangly! Note that the texture from the side, is comparable to Coco's coat at the same age. It's just the top view where there are a lot of differences. Helmut's coat was softer and plushy, while Coco's coat had waves and harsh texture.


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Semavi Lady woofed at @ 10/06/2007 06:23:00 AM | Permanent link | (2) Comments

Blogger Diane sent us a woof // October 06, 2007

How many loci are there for coat color? Helmut has a lot more black than I realized, comparing him to Ruya and others with the dark mask. He has funny little dark wings on his back (like Batman!).   

Blogger Judy sent us a woof // October 06, 2007

What beautiful dogs. I love this comparison essay. It's really fun to see littermates as they grow up, how they vary. Thanks for sharing!   

Wednesday, March 07, 2007

Noses are for Hiding Treats!


Above is a picture from January. Shows how monochromatic Coco looks now. Eyes, nose, eyerims, mask, ears... :)

She's a very cerebral girl in the way she figures things out sometimes.

On a daily basis, sometimes I hand out small rawhide twistie sticks. She'll come get one and then disappear. Everyone else gets their handout and then suddenly she reappears. She'll have dirt smudged on her nose, like above. I sometimes hand her another rawhide twisty then follow her or watch where she goes.

She'll go to another area of the property and carefully put her prize down and nose some grass over it, straw, weeds and dirt -- to hide it from the others. Then she'll come back to me with her dirt smudged nose and give me another inquisitive look. :) If no more treats are forthcoming, she'll head back to one she just 'hid', grab it and chew it up.

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Semavi Lady woofed at @ 3/07/2007 10:43:00 PM | Permanent link | (2) Comments

Blogger ZaltanaAnatolians sent us a woof // March 18, 2007

Cute picture, her coloring is so different. Isn't in interesting that dogs use their paws to dig a hole, but they use their nose to shovel dirt on something they want to hide.   

Blogger Semavi Lady sent us a woof // March 19, 2007

Come to think of it, I hadn't given much thought about that before! Paws for digging and noses for covering. That's definitely the pattern Coco has with the twisties.

Come to think of it, I've seen my dogs use their noses to push soft things like pillows and blankets away so they can grab a treat or some item they want that gets buried under those. I guess that's sort of like digging. Close up work I guess. And I've seen them use their paws to drag things closer to them or push or bat things (playfully) away, sometimes into holes.

I think they do alternate, but maybe habits are formed based on the substrate and item. Softer things get the nose treatment. :)

Good food for thought. I'll pay attention to that more often.   

Saturday, March 03, 2007

Coco - March 2007



Here's a picture from March 2, 2007 of our rough coated, liver colored Anatolian female, Coco. She is nearly 5 months old in the picture.

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Semavi Lady woofed at @ 3/03/2007 11:45:00 AM | Permanent link | (1) Comments

Blogger ZaltanaAnatolians sent us a woof // March 04, 2007

Ahw, she is just too cute with that hair on the ears going in all directions, 5 months already, don't those pups just always grow up too fast   

Friday, December 22, 2006

Biscotti Puppy

This morning, as daylight was seeping into the sky, I was greeted by a puppy surprise. Opening the front door to hand out small rawhide twists to the gang, everyone came running to the door including one puppy that had a large plastic jar for a head! It was a large, empty biscotti bottle which I had used on my walker to help carrying water or treats.

It was our little girl named Spot (who will get a better name soon!). Unfazed by the big contraption on her head, she came galloping happily to the door with Coco and Batman.

I've seen my share of adult Anatolians that pretend that they can't walk any more, nor eat or pee, if wearing an Elizabethan style veterinary collar, but puppies can sure be resilient!

I handed treats to all the others. Then sat at the front door and tried to get her head out of the bottle. Inside the bottle was a bit steamed up and the fur on her head was still dry but starting to get damp from the condensation. She could see out of the now hazy plastic jar and was very patient with my attempts to work one ear out so I could try and slide it over her head. She seemed to understand I was trying to help her. Alas, it was only going on one way and would simply not come off as easily over her blocky wedge shaped head.

We went into the house. James found some strong wire cutters and got the darn thing off of her as she lay on her belly on a nice working surface. So sweet, she remained still the whole time and didn't complain. (I assure you that she does have a mouth on her if she's got something to complain about!) She recovered quickly enough, wagged her tail happily, enjoyed some cuddles and then she took a treat, went back outside to lie down and enjoy it.

Biscotti Spot
Sitting on our 'operating table'.

Biscotti Spot
Assuming the position for cutting the jar off her head.

All of this gives me an idea for her future name.

Cuddly Puppy
Spot with James.

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Semavi Lady woofed at @ 12/22/2006 08:16:00 AM | Permanent link | (5) Comments

Anonymous Anonymous sent us a woof // December 22, 2006

She probably grew after she got her head in the jar!   

Blogger Peter Chen sent us a woof // December 23, 2006

Hi Semavi Lady,

Sorry if this is a bit off topic, but haven't seen you at the Blogger Help group for some time, and though that this will be a good way to get in touch with you.

You gave a tip on using javascript:top.resizeTo(800,600)
to resize the window to 800x600 screen resolution, and was instrumental in me going from 3 column template back to 2 column (see post Blogger for Dummies is now 3 column.

That was a useful tip you gave for it allow us to check how our blogs are seen in Internet Explorer in small screens. However, I have upgraded to IE7, and looks like your tip does not work in IE7 anymore. I now have no means of checking my blog for IE6 and below viewers. Hope you have more tips for us. Are there other ways of temporarily resizing the window to 800x600 in IE7?

Thanks and a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and your dogs.

Peter a.k.a. Enviroman
Enviroman Says   

Blogger Semavi Lady sent us a woof // December 23, 2006

Hi Peter,

The javascript still works in IE7 but rather than type it into the location, I implemented it as a clickable bookmark in IE favorites.

First, you need to make a bookmark. Now rightclick on the bookmark select the properties option - a box will pop up -- select the Web Document TAB and the URL box in that tab.

paste this text into the URL box:
javascript:top.resizeTo(800,600)

Then go to the general tab, and give it a recognizeable name that the link will be called -- (I call mine:
resizeTo(800,600)

Click APPLY, then click OK.

Now you have a bookmark. You can make other bookmarks for other window sizes this way too and maybe cluster them into a folder. Hope that helps!

I have really had a very hard time finding time for forums lately. Maybe that will change in the future.

Thanks for visiting. :)   

Blogger Peter Chen sent us a woof // December 24, 2006

Hi Semavi Lady,

Thanks. Tried to look for the bookmark icon on IE7 but could not find it. Anyway, I tried the javascript:top.resizeTo(800,600) trick again and it do work in IE7. Don't know how I came to the conclusion it didn't work. Maybe IE7 is still very new to me.

Peter aka Enviroman
Enviroman Says   

Blogger Semavi Lady sent us a woof // December 24, 2006

Peter, why not just make a bookmark the normal way. Ctrl-D -- a popup will make a bookmark for the current page. What you do after accepting that bookmark is go to the folder for the bookmark, right click and then edit it, as above.

I also use window resizing bookmarks like this on Firefox.

Hope that helps!   

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Coco Zooms in for a Closer Look!

We've been busy catching up other things that fell behind during previous months, and preparing for James' impending knee surgery (one of several on the horizon). I didn't find time to blog or put more puppy pics up for the past weeks, but I've quite a collection so will get around to it in smaller batches as time permits.

Good news for now, the surgery that was scheduled to be this week has been postponed til soon after the New Year. Knowing that it looms ahead is still a yuck, but for now the situation will make for a nicer Christmas and New Year's holiday. Hurrah! :)


Here are a few pics in a short series, showing the male pup nicknamed 'Batman' and our girl, Coco. Camera batteries were dead (CRV3 lithium lasted one month and hundreds of pics). Alkaline isn't recommended, but all I had at the time. It really does a sucky job with focus and lighting, not enough juice, speed and power -- batteries died after only a dozen somewhat fuzzy pics!

Here, Batman's completely absorbed with chewing on a small strip of rawhide -- something that's so good, he doesn't seem to notice when he has company. :D

Batman munching...
Batman munching...

Whatcha munching?
Coco gets curious about what he's munching.
He's not telling and neither does he seem to notice her!

Watching!
I LOVE this pic!!
She zooms in for a much closer look, watching and watching. . .
And still, he munches away, ignoring her.

Looking for crumbs
Okay, Coco obviously finds this situation irresistable.
After she crawled on her tummy, closer and closer with no reaction from him -- she puts her paws over his front legs. She sniffs between his paws and beyond. She seems to be hoping to find any bits he may have dropped.
No luck!

Aren't I cute?
Coco :)

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Semavi Lady woofed at @ 12/20/2006 01:02:00 PM | Permanent link | (1) Comments

Anonymous Anonymous sent us a woof // December 21, 2006

So adorable! Those eyes are so vivid, I feel like they must glow in the dark. And Batman seemed so oblivious :)   

Tuesday, December 05, 2006

Those Eyes!

I took a lot of photos of the pups today.
Too tired now to put them online, but here's a quick selection.

A little update on Coco's eye color!

Coco
Crunching Milkbone on a blue background. Dec 5, 2006

Coco's eyes, Dec 5 2006
Eye detail from the same shot, above picture.
What color is that?

The amber 'flames' at the edges of the iris are larger this week than last, giving the eye an increasingly amber hue overall.

Coco
Eye color in sunlight (racing around in the grass with littermates)
Eyes generally look greenish from the distance. Greyish, if the light is low.

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Semavi Lady woofed at @ 12/05/2006 05:59:00 PM | Permanent link | (0) Comments

Saturday, December 02, 2006

Eight Weeks Old, Puppies!

Mornings have been frosty so the pups like to bask in the sun during the morning hours.
I sat down in the shadow of the puppies' dog house, so taking the pics from that dark angle to where the light was pretty bright did some odd things to the lighting. But still it was fun!

Everyone!
L-R: J, Spot and T

These three are the medium coats of the litter. Two girls, Spot & J. And then there's Mr. T, who is definitely a guy. :)

Darth & Zor
Darth
James thinks he looks more like a Wookie than Darth. But Darth was the pup that was most nearly all black of the newborn litter.

Batman & Coco
Batman and Coco -- I may have been clucking like a chicken when they looked at me this way. Don't blame them. :)

Neil
Neil
I really like this guy a lot!

Everyone!
Everyone! Yep, all seven! in the SAME pic.
Kind of rare now, since they aren't all tiny babes in the puppy wading pool any more. :)
Four in the back L-R :: Spot, Neil, Batman & T
Three in front :: Coco tackling Darth with a puppy-nelson while J looks on


Darth
Darth playing with a rope toy

Rope toys arrived and are scattered in the favorite places to absorb the scents of home. Puppies will start going home over the next few weeks and will bring one toy with them when they go.

Batman
Batman. Still so mellow among the pups!

Dec02-2006 023.jpg (1789879 bytes)
Coco and Spot playing with a rope toy. These two are anything but mellow sometimes!

Coco
Coco with a rope toy
To Chew or not to chew. That is the question.

Mr T
Mr T, looking so fine! B)

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Semavi Lady woofed at @ 12/02/2006 11:22:00 PM | Permanent link | (2) Comments

Blogger ZaltanaAnatolians sent us a woof // December 06, 2006

Janice the puppies are just getting cuter every week, and you are taking super pictures.   

Blogger Judy sent us a woof // December 07, 2006

What wonderful puppies! Thanks so much for sharing them with us all. You take such lovely pictures. I want them all!!   

Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Today's Puppy Fix

They are all spending a few hours exploring things, wrestling and chasing each other in the main yard each day.
I look forward to my puppy fix!

Darth
Darth!

Find da mommy
There's a mommy dog in this picture somewhere. Either that or it looks like the Canteen has a big lunch lineup!
I don't think Coco dropped her change. :D

Canteen!
Canteen driver, Zor, thinks it's time to get up.
Coco is determined, and really gets down to earth when she knows what she wants!

Puppies
Batman moves on out while in the background Spot, 'T' and 'J' check something out as a team.

Puppies
'T' looking for more things to conquer. 'J' takes a rest.

Puppies
Neil has a little chat with 'T'.

Darth Ruya
Darth can't resist Ruya's tail dangling down as she rests on the glider chair with me.

Puppies
Neil again. He seems to like being in pics!

Coco
Coco looks up from her nap.

Cud
A close up shows Coco chewing her cud! ;)

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Semavi Lady woofed at @ 11/28/2006 05:40:00 PM | Permanent link | (2) Comments

Anonymous Anonymous sent us a woof // November 30, 2006

Oh, poor saintly Zor must be beyond ready for those pups to be weaned. Coco's eyes look greener than in the last entry - so pretty!   

Anonymous Marit sent us a woof // December 03, 2006

Hmmm... part alpaca?

Marit   

Monday, November 27, 2006