Turkish Dogs - particularly Anatolian Shepherd Dogs

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Saturday, September 06, 2008

Semavi Vasi Masoud

This is Masoud from May this year. He is about 1.5 years old in the photo. Isn't he handsome?

He is a rough coated littermate brother to Helmut and Marlowe. We originally called him Neil as his baby name.
Baby Masoud, who was once called Neil

Here he is at 6 weeks. Maybe these pics will also help others doing breed ID and trying to guess how old a puppy looks as he is through the various growth stages?

As happened, I had never had a rough coat in the previous near twenty years with Anatolians, then boom, I have four out of seven! Coco, the chocolate sister, and these three rough coated brothers, Masoud, Helmut and Marlowe! Both parents are standard medium coats as are three littermates. I've posted pics on Jasmine and Bella previously. I still need photo updates on one boy, Lincoln. :) So far, I think they are turning out awesome and everyone loves the temperaments. Fingers crossed on the hip films to come after their we celebrate their second birthdays in October.

Daisy and Gabe

No Anatolian in this pic. I got this lovely 2006 photo from Vera, showing her son Gabriel, with a pretty bloodhound named Daisy. Such a handsome couple! I think Daisy is about two years old in the photo.

Masoud at 3 months with Daisy in 2007

Now here are Masoud at 3 months with his new friend Daisy in 2007. Looks like he's already catching up with her in this pic!

Masoud and Gabriel

Here's Masoud at 5 months, with Gabriel.

Masoud about 18 months with Daisy in May 2008

And here is a pic of Masoud at about 1.5 years with Daisy. Did she shrink?!

Vera writes:

Masoud is doing excellent! What a sweet boy he is, a really wonderful personality. He is really tall and has just filled out. For a long time he was really thin and gangly, with this enormous handsome head. In the last couple of months he really changed into his adulthood. He loves being up on the property, and it really is great seeing him do his thing. He truly is a guardian in every way. I will remind our vet about the upcoming x-rays.

We're hoping to get the whole litter cleared for hip soundness. (our previous litter of 2003 OFA screens are here). Hip dysplasia is a potential problem in large breed dogs. Boone, the father of the litter is a new dog for my bloodline, and while he tested clear, that information is not good enough as a stand alone. There hasn't been a lot of history in tracking the hip soundness in his line and occasionally a pairing of otherwise good dogs produces more than their share of hip problems, and this can indicate some genetic issues. We're all hoping for the best that this combination of traits from my girl Semavi Kadinsi Zor (the mom) and Old Glory Boone (Dad), will help us in making the right choices for the future of our breed.

Hip dysplasia can sometimes have no symptoms til the dog approaches or passes middle age, but in some cases can be so severe, that puppies are put to sleep before they reach 7 months. :(

Many dysplastic dogs are not screened, are bred anyway and produce litters containing puppies whose hip joints are located outside of the hip socket. Not good. We believe that every pet owner that loves their breed can help reduce hip dysplasia by sharing an interest in supporting the future health of their breed. This can mean participating with the breeder by hip screening, even the pets, so that if the parents have unfortunate propensity to pass on dysplasia, that future choices regarding the line can be considered with as much information as possible. To read more about how using this information can help our dogs, see this article at OFA. (Collecting and utilizing phenotypic data to minimize disease: A breeder’s practical guide - PDF)

Labels: 2006Litter, kids, Masoud

Semavi Lady woofed at @ 9/06/2008 02:43:00 AM | Permanent link | (2) Comments

Shoujofan sent us a woof // September 20, 2008 Lovely dogs. I did not know this breed. It's really beautiful.
Semavi Lady sent us a woof // September 20, 2008 Thank you. We think so too. :)

Tuesday, September 02, 2008

Helmut comes to visit!

In August, Geno, Lisa and Helmut came to visit from So. California.
In the pic above, you see Ruya on the glider with Lisa. In the background, you can see Helmut sniffing around and marking his spots. That's Coco's tail right at the far right. Coco and Helmut are siblings. Last time he was here, Helmut was a year old and still squatting, but at this point he was lifting his leg. My little boy, growing up! :D

Anticipating the visit, James and I figured the girls would be excited enough to see their brother again and that it could get complicated, so we decided to keep Boone out back (separate), just in case Boone wanted to make a comment about his harem while his son was visiting. Based on what our foster dog Molly had to say about the attention she was getting from Helmut (back off you nosey boy!), it turned out to be a good choice!

Additionally, Bella had just come back to us the day before and we were all getting reacquainted. Bella was reintegrating into the social order and still trying to assert how many stars she should have should she be allowed to assume rank of General, but it was for the most part going quite smoothly. She seems to adore her sibling sis, Coco, (they used to be arch enemies at one point at 3 months age), but she's now a bit more standoffish to her older sister, Ruya. It's amazing, even after nearly 1.5 years apart (for Bella), that all these siblings seemed to recognize each other very quickly and settled down. It all worked out rather well. :)

Ruya with one month old Bella

pic by Dave Koerner
This is big sister Ruya, protectively watching over little Bella. Bella isn't so little any more. :)

Helmut, with Coco and Bella at one month

Helmut, with Coco and Bella at one month

pic by Dave Koerner
Here are Coco, Bella and Helmut at one month. It's kind of amazing to study their baby pics and see how they all were back then and how they are now.

Daddy Boone

This is Boone. He is daddy to Coco, Bella and Helmut.

Coco with Lisa

Now, here is Coco on the glider with Lisa. She really dug Lisa!
Lisa was stuck on the glider for the whole visit with all the dogs milling around her.

Geno takes great pics!

Coco with Lisa, and Bella in front

Another pic of Coco just enjoying hogging all of Lisa's attention. That's Bella standing in front. She was a bit more aloof for the day and adapted pretty well to the commotion.

Molly in August

Here is Molly. She is a mystery girl, possibly an 'akbash'. We picked up from Animal Control. Eventually we hope that she gets a perfect home. She was the only one of the girls that got much attention and flirting from Helmut. It was cute to watch, but she made it pretty obvious she wasn't interested in that MUCH attention from him. ;) As you can see, she looks very pretty, relaxed and easy going. Her paws are muddy because her idea of getting a drink of water when she is happy and playful, is to stand with her front feet in the bucket while she drinks. This behavior makes the water muddy for everyone else, alas.

Geno surrounded by Anatolians

Now here is Geno. Left to right are Molly, Coco, Helmut and Bella.
If Helmut deliberately wanted to look totally goofy in a pic, he could hardly have picked a better way to stand and stick his tongue out. Sheesh.

Lisa with four Anatolians

One more glider pic showing four dogs around Lisa. That's Coco eating up all the attention. Bella prowling in the foreground. In the background is Molly trying to get away from a persistent but very flirty Helmut.

It was so nice to get a chance to meet Lisa. And so good to see Geno and Helmut again!

Labels: 2006Litter, Bella, Boone, Coco, Helmut, Molly, Rescue, Ruya

Semavi Lady woofed at @ 9/02/2008 04:47:00 AM | Permanent link | (2) Comments

Anonymous sent us a woof // September 05, 2008 i am Turkish living in FL, and anatolians are the best dogs, in my opinion. i would like to have one pure bred;however, i go out of town occasionally and dont like the idea of leving it to someone else's care. i love the pictures in the blog, they are so lovely...
Semavi Lady sent us a woof // September 06, 2008 Thank you! I think these are awesome dogs too! Come by again! :)

Saturday, August 30, 2008

Just like her mom... Semavi Vasi Bella

Semavi Vasi Bella ("Bella") is back with us for a while.
She was the girl who was biscotti puppy.
She gives us so many doubletakes!! Her head and expression and much of her personality is just like her mom.

Momma Zor, below:
Semavi Kadinsi Zor

Zor's muzzle is a little gray at this angle, but the similarities in head and expression just blow me away. :)

Zor with Bella

Here are the two of them. Mama Zor with little 'Spot', now known as Bella, straddling her paws.

Bella in August 2008

Here is Bella again. Pretty girl!

Coco and Bella Aug 2008

And here are Bella with her sister Coco, our chocolate rough coat. Bella is just a little taller than Coco now.

You'd never have guessed Bella would 'catch up' so much if you saw this pic of Coco and Bella playing at 6 weeks of age.
6weeks Coco and Bella

Isn't that amazing?!

Labels: 2006Litter, Bella, Coco, Zor

Semavi Lady woofed at @ 8/30/2008 05:53:00 AM | Permanent link | (1) Comments

Anonymous sent us a woof // August 31, 2008 Bella is a very pretty dog! Mark

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.

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!

Labels: 2006Litter, Helmut

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

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 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
doubleh sent us a woof // April 06, 2008 He is so happy.. what joyous pictures!
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.

Labels: 2006Litter, Coco, Helmut

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

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!).
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.

Labels: 2006Litter, Coco

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

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.
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.

Labels: 2006Litter, Coco

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

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.

Labels: 2006Litter, Bella, humor

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

Anonymous sent us a woof // December 22, 2006 She probably grew after she got her head in the jar!
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
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. :)
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
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...

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 :)

Labels: 2006Litter, Coco

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

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.

Labels: 2006Litter, Coco

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! 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)

Labels: 2006Litter

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

ZaltanaAnatolians sent us a woof // December 06, 2006 Janice the puppies are just getting cuter every week, and you are taking super pictures.
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!

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! ;)

Labels: 2006Litter

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

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!
Marit sent us a woof // December 03, 2006 Hmmm... part alpaca? Marit

Monday, November 27, 2006

Coco's Eyes - Watching Them Turn . . .

Pretty eyes!

Coco's eyes seem to be changing color so fast. In concentric layers from the outside in, a dark grayish outside ring, then moving inward there are pale flecks, like flames of amber, then inward still, a sort of lighter gray and and then blue surrounding the pupil. It's kind of fun watching how her eye colors change!

Labels: 2006Litter, Coco

Semavi Lady woofed at @ 11/27/2006 03:32:00 PM | Permanent link | (1) Comments

ZaltanaAnatolians sent us a woof // November 27, 2006 Very interesting and very pretty

Saturday, November 25, 2006

Puppies - Assorted Pics 5 through 6 Week Old

Sun Nov 26, the pups will be seven weeks old. I'm still catching up on the backlog and am actually making headway. Yay, me! These pics are from a collection covering the end of their fifth and going to the end of their sixth weeks. :)

Coco snooze

A five week old Coco, snoozing.

Coco

Coco's eyes are turning grayish. They have a faint amber (yellowish) tinge that is increasing around the iris which gives them a sage or moss coloring in some photos. As a liver colored ASD, the transitions in eye color will continue through her first year.

Nov20-2006 004.jpg (723714 bytes)

Cuddly Coco - this pic shows how fuzzy she can look. :)

Neil

Neil at five weeks. Sporting the ever popular 'wet look' -- thanks to helping to fill the water bowl.

Darth

Darth at 5 weeks. Snoozing after a meal. Does he look roly poly or what?!

Batman

Batman 5 weeks - very mellow guy.

Mr T playing with tug toy

Mr T playing with a suspended tug toy.

Starting their sixth week, I let them out to explore part of the yard for a few hours every day.

The pics below are from the first time they had a chance to explore outside their contained puppy area.

Neil & Darth

Neil in front - Darth behind him.

Darth

Darth coming forward.

Spot & Neil

J &amp;amp;amp; Coco

J & Coco

Synchronized yawning . . . Ruya yawns, so does Coco.
Spot in the middle and Neil in foreground

Neil

Neil again.

Family

Adult girls, Zor (furthest back) and Ruya (forward) on the left.
Puppies from 12 o'clock to the front are Spot, Coco and Neil.
On the right, Boone watches over all his babies.

Boone

Boone

. . . new camera - pics follow.

Ruya with pups

Ruya being mobbed by her siblings.
With pic above and those that follow, I'm trying out a new camera. This one is a Kodak EasyShare Z650.
It has a very different feel to it than my other digital cameras.

Mobbed!

Above pic: Bottom right, you can see Ruya's feet in the forground, still mobbed by puppies. Are those are hind feet up in surrender? :)
Zor being mobbed by puppies for a snack. Boone in the background, head hidden behind Zor -- missed the shot I really wanted while fumbling for the new button locations.

What I wanted - Zor was laying down and Boone standing just behind her. The pups were approaching them. Only took a few seconds for me to lose the shot completely. :)

Above pretty much captures some of the chaos these darling little abductors have created in our lives here! Boone has actually been chased by his kids from time to time. He enjoys watching over them but doesn't want the whole pack closing in on him at once. Can't blame him. :)

'J' puppy - nicknamed for the capital J on her chest.

This new camera has 10x optical zoom with something called Schneider-Kreuznach Variogon. Don't ask. I had to look it up too.
I only took a few pictures because I had little idea if anything was coming out right and the camera seemed to be very busy focusing on things and adjusting this and that or some other thing within. Everything looked fuzzy in the viewfinder til I started to figure out how to use the buttons.

I wasn't even sure if above puppy was still in the picture when I took this one. Turned out okay.

Coco

Coco looking rough coated in a picture from the distance! This coat texture detail doesn't show up very well in distance shots from the other cameras. I'm starting to like this camera!

Neil and Mom

Neil
Nice detail. Every blade of grass and his coat shows up well with this shot. Compare to the shots with Neil from the Kodak EasyShare C330 above. James found the camera at a local Walmart sale. Not bad. :)

Other pup stuff: The boys all have their nether packages which started coming in on week 5. They are all also demonstrating some bite inhibition, not chomping quite so hard on their playmates or human victim. The girls are pretty social. Most social is Spot, then Coco, and finally 'J' in the current rankings for seeking social activity. Neil is the most social and adventurous of the boys, followed by Darth and T. Batman seems to be the most mellow although he gets up and about when I'm least likely to be ready with camera.

On the coats, Spot and 'J' (of the girls), have the smoothest of the medium coats. Next level up for coat length and increased plush appearance for a medium coat is 'T', who will probably have a coat like his big sister, Ruya. Coco and Darth have rough coats of about the same degree of increased intermediate texture. And finally Neil and Batman have definite rough and rugged looking coat and perhaps will have more in the way of feathering as adults than will Coco and Darth.

Mental note: Don't take this new camera for a swim in the puppy dish!

Labels: 2006Litter, Boone

Semavi Lady woofed at @ 11/25/2006 03:00:00 PM | Permanent link | (1) Comments

Anonymous sent us a woof // November 25, 2006 Wow, that camera takes great pictures!! Okay, now let's see if I can post this comment successfully....

Friday, November 24, 2006

Such a Simple Idea!

When the pups were five weeks old, we kept trying to get some pics showing how Spot and J, similar sized medium coat fawn pups, looked when standing next to Coco, who is a liver girl, turning rough coat.

Simple idea! But turn it over to two human klutzes and this is what you get. . .

I tried getting some unposed shots, showing Coco with one or both her sisters playing together. but the effect wasn't quite what I was looking for. . .

Spot & Coco

WATCH OUT, it's Coco-Zilla!
Coco munching on Spot's back.

They kept moving around and extra puppies kept getting into the shot. Sometimes their mom would stick her head into the shot and give a pup a kiss, which would usually result in various odd photos that didn't accomplish the objective.

So I thought, why not have James line them up on a chair and I'll just take a buncha pics. What could be easier than that?!

Well, here's how that turned out!

Chair pics

This is 'J' and Coco - almost 6 weeks old
Coco's taking up most of the chair and is trying to get her rear leg back onto the chair seat.
She is big compared to Spot and 'J' but because she is closer to the camera, it's a bit distorted.
James is trying to arrange the puppies to sit straight and front, so that I can get a picture of them sitting neatly to show their differences in height and bone.
In this picture, Coco is about 15.5 pounds. 'J' in the picture was 10.5 pounds.
Spot, the smallest girl in the first picture was 10 pounds -- all weighed the same day.

Chair pics

A bit distorted! Too distorted to be realistic in comparing their sizes! :)

Chair

A little better since they are both almost the same distance to the camera, but this is out of focus. The autofocus went for the shirt sleeves.

Chair

Okay, this one didn't work out either. Coco wanted to get comfy. "Hey, I'm a big puppy, I need the whole chair to myself!"
'J' was getting annoyed at all the repositioning and wanted to play with Coco, so she's attempting to chomp her sister.

Chair

So here's how it ended.
Coco jumped down and went off to get a nap.

I have a lot of photos that turned out funny like this.

Great thing about digital cameras is that you can keep snapping away.
With the old 35mm SLR cameras I had, developing and printing of experimental shots I couldn't see til after finishing and developing the roll of film usually resulted in fewer useable pictures when taking candid shots. :)

Labels: 2006Litter, Coco

Semavi Lady woofed at @ 11/24/2006 11:46:00 PM | Permanent link | (0) Comments

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

More Puppy stuff from November 10 2006

Okay, I'm really behind on everything lately but I'm working on it!
This is a continuation of week five with the puppies, so go back here and read if you missed it, then come back here.

Ready now?

Here are some photos from the puppies' fifth week dated November 10th, sent to us by the Koerners after their visit. They get all the credit for these great pics. I did was crop them down to take advantage of the high resolution detail in some of the pictures.

There are soooooo many photos but here are a few samples of scattered shots and some extra stuff thrown in. :)

Ruya and Darth

Darth and Ruya

Ruya loves Dave and Karolyn, and she loves "her" puppies too. Here she is laying in the straw in the puppy area.

Pretty roomy in here!

Ruya with one of the girls, showing how much room there is ~~in the little doghouse~~ in the Batcave.

In the above pic, see that gray blob on the right with a tail stepping out the front?
That's Batman stepping out of the Batcave

Batman and Coco

The front end of Batman, outside the Batcave, with Coco, of course.

Ruya, the lapdog, and Karolyn

Ruya demonstrating how to be a lapdog even when ~~the victim~~ Karolyn isn't using a chair

Lapsitting

Lapdoggie

Spot wants to get on Karolyn's lap too!

T and Neil

Mr T (on step) talks to Neil, probably about the popularity of the Batcave

This old house

Popular spot indeed. Ruya and Spot inside. Batman on the step. Darth playing with Neil off to the side.

This old house

Naptime. Everyone looks drowzzzzzzy

Ruya in the dog house.
Clockwise, starting with Batman on the step, Neil and Darth (on the bottom), Spot with her head above Darth.

Mom and Dad

Meanwhile, elsewhere in Gotham City.... Mama Zor in the background and noble Daddy Boone in foreground

Darth

Sleepy Darth

Neil

Headstudy Neil

Pups

Mr T arrives at the Batcave with news for Coco and Neil

Magnum kennel

New(ish) Kennel:
Our cheap chain mesh dog runs became demolished over the years due to weaknesses of the chainmesh material, so we bought this setup by Magnum. It has two doors, one of which is always open unless used. Both doors are temporarily held open with baling twine for the pups as part of their puppy area. It can be divided in half with a center panel if the need ever comes up (the giant doghouse would have to be pushed sidways or taken out).

We don't kennel dogs but these things are handy when you have workers around or need to contain a dog for any reason. I'm impressed with the quality of these panels and hope these will be good for a long time to come.

A fun side trip on doghouses now!
That giant doghouse which we have moved in the dog run, is well over 15 years old. It has been a favorite dog house (one of three big ones) for all of our Anatolians over the years. Because of the headroom, it is big enough so that I can get in there with two or more adult Anatolians and be pretty comfy! With fresh straw in the doghouse, we have fun 'making the bed'! Yep, it's true, I love that doghouse too. :)

The original frame was rebuilt this year and James given it three new sides and a new roof. You can see a few of the old boards being used as the front panel of the doghouse above.

The second largest doghouse still needs repairs.
zor-ruya-apr-2005.jpg (11153 bytes)

Zor and Ruya cuddle inside on a rainy day. (old pic by James)

Zor-pawsoutFeb022006.jpg (45890 bytes)

Zor demonstrates one of many deficiencies. This one also needs a new frame and some new sides due to the wear and tear it has suffered.
(this pic by me)
And finally, the very oldest doghouse of the three big doghouses, the one that Aslan, my former old service dog used to love standing or sleeping or just BARKING on top of and occasionally sleeping inside of, has long since collapsed!

Old frames can only be reboarded, renailed before the wood just gets too old to hold a good nail. Then there's nothing for it but to rebuild it from the ground up . . .

4doghaus.jpg (16155 bytes)

My favorite old picture of this old doghouse (by Bill McKeon). There's Aslan on top with Disi, next to him. Bertha inside and Sabah with her head sticking out over the retaining wall for the straw. No wonder that house eventually collapsed! It became unsalvageable. I used to get into it and help spread the fresh straw - less headroom than the giant doghouse, but still not bad! With two adult Anatolians to help me, it was a lot of fun! I'd get out of the doghouse with straw in my hair, in my clothes and jeans and just grinning from ear to ear.

The picture wasn't a setup! Actually we had some visitors over and all the dogs came to greet. The exercise pen off to the left had a litter inside - this was 1994 . . . Anyway after "the meet and greet", the conversation got boring to the dogs, but they all wanted to stick around to monitor our guests and make sure nothing evil happened to the pups. Two went inside, two on top. (and one flew over the cuckoo's nest?) ;)

Aslan used to play "King of the Mountain" games up there, and would wrestle with other ASDs on the top board which had to be reinforced several times. It is at least three layers thick in the pic above. It was like the World Wrestling Federation sports going on up there. None of the occupants below would pretend to sleep through it. And the wrestlers didn't play 'dirty'. The object of the game was to keep to the middle of the roof with all four feet. If you got pushed to the edge, you didn't get thrown off but you were the clear winner if still in the middle. Speaking of grinning ear to ear, I wish I had some shots of grinning Aslan, standing up there, the undefeated champion. He will forever be a champion to me. :)

Speaking of wrestling, it's interesting that the dogs seem to understand certain rules. Actually it's kind of like Sumo wrestling. They all have to stay within a certain boundary near the center. A movie I have of Boone and Ruya wrestling using the same rules, can be seen here.

BTW, that orange Volkswagon also had a dented-in, flattened roof. You want to guess why? :rotfl:

:) :) :)

Anyway, back to the present:
Run for Mommy!

After Zor has a meal, she dashes into the puppy area and beelines for her big doghouse.

The puppies then try to pile in after her for quick refreshments. :)

In the above case, Zor only gave a demo of what happens when she makes a dash for her big house. But she told the puppies in rather clear language that both human and puppy could understand, "No ZUUP for YOU!"
Sigh . . . Oh well!

Watching you

This pic!

NOW, I don't know what Dave may have said or done to Darth and Coco to get this expression (above) from them both, but I couldn't resist sharing this shot. LOL

Spot guards, Ruya sleeps, Coco kisses

Here is Spot On Guard, while Ruya sleeps.
Coco kisses Spot, who seems to have fallen asleep on the job.

Well, more pics to come. Thanks so much to the Koerners for sending all the pics for this entry! :D

Labels: 2006Litter, Boone

Semavi Lady woofed at @ 11/22/2006 09:00:00 PM | Permanent link | (0) Comments

Saturday, November 18, 2006

Almost Six Weeks - Puppy Fun!

At last, some time available to get some photos from over the past week online.

My little Anatolian Captors (I've been abducted, you know!) are growing up so fast!

Alt milk

Here is sister Ruya, giving a snack to her little sister, Spot.

Like her mother Zor, Ruya is drying up and weaning the pups. Given the choice between Mommy Zor and "Mom #2", the pups opt for Zor if they have a choice. Sometimes you can see both Zor and Ruya stretched out, welcoming any takers, but Ruya will be alone and all the pups will be with Zor, who can give them the goods with less effort on their part. :)

Ruya bags

Ruya, who hasn't had a litter yet, has these dainty 'bags'. Just these rear ones gave a little milk when the puppies began to demand it. Zor's 'bags' on the other hand are quite large and often swollen with milk although they are getting flatter and shrinking now as she weans the pups.

Mr. T, looking adorable

A common sight these days. Darth and Coco tend to curl up on the bricks right next to the large dog house. Sometimes they are together like this, or it's just Darth or just Coco. They seem to like laying down off on their own and on cooler surfaces.

and Batman

Batman checking them out before dinner.

Chow!

Time for chow! That's 'J' standing in the middle of the puppy 'flying saucer' bowl with both feet inside.
They all do this from time to time, sometimes several at once are standing over the food. I put an extra pot into the puppy area to make sure all have an equal chance.

Darth! Coco!

Darth and Coco, all roly poly from chow are at it again in their favorite area.

Spot and Ruya

Spot chomping on Ruya's tail. Ruya looking a bit resigned. :)

She'll jump up if a puppy is too rough. Coco sometimes gets way too rough with that chomping and tail pulling. Ruya and Zor give Coco a little roughing up if she's too pushy. She's becoming more gentle about it now.

Boone and kids

Cameo appearance by Boone! Daddy Boone on the left gets meaningful glares cast on him by Zor and Ruya when he's near the pups. He's here checking out Coco and Darth, under the watchful eyes of Zor, who is yawning - probably to tell him to keep calm if he's going to get that close to the babies. Yawning is a calming signal used between dogs as part of their interpack communication. You can read different things they do with their body language, by looking around online such as here.

Toys

Darth checking out some big doggie toys that the Koerners brought as gifts for our dogs well over a year ago. Off to the left, 'J' samples a littermate's tail.

Blanket pups

One thing that's fun to do each afternoon if it isn't raining, is to get a nice thick blanket and sit down with the pups for a while at their level and gauge their personalities.

Batman spreads blanket

Batman does his part, and tugs on a corner, helping to spread the blanket.

Blanket chaos

Coco helps fluff up the blanket, lumps are good!

Shortly before the blanket is completely down, everyone wants to get on it! There's no room for me sometimes!

Didn't I say Everyone! This is after the blanket party had gone on for a while.
All rumpled up, some pups snoozing, some wrestling, they LOVE blanket time.. That's Darth right at the top in deep snooze, no longer on the blanket somehow! :)

Ruya likes to get on the blanket too and tries to sit in my lap. That's what we did when she was a baby too. She's very snuggly and will still try to get into your lap sometimes!

Zor comes on the blanket too but gives up in disgust when the pups beeline for the milkwagon, so it's just not relaxing for her. :)

Ruya is safe in that regard right now since the pups have to work a lot harder to get the sparse amount of milk she makes, so they prefer their real mommy.

If a puppy mouths me too hard, I give them the nylabone or another toy to chew and pet them, so it's kept handily near the blanket. My adult dogs have never really taken to Nylabones, so our's seem to last forever!

Blankie snooze

Ending Blanket time... When it gets dark, I have to get the pups off the blanket so I can put it away, in case of rain. Much nicer sitting on a dry blanket the next afternoon!

But how does one just pick up the blanket when seven pups around ten pounds or more each, and Ruya, who is about 120 pounds, are all still sleeping on it? They're all such angels when sleeping, I just don't want to wake them up. Solution: Usually in a few hours, it is time for their next feed, then they all get up and it's easy to pick the up the blanket and go.

Well, one evening, it was starting to RAIN after the end of blanket time. The pups were oblivious to the sprinkles as they snoozed but the sprinkles were coming down faster, and I wanted to get that blanket NOW!

So, in desperation on this particular night, I did a variation on the famous "Tablecloth Trick" - uh... well, with about 200 pounds of canine on on top of it, the 'table cloth' doesn't just WHIP out from under them, but a series of tugs (and giggles as the puppies roll or shift) eventually gets the blanket back to me. :)

Since I'm the camera gal and the Tablecloth gal, you only get to see the "After" in this case!
Tablecloth trick

VOILA! Tablecloth gone!

Amazingly, most of the sleepy pups stayed right in their places and slept on barely disturbed. A few got up to go pee and they noticed the rain then, so went into one of the doghouses.

Coco who was laying on her tummy, got enough momentum from my tugs to cause her to roll onto her back. But even with that change in position, increasing sprinkles and the missing blanket, she snoozed on!

Ruya's legs can be seen here on the right. She got up when I insisted that I wanted the blanket, then she settled back down as I took the pic. Coco still in dreamland, shifted slightly and settled against Ruya's legs.

Puppies are chewing on each other and everything a lot now. So they have cardboard boxes tossed around to keep them entertained. The Milkbones box is one of the chew toys.

More fun!

Cardboard tug

Here are 'T' at the top and Spot at the bottom playing tug of war with a paper towel cardboard tube.
Fun and cheap toys!

While puppies were wrestling, playing with cardboard tubes and a clean plastic milk jug with pepples inside, the racket got Ruya into a playful mood!
Ruya at 3.5 years, outweighs any one of the pups at least ten times.

But she went into a play bow with a wiggle butt and waggy tail, singling out DARTH!

Darth playbowed back to her, barked and wiggled his butt - wagging his tail REAL FAST! I missed shot because I had my hands full with with the scooper and pine shavings and the camera was in my pocket. Ruya raised her foot and patted it down in front of him in a little dance, whereupon he dashed at her foot and tried to chomp on it. So CUTE!

Ruya then pretended he had tackled her, so she flipped over onto her side, lying down on the ground.
Finally I had the camera in hand.
Shake it!

Seeing his opportunity, Darth ran up to her neck and grabbed her collar and started shaking his 'kill'.

Chomp!

Closeup of the grip he has on her collar. :D
Such a patient & cooperative 'kill'! ;)

Tackled!

Ruya tackled by the Mighty Darth, gives him a hug.

Snooze...

That was hard work, so Darth went off to snooze in one of his favorite spots.
A friend back East thoughtfully provided the white box which the puppies love! (the original content of the box was a bit too rich for them though, haha!)

Ruya's tail...

And here we have Ruya getting her tail sampled again. :)

More pics to come!

Labels: 2006Litter

Semavi Lady woofed at @ 11/18/2006 10:11:00 AM | Permanent link | (2) Comments

Shepherds Rest Farm sent us a woof // November 18, 2006 Your blog is so entertaining! Almost makes me feel like I'm there with you and the pups! Thanks for all the time you spend educating, sharing pictures, and passing along amusing antics!
Kiramet sent us a woof // November 19, 2006 So CUTE!!! And strong, even sized litter. I WANT WANT WANT Choco... pouting... :)

Sunday, November 12, 2006

Pups at Five Weeks

Past week has been a blur. So a collection of pics here with assorted commentary.

Puppies and doghouse

Puppies and the small dog house

Normally we use the large dog houses big enough for for several full grown dogs to fit at once. But due to other unfortunate circumstances, bad timing, bad knees, and other unrelated things, the larger doghouses have been in various states of disrepair! At any rate, the first few days that the puppies spent outside, they were quite happy with the small house which we surrounded with exercise pens to create a safe area for the pups. This dog house is Anatolian sized for a single dog, but amazingly, mom can get in there and nurse all the pups.

Zor with pups

Zor in the house nursing all the pups.

That's Choco puppy stepping out. She's is turning out to have quite a spitfire of a personality! I'll have to post some stories on her later.

Zor and Spot

There's Zor in the same shoot session after some rain with the little girl 'Spot' posed under Zor's head. The white feet on the step belong to a large male we call Batman.

Markings-wise, Spot looks almost exactly like her mom. :)

Okay, on to what happened Wednesday morning (Nov 8) ---
Uhoh

It was morning & while I was still at some distance, I saw Zor step into the dog house while all the pups were inside!

Normally she waits til the house is nearly vacant before stepping in, then turns around and lays down and THEN the puppies then pile in to get some milk.

Well the pups were already napping inside and woke up instantly, all wanting some milk right this minute! So the moment she stepped inside, they swarmed her and she could not turn around or move! She was stuck! ;)

I caught the shot above from some distance. There's only 3x optical on my camera zoom and the area was still in hard morning shadows so the light wasn't very good enough to get a clear shot. But there you have it. Zor is in the puppyhouse, Zor's tail dangling down the middle in the opening. Her legs straddling around the pups, her right hind leg trying to find some purchase to turn around but the pups were doing their best to get the goods! Poor Zor! That's Choco (or Coco-zilla as she's turning out to be), right inside the opening.

Zor stood like that for about a minute, trying again to turn around, so I'm thinking, how many college students can you cram into a phone booth, and then... suddenly Zor's adult daughter Ruya, who was off to the right, zoomed off to check out some sound!!
-- needless to say, Zor wanted to go check it out too! So THIS started to happen . . .

In reverse

Backing out! :)

That's Spot standing on the step. Zor's rump hair getting fluffled as she tries to skootch down low enough to back out.

BARK!

Done! There's Zor running out in full BARK! (it took about a long dog-minute, lol)

The next day. . .

Thursday, I got the x-pens situated around one of the larger dog houses. Ah, now plenty of room for mom and pups!

Roomy

Sure looks a lot more relaxing.

Two 'moms'

Ruya relaxing on the left. Zor in the house nursing puppies.

Two sisters

Coco playing with Ruya

Snoozy Ruya

Happy family. Big sis, Ruya snoozing.

Coco delivers paper

Coco delivering the newspaper. ;)

We haven't had rough coats before in our litters but we have half a litter of some plushy looking babies this time. Their grandmother Bertha had a somewhat plushy coat as a baby but later matured to be standard medium coated. No feathered britches nor feathered forearms and no feathering about her ears - no plume feathering on her tail. This litter is a first for half plushy (rough?) coats and also for Coco's liver color. She is plushy but you can't see that so well above.

She also has the large head and thick muzzle we usually see in both the males and females of our litters at this age.

Spot

Her sisters appear more refined so I think will be lighter in bone in comparison.
Above is Spot - nicknamed for the spot on her tummy.

Big and Little

This litter is also a little unusual in that we have a large difference in the sizes between the puppies.
Seen above, Coco is the largest and was nine pounds at about four weeks of age and her smallest sister, Spot, was 5.5 pounds.

And a small side trip back in time...

Big and Little again

Above 2003 picture is Ruya with Boone. They are a month apart in age.
In this picture Boone is 2 months old, Ruya 3 months. Aside from the large difference in size, you can also see that Boone's coat is smoother and shortish, and Ruya's is rougher and longish. She was ten pounds heavier than he at the same age and more than double his weight in this photo, although now he is a little larger and heavier than she. Genetic variation!

This is the pattern we are seeing in this group of pups that Boone has sired. In the current litter, the pups with the plushy coats are the larger pups, and the medium coated pups tend to be smaller and less heavy boned. - - Interesting. A coincidence if you check out the Ruya/Boone puppy pic above?

Neil sleeping

This is Neil and he's plushy! Plushier than I've seen. He's about the middle range among his littermates in weight now.

Furry

Will he be rough coated?
This fur is so soft! You want to cuddle these guys all day long. :D

Black tips

The black tipped hairs of the coat he was born with is quite standoffish (not smooth) now. A medium coated littermate is above in the same picture. There is less 'fluffing' so the smoother coat looks darker.

Friday: A few pictures that Dave and Karolyn took when they visited recently. . .
Kiss!

Koerner pic:
Darth (the one who was almost black at birth) giving Karolyn a kiss. :)

T, who goes there?

Koerner pic:
Mr T ('T' mark on his chest) looking cute!

T is one of the 'smoother' pups in the litter. Also in a matter of small degrees, not as
large as the plushy males.

Trio of heros

Koerner pic:
Top and L-R: Batman and 'T' taking on Coco-Zilla!

Batman and Coco are plushy, T is smoother than they although it's not that clear in this picture. Batman's head looks a little more diffused in the light because of the longer hair scattering the light more.

Labels: 2006Litter

Semavi Lady woofed at @ 11/12/2006 08:58:00 PM | Permanent link | (1) Comments

Carina sent us a woof // November 14, 2006 Awwwww! They all look pretty burly to me. Long-haired Rottweilers are really uncommon. I did some reading up when I first got Cooper, and got some info from the woman who evaluated the litter (there were a couple of show prospects and quite a few people on a waiting list for pups from that breeding.) It's not uncommon for little Rottie pups to have bunny coats - what you call plush - that turn out to be normal when the adult coat comes in. *Always*, feathering on the ears withing the first 6 weeks is an absolute indicator of adult long coat. When Coop was 5 weeks old the breeder called and said he was mine; I'd asked for a "pet" quality pup. I'd never heard of such a thing as a fluffy Rott! Also, LH's tend to have real heavy bone, true with Coop. He donated DNA to a research project at MSU; they're trying to identify the gene or marker or something in abberant long coats. Mostly they are studying Corgis because fluffy Corgis are not that uncommon. I'm rambling on. Anyhow I love your dogs and were I in a position to have another large dog I would be inquiring about getting one! I have always really admired the breed.

Wednesday, November 08, 2006

Got Milk?

Rain today. At 4AM, it wasn't yet raining, but I couldn't sleep any more -- got so much to do it's depressing. The puppies spent the night outside and were all snoozy. Some were sleeping like "the big dogs" out in the open, albeit, three grouped in a small puppy pile for warmth, three in the straw lined dog house, and one was in the puppy crate. I made some modifications to their set up so they could more easily step into the red doghouse (it has a high retaining board for the straw within). Once that was done, I gave them all some chow, watched them play to make more notes on their personalities, then put them into the red doghouse. They curled up for a nap.

I went back into the house and got some Milkbones for Zor (Mom) and Ruya (Sis) then reached over and checked Ruya for milk, which I haven't done for a few days now.

Got MILK?

Blogs being what they are, you just know you sometimes need to catch a shot! so there it is!
Ruya's making milk for her little siblings!

Now, compared to her lactating mother with the super dangly underline, Ruya would be a nominee for the 'itty bitty titty club'. She did not recently have a false pregnancy, nor do anything other than spend time with the puppies and let them nurse on her.

The hard work the puppies have put into this effort is paying off indeed. heehee! :)

Got Milk?

Here is the pic from the previous day showing her next to the #300 Vari-kennel. You can see Ruya is slightly 'bagged up' instead of a tight tuck.

There's certainly not enough milk to feed a litter right now, but I think if she continues to have free access, she'll be making a bit more milk by volume. What a nice surprise for a Wednesday morning! :D

Got Milk?

Mama Zor's underline, just for comparison.

Labels: 2006Litter

Semavi Lady woofed at @ 11/08/2006 08:43:00 AM | Permanent link | (1) Comments

Anonymous sent us a woof // November 09, 2006 Ouch! pore mamma Zor. I know how that feels. It doesn't matter how much ointment goes on, it still smarts like the dickens. But oh what we go through out of the love for our children. Enjoyed all the puppy pictures their all so cute!

Thursday, November 02, 2006

Getting Close to Four Weeks - Puppies!

Tails up! Darth waiting for little sister, Spot, to make up her mind and step into the dog house.
Note her tail is up and is around his left ear. :)
Wednesday, an almost sunny day outside, a great day to get them introduced to these new things. (Wednesday: increasing overcast and windy, with sprinkles later. But Thursday -- Rain!)

They are growing by the hour it seems. Their personalities are emerging now. Several pups seem to be on one or any of the other sides of the personality continuum now. The small girl "Spot" tends to be most alert and reactive and comes moving quickly to see about any new thing she sees or hears, pretty bold, not much backing away there. The boys generally seem pretty laid back right now compared to Spot! ("oh, what's that? big deal... zzzzz")

They all carry their tails high in the air when walking and waggle them rapidly when greeting me or another canine. They are starting to play rougher. They have pointy fangs! No longer mere speedbumps in their gumline! They love being cuddled and snuggled and gosh their fur is so soft. They are just about the epitome of cuteness now.

There are amusing small scale rank and order squabbles but their attention spans are so short that after a few seconds, they are sleeping in a heap again. :rotfl:

Their claws are very sharp, like kittens! I've trimmed the pointy ends that have started scratching Zor (Mom). They also 'nurse' (no milk) on their sister Ruya, but she doesn't seem to be near as sore and tender to their scratches and grabs as their mother is.

If they have a reason to, they climb out of the wading pool and walk around following whomever, especially their mom or myself. Not all are as easily motivated to climb out, but they definitely all surge toward Zor when she comes in the door and peeks into the pool. They are good at this climbing out business if Mom's just out of reach, and for the same reason are getting good at popping back into the pool too if Mom curls up in there. You can see they are already thinking, what's in it for me, before they do something - if it's Mom and they're hungry... LOOK OUT! Gangway! :)

Adventure! Now I can open the front door and sit outside and call "Puppy! Puppy!", and they eventually all come stepping outside past the front door to explore -- or to have some chow (easier to clean up if they eat outside). After they eat, they need to pee and poop and so they wander sniffing around for a few steps (not too many yet) looking for places to do this. They are not very good at this yet and will still be learning and developing muscle control at 8 weeks and a bit longer in some cases (they can't hold it very long). After that business is done, it's time to play or take a nap. B)

Check out the gruel, man!

Mmm, what's this? One of their first baby gruels fed in the wading pool.
Rice baby cereal, cottage cheese, goat milk, water, some raw egg yolk (no white) and a little bit of soft puppy chow.
Clockwise from top: Spot, Neil, Mr. T, Darth

Snuggles

Darth and Choco. Full tummies and a little bit sticky and wet.

When they are tired and relaxed they tend to become "jelly legs" again. They waddle on their bellies like little crocodiles, sometimes at high speed! But when out of their nest and on the hard floor, they are increasingly sure footed!

Good to the last drop!

Neil (Diamond) at the top (back for seconds), J in the glass pan, and Batman making sure the puppy gruel is finished. I hoped to catch a pic of J falling asleep in the pan, but no luck. She got up and waddled a few steps away, peed then joined a few littermates to mouth each other a bit, then snooze in a slightly wet, sticky mess. :p

Big time puppy pan

Nummy puppy chow in larger quantities!
Softened solid food (this is Iams Puppy formula).
Zor's nosetip on the right.

Socialize

Darth chewing on Ruya's neck when she drops in for a visit to help clean the babies up after a meal.

Puppies!

Darth and sleepy Neil at the top. From the bottom: Spot, Batman, Choco, J, and T
Spot, Choco and J are the girls. That's Ruya enjoying them.
You can see how their coats are lightening. Multicolor hairs are growing in length and coming out under the dark coats they were born with.

Wednesday I invited them to come outside for a while to socialize with the world so the puppies explored one of the smaller dog houses in the yard.

Changes...

Above: Neil cutie in the dog house. (3.5 weeks)
Spots of pigment continue to fill in his nose leather and white nose marking, causing the white or pink areas to shrink.
Changes...

Neil at three days. Eyes and ears sealed to the world.

Spots

Spots of color come through on the white areas of the paws. These spots are called a 'ticking' trait and the trait is dominant.
In adults, sometimes the spots are almost unnoticeable in some leg areas as the coat fades to pale yellow. Sometimes the dog also has flashy black borders between the yellow coat and the white markings, then some of these speckles will be black. Anatolians are not normally heavily 'ticked' or speckled.

On the muzzle if the dog has a white marking like a blaze, sometimes you'll see black or colored freckles there -- as the black mask color under the white markings shows through in these peekaboo spots. These freckles are really cute on puppies.

Ruya closeup

This pic is an enlargement detail of the pic below. You can see the black 'sailing' on Ruya. This is a closeup of her shoulder hair (top of withers). Almost none of her coat hairs are solid colored except for the black sailing. The yellow hairs in her coat have bands of color, as many as five or more from root to hair tip on the longer hairs. Within each shaft of hair as it grows, different densities of pigment fill the cortex of each hair - this is the nature of the agouti trait seen in sable colored dogs. Some areas of grayish, some white, some tan/yellow, some black... alternating in patterns, all the way up each shaft of hair. Some hairs having brownish tips or black looking tips, or sometimes white tips. On areas such as her flanks, she has two tone hair, sort of white and pale yellow, root to tip.

Further away

In this picture, you can see the lighter roots, graduating to a darker middle (looks black), shifting to pale yellow band, and even paler tips although some tips are a bit brownish. Boone, my male is a bit darker than my girls. He has some areas in his coat where some of his yellow hairs have more than one black band on them. His coat is a bit shorter than on Zor and Ruya.

Thursday it was raining off and on. The puppies did go outside for one feeding of their gruel and seemed to enjoy the outside more this time, lingering and checking more things out, since it is becoming more familiar to them.

I think I tried to reassure some people that I haven't been abducted by aliens. But maybe I have. They are really cute!

Labels: 2006Litter, genetics

Semavi Lady woofed at @ 11/02/2006 11:16:00 PM | Permanent link | (0) Comments

Saturday, October 28, 2006

Puppies, Three Weeks Old and NOW with More Features!

The puppies are getting bigger of course. Now that their eyes and ears are open, they are responding more to their environment, which includes their littermates. They are also climbing out of the wading pool from time to time. I enjoy that since it gives me an excuse to familiarize them with the cold hard floor and other convenient surfaces, as opposed to the puppy blankets they live on now. And it gives me an excuse to cuddle and enjoy them. :)

They are so cute, opening their mouths and sometimes just laying on their backs, or sitting up in a sit, til a wobbling puppy wanders close enough to be tasted. Their little teeth are also coming through and very pointy fangs are among them! Zor sometimes doesn't look very comfy when a puppy tugs especially hard! Ouch. She'll nudge them quickly. She'll teach them to be careful with those teeth. :)

ROAR!

Some puppies with their mouths open as they look at each other. 3 weeks old.

That's "Darth" mouthing the back of his littermate "Batman".

They mouth each others paws, ears, fur. They mouth Zor. They mouth people too. They can certainly give one the weirdest sensation when they suck on ones earlobe or nosetip if held up in a cuddle/nuzzle! eeeeee!!! :p

Wrassle

Above: They aren't really playing dominance games yet, but I did find this picture in the mass of pics I've been taking lately.

That's the smallest female (of three) climbing on top of "Darth", the black headed male. In a few seconds, they just fell into a heap and went to sleep, so there wasn't the sort of hierachy going on as one sees in older dogs who are playing this way.

Their paws are enlarging now, to better support their roly polyness.

Puppies!

Above: Liver female, middle fawn female, and a brother (laying down).

Liver female seems to be a character. She's vocal, more active and the largest of her sisters at the moment.

Kiss!

Here's "Darth" kissing his mommy, Zor above.

Chocolate!

Chocolate girl.

Did I say she is vocal? She seems to have an opinion if Zor doesn't step up with the refreshments quickly enough!

Livers and dilutes do not have eumelanin (true black pigment) in their eyes. That is, they don't have black pigment that can make the deeper brown colors in eyes. Eyes will be blueish for the earliest part of their first year. They will have a dirty tinge to it as it washes to greenish then amber. They are the ones that get the 'red eye' in flash. Eyes of dogs that have black pigment will glow a greenish color when light shines into their eyes.

Ruya loves puppies

And of course ... Here is Ruya with the babies.

You can see how roly poly the liver sister is next to one of the males in the litter.

Ruya is from Zor's first litter. She adores playing mommy with the puppies and is so sad, whimpering when she feels left out. :(

Ruya LOVES puppies! She wants to be with them all the time, but Zor's adamant that at least for now, to have the puppies all to herself although that is changing now with the emergence of teeth and the increasing independence of the babies. So I've not been giving Ruya regular access to the litter. Once a day at most. Puppies do try to nurse from her but no milk is forthcoming although I think if she had constant access to them, she'd be lactating. Nevertheless, the puppies sleep very soundly after their efforts with Ruya and she is reluctant to leave them. :)

We want to see your faces!

So here I am trying to get cute pics of puppy faces and end up with shot after shot of all seven of them averting their heads from the camera.

They're ready to start on very soft solid food. I generally start with a messy but easy-to-digest goat milk and baby rice cereal goop with a little cottage cheese. They walk in it and get it everywhere but they get used to lapping that up, then I move them on to soaked/softened puppy chow with kefir added as a probiotic.

Pups sleeping

Naptime!

Edited Nov 13, 2006
- Nicknames of pups -
Making a small case 'j' starting with three pups making the 'dot' over the 'j' at the top:

Mr T - collar
Spot
J

Darth - black head
Neil
Coco - chocolate pup
Batman - the one with the head upside down on the left

Labels: 2006Litter

Semavi Lady woofed at @ 10/28/2006 09:05:00 PM | Permanent link | (4) Comments

Anonymous sent us a woof // October 29, 2006 Those pics are just awesome! They are so cute! Mark
Diane sent us a woof // October 29, 2006 Puppy butts!!!! I love them all and want to climb into their pool with them and take a nap. Interesting about the eye pigments - Jazzy and Libby both have dark brown eyes but his eyes flash amber and hers flash blue/green. I figured it had to do with their different coloring but the blue seemed very mysterious!
Carina sent us a woof // November 01, 2006 Oh my...I'm having puppy envy! Will they retain their coat colours as they mature? I did not know that about pigment and flash cameras. Interesting.
Semavi Lady sent us a woof // November 03, 2006 Hi Carina, You ask about if they will retain their colors. No, these guys will lighten and they are doing that. Pups in many breeds look so different at birth. Adds to the fun because they can look so different as they go through their first year or so. :)

Monday, October 23, 2006

Another Litter with Two Moms?

Well, a fun weekend was had by all and this post has two overlapping sections :)

Part One:
I've been gradually catching up with sleep in bits and pieces (generally less than four hours at a time), and trying to get caught up on some of the email that has amassed over the past month or so, when I'm feeling somewhat coherently awake -- I am, alas, quite a bit behind still. Thus it was really great fun and a change of pace when some friends came to visit Sunday to meet and inadvertently help us socialize the puppies (that's serious work in case you didn't know! lol).

Right after their visit, we left for Apple Hill bringing Ruya along. She enjoyed the ride and hung out while we waited in long lines at various checkouts as we purchased our annual fix of goodies from apple harvest. She was very calm and sweet, and politely accepted a lot of petting including gentle pats and playful pokes from children who were a fair bit shorter than she. Everyone there was very courteous and asked if it were okay before petting. There were other dogs on leash to meet too, spotted doxies, a cute Bernese Mountain dog, shelties, various poo mutts, and others. She seemed interested mostly in the tiny dogs and would go on alert to gaze at them (are they puppies? she must have wondered). She was indifferent about most other dogs. She seemed to impress a lot of people and we answered the standard FAQs on breed ID, what do they do, what is her name, how old, where do they come from, etc. It was great fun!

We didn't get home til dark and with James driving, poor Ruya and I were literally drooping in our seats with fatigue from the long day (both of us had been awake before dawn). It was funny to see she didn't want to lay down to sleep during the ride but had her eyes closed and neck drooping as she snoozed and sometimes startled herself by flopping against the back of the car seat. Rinse, repeat!

Part Two:
The weekend was also part of a progression in an ongoing and smooth effort to get our Anatolians ready for when we move the puppies outside where they will live until they go to their new homes. Mama dogs don't always want all the other canine pack members to socialize with the young babies too soon, but in time it becomes okay and this is what we are working on.

The puppies learn to be more respectful of others and to have more self control when they learn pack behavior from an early age. As they get bigger, they become more aware of how their behavior exacts a certain response from other pack members and humans too. Putting them into homes before they are 7 and 8 weeks old, takes away from this experience and in companion homes, forces the people to reinforce rules that adult dogs would have nipped in the bud. Respectful behavior when they go to their new homes is a plus, considering the sizes that they will quickly reach!

One of the puppy girls will be staying here with us although we aren't certain which one yet. :)

Well, Ruya has been parking herself just outside the front door, listening to puppy sounds for the past week. Her mother Zor is very protective of her babies, and why not? They are only two weeks old just this weekend. However, Ruya has demonstrated some of what can only be described by me as yearning behavior. If she is given a treat from outside the door where she can hear the puppies, sometimes she just holds the treat and doesn't go off to eat it, but gazes longingly at the babies in the living room and sometimes whimpers because she wants to be with them. Sometimes she politely puts the treat down and sits up gazing in the doorway. If Zor sees her daughter looking in, she lowers her head and glares. Ruya respects that but the longing doesn't go away so easy. She sleeps right outside the door. :)

Ruya was born in Zor's first litter so Zor's always accepted Ruya as a family member -- so gaining acceptance isn't going to be difficult. Daddy Boone will probably have a harder time gaining puppy visitation rights as quickly.

On Friday night, I finally invited Ruya to meet the babies while Zor was on bathroom break.
Kissing puppies

Ruya nuzzles her half sibs Friday night. One of the young males paws at her.

She didn't step in with the puppies but nuzzled them and washed a puppy or two.

We've always thought that Ruya is most like her great grandmother, Sabah. She's got that same style of comportment, similar leadership qualities, confidence and general behavior that we remember so well. She is more like her great grandmother in temperament than like her mother. In fact, she isn't like her mother much at all except for what appears to be good mothering ability which all our girls have had!

Litter with two moms

When Sabah's daughter Bertha had a litter, when she had a chance to meet Bertha's new babies, she fell in love at first sight. She had already had a couple of litters so she certainly knew those puppy sounds. Bertha was out taking a bathroom break and didn't know her mother was with her babies. Sabah laid down and nuzzled and cleaned the babies, before we let her out and Bertha came back in. After a couple nights of this, Sabah began lactating. And at one point was nursing the pups while Bertha was on a bathroom break away from the babies. So we ended up with the scenario at left, when Bertha came back. Both mom and daughter cared for the litter of nine, from that point on.

So when this scenario below happened Monday morning (today), it wasn't really that surprising! Is it a start in the same direction?
Cute puppies

Ruya explores the puppy pen.

While Zor was out on bathroom break, Ruya came in and carefully stepped around and settled down in with the pups. She curled into a maternal cupped shape and moved her hindlegs away to accomodate the seven puppies as they sought to nurse from her. They worked on her so convincingly that I thought she might be lactating already. I checked and found that she is producing a liquid, although it can't be called milk just yet. :)

Puppies converge to nurse on Ruya.

A motherly *kiss* if you can make out that tongue. Aww...

It's nature but still, it is amazing and sweet.

Labels: 2006Litter, Ruya

Semavi Lady woofed at @ 10/23/2006 03:19:00 PM | Permanent link | (1) Comments

ZaltanaAnatolians sent us a woof // October 23, 2006 Ruya looks so gentle the way she interacts with the puppies, and now I can really make out that liver colored puppy. I will be curious to learn which one you will end up keeping

Thursday, October 19, 2006

What Puppies Like to Do

Eat . . .

. . .and sleep!

Nearly two weeks old now, and they can wobble on their front pegs and on their rear pegs, but not necessarily at the same time since they are sooooo roly poly with with tiny feet. heehee. :)

I saw a really cute 'crash and burn' a couple nights ago. Mind you, the pups can't see yet, nor hear and you can't say a whole lot about their coordination. But two pups were flopping (waddling?) toward each other like little seal babies, and then they crashed head on! One veered off to the side and then stabilized, and then continued for a few more flops in that direction. The other rolled on impact with legs galloping in the air -- tiny feet churned rapidly for a second, then feet wiggled slower and slower... And just about as suddenly, puppy fell asleep on his back. :D

Watching these guys is such hard work. :)

Labels: 2006Litter

Semavi Lady woofed at @ 10/19/2006 09:48:00 AM | Permanent link | (0) Comments

Sunday, October 15, 2006

Puppies! Zor & Boone litter

Here they are!

Mama Zor with her Boone puppies which are one week old in this picture. They were born Sunday night, Oct 8. We have four boys and three girls. All pups are fawn and one girl is a gorgeous chocolate (liver). One of the boys is on top of mom, and the liver girl is right at Zor's nose. Hidden puppy is a little girl under Zor's tail.

Things have been busy. I'm very behind on sleep, email, mail lists, and getting back to everyone -- to say nothing of this blog! Hopefully in the next week or two I'll get caught up a little. The concept of home cooking and enjoying real food again is becoming a little more familiar each day. LOL

More cuteness in puppy pics to come! :)

Labels: 2006Litter

Semavi Lady woofed at @ 10/15/2006 07:53:00 AM | Permanent link | (1) Comments

Leigh-Ann sent us a woof // October 19, 2006 Very adorable! I've never seen such tiny Anatolian puppies, and it's a bit surprising to see just how small they really are. The colouring is sort of unexpected, too -- they're darker than I would have guessed.

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