Saphie's Ear Woes - by mum

Well, I took these pictures last week.



Saphie continues to be airedorable of course, but as you can see, her ears have other ideas other than being proper!


It's been a month since her ears came unglued, and our quest in getting the proper glue has been anything but smooth. When Saphie's ears came off 4 weeks ago, I could tell they would need to be reglued. I contacted my breeder Bonni, and she sent me a bottle of the glue, which we could not get in Canada. Helen also ordered the same glue on Amazon, again from the US. Well neither bottle made it here! We don't know what happened to the Amazon order as we could not get in touch with the merchant. The bottle of glue that was sent by Bonni was held at the border, and then returned to her. She had just gotten it back. Not sure why a bottle of glue can't even make it across the border... When we went to visit our friends' future pup over on the island a couple weeks ago, Mary who was the breeder very nicely offered me a brand new bottle of the same glue that my breeder used. When I got home, I realized the bottle had dried up inside...thus, unusable!

Anyway, Helen was worried that we were losing valuable time with Saphie's less than perfect ears, so she went to a local fabric store and got a fabric glue that had "non-toxic" on the label. So I stripped all the puppy fluff off Saphie's ears, and we tried using this glue to do her ears. We tested on one ear. Here Helen was holding the ear with the glue, to hopefully have it stick,


Well, the glue did nothing!! Saphie ended up socializing with Jaffa, and Emma the client dale I was grooming.


She was such a good pup, didn't do anything bad while I was busy grooming Emma,



I also took some time to strip her fuzzy puppy fur off. She has a beautiful, wiry coat. Exactly what the standard calls for. My breeder Bonni had wanted to see how Saphie was maturing, so Helen and I tried our best to stack Saphie. I had the noose a bit too far down her neck, otherwise, she looked very nice.


I have shown the above picture to not only Bonni, but a few other local breeders/retired breeders/Welsh breeder, and they have all commented on how beautifully built Saphie was structurally. Everyone thinks she should be shown (if she continues to mature nicely, things can change). Might be a fun grooming project for me, afterall, show strip differs greatly from a pet strip. We'll see what happens! Of course, we have to get her ears under control before anything else could happen!

Fast forward, Bonni wrote me a couple days ago to tell me that she's mailed out the glue yet again to see if it gets through custom this time. Meanwhile, I decided to contact Margaret, a retired Airedale breeder who now volunteers for AireCanada Rescue. All of Margaret's previous show/breeding dogs all had Loc Aire bloodline in them, so when she heard Saphie was a Loc Aire puppy, she was very interested in seeing her. Margaret very nicely to offer to provide the glue and glue Saphie's ears for us.

So yesterday, Helen and I took Saphie & Jaffa over to Margaret's house. Margaret had invited both Sunshade and Jaffa over as well, but I did not think Sunshade would enjoy time with Saphie so she stayed behind.

On the way over, Saphie sat in the front seat while I sat in the back. Saphie gets a bit car sick unless she was sitting in the front. Helen will get her a seat belt soon. Saphie kept an eye on Helen while she was awake,



Then she fell asleep,


Margaret has Fox, who is 13 years old from her breeding, AND "Lizi", who most of you know her as Girl A or the "Sunshade clone". Yes, Margaret was only suppose to foster Girl A after I got her out of the terrible home she was in. Well, Margaret "fostered" her for exactly 3 days before naming her Lizi, and adopting her!



From left to right, Saphie, Jaffa (who really needs to be groomed), Fox and Lizi with Margaret at the end of their leashes,


The process,


Ears cleaned,


Letting it dry and aire out,


Glue applied,


All done with paper tape to hold the ears until the glue sets,


What a good puppy!


Everybody went outside to play,



Lizi the happy girrrrl! I was so happy to see her so loved and well taken care of. She so deserve it after 6 years of misery. Margaret put Lizi on a raw diet right away, and she's managed to lose quite a bit of weight. She's looking very good now!


Jaffa and Lizi having a good time :-)

We had a great time talking about Airedales the rest of the afternoon, and Helen learned a lot from Margaret. Margaret was totally in love with Saphie. She had so many good things to say about her, from temperament to conformation wise. She even told me that she would mentor me if Saphie was to be shown! Before leaving, Margaret made a comment about how she was really itching for a pup now, after seeing "such a fine specimen of the breed"!

This was Saphie on the way home. We took them for a short walk in the pouring rain, so she was drenched!


Lastly, Saphie has started doing something that I find pretty amazing. Since turning 12 weeks old, she has been scratching at the door whenever she needs to go pee or poo. Last week when she was at the apartment while I was grooming Emma, she started scratching at the apartment door after a couple of hours. Helen took her downstairs and sure enough, she peed as soon as she got out of the lobby door. I found this quite amazing as that was the first time she'd ever been to the apartment. She was practically house trained at 12 weeks old. I remember Sunshade started scratching at the door at 12 weeks old as well to let me know when she needed to go. Such easy pups to housetrain! Jaffa was housetrained at 12 weeks as well. He whines when he needs to go out.

That's it for now for the Saphie update. Her ears will hopefully stay up 2-3 weeks and then we will see if they need more gluing.

Saphie Puppy Class Week 6 - 14 weeks old

I dropped in to watch Saphie in her class today since Jaffa's obedience class was right after. They were working on making positive association to objects that pups may potentially become fearful of. This training school uses a no-reward system where dogs aren't scolded (not even a no) when an undesirable action is performed, instead, the action is not rewarded with treats. In the more advance classes, you actually remove what it is your dog wants from him. To give you an example, in Jaffa's class, if I tell him to SIT and he doesn't do it, or doesn't do it fast enough, "I" his mum gets removed from him for a while (I leave the room), then I go back to him and give the same command again. It is a new training method for me, and I have to admit, not saying NO to an Airedale is a little tough LOL. Afterall, we've always joked that Jaffa's full name is Jaffa-NO! It's actually very funny to watch the class, because it looks like owners are always being put in time outs.

Anyway, this was Saphie in her class. Helen is doing so well with her, and Saphie continues to have amazing attention span and focus. What a great little dale!

Saphie Puppy Class & Training - 12 weeks old (by mum)

Here is a short video of Saphie at her puppy class. She's the youngest of them all, so big dogs (like the Rhodesian Ridgeback) still intimidates her a bit.

Helen is amazing! She doesn't speak/understand English very well, and yet week after week, there she is in puppy class with Saphie. After she gets home from the class, she takes out her dictionary, and goes through the handouts with her dictionary.

Look at all that she's managed to teach Saphie! Of course, Saphie is a pretty smart puppy with amazing focus and attention span. She reminds me a lot of Sunshade.....

All the training Helen and Saphie have done, has really helped them bond immensely. It is very obvious that Saphie loves her mom.

Sunshade wasn't feeling too well the other day (woke up nauseated), so Helen asked me to bring her over for her to do some Reiki on her. Since Sunshade was having a hard time settling down, we decided to treat her in the living room and left Saphie in the family room where her human brother Shawn and dad were both in there.

BUT, this was what happened.....


She wanted her mom!!

CNY - Saphie 11 weeks - by mum

We were invited to Helen's place for CNY dinner. Helen had asked me to bring both Sunshade and Jaffa, the more the merrier she said. Unfortunately, Jaffa had to stay behind because he had a little play session with a skunk in the afternoon. I don't think I need to elaborate on that. Sunshade was in the yard too, but she knows to stay away from skunks. She had an encounter with one about 7 years ago, and learned her lesson then.

Sunshade assumed her seat beside me during dinner,


I took some pictures of Saphie. She is 11 weeks old now and oh sooooo cute!


The glue on her ears came off, so her ears are flapping now. I haven't had a chance to clip off the hair on her ears to really see how they look, but from what I can tell, they're both coming up a bit with one higher than the other.


Helen is totally smittened with her dogter. She called me last weekend, wondering if she should take Saphie to the emergency clinic because "she's sleeping a lot, and not biting me" said Helen! I assured her that puppies usually have two speeds; chewing/biting/into everything speed, and conked out sleeping speed!


Saphie is growing up SO fast! I see a difference if I don't see her for two days!


According to Helen, this is Saphie's favourite play item - an aluminum pan for the rice cooker.



This girl has amazing attention span for such a young puppy.


She can focus on whatever training it is that Helen is doing with her, and she will continue to focus, make eye contact until Helen stops. I've had to tell Helen to keep training sessions much shorter than the 30 min, few times a day that she was doing with Saphie!!

Saphie must have sat here for no less than 5 minutes because Helen kept telling her to "watch me" (command for eye contact) for guests to take pictures. Since she was such a cute puppy, people wanted to take lots of pictures of her!


In puppy class, they taught owners to put puppies in this position and start naming body parts as you touch them,


So we do EAR - PAW - FEET - TAIL - TUMMY - HEAD - COLLAR, etc


Like I said, Helen practices A LOT with Saphie, even on CNY!!


Saphie is very respectful around Sunshade,


Well, most of the time!!


Saphie did have a consult at Sunshade's vet clinic last week, and she was LOVED by all at the vet clinic. Many commented on how Saphie reminded them of her great Auntie Sunshade, the way she trotted into the clinic as if she owned it!

Saphie weighed 11.4 lbs @ 10 week and 2 days old.

I just looked back on Jaffa's record. He was 13.6 lbs @ 10 weeks and 4 days old. If you want to revisit Jaffa when he was a little man, click here!

Saphie Update - 9 weeks old (by mum)

I got to see Saphie today when I brought Sunshade over for some Reiki treatment.


Little girl has grown!! I know it's hard to tell from pictures, but she really has!!


She's loving her raw diet. Here she was patiently awaiting her dinner to be prepared,


When it took a little longer than expected, her little brain got working and she put herself in a "SIT" thinking that it would make the food appear faster. She is a very smart puppy, capable of thought processing already at 9 weeks old.


Borderline freaking out face! Food still wasn't ready yet despite sitting there for ages!


Saphie doing "SIT", "Shake paw", "Shake other paw" on command for her audience. My friend Isabelle and her mom were also there to see the "baby Sunshade". (Sunshade: EXCUSE ME??? What did you just call IT??) Helen is still learning about dog training, so we're still working on not repeating the same command over and over again. However, she's doing a good job and Saphie is responding very well. She is such a fast learner.

Her name is Saphira or Saphie

Little Girl Puppy made it to her home at last (last night). Her human brother, Shawn, named her "Saphira". He was very set on this name because his friend's Airedale was named Saphira too lol. Shawn is 15 yrs old, but a University student already.

Brother & sister photo,


Shawn couldn't wait to share pictures of Saphie on Facebook,


Saphie got used to the new environment rather quickly. The little tail of hers was up the whole time.




She quickly showed her new family how smart she was by doing her business beautifully in their yard, in the pouring rain.

During the four days that Saphie stayed with us, we had one accident only (if you count that as one...). Derek and I went out for about 4 hours, as soon as we got home, I asked Derek to get Saphie from her crate and to quickly carry her out to pee. Instead, he took her out of the crate and started cuddling her. I should also mention the way he was holding her pressed on her little bladder. So yup, she peed all over Derek!!! First the guinea pig, now the puppy...lol!

Anyway, after Saphie did her business in the yard, she came back in and showed off her perfect SIT!


Shawn reenforcing the SIT,


Helen very proud of her dogter. She already has a genius son, perhaps her dogter will be equally spectacular.


Saphie waiting patiently for a goodie from the goodie bag,


Shawn working very hard at getting the treat bag open while Helen couldn't keep her hands off Saphie,


Need a little help Shawn? Saphie still sitting very patiently waiting for her treat.


The long awaited bully stick!


Shawn had been studying an Airedale breed book where he read that it was good to touch the puppy while she's eating so she doesn't become food possessive.


He put that to practice immediately,


What language is that you're speaking mom?? (Helen talks to her in Mandarin sometimes)


During the time that I was over, Helen enrolled Saphie with Trupanion, an insurance company. We signed her up for a puppy class at Dogsmart (where Sam's mom teaches at), and we also registered her a city license. I think this little girl is set for life! Puppy classes start this Saturday, January 4th!

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The few days that Saphie was with me, she visited lots of friends. She, together with Sunshade have convinced another couple that an Airedale was what they wanted. Unfortunately my breeders won't be breeding again for a while, so our friends have their names down for a "curly hair" (that's what they put on the puppy questionnaire) female puppy from a local breeder. The puppies are suppose to be due end of this month, ready to go home end of March. Saphie might have a little playmate to play with soon!

Saphie also visited a relative, her Aunt Stella who is Jaffa's sister,



Stella was GREAT with Saphie! She really took to Saphie right from the start, unlike Jaffa! Stella's tail wagged non-stop.




Stella's mom, Maureen giving Saphie some reassuring pets while Maggie, the Cairn that they were babysitting got a few sniffs of Saphie,


Stella's beautiful sissy, Hannah!


Stella was just making sure that she was still Hannah's #1 Girrrrrl!


Stella making sure her breakfast was defrosting well on the counter,


Our gentle happy girrrrrl Stellie!


Saphie felt right at home, she's one confident girl!





Lastly, Jaffa warmed up to Saphie a little... sort of.. lol!