The classic puppy shot

This is the classic shot of a puppy, asleep in his food bowl! Of course it's a little hard to tell in this photo, but I promise, he is dead to the world, I got a few photos of him in this position. I came back a few minutes later and he gave me the proof he was a sleep, as in the next photo, his eyes are clearly open!

pressies

My Christmas and birthday presents to Neil over the last couple of years have been some what lacking, in fact, some times lacking all together. I have felt bad about this, but it's my own fault, I simple have been lazy and not put in the effort to think of anything. This year I was determined to do better. With only slight assistance from the interweb, I had a plan. Surprises, 10 of them (there were going to be 12, but two of them were poorly thought out and had to be culled at the last minute). These surprises can in the form of little card, with a cryptic description of the surprise on them. So far Neil has claimed 4

1. Compressed surprise: an air compressor, this had to be claimed on Christmas day, as Dad had bought it for me and that was the day he would be around to deliver it. It's also handy that Dad looks like Santa too
2. Boring Surprise: Boxers, a boring but necessary surprise I'm afraid!
3. Molly, Clara and the boys surprise: This is a present from the dogs, all 5 of them. It was a camping and holidaying with dogs book and a book on phodography!
4. Comfortable surprise: was claimed this afternoon, on my recommendation, as Neil snuggled down on the couch for a snooze (which he is still participating in as we speak type)

The present here is the new cushions and 'throw rug' aka blankie
So, six surprises to go!

Like

I was on the like tram the like other day, and there was like these two like teen aged like girls. I like just couldn't like believe the like way they were like speaking like! I thought I'd like transported like over to the set of like "Clueless" or like right something.
The odd thing was that these to girls weren't that young (had to be 18 ish) and didn't look all grotty, they good actually fairly intelligent, provided you didn't actually listed to them and how they were speaking. weird.

Arrival

The cladding arrived today, eventually. There were some tiny issues (the poor delivery man left Horsham at 4am and didn't get to here until 4.30pm, cos he truck kept breaking, I felt awful for him, what a crap day.)
So tomorrow the house will start changing color from silver to white. Here is how the cladding looks now:

Puppies have moved house

No, they haven't gone to their new people yet! They have moved into the lounge room!
The very unattractive white cupboard/box thing on the left of the photo allows Clara to be able to jump in and out, whilst still trapping containing the puppies! The fence is attached with clips and little ring eye screw things, to the video shelf next to the window, and the cupboard/box thing in the fore ground. Aren't I a clever home handy person!

Busy Busy

Not only did the sewing get finished and handed in but almost all of the weather boards have been ripped off the house, the inside of the walls dusted, insulation installed and sisalation placed on the outside. Neil has done most of this work, and we are both still having to get up a 6am as, apparently, that is the time puppies wake up (more on the puppies later).
Here are some photos, both before and after.

Long time no puppy

No we haven't all died or anything! I have been back at work (bummer) and sew (he he he, joke there, notice?) busy with my sewing. It's all due TOMORROW! I'm not sure if it's all going to get done, which is of course why I am making a blog post and not sewing. hmmm
Anyway, the puppies are going really well. We are going to move them into the lounge room tonight. Which means for the first time in nearly two months, we will be able to sleep in the same bed, you know, at the same time. Wow. This afternoon I discovered an amazing thing about the puppies. You can put them on the rug, and they more or less stay there! They don't like walking on the shiny floor. So I don't really need to have the fence around them, at least while I'm home anyway. I'm sure this will only last a day or so, till their confidence gets up.
I promise some pictures and updated weights after my final sewing class tomorrow.

Another first

Tonight we tried the puppies on soaked cruchies. One puppy was sleeping at the time, so he wasn't too interested at the time, but both Red and Yellow did very well. Red just ate them right up, he ate 4. Yellow chewed them a bit before eating them, he ate 2. Here is Blue having a bit the other day.

bum

Being back at work sux. Even if some of the time I am doing the work at home.

The polls have now closed

Thanks for the advice everyone, you all chose what I was leaning towards. The D rings are now installed. For those of you who haven't been keeping up with my sewing projects (cos you know, like I haven't actually told you or anything), here is a photo of the coat so far: (You try taking a photo of your own back!) In this picture I am wearing a black t-shirt under the coat (with no sleeves) and you can almost see (if you squint and close one eye) that the coat is actually very dark navy, not black. Also, in real life, when you aren't viewing the coat with a flash, the ribbon matches very well, and isn't 3 shades lighter like in looks in this picture.

Commitee Meeting

The puppies obviously had a committee meeting this morning before I woke up. I believe a motion, something along the lines of "We are 4 weeks old this morning and really should get our act together with this 'drinking from a bowl thing' pretty smartly" was passed. I'm not saying they drank the whole thing, but at one stage all three of them were actually having a drink! Right this second they have, of course, gone back to Mum, which they greatly prefer. Later they will play some 'bite each others head' game, which is their favorite (OK, only) game. Then it will be time for a snooze again. It's a routine, of sorts.
Also, today is my last day on leave :( I have to go back to work tomorrow :< Neil, the puppies and I will have to develop a new routine. I'll let you know how it goes.

Which do you think?

I have pretty much decided that the first one is way too thick. The second one is with only one layer of material, and I'm concerned that this might eventually fray (it's worsted 80% wool, 20% poly) The last one is with the ribbon that will be used as lacing in the finished product. Also, please note the colors in this are awful. Really the material and the ribbon are both very navy. So dark, most people think it's black. Decisions decisions! Let me know what you think.

Poor Clara - their teeth are comming

Yes, it time we got moving on this weaning thing, as the puppies teeth are starting to come through!

We ain't doin' this right

So, obviously Clara ate pretty much all of the milk that was in this bowl. If we keep her away from the puppies for long enough for them to have a go, she gets really annoyed (I tried shutting her out side yesterday, and in the end Molly cam into me and whined at me to say 'hey Mum, you know Clara's at the door, asking to come in don't you?' quite funny really.)
I can see we might just be a bit early on the whole weaning thing, but at this rate their never going to get any, Clara will always be quicker. Any thoughts would be appreciated....
This shot was posed, but still cute.

eyes=play, walking and lapping

All the puppies eyes are now open and they are well and truly into the 'get to know the rest of their litter' phase. It's amazing to see that the bite each others head game is such a favourite from day one. Yellow is defiantly the best walker of the three, although he tried to shake this morning... that was funny.
The puppies are trying to chew things already, so I went and got them some toys yesterday. It might be a bit early yet, but we'll see how we go. Also if anyone has any ideas on how go get Mum not to steal the toys off the babies I'd appreciate any input.
As the puppies are biting things, I figured this meant they are starting teething. So I have tried them on a bowl of puppy milk. I was amazed, they had the idea right off! They did make a fairly large mess, but all three of them were licking away. Mostly at the side of the bowl, but it's progress. I have the issue that Clara is very quick to drink the milk herself, and keeping her away is difficult. Again, and ideas will be appreciated.
Neil has bought an enormous penis extension, I mean flash for his new camera, so more and better photos of the puppies to follow. (It's one of those ones that bounces the flash off the ceiling and has filers and stuff on it to make it not so bright and it there for won't hurt their eyes.)

Today

Today was very hot, at least it was until a few minutes ago (Yay the change is here). I have been hiding inside trying to keep the family cool. I have also been sewing.
I wanted to tell you about a plant that is just outside my front door. It an Australian native of some sort, but it is know to me as 'the clicky plant'.In the photo you can see the little seed pods. When they are ripe and on it's a hot day, they open. Then the seed shoots out. The seed pods open with the heat and they make a little clicky sound (hence why I have named the plant.) When I hear it, I know it's hot.
I mentioned the sewing a few posts ago, it's going really well. I have near finished 2 of my 4 assessment garments. Ok, so they are the easy ones, but that's not the point. Only waist bands and hems to go. Here are the hard parts:Kick pleat feature on skirt.The 'proper' zip and pockets (which are sew shut at the moment as the pants are still under construction)
I'm quite happy with both so far, so only shirt (ahhh $97 worth of silk!) and coat to go.

flash

On the 14th I went to my first Flash Mob event for Geocaching. I have been waiting for the picture to come out, and it's here now:

The eye opening race

The eye opening race is on and, so far, Yellow is far and away the winner. He has both eye half open! Obviously he's along way off from actually seeing, but I'm very excited. Blue and Red are a long way behind, but I think Blue will be the next to make a move in the eye opening directing.
Keep you posted :)

Puppies

wow, I just noticed that there isn't a photo of the puppies on the front page any more (except for yellow, but he's half hidden under Clara) so, here you go:
Aren't the soooo much bigger!
I have discovered that it's quite challenging to take a photo with your own hand in it, to help provide some prospective. Any way, take my word for it, they are very much bigger.

Last night we went to the pub for steak night (I have been eating Lite 'n easy for weeks and needed some 'real' food). We met a person we know there and told her all about the puppies. About half way through the conversation, I realised just how much we sounded like 'new parents'! This is awful, I swore I'd never become one of those people. *sigh*

Insulation

It's been a while since there has been an on the whole renovation project, as it has all been about the puppies recently. Anyway, as the puppies have been getting more and more self contained (still no open eyes!), I have felt more more I am able to leave them for short periods.
So this morning I nipped to the insulation place and now the insulation is ordered. All we have to do now is rip off all the weather boards and put the insulation in in time to have the cladding men come and put up the new steal weather boards!

P.S.

I forgot to mention, today is also Clara's Birthday! Happy Birthday Clara! She is 4 today.

we're still here

I know it's been a few days, and whilst the puppies haven't been busy doing anything other than getting bigger, I have been very busy, and hot. This is all a testament to how much easier looking after the puppies has been. They let me sleep now, which I think is really nice of them. The couple of really hot days can clearly be seen on their weight chat.Unfortunately, not so much on my own weight chart!
I am doing so many things at the moment. I am

• sewing my final 4 garments for my pattern drafting course
• knitting a hat, jumper and booties for a friends baby
• soldering a little project we recently had delivered (follow the link, play the video, you know you want to!)
• cleaning the house (it all just got to me, hmmmm might be hormonal ;))
• oh, and watching the puppies at regular intervals!

I will do some updates on all these things as they beome more interesting to look at.
So, on puppy watch there have been no major developments. I think Yellow is getting closer to thinking about standing. We are hanging out for their eyes to open, which should happen any day now. I am going to revamp the weight chat on the right. Other than that, it business as usual. I only have two weeks left of my leave :(

The one that got away

It might be a bit hard for you to tell, but I went into the 'puppy room' a few minutes ago, and this is the sight I was greeted with:Clara, feeding one of her puppies (yellow) outside the whelping box! I'm not sure how he managed to climb out, what with the pig rail and everything, but he did! I guess he wanted a snack.

what the?

*** Warning!! Not a puppy post ;) ***

I don't get it! My blog has been around for a while now. It has many interesting things on it (I think any way). So how come with google analytics, which I have set up because I like being big brother and spying on the people who visit my blog, I get far and away the most visits to my blog, from google, with the search term bacon flavored bubbles? In fact, 5 of my top ten search terms are along this same theme.
What is with that? I made one little tiny post about said bubbles, the post only has one comment on it (Thanks BP, I know you love me), it was a year and a half ago and still that what people want to search to my blog for that. I'm thinking I might have to hit the bubble company up for some money, and put a link to there page on my blog. *sigh*

P.S. The puppies are sleeping, and growing - lots!

Arrival

Guess what arrived to day!??!?! That's right, more puppies! Well sort of. OK, not real actual puppies, but nearly as good!This is the back of a jacket that two of my Scottie friends (Eva and Robyn) have. It took me about a year to get it, as the company kept ignoring me, but it's here now. Yay :)

it's official

Clara, her family, me and my Mum went to the vet today, in what felt like 400°C weather, to get Clara stitches out. (it was really around 33° according to the BoM, the car said it was 38° outside). Anyway, the trip over there wasn't so bad, but the trip home was hell, the air con really wasn't coping for the last 15 or so mins and the puppies were very warm by the time we got home. Clara and the humans were fine.
Anyway, side tracked there with the weather..... The vet has said that the puppies are doing fine and they are, in fact, fat! So we are doing everything right!!!! Yay! :) I have fat puppies... oh, that sounds a bit bad... *snigger snigger*

a morning sing

Blue puppy is clearly destined to be an opera singer when he grows up. He frequently has a little sing after eating and I have finally caught on one my camera.

May be Blue can teach Clara how to howl when he's older, we are still quite disappointed Clara won't howl.

Hot

Last night it was so hot I had to move the new family into the lounge room, with air con. This is a completely un-posed photo of how they arranged them selves What do you think a triangle of Scottie puppies means? Also, just so you know, I have their little fence set up on the left, so they don't fall off the couch.

How big are we?

So. 'How big are the puppies?' I hear you ask. I have not put up photos that help you tell this so far, so here is one:As you can see, my hand is there. What you can't easily see from this photo is just how big they have grown since we brought them home. I think they are at least 1/3 bigger now. This is the red puppy, who is the biggest. In this photo you can also see his pretty brindle bits. They show up more in real life, but you can see it on his legs and face. There is another close up, without my hand.

Things the puppies have learnt, so far

They currently practising running, in their sleep. They are getting ready to bark, or are at least practising that in their sleep too. They are starting to move their little ear flaps. They have learnt to yawn. They have learnt to get lost in the sleeves of an old polar fleece we put in their box, to the point where I have over-locked the sleeves off and made them into closed tubes, so they can't get in them any more. Lastly, the puppies are learning to wag their tails! evidence below:P.S. They have also learnt about itchy shots when you scratch their tummys

Today, I dub thee 1/2 kilo day.

So today, all the puppies will weigh half a kilo! That's huge! This morning yellow weighted exactly double what he weighted when we brought him home. Currently all dogs (both big and small) are sleeping....

The next few days are predicted to be quite warm (32,32,32,27,29,31 (for the non-metric people out there 32°C≅90°F)). Also I will be looking after them by myself for most of the week. I hope we all cope OK.

Getting easier

Things are slowly getting easier. There is more human sleeping happening, which is a great thing, the puppies are getting larger, Clara is more relaxed. I am still quite tired though. We have nearly made it through one whole week.

Things I have learned so far

• puppies mean you don't sleep much
  
• puppies make me everyone stressed (esp. Clara :()
  
• although the ceaserian might have been good for my mental health, it might not have been so great for Clara
  
• new born puppies have little tabs for ears
• tiny little squeaking noises do wake you up
• I think the puppies are dreaming about barking, even though they can't bark yet
• puppies have really strong tongues
• there are as many old wives tails (ha ha ha) about puppies a whelping as there are about childbirth and children
• the puppies are only slowly learning to wag their tails
• the puppies like to sleep in a row, like little sausages

the vista

This has been my outlook for the last, oh god it's only been, two days.Either Neil or I are sleeping/reading/vegging in the bed beside the whelping box (thanks Eva, Agnes and Jo for the lend) Clara all day and night. We'll keep doing this for a bit yet.

P.S. The puppies are in this shot, they are just inline with Clara so you can't see them.

Red, Yellow and Blue

The puppies are here, the post yesterday was a photo taken at the vet, about 15 minutes after they had be 'born' (given that it was a Ceaserian, I'm not sure if born is the right word.)

They have been home with us now since about 3pm yesterday and we a tired already. Clara has finally started to take an interest in them, I think the drugs and shock were taking a toll on her mothering ability. She seems much happier with the situation now. Here is a little video from yesterday afternoon.

3boys

Tomorrow is the day

So. Tomorrow is the day. My poor Clara is sooooo fat. I have just been lying on teh couch near Clara, with my hand on her tummy and it's no wonder she isn't eating a lot at the moment, the puppies are moving around heaps! Really quite amazing. I get the feeling Clara is quite over this whole thing, she is spending so much ring just lying around on her side, doing a very good impersonation of dead. I hope everything goes smoothly tomorrow and we come home with a healthy and happy family.

Happy Birthday to me....

Thanks to all the nice people for the birthday texts, emails and messages. For my birthday so far, I have driven to Clayton with Clara to find out that there are 3 puppies on the way. Of course there are pictures:

So to sum up for all those who are interested:

• put puppies in Clara - Check
• Check how many there are - Check
• Get puppies out of Clara - Booked in for Monday
• Keep puppies alive - Planned for November
• Have lots of people around to play with the puppies - Planned for January

Fingers crossed there will still be three puppies by then too!

When the cats away....

My boss was away for 5 weeks and it was her first week back this week.
While she was away, a few of us had trouble getting motivated. I
personally did very little work while she was away. There was one
particular bit of work I avoided the whole time she was away, which I
felt particarly guilty about.
Any way, during this time, I had a bit of a Facebook binge, worse than
I have had for about a year or more. I was playing so many games it
was nearly impossible to get any work done!
The situation was so bad that I decided I had to go 'cold turkey' and
not even open Facebook whilst at work. Well, today was the end of day
2. I had a tiny laps yesterday, just to harvest some crop and re
plant (I delibreatly re planted with slow growing crops), and then at
the end of the day, but that was ok, cos I had finished working by
then. Today was more sucessfull. Only opened Facebook after 5pm! Yay
me :)

Sent from my spiffy iPhone

hmmmm

Last night, Neil made 3 cheese soufflé for dinner. Not sure where the urge came from, but they turned out yum.

Craft fair

Today I went to the craft fair, the new craft fair, not the old crap craft fair. It was in the Exhibition Buildings, not crappy old Jeff's Shed.

To be honest, it was just a craft fair. I did like the way many of the compertion entries were dispalyed in amongst the stall. I'm not sure how I'd feel about it if it was one of my peices, but it did mean more people saw them. It have the usual issue for a craft show for me:

• too much scrap booking
• too much patchwork
• not enough everything else

But I do think this one had less patch working than the other craft fair. It was big, but I don't think as big as the other one. Anyway, I have not been to the exhibition buildings very a very long time. I have a vague memory of seeming a car show there about 4000 years ago, and that's about it, for the inside at least. I see the outside every day at work. I was very impressed with the restoration job that was done... not sure when (very informative this blog isn't it?) Here is a photoClearly, it dosn't do it justice, but you get the idea.

Puppies

Well, we know now. There ARE puppies. I was quite convinced there would be none, but there could be as many as 5 or 6. Personally I will be happy with any. So, Cup Day is D-day. Only 5 weeks for me to get really worried and control freaky. (I know I said to a friend recently I would never do this, but I'm too excited. Here are the ultrasound photos)

Naughty friend

I have a naught friend, (who has just had a baby) who did the most wonderful and unexpected thing the other day. I had had a fairly crapola had, had just had a bit of a run in with my mother, was really tired and crapped off when I realised that Neil had bought some mail in earlier in the day, some of which was for me. I opened the parcel and discovered a beautiful linen Scottie tea towel. Thankful the person in question had mentioned something was on the way for me in the email to I was able to ring immediately and thank them profusely, not only for the tea towel, but for absolutely improving my whole day!
A few days later, a second parcel arrived with a totally adorable Scottie hair clip, which I have decided is a better as brooch. Here it is:(with my Scottie t-shirt as a cameo in the background)

Disappointment

Neil recently came into some money. He has decided it would be appropriate to use some of this money to acquire a steam traction engine. So over the last few months, much research has been done, many scoping studies have been undertaken, traction engines have been inspected and conversations with dodge old steam men have taken place. Yesterday a traction engine went up for auction in Tasmania. This ended up being sold for $180,000. This is well over his/budget. He is now quite sad. Here is a picture we made many years ago, hopefully it will cheer him up.

Dogs Shows

So, it was a week of dog shows last week. There was the already mentioned Royal Melbourne Show (don't think of the ugly people). Then that weekend, there was was the Scottish Terrier Club of Victoria Champ and Open Shows. The secretary decided it would be a good idea to nominate someone who wasn't showing to get photos of the show, and particularly the winning dogs with their ribbons. Neil was duly nominated. Because of the potential puppies, I wasn't showing either, so we had two cameras and clicked away for the day. We ended up taking 900 photos between the two of us. It took me ages to go through them all. We picked about 50 per show to put on the web site (or at least the Scottie Flickr thing I have set up.)

work stuff

We have moved desks. This is something that just 'happens' every now and again when you work for government. There is usually no real reason for it, and the ones they come up with as reasons, are normally some crap arsed bullshit about grouping people more logically. Usually the real reason is someone important decides they need a window or what ever. Any way, this one has worked out quite well for me. I have managed to get rid of a whole lot of files, cleaned out my (mostly off) food collection and ended up with a window seat. I must be going up in the world! So now I have a lovely view of the Dandenongs out my window. I can be a bit glarey in the mornings, but who cares, I'm hardly every at work in the mornings away way ;)
Anyway, on to the rest of the rant about moving chairs and the govenment. It's so crap, I mean how much money do they waste every time they do this? I mean, we have moved from one end of the floor to the other, so in theory, as we all (~15 people) have a new fax machine near us, we are supposed to all get new business cards (we won't cos no one really cares about fax machines anyway, but that's not the point!) What a complete waste of money! Then there is the box/crate hire cost, the moving men, the unporductive time of staff while we pack, unpack and let the movers do their thing. Not to mention it took me a WEEK to get a printer issue sorted with IT!
A friend of mine in the same organisation (if I can call my workplace an organisation, even though it has NEVER demonstrated any organisation to me! (HUMPH so much for conspiracy theorists!)) might be about to face a similar but even stupider situation. Cos some very important big wig (aka dickhead 1) doesn't like some other boss (aka dickhead 2) in the building, he has decided the best way to deal with it is to move the whole of dickhead 2's group (~10-12 people) to Box Hill! To add insult to injury, it's not like Boxx Hill has heaps of space either, and to fit all the staff in, they would be placed all over the building on multiple floors. Obviously I am also a complete dickhead, as I am unable to see that this is going to make this group work much more effectively!
and breath

Adventures in puppy land

Some of you may know that for about a year now, we have been trying to get some puppies in to Clara. The first time, about a year ago, we were very confident they were there and very disappointed to discover, at our ultrasound, that there were none. The 2nd time, around 6 months ago, coincided with the fire season. As I was away for most of the time Clara was in season, I was not at all surprised, I completely missed the window or opportunity to put puppies in. This last time, after a week of driving backwards and forwards to Clayton (from my house, ie: add 3hrs in the car to each day), we have done everything we can to ensure there are puppies. I only have to wait until Wednesday to find out if they are there. I'm not holding my breath this time, but if the number of people crossing their fingers and hoping have anything to do with it (half the scottie club, boy dog owner, me and Neil, mum and dad, people at work etc) it a sure thing! Will update you on this on Wednesday.

Geocaching Event

As mentioned below, I seem to have developed a new hobby. Geocaching! Yes, I am a nerd. But this is ok, cos apparently I know quite a few of them, and some are even prepared to join in on this hobby. Now it's NOT nerdy, it's social! Anyway, recently there was an "event" on in the City called the City Circle Scramble. There were heaps of (nerdy) people. We were all given clues and maps and set loose to try and get as many of them done as possible. I teamed up with Scott a friend who doesn't like to be identified publicly (aka Firey_Scott) and Claire (aka BoMChick). Given that none of us been to an event like this before, I was very please to discover that we came 5th out of the 15 or so teams that competed! I was also a bit releaved we didn't come first as part of the prize is to organise next years event!

Ugly People

I have been to the Show recently, to see the Scottie dogs on show, to visit with mum and dad (who's steam club had a display there this year)and to apparently expose my eyes and sear my brain with visions of some of the ugliest people it has been my dis-pleasure to ever see. Where do these people live for the rest of the year? I never see such sites during my normal day to day life. Yuk! Oh well, as the Show is finishing today, so hopefully I won't be assaulted by any similar sights until next year.

Slacker, again

I have been a very slack blog owner of late, for which I can only apologies. I have been busy doing the famous "other things". Following are some catch up mini posts, specifically requested by one of my fans readers, partly to know what I have been up to, but mostly to get the video post of the page, so it doesn't take to long to load with dial up!

boy

context

I like photos of things taken out of context, and it's hard to work out what they are.

Geocaching

Recently my friend Scott introduced me to the wonderful world of Geocaching. This is a world wide game of treasure hunt, for people with GPSs. A couple of things about this appeal to me.

• It is slightly competitive
• it has a slight geology focus (there are things called Earth Caches)
• it gets me outside, walking around, without feeling like exercise
• Clara can come to, to some places at least.
• it's kind of nerdy ;)

Anyway, I discovered that you can get badges!!! (see the first point above.) And here is one I have earnt :)

Apparently I'm....

Take the Quiz here!

Claw Clipping

Claw clipping, 'What a piece of cake I thought'. And for me it is, Clara doesn't actually like it, but no muzzle, cast iron gloves or sedation is required, which apparently, is not unusual as far as Scotties are concerned. From a very young ages, I have played with Clara's paws, you know, while were playing, while she eating or sleeping etc. This has turned out to be a good thing, considering I can, more or less, trim Clara's paws with ease. So....

Step 1 - when to cut
I tend to wait til I get really sick of the click click sound of the dogs in the kitchen. But the true way is to look at the claws and check how long they are. When you notice a 'hook' on the end od the claw, it's time to clip them.
Step 2 - cut the claw
The only way I would recommend clipping a claw is with proper dog claw clippers. These are not too expensive but are well worth the money. Dog claws are way tougher than human nails and nail clipper will not work. They will also tend to twist the claw as they cut and this will hurt the dog. Dog claw clippers cut in a very straight way and are quite quick to use, minimising the distress to the dog.
Most importantly, your dog will carry on during this process. It is really important to ignore all 'bad' behaviour. Only praise the dog when you have finished, or when it layers there 'putting up with' the process. If you simper and apologies thought the process, you are actually encouraging the carry on.
If you have heaps of problems, only do one or two claws at a time, do the rest later. But do not stop when the dog is fighting, wait til it stops, even if you are simply having them lie on their back in a submissive position.
One last comment, putting a cloth muzzle on your dog is not you losing, this can make the whole process a lot less stressful for the both of you. Also, call in the assistance of other family members for holding the dog, this can be helpful. Remember no simpering.

Step 3 - how it should look
This may actually be a bit long, but you get the idea. With the black claws, I always lean towards chopping a bit less off, as you can't put it back on if you cut too much off!
If you do cut off too much claw and the claw bed bleeds, hold your finger on the end til is stops, unless you want little dots of blood all over the house. This could take a few minutes.

Pom-Pom Paws

Ever had an issue with your scottie having Pom-Pom paws? I used to have this problem all the time, partly because Duncan (my first scottie) didn't like having his paws trimmed, but mostly because I didn't know the trick to it! I am now going to share this trick with you.

Step 1 - Preparation
With both hands, push all the fur on the dogs legs towards the paws. It should look a bit like this:
Step 2 - Clipping
carefully clip quite neatly around the whole paw:Step 3 - Done!
Now your scottie should look like it has tiny dainty feet, not enormous pom-poms on the end of it's legs:

Arty

I saw this building today! I thought it looked nice

gallery

Today I went to the National Gallery of Victoria (is it just me or does this name make no sense.) We went to the Persuasion: Fashion in the Age of Jane Austin. Very good afternoon out.

Cool

There are so many cool pointless things on the web, I just love it. Here is one I found curtsey of another blogger. Here is the cool, but slightly pointless thing I made (Now, for all the creative type, you may not think it's that pointless, I just find this sort of stuff hard to relate to, I'm trying ok?)If you would like to make one of your oen, feel free to visit here.

just like a bought one!

Look what we made!Don't they look just like bought ones??!?!?!? :)

Cold

I know it's:

1. Melbourne
2. Winter
3. and I am meant to like the cold

but.......

it's freezing! I have the heater on, shoes and a jumper on, I'm inside and I am COLD, cold, cold! Man, I sound like an English person!

Upcomming posts

I have had the greatest idea: I'm going to do a series of posts on clipping Scotties! Louise Style of course (I don't know any other method). I am thinking:

• Claws
• Carrot shaped tail
• Ears
• Body
• feet
• may be head, that might be a bit hard

It's really handy then that at the moment Clara is a bit shaggy and has really long claws. However, I have just discovered how hard it is to take a photo of a dogs claw

so...

don't be holding your breath!

Martin's farm

It took us way too long to actually get here, but the other day we took ourselves and Clara to Martin's farm. All concerned had a great time, particularlly Clara who slept the whole way home. I think we broke her :) Here is the nice fire we had whilst there:

The cat has arrived

and the dog, by the looks of the fore ground!