This is Jett - wow is he growing fast! He lives with is adoring family in Dyer, Indiana

Hi Chris,

We're glad you enjoyed the pictures of Jett. Sorry it took us so long. Jett is fitting in quite well with us and the kids. They absolutely LOVE him. He passed puppy kindergarten with flying colors. He loved the agility coarse a lot. When the other puppies hesitated, he just flew right by them. He will take obedience training in June, and I know he will do very well.

He is a little rascal though when it comes time for food. With three small kids, he knows where the good stuff comes from. Now that he has grown, he jumps up with his front paws on the table or counter and snatches food so fast the kids don't know what happens! Of course this is a habit we are trying to break.

He weighs in at a whopping 31lbs at 16 weeks! Sometimes we wake up in the morning and it looks as though he has grown two inches over night!! We have a chocolate lab named Abby across the street and Jett has become quite fond of her, even though she wants nothing to do with this jumpy little puppy. We also have a golden retriever behind us, who again isn't so fond of this jumpy little puppy. Both dogs are about four years old.

It's also amazing that Jett knew the kids so well right off the bat. I usually have the kids all the time, so when I come home the kids come marching in behind me. Well there were days when the kids were with Andrew or the grandparents and I would come home and he would look at me like "Hey, something's not right here. Where's the rest of the bunch?"

Well thank you again for our not so little bundle of joy! I can't even remember what it was like without him!! You can use whatever pictures you would like on your website. Meghan just loves to have her picture taken with Jett. Although I like the one where he is a whole head shorter than her and about a month later he is taller than her!! Amazing!

Take care! And I wouldn't be surprised in a year if Andrew is back for another puppy!!

Love,
Laurie
blamm5@worldnet.att.net

Boo - RavenXSam 2004 daughter

Boo is all grown up - time passes too quickly!

Hi Chris!

As for Boo, at her vet visit on Friday, she was up from 15.11 lbs. to 28.2 lbs!!! I was worried she wasn't eating enough - something I'm no longer worried about! :-) She was so excited to be at the vets - and barked whenever someone wasn't paying attention to her. The thermometer in her rear made her pause for a minute - she couldn't quite figure out what that thing was. It was pretty comical. She was a good girl for her shots and went off to get weighed very happily. She was still wagging her tail at the vet at the end of the visit which shocked me (I'm used to cowering pets). The vet told me I have a very nice dog! (He's never said that about any of our other pets!) So, pat yourself on the back - she's a sweetheart!


Take care of yourself! Emily
Emoo007@aol.com

Hi Chris - I thought you might enjoy seeing some photos of one of Cricket and Mazie's puppies....Scout - although you might remember her has JuneBug!!! She has been such a wonderful addition to our family!! Right now she is weighing in at 51 lbs. The vet refers to her as "little bruiser"!!! Scout has especially bonded to our son Scott. She does EVERYTHING he says - its amazing. We all just love waking up to her excited little butt wiggling like she hasn't seen us for years!!! And then again when we get home from work. She makes us laugh almost on a daily basis. Yesterday, when Dave took her for her walk she now barks at all the nativity sets in the neighborhood lawns - too funny!! We took her to Ohio to visit my sister for Thanksgiving and she was the best dog!! Meeting 15 new people - everyone commented on how well behaved she was. She has the BEST temperment. My sister has a beagle and they ran for hours in their backyard. Scout just loves other dogs, but sometimes they don't want to play as much as she does, no matter how much she nudges them with her big head!!! When we took her to puppy classes she was always used as the demo dog because she is so smart!!

Now, Scout does have a couple of little faults that we are working on. She loves to jump on us (except for my son Scott because she listens to him!!), likes to pull up mouthfuls of grass in the backyard, and we are working with her to not pull so much when she walks. But we realize she is just a baby and will probably grow out of these things.

Chris - whatever it is you are doing - keep doing it - she is just the most wonderful dog and we enjoy her so much!!!!

Have a great holiday!!!

Christy & Dave Winkelman
dcss1@comcast.net

SamXLila baby born 05/03

photo coming soon!

My boyfriend Chris and I were out at your farm in Galva last July (2003) to pick up Chris' chocolate lab... you had named him Bomber, and we call him Jackson. I was just looking at your website after recommending it to a friend at work who is looking to get a dog! (I've recommended you numerous times!)

Anyway, I wanted to let you know that Jackson is doing great - I think he is close to identical to his father (like you predicted) - in looks and in temperment. Is his father the second picture down on your Home page? That's just what Jackson looks like now! He is almost 90 lbs at 1 1/2 years old, and he's loving and pretty calm. He'll get excited when you first walk in the room, but he rarely jumps or barks and never bites. He loves to cuddle, play, run....he's perfect... I've never had a dog before Jackson, and I can officially say I am now "a dog person" and I love it! He's like our baby :-) haha.

I don't have any digital photos of Jackson, but if I can get one soon, I'll pass that on too!

Have a Merry Christmas, and thanks again for such a wonderful dog!!!

Jennifer

At almost 8 months old, Bob is weighing in at 80 pounds and I think he still has more growing to do. He is such a big, sweet guy. A little
hyper at times, but what puppy isn't. Last week we started our second round of training for eight weeks. He is really good at sit but if there is another dog around to catch his attention, he completely tunes us out. Always needs to be in everyone else's business. I am hoping, now that he is older, he will be able to concentrate a little bit more during class.

Everything else seems to be going along just fine. Bob, thankfully,
lost his baby teeth a couple of months ago and has seemed to cut back on the chewing. Unless, of course, we aren't around to remind him of the rules. A couple of weeks ago we ran out to do some grocery shopping and came home to Ben's tennis shoes in little pieces all over the floor. We walked in to the kitchen and Bob had that "I'm sorry, now let's play" look on his face and it's just impossible to be mad at that. Now we know, nothing can be within paws reach of Bob when we walk out that door.

Although Bob slips a little with his training commands, he does fairly
well walking on a leash. We live in a small neighborhood and it takes us about 30 minutes to walk through the whole area. I think Bob knows the route by heart and does a great job of letting me lead him, instead of the other way around. He absolutely loves to be outside, especially when there is snow on the ground. During the snow spells this year, we would let him play on our deck and he would stay out their for hours jumping around in the snow, putting his face in the snow drifts and laying his tummy in it. Bob loves the cold weather so much I am a little afraid of how he will adjust to the summer temperatures.

The sleeping arrangements in our house have changed a little bit since when we first got Bob. At first, we had him sleeping in his crate all night (just to give him the feeling of trying to hold it throughout the night). Then after we had that mastered, we decided to let Bob sleep at the foot of our bed so he didn't feel so separated from us. That worked for about a week. Then Bob decided that he needed more room. One night he was having problems getting comfortable on the bed, jumped down, and went straight to his crate and laid down there. He will lay in our bed only if one of us is gone. So I decided to get him a nice, cozy bed to put in the crate (thinking it would mimic the comfort of our bed). Of course, instead of laying on it, each night he pushed it to the side. He would rather lay on the cool plastic on the bottom of the crate. Such a finicky sleeper!

Well, I've included a couple up-to-date pictures of Bob....well from
January. We just love him so much and look forward to getting him to a lake this summer for swimming. Hopefully he will like the water as much as he likes the snow.:)

Suzette Jeckel

Maizy (PoncaXMaize) girl (Buttercup's Sister)

Maizy is a sweetheart. She is the most unflappable
puppy I have ever met :)

She and Hunter are bonding well. Fletcher is a little
reserved, but I expected that. We are working with
the North Star Foundation and they have said not to
push things between Fletcher and Maizy - that he will
respond better to her when she is a little older and
calmer. Right now her idea of a good time is to pull
on his clothing -which is NOT his idea of a good time.
So we let them interact, but only in well supervised
situations.

Maizy is a trooper on the housetraining. She took to
her crate right away. We have about one accident a
day (none today so far!) but I'm told that I'm the one
who's trained, not her :) Whatever.

She LOVES to ride around in the car and do errands. I had her with me for four hours one day. We stopped
to use the grass and had no accidents.

I just wanted to comment some more on just how
perfectly even tempered Maizy is. We live at an
interesting intersection of town and country. On one
side of our building is open field with a small pond
and geese. The other side is a busy street - 4 lanes
of heavy traffic, and then between the two runs
railroad track with frequent trains. Maizy LOVES to
watch all these things. She and Hunter (with Mom
holding the leash and watching carefully, even though
there is a fence) sit about 100 yards from the huge
trains and wave at the conductors and just love the
view. The trains don't bother her, the traffic
doesn't bother her, the geese don't bother her. She
is open for it all - but not crazy about it - not
running after them or getting bothered and excited -
just keenly aware and interested.

And talk about spoiled :) Everyone in the world tells
her she is the most beautiful puppy they have ever
seen and she soaks it up. Good thing she is the most
beautiful puppy :)

Sorry you will have heartbreak again this weekend.
Know that the love in the world multiplies each time
you send your beautiful puppies out into it

I'll send some pictures soon - she is definitely
growing!

Take care,
Kristin
kristinnelson@yahoo.com

Hi Chris-

I wanted to send you some updated pictures of Stella! It’s been awhile and we have been so busy moving and unpacking. Stella is doing great. She is in doggie school and she goes everyday from 8-5pm for 40 days!!! Mike and I go at night to learn what she learns and then we practice at night! We have a bigger learning curve then she does! J

She is getting big so fast! She is up to 30 lbs and growing bigger every second. She has met lots of new friends in our complex. Her best friend is Abby a labradoodle. J They wrestle and wear each other out every day.

I hope you and your family are doing well. I attached several pictures below so you can see her. We love our Stella and wanted to let you know she is doing great!

Jamie
jpolick@ambiron.net

Maddy - SamXKiwi baby

Hi Chris!

Well, it has been a fun first week at the McQuellon Household (apart from the various middle of the night bathroom trips outside). Maddy has adapted very well to things around here so far. Just like you said, she has gotten over the "quiet good new puppy" stage and progressed to the "I am going to go where I want and cause as much mischief as I can" stage :). Attached are a couple of pictures- we have dial up, so just a few choice ones. She has really taken to water! We bought her a kiddy pool the second day after she kept climbing into her water bowl.
A couple quick questions for you: We have been doing the yogurt on the food, but I remember you had either "low" or "no" fat for yours- any recomendation? We have used regular (with the active cultures) but don't want a fat little puppy. We have also been using it for both breakfast and dinner, but your paper listed only breakfast- are we giving her too much? What flea and tick treatment do you recomend? Our vet gave us Frontline- but we think the cat is allergic to it and don't want to set him off. Also our vet gave us Heartgard for heartworms- is that an ok brand? We'll probably have some more, so appreciate your thoughts. Maddy says to tell everyone "hi"!

Curt McQuellon
<curtmcq@yahoo.com>

Molly - PoncaXMaize daughter (Buttercup's Sister)

I graduated from my 5 week puppy kindergarten last week. My instructor (not Dawn) has labs of her own so I was kind of the favorite in class. I can sit, lie down, stand and walk real well on a leash. I am learning to play fetch with my ball too. I know what NO BITE means and I am doing well with it. Dawn and Robbie learned how to clean my ears (they clean my ears every week-yuck), brush my teeth and clip my nails.

Dawn has taken me so many places to meet all types of creatures – other dogs, kitties, trucks, birds, people and more! I have all my current shots and I weighed 31 lbs. last week. I don’t look fat?! I eat real well and go on 2 walks daily. I find that after my noon walk I am usually a little hot so the hose has become my good friend. The MIST setting on the nozzle is my favorite.

I have lots of toys to chew on and am proud to say I have not chewed on anything in the house that I wasn’t supposed to (I get some help from Dawn on that one). To add to that and what I am most proud of is that I go potty outside and I have had only 2 accidents in the house since I came here.

I start my next puppy class in a month and so far I enjoy the spring with the birds, squirrels and bugs! I just wanted to say hello to everyone!

Molly

(Dawn)
dellington@royalsolutions.net

Bailey - MaizeXGenny Boy

Bailey is a silly boy!

Bailey - Halloween 2005

Bailey cooling off at the Barn

Christmas 2005

I haven’t sent any pictures in awhile and Bailey’s grown soooooo much! I can’t believe how big he’s getting now. I wanted to thank you again for breeding such a wonderful little guy. He is such a joy to have around and it’s amazing to watch him grow, not only physically, but mentally. He’s learning new things every day and doing very well in puppy class (I REALLY appreciate what a good boy he is after leaving class some nights!). Potty training has been going very good. I can also concur what absolutely adorable puppies you breed after our trip to pet smart. Bailey is soooo cute that the instructor that was teaching a puppy class actually stopped the class to comment on how adorable he was and that he looked just like the puppy in the K-9 advantix commercial! Actually we can’t go anywhere without someone saying how cute AND well behaved he is! And he definitely goes everywhere with me, he’s my little co-pilot. All I have to say is car ride and he’s scrambling to the door. My only fault is that I think I may have made him a little more attached than he should be because I can’t even leave a room without him racing after me! My mom has to distract him for me to even leave the house. At least he’s not doing anything naughty like barking or crying when I leave, he just wants to go with! Actually, he rarely ever barks, even when other dogs bark at him. He even stood his ground against 2 very LARGE bull dogs through my boyfriend’s fence! He just sat there looking at them, like why are you making all that noise? Well that all for now, his has his last vet appointment this weekend which I’m sure will go just as well as every other visit!

P.S. The last picture of him is on my bed thinking that he can take over my side with all the pillows!

Nicole
nstiner@fifieldco.com

Hi Chris~

How’s everything going? All is well here. I can’t believe that Bailey is eight months old now! He’s doing very well and growing like a weed, up to 70lbs now. I’ve attached some fun candid pictures of him, his costume for Halloween, one of his barn visits with his girlfriend Sophie (don’t mind the water, they were doing synchronized diving after funning through the mud!, a video diving in to a big kid pool, taking a break from swimming, and at my engagement party cooling off!!) He is a total ham. He’ll be running around acting goofy, but as soon as we pull a camera out he sits there and waits for his picture to be taken! He must have gotten used to it while he was still at Cricket Hollow. He is definitely a water dog, if we are anywhere near water he is in it. He’s doing very well with his obedience classes, always teachers pet. She’ll be trying to explain something to us and he tries to get as close as he can to her and just sits and cocks his head to the side like he understands what she’s saying and every time the whole class busts up laughing! So he obviously is used at least once in class every time for demonstrations, he’s a pretty smart cookie. He’s still a mama’s boy though, always keeping tabs on where I am. Makes a pretty good guard dog too, I feel sorry if anyone ever tries to get into our house. He absolutely looooooves children too. I think that he figured out they all taste pretty good, so he’s all about giving kisses to them until they’re licked clean. I can’t believe how in tune he seems to be with how I’m feeling; he seems to feed off of it. For instance, my horse busted up his leg pretty bad and I had to go clean it out, and I do not do well with blood at all, so I was sitting there trying to keep my stomach in check cleaning it out and Bailey came and sat behind me and put his paw on my back like he was telling me it was o.k. It was the cutest thing ever. Well just wanted to give you a Bailey update and thank you again for such a wonderful “not-so-little” guy!

Nicole

Hi~

I just wanted to send a quick note to say and send Bailey’s Christmas pictures. He’s still doing great and learning more and more everyday. He absolutely loves the snow. Last week we got hit pretty hard, so he finally had some real snow to run around in. He actually takes off running as fast as he can and then dives under it! It’s hilarious. That’s all he wants to do now. When the snow is actually coming down he will just sit there trying to catch it in his mouth. Such a silly puppy he is. He also figured out where which room some of his Christmas presents are hidden in, so now he tries to sneak in real fast anytime the door gets opened. I hope you are all staying warm and have a great holiday!!

Chesney's sister Daisy

I thought I would give you a quick Daisy update. She passed her
physical with flying colors. It was absolutely the funniest thing! When
the vet arrived (ours travels in a large, medical van and comes to the
house), Daisy was fast asleep--and stayed that way for most of her
check-up. You should have seen her fast asleep, flat on her back, legs
splayed on the puppy scale. It was hysterical! I wish I had thought to
take a picture, but I am sure you can imagine the scene. The doctor was
very impressed with Daisy and said she knew we would be very happy with
her, which of course we already are!

Daisy is Miss Popularity this morning having slept through the night
for the first time last night. She didn't even fuss when she woke up.
She just played in her crate, which, incidentally, she loves.

Daisy is, of course, full of puppy energy, especially first thing in
the morning. However, she also loves her naps. She does the sweetest
thing. When she is ready to settle down, she comes over to whoever is
on the floor and curls up in their lap to fall fast asleep. If no one
is sitting on the floor, she comes over and gives the saddest puppy
face until someone does sit down so she can climb into their lap. This
should be an interesting habit when she is 60 lbs... :-)

Our gal loves your doggy trail mix and your stuffed Kongs. Thanks for
the great recipes! We use the trail mix to click train her, and she
cannot wait to see what little tidbit will turn up next! We are working
on Lick and Click (instead of her preferred Bitey Face Fun), Pay
Attention (where she gets a click for looking at us instead of the
clicker or a treat), Recall (where we sit in a circle each with treats
and a clicker and take turns luring her to us with kissy sounds), and
Doggy Table Manners (where she has to sit and wait 5 seconds before we
put down her food). She is signed up for Puppy Headstart Kindgergarten
starting June 4. Of course, we think she is gifted. ;-)

That's all for now. Hope all is well with you! :-)

Take care,
Mary Pat