New Pup in Town

A few years ago I had asked Redwyn Kennel (who bred Jack and Baco's sires) to keep me in the loop if they were having any litters and last spring they reached out to let me know about their upcoming breeding with Sneakers ex Liska. There's a lot to admire in this pedigree, and both parents are beautiful and accomplished, and yes I was interested in a puppy! As it turned out, there was really only one choice, but that has worked well for me in the past so I went with my gut. I was drawn to Wren's structure and overall look from the start. When I met her for the first time I felt like I already knew her. Bev described her to me as "an old soul" and I definitely see that, despite her charming puppy antics and penchant for shredding paper products left within her purview. 

I brought Wren (Redwyn's ON Adrenaline) home in late August. She charmed the whole household in short order, with the exception of Koan, who determined someone should set a few boundaries for the newbie. Sadly, Wren and Koan only overlapped for five weeks before we lost Koan to liver failure. A week after we lost Koan, Wren broke a toe in a freak accident running in the yard. Getting a broken toe set and splinted on young puppy was a stressful and expensive experience, but we eventually got through it. Wren was a trooper through it all. She has a friendly, happy personality, which helps!

Maybe this shouldn't come as a surprise, but Angws is completely smitten with Wren. She can do anything to him and he puts up with it. Wren hangs on his ears, grabs his jowls and bites his legs and he tolerates it all amazingly well. Some people have suggested this will change at some point but I'm not so sure. Wren seems to be just what we all needed, a vivacious, springy Toller pup. 

Right now she's mostly a PIT - Puppy in Training. We do a good amount of training at home, and I've started her in scent work. Wren has also attended most of a puppy class (missed a few due to her broken toe) and is now in the middle of a basic obedience class and doing well for her age. I hope to get her started in an agility class within the next few months.  We are looking forward to doing many things together in the future.

Zephyr's Koan CD RE MX MXJ OF SWA SCE SEE SBE - 5/31/14-10/2/23

We lost Koan to liver disease on October 2nd. We had known this day was coming since 2021. Whelped in 2014, she never had a normal ALT value, and when she was spayed in 2021, a liver biopsy revealed a diagnosis of copper storage disease. She was asymptomatic both prior to her diagnosis and for more than two years after, though once diagnosed we made dietary changes and put her on a chelation drug for a year. In late June she had some GI issues, and her bloodwork revealed her liver values, including bilirubin, were quite alarming. The next few months were up and down. She had many good days and some bad, and it was often challenging to get her to eat. Prednisone bought her about six weeks of relative stability and quality of life. The weekend before we lost her she qualified in all three of her runs at a CPE agility trial, and on Angws's last run of the day she unzippered her crate, which I had neglected to latch, and tried to make it into the ring with us. The pleased, somewhat maniacal look on her face when she was handed to me outside the ring still brings tears to my eyes when I think of that day.

Koan was the last of the Tollers we bred, and was one of our "easy keepers"; a lovely, sparky girl with a friendly, even temperament who also loved to work. Her favorite sport was scent work, followed closely by agility. Shortly after she came into our lives there was a long stretch when I was dealing with many personal family issues, and I think we would have done much more together if there hadn't been so many stops and starts in her training. She always knew her place in the pack, whether in the middle or at the top. She helped raise our amazing Welsh Springer Spaniel, Angws, and saw us finally add another Toller, Wren, to our household. I had hoped Koan would have been able to help raise Wren but they only overlapped for five weeks. Happily, Angws has stepped up and is doing a great job of paying it forward. Angws misses Koan too, and it's taking all of us some time to adjust to our new normal.

The Spaniel Springs into AKC Agility

Angws made his AKC agility debut the first weekend in February. He Q'd in 4 of his six runs with placements in all, earning his first two Novice JWW legs, one Novice Standard leg, and a pretty solid Q in T2B (Time to Beat). I'm very happy with his debut. He held his start line stay for all runs, only blew one contact all weekend, and just had a couple of other baby dog hiccups that will smooth out as he gains experience.

Since his debut, Angws has had three more weekends out, the last one his first "away game". Especially when considering his age and experience, he's doing quite well. He completed both his Novice titles and as of last weekend now has two Open JWW legs and his first Open Standard leg.

Koan is feeling the heat of competition from her WSS housemate. Her Q rate has improved, and she's even earned a few double Qs in recent months. It seems that as I continue to run both of them together they are inspiring each other, and me (!) to do better.

Koan Grinds Her Own Nails

Over the years I've used different kinds of nail clippers and Dremels to grind our dogs' nails. My preference is to use a Dremel as I think it's easier to get a shorter nail without endangering the quick. 

As Koan has gotten older, she's become increasingly adverse to having her nails trimmed with any option. Mind you, it's ONLY her front nails. I can still use a Dremel to grind her rear ones. We had to start using drugs to calm her and even that was proving less and less effective in the past couple of years.

I don't want to stress her out, but I don't want her to tear a nail in agility on a contact, so I did some research and I found that many people make their own nail boards or scratchboards and teach their dogs how to use them. I figured I could do that - and so I did. I followed the information found at Canine Lifestyle Academy on how to create the board, but here are many options.

She's very food motivated, so was easy to train. 

Koan Loves Her Scratch Board!

The Toller Welshie Experiment

I'm sure I'm not the first to have these two breeds in the same household, but after having Tollers exclusively for so long, it does feel like an experiment to have added a Welsh Springer Spaniel to our Toller-centric household, though granted, there's only one Toller in residence now. I'm pleased to report that so far, things seem to be working out quite well.

Koan seems to enjoy Angws's company, though since he's only just turned 13 months old, sometimes he is very annoying and she has to put him in his place. She used to boss Baco around and sometimes he would lose patience with her. I wonder how she feels to be on the other side of this? So far she's managing, no doubt due to her age and the fact that she's the bitch, so naturally assumes she should be in charge. Sometimes they play rough and sometimes they play very sweetly together.

Angws has done a lot since he's been with us. He completed a puppy obedience class, an AKC STAR puppy class, and a pre-agility skills class all by the time he was six months old. He is currently in Part 1D of a four-part agility class for beginner dogs and recently started a novice Rally class. Occasionally he decides he'd rather run circles around the ring than work the exercise as intended. My agility instructor calls him our class clown, but he's pretty impressive when he puts his mind to it and is already doing short sequences. 

Future Agility Dog!

He's far too big to fit there now!

He's gone to some conformation handling classes and has already been in a 4-6 month puppy class where he got a Group 4 in Sporting, and two B-matches where he was awarded Sporting Group 3 both times, and he even had to beat other dogs each time! He's also been to a couple of conformation shows, though no points yet. We are working on keeping his head up in the ring vs. on the mat, not running up on other dogs with his ground-eating gait, and winking at the judge. Just kidding about the last one, but he is pretty affable in the ring, and it's easy to get his tail, and sometimes his whole body, wagging.

At home, we practice some obedience, a little agility, and occasionally some scent work. He's showing great aptitude for scent work in particular and recently found a container hide more easily than Koan, who occasionally gets so wound up and excited she starts alerting on every box.

Koan refuses to take a backseat to Angws and has been working hard in multiple venues this year. She has already earned her RE title, another double Q towards her MACH, finished a few Advanced Scent Work titles, and earned her first Excellent leg in Containers, Interiors, Exteriors, and Buried. 

I'm looking forward to seeing what else Angws and Koan will accomplish this year!

Naming the Spaniel - It's Toller Related!

Finding the right name for a dog is very important to me, and for the first time in over 25 years I was tasked with naming a dog that was not a Toller. Angws's puppy name was Tommy, and we thought about keeping that but Tom was my father-in-law's name, and he was still with us when we brought Angws home earlier this year. I thought a WSS pup deserved a good Celtic name and I did quite a lot of research before settling on Angws. My studies revealed that Angws means "one choice", "superb" or "unique" and I thought this was a very fitting name for a singleton pup. 

The registered name was more challenging. My breeder's kennel name is Wyndyn. Because Angws was a singleton, she asked that I use "one" as the theme. So many choices! But I didn't want to make an obvious choice like "one in a million", "one for the road" or "one and only". I would run an idea past George, only to have it shot down. At one point I said, a little sarcastically, "How about, Takes One to Know One?" He said "yes!" and as I said it out loud, I realized how fitting it was. Koan is also a singleton. So it takes one to know one. Emphasis on our two ones vs. the catty way this phrase is usually delivered. Angws's breeder approved and he was registered as Wyndyn Takes One to Know One.

Our New Mismark

In the effort to heal from our multiple dog losses this year I reached out to my long-time friend and early Toller mentor, Patty Beran, to ask about a few breeds I had seen over the years and admired. She was able to help me make some amazing connections with both a Welsh Springer Spaniel and Field Spaniel breeder who've been in their respective breeds far longer than I've been in Tollers (which is currently 26 years). I found much to admire in both breeds as I researched and got to know them better, but in the end, George and I were completely smitten with the Welsh Springer Spaniel. We found them lovely, lively, and engaging. 

Marleyna, the dam of the puppy we ended up with, sussed us out by barking at us in a way that might have turned some people off but reminded us of June, who was the queen of our house and never shy about expressing it. Tayler, the Lyle's male WSS, was friendly but very laid back and was soon snoozing by my side as we talked to Karen and Keith about the breed.

It seemed like serendipity that a handsome male puppy was available. That he was a singleton, like Koan, tugged at our hearts. The fact that there are multiple UDs on the dam's side of the pedigree clinched it, since as with Tollers, I primarily want a dog to "do stuff" with.

I guess I thought spaniels would be more fawning and subservient than their retriever counterparts but I couldn't have been more wrong. He's got moxie, or "spanieltude", and really doesn't seem too far removed from the Tollers we've raised over the years.

✅ - Super smart

✅ - Very food motivated
✅ - Likes to retrieve

✅ - Likes to pick up and carry things he finds on our walks
✅ - Preferred sleeping position is upside down on his back
✅ - Stands on open door of the dishwasher when I am loading or unloading it (remind you of anyone, Amanda?)
✅ - When corrected he repeats the infraction, just to be sure you meant it

One thing that's different is the amount of closeness he likes to have. Over the years I've had my Toller entourage, primarily June and Baco, who liked to follow me around the house. Angws takes it up a notch. If I sit or stand in one place too long I often discover his head draped over my feet.

Koan has decided Angws is ok most of the time, which is a good thing because she helps to wear him out. He is pretty good about downtime while I'm working, but is definitely revved up both early and later in the day. He already knows sit, down and come on command, and is catching on quickly to the idea of getting rewarded for finding odor as I plan to do scent work with him. We hope to have wait, stand, and an around finish pretty solid by the end of puppy class. He's a lot of fun to train and it will be interesting to see where he takes us.

Angws and Koan Tug a Duck

Inside Play with Koan

Outside Play with Koan