Trip wif mummy

Mummy said to Jaffaman, let's go on a short trip trip ok? She said my Sunshade and DD-Guy no no come wif us. I said ok ok!

Me met a big big friend at the water car station, see see, (mum: we were at the ferry terminal in Victoria, BC.)


(mum: Jaffa is 25.5 inches at the wither, plus 2 inches of extra coat, so looking at him, he's about 28 inches at the wither. He could walk under this dane without ducking or bending. I think the dane's owner said he was only about 3 inches shorter than the world's tallest dog, which is also a Great Dane. This guy is just two years old, which is not considered full grown for the breed.)

My friend's name is Tonka!!


Me tried to play play, but me no no know how to play wif him... me hit aire all the time...


(mum: Jaffa and Tonka were trying to play, but every time Jaffa tried to body slam Tonka, he would either completely miss or just fall through between Tonka's front legs. Jaffa was a little bit frustrated and started spinning lol. He gave up on playing soon after.)


Tonka said he play play wif his leash, he's still a baby!! Me used to do that too!


Then the water car stopped and we came to this place,


Me saw weird wittle fings,


Me no no know what wittle fings are... me no no like their smell....


(mum: Thank you Jaffaman for the introduction, but I will be posting for the rest of this post.

I know I know, you're all wondering about THE big question....

And the answer is NO! I'm not getting a third dale.

Can't/won't do that to Sunshade who is 12 and is definitely NOT fond of puppies, especially little black and tan ones! I also can't afford to have a third dog should they all get sick at the same time. I always need to know that I am able to afford to give them the BEST medical care should they all get sick at the same time. The limit is two for me.

SO, you must be wondering what I was doing there. Well, some of you may remember a little over a year ago, I took a beginners/intermediate Reiki class (held by a Taiwanese organization) back in October 2010. The classes were offered free of charge, and I took Sunshade to classes with me. Since then I have completed the Advance set of classes, as well as volunteered for another set of beginners class. Sunshade attended all of those classes with me as well. There were volunteers there that would come and treat Sunshade whenever they had free time. One of the volunteers, Helen, LOVED Sunshade the moment she saw her over a year ago. Helen herself is a pharmacist, her husband is a surgeon, and they've both practiced Reiki for over 15 years. Because Helen liked Sunshade so much, after the first set of classes, she would call me whenever she had time and ask me to bring Sunshade over to her house (15 mins away) for her to treat Sunshade. She treated Sunshade a lot after Sunshade's cancer/dirty margin surgery.

Photos below were taken in December 2010,




Helen then heard about Jaffa, and she started asking me to bring him along whenever Sunshade was going over for treatment. She quickly fell in love with Jaffa too despite the personality difference between the two of them. It was then that Helen told me she had been wanting to get a dog for a long time, but she never knew what breed to get. She had seen many dogs, many breeds, her neighbours all had dogs, and yet nothing really "popped" at her... until she met Sunshade.

So, Helen decided that she wanted an Airedale, and one that came from the same breeder as Sunshade and Jaffa. She didn't want to take any chances since she loved both Sunshade and Jaffa a lot. So, Helen was on the wait list for a pup in August. Unfortunately, the August litter produced only ONE pup, and the pup was kept by the breeder.

Anyways, a litter of seven was born November 6th, 2011 (yes, another November baby!). There were 6 boys and 1 girl. The little girl was going to be Helen's. Helen and her family had planned a short trip during the x-mas/New Years period, so I volunteered to go pick up the pup for her. I had wanted to visit my wonderful breeders, Jan Mell/Bonni Fisler of Loc Aire anyway. Jan was having some health issues, so this was the perfect opportunity for me to visit her and the new litter!!

Since her health issues, Jan has only been pairing up the breeding pairs (pedigree expert!) while her daughter, Bonni whelps and raises the litters at her home with her boys. Bonni was very involved in showing and breeding of their Airedales, so she does a wonderful job raising and evaluating the pups. She owns a home boarding/grooming/training business so is home most of the time.

Due to the ridiculous ferry schedule, by the time I got to Port Angeles, WA, four out of seven pups had already gone home.... I had really hoped to see the entire litter, but the ferry schedule totally messed it up for me! There were only two boys, and the girl left.

Anyway, here are the loveballs!

This is the boy that Bonni will be keeping for show/breeding. He's apparently built very nicely. Of course, to me, they all look so adorably cute!!




This is the smallest boy with the BIGGEST personality. While I was there, he was always the one in the dominant position (ie, paws on top of other pups), and always "doing something". Whenever you hear a puppy scrap, it's always him! He also has the cutest ears ever! Bonni joked and said that it almost looked like a Welsh sneaked in there with the dam, and this was the product LOL. She said he was the only true pet quality (conformation wise) pup from the litter, and yet EVERYBODY wanted to keep him! Her kids named him "Blitzen", very appropriate I thought.



Blitzen will be staying for a couple more weeks until his owner drives from Arizona to come pick him up. He'll be her #4 Loc Aire Airedale, probably one that requires most experience!




Lastly, there was our girl!!





Bonni called her The Princess because she honestly acted like she was too good for her brothers. If her brothers were chewing and wrestling with each other, or piling on top of one another to sleep, she would get up, remove herself from them and go to sleep on the big bed.



I had brought the red collar Helen had got for her, so she was wearing it.




Have you seen anything cuter than this??? (Sunshade: YES, ME!!) (Jaffaman: me too too!)


Bonni's boys were wonderful with the pups,


They helped with socialization right from the start,


When Jaffa was brought in, his reaction to the pups surprised me. I totally expected him to be his goofy-self trying to play, but he was NOT AT ALL excited. In fact, he kept trying to get away from them as if they were something "gross" (like dog poo!). He totally reminded me of Sunshade's reaction towards him when he first came; why he became "STINKY"!

These pups are related to Sunshade/Jaffa, but not as directly as S/J are. Sunshade's dam is Jaffa's grandma, and one of the great grandmas (a half sibling to Jaffa's sire/Sunshade brother) to this litter.

Bonni also had Jaffa's dam, Gwenevire as well as Kate, dam of these pups living with her. We put the pups in one of the rooms, and let the girls out from the other room. The craziness soon begun!


Jaffa was SUPER excited, turned into the usual goofball! I must say, there is a certain way that Jaffa acts around Airedales. Bonni had a couple of very nice Retriever boarders while we were there. Jaffa met them, but instead of being goofy and playful. He stood tall, tail wasn't really wagging, and just generally giving them the big boy look. I have concluded that the breed that Jaffa REALLY loves is the Airedale, and I guess the pups just didn't look very Airedale like to him (yet!).


This is Kate, she's the dam to these pups!


Kate is 4 years old, but acts like a total puppy (very Jaffaman like!). Hard to imagine she's a mom! According to Bonni, she was great with the pups until they got teeth, then she didn't want to have anything to do with them!


Kate actually came from the litter we visited back in 2007. She is one of the female pups, probably the best built one.

This is her sire, Koby (Ch. Loc Aire's Scherzo), winning California Specialty.


Now, this is Jaffa's dam, Gwenevire!! You see where Jaffa's happy go lucky personality came from??


OK, here are a couple of better pictures.


Gwen is almost 10 years old now. She was retired from breeding after Jaffa's litter.


She now enjoys life being spoiled by Bonni and her family!


Mother and son begging team!


Whole family of beggers!! I was also eating a waffle cone but nobody begged with me for some reason.


Another mother and son shot. Note the spotted tongue? It runs in the family! Jaffa has a couple further back in his tongue, and Sunshade has major spotting going on LOL!



After our little snack, Bonni put Kate away so she could bring out our little girl puppy (no name yet). She didn't want the puppy to see her mom and then have to leave mom again.

Gwen was over the moon when she saw the girl pup. According to Bonni, Gwen was a VERY good mom, very maternal and protective to her pups. She's missed having puppies!


I REALLY liked Gwen, she was just so sweet, so happy, so playful, and she really didn't act like a dog that was almost 10!! I also saw a lot of Stella, Jaffa's sister in her. Her coat is faded now from clipping, but when I first saw her back in 2007, she was as dark as Jaffa/Stella.

Crazy puppy face!!


Jaffa seemed more willing to get close to the puppies after seeing the way Gwen was with them. Gwen did snap at Jaffa once when he was bouncing around the pup. She was protecting the girl puppy.


It was getting late, so we said goodbye and headed to our hotel. Due to the ferry schedule, there was no way this trip could have been done in a day. There are only two sails a day. I went to the ferry terminal at 8am for the 10:30am sailing, and it was FULL! I had no choice but to wait for the next, and only other sailing at 4pm.

We started the new diet right away - The BARF diet!


Jaffa had already eaten his portion, and he really wanted puppy girl's. He does respect another dog's eating space and doesn't get too close (trained well by Sunshade lol). When the girl puppy was done with her wings, Jaffa ran over to get them, but as soon as he got close, he made that disgusted face and left. That was EXACTLY what Sunshade did when Jaffa first came! Maybe it's the puppy breath/slobber smell?


Girl puppy loves raw carrots!!

I had help taking a shower,


What an adorable girl.....





I love this picture...


She slept great in her crate over night. Didn't soil her crate and went pee outside like a champ next morning.

NEXT DAY - DECEMBER 31ST, 2011

Next morning, I decided to take girl puppy back to Bonni's house to have her ears glued. Bonni and I had talked about gluing ears the night before. Bonni thought it might be too much for a young puppy to have her ears glued and going to a new environment all at the same time. I have to admit that I agree with her, which was why I left without having her ears glue. However, I kept thinking about it during the night. Yes, I slept for a total of 3 hours, was just too excited! Anyway, I didn't think there was a local breeder within driving distance that I could get to glue ears. I also didn't think they would appreciate that I didn't get a puppy from them. So I decided to just have Bonni glue them. Afterall, both Sunshade and Jaffa's ears were glued when they left at 8 weeks and they did ok (ears turned out perfect).

Last few shots of the cute, un-glued puppy ears,



Girl puppy was NOT happy after her ears were glued. She did not lick us anymore, nor did she look at us. A puppy test was performed on all the pups at 7 weeks of age, and out of the 7, she was the only one that didn't "forgive" on the forgiving test. Bonni said that meant out of the 7, girl puppy was the only one she would not place in a home with children under the age of 5. This is why puppy testing is so helpful to pair up puppies with homes best suited for them. Jan and Bonni almost NEVER get dogs returned to them unless the owner had lost his home and couldn't find a place that would allow dogs. I will touch on the puppy testing in another post. Would be interesting to compare Sunshade/Jaffa/Stella/Girl Puppy's tests.

I headed over to Jan's place afterwards for a short visit. Like I had mentioned before, due to some health issues, Jan doesn't have a lot of strength and stamina to keep up with litters of puppies anymore. She, however, was and still is the mastermind behind these wonderful, beautiful dogs. Her love and dedication for the breed and her line are really shown through the type of dogs she produces.

Jan's husband Rick wanted to keep the singleton puppy from the last litter. Meet Daisy! She's one happy pup!!


She's your usual crazy Airedale pup!


Jan put Daisy in her pen because she was worried she may be too much for girl puppy. Daisy did her PLEEEEEEEASE face.....


We caved of course!



Daisy showing girl puppy her oven,


Daisy says "see, I was a good girl!!"


Unfortunately, due to the ferry schedule, my visit with Jan was cut short..... I hope to be able to visit her again soon!

Poor girl puppy slept like this on the ferry....




No fun having your ears glued to your head I guess...



She woke up and I put down a piece of pee pad on the car deck. She did exactly what she was suppose to do! Such a smart puppy!


Are we home yet??? (Sunshade: OMdoG!!! MY DaleMOBILE! MY bed!!! EWWWWW...)


The big introduction - it went as well as I had imagined....


Sunshade was, of course, less than amused (Sunshade: that's an UNDERSTATEMENT!), but at least I didn't have a flat puppy on my hands.


The goofy uncle wasn't too pleased either.....




Jaffa was SO happy to see his Sunshade, but really wanted to have nothing to do with girl puppy. I made him stay on the bed to take some pictures... otherwise, he would have left.


Raw ground turkey with organs and bones! Since Helen is going to feed girl puppy the same diet as Sunshade/Jaffa's, I thought I would just put her on it. From my experience with Jaffa, I decided to just put her on it instead of the slow switch with half kibble half raw.


She actually sits whenever she wants something! She would come sit beside you if she wanted attention from you. Bonni probably had been working with the pups.


It's hard work eating raw!!




That's about it for now. Girl puppy will stay with me for a few days until Helen and her family gets back. Hopefully by then she will be on a regular bathroom schedule, and well underway to be a healthy BARF pup! She is such a beautiful girl and she follows me everywhere. I'm so happy I live close enough to watch her grow up!

I've said this before when I first posted about Jaffa, and I'm going to say it again. I have so much respect for Jan and Bonni for the 40 years of love and sweat they have put into this line of dogs. They are all so beautiful; so special in their own ways. I am so thankful to share my life with two of their dogs, and have two others (Stella/Girl puppy) close by me. For a while, it looked like the Loc Aire line of Airedales was going to end as Jan just couldn't possibly keep up with the pups anymore. Fortunately, Bonni loves this line just as much and she is just as knowledgeable as her mom, Jan. So with her help, this wonderful line of Airedales will continue!!

I can tell this little girl will be a very smart girl. I see her thinking and using her brain all the time. She didn't like being in the crate, so the treat I left inside the crate with her was not touched. However, after she was let out of the crate 3 hours later (we went out to have lunch), I of course, took her out for a pee first, and as soon as she came in, she ran to the crate, went inside, and took out the treat that I had given her 3 hours ago. She brought it onto one of the dog beds to enjoy. I find that pretty amazing for a puppy this age (I didn't even remember the treat after 3 hours!!!). She also seems more.... developed (not sure if that's the right word) than Sunshade/Jaffa at this age. She is doing stairs no problem (although I do try to get her to use the ramp). She seems to know how to read dog body language already. I mean, Sunshade sends out pretty clear signals and dogs rarely miss them. So when puppy girl reacted appropriately to Sunshade's "looks", I didn't think much of it. Later on, I saw her reading Jaffa's body language as he was eating. She went walking up to him while he was eating, and I saw his ears go back and he went a bit stiff. No noise was made. Girl puppy saw it and backed away immediately. It was actually quite surprising for me to see Jaffa reacting as he had NEVER guarded his food with people or dogs prior to girl puppy's arrival. Dogs can usually go up to him and take food from his bowl without him doing anything. Not the puppies I guess! I didn't correct him because he's such an easy-going, gentle boy, I think it is ok for him to stand up for himself once in a while.

Lastly, I want to leave you with three pictures...

Sunshade at 7.5 weeks old with her ears glued (stupid ferry was going into maintenance for a month, so we picked her up a few days early). She got clipped before leaving because she was SO fluffy due to being sheepcoated,



Jaffa at 8 weeks,


Girl puppy at 8 weeks,

Happy New Year everyone!!
May 2012 bring you health, happiness, love and peace!