Yummy Stickies

My pretty wittle friend Lola Bear gave Jaffaman and my Sunshade a bag bag. See, my Sunshade was nice nice, she said she opened for Jaffaman so me no no get tired. I said fank you fank you my Sunshade!!


See my smart Sunshade open opened!! Yummy stickies inside,


My Sunshade was nice nice, she said she try try first to make sure it no no bad, so Jaffaman no no get sick. I said ok ok, fank you Sunshade!


But see, my Sunshade puke puke..... She said it no no good, Jaffaman no no eat it... I said ok ok, me hope you're ok Sunshade,


Mummy said to Jaffaman, it's ok ok to eat, you no no listen to Sunshade,


I said really really? Okee dokee!!


Me ask mummy you sure it's good good???


Me no no want to get sick ok ok? Mummy pinkie swear it's ok ok!!


(mum: of course it's good!! Our friends won't send us bad stuff silly guy! Don't listen to Sunshade anymore!)

Ok fank you fank you! Me want to eat outside ok ok? Me no no want to eat beside my Sunshade.... me is a wittle scawered....


Good good mummy said it's ok ok to eat in yard!! Fank you pretty Lola and Lola mommy, me love love you!!

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.

Jaffasanity!!!

Look at Jaffaman in jump jump class!!! Me is Jaffasanity!! (Sunshade: are you trying to pull a Jeremy Lin aka Linsanity?)

(mum: Jaffa is doing amazing in agility and totally LOVING it! The instructor was very impressed with not only how fast he learns, but also his temperament. She said he was only the second Airedale she knew that could run agility off-leash without trying to take off to kill every single dog in sight... SIGHH.... that's a very bad rep for Airedales. OK, all you Airedale owners, go sign your dales up for agility classes!! I had started stripping his back, hence the patch of missing hair.)

Pretty Emma

Mummy said a pretty girlie friend is coming to see handsome Jaffaman!! See see, pretty Emma beside handsome Jaffaman,


I said Jaffaman bring toy for you to play ok Emma??


Toy Simba, you want to play play?


Emma said ok ok!!


Me showed Emma a stickie, I said Jaffaman chew chew first ok?


Then me said let's run up up and down down the living room ok Emma?



She said ok ok!!




YAY!! Jaffaman is winner!! Me run run over finish line first!!


(Sunshade: omg you're out of control without me there keeping things in check! Did the neighbours downstairs come up and yell at you guys???)

Then Emma hungry hungry... Jaffaman said you check counter, it's ok ok, my Sunshade no no here,


Me me is gentleman, see, me check Emma's mommy's pocket for food food for Emma!!


And then Emma brother and Emma mommy said we calm calm down,


Jaffaman said you scratch my bum bum ok Emma brother, and me calm calm down,


Emma brother is a good good pillow,


He's my best best friend!! (Sunshade: everyone is your best friend *eyeroll*!)


Emma want to go on table to get pretty pretty,


(mum: Back in October, I attended the Tradex Dog Show. I met a few Airedale acquaintances, and Emma's mom, Heather was one of them. Heather overheard my name and came over to ask me "are you Sunshade and Jaffaman's mum?". She introduced herself, and told me all about her Emmadale, who was her third Airedale. She also told me that her son Anthony had been a faithful follower of Sunshade and Jaffa's blogs for years. We've kept in touch since then. Today, Heather decided to make the 1 hour drive over to where I live to have Emma groomed + a playdate!! It is quite a drive, and I'm honoured that they're willing to drive all this way over for a groom! Anthony came too, he was hoping to be able to meet the SuperDALE in pawson. Unfortunately, it would have been too many dogs in a small apartment, so Sunshade slept in at home. He did get to meet Jaffa, and as you can tell from the pictures above, they hit it right off the bat!)

See see, Emma ready ready!


Jaffaman said me want to be handsome handsome too mummy, see, me got on table too,


Mummy said we take picture, but me no no get groom groom today,


Mummy said Jaffaman still handsome handsome wif long long messy haire..... do you fink so??


Emma was half done done, and Auntie Helen came wif wittle Saphie, see,


Saphie was wittle bit scawed, but she was good good, she no no jump or bite bite,




(mum: Saphie desperately needed to have her ears glued down again. I had arranged for Helen to bring Saphie over while Emma was here because Heather and Anthony really wanted to meet her. The glue we got didn't work (long story, will talk about it in another post), so she just ended up staying for the socialization, which was excellent for a pup her age.)

Me no no love Saphie, but me still nice to her. Me love love Emma lots. Emma was nice to Saphie too, so Saphie tail came up up,


(mum: Jaffa was pretty aloof towards Saphie, definitely not the same enthusiasm as when he meets full grown Airedales LOL. I guess he still isn't too keen on puppies, and I guess Saphie doesn't resemble a full grown Airedale yet! I had stripped most of Saphie's puppy fuzz out, so she was a little slick looking.)

Pretty Emma all finished, see see,




Mummy said we take picture all together ok ok? Jaffaman, my girliefriend Emma, and wittle Saphie all said ok ok! We good good kids!


Just Jaffaman and wittle Saphie (mum: Uncle and niece!),


Wittle Saphie said she want to be just like pretty Emma, see see, (mum: I love this picture.....)


Emma brother and Emma mommy came back, we all said HI HI HI HI HI HI HI HI HI HI!!!


Wittle Saphie and Jaffaman love love Anthony. Me love love from behind, Saphie love love from the face, see,


Then Saphie did this and everybuddie said she cute cute,


But when Jaffaman did same same to Anthony, mummy use scawie voice and yell OOOOOOOFFFFFFF..... Me no no understand... Jaffaman is still cute cute and a baby too.... (Sunshade: that's your problem! You weight 70 lbs and yet you still think and act like a STINKY!)



(mum: we really had an awesome great time, and Emma was a dream to groom, such a good girl! I'd have to say, the most hilarious thing that happened on this day was when Anthony said to me "Jaffa is totally like how he writes on the blog!". Like I have said before, for those that don't understand the writing style, you have to meet Jaffa in person, and then you will go AH-HA!! Anthony blogged about his day with the dales on his blog, you can also read his letter to his Amie Dog, his first Airedale.

Thank you Heather, Anthony and Emma again for coming all this way!! In case you were wondering where the beautiful girl Emma came from, she is from Joanne Helm of Indus Kennel in Victoria, BC (was in Calgary).

More pictures of Emmadale can be seen on the Squaire Dog Facebook Page.)