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These 4 pups delivered 5 days ago by Jazz with Pete as sire are thriving. I am very enthusiastic about this litter of pups (2F/2M) because of Pete (and Jazz).

The bond with Kate [né Tynygraig Meg] was instant. A take-anywhere, do-anything 10 month old sweetheart from Dewi, here now for 10 days. She is nonplussed, balanced and eternally happy. Unruffled by the new, noisy and frightening on her first Saturday of errands: she was 100% with me and comfortable. No worries at all. Kate doesn’t miss a beat. This is one of those pups who ‘gives herself over’ to her human, early on, declaring “I trust you.”
[Pedigree in an earlier post.]

Juneteenth 2025: Another ‘unauthorized’ mating this spring. About 2 months ago, Jazz and Peter ran off and came back 15 minutes later all smiles. I suspected, but did not administer the ‘morning after’. The result is 4 pups [2M/2F] added to my spring assortment of unauthorized, unplanned pups. These pups feel *very* healthy and went straight for the teat. Good instinct!

At least Jazz has good taste. She chose my #1 dog: Peter.

Peter is a dog every serious competitor or rancher should breed with.  He is Dewi Jenkins’s dogs with more fire and jaw-dropping style, from James McCloskey’s Nel. I have not seen Pete’s equivalent. Dewi told me himself, there is something special about the combination of his Clwyd Bob and daughters of McCloskey’s Sweep. That is exactly what Peter is.

Pete will kickstart, sharpen and augment a breeding program. He is available at stud in Vermont and in frozen breeding doses for serious breeders. This is a chance to get one of his pups.

Pups from tis litter should be smooth coated, classically marked, pricked-eared, intense and talented.

Jazz was banished to the puppy room in the barn (shared with Meg) at 4 a.m., rather than getting to have her litter inside the house. She had escaped the whelping area and ripped a down jacket of mine sitting on a chair to shreds …cries of glee while ripping and tearing at the jacket to make the down come out could be heard as I headed back from the barn. She’s lucky she was in labor or there would have been hell to pay for that one!

Go directly to Jail! Do not collect $200.

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Bitch fights can be frightening things. Females fight longer and harder than males. Males pretty quickly know who is dominant and the lesser male backs off –for fear of mortal damage. Bitches just keep going.

22 month old Susie did not back down from the head bitch today, 4 year-old. It was getting way too dangerous. I had to whack Sue over the head with a shovel to stop her attack on nursing Meg.

Sue is a very powerful female, often mistaken for a male: Clwyd Bob x McCloskey’s Nel. Even as a puppy, I told people that she reminded me of a Detroit ‘muscle car’. She now has only one senior dog in the pack, littermate Peter.

Peter is a the jaw-dropping phenomenon of good breeding. I have never seen a dog better than Peter –not anywhere, in any trial, in any video.

You don’t tug on Superman’s cape

You don’t spit into the wind

You don’t pull the mask off the old Lone Ranger

And you don’t mess around with Sue

A photo of me and the dogs –well, 5 of them anyway– was featured in the coverage of the local No Kings protest on 14-July-2025.

It was indeed a struggle for me keeping up with the dogs with all the noise and distractions: horns (of all sorts), sirens, drums, shouts. And then, there were the fits of domination from senior dogs of the same sex to younger dogs. I thought the dogs did very well, considering.

Peter was in his glory! Strutting around like a peacock, nothing fazes him. He picked on poor Mirk. Becca pick on Lotti. Gail stoically endured it, as she does everything. I forget what a stable dog she is.

After 2 hours of noise and people coming up to touch them, the dogs got their reward: a walk at the Dartmouth woods. No people, just nature and trails.

BIG THANKS to Mimi at GiveADogAHome on Etsy for supplying the vests!

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…I couldn’t resist this one

Schadenfreude: the ‘Dictator Parade’ was a bust. But then, what should we have expected from the crew of thugs that has seized our government and a man who has succeeded at nothing but bullying and lies??

The US Army deserved better than to have its 250th anniversary appropriated by a shameless, narcissistic and crazy would-be dictator who called our veterans ‘suckers’ and ‘losers’.

The Dictator Parade HUMILIATED our armed services. Trump politicized our military to satisfy his own ego …and did a very bad job of it. We should ALL be disgusted!

Image of the Day

Trump deserves his own catchphrase: “You’re fired!“

It’s my party and I’ll cry if I want to
Cry if I want to
Cry if I want to
You would cry too if it happened to you

Mirk is sire of a litter out of Sue, a big powerful female, who is Clwyd Bob x McCloskey’s Nel. Litter due 9-Jul-2025.

Today, I was forced to pay an illegal tariff on two imported pups!

Unilateral executive powers for tariff are for matters of ‘national security’. Otherwise, tariffs require Congressional action.

Importing border collies because we have such horrible breeding stock in the USA has NOTHING to do with national security. Federal courts have said it is an illegal use of executive authority. However, as is his way, Trump and his gang, will appeal and appeal, exploiting and manipulating the justice process, dipping and diving and abusing the court system due process.

The Trump Party in Congress that could do something is servile and submissive. Trump has them enthralled or in fear.

Everything about Trump is WRONG.

In the past, we relied upon enough people bucking party and personal interest and fear to stand up for what is right. Tragically, for America and the world, that is no longer the case.

Trump has filed for bankruptcy 6 times according to Politifact. How do we square that with business and executive acumen? In each case, the business kept going but the creditors were stiffed. Notorious for not paying or honoring deals and bullying his way out of it using the legal system, Trump is adopting the very same approach to governance. He dips, dives, evades and deceives …calling it business talent. Meanwhile, he ruins American advantage and undermines America’s future.

Trump is the ugly face of capitalism with no soul or conscience.

His tariffs, which I paid today on dogs that enhance the USA breeding stock, are a farce, illegal economic buffoonery by an elected and tolerated autocrat.

Democracy functions when have a shared spirit and reverence for the constitution, laws, institutions and norms. For 70 years, those in opposition to the spirit of Franklin Roosevelts New Deal have been working to undermine it. Their extraction, grown to nearly half the population, filled with resentment, greed, ignorance and deceits found fascination, shared grievance and form in Trump. For the life of me, I cannot understand how it could be so …except on some intellectual level.

Someday, ‘the chickens will come home to roost’, as they say. The consequences of Trump and his Trumped-Up MAGA will be present, and they will not be shaken off with a new election.

When it comes time to taking responsibility for Trump, MAGAts, MAGA voters and enablers will -out of ignorance (often willful), greed, and guilt- say something akin to what the residents of Bergen and Belsen did when the Allies discovered the horrors of the concentration camp, “But vee didn’t noh!” …if they say anything at all. Lies and bullshit. We ALL knew what Trump was about. He had history, he had a first term. He told us.

10 month old Clare is a striking pup out of James McCloskey’s Nel and Rob Ellis’ Welsh Champion, Bran. With her long strides with natural flanks, she shows lots of potential. I was going to sell her …but I think I am going to hang onto her and see how she develops.