summer_jackel

The last couple of days have been so clear and beautiful. Kyn and I took the dogs to the beach yesterday.

Zhava puppy is a fascinating paradox, both stubborn and tender, strangely mature both physically and mentally for her age and still a very young pup. Her intelligence manifests in trying to figure out loopholes to established house rules and devising elaborate ambush games to be played with other dogs, not so much how swiftly and well she can perform a command. Nonetheless, given her tender age and sighthoundedness, she is quite well behaved.

Which I remind myself frequently, because when she is bad, she is horrid. For instance, the late night theft of a dish of crab shells from inside the kitchen sink, which were not a simple feat to obtain, even for a very tall and flexible young hound. Her sins revealed themselves more swiftly than I'd have preferred.

I am completely in love with her, of course.

I love shots of all 6 of them running together.

Zhava and Rooster sprint, Bliss floats along dreamily.

They make a really nice pack to be around, even if Zhava is a dark hound of the underworld.

Here she is doing what borzoi do. Not for very long or nearly as fast as she'll be yet, but she is nonetheless quite the thing to behold when she runs.

Meanwhile, dreamy blues. Uh boys...what is happening in this picture?

Coba and his expressions!

Note the length of tail. I love this shot.

sproing

Day in the sun.

Bliss has more mane now than he's ever had. It is so fun to brush out. Which is good, because that's what I need to do after I get off the bike.

Coba in motion!

Zhava leaps right over him! HILARIOUS. I wish I had pulled the trigger a millisecond later, but I am pleased that I actually managed to get this shot.

She wanted to do this.

Rooster looking majestic.

This animal is a 6 month old pup. My mind boggles.

A roaring rock! Some titanic beast was turned to stone here.

Maybe Zhava is running away from it?

Go ahead and run, little daughter of hounds. I prefer that you are too tired to contemplate loopholes around and ways to challenge the house rules. There are NO loopholes around the 'no hounds on the couch' rule. Out of respect for the fact that you have no padding on your anything, I will consider negotiating a couch of your own when you have demonstrated the maturity to no longer ever do unmentionable things on dog beds and doormats. 89% there is insufficient.

We met a very interesting dog! Here's one you don't see every day; she is a 7 yr deerhound/collie lurcher (mostly deerhound) from England. This is a very traditional British Isles cross, but you certainly don't see them often in California, and I'm jealous--- Lurchers are just so much cooler than ~doodles. I have only ever met a handful of deerhounds; there aren't even that many to be seen at shows around here. Her coat was surprisingly soft to the touch, although I have not had the fortune to often pet hard-coated sighthounds. I wonder if it was the collie blood.

An illustration of different ways that the tricolor gene can manifest. Here is everyone who is tri-factored in this pack!

And I give you...my alpha pair (at least in Roo's absence).

My two show dogs are a study in contrasts, physically and mentally. Zhava has had to learn to curtail her natural level of bite and intensity quite a lot to interact with the shelties. She has a huge amount of prey drive, but she has demonstrated the intelligence needed to modulate it, and I am pleased that she has had to do so while young. She and Coba are working out a relationship in which he is starting to invite play with her more and more. She's very careful with toy dogs at the park, and is gaining better respect for cats, but these are assuredly traits that would not develop on their own.

It goes both ways; the pack coheres. Today I was highly amused to see Coba try and intervene when another dog chased after Zhava at the park. Coba sez: She is MY PUPPY!!!!!!!!!

Here are some shots from a couple of days ago. Check out our pack of glowing eyed hounds of the underworld! Yeah hellhounds!

See what I mean about the well behaved? Zhava is not at all bad with her stays, given age and breed. You can totally see her thinking about breaking, though. When possible, ideally, I try to recall her just before she does it. There was a little girl, who had a little curl...

Also in this one, compare the length of leg on Bliss and Zhava, and note huge puppy knuckles on the latter. I think she's due some height soon.