Hello Hoku

[bradl]

Say hello to Hoku (aka Mystic Isles Autumn Ridge at Joywood). We've just welcomed this beautiful girl into our home.

Hoku's breaking up the "boys club" joining Elroy and Dundee —  by arriving in season she's already driven Elroy into schoolboy delirium. At 14 Dundee's interests in life have moved on and he seems generally unbothered by either her season or her presence. He's probably just happy that there's someone else for Elroy to pester for play.

We will not be breeding Hoku (she'll be spayed a few months after her season ends) and Elroy is neutered, but that's not stopping him from attempting to go all Romeo and Juliet  In another week or so this shall pass and we'll eventually see what life is like when everyone is back to normal and Hoku has had a chance to settle in.

In the meantime we are doing the room-shuffle to keep the frustrations to a minimum and still let everybody have their family time. 

Hoku is almost four. She's previously earned her AKC Grand Champion, farm dog certification, ATT (temperament test), and Scent Work Novice titles. We have promised to give her an active working life and as soon as we can get her anise ORT passed will trial her in NACSW nosework. 

We picked her up at her nosework class and to ease the transition Peggy and I handled her during class before taking her home. Hoku is still very new at scentwork so I was *shocked* at how on-point she was. Much better than we are as handlers We're going to have to work hard to not let her down! Here's the little firecracker sourcing three hides in less than a minute.

 

[Kathryn]

Wow - a three-dog household, Brad? Steve and I have a rule - we cannot be outnumbered by our dogs. These cairns are just too smart and, if they outnumbered us I would fear they would stage a coup.

Still, congratulations! She looks lovely. I am sure she will be ruling over the boys quite soon- they won't know what hit them!

Edited August 9 by Kathryn

[bradl]

2 hours ago, Kathryn said:

Wow - a three-dog household, Brad?

Well not ideal but we wanted to bring in a new dog before Dundee got too old to adapt. Given these might be our last dogs a young adult seemed just right — not sure we have the energy for a puppy! We won't really know her personality until her season is well past and she's been here a month or so. So far she is charming as can be. I am *certain* we will go through a few scuffles before everyone settles in. It's normal with any addition and especially likely with three. 

3 hours ago, Kathryn said:

we cannot be outnumbered by our dogs

Oh yeah ... definitely have to switch from "man-to-man"  to "zone" defense. 

[Dogcoat lady]

Let the amazing circus begin….just sayin’ we need more pictures..

Enjoy!

[CairnCapers]

Congrats on adding Hoku to your pack. She's a beauty and what a lovely girl she looks to be.Enjoyed seeing the video of Peggy handling her.Hoku has lots of energy to keep the whole family on their toes.

[Catalyzt]

Congrats!  She's stunning!  

Yeah, more pictures!

[bradl]

Here are a few from earthdog this weekend.

[Kathryn]

She is a pretty little dog!

[bradl]

Thank you.  So dang hard to take photos of small dark dogs, but she really is.

[Dogcoat lady]

Keep trying, we will look for your efforts

[bradl]