email dated March 20th, 2009 from Charlie

hello sabine, kannan is growing very fast and is maturing even faster, ive had the last few weeks off from work and spent alot of time with my dogs, she is healing and walking offleash very well, i live in a calm neighbor hood that we practice in and around. she loves camino so much she just follows her, but i am finding that kannan is healing better than camino on quite a few occasions. camino is used to a longer leash than i give kannan. everything is good with her health and the eye weeping has subsided, she is a happy dog with a verry pampered life, she is well built as well for her age, one thing i noticed, camino was alot more scrony at kannans age, she has a muscular build already very strong weighing 30 lbs. i think she is gunna be bigger than camino for sure

sorry for taking so long to respond, as i dont use the computer much.
 

email dated March 18th, 2009

............Kannan is very happy and has learned so much in such a short time.

We always say she has an old soul because it is not necessary to nurture her as a puppy but treat her as all the other dogs, expecting to come when called, sit, stay, etc but still being aware that she is a puppy in that she gets confused sometimes so we have to remind her of things like she is with us when other dog walkers or owners with groups of dogs pass us on the trails.

We were at the Hume Park off-leash enclosure yesterday and our gang was playing with about 25 dogs in total in the park. Many of the other owners could not believe how well behaved and calm the Samoyeds were (Kannan, Maggie, Camino) and asked if that was normal of the breed (well it has been from our experiences but I did foster an older adult Samoyed dog that was over the top excited when I left his sight so that only proves any dog can be damaged if the owner is wrong or its experiences are bad).

At the park Kannan was playing with another black lab of the same age and the owners could not believe it. Their pup was not expected to respond to the commands and therefore didn't. You should have seen the owners face when we decided to go, blew the whistle and pointed in the direction we were headed. All the 10 dogs in our pack stopped what they were doing and followed us, even Kannon who was involved in wrestling with the lab pup. When we got to the gate all the dogs waited for their leashes to be attached while the others dogs in the park ran around us. The lab owners said he did not believe Kannan was 3 months old but seemed like an adult miniature instead. Very fun.

One thing though, Camino likes to dig when the ground is soft and wet and she has Kannan with her on this. Today when we picked the two up they were covered in a brown wet misting of dirt with only their eyes to nose the clean white color . . . and they both had baths/brushing last week. Charlie never gets too upset about the dogs digging whereas I put up a fence in my yard to give them 'invite only' grass privileges with a sand box in their common area for digging or playing in.

Anyways Kannan is a special girl and doing very well.
She goes for her last vet shot to complete the vaccinations and so far the vet is very impressed with her good health.

Take Care, Cindy

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email dated February 18th, 2009 from Cindy

.....Also are some picutre from yesterdays walk. You can see how the pack protects the new puppy. We took the camera on our walk yesterday and randomly snapped photos to see what is happening while we are on the walk that we may not necessarily see when participating in the walk. What we look for in the pictures is which dog is beside which as they tend to play beside who they most like. Camino (Samoyed) and Gus (Yellow lab) watch the puppy carefully but it is the responsibility of the group to make sure everyone stays with the pack so we are seeing the group playing on the trail instead of running around the trail, through the bushes as they normally do. This is because we have asked them to keep on the trail to keep the puppy and her following instincts close within the pack: it is a good training exercise for everyone. With the puppy listening to the dog-group we can ask her to 'come', 'sit', 'stay', 'heel' and a number of other things that are expected of the group and maintain at least an 80% success even at her young age. She goes Friday for more shots at the vet.