happy birthday ...

... to the Monta puppies, aka the Devon Nine, who are 6 years old today!

I almost posted this a whole month early.  It wasn't that I forgot when their birthday is, it's just that I misplaced my grip on which month we were in.  Ahem.

First, here are their parents:

L: Neka age 10 yrs   -    R: Keskiyo age 8 yrs

This was Neka's second litter of puppies, an amazing bunch of NINE who remain, to this day, the largest litter ever born in the UK.  Neka did an absolutely stellar job of raising them, and all these years later I can still remember how exhausted I was with all the feeding, house training and socialising by the time they were 7 weeks old.  Oh, and did I mention that it rained just about every day those puppies lived here?  There was rather too much of the lugging them back and forth from the garden pen.

If you would like to check out what life was like with 9 puppies, go back to the first days of this blog which you can access via the archives list to the right.

In the meantime, here are the 6-year-olds and their 6-week-old selves - well most of them, anyway. 

Infindigo Monta Jaana
(Sybil)

Snoozing in the sun - Good morning bottom! - at 6 weeks

Infindigo Monta Tarmo
(Tarmo)

Chilling on the cool tiles - Cute head tilt - at 6 weeks

Infindigo Monta Maija
(Maija)

Funny upside down dog - good sitting girl - at 6 weeks

Infindigo Monta Rauhan
(Rauhan)

Posing at a show (photo (c) Mark Treasure)  -  pretty face  -  at 6 weeks

Infindigo Monta Sulo
(Kaija)

Looking a lot like dad  -  looking a lot like mum  -  at 6 weeks

Infindigo Monta Viivi
(Viivi)

Pretty posing girl - looking like her dad - at 6 weeks

Infindigo Monta Tarkka
(Tarkka)

Handsome Tarkka (photos (c) Joanne Ross)  -  at 6 weeks

Infindigo Monta Aurinko
(Inko)

Showing off her fluffy tail - showing off her fluffy feet! - at 6 weeks

happy 5th birthday

... to the Monta litter, Sybil, Tarmo, Jaska, Maija, Rauhan, Kaija, Viivi, Tarkka, and Inko.  They were named "Monta" (Finnish for "many") because they were (and still remain) the largest litter of Lapphunds ever born in the UK.  I had quite an eventful time raising these puppies, and this blog was started in their honour.

I cannot believe not only that this blog is now 5 years old, but that my own little Maija, who until quite recently was the baby of the family, is 5 whole years old.  I'm pretty sure we shouldn't still be calling her puppy-Maija, which is her nickname.

Here are some before and afters of this enormous brood, in birth order.

 SYBIL (Infindigo Monta Jaana) - at 5 weeks & at 3 years

 TARMO (Infindigo Monta Tarmo) - at 5 weeks & at 5 years

 JASKA (Infindigo Monta Jaska) - at 5 weeks & at 1 year

 RAUHAN (Infindigo Monta Rauhan) - at 5 weeks & at 5 years

 MAIJA (Infindigo Monta Maija) - at 5 weeks & at  5 years

KAIJA (Infindigo Monta Sulo) - at 5 weeks & at 5 years

VIIVI (Infindigo Monta Viivi) - at 5 weeks & at 5 years

 

 INKO (Infindigo Monta Aurinko) - at 5 weeks & at 5 years

TARKKA (Infindigo Monta Tarkka) - at 5 weeks & at 5 years

4th birthday

Who's who?  Do not ask me, I do not know!











Very happy birthday to the Devon Nine, aka the Monta litter, who are 4 years old today.  Where I felt that the 5-year-old litter must surely be older than only 5, I have the opposite feeling with this bunch.  It doesn't seem so very long ago that Neka was a young whippersnapper squirting out her enormous litter of nine seemingly identical little black puppies.  Here they all are shortly after birth.

They are a bunch of dogs with fabulous character.  I hear that the boys are big babies like their dad, Keskiyo, but sweet natured and loveable with it.  The girls are ... varied!  Maija is a complete angel who loves to play, comes back when she's called, and doesn't destroy things (anymore...).  Of course, we have been comparing her to her mother whose behaviour as a youngster was a little more, shall we say, challenging.  Little Inko is easy to live with too, although she does have her own idiosyncrasies.  Another sister, Kaija (Sulo), recently climbed 30 feet into a tree and had to be rescued.  So I suppose it must be said that these dogs have originality.

The arrival of the Monta puppies inspired me to start this blog, and you can track their whole progress through the archives listed in the sidebar, right.  But now that they are 4 years old, here's how adorable they were at 4 weeks.   First up the girls in birth order followed by the boys.

Monta Jaana

Pet name Sybil, lives with Mike & Sarah & her adopted big brother Basil (see the connection there?) in Brighton

Monta Maija

Stayed home with us & her mum & dad

Monta Sulo
Now called Kaija who lives with the Collins family near Bath

Monta Viivi
Lives with her adopted big brother Jaska, Dave & Sherralee in Surrey

Monta Aurinko
Called Inko, lives with her new little sister Kiittos and the Glover family

Monta Tarmo
Lives with the McKenney family in Hampshire

Monta Jaska
Lives with his big sister Kia and the Taylor family in Lancashire

Monta Rauhan
Lives with his big sister Sukka and the Hollister family in Berkshire

Monta Tarkka
Lives with his little brother Laatu and the Ross family in Plymouth

how to take good dog pictures

Now you know I know I need this lesson.  Animals are tough to capture well in photos. Even the people who do it well admit to taking hundreds to get a few good ones. I take hundreds to get, maybe, one good one.  If I have a bit of luck too.

It helps to have a good camera so that you can maximise the lighting, detail and the greater shutter speed of the new DSLRs.  I have a good camera.  However, I have yet to acquaint myself with the finer points of its operation.  I still use it like a point-and-shoot.  But, y'know, it's good for that too.

Nylabone on their blog have produced this handy guide to taking good pictures of dogs.  There is some great advice in there.  There is also some advertising in there (our great Nylabone products, etc).  However, if you don't mind the advertising - and I don't because I quite like Nylabone products so I'm happy to do a bit of product promotion on their behalf - then it's well worth a read if you're struggling with your canine model.

It's also well worth a read if you're soon to get a new puppy and that puppy's breeder will be waiting eagerly for photo updates.  Just sayin'.

The best advice I can offer for getting photos of dogs is to have friends who are better acquainted with their cameras than you are and who take great photos that you can use.

Thank you to James Henson for this great photo of Maija, puppy-who-was-never-still.

This one is courtesy of Joanne Ross.
L-R: Rauhan, Sulo, Tarkka, Aurinko

This is one of the best photos ever taken of Keskiyo, captured by Jay with our then-brand-new DSLR camera.  But I'm not going to say it was a lucky shot.

Weston beach walk

On Sunday we met a bunch of old friends and new friends-to-be with a rather large group of Lappies for a walk at Weston-Super-Mare again.  I have to say that I'm pretty unimpressed with the council for charging such extortionate parking fees.  Even in the middle of the winter the minimum charge was £2.50 and when we went there in November it was twice that.  So I don't think we'll be troubling their lovely beach again with our half dozen cars and twice the number of dogs.  There are lots of nice places to walk that don't cost the earth in parking.

The weather was incredibly kind to us, if chilly - the forecast was for cold & wet but we only got the cold.  Phew!  Even those who were threatened to be homebound by snow managed to make it.

Thanks to Mark Treasure for the great photos, as always.  Most of these are his, the poor phone shots 1st & last are mine, as usual.  We didn't manage to remember to get a group shot of everyone there, but if my memory serves correctly, we had 12 Finnish Lapphunds and about twice that in people.

That sign beyond which everyone is walking?  It says something like: "DANGER beyond this point."
Yup.










Much running & playing.
L-R: Kaija, Miika, Kesa, Taika
It's anyone's guess who is running to catch up in the distance, but my guess is Minna.  She is not one to miss out on a good game of chase.











Case in point:
L-R: Minna, Kaija, Taika, Miika

Even Keksi did a little bit of running, but mainly she stayed close to the humans' legs (and pockets full of treats).
L-R:  Keskiyo, Keksi

Neka, the eldest in attendance, had a wonderful time, racing around like a dog half her age.

And this tells the story of later that evening.  Evidence of a very good day.

beaches

The lovely beach in the last post is at Teignmouth, south Devon. We are so lucky to be within spitting - or at least driving - distance of many, many fabulous beaches. It was one of the reasons I moved here and it is one of the 3 things that keep me here. The beach at Teignmouth is small but conveniently located and the town is one of the few seaside towns that still retains some of it's charm. Forget Torquay & Dawlish and don't even go near Paignton - for me Teignmouth is the little coastal gem around here. And it's only a 10-minute drive from home.

Granted, on a day like Saturday it was a 15-minute drive over icy hills, but we made it unscathed.

A couple of weeks ago we were on a very different, very much longer, flatter, muddier beach at Weston-Super-Mare for a mini Infindigo reunion and impromptu Lappy walk. In addition to the various people attached to each dog, we had Neka & Keskiyo, the girls Taika & Keksi and the boy Taito from Neka's first litter, the girls Maija & Kaija and the boy Rauhan from the second litter and sisters Minna & Kesa from the last litter. In addition to the Infindigos, we had Keksi's housemate Ismo, Rauhan's housemate Sukka and little 14-week-old Miika out on his very first Lappy walk who had a grand old time chasing the older dogs. We even had 2 non-Lappies whose names escape me now, but there was a very fetching (and large) 8-month-old Rottie X and her tiny terrier housemate. Unfortunately my camera had given up before they joined the group for photos.



L-R: (in shot) Sukka, Miika, Taito, Kaija, Neka, Maija, Taika, Kesa, Keksi, Rauhan, Ismo
Hidden behind other dogs: Keskiyo, Minna
Missing from photo: non-Lappy guests









3 generations of girls
L-R: Taika, her daughters Minna & Kesa, her mum Neka








Keskiyo's family
L-R: Neka, Keskiyo, their girls Maija & Kaija (Sulo) and boy Rauhan





Shame everyone was already sandy, muddy and bedraggled by the time we took the photos, but that's just the way it has to be when you're at the beach. Needless to say, no one was in the mood to pose before the walk. We even had quite a time trying to keep Minna still after the walk, as you can see from her expression: "Let me go!"

happy birthday...

...to Neka's second litter of puppies, the Devon Nine, who are 2 years old today. Can it be? Even little Maija is now a fully-fledged grown up Lappy.

Oh, and did I say that when the older dog is 2 years it's the ideal time for a new puppy... heh, just kidding! Well, I'm not kidding about the timing, actually. Two years is the ideal age to bring in a new puppy because that's the magic number when one's Lapphund finally starts to grow up and be a bit sensible. If you're lucky. I was, however, just kidding about getting another puppy. I wouldn't. I couldn't! Could I? No! Most emphatically not. My 6-year-old Neka? Not sensible, not a bit. Little Maija out-sensible-s her mum in every way.

Here's how the Monta puppies looked at about 5 weeks. As you can imagine, it was notoriously difficult to get a photo of all of them at once. There is a cute one at the bottom of this page, though.


A few of the Devon Nine.
L-R: Maija, Tarkka, um, Sulo? - no, Rauhan, Jaana, er, Inko?
It's difficult!








L-R: Inko, Tarkka, Jaska, Maija, Rauhan squished on the bottom (& I think Tarmo might be down there too.)












And here they are with their mum at 1 day old.














Dad Keskiyö saying hi to Sulo (Kaija) & looking a tad unsure about the whole puppy thing.

pupdate

The puppies are 17 weeks old today. Is that all? Doesn't sound like much, does it? Around 4 or 5 months of age Lappies tend to go through a gangly stage. They have a growth spurt... of ears, muzzle and legs, anyway, and the coat can't keep up. They tend to be, um, cute-challenged. Not these puppies, they're cute all the way. (Um, mostly. So far.)

Note the fuzzy tufts of lighter fur behind the ears - a classic feature of the wolf sable puppy as the coat colour changes.

No new pics of Usko, but he's coming to visit in a couple of days, so stay tuned.

Jaana has been on holiday in Cumbria.




"Where'd they go?"













A perfect seat for two... Lapphunds.










Minna has also been on holiday - camping with the relatives! I've been assured she was a complete angel the whole time. No, really!







Snoozing with auntie Kaija in the foreground.







Kesä illustrating the play-bow. And looking very much like Kallio.







Kallio looking quite grown up... well, sorta.








He hasn't yet learned you can't out-stare a cat.






And, finally, in honour of Jay's recent birthday, Inko sent this greeting: