She's here!

I've been busy lately...with this little squirt:

Meet Liv, Renee Billadeau's Bette x Lyle Lad's Shep. Right now she's a fluffy bundle of good looks and teeth, but I'm sure hoping she turns out to be my next great trial dog. I'd been wanting a relation to Joni Swanke's Lew dog for years, and I've admired Bette since I first saw her on the trial field a couple years ago. Coincidentally, that was the first I saw Rae, and she and Renee won that day :) Anyhow, Bette is a Lew daughter, and not only is she a very talented dog, she's as sweet as can be. I've not seen Shep in person, but word is he's a fine trial dog. I have seen 2 of his pups work. Both Bette and Shep ran in the Nursery and Open Finals as 3 year olds, so I'm hoping that means that Livy will be ready to start sooner rather than later. For now, she gets to enjoy being a puppy while learning how to be a good girl. I met Livy the day after she was born, but I didn't know that she would be the one coming home with me until she was 8 weeks old. Here are some photos (a few by Mark):

Happy Birthday!

The 9 of them at 1 day old

The females, day 1

Livy, day 1

Livy at 4 weeks during my visit

5 weeks

7 weeks, Livy on the left, Mark's Eve on the right, and Renee's Tally in the back

Livy and Tally

10 weeks

She's a spitfire, for sure, and I just love her. We're off to the Big Bend trial this weekend. More on Livy later!