TBT: Brisbane at Six Months

When Brisbane was six months old, the pet store I worked at had a photographer come in and do photo sessions.

He had a passing familiarity with the stay command, and an intense desire to bite everything and bark. The store, now defunct, sold puppies and specialized in toy breeds. They hated my over-the-top reactive mutt puppy. I hated their support of puppy mills and lack of respect for both employees and customers. We parted ways not long after these pictures were taken. The store is long gone now, bankrupted by poor business practices and a growing public awareness of puppy mills.

With a lot of time and patience, Brizzy now has a reliable stay command, and can handle extended photo shoots provided he has a high enough rate of reinforcement. For these pictures though, I had to hold him in place and then let go and get out of the frame at the last possible second. He still has a lot of his puppy coat here, his ear floof and majestic flag tail had not yet grown in. At the time I felt awful that my perfect puppy was so poorly behaved, in retrospect I think my expectations were a bit high. He barely tolerated the hour-long wait for our turn, he sat still for a few seconds in an unfamiliar and highly-stressful environment, and then he tilted his head and looked adorable. For a reactive and overstimulated heeler puppy, I think he did fantastic.

TBT: Dog Lessons

I got Brisbane when my cocker spaniel Oakley was 14 years old. She died exactly two weeks after his first birthday. Oakley's health declined over the last year of her life, but when Brisbane was a baby puppy she was still very much her old self. I like to think she taught him a little bit about how to be my dog, he certainly followed her lead in the beginning.

I think Oakley looked pretty good for a 14 year old, totally blind, mostly deaf cocker spaniel. She was a little bloated from the Cushings syndrome, but she was blissfully free from the ear infections that plague most spaniels.

We wouldn't find out for another eight years that Brisbane was part spaniel. I think she was giving him spaniel lessons.

TBT: Playgroup at the Park

When Brisbane was a puppy, I used to take him to the Camarillo Springs dog park every morning. There was an informal playgroup of regular attendees that made for some fun socialization experiences. Today the entire park is open for off-leash play, including the hiking trails, but back then it was just a fenced run with benches and water fountains.

Here is Brisbane at six months old, playing with Bear the standard poodle. She belonged to Zack, a retired gentleman fond of wearing sweatsuits. They eventually moved away.

TBT: Brisbane at Six Weeks

Here is six-week-old Brisbane and one of his brothers.

Photo by Graham Hughes

A week later I would bring home my new puppy.

Photo by Graham Hughes

TBT: Brisbane's Litter

There were seven puppies in Brisbane's litter, he was the third born to a lovely red heeler in an oops litter sired by a dog that looked a lot like a beagle. I went to visit them when they were four weeks old.

Brisbane in my lap, two white puppies and Rebel eating my backpack.

Unfortunately digital cameras were not quite as ubiquitous nine years ago. I only have a few film pictures of Brisbane and his brothers and sisters, and some digital shots from when they were six weeks old. I don't know exactly what they looked like when they grew up, and I was unable to keep in touch with their new owners. I'm still looking for them though, and every time I see a dog of the right age and coat color I have to look at these pictures again to compare markings.

Brisbane and all three white puppies.

There were three white puppies with markings on their faces, two blues and one red. The red-freckled white puppy had a patch over its left eye. The blues each had a spot or seriously freckled spot over their left eyes too. All three white puppies had heavily ticked ears and noses. Purebred heeler puppies are born white with solid markings, and then all their white areas begin to develop ticking right away. These dogs are probably still predominantly white rather than ticked all over.

Rebel at four weeks.

That heavily ticked blue puppy is Rebel, he was given to his breeder's daughter. He had a full black mask, tan points, and a black spot at the base of his tail. Rebel had very heavy, floppy hound ears and a domed skull that made him look very houndy despite his heeler markings.

Savannah was the only solid-colored puppy. She had the same domed skull and floppy ears that made everyone suspect that the father of the litter was a beagle mix.

Savannah at four weeks.

Savannah was a red puppy with white on all four feet, her chest, muzzle, tip of her tail, and a spot on top of her head. The white went further up the right side of her face than the left. She had ticking on her little white feetsies and probably developed freckles on her face and chest. The white on her left front foot went up higher than on her right front foot. Savannah went to a school teacher in Santa Barbara County somewhere.

Savannah and Rebel had much shorter coats than any of the other puppies. The white puppies had the longest and fluffiest coats.

I don't think I ever scanned my only picture of the seventh puppy. She was a lot like Brisbane, same curly medium-length coat, white in the same places, but she was black with tan points rather than sable.

Brisbane had a lot more white on him as a puppy than he has now as an adult. The white streak on his head separated into a white spot and a ticked blotch on the back of his neck. I suspect his brothers and sisters also got a bit more color and a bit less white as they grew up.

I know that Brisbane's breeder and her family moved to Idaho not long after the puppies went to their new homes. Rebel and the tricolored sister probably moved to Idaho as well. Savannah and the three white puppies may still be living in Santa Barbara county. If so, they would be nine years old now, and depending on the care they received they could look as youthful as Briz or much older. I would love to see them.

Throwback Thursday: Brisbane at 3 Months

These are from August of 2005, when Brisbane spent a week with a friend while I was out of town.

Brisbane was 3.5 months old, and his ears had just stood up. Prior to this we had believed his father was a beagle mix, and were expecting his big floppy ears to stay flopped.

He's actually laying on the floor in this exact same position right now.

Since each ear was nearly the size of his head, he looked a lot like a tiny aircraft.

He was devastatingly adorable, which is a good thing because he was the worst puppy ever and being adorable is really the only reason he survived. This was definitely part of the biting-something-or-asleep phase of his life, and towards the end of the point where he spent more time sleeping than biting.

I'm pretty sure he was herding some Labradors in this picture. I overfed him, so he was a fat little baby.

Whenever I think it might be fun to raise another puppy, I have to remind myself what a little monster he was. These pictures are really deceptive. He was a nightmare.