Looking for a whippet?

I've been missing in action for awhile now, taking care of Juliet's litter of 11 puppies! Though we had them all placed by five weeks, one of our future owners has decided to wait for the next litter, so we have one male puppy (Jasper) available after all. We also have Alex, an eight month old red and white female available and Naydene Mitchell of Marnay Whippets in Chesapeake has a two-year-old male, Frosty Gator.

Jasper is a solid fawn with white tips and a white blaze in a charcoal face. He's a fairly laidback fellow as whippets go. He will be 12 weeks old Friday and is well on his way to being housetrained. All shots appropriate to his age, dewormed, AKC registered, microchipped, 100% guaranteed.

You can find out more than you ever wanted to know about us and this litter on the website. If you think you'd make a good home for Jasper, fill out our questionnaire and give me a call at 540-464-8046. Pictures of the puppies are on our Picasa site -- this is the Gemstone litter. Pictures of Juliet and Blue, the parents, are also there. Here are a couple of photos of Jasper taken recently. He's a typical whippet puppy, full of fun and trouble, but needs a relatively quiet home. Not a good one for rambunctious kids. He likes to take things a litter more slowly, but once he gets to know you, he's full of himself!

We do require that someone is home with the puppy for most of the day for the first few months and that you stay in touch to let us know how he is doing.

In addition to Jasper, we have a funny little girl named Alex, who has stolen everyone's heart who has met her. Alex is eight months old and was bred by a good friend of mine, Jo Pelton. When Alex's first home did not work out, I offered to bring her here for evaluation and rehoming since Jo was about to have surgery. Well, we have enjoyed Alex so much that I've really dropped the ball on trying to find her a new home, but it's time for us to let her find her real family.

Alex is a beautiful red and white girl. Her father is our Aero (pictures at the Picasa site. She is an exceptionally smart whippet, and extremely busy.

Alex needs a home where someone is home with her most of the time. She is so full of herself and full of life. I can't imagine leaving her in a crate all day, though she is well crate-trained, sleeps in one, and stays in one when we're not available to keep an eye on her.

And you do have to keep an eye on her or she will steal you blind. She's into everything, loves to chew up pens, pencils, books, paper, anything plastic, cell phones....you name it. But she's easily re-directable, and you just figure out what the Alex-targets are and put them away. She gets along very well with other dogs -- males and females, loves to run, but needs a fenced yard. We have a four-foot picket fence and she has never dug out or gone over it -- I've never even seen her try, but left alone in a yard and bored, she might -- she's a VERY social girl.

She is a little shy around new people and is not at all familiar with children -- my young grandchildren (one and three years old) were here this weekend and she barked at them until we had to put her away. I'm sure she would adjust and would probably make a great kid' dog, but it would take some training and desensitization. I don't believe she had ever seen a short person before this weekend!

She doesn't take long to warm up to people, and then she is all over you. She's doing better with manners and we're working with the leash training problem daily -- she only "hits the end of the lead" once a day or so now (and we take her out on a lead seven or eight times a day). Her only real behavior problem other than general puppy wildness is that she is food and toy aggressive with other dogs. Not people at all. I make it a point of taking her treats and chewies away regularly and if she planned to be snappy with people about it, she would have certainly done so with me. However, she's guardy with those things around other dogs, and that can be a problem with a dog who's not very laid back. All of our dogs tolerate the behavior except for Ivy, who tolerates nothing -- so we have no treats or chewies unless in the crate for the duration of her time here. She has been a great nanny for Juliet's litter and they have kept her busy for the past few weeks.

Alex has the cutest habits of any whippet I know. She loves to drape herself over your shoulders if you're sitting in a chair. Yesterday she was looking out the window over the back of the sofa, and she was sitting on Ivy's head (Ivy was sleeping on the sofa) She often leans on the back of a chair, sitting on her tailbone, with her back legs extended straight out in front of her and her front paws crossed in the air at about chest level. It's as if she is imitating a person sitting in a chair! She loves wearing her jammies, and when she is tired of them, takes them off herself. She can also open her crate from the outside...not from the inside yet, but we keep a clip on it just in case.

Alex is up to date on all shots and worming, but will need to be spayed.

If this sounds like your dream whippet, let me know -- we are looking for very special people for her and even though she is not officially Timbreblue, she and her owners will definitely be members of the family to us!

We don't ship and we do require that people come here so we can meet them and they can meet us before we place a pup. Our dogs can always, always come back here again if they need to for any reason.

And finally, if even eight months is too young for you, contact Naydene Mitchell about Frosty Gator, a Timbreblue great grandson. He's two years old and needs a home with no other male dogs. I'll get some pictures of him tomorrow too.