Brasken's in Berkeley!

Hi again Kristen,
and happy new year to all of you!

I just had to write as I had a fun walk today with my friend who I gather is planning on getting one of your great puppies, adding to the community of Brasken pups in Berkeley! I walked Bruin over to her house today so she and her husband could remind themselves of what a great dog he is, and though I realize he isn't a direct relation of any of your puppies right now (we were pretty tempted for a minute when we saw that huge litter you had of Bruin's full siblings!) we certainly vouched for what great breeders you are and what happy homes your pups come from. I hope it all works out, it would be fun to have another pooch to add to the Bruin / Puzzle mix around here.
Bruin is doing great, just so you know. He continues to win friends and influence people: we're constantly asked what kind of dog he is, and where we got him, and how we ended up with such a nice mellow boy! We love him a lot, and he has fun on the trail, in the parks, and of course chasing the tennis ball. I'm terrible at taking pictures, and they always seem to be in our kitchen, but I'll send you just a little snap of him a month ago or so, waiting patiently for a treat.
Our kids still talk about Solly... I hope his new life as a carer dog is working out well. If we ever get our vehicle and time together, we may come back to you for a friend for Bruin... I'm sure he and Solly would have been a great pair. But in the meantime, we are having a great time referring people to you and keeping word out on all your great dogs.
Hope you and Micah and Brandon are all having a great 2012 so far,
take care
Sylvia

Ozzie!

Hi Guys,
I have been meaning to contact you but I just don't know where time goes. We are having such a great time with Ozzie.....he is such a sweetheart & his personality is slowing starting to come out ( although he does get tired & sleeps much).
He's already been to the vet & gotten his 2nd shots. He has started to feel comfortable in his playpen & doesn't give too much trouble when put in there....when we are home we lock him sometimes & let him have access at will also, so the combo is helping....he also started to whine less when we put him in the crate at night.... He sleeps next to my bed so I think that helps a lot as he is not alone. One his first night home, he went in the crate & wouldn't come out even for potty & we literally had to pull him out, the next day he howled for 15-20 minutes, slept for 3 hrs, did potty & howled again for another 20 minutes..... Yesterday he whined for 2 minutes... Love it. Purchased a large traditional crate today so let's see how that goes.
Potty training if going okay... He has had a few accidents when we were not paying attention but majority of the time he has gone outside. He's also lowing starting to use the doggie door. We put new gravel in the doggie run, so training there has begun.
Today we left Him 2 times in the playpen for an hour at a time when we were running errands & he was fine chilling in his big bed. So he knows, when we leave we come right back. Tomorrow will be a real test as school is back on & I go to work. He will be lone for 5 hours at least. Praying that he will not stress out or get scared.
I have to take my hat off to you. I just don't know how you handle a toddler, a baby and all those puppies. It's truly amazing. Thanks so much for giving us our new baby. Will keep you updated as much as I can.
May God Bless you both always,
Adina

Kristin and Brandon - Hope all is well with you and your family.

Thought you'd like to see a picture of Radley at One Year Old. Can't
believe our little guy is so grown up. He's been a blast and continues to
be more than I had hoped for in terms of companionship and temperament.
He's a smart little guy and knows all the basic commands, can identify and
fetch many different items, gets along pretty well with the cats, loves to
go on walks and really looks forward to his once a day visits to the dog
park where he has lots of friends. Radley is pretty athletic and looks
forward to chasing a ball and playing catch with the frisbee. He's about
29.7 pounds and in very good health.

This picture was taken out at Del Valle Park where he went on his first off
leash walk in the wilderness. We all had a blast and appreciate all you've
done in providing us with a terrific member of the family.

Happy Holidays.

Hi Brasken Kennels,

Happy New Year! It's been a while since we communicated and I thought you'd like to see how Rosie has turned out 2 years and some change later.

One picture is of her today and the other one is of her meeting Griff (her brother) almost a year ago.

We always get compliments on her color (cafe au lait) and her temperament is awesome. She get's walked off leash almost every day behind our house on the trails- she loves it, then sleeps for about 4 hours :-)

She's been a great addition to our family and we wouldn't know what we'd do without her!

Kind Regards,

The L Family

Puzzle Update

Hi Kristen,I’ve been meaning to write you forever to give you an update on Puzzle. First of all ,here’s a picture of her at 7 months—check it out: she’s a blonde! Now wherever I go people say my dog looks like me....I think she’s settled on a color now, but I’m not sure. Do you know if any of her siblings got lighter? We love her so much. She is truly a sweet, funny, fun little dog. At this point she’s about 30 lbs and I’d say 20”--Ilooks like she’ll be right in the range you said she’d be. With such great temperament—loving, friendly, smart, silly. She picks up on training super quickly. Her recall is particularly good (most of the time).We (mostly I) really focused on her early training. That was, along with providing regular daily exercise, absolutely crucial for new puppy families. Like I said, she catches on quick—I could probably count the number of potty training accidents she had on one hand (and most of them were next to the door, like she KNEW where she was supposed to go but didn’t make it). She slept through the night within a matter of a few days. But her natural enthusiasm does mean a tendency towards jumping, chasing joggers on the trail and other kind of excitable stuff. I took both puppy 1 and puppy 2 classes with her and we may continue because it’s been fun. But doing the classes REALLY made a difference. Now, people who come up to us comment on what calm puppy she is (though believe me, she has her moments). And LOTS of people come up to us. People actually pull over in their cars to ask where we got her (we give them your name). Her coat is GORGEOUS. High maintenance for sure—we walk her nearly every day off-leash on the trails around her and she is a burr magnet—but that’s okay. I enjoy grooming her and once she got the hang of it, she enjoys it too—she actually doesn’t like to have burrs or twigs in her coat and will pull them out herself when she can. But I tell people if they’re going to get this kidn of dog with this kind of coat that is the trade-off for no shedding and allergy-friendliness. Totally worth it, I think.It’s really her personality that we love, though. She has become an absolute part of the family (certain rules about being on the furniture beginning to fall by the wayside....). We take her everywhere we can; Steven even brings her to the office when I’m out of town. She’s happy wherever she is, as long as she’s with us. As you predicted, she’s a TOTAL people dog (though she also LOVES to play with other dogs). She would rather be in the house flopped on our feet any day than be outside running around the yard without us. She has NEVER chewed up a single thing in the house—she even leaves Daisy’s stuffed animals alone (we had to tell her “leave it” a few times, but since then she has never even tried to grab one) . you can stick your hand in her food bowl, climb into her crate, take her favorite bone away and she could care less. And, of course, she’s trustworthy with kids. You can pull her across the room by her tail (not that I do...) and she’ll just look at you dolefully. Just a great, great family pet. Anyway, I just wanted you to know how happy we are with Puzzle—with our choice of puppy and of breeder!Warmly,Peggy O.

Chione Update!

Hi Auntie Kristen,

I just wanted to give you an update on how I’ve been doing since leaving Brasken Kennels!

I’m having a great time living in Los Angeles! When I first arrived in my new home, I was a little disoriented, and I didn’t like sleeping alone in my crate. But within days, I learned to love it so much that sometimes I would stay in there even when the door is open! I used to be so tiny that I would only take up half the crate.

And before I got all my shots, I was not allowed to play with other dogs, so my mommy would take me with her when she traveled, so I learned to love long car rides! And I’ve seen many places all over California. I even learned to be quiet in hotel rooms!

When I’m at home, I have plenty to entertain myself with! My mommy bought me lots of toys because I get bored easily! But even with the many toys that I have, I still prefer my daddy’s slipper!

Once I got all my shots taken care of, I started going to the dog park to play with my friends! I have so much fun there and I can run FAST!

And when I get home from the dog park, I get really tired that I go straight to sleep!

I’m growing bigger everyday too! I used to only fit in half my crate. Now I occupy my entire crate!

My mommy and daddy train me everyday! I can do: sit, down, rollover, kiss, speak, leave it and take it! I even ring the bell at the door when I need to go potty! I even learned to stay inside when the front door is wide open. But I like to stick my paws out the door to tease them:

In a nutshell, I’m having a great time!

Murray!

Hi Kristen. I wanted to send you a few pics of Murray that we've taken over the last few weeks....he has gotten so big! :) We are kind of obsessed with him and have loved getting to know his fun and quirky personality. He is learning new things every day and is one of the better listeners at his puppy kindergarden class. :) He has officially met his new best friend, Blue, and loves play dates, chasing balls, finding sticks in our backyard and just being around us. Thank you so much for such a cute and wonderful puppy!

Hope you guys are doing well...maybe we'll run into you at farmers again sometime soon!

Megan

Ricky Bobby!

Hey guys - hadn't dropped you a line since we picked up RB in January, but we wanted you to know that he is doing great and has made a wonderful addition to our family. His big sister Quinn (chocolate lab) loves playing with him, and at just over six months he is already standing taller than her (though she still has 25 lbs on him). He has been through puppy kindergarten as well as puppy elementary, and in both classes he is way beyond his peers. He learns extremely quickly and is definitely intelligent...although sometimes that makes me believe we he does something "naughty" he knows right from wrong and figures that he can ask forgiveness. Anyway we have had his hair cut once, if anything just to get him used to it. We take him to Coronado beach every weekend and even at three months old he recklessly bounds in to the waves without any fear. I do believe that he has a tendency to see his big sister Quinn do something and think that he can do it too - which can be good and bad I guess. Anyway, between the two of them they keep me on my toes working from home. We go on walks all the time and everyone always wants to pet him and he is always very friendly in turn. His coat is definitely that fleecy, soft, chocolate that we were hoping for. He doesn't shed like our lab, but the 'fro does trap a lot of dirt (of course, maybe if he wasn't wrestling around in the dirt with Quinn all the time that wouldn't be an issue). Sorry it has taken so long for us to write, but thought you would want an update!

Thanks-
Joe

Bruin!

Hi Kristen,

And happy spring time to you and Brandon and all the dogs and pups!

I thought I'd send you a couple of recent pictures of Bruin --he's doing great, his coat is long now and we're getting ready to get him a bit of a spring cut as he's beginning to get hot when he's chasing the ball around. He is such a wonderful fellow, still making friends wherever he goes, on trails or in parks, and much loved by all of us.

He recently weighed in at 71 pounds, and has been enjoying baseball season with Sam -- I take them out and exercise them together (!) but to keep competition down, we have one ball for Sam (baseball) and one for Bruin (tennis ball)...

Hope you're all well,

take care

Sylvia

Gracie Update!

Gracie just turned two. She got presents from me and David and also from the grandchildren. She takes a swim at least twice a day. I can remember when we couldn't get her into the pool. She goes to doggie day care on Thursdays. It's called the Hotel at Barkingham Palace. I think that she misses us at doggie day care, she cries and talks to us all the way home.l

We are spoiling her rotten and she knows it. Very smart dog, she weighs about 42 pounds, very happy and healthy and so well loved.

This photo is from one of our road trips to or from Carmel. She is very comfy on top of the luggage.

I'm sending one more photo, I just don't know how to get into this so I'm sending it in a second email.

Jeanne