The Lieb thread

My search for a schnauzer puppy has reached a climax.

Since the middle of July I've been on a two-track search to find a schnauzer to take the place of Edie. I had planned to adopt a puppy for her this year, anyhow, I just hadn't expected for her to pass on unexpectedly. and to have to move long distance on top of it.

A few weeks ago, I came across a breeder in southeast Iowa who was seeking to place one of her adult females who has had several litters. She was also expecting one of her other pairs to have a litter. When I had an lengthy appointment with my eye specialists two weeks ago, I went and looked at the adult, and met the parents-to-be along with the other 15 or 20 schnauzers on that farm.

I found the adult female was quite withdrawn, among other things, and I didn't think she would work out. But I said that I would check once the litter was born to see if something clicked. I was also given a lead to another litter already born not as far away. However, by the time I had a chance to make contact all those pups were committed. So back to litter one.

When I checked yesterday, only two females were left, including the female runt of the litter. I've always loved those from a litter; most of mine have been the female runt, so I sent off an e-mail. And.......I was in time. The breeder believes that this pup will be a true block and silver, which will be fine with me, but even if she isn't and ends up being a dark gray and silver (as my last three schnauzers have been,) that will be fine. At least I've gotten to meet and see the parents beforehand, and I've been able to show the breeder that the pup will do well by me. The litter is only in its second week, so she's be with the litter until after Thanksgiving.

I haven't selected a name just yet but unless I get some other inspired idea soon, it'll be either Kinderlieb the Third (yes, two of my other schnauzers have been named "Kinderlieb" ("Children's Love" in English) with a calling name of "Liebelei" ("flirtatious") or "Schonheit"("Beautiful") with a probable calling name of "Shonie.")
 
I've decided that I'm going to go with my original plan for the puppy's formal name (Kinderlieb the Third) and the calling name will be "Lieb" (:Love," but it can mean "beloved" in some contexts. And the litter was born on September 21st.
 
You can find a lot of information at the American Miniature Schnauzer Club web site; it's an affiliate of the American Kennel Club, which handles registrations of all pure-bred dog breeds http://amsc.us/.
 
Here's an updated photo posted yesterday (Sunday) by the breeder.

You can now see the silver on her forelegs and paws, where her eyebrows will be and at the very edge of her snout, not to mention that her eyes are open!
 
Apparently Lieb's breeder updates the photos every Sunday,

Lieb's three weeks old today. You have to look close, but you can see the silver spots coming out where the eyebrows belong.
 
Another week, another photo of Lieb from the breeder. This time, she's standing, and you can clearly see the silver on her legs and paws, and some more silver where that is supposed to be on her body.
Boy, is she small!
 
Haircut time! Lieb and her littermates had their first haircuts, so this week's photo update came a couple of days late. Gawd, help me Lieb can't get any cuter!
 
She's seven weeks old today, but here's her 6-week old pic taken on the 4th of November.

Now you can clearly see all of the silver growing out. This is the first pic with her facing directly towards the camera.
 
Love it - really tiny dog at the moment :D

Was lucky enough to be in the pub the other night and this man had a schnauzer with him. Very calm dog. He was curious but not at all excited by anything. He spent some time staring at me then he walked off. Great dogs
 
The breeder and I have agreed that Lieb will come home on the 29th or 30th (getting past the second eye surgery and Thanksgiving.) She'll be keeping her biggest sister in the litter company, as they both won't leave the breeder until then.
I don't know if the breeder will post any further photos or not, but that day is now only two weeks away.
The breeder believes that Lieb will end up at 13-14 pounds as an adult, which is the same size my last two schnauzers (Lieben and Edie) were. So while she'll be smaller than the average female mini schnauzer, it's still a good size.

As to the schnauzer you saw MOG, that does not surprise me in the slightest. Schnauzers are very observant, and have been used as sentries and rescue animals in Europe. (I'm told that in Germany they are paired with German shepherds for sentry duty. As the schnauzer has the best hearing range and distance of any of the canine breeds (that surprised me, too) they're used to alert the shepherds, who then go check out what the schnauzer heard.)

Dalimbar, the good news is that schnauzers come in three sizes -- (miniatures usually up to 20 or 25 pounds, standards, which are generally 35-40 pounds, and the giants, which are 70-80 pounds. The personality of the three breeds are very similar, since both the minis and giants were bred out of the standards. So you may not prefer small dogs, but on the other hand, there a schnauzer sized just right for you!
 
The breeder has posted one more (and probably her last) photo of Lieb and her sister who are still there. As I said, I plan to go get her on the 29th or 30th.

She'll be two months old this weekend.
 
She is cute - looks like a little fire in eyes, too. . . always heard of minis but I never knew they bred giants.
 
Some pics of Lieb taken in the last few days while we had a blizzard and wind chills outside:

These will give you a really good idea of her size and how "adult" schnauzer she already looks.

And isn't that silver butt cute?
 
Lieb got her first full groom today. She'll be five months old on Saturday, and it was time to get her ready for spring (not to mention that we tied the record high for the date here today -- 68 degrees.

So for now, here's a before and after pic at the groomer's. (One of the groomers is holder her in both the before and the after.)
 
Guess we need a photo update for Lieb; I have just updated my avatar to one of the images of Lieb that I took during the month of May, there's nothing like a smiling 8-month old schnauzer!
 
Here are a few photos I took of Lieb in late November and early December. It's been a year (as of December 1st) since she came home as she is very popular when we go out to run errands. It's now taking me an extra hour to get through the grocery store and some other places. (I'm allowed to bring her in under the federal law that concerns people with disabilities as I use her to assist with my hearing.)

The first photo of this set is one of my favorites as she is backlighted with the late afternoon sun.
>|P
 
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