Hips

In keeping with my policy of doing tests on my dogs for MY knowledge rather than because a bunch of novices and wishful thinkers believe testing makes a difference,
I've just x-rayed both Di and Brogue's hips. Mini Poodles are seldom done... most medium to toy size breeds are seldom done... but what the hey, her offspring and grand-offspring are being used to produce larger types of dogs, so it's nice to know they have a good foundation. Her hips are, in my vet's words, "classic." He said her x-rays were the kind that are copied for use in textbooks as examples of the way hips SHOULD look... and then he checked her age (5 years) and was astonished. HE expects an "excellent" from OFA. Since they were submitted at the end of the month, I think she'll get a "good." The results should be in in about 2 weeks. Now, Brogue's were just done today and this time I was the one who was astonished. They look great! And he is 7-1/2 years old! He has a congenitally defective left stifle which causes him to throw his leg out every time he takes a step. Putting his weight on that leg makes it bow out and forward (stifles don't bend forward.) It has never stopped him from doing ANYTHING he wanted to do, but I expected it would have a detrimental effect, as in abnormal wear and tear, on his left hip. Amazing how uniform the hips were and how good they looked, even given his medium weight (for a canine, not for his breed.) So, now I'm playing TWO waiting games.
And I've put off a third... going to do Emy as soon as I get done with all the trips with puppies (vet, groomer, meeting families or shipping.)
AND there's that 2 year old GORGEOUS Goldendoodle guy I have and am not using. I may do his hips as well, as an added enticement to breeders when I finally convince myself to let him go.

Busy Busy Busy

It's been a while since I've had 2 litters of pups the same age at the same time. They're a lot of work! Luckily, they get along marvelously and are now thoroughly integrated, living in the same pen and allowed out to tear up my bedroom at the same time. However, I can't tell you how sick I am of the smell of wet newspaper! Some... not all... of the pups are real waterdogs and apparently HAVE to play in the water bowl every couple hours. And some of them seem to think a drink goes down easier if the front feet are firmly planted inside the bowl. It seems like they are always wet... faces and feet and often the backs and sides of pups who haven't been in the water. It's not a pretty sight!

Then, there is the getting ready to go to new homes situation. The identifiable picture solution has worked and everyone has picked. And everyone has let me know when the pup should leave and how. Now it is just getting everything scheduled and PRAYING the weather co-operates. Tall order at any time, but especially in mid-August. My vet has decided JUST THIS TIME to write health certificates for the pups that are being shipped. (Normally, they don't do them for anything under 6 months which has meant a trip to a second vet... 30+ miles away... for the official health certificate after my vet has done their departure exams.) I cannot tell you how much this concession means to me! Another beneficial result of the microchipping!

ALL the pups will be gone within a 2+ week period... another amazing thing since they usually trickle out over a month's time. And it is suddenly going to be very VERY quiet around here. Whatever will I do with myself?

PICTURES

It has taken me the better part of the afternoon and early evening to do this, BUT the pictures are up on the website and (I think) they are identifiable so you can see each pup and (maybe) tell something different about it and every other pup in the litter. When emailing me to say you want a certain one, please identify it the way I have "Cow" boy, "Large brown dog" boy, "Elephant" girl. I think you'll be able to tell the pups I started with... I dried their faces and feet... but that got old real quick! Most of them DO love the water bowls for playing in! You can either go to the website and click on the link in the section about Cotton and Brogue's pups OR you can go here.

Don't be shy, especially you folks with the earlier picks. Let me hear from you.

Super Breeder/Puppy Raiser Screwed Up!!!

Yep, I goofed. And about something so basic, I had to check twice to be sure I made the mistake. No, I got the sexes right, so no worries there. BUT several of the pups... 3, I think... have back dewclaws. If it was only 1, I'd be inclined to think one of the pups I took the dews off of had grown them back. (It happens sometimes.) But not all 3. I can't remember how many I took in to have the back dews removed, 2 or 3, but I obviously missed some. Too many puppies! (Might as well blame it on THEM!) Back dewclaws are no big deal, whether you keep them or remove them. Some breed standards... the Leonberger, for instance... call for them to be there and others... like the Shar-Pei... call for them to be removed. BACK dewclaws are usually attached ONLY by skin and tend to be a little floppy rather that attached tightly to the leg and thumb-like the way front dewclaws are. It's nothing to have back dews removed, even from older pups/adults... easily done when the pup is spayed/neutered... or they can be left alone. In a dog with hairy legs, they won't even be noticed.

Not feeling well
Which is my only excuse for not getting started on the pups' pictures. They are 9 weeks old today (Cotton's) and I had PLANNED on having a big spread on the website. However, I'm either getting a summer cold... or the flu... or the weather has my sinuses in a tizzy, but I've had an awful (non migraine) headache and an ache all over feeling since Monday evening. No energy. So I've done nothing more than take care of the basics and sleep. I WILL shape up as soon as I feel even a little bit better. I promise.

Ok, I Lied

I was just sitting there watching the pups playing and decided I'd start putting in some chips. It went so smoothly, I got all Cotton's litter done in a flash. Now, I've got to get numbers recorded and buy a couple more stuffed animals so I can assign a NUMBER to a stuffed animal and then make my first attempt at taking pictures where the individual pups can be identified from one moment to the next. This should prove interesting!

And another interesting thing... not one pup yelped at the injection... you should SEE those needles... but several of them always cry when they get their shots. Go figure.

I'm also going to do Kate's pups, but not for the same reason. THEY are easy to tell apart from each other. But I have the chips, so why not.

Back to Normal

Everyone seems to be healthy again. They certainly are noisy again! Especially early in the morning... and not just Cotton's brood. The VA Woofs pups have gotten into the same schedule/pattern as their cousins and EVERYONE is up and at'em around 5 AM. Which, since I usually don't get to sleep until 2 or 3, is pretty early. So, yesterday and today too, I'm not planning on doing much but changing newspaper (the never ending chore!) and letting dogs in and out of the house. (Not puppies, dogs.)

The chips are here, but I haven't had the energy to do anything but look at them. I DID check out the reader to make sure it worked and it does AND I looked at the pamplet that came with the chips. It has an application form to register the pup/chip with AVID's recovery program and it is just a one time only fee of $18.50 which seems reasonable. That form will be with the envelope of info you get with the puppy. I'll get started on sticking the chips in everybody tomorrow... maybe... and we'll go from there.

A Little Puppy Virus

Nothing serious, just a few upchucks and a general lethargy for about 24 hours. Must be what was wrong with the little guy who made the trip to the emergency room the other night. Thank goodness it PROBABLY wasn't a reaction to the wormer (which they all had again last night and get tonight) or to the Advantage. Both of those are things the pups are most likely going to have to deal with all their lives. About half the litter has already been through it and this afternoon there are a couple more who stayed put when I opened the pen to let them out... one didn't even bother to look at me. He/she just grunted when I lifted him to change the papers he was lying on and then went back to sleep. None of them are feverish or even particularly crabby... and the rest are running around, playing, just like normal. It IS marginally quieter around here for the time being!

Not Such a Good Night

First off, let me say everything is okay now. BUT! Last night all the pups... Cotton's AND Kate's (and 2 rescues...) were treated with Advantage (topical flea protection) and wormed with Safeguard (same as everyone's old time favorite Panacur which isn't available any more.) The pups have all had Safeguard before... it's a 3 day treatment and the pups hate it, so I only use it a couple times while they're here; I use pyrantel pamoate (most common commercial name: Nemex) the rest of the time since pups never object to its taste and it's a one dose treatment. The problem with "pp" is it only treats for roundworms while Safeguard gets a multitude of worms. And when it comes to flea protection, I use both Frontline and Advantage all year long on EVERYBODY even when my females are pregnant or nursing. (I do not normally use them at the same time, but have on occasion, when ticks season carries over into flea season, applied each 2 weeks apart.) ANYway, all their lives the pups have been with their moms who are "wearing" Advantage. To make this long story short, about an hour after giving both treatments to everyone, I noticed one of Cotton's pups having trouble breathing. He threw up a couple times and when nothing seemed to improve, we trotted off to the vet. Of course, once we got there and signed in, the puppy started feeling better. BEFORE he got to see the doctor. The gentleman DID examine him and said he thought he'd be fine... which he is... but it cost me (money plus a couple really late night hours!) He's acting normally this morning. In fact, as usual, don't ask me which one he is. So tonight, when everyone gets the second Safeguard dose, I get to sit and wait for trouble because we don't know if his reaction was to the wormer or the flea treatment or the combination. Or to something he picked up off the floor under the bed! Never a dull moment!

Just a Couple Things

First off, a number of people have sent me multiple emails, most complaining I haven't answered their inquiries. As it says... in several places... on the website:
I answer every email, 99% of the time within 24 hours. It also says... several places... if you don't hear from me in a reasonable length of time, check you spam/junk mail folder. In EVERY case, sure enough, my responses were sitting there.

Second, all Cotton and Brogue's pups have been spoken for. Yeah! It's nice to know every one of them has a home to go to. Now, it's just getting the indetification system up and running, so people can begin to choose. Several people with later picks want to get their pups sooner rather than later, but a couple folks with earlier picks can't be here to choose the second the pups turn 12 weeks. I'm hoping for most, pictures will work. That's the way it's usually done... although any number of breeders ASSIGN pups to homes. And to be honest, you picking, me picking all works out the same in the long run.

Finally, Marna sent me this photo of a young Dakota and I think it is lovely.

And if you don't know the story of Marna and Dakota, it's on my website Whoodle page. AND there are any number of articles on the site you may have missed as well!

I Got the "New" Puppies!

So they got here early this morning (JB and Aron were on their way to the VA Hospital in Johnson City and I'm sorta in that direction for them.) And After getting the pups settled, in a manner of speaking, I took some pictures. Don't know what it is with me and Whoodle pup pictures... these babies get to their homes and even the 3 year old kid can take a decent shot of the puppy. I pick up a camera and everyone heads for the hills! Anyway, here they are... the girls sitting up, the blond boy (who would fit into MY litter with no questions asked!) and the other 2 guys, lying down, of course.



They're all pretty quiet... spooked a little... except for the smaller girl. SHE's ready for anything... bring it on. Let me tell you, if she wasn't going to end up blond, I'd be adding HER to my pack!

Working on getting the additional shots on the website... having these guys means a major overhaul of my Whoodle page, so bear with me.

Not to be outdone
Cotton's kids are newsprint from head to toe. Can't keep them out of the water bowl. And obviously some like the FOOD bowl as well.

If I didn't know better, I'd think he was the one assigned to protect the provisions from the questionable neighbors who just moved into the next pen!

And keeping Cotton away from the pups is not going so well. The pups are fine. They don't seem to miss her at all. But SHE's driving me crazy. I put her in with her mom and grandparents at the other end of the house for about 2 hours... then she started whining, which after a half hour or so escalated to howling and barking. Sometimes I envy the breeders with normal dogs (those who want nothing to do with their babies once they get teeth!)

More on Microchipping

Since no one seems to have any objections, I'm moving ahead with the microchipping process. For anyone who isn't familiar with it, microchipping is basically injecting into the scruff of the neck an object about the size of a small grain of rice. I've chipped my own dogs for about 20 years and haven't had any problems. I am using Avid and am NOT going to register the pups' chips but I believe Home Again and/or the AKC chip program will allow you to register with them. Don't quote me on that.

I'm a great believer in "cut and paste," especially as I'm usually asked the same questions by just about everybody... it just says me time. So here's what I'm doing...
I plan on taking individual pictures and identifying the dogs in the pictures... probably as A, B, C but I may just put one of the stuffed animals in the shot... a different one for each pup. And I'll keep a list that says chip # 108A67DE2 is the male with the brown dog, chip # G7703C459F is the male with the blue dog. And I will ALWAYS use the same stuffed animal with the same pup. So people can see the different dogs and say "I want the one with the green stuffed animal."

NORMALLY, there are plenty of differences in a litter... color, markings, size... and
even people who are picking up a pup (rather than having it shipped) are able to choose from photographs. Cotton's litter, on the other hand, is just like SHE was as
a baby. (If you haven't already heard the story... she was one of three little girls I called my triplets because even at 12 weeks I couldn't tell them apart. It just happened that both families who had bought the other 2 triplets were picking up, so I let the first family choose from all 3 and the second from the remaining 2 and I kept the leftover. And all of us are perfectly happy.) Anyway, the identical looks of these pups has made it impossible for anyone to choose because 5 minutes after I've taken pictures I can't remember who I've done and who I haven't. When giving shots or worming, I put all the pups in one place and then put each in another area as I finish whatever procedure I'm doing. That won't work for picture taking.

Anyway, that's my plan. Revival Animal Health, where I get my vaccines, wormers, most
of my equipment, etc, is giving me a great price on the chips and is helping me out with a scanner as well, so I hope to get this under way in another week or at least by the time the pups are 9 weeks old. THEN we... YOU... will start picking! Yeah! And yes, I've been stressing over this issue.

Changes in the puppy pen
News flash! For the first time, this morning I heard Cotton growling at the pups. It is a BIG step in the educational process. She'd been outside for about an hour and snoozing on my bed for at least another hour and when I put her back in the pen the
puppies mobbed her. "MOM!" And she gave them a couple "Not now, I need to unwind before I deal with YOUR problems" growls. Which didn't bother them in the least... they pursued her from one end of the room to the other and eventually she stood still for a minute or two to let them suckle. But it's time to move her out permanently. That doesn't mean she won't be with them any more... she just won't be LIVING with them. SHE's leaving the nest, not them! For the next couple nights she'll still sleep in with them, but otherwise she's going to move back in with relatives... Brogue, Diamond and Emy. In a few days she'll only be around them for play time AND will be able to hop up on my bed to avoid them as she chooses. They're practically all grown up!

JB's pups coming this weekend
And I'm kinda looking forward to it. Even though they WILL BE BLOND eventually, right now all but one is reddish brown just like 6 weeks old Wheaten Terrier pups. I LOVE the color and wish there was some way it stayed. Going to do photos as soon as they get here.

Microchipping

I'm sending out individual emails on this idea but wanted to post it here so people who are uninvolved (ie: aren't getting a puppy from Cotton's litter) can give me their thoughts as well. (Email to the w & d address.)

I am thinking about microchipping Cotton's pups so I can tell them apart. Yes, it means I'll have to have a scanner close at hand AND will have to come up with a system of identifying each pup at picture taking time. (Most of you probably don't realize that to get just ONE marginally acceptable picture of each pup means taking 60-100 shots... and even then, I'm usually not happy with the results.) I'm still working this through in my head and would appreciate input.

No News is Good News

Tomorrow the pups will be 7 weeks old. And today I took 5 of the males into town to meet a couple from Maryland who are getting one and were passing through this area on their vacation. This was the first time the pups have been outside... for all of you who are soon going to be trying to figure out how to get ONE puppy out every couple hours, you will soon understand that taking 11 out is no easy task (so I pretty much don't even try until they are big enough and tuned in to me enough to follow where I lead.)
Anyway, once the boys stop squinting in the light of day, they just lay where ever I put them in the puppy pen. (Check out the new pix on the website, if you haven't already... they were just like that!) They were very cuddly and I think gave the wrong impression about being superdooper laid back. When we got back home every one of them told their mom all about it... whining and crying to beat the band. Cotton spent about an hour cleaning the "human stranger" smells off each of them. But all is back to normal tonight. They ARE starting to pay me some mind, which I love!

Another couple taking a boy is getting married soon. The pup is their wedding present to each other. I took this photo for them so they can show it at their dinner and everyone will see what a great idea they've had. (And no, I'll never be able to tell which one was in the picture!)

This is a different boy that I took about a dozen shot of with these two being the best. I'm not big on props, but happened to remember the Valentine's heart after realizing these two pictures were just too bland for the wedding dinner presentation.
But, at least you can see his face, which you can't very well on most of the new photos on the website.

And the Beat Goes On

A number of years ago, I sold a beautiful F1B Labradoodle male to a lady in Florida who was just getting her own breeding program up and running. Several years later, she bought an F1 female from me. Neither of them was a parti, but most of my stuff has parti in the background. And here's Lucy, one of the pups those two dogs produced, obviously proof that the parti is still in progress!

I don't have a clue who the Chihuahua is!

JB's pups
I know many of you have been thinking about it, but someone asked about the effect of moving the pups from Virginia to Tennessee at any early age. (Thanks, Stephanie, for giving me the opportunity to get my thoughts together!)

I am of the opinion that puppies need to stay with their litter for much longer than most of them normally get to... that's where they learn to be dogs. So often with "hypo-allergenic" breeds/mixes, pups go into situations where there are no other dogs and never learn dog etiquette. I really don't have room (or the inclination) to add a mama with young pups to my zoo right now, so waiting for them to not NEED Kate is the only way I could do this. JB's pups are being weaned the same way mine are... they're allowed to eat as much dry kibble as they want while their mom comes and goes as much as she wants. Actually, JB has an advantage as she has only 2 other dogs in the house and can fix the puppy pen so Kate can get in and out at will. Here, poor Cotton is
either locked in or locked out because I don't want any of my "rescues" venturing in with the pups and possibly hurting them. Once JB's pups are obviously getting their nourishment from dog food rather than mom, they'll come here. (There are a couple reliable signs that pups are weaned... mom's milk starts to dry up AND she stops cleaning up after them.) I have a number of "puppy sitters," male and female, who will be all too happy to adopt these 5 and give them all the "parental" guidance, comfort and protection Kate would. Like many breeders, JB lets her pups go to their new homes around 10 weeks (which is about 3 weeks longer than she kept them before she met me!) so they will be pretty much on her usual schedule. Because the whole litter will be together the whole time, none of them should be traumatized by the
move.

For those of you familiar with most of my dogs, my main puppy sitters are Shadow (the standard Poodle,) Ravin (my 100 pound "retired" Lab lady) and Brogue (who just happens to be granddad to JB's pups as well as dad to Cotton's.) A couple of the "rescues" who are actually now long term residents, are also pup-friendly... like Mija (the 12+ year old Chihuahua) and Ennis (the Malti-Poo guy who likes pups best when they are the same size he is.) Lotus (now my only Shar-Pei) snarls and growls at them and none of them is ever the least intimidated because they know she doesn't mean it.

Stuff

This is Max Patch who is an F1B DOODLE. He is from the first Labradoodle girl I ever bought (rather than breeding myself) and from my young (at the time) parti-colored Poodle.
And this is Max Patch as an adult, a number of years later.

Again, he's a DOOD. I have never seen a chocolate (brown) Whoodle.

What IS that noise
The pups were all happily taking a nap this morning... after a fairly lengthy and rigorous play session... when the guys started working on making the yard look less like scrub land in Utah. The initial lawnmower and weed eater sounds didn't bother them UNTIL they got close to the bedroom. ALL the pups sat or jumped up and stared at the windows. It was obvious they were scared BUT not one of them panicked. Most of them walked over to get close to Cotton who was in the back of the pen, totally undisturbed by the noise. A couple pups stayed where they were and waited to see what was going to happen next. After a minute or two... and with the noise moving AWAY from the house... all the pups lay back down. They woke up again when the noise came back but didn't bother to get up. And after that, it was sleep as usual. Another learning experience!

Things are pretty well firmed up today for me taking JB's pups in about 10 days. I am going to guarantee them myself (my warranty is longer than hers) and will handle them as I do my own pups... same screening process, etc. That way, people will just have to deal with me rather than some with JB, some with me and neither of us knowing exactly what is going on with each individual pup/family. I did a couple co-own/co-sell litters (of Doodles) several years back and found that two cooks do not the soup improve! Won't have any pictures until the pups get here, but they can be seen at http://breeders411.com/vaw.html