Sleepless in Port Angeles

Vegas' temp dropped last night at 5:30pm which normally signals that puppies are coming within the next 24 hours.  Poor girl she was just miserable last night and this is the part about breeding that I hate, especially with new moms.  I am sure somewhere in the genetic makeup they understand what is happening, but I know that she wanted me to make it all go away last night and if I could have I would have.  Instead she paced, panted, nested and made sure that neither of us got any sleep.

This morning nothing much is different, we take 20 minute power naps and then she goes at it again.  I have spoken with my vet and the plan is to take the puppies by c section at 5:30 if nothing has changed before then.  Hopefully she can free whelp and get things moving but if not we agree that they will be coming out one way or another if nothing else has changed.

I have been lining up my puppy helpers who are all on call and happy to help.  Sometimes it takes a village and I am so thnkful that mine is awesome.  I will keep you all posted and in the meantime, I think I am going to take another nap while I can.

Home From Morocco

I got home last night around 7pm and oh the greeting I received.  It is so rewarding to have three big loveable dogs all try and be in my lap at the same time.

While I was away, Vegas' whelping box was finished and she is quite happy to spend time in it.  Kenya wanted to take over both boxes but my housesitter was really good about putting Kenya in her box and letting her know that was hers and the other one belonged to Vegas. 

Vegas has been panting a lot, she hasn't started to nest yet, but is starting to slow down her food intake which is hard to believe.  My vet didn't want to take an xray of her today because she doesn't want to stress her and have her go into labor early.  I will be watching her very closely over the next few days and hopefully she can whelp these babies naturally, without any issues.  My vet is amazing and has said she isn't going anywhere and I just need to give her a call any time day or night and she will come in.  I am also getting my puppy rubbers lined up just incase we have to have a c section.  I am very fortunate, even though I live in a remote area, there is a network of various dog breeders in the area that always come together to help each other day or night when the need is there.

The big surprise of the day though was when I took Kenya in for her x ray.  I didn't think she looked very big and I figured she probably had maybe four puppies.  My vet downloaded the xray and said "Holy Moly there are a bunch of puppies in there"  We think we counted 8 possibly 9 puppies! 

To say that I am starting to feel a bit overwhelmed right now is an understatement.  I am trying to go through all of my supplies and make sure I have all my ducks in order.  Thank God for Amazon Prime and my amazing pet sitter, who has said she will come and help me out. 

I will keep you all posted as things progress and please keep the girls in your thoughts and prayers for a successful and uneventful delivery.

I May Be Crazy

I had always planned on Breeding Kenya on her next heat cycle - especially since she only had the one puppy the last time I bred her - knowing that my best chances of possibly having a decent size litter was to do a back to back breeding.  Little did I know that Vegas decided that she was going to come into season at the exact same time or actually a few days before Kenya.

The decision to breed Vegas did not come lightly, she has been winning and is currently the #2 Bitch in both Breed and All Breed points in the country.  However, I feel that it is always best to breed girls early since it better for them to have puppies younger in life rather than later.  Taking her out of the running of Top 20 to do this breeding was hard to do, but feel that it is the right decision to do.   

Finding the right boy to breed to was also not an easy choice either.  Vegas is an amazing girl and I usually try to find a boy that can improve on my girls faults.  Vegas doesn't have many faults and finding a boy that could fix those faults was not easy.  At the National Specialty I watched the boys with an eagle eye and made notes, asked to go over dogs and when I met Cuervo, I knew my decision had been made.  He is a beautiful boy, moves with ease and has a beautiful front but most of all his temperament is one of the best I have been around.  If nothing else we will have the sweetest puppies on the planet between the two of them.

Bobbi Kinley-Blewett was more than supportive and has let Cuervo come to the Pacific Northwest so that we can make this breeding happen.  Cuervo has fit in well and we bred the two of them on the 13th, 14th and 15th of September.  I will know Mid October if it took and if so puppies would be born on the 15th of November.

Right after Vegas came into season, I noticed Dallas doing the teeth chattering thing.  I checked Kenya and sure enough she was in season as well.  I thought she would come in late October, early November.  No, she came a week later.  I took her in for her first progesterone on day 6 thinking that she would be at 1.6 or some other low number, nope - she was at 12!  We did the breeding that night and the next three nights, I don't know when she ovulated but anticipate that if she is pregnant she will be having puppies on the 18-19th of November.

So, I am either going to go crazy or  be very sleep deprived if they are both pregnant and have puppies just a few days apart.

I had only hoped that Vegas would wait to have her puppies until after I return home from Morocco on the 11th of November.  She obliged so lots of work to do before I leave to escort my group to Morocco as I hope to have everything ready before I leave.

Stay tuned for more news and please keep all of your fingers and toes crossed that the girls are pregnant

And Then They All Went Home

Monday morning Mr Yellow went with his new Dad Jarrod Alcaida and his partner Chad Harr to Live on Fox Island.  Jarrod shows Pygmy Goats and was so excited to come and pick up Finn that is Yellow Boy's new Name.  Lavender Hills Take What You Can Give Nothing Back.  I expect Finn to have the most amazing life with his two dads living on the farm with Gigi the Corgi and Monkey the Affenpincher.

Then Right after Finn Left, Red Boy's new Mom Kathy DeHart drove up from the Portland Area to pick him up.  Kathy is an experienced berner mom with two other dogs in her house and wanted a dog to do performance stuff.  Rally, Obedience, Drafting.  She has named him Forrest - Lavender Hills Life is a Box of Chocolates.  I am sure I will get to see Forrest a bunch in my travels and I wish Kathy and Steve the Best with that sweet baby boy.

After they had left, Cuba and Pink Girl were kind of lonely.  I brought them into the house and let them mix with the big dogs under careful supervision.  Last night they both slept in the crate together and didn't have any accidents, I was so proud.

This morning Pink's Dad - Walter drove up from Portland to pick her up with his son Kevin.  Pink is now going to be called Emma and I think that name just fits her perfectly.  Walter wanted to call her Lavender Hills Emma Von Raron which doesn't go with the movie theme but I told him that was OK.  I know she will have him wrapped around her little paw in no time.  

I would be lying if I didn't say I cried a bit when she left, I had been doing so well with all the puppies but it just hit me that they were all gone and I already miss them, so keep the pictures and information coming because I just loved these puppies to death.  I know they all have amazing homes and each and every one of the families is special in there own ways and I think the puppies that have been placed are exactly where they need to be.

Cuba has been given freedom in the back yard now that everyone is gone.  I opened up the deck and he has been hanging out with his mom and Kenya this morning & Mom and Grandpa this afternoon.  Gandalf is in a foul mood tonight so I am keeping him away.  I think he is grumbling about having another puppy in the house and those damn little sharp teeth.  Vegas has gotten to play with extra supervised play time.  She just doesn't realize how big or exuberant she gets and I don't want her hurting him.

I guess this is it for not until the next litter comes - 

Starting to Leave the Nest

It has been a very busy few days and it didn't help that I lost my internet for 2 days.  Finally got it back this morning.

Friday was a big day,  Anne and Addy came up to evaluate the puppies and help take pictures.  You will see their 8 week pictures below.  Anne left with Lime Girl and delivered her to the Portland Airport where her new Mom - Joanne was waiting to meet her.  Her name is now Lavender Hills No Place Like Home and her call name is Kansas.  Kansas had fun in the airport chasing people down for puppy rubs and only was a bit fussy on the plane.  She now lives in Arizona with her big Brother Sigen and I expect her to keep them both very busy.

After she left, Larena and I gave the rest of the puppies baths for their big photo shoot on Saturday morning.  To say we were both exhausted afterwards is an understatement.

Saturday morning we were up bright and early.  Lisa arrived at about 9 am with her car piled full of props and fun stuff to take pictures.  We chased puppies around, and she left around noon with over 1000 pictures taken for the day.  She is still editing them and as I get them I will send them to the individual owners of the puppies.

The picture above is of Blue boy - who is going to be staying here at the house.  I fell in love with him about 4 weeks ago and I just couldn't stand the thought of not keeping him.  So his name is now Lavender Hills Show Me the Money - Call name is Cuba.  I hope that Cuba can follow in his Grandpa's footsteps and keep me proud.

Today we had two families come.  One decided that the puppy wasn't the right fit for her and what she had hoped to do with him and I totally respect her decision.  Mr. Red wasn't a show dog in my opinion but she had her heart set on him and really wanted to see for herself, and agreed with me that there will be another puppy in the future, and if she wasn't totally in love then she needed to wait and that is what she has decided.    This has made made another person very happy and she will be coming tomorrow along with another family to pick up Yellow Boy.

Green Boy just left about an hour ago for a long drive back home to Corvallis with his new mom Haley.  His new name is Lavender Hills Hey Mr Wilson and his call name is Wilson.  Haley is a Vet at OSU and I know he is going to have a wonderful home.  I am hoping he doesn't cry too much on the way home, as that is a long trip for the little guy.

Nevada has watched Kansas and Wilson leave and she doesn't seem too upset.  I think it is important for her to see her babies leave so that she doesn't go looking for them.    I did reduce their space in the living room so I can actually sit on the couch now, since there are four puppies instead of 6 and I added a large crate so that hopefully Cuba can get used to it since that is where he will be sleeping at night once his brothers and sisters are all gone.

7 1/2 Weeks

The puppies are quite active now and keeping me and Larena on our toes and busy, busy, busy.  They have been enjoying the big back yard and I tell you I need eyes in the back of my head at times to keep up with them.

Last night they are were all playing and having fun so I went into the kitchen to make the big dogs food.  They were all centered around the island waiting patiently for me to prepare their dinner, when in runs lime girl.   Jumps up on me like hey whatcha doing?  Then went around to each one of the big dogs to see if they wanted to play with her.  The little stinker had managed to get herself between the slats on my deck and came through the gate from the back yard onto the deck and just waltzed into the kitchen like she owned it. 

My deck looks like the clampetts have been visiting.  I had to improvise with anything and everything I could find to stop them from coming between the slats.  I knew this was a problem with the last litter of puppies and had every intention of fixing the problem before the next litter.  Some how it didn't get done and now, well it looks terrible.  My house looks terrible, the weeds have taken over, just know that for those of you that are coming to get puppies, don't look at anything but the puppies.  Maybe one day I will get things caught up

I still do not know who is getting what puppy but for those that have a possibility of getting one of these babies you might want to start thinking of Registered Names for your baby.  My Kennel Name is Lavender Hill so all puppies names will start with that and then the theme for this litter is Iconic Movie Quotes.  So I know one person is toying with the name Lavender Hill There is No Place Like home and her call name will be Kansas.  I cannot tell you what Mine is yet as I won't know for a couple of days if I am keeping one and I don't want my name out in the universe yet for someone else to grab.

Beth is coming at 11 tomorrow and Pups go into the vets office at 3:30.  somehow I need to work for a couple of hours in the morning, so it will be a very busy day.  Enjoy the pictures that I took tonight while playing in the yard.  Of course the only one that wouldn't sit still long enough to get her picture taken was of course - Lime Girl.

7 Weeks

I feel like I am always apologizing for taking longer to post than I would like....but it has been a very busy week for me at work and so by the time I am done at the office and come home and do what needs to be done with the puppies it 10pm and I am falling asleep over the computer practically and I just haven't been able to manage.

First off Lime girl is back to her normal self and doing awesome, running playing doing everything she did before without missing a beat and no limping so I am beyond relieved.  I was pretty sure she would be but there is always that nagging in the back of your mind - what if?

I kept the puppies in their confined outdoor space longer than I would have liked because I didn't want her overdoing it in the big yard.  I had expanded their area, put in a few new things that make noise when they walk on them and they have been doing well.

This weekend Dallas was entered in a Dog show in Lynden and my partner in crime for showing dogs had to work today, so that meant that Dallas was going to have to hang out with one of our friends that is a professional handler and sleep in a crate in her rig for the night.  He could do it, but I absolutely hate to do that to him and so Larena offered to stay at the house with the puppies while I came up after work yesterday, bailed him out and headed over to the hotel, where he promptly jumped on the bed and let me know how much he appreciated not sleeping in a crate.  After we show tomorrow then I will bring him back home with me and give Larena a big break.

But she just sent me a text that the puppies were bored and so she opened up the big yard and they are having a blast I am bummed that I am missing their first big adventure in the back yard, but I am sure that they are much happier with their new yard.  She said they are already going through the agility tunnel and having fun, so something to look forward to when we get home tomorrow.

Next week is going to be a very busy week.  Puppies will be getting evaluated by my friend Beth who is a Lab breeder on Wed morning.  Wed Afternoon they go into the vets office for their first set of shots and we will microchip the puppies.

Everyone wants to come and tell me their two cents worth on this litter and I keep a journal, I don't tell anyone what anyone else has said or what I am thinking and just let them tell me their thoughts.  So on Thursday my friend Cindy who shows Dallas wants to evaluate and Thursday afternoon my friend Lorraine who is a German Pincher breeder will come.  Friday the stud dog owner is coming up and doing it.  One puppy will leave with her on Friday and then on Saturday I have a friend who is just an amazing photographer and especially with puppies is coming up to take pictures.  I am thinking that puppies can start going on Saturday afternoon.

I will try and keep you posted as we progress through the week.  Lots of things happening that is for sure.

Oh Yeah if your wondering about the 7 weeks pictures they are up.  Not the best of pictures, I was limited on the help I had and if you are wondering what all the white stuff is on their noses.  it is cream cheese.  I was using it to get them to stand still on the table:)