Tuesday 4 September 2012

The next few months

Given that the past two years have been very busy and full of dogs, with a fair few pups hanging around longer than the usual 9 weeks of age, I have decided that our family needs a bit of a break. (My kids might not agree with me at the moment, but even they have found it a bit overwhelming when we have multiple pups hanging around to 3, 4 or 5 months of age.)

So Amore gets a break, too, and will not be bred this heat (due any time now). That means this past litter may well have been her last, as I may retire her and let the younger dogs take over. This decision will be finalized next year. If so, she will be able to live out the rest of her days as a loving grandma, pack leader, and teacher for all the other pups that will eventually be born.

Our next litter, therefore, will be out of Galena, our lovely chocolate girl who lives with a Guardian family in Gatineau. The sire is yet to be finalized. If not Kodiak (who has matured much larger than expected, versus Galena who matured a bit smaller than expected), then probably Spirit, another Canadian Doodles stud.

For those of you (like me) interested in the arcane field of dog colour genetics, Galena is chocolate carrying cream, and she also carries parti and phantom (bbEe Ssp KBky ata).

Kodiak is a solid dark chocolate who carries cream but not parti and does not have the ability for his offspring to express phantom (bbEe SS KBkB ata). So Galena x Kodiak pups would be mostly solid chocolate (bbEe – 75%) with a few solid caramel (bbee – 25%).

Spirit is a caramel parti who carries phantom (bbee spsp KBky ata). So Galena x Spirit pups would be quite varied: 25% caramel parti, 25% solid caramel, 15% chocolate parti, 15% solid chocolate, 10% chocolate phantom, and 10% chocolate parti/phantom (potentially tri-colour, though with extensive parti colouring they might look no different than the other chocolate parti). Of course the variety of colouring depends on how many pups are actually born and the chance factor of how the different genes happen to combine.

We expect Galena to go into heat in late November or early December. Breeding at that time would give us a whelp date of late January/early February, and the pups would be ready for their new homes in time to enjoy spring puddles, early crocuses, and the first barbecues of the year – late March or early April.

If we manage to place Topaz and Leo soon and finalize Ariel’s fate, that should give us a good four months with no pups or extra dogs in the house. (Say a little prayer for us that it so happens!)

A second 2013 litter would also be from Galena (breeding: June / whelp: August / home: October), possibly using Zip or a chocolate stud. Our girls Phoenix and Topaz will begin their breeding careers in 2014, when they are around 2 years old.

Monday 3 September 2012

A home for Leo!

We sent Leo to his new home yesterday morning. He has a loving family living on a good-sized country property out near Embrun, with two girls age 5and almost 8 to play with, and a Mom and Dad who have always had dogs and whose last dog passed away sadly after they'd had her only 2 months.

We know Leo will be well-loved and cared for with this family. To help make sure he has a good transition we took him for a visit to his new home before he went there permanently, and other than taking off to chase a squirrel he was a well-behaved and boy out there. He spent some time investigating the yard and the house- bedrooms, living room and all. 

Once again we forgot to take a going-home photo, but we hope to get some pictures of him soon so we can post something on this blog. 

Happy new family, Leo!