Ariel is all settled in Nova Scotia

I received a lovely e-mail today from Rhonda of Scotia Doodles, who purchased Ariel as a breeder and welcomed her just two weeks ago. Here is what she had to say:

"Life is funny. I had posted an ad for (Ariel) and got many replies but none that jumped out at me as the right one. She is so easy to have around, I thought I'd just wait and make sure the right match was made. Then Friday night, a couple came to my house to pick up my friend’s Goldendoodle whom I was helping take care of while she is away. They were taking her for the weekend. They had lost their male Golden Retriever a few weeks ago.

"The wife asked if she could meet the other dogs I had in the family room behind the gate, so I let them all out. She was immediately taken with the smaller ones – Daisy and Ariel. I placed Ariel in her arms and she just sank in – it was LOVE! They stayed an hour, discussing the guardian situation and we made plans for me to bring her over the next morning to see how she did with their 2 cats.

"So Saturday morning I took her over, they live only a few streets away. As you might have guessed, she was perfect. The cats had no issue with her and she had none with them. I had to get (my son) to hockey so suggested they keep Ariel for the afternoon. I swear the wife was like a kid at Christmas at that suggestion!

"I called them later that day. They had already taken her shopping and bought sweaters, collars, feeder bowls and a raincoat for her. I met up with them again that night to deliver her crate and she was already bonding with both of them. They are lovely people in their early\mid 50's. Nice home with a large level lot for Ariel to play in and stretch her legs for some running. She is so fast!

"The best part is that because she lives so close, they are going to drop her off 1 day a week for playdates with my dogs so that she remains socialized and comfortable here when she delivers her pups. So I still get to see her  :)

 "Anyway, I just thought you'd want to know she is settled and doing great. She is such a sweet girl. Thanks again for sending her my way."

I'm hoping to get a few photos to share too. It's always great to hear a dog has settled so well and has found just the right family!

Fall Doodle Romps

The date and time for the Doodle Romps for October and November have now been finalized. I got only a few votes on the scheduler but enough to pinpoint which dates were most popular (and which still fit into our rapidly filling-up calendar of events!). I figured it was best to finalize the dates now before our calendar got even busier, so we’d have them written in.

  October 20, 2:30pm (Saturday)

  @ Oak Park 

Since we have training class for Phoenix from 1-2, we will nstart the Romp at 2:30. Meet at the DragonRam Doodles home base, and we will proceed to promenade our pooches through the properties, fields and forest around the NDMC. If you haven’t signed up on the Doodle scheduler and would like to attend, send us an e-mail (roma@dragonramdoodles.com) or call.

  November 11, 3:00pm (Sunday)

  @ Bruce Pit 

Meet at the entrance to Bruce Pit. We hope a lot of our west-end doodles can join us, along with anyone else who doesn’t mind driving out to Bruce Pit. We hope the weather cooperates on this Remembrance Day and we will be able to enjoy a fine fall day. Again, if you would like to attend, drop a line to roma@dragonramdoodles.com so we know whom to expect.

A visit from Labradoodles by Design and good-bye to Ariel!

Sue Wilde, of Labradoodles by Design, paid us a visit over the Thanksgiving weekend. She is the breeder whose dog, Sunsethills Ranger, we used for Mo’s second litter, producing Sapphire, Zircon, Carnelian and Oliver Jasper (notice a naming theme?). These were all great pups and we have loved to keep us with the three boys who remained in the Ottawa area, as well as Sapphire who went to Holland.

Sue used to raise llamas in Alberta but moved to Nova Scotia about three years ago and began breeding Labradoodles instead. When we were there she was in Liverpool, but has since moved to a property in the Annapolis Valley with a great view of the Bay of Fundy. We’ll have to head back and see her new place some day!

Anyhow, Sue arrived Saturday morning and spent most of the day with Linda of Canadian Doodle Puppies before coming to our place for the night. Sunday afternoon and Monday morning we spent doing some touristy things in the area – visiting the Byward Market, hiking in the Gatineau Hills, and just enjoying the sights and scenes of the canal and downtown Ottawa.

Monday afternoon Sue, Linda, my family and Martin & Carole who are (Galena's Guardian family enjoyed a Thanksgiving dinner together with turkey and all the trimmings. We talked dogs and lots of other things too!

Early this morning, I took Sue to the airport along with Ariel. Sue is taking Ariel back to Nova Scotia and will pass her on to Rhonda of Scotia Doodles, Ariel’s new owner. There was a bit of a kerfuffle as Sue had thought she was on an 8am flight but it was actually 8pm - so she arranged for a different flight (via Toronto) so as to get home before too late in the day. Also, Ariel simply was not comfortable in the soft-sided zipper crate - it was a tad small for her - so we put her in cargo in the bigger plastic crate, which she was fine with. She will have a comfortable ride with lots of room to move around and not be bothered by all the sights, sounds and smell in the cabin.

We are so glad Sue's visit coincided with the timing for Ariel to go to Nova Scotia, as that facilitated things greatly for all of us - despite the flight mix-up.

Ariel is heading home on Tuesday!

Ariel will be flying to Nova Scotia this coming Tuesday to be a breeding mama at Scotia Doodles.  Rhonda contacted me about two weeks ago, asking about Ariel’s availability, and we worked out an agreement that will see Ariel joining her program as Rhonda’s second “micro-doodle” parti girl.

Since Ariel’s future hinged on whether Topaz passed her health screening (in other words, whether I would keep Ariel as a breeder myself or place her elsewhere), and I was just obtaining the last of Topaz’s results, the timing couldn’t have been better. Too, my goal had been, if possible, to have both Ariel and Topaz placed and gone by the end of September so I made it with just a bit of a delay.

During the month she’s been with us after coming back from her mama’s home where she’d been fostered since spring, Ariel has shown herself to be a loving, cuddly girl who is very active. She has been the smallest of the dogs in the house – even somewhat smaller than Topaz, despite being six months older, and a lot smaller than Phoenix – and not much into tussling likely because she’s the one who is most likely to end up on the bottom. She prefers to play chase as she is super-fast! She is used to sleeping in her crate at night and goes there readily during the day as well, but has recently – if we leave the crate door open at night – taken to jumping onto my bed and snuggling me for a good part of the night.

We wish Ariel all the best in her new home and hope she does well by Rhonda and produces some great pups.

Topaz is A-OK for breeding

I have now completed all of Topaz’s preliminary health screening and am pleased to announce that she has passed everything and is cleared to be a great breeding mama!

The hips & elbow tests were done at the end of August. She came back “Good” for hips and “Normal” for elbows – no sign of dysplasia or any condition that would predispose her to developing it later. This is just a preliminary report, as she is so young (barely 4 months at the time the tests were done) and still growing, but a good indication for things to come. I will have her hips and elbows certified once she turns two.

The CERF eye exam was done just this past Monday and everything checked out normal in both eyes. This test needs to be repeated every 12-18 months, so we will redo it in early 2014, probably shortly before we breed her for the first time. But we now have a baseline for comparison.

Genetic screening for Progressive Retinal Atophy (PRA), Improper Coat (IC), and von Willebrand’s disease (vWD – a bleeding disorder) were also done in late August. She is Normal for both Improper Coat and vWD, so she can be bred to any dog and not produce puppies affected by these conditions. She is, however, a Carrier for PRA. This does not affect her health, as she will never develop the disease herself, but it means I will need to take care not to breed her with another Carrier to avoid producing puppies that are affected.

We will wait to test thyroid until Topaz is over a year old. Pups’ thyroid levels can fluctuate so waiting until essentially full maturity should result in more definitive results. This is also a test that needs to be repeated every 12-18 months.

As far as coat colour genetics is concerned, Topaz is Bbee K^BK^B a^ta Ss^p which, for those of you interested in and/or knowledgeable about this arcane field, means she is cream (apricot-red) in colour (ee) with a black nose (not brown or liver) but does carry for chocolate (Bb), carries for parti (spotted) (Ss^p) and, while she carries the gene for phantom (tan points) (a^t), she has two copies of the “blocker” gene (K^B) meaning that none of her puppies will express phantom even if bred to a phantom male, since they will all inherit one copy of this blocker gene from Topaz. So our main strategy for breeding her will be to produce some lovely reds and parti pups, with our Zip being the primary stud of choice. Since we mated Mo to Moto for just that purpose – to obtain a female capable of producing nice reds and parti pups that we would use with Zip – she will be fulfilling our desired role for her to a tee.

I must also say that I think she has a super temperament for a breeding mama. She is calm, patient, attentive, smart… A few examples:

• About a month ago, after romping in the nearby fields, all the dogs came back covered in burrs. We put Topaz on the table and proceeded to pick the burrs out one by one. She just lay there patiently, not wriggling or struggling much at all, not even when I was working on burrs close to her eyes or muzzle. And she was only 4 months old at the time – pretty amazing! Even Mo wasn’t quite that patient! In contrast, we had to cut the burrs out of Sid’s coat as he just wasn’t willing to put up with the long laborious process of picking them out.
• We took her to two training sessions before she went to her new home, and she was a model pup each time. She sits on command, was attentive to my daughter and sat quietly when called for, and generally able to ignore most of the distractions around her. Phoenix, attending the same class, was not nearly as focused despite being six weeks older.
• When out in the fields, she comes when called quite readily. She also goes to almost any very readily and loves to be petted and stroked. Tummy rubs are a must! This type of sociability is ideal in breeding stock.

All in all we are very pleased with how Topaz has turned out. She is still young and developing, but things augur well for a stellar career as a Mama!

Topaz has a home!

It's been a while since I posted, but I have news!!

It finally happened, and happened quickly in the end – Topaz found her forever family and went to join them last Saturday, 29 September! I was beginning to feel rather glum after so many families had not only expressed an interest but come and visited us and said they wanted to take her, only to decide against being Guardians for many different reasons. One begins to feel one is wasting one’s time dealing with people who are just going to say no...

But the family she went to is great – mom and dad with three kids similar in age to my two, they’ve had dogs before so know what having a dog is all about, and as a bonus, they live a mere 5-10 minutes’ drive from us! They contacted me early last week, came to visit us on Friday night, and called Saturday to say they were ready to proceed. Yay! Topaz lives in a nice older home with a backyard that backs onto a local off-leash area, so she’ll have lots of opportunities to play outside and meet other dogs and people. Her dad is working at home for the time being, so she will have company during the day, at least for now.

Congrats to Heather, Ed & kids on their wonderful new pup!

We are very pleased with Topaz’s home situation and glad that she has been placed. We’re now down to 3 dogs at home with the prospect of that going to two just after Thanksgiving – stay tuned!