The latest doodle romp

A grand total of 13 doodles and 1 “friend” met at Conroy Pit for the most recent DragonRam doodle romp on Sunday October 23^rd.

Lyra was the only one of Garnet’s May puppies to make it, other than Cassi, who was still with us. We also had a chance to meet up with Carni & Oliver from Mo’s 2010 litter and Galena from her 2011 litter.

 Galena

In addition, two of our stud prospects were there, Zip & Magnum, each with a doodle housemate (and Magnum brought a non-doodle housemate along too), and Linda brought three of her Canadian Doodle Puppies girls.

 Zip & Carni

With so many dogs to track, we took mostly some of the smaller pathways so as not to get too distracted by the multitude of other dogs out on that gorgeous, sunny Sunday afternoon – the first warm, sunny day since Thanksgiving. The dogs got along famously – running back and forth along the path, investigating in the forest, and romping once we got to the field – and the owners had a chance to catch up on news, too. All in all, it was a great afternoon!

Bye-bye Cassi!

Cassiopeia, the last of our May pupsters to leave, went home to her new family last night. They were very happy to pick her up after being out of town for the past week. Cassi was happy to see them, and didn’t appear too stressed at leaving us. We sent her blanket full of all the smells of home along with her, to help ease her transition.

 Hello Cassi!

Bye-bye Cassi!

Since she is also staying here in Ottawa, we expect to be able to see her again in the future at one of our doodle romps.

Love ya, girl!

Bye-bye Lyra!

Lyra went home to her new family last Friday, Oct 21^st. They had been by to visit 3 times in the previous week (once at her puppy Kindergarten class) so they were somewhat familiar to her and she went home with Mom & Dad without any complaint. We saw her just two days later, at the doodle romp on Sunday, and she was super happy to see us but also happy to stay with her new family.

Hello!

Goodbye!

We saw her again last night at her final Puppy K graduation class. She did very well with new girl Erin, although the three of us (and Aspen, safely curled up most of the time in a PetSmart shopping cart) were a major distraction.

But she passed with flying colours anyhow and got to celebrate with some doggy ice cream, certificate, and puppy mortarboard. Couldn’t miss that!

Another doodle romp!

DragonRam Doodles will be holding

our next Doodle Romp tomorrow!!

Sunday, 23 October from 2:30-3:30pm

Meet at Conroy Pit, at the entrance to the park off the parking lot.

We hope to hold another romp in November and potentially another in early December if it isn’t  too cold and snowy.

We expect to see Oliver, Carni, Galena, Magnum & his housemates Robbie & (sorry, I forget her name!!), and of course Amore and also Cassi. Zip and his housemate Rufus might make it too.

Lyra went to her new home on Friday and won’t be able to join us this time, and unfortunately none of Garnet’s other May puppies are able to attend this time either. Let’s hope to see some of them in November or December! Ziggy (Helios) lives in Montreal but might be able to join us from time to time as his human sister lives in Ottawa so he comes to visit on occasion.

Our two new stud prospect puppies, Aspen and Kodiak, are still too young to come to the dog park, but we hope they will be able to make it in December after they’ve had all their vaccinations.  

Welcome to Aspen & Kodiak

DragonRam Doodles is pleased to announce that we have acquired

Melorich’s Kodiak

 a beautiful deep dark chocolate stud prospect puppy

from Melorich’s Labradoodles in Ohio.

Kodiak was born 3 August 2001, so is still a young pup at 2.5 months of age. He arrived in Syracuse, New York, on Saturday 8 October direct from Cincinnati, and was picked up and brought into Canada by Linda of Canadian Doodle Puppies, who co-owns him with us.

We chose his name, “Kodiak,” after the Kodiak bear, which lives in northern BC, Yukon and Alaska. The name therefore captures both his deep brown colour and his Canadian residence and American. Melorich is the name of the kennel where he was bred – thanks, Rich! He adds a whole new line of Tegan Park and Rutland Manor to our breeding program – some old Australian lines that we don’t yet have.

Kodiak has found a home with Sylvia & Gary & their two sons and one other dog, Snickers, in southern Ottawa. We know he is well-loved and well-cared for there!

We have also acquired

Desert Winds Aspen

a gorgeous caramel-and-white parti stud prospect,

from Desert Winds Labradoodles in Colorado.

Born 1 August 2011, Aspen is just two days older than Kodiak. He arrived a bit earlier than Kodiak, on Monday, 26 September, also flying into Syracuse and brought into Canada by Linda of Canadian Doodle Puppies, his co-owner.

The name “Aspen” was chosen for the well-known Colorado ski resort in the Rocky Mountains, which reflects his Colorado heritage and his snowy white (and caramel) colour. Desert Winds is his kennel of origin – thanks, Tracy!

Unfortunately, at his initial vet visit we discovered that Aspen has a serious overbite and his lower teeth were making holes in his palate. He underwent dental surgery on Tuesday 4 October to alleviate the situation and give his lower jaw the chance to catch up with his upper. If this does indeed happen it will indicate this issue is developmental and he is good to use as a stud; if it does not, it will indicate a genetic issue and we will not use him.

Linda kept Aspen for the first two weeks, but he is now with us where is very much enjoying playing with Lyra & Cassi. Ssurprisingly, it’s been Cassi more than Lyra the action figure that has been more engaged in playing with him – maybe Lyra knows not to beat up on such little pups!

Welcome here, boys!

Announcing our next litter!

DragonRam Doodles is expecting our next litter of puppies to be born in late November!

Dam: DragonRam Garnet, age 2

Garnet is our petite black beauty, a very good-looking fine-boned girl who weighs in at 12 lbs and stands about 13” at the shoulder. She lives with her Guardian Family in Cornwall, Ontario. She loves to play Frisbee and snuggle with her dad and kids.

Sire: Springville American Idol of Puppy Love Labradoodles, age 2

Idol is a stocky boy with a deep red coat who stands 15” at the shoulder and weighs a bit over 20 lbs. He is owned by Puppy Love Labradoodles in southern Alberta, where he lives with a Guardian Family.

Garnet and Idol honeymooned on 29 September. Seeing as my vet wasn’t available to do the specialized trans-cervical insemination for us, and no other vet in Ottawa has the equipment or training, Garnet hopped a plane to Calgary on the 28^th and returned to Ottawa on 3 October. So it was a real honeymoon (though I’m told Garnet wasn’t the most receptive of brides, but Idol still accomplished the job).

We are expecting about half the puppies in this litter to be in shades of cream, apricot, or red and half to be black. Garnet’s last litter had 5 puppies and we are hoping for a similar number this time. We expect to do an ultrasound in early November to confirm pregnancy and get an estimate as to number, with an x-ray in late November to firm up the puppy count.

With 9 weeks’ gestation, the puppies are expected to arrive sometime between 27 November and 1 December. They will be ready to go to their new homes around 3 February 2012.

Sled dogs, anyone?

Homes for Cassi & Lyra!

There may not have been much posted on this blog for a while, but that doesn’t mean we haven’t been busy!

Lyra has been in Puppy Kindergarten since late September to help her learn her manners. (We’ve then been having her teach Cassi what she’s learned!)

Amore has been in agility training since mid-September at the Ottawa Canine School, a small indoor facility on St-Laurent. She really likes it and does very well! My daughter has been her main handler and is also doing well – it’s not always easy to remember what order to do things, which hand to use to guide the dog, and to do all the subtle body language cues the dog responds to. We hope to do another short session this fall. Depending on the timing of her winter litter, we hope to do some outdoor agility with her in spring.

Since our visit to the vet in late September revealed that Lyra’s underbite was much worse than we had thought, we took her to the dental specialist in early October to assess the situation. He recommended surgery to remove some teeth to make her more comfortable and to give her jaw a chance to grow more in the remaining growth period before she turns 6 months old. He also recommended not using her for breeding, so we made the hard decision to place her as a pet, and had her spayed the same day as the dental surgery.

But the good news is that both Cassi & Lyra have now found their forever families!! (In the space of one weekend!) And both of them will be staying here in Ottawa, so we hope to see them at future doodle romps.

Lyra will be joining Beth, Doug, & their teenage daughter Erin this coming Friday. They have come to meet her twice, so we hope that bit of extra familiarity will help ease her transition to her new home, after five months with us and her sister. We will post some pictures of “going-home” day on the weekend.

Cassi will be joining Lisa & Mike. They are hoping to involve their puppy in therapy dog work once she matures, and we all felt Cassi’s lovely gentle and (mostly) quiet temperament would be best for that type of work. They will be out of town for a few days next week, so Cassi will join them the last Friday of October. We will post more pictures after Cassi’s “going-home” day too!

With Lyra becoming a pet, that means that we are now short one breeding female that we had planned would be of breeding age in late 2012. I am now scouting around for another breeding prospect female puppy (or maybe two) that would replace her. It will take some time, but once I have news you’ll see it here!