Fall news: The vagaries of timing

Those of you following our website and blog over the past year may remember that we have been planning to have a winter/early spring litter, likely from Topaz, followed by a late spring/early summer litter from either Phoenix or possibly Galena.

 

We generally find spring/early summer puppies to be the easiest to place in homes. It’s generally the fall/early winter puppies that take longer to place and can end up staying with us longer than we’d like. Of course, there are other variables too, like the general economic outlook, amount of advertising we do, and so on. But that reality was behind our planning for the upcoming year.

 

Well, dogs being living creatures that don’t always behave as planned (whether purposefully or inadvertently), those plans have changed. We follow the heat cycles of our dams so we can predict roughly when they will be ready for breeding and plan the litters around the rest of our lives (or, sometimes, the rest of our lives around the litters…).

 

Topaz had been on a seven-month cycle so we were expecting her to go into heat in October, with pups born in December and ready for homes in February. While February is still winter, spring is on the horizon and by the end of the month the weather is starting to get a bit nicer, so we figured that would be good timing. As it turned out, however, Topaz came into heat in September, which would have advanced everything by one month. Given this, we decided to skip the fall mating – not so much because sending pups home in January would be difficult, but more because we have a heavy November schedule and I couldn’t see fitting November puppies into the rest of our lives – despite the fact that for the first few weeks it’s the mama who does 90% of the puppy care.

 

Phoenix was expected to come into heat after about 6½ months., in late July or early August, and then next February, so we were planning to use her next spring for the late spring/early summer litter. Instead she waited eight months and had her fall heat in September! This puts our spring prediction into question – could be March, could be May. We’ll see.

 

As for Galena, we had expected her to come into heat this past September and then next April. But instead she was a bit early, with an August heat cycle.

 

So what does this mean for spring? The current expectation is for Galena to cycle first, in February-March. Topaz could be next, sometime in March. Phoenix, depending on whether she reverts to a 6½ month cycle or sticks to 8 months, could be anywhere between mid-March and mid-May.

 

Given our plans for a major summer holiday next year beginning in late July, we need to plan to be puppy-free in advance of our departure. That means pups need to be born no later than mid-May, which in turn means breeding needs to take place no later than mid-March.

 

So which dogs will be the ones to have litters in spring? It could be any of the three, but here’s our best guess. We’re hopeful Galena will cycle first, by late February. We have a lovely black phantom stud picked out for her, which would produce pups in black and chocolate, solid or phantom. These pups would, if all goes as hoped, be born mid- to late April and ready for homes before the end of June.

 

The second spring litter is more iffy. It really depends on which dog cycles next – and whether either Phoenix or Topaz cycle no later than mid-March. We’re hoping it’s Topaz, but Phoenix is also a possibility. If it’s Topaz, we plan to breed her to a red parti male, giving us pups in shades of cream to red, either solid or parti. If it’s Phoenix, I’m not yet sure which male we’d use, but the preference would be a black or chocolate phantom to advance our ability to produce more phantom pups in the future. With this timing we would have some overlap of litters, which will make it a busy (crazy?) place through late May and June, but hopefully also fun!

Of course, there is also the possibility that both Topaz and Phoenix will cycle later, in which case we’d forego the second spring litter and aim for a winter litter instead.

 

So, best to continue to watch this space and our website for more updates as the winter progresses. Specific news is likely to start coming in February, as we see whether our current predictions pan out. As usual, if you’re interested in one of our pups, please contact us at roma@dragonramdoodles.com to express your interest and get on the reserved list! (We've already got a couple of pups on reserve, so best not to wait to get a better selection of pups.)