FIVE years old!!

Happy birthday to Cassie, Antares Gatsby, Corona, Lyra and Helios Ziggy!

Wow!! I can't believe it - FIVE years old already! In some respects, it seems like we've only been breeding pups for a short time, but here it is well over five years already.

Mama Garnet

The most special thing about this litter is that they were born on my daughter's birthday, back when she was still a little kid in primary school. (Well, okay, not so little, but compared to now...!) 

As I recall, we had hoped for some black phantoms in this litter, but weren't so lucky. But Gatsby was a lovely silvered black, and Coronoa had the cutest white paws. 

We get to see Cassie and Lyra a couple times a year when they join us on a Doodle Romp, and Ziggy has come on occastion, too, when his family is here from Montreal visiting his human big sister. 

We wish you all a great year six!

Happy birthday Lyra, Cassie, Corona, Gatsby and Ziggy!

Here's one more – they’re turning four!!

Garnet’s first litter is already FOUR years old! (That means Garnet herself will be six in summer – where did the time go?!) We’ve seen Lyra and Cassie quite frequently over the years, and even Ziggy has joined us for a Romp once or twice over the years all the way from Montreal. (It helps that he has human family here in Ottawa.) Gatsby and Corona, if you’re reading this, let us know how you’re doing!!

 

What with the two new litters born earlier this month, this is now the fourth May litter we have had in our program, and the seventh spring litter (counting March as spring). That's one-third of all our litters born in May - as well as both my kids and my mom! Popular month, that.

Happy fourth birthday!

We wish you many new exciting adventures in the coming year.

(Oh, and happy birthday to my daughter, too, who is now in high school!)

Happy birthday to Lyra, Cassie, Ziggy, Gatsby and Corona!

Can it be – they’re turning three!!

Garnet’s first litter is already three years old! (That means Garnet herself will be five in summer – where did the time go?!)

 

We’ve been fortunate to keep in touch with both Lyra and Cassie and their families since they went to their homes at the age of about five months, and also with Ziggy despite the fact he now lives in Montreal.

Unfortunately, neither Gatsby nor Corona has come to any of our Doodle Romps or sent recent updates, so we don’t know how things are with them, but we’re sure they’re just too busy enjoying life with their humans to miss us.

Happy third birthday all of you!

We wish you many new exciting adventures

in the coming year.

(Oh, and happy birthday to my daughter, too, who is a lot more than 3!)

Next Doodle Romp

We are organizing a Doodle Romp for the Victoria Day Monday, May 21st, 3:00 pm at Conroy Pit.

All our puppy and dog owners are invited to attend.
If you own a doodle that didn't come from us you're invited to attend!
If you're just interested in meeting doodles and seeing what the breed is like you're also welcome to attend!

RSVP to roma@dragonramdoodles.com so we know whom to expect.

The meeting point will be down the main trail at the first fork to the left (so that we don't have to hang around the busy and crowded parking lot area while waiting for dogs and people to show up).

Come and help us celebrate Cassiopeia, Gatsby, Corona, Lyra and Ziggy's first birthday!!! We expect at least Corona and Lyra to be there. (And it's my daughter's birthday too!)

Treats will be available for dogs and their people.

Now we are six!

… weeks old, that is. A great time to be a puppy!

I still like drinking milk from my Mama, though she seems not to enjoy it very much. She keeps walking away and dragging us along with her. She even stepped on me the other day! Gee whiz, Mama, watch where you’re going! I guess I didn’t want to let go… We also get some food in our own dishes to eat – YUM!! It’s sort of crunchy, sort of sloppy.

This past week we went outside for the first time! It was cold – BRRRR! But I liked it. The fluffy white stuff on the ground is fun to play in, and it tickles my bum-bum when I pee outside. When I did that my people were really happy and gave me lots of praise! I think I’ll try it again. We put our jackets on to go outside to play with the people pups, but when we went out on our own with the big dogs we didn’t. I guess we were only out for a few minutes. The other pups scrambled back inside as fast as they could, but I didn’t – I took the time to sniff around and figure out everybody who’d been there. But all I found was the smells for Mama Garnet, Grandma MoMo, and Uncle Aspen. Oh, and the people pups and the big people, too.

Last night we had some visitors who sat on the floor and played with us. It sounded like they might want to take one of us home with them! They really liked Nighty. Hey, what about me?!! But then I’d have to go away from here. That’s scary. But exciting too.  I’m sure it won’t happen for ages, though. At least two or three more weeks!

My favourite game is chasing my sisters and brother and tussling with them. That’s so much fun! Most of the time we can only play in our own corner of the kitchen, but after we’ve eaten and peed and pooped we get to go explore the rest of the house and hide in all sorts of fun places – under chairs, on the warm air vents, by the boots and shoes that are so much fun to chew. Except I keep getting chased away from there.

Well, it’s been fun talking to you! Come visit us soon!

Yours,
Cardinal

(and my sibs:)

Scarlett

Galaxy

Nightingale
(with me and Galaxy)

Leo

and Ariel

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!

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!

Visit with Garnet

We drove out to Cornwall on Sunday to pick up Garnet. It was a glorious fall day, warm and sunny. We took Amore and the puppies (Lyra & Cassi) along, but Zip spent the day with Linda of Canadian Doodle Puppies so he didn’t get to come.

Garnet’s family has a large back yard, so kids & dogs all spent a good couple of hours romping in the yard. Garnet is one amazing Frisbee dog and boy she loves to play!! Her family has a play tunnel, so we did some agility tunnel with Amore.

And I napped on the sofa for close to two hours. After about four post-1 am nights this past week, I sure needed the rest!! Garnet will be with us for about a week while we breed her for her second litter – stayed tuned for an announcement of stud & breeding date!

 Lyra & Tes

kids on trampoline

Cassiopeia STILL available

Our Cassiopeia, daughter of Garnet & Hot Sake, is still available. 

Cassi was born May 21 so she turned four months old today. Cassi is a real little sweetheart. She has a gentle, calm temperament. She gets wound up sometimes by her sister, Lyra, who is the smarty-pants of the puppy family. They LOVE to tussle, romp, and play hard. But when she's not with her sister, Cassi is quiet though still playful, and very very sweet. She will play by herself when necessary, and will not make a fuss at being alone. She loves to cuddle, play tug-of-war, and chase balls (hasn't yet got the hang of bringing them back, though!).

We are still working on house-trainng - she is doing pretty good though not 100%. But within another couple of weeks it should "click" - usually around 4 months of age is when the pups really catch on. Cassi is used to being in her crate at night and for short periods (max 4 hours) during the day when no one is home.

Cassi is already spayed and has had all her vaccinations, including rabies just this past weekend. She has been dewormed (including a first dose of heartworm) and is microchipped. She is good on a leash and doesn't tend to pull (except when the kids or other dogs are ahead of her and she wants to catch up!). She has been well-socialized, with visits to my kids school classroom, meeting other dogs in the neighbourhood, being taken to the vet and to other people's homes, etc.

I have wished more than once that we were keeping Cassi for our breeding program – she is such a sweetie and so good-natured! But I have enough black dogs at the moment. So she really needs a good home.

Direct inquiries to http://www.blogger.com/goog_1846969232.

Bye-bye Corona!

Corona Borealis has now gone to her forever family! They called on Sunday, saying a friend had pointed them to our website and they were very interested in a doodle, and could they visit. When they arrived it was clear they were not only seriously interested, but ready to buy. After some puppy play-time, observation and interaction, and discussion of the puppies' temperaments, they chose Corona as lively but not demanding, and very cute!! 

If the banks had been open they would have taken her on the spot. but instead they had to come back Monday evening to fetch her. (Good thing, too, as I needed to finish off some of the paperwork and complete her puppy care package.) Dad and the older son came to pick her up, with a neighbour friend.

Good-bye and good luck, Corona! We hope to see you at a puppy romp some time in fall.

Now just Cassiopeia and Helios are still waiting for families.

Puppy chow-time!

The other morning I took a few photos of the puppies as they chowed down for supper. They’re big enough now that we give each of them their own dish (since we don’t have a single large dish that can accommodate five puppy head!), so they were all lined up in a row.

With the sunlight shining through the kitchen window, the pups fur really shone. The colour of Antares’ fur was particular striking! (This was a day or two before he went home.) Though all the pups were in sun, Cassi’s black fur is truly black, while Antares’ silvering really shone through. Even without sunlight on it, it has enough of a different sheen that a quick glance at the pups is generally enough to tell which one he is, despite there being three “black” ones. I expect that by the time he is a bit older, and especially he’s had a hair-cut, the silver colourwill be very prominent and he is going to be a very handsome dood!

This type of silvering is quite rare among Labradoodles. Lucky Tigger! (And lucky Warren, to have picked such a gorgeous dog.)

Bye-bye Antares!

On Tuesday we said goodbye to Antares Gatsby. His new owner had come three times to visit, so “Tigger” was familiar with him and welcomed him with kisses and snuggles. (Not that he wouldn’t have done so even if Warren were a stranger!)

After the usual paperwork and going over the stuff in the puppy goody-bag (toys, food, blanket, etc) as well as the info in the “new puppy package” (parents’ test results, pedigree, general info, health care, feeding, vaccinations, etc etc), we took a few pictures, and then said numerous, prolonged good-byes.

Tigger, we miss you already!!

(And we’re looking forward to missing your brother and sisters, too… Yes, they are still available! See our post below for details.)

DragonRam Lyra Lemon-Lime: Princess-in-waiting

After much consideration, assessment of temperament, and receipt of genetic colour testing, we have decided to keep DragonRam Lyra Lemon-Lime for our breeding program.

Lyra is our apricot girl with a sweet, pleasant disposition. She is generally calm, playful, a bit wiggly, and very friendly. She is not as demanding of attention as her brother Helios but not particularly shy either. Lyra carries two copies of the phantom gene ("at"), but only one copy of the gene that allows phantom to be expressed ("ky"). She has two copies of the cream-red-apricot gene ("ee"). I have not yet received the results of the testing for her chocolate status. We know she must carry at least one copy of the Black gene ("B") since her mother, Garnet, has two copies and Lyra inherits one of these from Garnet. But there is a 50% chance that the other copy could be chocolate, inherited from her father Hot Sake.

This means that, if bred to our phantom boy Magnum, half the puppies would be cream and the other half would be either - if Lyra does not carry chocolate - black and black phantom (25% each) - or, if she does carry chocolate - black, black phantom, chocolate, and chocolate phantom (12.5% each). If we find or obtain a cream stud, all the puppies would be varying shades of cream, from off-white to potentially deep red, and any shade in between (gold, apricot).

(below: Lyra on the left, with Antares & Helios)

Although I had been hoping to keep a phantom female, none of the three girls is a visible phantom - all of them have only one copy of the gene that allows phantom to be expressed, where two copies are needed for the phantom markings to be visible. Since Lyra will be able to produce phantoms just as well as her sisters, I decided to keep her to increase our ability to produce puppies in the cream colour group as well. Plus, more importantly, she has a sweet temperament and we are sure she will mature into a calm, loving and playful companion.

(The "Lemon-Lime" comes from the fact that earlier this week, we were out on the deck enjoying a glass of cold lemonade with lemon and lime wedges in it, and with the puppies close at hand. Kids being kids, they decided to see which puppy liked the lemon and lime flavours best - and Lyra won!

Available puppies

We have three puppies from this litter still looking for their forever families.

  DragonRam Cassiopeia 

Cassiopeia, the first-born, is our black beauty! She is very petite and will likely mature to a similar size as her mother, perhaps just a tad larger - 12-15 lbs and 13-14" at the shoulder. She has large dark eyes in a soft square face. She is a quiet, calm girl, not prone to whining or making much of a fuss, but not fazed by new experiences either - witness her playfulness at meeting a classroom full of 8-year-olds, or being "treated" to a swim in a backyard pool. Cassi is a great kisser and loves to enjoy a nice cuddle on a lap, but she is also happy to play on her own. Cassi is a delightful girl and will make a great companion for a single person, couple or family.

  DragonRam Corona Borealis 

Corona, the middle pup, is a playful little imp. She is very beautiful, with dark black fur shot through with silver highlights, white hind paws, white hairs on the underside of her front paws, and a white chin and throat markings. Corona is also quite petite - she started out as the smallest but has now grown a bit bigger than her sister Cassi. Despite her small size, Corona does not let her brothers boss her around and tussles back with them energetically. She likes to crawl under the barrier separating the puppy corner from the people part of the house so that she can be with her people, though she has now grown enough that this is no longer possible (at least not without getting stuck!). She will make a good companion to an active single person, couple, or family.

  DragonRam Helios  

Helios (nickname Bowden), the last-born of this litter of five, does not let his status as youngest get in his way! He is the largest of the puppies and is likely to mature to about his Grandma Amore's size - 18-22 pounds and 15-16" at the shoulder. Helios is the most investigative and adventuresome of the puppies. When the others were still finding their legs at 3 weeks of age, Helios was out exploring the world on tottery limbs, frequently falling but continuing to explore his surroundings and figure out this big world around him. Helios will whine and squeal to let you know he wants attention, and then shower you with kisses when he gets it. He is most happy when playing with the children, the other puppies, or when out exploring the big wide world. Helios will make a wonderful companion for a family with children or a couple where there is someone at home a good part of the day.

I am hoping that the right family for each of these puppies will come along by mid-August, when we are taking our holidays!! We have a house- and dog-sitter lined up, but would prefer not to leave her with puppies to look after in addition to Amore.

Despite many inquiries, receipt of several application forms, and lots of e-mails, nobody (except Antares's daddy) has followed through with their expression of interest. I know there are many reasons for this, but it would just be nice to know why people aren't following through, especially if they have submitted an application form.

If you are one of those individuals who has called or sent an e-mail of inquiry, would you mind just dropping a line to roma@dragonramdoodles.com to tell me the reason you have chosen not to take one of these beautiful pups? Thanks!

Mama love

There's nothing like a mother dog and her puppies (or in this case, puppy)...

DragonRam Doodle Romp

DragonRam Doodles is organizing a Doodle Roma at the Conroy Dog Park on Tuesday, 12 July 2011, from 7:30-8:30pm (not change of date). We are specifically inviting all our puppies that live in the region (and their owners!) to come, but if there are any other doodle lovers/owners out there who would like to join us, we would be happy to have you.

At our last romp in May we met up again with the three boys from Amore's 2010 litter who all ended up in homes close by. They will now be 10 months old! This time we are hoping Galena, from Amore's 2011 litter (4 months old) will be able to join us too, and perhaps our new stud puppy CD Maggie's Magnum Rocky Road (Magnum), also 4 months old and a potential future mate for Galena.

Garnet's puppies are not fully vaccinated, so they are not ready to come to the dog park and wander around (when we bfought them before, they were confined to their playpen). But any potentially interested purchasers who would like to view them would be welcome to visit puppies either before or after the romp. Contact me for info.

Which girl to keep?

We are still in the process of deciding which of the three female puppies we will keep for our breeding program. While we think Corona Borealis is a very cute puppy, with her white paws, beard and "tie," and with her sociable and slightly impish pesonality, we have learned that she does not carry the gene for chocolate (though she does for cream), so she would only be able to produce black and cream puppies.

At this point, therefore, the main contenders are:

Cassiopeia: carries for both chocolate and cream 

or

Lyra: carries for cream (obviously!); 

chocolate-gene status not yet known

Which of them (if any) carry for phantom will also be a factor, and we hope to get those results in the next week or so (along with Lyra's chocolate gene results).

While we wait for those results, we are continuing to assess their personalizites - which, after all, is more important than colour genetics in the overal scheme of things.

Corona is obviously outgoing and social. She loves to be where the people are, and has discovered that she is still small enough to squeeze under the gate that separates the puppy nook from the rest of the house so she can get where she wants to. She's not quite the impish escape artist that Sapphire was, but is definitely pretty smart! (Though whether she's smart enough not to get stuck once she eventually grows too large to fit under the gate remains to be seen!)

Lyra is more reserved than Corona. During the visit to the kindergarten class she was more reticent to go greet all the chattering 7- and 8-year olds than Antares Gatsby and Cassiopeia, but she didn't exhibit fear, just uncertainty. In other situations where she's had to confront new things, she's been calm, confident, and curious. She is definitely playful and very cuddly, but less noisy than the other pups. She will likely be similar in size to Amore once she has matured.

Cassiopeia is somewhat in between Corona and Lyra. She is outgoing and confident in most situations, not afraid to meet new people or dogs, but not as eager to be out where the action is as Corona. She likes to play with Grandma Momo and is very huggable, like Lyra, but doesn't call attention to herself like Corona does.