Harmony's babies have arrived!

Harmony came to stay with us after the Doodle Romp last Sunday, in preparation for the birth of her first babies.

We monitored her temperature over the next few days, as a drop in temperature for a 12-hour period signals that delivery will take place within the next 24 hours. The drop was noted on Wednesday evening. Also, when delivery is imminent the mamas start to engage in “nesting” behaviour – digging at the blankets in the whelping box, trying to make a nice place for their pups. (And they might start to pee a lot…) This started happening Wednesday night – she was pawing at the blankets in the whelping box and generally acting rather restless. Then she didn’t eat her food on Thursday morning – a good sign she’s into labour.

We arranged to “tag-team” it for most of the day. I was home until 9am, then my son came home after his physio appointment (skipping school!) to stay with her until noon; then my daughter came home over lunch and her first afternoon period, heading back to school for last period at 2:00. I intended to come home right after my meeting ended at 2:30, hoping to be home by 3:00 but the meeting ended up going until a bit after 3 so my son got home again before I did. That meant she was alone for a bit over an hour. Grandpa was supposed to keep an eye on her during that time, but he fell asleep on the sofa. Of course Harmonychose that time to start delivering. By the time my son got home from school, two of the pups had already arrived, and he was just in time to catch the third. I got home just in time for #4.

We have

• Puppy #1: 2:06pm (appx), solid black male with a tiny white spot on his throat, 335g
• Puppy #2: 2:33pm (appx), gold parti female, 299g
• Puppy #3: 3:18pm, black parti tricolour male, 254g
• Puppy #4: 3:45pm, chocolate parti tricolour male, 287g
• Puppy #5: 4:11pm, red parti female, 235g
• Puppy #6: 4:32pm, solid black male, 295g
• Puppy #7: 5:08pm, black parti female, 285g

Harmony and Hugo, you make some amazing puppies!

These pups are all a good size – but not quite as huge as Phoenix’s (with the slight exception of the first one).

Babies and mama are all doing just fine.

And so the newest adventure begins!

Welcome to Hugo!

Over the past couple of months I have been working to obtain another stud puppy for our program. I am happy to announce that as of last Thursday, we welcomed Scotia Doodles Hugo to our dog family!!

Hugo was born on 31 July 2015, so he is now 3 months old. He is a lovely apricot colour, and carries black and chocolate. Not to mention that he is an invisible phantom, so bred with a black or chocolate phantom female they would have lots of beautiful phantom pups! He is expected to mature to about 30 lbs and 17" at the shoulder. His sire is Puppy Loves unDante and his dam is Scotia Doodles Amber. 
 

He has already been tested for EIC, PRA, OSD, and had an initial CERF exam. All that remains is to check his hips, which we will do early in 2016, check vWD and get a genetic ID. Once he passes all testing and matures we expect to use him with our girls Harmony and Phoennix, and possibly others. We will also consider studding him out to approved females, if there is interest.
 

One of our prime reasons for getting a second in-house stud is specifically to have a match for Harmony. We had intended to use Cumin with her, but they are both EIC carriers so that is out of the question. Also, having an in-house stud suitable for use with Phoenix (and possibly Katniss) is good, as Cumin is Phoenix's son and Katniss's brother, so those pairings are also out of the question! 

Hugo will be joining Cumin in his guardian family, so both our studs will live together. Here's hopint they get along!