Guardian home needed!

As I mentioned in my last post, we are planning to keep one of Harmony's puppies as a potential breeder. 

That means we are looking for a Guardian Family to keep this lovely pup and help us make our breeding program a success. By placing breeding dogs in Guardian Homes, we ensure our breeders are raised in a family setting, given lots of love and attention, and well-looked after. This also helps to make an urban breeding program viable, as we could not keep enough dogs in our home for a full-fledged breeding program, and we do not believe in rehoming adult dogs unless absolutely necessary. When our breeders retire, they do not need to go live somewhere else - they simply stay with their Guardian Family in the home they have known since puppyhood. 

Since our Guardians are working with us to make our breeding program a success, the price of a Guardian dog is reduced and/or rebated. Since we are not 100% certain how much use we may make of the pups we will be keeping this year, we are taking a slightly different approach - the Guardians will pay a reduced price for the puppy, and if/when we choose to breed her, we will pay the Guardians a set amount for each litter up to the full purchase price of the dog. In this way, if we end up not using a puppy, we will not have simply given away one of our best pups. 

Guardians must live within 40km of central Ottawa (preferably less) and be willing to bring the dog to us when necessary. This involves a couple of medical checkups during the first year, checkups once every 18 months after that, and access to the dog for breeding purposes. For females, the dog comes to us to be bred, and then comes to stay with us one week before the expected arrival of her pups. She stays until the pups are weaned at age about 7 weeks, and then goes back to her family. 

We normally have three or four litters with each female before she retires. She would have her first litter at around 2 years of age, and then we would aim to com8plete all litters by the time she is 5 years old. 

The pups we will choose from for Harmony's litter are:
Harlequin (chocolate/white parti girl)
Bella (black female with white markings)
Dakota (chocolate female)
Which one is ultimately selected depends on the results of the temperament test and initial vet checkup. As such, the decision will be made after March 13. 

If you are interested in being a Guardian, please send an email to roma@dragonramdoodles.com. We will be looking for three Guardians this year - one puppy from each of Harmony's, Topaz's, and Phoenix's litters. 

Guardian homes needed

We are hoping to keep one or two of Galena’s and Topaz’s (female) pups from their May litters as breeding prospect puppies. We will need Guardian families to provide homes for them.  

To qualify as a DragonRam guardian famil, you need to live within a 10km radius of central Ottawa (or be willing and able to bring the dog to our place for testing about once a year and occasional visits). You need to agree to provide a safe, secure, happy home for the dog, feed only high-quality, grain-free food, provide regular veterinary care, and overall provide a loving, caring home. We retain breeding rights to the dog for up to 4 litters, and require access to the dog for breeding-related health checks, breeding and whelping.

You need to agree to stay in touch so we can schedule breedings and so your dog remains familiar with us and our home. Males may be called upon multiple times a year to provide breeding services, which usually involves a couple hours every so often. Females need to stay with us for a few days when bred, and them come to our home about a week before puppies are due. The female whelps her puppies at our house and remains with us until the puppies are weaned by around 7 weeks of age.

In recognition of the ongoing relationship and our demands on you and your time (and dog), the price for a Guardian Puppy is substantially reduced.

If you think this might interest you, please refer to our website and/or contact us and we will be happy to provide more information. (roma@dragonramdoodles.com)

Guardian Homes needed!

Now that Phoenix's puppies are soon to be  born, we can confirm that we are looking for several Guardian families to provide homes for breeding prospect puppies. We hope to keep one male and one female from this litter, and up to two females from Topaz's litter later this spring.

To qualify to be DragonRam guardian families, you need to live within a 10km radius of central Ottawa. You need to agree to provide a safe, secure, happy home for the dog, feed only high-quality, grain-free food, provide regular veterinary care, and overall provide a loving, caring home. We retain breeding rights to the dog for up to 4 litters, and require access to the dog for breeding-related health checks, breeding and whelping.

You need to agree to stay in touch so we can schedule breedings and so your dog remains familiar with us and our home. Males may be called upon multiple times a year to provide breeding services, which usually involves a couple hours every so often. Females need to stay with us for a few days when bred, and them come to our home about a week before puppies are due. The female whelps her puppies at our house and remains with us until the puppies are weaned by around 7 weeks of age.

In recognition of the ongoing relationship and our demands on you and your time (and dog), the price for a Guardian Puppy is substantially reduced.

If you think this might interest you, please refer to our website and/or contact us and we will be happy to provide more information. (roma@dragonramdoodles.com)

Topaz needs a Guardian Family

Topaz is our lovely red-apricot breeding prospect out of our Amore and Puppy Love’s Moto Moto. She just turned 4 months old and is essentially house-trained. We expect her to mature to about 25 lbs and 16-17” at the shoulder.

Topaz is a super cute, super friendly, outgoing and loving girl. She is confident, happy to make friends with new people or dogs, quite willing to rough-house with the best of them, and a generally all-around sweet and playful girl.  She is also very accepting and patient – witness the fact that she let my daughter and me spend a good half hour picking burrs out of her fur one day last week with nary a whimper and barely a squirm, even when the burrs in need of picking were right by her nose and eyes or on her legs and feet, two areas where many dogs do not care to be handled – not to mention having their fur pulled to get burrs out!!

Given that Topas is one of our up-and-coming Mamas (and we think she’ll be a great one, too!) we are looking for a Guardian Home to be her forever family. What this means is that the family who takes her needs to be willing and able to make her available to us for health screening and breeding until Topaz has had up to 3 litters (unless we decide to retire her early).

You, as Topaz’s family, will treat her just like you would your regular family dog – feed her the best quality food, give her lots of walks and playtime, train her in basic obedience, keep her coat nicely groomed, take her with you on outings, holidays, etc. You are responsible for normal vet care (annual check-up and any required vaccinations, summer heartworm and flea/tick treatment, any general health care).

Since she is not spayed, you do need to be careful when she is in heat that she does not get too friendly with any un-neutered males. Heat cycles come every 6-8 months on average, with the first cycle usually coming any time between age 6 and 12 months. A female in heat is normally not receptive to the attentions of a male unless she is actually fertile, which is a period of roughly 5-7 days in the cycle. Outside that period she will normally not allow a male to get overly friendly; during that period she will be happy for his attentions. Of course, each dog is different and some females are quite happy to let a male attend them outside “regular shopping hours” while others don’t care for his attentions even at the peak of their fertile cycle. You will quickly figure out where Topaz sits on that scale and need to treat her accordingly. It is always better to be safe than sorry, especially when unplanned puppies might result.

We plan to breed Topaz first in 2014, when she is about 2 years old. Before then she will likely have gone two or three heat cycles. When we breed her, we take her in for progesterone testing on 2-3 occasions to determine the optimum breeding date. Once that is pinpointed, she will be bred to the stud of choice. If she lives with a family close by, this can be accomplished without Topaz needing to be gone from your home for more than a few hours every second day. If the family lives farther away, she would come and stay with us for the 7-10 day breeding period and go home to you when it’s all done.

Then comes the fun part: puppy time! Nine weeks after ovulation the puppies are ready to enter the world. Normally Topaz would come to our house about 3-5 days prior to the expected whelp date. The puppies would be born at our house, where Topaz would care for them attentively as all new mothers do. Once the puppies are weaned, around age 6 weeks, Topaz would go back to her home. If you are a family keen to experience the joys of having little pups at your place, we would entertain the possibility of allowing Topaz to stay with you during the whelping and nursing period. We would provide necessary supplies (whelping box, etc), come for the birth, and visit the pups and mother from time to time. At age 7-8 weeks, after being weaned, the pups would come to our place for the final 1-2 weeks before going to their new homes.

As far as health screening goes, this is not onerous. It involves testing of hips on at least two occasions (age 4 months and 2 years), some genetic testing for colour and disease genes (each test done once normally at age 4 months), and eye and thyroid exams every 12-18 months. Since Topaz is already 4 months old, we will be having her hips done shortly along with all current genetic screening and an initial eye exam. The next required testing (thyroid) will only occur after her first birthday, in May 2013.

Being a Guardian does take a fair bit of commitment and cooperation, but it is rewarding as well when you see your dog’s little puppies and know that you are contributing to a quality breeding program where we take great care to ensure our dogs and puppies receive the best of care. In recognition of the extra commitment required from you, the terms for adopting a Guardian Dog are much different than a pet puppy (contact us for details).

We hope that the right Guardian Family is out there and shows up soon!

So far we have had four families express an interest and then change their minds:

Family 1 – originally interested in Aspen, decided they didn’t want to be guardians to a female

Family 2 – had just gotten a kitten and decided a puppy as well would be a bit much

Family 3 – no reason given

Family 4 – mother-in-law coming to live with them, meaning less space and time for another dog

We dearly want to Topaz to be placed soon so she can benefit from the love and attention of her own forever family. She is a super sweet and friendly girl who deserves a loving and playful family home.

Contact roma@dragonramdoodles.com if you are interested or know someone who might be. Guardians must live within a 100-km radius of Ottawa, ON.

News, news, news!!!

Well, I missed last week’s update owing to being too busy – with dogs, puppies, kids, etc etc. It was a super busy weekend, with taking the pups to the vet, meeting one of our puppy families who drove in from North Bay to meet the puppies and finalize their choice, going to a junior youth party with my daughter, my son’s soccer tournament on Sunday, and then taking in the last half of the Canadian Doodle Puppies' Doodle Romp with Phoenix (who came to us from Linda) and the rest of the big dogs (and little black boy came along too!) 

So, here is all the NEWS!

First off, I am very very VERY pleased to say that Scarlett has a family!!!!! Mindy & Neil and their daughters live about an hour outside New York City. Their dog walker found Scarlett online as a playmate for their other dog, and we connected and things fell into place over the past week. So tomorrow (Saturday) we are going to all meet in Syracuse and transfer Scarlett to them. We will be sad that Scarlett is going to live so far away that it’s unlikely we’ll see her again, except in pictures, but happy that she has found the right family.

Second, Leo also has a home!!! Carmel lives right here in Ottawa so we’ll be sure to see Leo again at a Doodle Romp down the road. Leo will be going home either tonight or first thing tomorrow morning. He will have 4 (yes four!!!) cats to keep him company – so his new owner will take the time to introduce them to each other carefully so that Leo – and the cats – have time to get used to each other. I’m sure they’ll become good friends in time, as Leo is such a sweet boy.

Third, we have homes now for:

Red Boy (PJ) who will also be going home tonight, 

Cream Boy (Banjo) who will head to his new home in North Bay next weekend,

 and I think Cream Girl (our name for her is Pearl) might end up being reserved later today, by a family here in Ottawa. (Keep your fingers crossed!) That leaves just Black Boy (our name for him: Obsidian or Sid for short) in need of a home.

As you might have guessed, that also means that we intend to keep Red Girl, Topaz, as a future breeder. I say “Intend to keep” as we still need to verify whether she’ll be suitable. To explain that I need to back up a little bit.

We took the five puppies to the vet last Saturday for their first checkup and vaccination. They are all healthy and in good shape. The only glitch was that when he listened to Topaz’s heart, our vet said he detected a slight heart murmur. He said this particular type of murmur is not uncommon among young puppies and very often they outgrow it by 12 or 16 weeks of age. However, it means we need to delay our final decision about Topaz until then.

We have a guardian family pretty much lined up for Topaz. They visited us earlier this week and just loved her! If all works out, Topaz will have a kitty friend too!

They were disappointed to hear that she isn’t ready to go to them quite yet, as I won’t place her until I know we can use her as a breeder. So the plan is to have her re-evaluated on July 10 – just shy of 12 weeks old. If everything is fine, she’ll go to her family. Otherwise I will have to foster her out for the next 5 weeks while we are on our summer holiday and then re-evaluate once we’re back, at 17 weeks old. If she passes then – great! Otherwise she will be sold as a pet and I will retain Ariel (Leo & Scarlett’s sister who is currently being fostered at her dam’s house in Cornwall) as our fourth breeding Mama. I decided to do that instead of keeping Pearl, Topaz’s sister.

So this past Wednesday the four pet puppies – PJ, Banjo, Cream Girl Pearl and Black Boy Obsidian – all went to the vet a second time for neutering. The procedure went well and by the evening all the boys were as lively as usual! Cream Girl Pearl took a bit longer, but within 24 hours she, too, was up and about as though nothing had happened. Ah, the resilience of the very young!

If you know anyone who’s thinking of getting a puppy this summer, let them know that Black Boy (Obsidian) is available!! He is a super sweet pup, in some ways the best of this litter in my opinion. He is calm, cool, collected and confident – eager to play but not demanding, inquisitive but not prone to stray, active but not hyper, independent and just an all-around great guy! 

 

Guardian Home needed for Scarlett

Scarlett is our “pick of the litter” for us to retain for breeding. She is a lovely solid apricot female with a black nose and a white patch on her throat and chest.

Scarlett is playful, alert, friendly, and confident. When she sees us, she doesn’t like to be stuck in the puppy playpen but wants to come out, say hi and be close to us. She loves her cuddles!! Scarlett is starting to ring the bell on occasion to go outside, though she hasn’t yet connected that to doing her business outside, but that will come. She generally does her business on the pee pads, though not 100% of the time. (Our focus is increasingly on getting her to go outside rather than use the pee pads. She loves to play with Uncle Aspen (our 6-month old puppy) and to chase after balls.

A Guardian Home for Scarlett should be a home where she will have lots of interaction with people and other dogs (either another dog in the house or the opportunity to meet them outside at play) so she maintains her well-socialized and friendly nature. It could be a home with children over age 4, a couple who are not always away, a retired couple or single person, or a working single person who is home enough to provide lots of attention or can make arrangements for that to happen (dog-sitter, dog-walker, other family members or friends, etc).

The Guardian’s responsibilities are to provide a loving, safe and secure home for an “intact” female dog where she will receive training and ongoing social interaction with people and dogs. Having an intact female is not generally difficult, you just need to be sure to avoid close contact with unneutered males when she is in heat (and most females are not receptive to a male’s advances except for the few days where she is actually fertile, though you must still be careful). Guardians should live within a one-hour drive of Ottawa.

The Guardian family is responsible for general day-to-day care of the dog and associated expenses, such as food, grooming, annual vaccinations, etc. As the Breeder, I am responsible for any care and expenses related to breeding and whelping (birth) of the puppies. This includes taking her to appointments for health screening relating to breeding soundness (hips, elbows, eyes, and thyroid), choosing a mate and seeing to the actual breeding, and overseeing the birth and care of puppies at our home.

Scarlett is a very sweet little pup who will bring joy and action to whatever family she joins.

If you are interested in being a Guardian Family for Scarlett, please contact me at roma@dragonramdoodles.com or call 613-552-3066.