“Do you sleep by the whelping box when a first-time bitch is due to whelp? Have you breathed life into a stillborn puppy? And cried when it died… Have you studied pedigrees, planned the breeding, and watched the litter grow as proudly as the owner of a Kentucky Derby Winner once did? Then you can say with pride… Yes, I am a breeder (article by Cindy Smith).

As someone who is involved with dog and equine rescues, is on multiple dog e-mail lists, reads twitter, facebook, etc. I am aware that there are those who feel breeding any animal is a terrible thing. The “don’t buy while those in shelters die” mentality is that for every puppy born another dies in a shelter. I don’t buy that theory as many of us who are committeed to our breeds also rescue them and make room for “one more” many times at our homes. If I hadn’t gotten so involved with Labradors and Pugs including joining regional and national clubs for each breed, I probably wouldn’t have also gotten involved with rescue and placed who knows how many (100, more?) in new loving homes. I’m sure I never would have co-founded LABMED as I wouldn’t have had the ties with fellow breeders who helped and continue to help LABMED with their contributions.

Yes, there are bad “breeders” but they probably shouldn’t be called breeders but rather “producers” as they only care about making a product and not what happens to the pups the rest of their lives. They are a different type of person from the responsible breeders I know and hang out with. I and my breeder friends will always take back any dog that we placed as a puppy or adult dog. In fact most of us have contracts that insist the dog come back to us but sometimes people either have lost our contact info or sadly don’t want to admit they are having a problem with their dog or can’t keep it due to life changes so dump it in a shelter or on rescue. One friend, when notified a Lab rescue had just gotten in a dog with papers that showed her as a breeder, drove at 10 at night to the foster home that had the dog to reclaim him. So I was really happy to find the above article on line today as it really describes what I go through each time we have a litter of puppies here. This is the essence of a responsible breeder, one who always puts the dogs’ (or other animals) needs before their own need to eat or sleep.

So like Cindy Smith, I am proud to say “Yes, I am a breeder”.

On June 17th one of our yellow Labs, Summer, welcomed her first litter into the world. Summer did me the huge favor of whelping during the day between 10:25 a.m. and 3:58 p.m. Most times it seems like litters are born during the middle of the night making it hard to get ahold of a vet if you need one and also making it hard to find an extra pair of helping hands to sit up with you as you await the births. Fortunately my friend, Lynn M. was able to come and join me for most of the births and was a huge help.

Summer surprised me by having all three colors of Labrador Retrievers in her litter — black, yellow and chocolate. (There are only 3 accepted colors in the Labrador Retriever Breed Standard.) We knew that the dog we bred her to, Calypso, carried the gene for chocolate as well as for yellow (Calypso is black) but we did not know that Summer carried the gene for chocolate. I was really excited when puppy #2 came out and I realized he was a chocolate. This wonderful website explains all the possible genetic color combinations in Labrador Retrievers. This litter has 7 puppies — 2 chocolate boys, 1 chocolate girl, 1 yellow boy and 1 yellow girl, 1 black boy and 1 black girl so we beat the odds on the genetics chart!

The first couple of weeks the pups can’t see or hear. Their eyes and ears are actually sealed shut. Click here for a photo of a still sealed ear. About 2 weeks of age the eye start to open in the corners and the ears begin to unseal. Then the fun begins!

During days 3 to 16 we follow the program for Early Neurological Stimulation for puppies. It is believed that this Early Neurological Stimulation enhances a puppy’s development. Originally called the “Bio Sensor” program, these exercises were developed by the U.S. military for their canine training programs to give the dogs a superior advantage.. Their studies confirmed that there are specific time periods early in life when neurological stimulation has optimum results. Days 3 to 16 are one of those time periods.
The exercises (done for 3 to 5 seconds each) involve handling the puppies one at a time while performing a series of five exercises. Listed in order of preference the handler starts with one pup and stimulates it using each of the five exercises. The handler completes the series from beginning to end before starting with the next pup. (Note we handle our puppies more than once per day but these exercises are only done once per day or they may stress the puppies out.)

• Tactical stimulation (tickled between toes on one foot with a q-tip)
• Head held erect
• Head pointed down
• Supine position (on back)
• Thermal stimulation — puppy is placed on a towel that has been cooled in the
  refrigerator for at least 5 min.
  

Summer’s puppies were all walking around in the whelping box by about 10 days even through they could not yet see or hear so I do think these exercises make a difference right from the beginning.

The first couple of weeks the puppies are weighed every day to make sure everyone is gaining weight appropriately. Their nails are clipped with fingernail clippers every few days as otherwise they scratch their mom while they are nursing.

Deb takes vacation time from work or juggles her schedule so the pups are rarely alone. (The first week Deb sleeps near the whelping box as well so that no accidents, such as the mom laying on a puppy, happen.) Lots of laundry needs to be done as we use reusable cloth pads and fleece in the whelping box to keep the puppies dry and comfortable.

Having puppies is a very rewarding but busy experience and certainly not a money maker but a labor of love.

I will post more updates and photos as the puppies grow.

Today Nessie (formally Champion Honorbright Legend of DMarsh TD, JH, RN) would have been 15 years old. I had really hoped to be celebrating this birthday with her here on earth but sadly I had to make the decision to release her spirit back on January 29th. This is a tribute to her that I wrote that day.

CH Honorbright Legend of DMarsh TD, JH, RN, WC
4/1/95 to 1/29/10
Nessie left me to go retrieve ducks and bumpers in heaven. Recently she was falling over a lot and having trouble using one of her front legs. I promised not to let her lose her dignity and not sure I totally met that promise but did the best I could. I realized when she laid down on the blanket at the vets’ that she hadn’t been wagging her tail any more and usually she did not like going to the vet but laid down in the sun in the exam room and never picked her head up again while I petted her and the vet helped her leave.

She was my first CH, my first tracking dog (earned at the tender age of 8 months) and the Queen Bee here. She is the mother of my Ali and Cori, grandmother of Jazz and Zamboni, great grandmother of River. For a few months I had 4 generations of my beloved Labs here. I adored her and would have done anything to have her another week, year, lifetime but I could not let her go on and suffer just for me…….She is now with her co-Queen Bee, my beloved Lily Pug. She is so missed.

This post doesn’t have to do with people romance but rather the loss of our beloved animal companions. Since I own a lot of dogs I also have to deal with this loss more frequently than many pet owners do. Each time I have had a particularly hard loss it seems that a needy dog has appeared, perhaps sent by the other one from across the Rainbow Bridge.

Buster is one of those who I believe was sent for a reason. Buster is a pug that I meant to foster for the pug rescue and find him the right forever home. I was still grieving for my Lily (my first ever pug) even though it had been months since her death. Buster was rapidly dumped off at our home by his previous (and 3rd) owner and it was apparent the frequent switching of homes had left him with some baggage. Despite the baggage (upset/screaming if crated, separation anxiety, hanging on your legs when you tried to go through a door, etc.) he had redeeming qualities, too. He loved to play with my big dogs once he adjusted to them but wasn’t too interested in my other pugs. He was immediately retrieving balls and playing “tug” with toys. A dog like this needs a job, not to sit on someone’s lap and I think my husband expressed the thought first that we really should just keep him. The very first night we had Buster he was so distressed I decided to take him to bed with us and he snuggled up against me in the same spot Lily always did. I realized he had been sent by her to comfort me but I didn’t want to let myself love him. I took him to a couple of obedience classes and then I took him to an agility class. He took to it immediately although we had to work through the distractions of other dogs working and him wanting to just run off and do his own thing. We switched to a smaller class which helped a lot with his focus. At this point he is improving on being crated, we have gone to matches, done some agility demos and even been in a couple of trials now. He has his first agility title but we are still working on being a team.

Today we went to another agility match. He has trialed at this same place and often tries to run out of the ring so I was prepared to deal with that and give him positive reinforcement for coming back to me. Much to my surprise and delight not only did he run both courses fast and accurately but he never once tried to leave the ring. When we left the building after his second run I felt like I now had an agility teammate. I realized that loving Buster does not take away from the love I have for my Lily but it does help her loss not hurt so badly now.

As we got to the car I heard a sandhill crane in the distance. This is in town and I’ve not heard sandhills at that place before. Soon it was closer and it was then I felt my Lily’s presence. Ironically this week was the 4 year anniversary since she left me. I think she was telling me “I’m still watching over you, good job.”. I’m glad no one saw me crying out by the car.

If you are interested, these are two other blog posts about the messengers who my dogs have sent to me in the past.

Messengers From Beyond

Turbo Now Has Wings

Our part of Wisconsin got totally shut down by a huge blizzard that started 12/8 and went through yesterday. All schools and the university were closed, all government offices were closed, the clinic I work at was closed. We were totally stranded due to huge drifts in our driveway until someone could come last night to plow us out.

My a.m. started when I tried to turn the dogs out about 7 a.m. and could not open either of our doors to the outside due to huge drifts (which you will see in the photos). We finally had to take out a pane of glass on the storm door so I could climb through it to the other side, shovel out around the door and let the dogs out. The snow is extremely heavy and wet so I could only get it shoveled out enough to open the door wide enough for us to squeeze through. My husband, Kent, can do NO shoveling as unfortunately Kent had a heart attack last Friday so we aren’t going to be shovelled out for quite some time I’m afraid.

To get to the barn I had to walk on the edge of the fence due to hip deep drifts and since no gates would open had to climb over the fence. Walking through the hip deep drifts was too strenuous for Kent right now so he managed to get into the hay mow (which is level by our driveway) then I lowered the stairs so he could climb down into the barn. We had to kick snow out of the way to slide open one side of the barn door.

Here are some photos from the farm showing the amount of snow we are dealing with.

Now the sky is a magnificent shade of blue today and the winds have started dying down but it is only zero out with wind chills in the minus 20s so winter has hit us hard in a very short period of time.

Halloween is always bitter sweet for me because I remember my heart dog, Reilly, who I will miss the rest of my life, being born on that day now 21 years ago.

However this year I also have the joy of having 4 generations of my bloodline alive and well in my house and today I was able to get a photo of the four girls together.

Ali is now 11 1/2 and the mother of Jazz who will be 7 tomorrow. Next to Jazz is her young daughter, River, age 16 weeks and next to River is Nessie who is Ali’s mom/Jazz’s grandmother/River’s great grandmother.

We had a litter of Labrador Retrievers born on 7/12/09 so they are now 10 weeks old. Today I took one of my Labs to the Retriever Club http://dunnsmarshlabs.com/bbfarmblog/wp-admin/post-new.php#to work on some issues before our next hunt test and also decided to take Jazz and the female pup we are keeping, River. Basically my goal was to introduce River to a new environment in a positive manner. If she went near or into the water, great, but I wasn’t going to force her.

River was very excited to get out and check out this new place and right away went running after her mom. Pretty soon Jazz was back in the water and River was really watching her trying to figure out what her mom was doing. Soon she was testing the water. Of course she had to test it by drinking it. The bank was very slippery clay so she didn’t actually get in and swim today but still it was a good, positive start. We will try a different pond tomorrow since the nice weather is still holding.

We have a litter of Labrador puppies here, born on 7/12/09 so thought I would share a couple of photos of them.

Everybody always talks about the sweet smell of “puppy breath”. If you haven’t smelled it I really have no way to describe it to you but any dog breeder knows what I am talking about. So what causes this delightful (to dog lovers anyways) smell that only lasts a short time? The theories I have found say that vets guess that puppy breath is a result of their healthy, mild diet of mother’s milk and then puppy food, and the enzymes that break the food down.

Since puppies don’t eat “big dog” or table food, they don’t have “big dog” mouth bacteria or the plaque problems older dogs develop so their mouths are clean thus no bad breath.

Can’t you just imagine the puppy breath just looking at these sleeping babies?
More information and photos of our sweet pups can be found on our web site.

My post about dogs and heat has been one of the most read posts on my blog. Today I heard about a neat product that goes with that post.

There is a temperature monitor and alarm you can put in your car, truck or motorhome that will cause the horn to blow if temperature is over or under a certain range. It is made by Safe Home Products. It isn’t cheap but in all of these cases it could have saved the dogs involved.

In a further update, yet another dog has died in a hot car — this one belonged to the Richmond, VA SPCA CEO: View article.
My sympathies go out to her as apparently this occurred due to an unfortunate lack of communication between her and her husband, who had put the dog in her car without telling her, but one has to wonder if this had been a CEO of another type of business who left their dog in a car, wouldn’t charges be pressed and the public be up in arms? Instead the head of the HSUS is defending her saying this incident can help raise public awareness.

I Love This Video! As soon as I saw this video I knew I had to post it on my web site.
Fun song and video so enjoy!

The name of the musician is John Shipe.

Sadly this song has some truth in it as these dogs are judged just by looking at them rather than by knowing them. In light of the HSUS supported killing of 147 confiscated pit bulls back in Feb., people are very concerned about what will happen with the large group of pit bulls recently taken from a fighting kennel in MO. For more info view this article on the AR-HR blog. Many of those confiscated are likely dogs who were never fought and will make great pets. They deserve to be evaluated fairly by an unbiased evaluator (as in not the HSUS) before written off as unadoptable.