Sun litter diary
Banner on the left Promise on the right
The Sun litter is here!
May 2007 June!
8-2-07
6 males 4 females!
Well it has happened, 1 week after I returned from the ABMC National Promise is in season. I will now have to decide do I breed her at all? Do I breed her to O'Neill's frozen semen, or do I breed her to Banner. I know both these sires will produce dogs I will like, although I will expect very different puppies. I expect Banner's pups will be much more forward and pushy in temperament, more prey and fight drive and more serious overall it will be a very tight breeding on Duc and may produce puppies that are more "dog" than the average dog owner needs. Banner's puppy should have exceptional structure and would be VERY athletic dogs, the down side is that Banner is young and unproven. With O'Neill I would expect less prey and fight drive but very good pack drive. O'Neill's pups are a joy to live with and I would expect exceptional herding aptitude. The down side to O'Neill is that I know he carries coat, and I'm pretty sure that Promise carries coat, I know her sire Duc did carry coat, and I now know that one of her Sons has produced Tervs in a litter.
So both litters excited me then there was the entire "should I breed at all."
Pro to breeding, I really like Promise's puppies for the most part they have wonderful structure and outstanding temperament and very good health. In short, I like her puppies and I think the breed could use more of what she produces.
Con to breeding - Time away from training, as I really want to get Promise's last Novice Obedience leg and her 2nd to Rally Advanced legs, and Shine is close to being ready to show in Open obedience. I have litter plans in the fall, will I have enough suitable homes? Then I must consider Promise's age, she just turned 8. I did a total work up on Promise with my Reproductive vet Cheryl Lopate, I decided I would ONLY go forward with breeding Promise with Cheryl's 100% blessing. I also figured the Wild litter had 7 puppies and that chances are I would have a litter between 5-7, that would be doable. Promise was in excellent shape stem to stern reproductive wise, and in overall health. She passed with flying colors.
Now I had to decide on a sire, so again a "pro-con" list.
O'Neill
Pro - I felt Promise was an excellent choice for O'Neill and that they would complement each other very well in temperament, breed type and structure. I would expect outstanding herding apptitude and lovely companions.
Con - I knew there was a very strong likely hood that I would get tervs! And that a frozen semen breeding is always complicated. I could go through all the effort on a one last time breeding and have it not work. I also co-owned a daughter of Promise out of Titus that I felt could be even a BETTER match to O'Neill.
Banner
Pro - Banny is an exceptional young dog, he is everything I have hoped for in my breeding program as far as temperament and structure. He is also a wonderful sweet dog to live with yet very protective of my home. He makes a fast friends wherever he goes if you don't mind his full body contact greeting LOL. I had always wanted to do a tight pedigree breeding on Duc and I felt that Promise and Banner were the perfect choice.
Con - Banner would be under 2 yrs old, I went ahead and did OFA prelims to help me decide. He prelimed Hips Excellent, and Elbows normal. He also passed OFA thyroid and CERF. I could get 'more” dog than I bargin for doing a linebreeding on Duc. I may get more "working" type, and there was a possibility that Banner could also carry coat.
Well how did I decide? A bit of a gut feeling and my "little voice" I decided that I could learn more about Banner as a possible future stud dog, and that since Duc's youngest litter would turn 7 this summer that it might be nice pedigree wise to have some options back to Duc in the future.
So now we wait until June to know if we have puppies coming.
Appointment is made for an ultrasound.
Oh yes she has puppies, she has LOTS Of puppies, Cheryl counts 9 or 10 on the ultrasound,
OH my. So now we wait! Promise is due Aug 2nd or 3rd.
Aug 2nd and the first week
The 10 Sun pups start to arrive in the afternoon and are all here safe and sound by 10:30 that night. 6 boys and 4 girls! All are pretty similar in weight with one puppy being quite small, just 6.9oz at birth. Promise's milk was a bit slow coming in so starting on the 4th I started bottle feeding the puppies first 3x a day after 3 days down to 2x a day for 3 more days then 2 days of 1x per day. It was fun to spend this type of time with the puppies. But it was also GREAT that Promise's milk production kicked up well and I didn't have to supplement any longer.
Aug 10th - Morning
Well? the good news is that I slept from about 10pm to 3:am LOL The
bad news, I have been awake since then, - Oh the pups are fine. But I
woke up to noise that moved my adrenaline a bit, the sound of a puppy
barking (as well as 9 day old pups can bark) LOUDER than I should be
able to hear from my bedroom, I quickly got out of bed and I could see
the shape of a puppy near the doorway of the 2nd bedroom! Yes the
first puppy escaped from the kiddie pool. Mr Turquoise! He is no
worse for wear. I could not get back to sleep so at 4:30 I got up and
switched out the small kiddie pool for the bigger one!
Aug 19th
It has been a BUSY week to say the LEAST
Pups now all have their eyes open! and some of them are starting to hear! YAHOO they are becoming PUPPIES and starting to get more fun!
Aug 25th/26th
The pups are now 3 weeks! Here is a pic of the kids having a snack Saturday.
and one is a picture when we had the puppies out this afternoon.
Pups had 2 visitors on Saturday for a few min, and Ellen today to help with pictures.
I would like to have them outside a bit more but I'm having some trouble with yellow jackets! I think we MIGHT have things under control, maybe more outside time on Monday.
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for more information about this litter email me at carouselmal @ gmail.com
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