Original story…

Ever been over run by Indian Minah birds? Just one more little challenge in life at the doggery.

My only gripe is that I was lulled into a false sense of security in the invasion-stakes, as I was enjoying a pest free stage having recently conquered an influx of blow flies. This I did by getting a you-beaut electrocution zapper like you see in fish n chip shops, in the old days at least. I am a pacifist by nature to all living creatures, but I have to say the fly invasion had been such that I derived a sense of satisfaction at the ‘zip zip zapping’ sounds emanating from the new machine suspended in centre of the doggery.

And just when all was going swimmingly, they struck.

They flew in the open stable doors at the sides of the doggery, so it was ‘goodbye’ to that lovely east-westerly airflow and fabulous views of the paddocks and mountains.

Shutting these doors was not enough, as each morning we would be greeted by still more birds (up to five at a time) and the mess they made was very difficult to cope with. Of course hygiene was on my mind, as well as our new staff having to the added cleaning tasks to face each day.

We have covered eves here, so we worked out that the only entry point could be the dog hatches. That is, the little openings to the dog pens from the runs. To shut these by daytime was obviously not an option.

Head scratching

A time of head scratching followed. Shade cloth over the hatch entrances perhaps? Or strips of rubber or plastic, like fly straps? Both these we rejected because some dogs would be tempted to play and chew them, and the whole place would look a right mess in no time.

If gaining gratification from the fly electrocution had unsettled me slightly, this was nothing on my latest behaviour to arise which involved raising my right arm to the birds flying all about me and taking finger pot-shots. No a good trend in the personality stakes, that’s for sure, but such was the level of angst and frustration.

Brainwave – bling it is

Dave finally came up with a brainwave one morning. He suggested strands of chain, like chain curtains. This was rapidly followed by a second brainwave wrt how to space the swinging chain strands. Namely, cut 3cm bits of narrow black tubing and slot these between the chains as spacers. A bit like macrame from the 1970s.

Perfect!!

No birdies no more!
{Update: they soon learned how to fly through }

And it isn’t such a bad look, if I do say so myself. Tell me what you think from the pix here.

Bling chain curtains across the top of the stable doors at the doggery - bye bye birdie!

For those interested in repeating, the chain is about $2.00 a metre and I used 300 metres. The curtain rod was simply thick gauge fencing wire we had lying about. And the black tubing was only $6 in total (for 20m) of riser irrigation poly tube.

Bling chain curtains over the dog hatches to discourage those birdies

UPDATE: 16/4/12
So in summary, a time consuming and costly exercise.
Not happy it’s that safe. Pretty sure not effective.
Have left story here so others don’t get same brainwave and waste their time.
The new metal cage swinging doors ate working well though. Only one installed as yet.

Holy moly. David and I have experienced nothing short a miracle that we can’t wait to share with you here. And all it takes is two words:
GOAT’S MILK.
We have never seen anything like it. We had a weak, non suckling newborn (Suzie Cute’s first girl), but two days old.

We had been feeding her with an eyedropper two hourly on colostrum substitute formula stuff (grossly expensive at $84 for 250g) and she was not progressing at all.
Going backwards, in fact.
I think the issue here is that colostrum is all-well-and-good for an orphaned vigorous freshly newborn, but a newborn that is weak and compromised is in greater need of basic life saving stuff like glucose, electrolyte fluids and possibly antibiotics.
Anyway, after 24 hours it was time to switch to a milk powdered formula, as she still was too weak to attach to mum.
Give it a go
Faced with this weak pup, I decided to try something my breeder friend had shared with me.
Namely, she had told me a story of a very old woman who maybe forty years ago had told her, ‘Forget those tinned powder things! Whenever I had an orphaned kitten, I’d milk one of the goats and give it that. Nothing better.’
Now it was only quite recently that my breeder friend put into practice that advice from nearly a century ago.
She had a weak pup who was failing to progress on the specialised commercial formula.
In desperation really, she turned to the tale she had heard decades before. She bought goats’ milk and fed it to pup. Plus she added three little drops of natural honey (that glucose factor).
To her utter amazement, the puppy started to take off. It worked where the powders had not.
Seeing is believing
It was with this story in mind I announced to David that I would head into Sale and get goats’ milk.
Puppy was as in need of hand rearing as any pup we have ever had in six years, so we were prepared to give it a try.

We set to yesterday evening with two hourly feeds of about 3 to 4 ml per session, around the clock.
We were so concerned for her we were tossing up taking her from mum to ensure she was kept especially warm and so on. A drastic measure for sure.
Then – at 9am after seven feeds of goats milk – we saw a sight we will never forget (not the least cos we took lots of pictures!).
An utter miracle. This weak pup, who previously did not have the strength to suckle even when held to mum’s teat, had suddenly transformed and had managed to get herself to a teat, latch on and suck like blazes! All on her own!
Try for yourself
Currently this goat milk thing is a trial by three people: my breeder friend, the very old breeder from yesteryear and moi.
I am so pumped over the while thing because I have had some experience with weak pups and I know for a fact what I have witnessed is extraordinary.
If anyone else is in a similar position and gives goats milk a try, let us know how you get on.
I know I am eternally grateful for this insight and my breeder friend is thrilled I am passing it on further.
But please note that a pup that is compromised will still need constant hourly monitoring to check for listlessness and so on. Things can change quickly, even when they were responding well.
In this instance, pup is in need of medications for restoring fluid balance, giving glucose and possibly antibiotics.
On the plus side, a weak pup can be saved to live a normal, healthy long life given the appropriate management of the situation.

PS I hate waste, so you’ll see in the pic above what I did.
I took the $4 fresh goats milk and dispensed it into plastic partyware shot glasses. I then sealed each one with fat cellotape and froze the lot.
Each feed took one shot glass. The milk will keep for months frozen.
Good stuff!

This story will help bring others up to date.

We seemed to have bounced from one crisis to another in the past two weeks. This has coincided with us getting help in the doggery (welcome Marrianne and Jen!) and settling people into various duties. Interestingly, I have only realised how much work it takes to breed the doggies when I had to start itemising the chores for others to follow. Lots.

We have just had two difficult whelpings which have really followed on a couple of difficult ones last year too, as some will remember. A week or so ago we had Bridie who needed a C-Section in the end and then Suzie Cute was in difficulty yesterday too.

Time to quit?

Those who know us will know that becoming breeders has not be an easy path to take for many reasons. But our passion is such that we have survived a lot over the last six years to finally get our set up to the level we envisioned a long time ago.

I think most would describe as as highly committed people and, with this in mind, I think you can get a sense the angst and distress I experienced yesterday in the wee hours and beyond when yet another of our girls was having birthing troubles. She was fine in herself (not in discomfort), but basically the pregnancy was not progressing. We had yet another case of no-action, known as ‘uterine inertia’.

Bitter sweet: glad all safe, but heart rending by the same token

Getting better – sharing info

The difficult deliveries we experienced in the latter half of last year set me on a path to identify what possibly could be causing this. I have dachshund breeder friends and they don’t have these problems, so it’s not a ‘dachshund’ thing. Moreover, our dogs are young, healthy and genetically diverse, so the fact that a few of them displayed the same thing is too much of a coincidence to be coincidental, if you get my point. Not to mention the fact that we haven’t experienced this until quite recently in our six years as breeders.

Clearly I had to expand my knowledge and more closely monitor everything. I started by getting an utlrasound machine so I could examine the pups in utero. A dear breeder friend from interstate has taken many many hours (sometimes in the middle of the night) to share everything she has discovered over many years and she has been invaluable to me, both as a technical adviser and support person as this is incredibly stressful stuff for those involved.

Add to this my vet friend and colleague and the stage was set for some big leaps forward. Problem is there have been red herrings along the way that have diverted me from homing in on the root of the problem – until yesterday. Finally.

Red herring 

An obvious factor that can cause uterine inertia is calcium imbalance. Tricky bit here it this can be too much or too little: both are bad.

If you give too much calcium prior to whelping, the bitch fails to mobilise her own calcium because you have inadvertantly supressed the hormone that achieves this. This mobilisation of calcium in her body is used by the uterine muscles to contract.

Give her too little, and she mightn’t have the necessary calcium reserves to mobilise.

After my third C-Section late last year, I requested a calcium test to see if it was a calcium imbalance at play. The pathology result came back as ‘normal’, so naturally I ruled out calcium imbalance as the problem.

Radiographer in shining armour

I knew an important tool would be getting better at using the ultrasound machine. This recently happened thanks totally to an incredibly generous radiographer who didn’t feel the need to hang up on the stranger who called him to ask if he would consider teaching her how to use her machine – and on dogs!

Now I don’t know what you think, but I reckon it takes a pretty special kind of professional to cheerfully agree to a random request to impart their 5 years of uni training in the field of human radiography to a dog breeder in the space of one 30 minute or so session. But – remarkably, this is what happened.

The radiographer came out and showed me on my machine how to detect foetal heart rates. What’s more, he was gracious enough to be impressed by my $1400 machine from Singapore. I did offer to swap mine for his machine back at his clinic, but he declined.

Breakthrough

Foetal heart rate monitoring was emerging as a key determinant to knowing where the labour was at wrt pushing alarm buttons for medical intervention.

Just an hour or so later, Bridie and pups at home and she enjoys an eggflip

My breeder friend said her vet routinely monitors a bitch with whelping problems in this way. Foetal heart rate between 220 to 250 beats per minute (bpm) is normal, but if it drops to 170 or lower, it’s time for medical intervention. The pups must be fetched or they are at risk of dying.

My vet friend found some current references on this very topic and confirmed that foetal heart rate was a good guide to the state of the progress of the whelping. Although this reference said it can drop as low as 130 bpm before the pups must be fetched out surgically.

At last! I had a measure to ensure I could better know what decisions to make. By this I mean the decision to get a C-Section done had always been one with a question mark that no one could seem to answer for me. That is, was I intervening too early? Were the C-Sections unnecessary and a normal birth could have followed had I just waited that bit long? This was an invidious position to be in and now – it was history! I could measure heart rate at home in the kitchen and make an informed call regarding intervention.

Still having problems

I might have a secured myself a new objective measure to making the call for medical intervention (in the form of C-Sections), but I hadn’t yet overcome the reason for the problems. At least I’d ruled out that I was hitting the panic button unnecessarily. For now I had hard data to show the call was necessary.

Bridie came into labour about two weeks ago now. Our girls get stationed in our ensuite when they are a couple of weeks out so we have them nearby at all times (huge corner spa very handy; add dog occupancy of said bath to the fact that pups chewed through the external pump tube and the one-time dream of luxuriating in a foamy spa with a glass of champas has become about as far away as it gets!).

Another key determinant of labour starting is a drop in temperature. This is very marked: the temperature drops from 100 degrees F to 98. This is because progesterone has dropped off and this is a heat generating hormone.

Within 12 to 24 hours of the temperature dropping, contractions should commence, according to numerous references sources (some say 2 to 12 hours).

Nothing happened with Bridie in this time frame. Accordingly, I kept monitoring foetal heart rates to determine if the foetuses were happy. By 30 hours out, foetal heart rates had dropped to 171 bpm and – with conviction this time – I rang the vets to say I needed an emergency C-Section. Out of hours as usual, but at least daytime this time (poor vets!).

So what the heck is going on?

Lots of head scratching by vet friend and breeder friends followed this. Bridie is young, healthy, a good size, has had a litter before no probs etc. In other words, she should have had a very uneventful birthing, not been struck by uterine inertia.

Unfortunately we had yet one more difficult circumstance before the picture would finally become clear.

Suzie Cute, having her first litter, manifested the same pattern not two weeks after bridie.

This was killing me! My poor girls. The labour just never starts. My only comfort was they were not in any discomfort themselves and – as amazing as this sounds – they don’t appear to experience discomfort from a C-Section. I’m not kidding: they don’t lick it, don’t twinge – nothing, and I do look out for this.

But irrespective of my perceptions of their discomfort levels,  I of course don’t under any circumstances want to breed dogs if it seriously means subjecting them to C-Sections all the time. An impossible situation.

Suzie Cute watching TV with me as we both wait the non existent labour

Night before last I was up all night with precious Suzie Cute. We watched TV together and we got through to 6am and finally a puppy was born. She wasn’t having strong contractions at all and I manually assisted and got puppy out and she was fine. An agonising 2.5 hours passed before I made the call to the vets for another damn intervention.

Unexpectedly, in the car on the way over she had a second. I pulled over twice, delivering the little boy on the Stratford Maffra Road. I called ahead and asked to have the vet staff met me at the door to help with the pups and mum.

Emergency

Fatigue and desperation had got the better of me and I was in tears demanding help and this and that. I said I didn’t want her to have a C-Section if she had already delivered two pups (albeit drawn out) natually. Couldn’t they do something else? Calcium gluconate?

Calcium gluconate is another tool of whelping I have come to learn about from my breeder colleagues, vet friend and reading. Calcium is essential for the uterus to have strong contractions (as I mentioned earlier on). Oxytocin (used to induce labour in humans as well) is a hormone that increases the frequency of contractions, but it’s of little use without sufficient calcium which is responsible for the strength of the contractions.

The vet set up a calcium gluconate drip for Suzie Cute. Meantime a vet nurse took the two tiny pups and gave them a puff or two of oxygen and warmth while mum was otherwise disposed. Being an expert on detecting foetal heart rate (well, I’m not bad at it) and knowing the huge significance it has on foetal well being I was keen to see what the readings were, so it was all eyes to the ultrasound machine to spot the distinctive flutter of the foetal heart.

The answer arrives

About 15 minutes after the calcium drip started, Suzie Cute commenced powerful contractions and she naturally delivered her last puppy…another little boy.

And herein lay the answer, which was perplexing at the time.

We had, in fact, likely been looking at a calcium imbalance all along as the cause of the uterine inertia.

This was perplexing, because a pathology result ruled out a calcium imbalance months before (as I discussed earlier in this article). When I mentioned this to the vet she advised that blood calcium is actually a poor indicator of a dog’s calcium status.

I felt relieved, naturally, but frustrated at the same time. The test for calcium had served to be worse than no test at all, because it erroneously led me to rule out calcium as a problem.

Suzie at home with three little bubs, and hopefully the reign of C-Sections is over

Lessons learnt?

This is one example of many situations I have discovered as a breeder where there is simply not enough known. This is my most serious situation, but I’ve had others I will write about at some stage, mostly in the hope that other breeders might benefit.

A big part of the lack of knowledge is the fact that the dog breeding sector has no industry levy to fund research. Most other industries have levies on members for R & D and these funds are matched dollar for dollar by the government.

As it stands, we can expect all sorts of DNA tests and pathology tests to come forward because these are developed by those with commercial interests. These two examples are interesting, as I have discovered flaws in the DNA testing (wrt the gene detected not being correlated to the disease as purported) and now it appears the blood calcium test is useful for squat too. Worse than useless, in fact, because you get sent down the wrong path and the dog, the breed and the breeder all suffer.

It’s only when you get industry driven research that the real issues facing the sector are addressed. Slowly things will change as our industry starts to grow.

Happy ending

Lots of positives have come from the last horrendous couple of weeks and days.

Thanks to my breeder colleagues and vet friend, we are now calling on the very latest references to write a whelping protocol that all can call upon. I will publish it here when we have perfected it and any breeder can make use of it.

To give you an idea, it will involve the temperature drop in the bitch, timing, monitoring foetal heart rates and – if we can swing it – contraction strengths too, plus a strictly puppy-food only diet for mum in her last trimester, calcium gluconate on hand and so on (including match sticks for the human’s eyelids).

Lots of heroes in this story. Not the least that wonderful radiographer … think I can ask him to show me how to measure contractions on my u-beaut ultrasound machine? (!)

He is Suzie Cute’s and Winston Pooh’s little chappy.

Call or text 0409 402 177 if you would like him to join your family. SOLD SOLD

Here he is. Five weeks old today and ready for handover May 10. See video too.

Next litter due to be born around May 5, 2012.

Stay tuned for updates or follow us on twitter.

All pups are $1485 and what this includes is listed at the bottom of this page.

Four smooth haired boy pups available – Bridie’s babies

See them in the two top videos on homepage.

Individual pics are below.

Five weeks old on April 15, ready to go Sunday May 6 2012

This pup below only one left: as at 2.30pm 16/4/12.

Missing pup - the little shy boy. He actually is shy, so he will be better suited to a family with no children or older children.

Caramel and choc dapple boy - the bolder one with fewer dapples.

Dark brown (not choc) boy with caramel overlay. Taking some zzzzzz's!

Little black & tan boy.

If you want one of the above four pups (as seen in video as well), please contact us by phone or txt on 0409 402 177 from 12 noon onwards, Monday April 16. We can only take purchase requests from 12 noon onwards, just to be fair to people waiting. First in best dressed applies and a $100 deposit will be required.

Please note you can change your mind when you first meet puppy if for any reason (or no reason, in fact) you don’t wish to proceed. In this case, your deposit will be refunded immediately.

Please also note we post pups for sale here in accordance with the relevant laws. In this regard we state that we are registered Victorian breeders, with Domestic Animal Business number 35 with the Wellington Shire Council.

We are also Full Members of the Australian Association of Pet Dog Breeders (AAPDB Inc) and we are one of only a handful of breeders in Australia who have a Veterinary Audited kennels.

This includes:

• $135 GST
• $50 desex voucher
• vet check with vet certificate of health
• microchip & transfer of microchip ownership
• internal parasite treatments
• external parasite treatments
• heartworm treatment
• C3 six week vaccination
• puppy bed-crate familiarisation* for smoother transition to new family
• puppy crate
• collar trained and collar
• puppy’s familiar scent blanket and hot wheat bag
• puppy paper trained
• pet insurance policy for health/accident/death (for 6 weeks after handover)
• puppy instructions and phone/email support as needed
• email updates and puppy images at different milestones
• puppy pack including food samples and other goodies
• all veterinary and other care of puppy from preconception through birth to handover
• lifetime care of puppy’s parents
• transport of puppy to two drop off locations in Melbourne (Carlton and Pakenham), or Melbourne Airport for interstate buyers
• a puppy

Seven little smooth haired pups. Individual pix of pups coming soon – on 10/3/12, to be precise.
Pups available for purchase will be posted on March 28.
They can be secured online from that day onwards – please see puppies 4 sale page for more info, including price etc.

They are three weeks old now and I am pretty certain none are longs – all two litters (seven pups) are smooths. These guys were born between Feb 16 and Feb 18 2012.

If u r interested in a pup, we will post available pups for sale on this website when they are five weeks old.

For those awaiting a long haired puppy, fear not. Desi (our girl from Tennessee in the USA) looks like she has about two or three longs among her little bubs. She is smooth, but carries the long hair gene. And Patch is the dad and he is a long hair.
Desi’s pups are only a couple of weeks old, so we’ll know more in a week’s time.

Stay tuned!
For timely updates, follow us on twitter. You can do this by clicking the twitter icon on the top RHS of the homepage.

href=”http://www.dogbreeding.net.au/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/20120308-172819.jpg”>

Yes: hard to believe but already (7/3/12) Kirra and tandi’s babies have commenced solids.

Their peepers are open and they are moving about more. And so it is slug phase ends and the puppies’ worlds get bigger.

Now anyone who has ever been involved with a first solid meal of any baby knows it can be a messy affair.

This team of seven are no exception. Starts of neat enough, but soon becomes more an exploration exercise than a dining one.

Hope you enjoy these sequential pix.

Pups first meal - starts of neat enough

Yum yum yum...this tucker is pretty good.

And messier...

Oh dear - Mums ... we need a clean up!!

Bridie is a traditional black & tan dachshund, which I must confess is still one of my favourite colours.

She is soon to have a second litter and she is a great mum. As they all are. The pride in their babies is a beautiful thing to behold. And we like nothing better here than treating all the mums with those little extras.

Bridie is a typical dachshund and loves her weekly fresh marrow bone

Bridie is pictured here in our back garden (needing a mow – tropical weather here) because we bring the girls into our home one or two weeks before they are due.

Currently that means our ensuite, our girls’ bathroom (they are now in Melbourne at uni) or the laundry. Generally ensuite when they are only a few days off so we can hear them through the night.

Australia has not seen this range of colours and patterns and we are certainly doing our best to change that in the months and years to come. And of course with such fabulous genetic diversity comes the inbuilt promise of healthier purebred dogs. In this regard, as dedicated pet breeders, we are reintroducing lost dachshund genetics back into the mix and safeguarding the survival of the breed into the future. Quite the opposite of the showing area that sees all breeders aspiring for the same narrow set of rule book criteria. For example, piebalds are not allowed in the formal show circuit.

So…enough from me: here are the new DA members. Three youngsters: Bobette , brindle & piebald; Charlie, piebald; Nougat, choc dapple boy.

Left to right: Bobette, Nougat and Charlie

Bobette (Bobby for short) is an utterly rare and amazing brindle piebald mini dachshund from a breeder in NSW.

In Australia, brindle is second only in its rarity to piebald. Here, in Bobbette, we have both. Unbelievable and we look forward to the puppies she will have in 18 months or so.

Bobette, the brindle and piebald mini dachshund -welcome Bobby!

Nougat is a chocolate dappled boy. Nougat also comes from NSW. We have only ever bred one pup like Nougat: Bambi who can be seen on our ‘Where pups r now?‘ web page. It is fair to say we can expect more pups of this colour and pattern now we have more adult chocolates in the team. The dapple pattern can come from a dappled dog of any colour (eg Patches, our silver dappled boy).

Nougat, choc dapple...a father of the future. Welcome little man.

And last but not least is Charlie, sister of bobby and also a piebald. What a little cutie!

One can only imagine what pups these guys will one day parent. Worth noting we won’t be crossing brindles and dapples. These are dominant pattern types that will come through crossing to a solid coloured mate. And therein the colour range can emerge, as we select various coloured solid mates for them. Patience needed though – they got some serious playing time between now and parenthood.

Kirra’s started whelping on February 16 and it was textbook – or so we thought at that time. She’s been getting special attention for two weeks and when the day to whelp arrived, everything was running smoothly.

Kirra was in our home in our ensuite and after a few hours of pre-labour reassurance and encouragement, the clever girl had two little pups without any assistance needed. They were born two hours apart on the afternoon of February 16.

Kirra has had a litter before and, despite her more than ample size in the tubby-stakes, she only has small litters. Her first litter in fact was just one puppy, which caused great amusement as we had been anticipating a big litter of five or even six going by her size.

(My experience is dachshunds are either food inhalers (piggies) or not at a ratio of about 50:50. Kirra falls squarely in the category. )

Anyway, we were thrilled to see the safe and uncomplicated arrival of two delightful little girls, as pictured below.

Clever Kirra giving birth to her two little girls on 16/2/12

Others not as lucky

The following day, on February 17, we would not be so lucky. Poor old Tandi had not hatched yet, and we had thought she would go before Kirra.

By lunchtime I decided it was time for a veterinary assessment, so I took Tandi to the vet at Maffra for a progesterone test. After an anxious one hour wait, the test revealed she was effectively in labour – yet despite this result we had no signs of any action. Cindy the vet recommend we don’t take the risk and a C-section followed soon after. Great news was all five pups and mum alive and well after the surgery.

The dopy proud mum of five, Tandi, about to head home after her C-section

More to the Kirra tale

Two births in two days was quite exhausting for our family, especially with Tandi’s complications whereby one waits, observes, wonders, worries and eventually seeks medical opinion and likely intervention.

Both me and my husband were sleep deprived with our two new mums in our ensuite and our girls’ bathroom (they now live in Melbourne). I was getting up every couple of hours to check Tandi’s pups. She was lying on them, worryingly, possibly because she was still a bit lethargic from the anasthetic. And David had been the unfortunate one to discover the accidents of both mums (despite regular toilet breaks) and duly was washing floors at all hours. Which of course is no big deal and all part of looking after our lovely girls pre and post pupbirth.

With the mums and pups all settled, we weren’t too impressed when we were woken by one of our cats requesting to be let in at 4am. We know which cat, as they each have their own special method of inspiring us to rise from the comfort of bed. Sidney scratches the glass of our bedroom window in a racy paws style, Smudge digs her claws in the flyscreen and rattles it (ripping it as she goes) and Benny … well, Benny vocally expresses his displeasure and desire for action.

It was Smudge last night, and both us humans were grumpy. Dave took the opportunity to check the girls while he was up and he called out, “Didn’t Kirra have two pups?”

To our utter delight and disbelief, Kirra had given birth to another puppy! Two days after the other two! I stand to be corrected, but I have never heard of this and neither has our vet or breeder friends.

Not only did this little girl arrive exceedingly late, but she is – most remarkably – incredibly thrifty and strong. She just latches on and sucks non stop!

Pictiure says a thousand words. A non-plussed mum with the unexpected arrival of little miss suction cup!

Doesn’t get any better

There is nothing like new life and those wonderful unexpected happenings to remind breeders (or indeed, sleep dprived young parents) why this whole business of new life is so rewarding and uplifting.

We were both tickled pink, to put it mildly.

It was then Kirra’s turn to visit the vet later that morning to make sure there weren’t any more little critters taking their time to appear.

‘All clear’ was the verdict. And now we have eight delightful babies whose pictures you will be able to follow as they grow in their first eight weeks of life in the eight weeks ahead.

Forget smiling for the camera, Kirra's checking out her xray result! Wants to be certain there's no more coming I guess. Pictured here with Seth the vet.

Footnote

Some of these pups will be pre sold, as we are transitioning from the waiting list method to the exclusively online sale system. But by five weeks of age we will make it clear which pups are available for selection by their new families online.