Week 1

Is start thinkiuThe first week is always a blur. Sleep is always lacking, as pups always seem to arrive overnight. Then there is the continuous checking on each one’s progress. Are they nursing? Gaining weight appropriately? Is the temperature in the whelping box correct? Is the dam eating enough, any sign of complications or mastitis? And a thousand other things…

Being a responsible breeder is not for the faint of heart. We are responsible for those little souls that came into the world because of our choices, for the entirety of their lives. We painstakingly pored through pedigrees and health clearances, researched relatives, titles earned, and incidences of health problems that occur in our breed. It’s so much more than just finding a dog of the opposite sex to breed your dog to. Rather, it’s about choosing dogs to breed that can produce a good representative of their breed. In some cases that means the puppies can be superior to their parents. This can be in their structure, temperment, ability,and trainability for their future life’s work. Consider guide dogs and other service dogs. There are very specific attributes such a dog needs to have. This is one of the key goals of any breeding program, whether the puppies’ future is in competition, as a working dog, hunting dog, or even a therapy dog.

One of, if not the most challenging parts of responsible breeding is matching the puppy to the new owners. I start thinking about this as early as the puppoes’ first few days of life. It’s amazing what tendencies you can notice so early, and how important they can be. Many protocols of puppy temperment testing exist, usually geared to puppies several weeks old. More to follow on this in a separate post.

Check back here for updates on the puppies’ progress and to see what steps we take to ensure optimal health and development