Success!

Because this Blog is still out there, I decided to add an update even though it has been a long time since the Blog was used.
The litter got off to a fine start in the show ring, as Ben (was Clark) and Rita did very well at the National. Ben (who is co-owned by Diane Baxter and me (Sue MacMillan) WON the 6-9 month Puppy Class under Mr. Bivin, and his sister Rita (owned by Tom Demma and Dawn West) went 2nd in her huge Puppy 6-9 class, right behind the beautiful puppy girl who went Reserve Winners Bitch under Mrs. Fleming.

And to top it off, their sire Argus (owned by me) went Best Of Breed over an entry of 366 Dalmatians. What a thrill!

On a sad note, brother Sam missed the National as he had surgery on his leg the previous week, but he's doing fine and will hit the show ring soon.

Things Are Lively In Paisleyland!

Pups had a busy day. When I got home at noon, we took all four into the backyard for some exploring. The pups were cold at first, but soon warmed up and had a great time zipping around, playing chase games and digging in the leaves. Too bad it's really too cold this time of year for them to stay out for very long.

Yesterday evening they all came up to play in the family room with the big dogs. Watson and Argus particularly enjoy puppies, so it was great fun to watch. I crated old Sid, who would swear at any small spotted brats who sniffed his crate. Coral mostly stayed out of their way, and silly Josie tried to figure out if perhaps these were her puppies. In the end she just laid on top of all the squeaky toy babies to protect them, but when Clark sniffed around she offered to let him nurse. She's lucky he didn't try, as those teeth are mighty sharp!

I do wish that Lana did not insist on carrying her tail so high, as she's looking very nice right now. Ava is a heartbreaker, with an almost invisible (under ear) patch keeping her out of the show ring. She's so sound and beautifully spotted, with a calm sensible personality. Gracie is very slight of build, and although she has a really pretty front, nice markings and her father's personality, she really is not exactly what I wanted from this litter. I'll probably run her on for a bit, and then place her in the right situation. I only have room for one more girl, and I don't think it's probably her. Clark is lovely, although has a little more reserved personality than I am used to. Not timid, but not an in-your-face sort of guy like his dad. That may change when there are fewer pups to compete with. He's a very easy puppy, and extremely handsome. It's awfully tempting to keep him, but I really do not need an Argus son yet, as Argus just turned two.

So I'll run Gracie and Clark on for a bit before making up my mind. My friend Meg has bred her Coral daughter who I co-own, to a handsome young dog I admire, a half brother to Argus. Perhaps my puppy will be in that litter. Violet McSherry came out well on her health testing, and will probably be bred to Argus this winter, with the pups being done here, so I have that to look forward to as well.

We'll see. We go into each litter looking for the "perfect" pup, and are always pleased if we get some good ones. This litter was healthy and sound and had a number of very nice pups who should do well in the showring, plus some awesome pets, but perhaps no one that will stay here forever. There's always next time!

I'll try to get the 7 week litter pictures posted to my website this week, and add a few more cute pictures to the puppy page. Tom will keep up his blog, and can use it to post new pictures. I am signing off on mine. See you down the road! It's been fun, and thanks for reading along.

Sue

The Pups Are Here . . .

Things just got a bit busier, and I'm quite sure I won't have time to post tomorrow! I picked up Clark, Gracie, Ava and Lana tonite, and got them settled into a pen in the basement. A couple of pups were a bit drooly, but no one got carsick this time. I'll take them out for another ride tomorrow evening, just to make sure Lana will be OK for the long road trip up to her new home in Canada. Ava will be flying out on Wednesday, so she needs to spend some time in a Vari Kennel to prepare her for that. They both need to start wearing collars tomorrow too. Still have to get the health certificates picked up, and get the puppy packets finished.

They've grown since Friday, really shooting up. Clark and Gracie are still the slimmest, obviously not chowhounds like chubby Lana. They will be staying with me for awhile, so I can get to know them better. I've got Gracie figured out already - she's a BRAT - very full of herself, and determined to have her own way. She just looks you right in the eye and challenges you. I can tell she's a smart one and has her father's in-your-face sort of personality. Clark just does his own thing, not quite as clingy as some of the others. He's friendly, but not as needy. My Josie is like that. Friendly and affectionate, but does not have to be under my feet and touching me all the time like Argus and Watson do. Argus is always watching me, and whenever I look at him I find that he is looking back. I see Gracie doing exactly the same thing.

Wish it were going to be warmer this week, so the pups could spend more time outdoors. They can have such fun in the yard this time of the year when there are no flowers that need protecting.

I'm sure things are very sad at Tom & Dawn's tonite. They have put so much time, work and emotion into this project for the past four months. And now they are left with just their two puppies . . . Even though you know you can only keep one or two, there is a huge emptiness when the puppies leave. When I picked up the pups tonite, Dawn wasn't there. She couldn't watch the puppies depart. And I had expected that. Tom kept a stiff upper lip, but I know how he was feeling . . . I hope they take comfort in the fact that I have done my best to insure that the pups have the very best of homes.

If Clark and Gracie don't stay with me, they will go to equally good homes.

Time to give the pups their bedtime snack!

The Puppies Come Home

Today will be a busy one, as I finally will pick up Clark & Gracie, as well as Lana & Ava who will be going to new homes this week. I was going to get my two pups on Friday, but because Gracie is a climber I would have needed to take my big puppy pen home - and probably Lana & Ava too. So everyone stayed at Tom's for a few more days. Hope Tom & Dawn are prepared for this, although Sherman's departure was probably the toughest for Dawn.

This will give me a chance to know Clark and Gracie better, and decide whether or not either will stay with me or move on to new homes. Both are lovely pups and will go to show homes if I sell them. It will be very tempting to keep Clark, as he is particularly handsome, but I really do not need an extra nice Argus son right now - and really do not need another male anyway! I just happen to prefer male Dals. . .

Lana will be picked up on Tuesday, and Ava will fly out on Wednesday. Lana's new owner and a friend of hers will be driving down from Canada, along with their four pre-schoolers (two each)! Four little kids and a 10 week old puppy sounds like a wild trip! Ava will be flying NW VIP, which means she is last on, first off, a lot easier on pups than flying regular cargo. Actually, pups ship very well and generally just sleep the whole time. Ava is very easy going, and should handle things very well. Gotta pick up health certificates for both pups to travel with.

Hope I can bend over far enough to pick up a pup this evening! I've been taking out old carpeting, a mean dirty job. I don't think that bedroom furniture has been moved since it first arrived, and it is aaawwwfffuuullllllyyy heavy. Really sucks to get old!

Got my new red Chinese Hi Fin Swords settled in to their new tank. Such gorgeous fish! Their dorsals are like flags, and they resemble Sailfin Mollies as much as Hi Fin Swords. I've been wanting a group of them for so long, and finally found the right importer to buy from. These fish seem to be pretty fragile, but are incredibly gorgeous, and far more beautiful than any of the red Swords available in the US. Because they are not very prolific either, they are in very short supply. The most recent group offered on Aquabid (the EBAY for fish folks) sold for $175.00 for 5 fish, plus shipping. I bought privately, though have often bid on those fish on Aquabid - but my limit is $150.00. The pair I purchased for $100.00 lasted about a week. Fortunately these fish look MUCH healthier. FIngers crossed.

New Puppies!

No not here, although Josie is having a false pregnancy and thinks she has puppies. She's gathered up the squeaky toys and is carefully tending them with great concern. Her puppies consist of a purple rubber dumbbell, a green rubber frog, a brown football, an orange knobbly football, and a red ball. Certainly more colorful than your standard black and liver spotted litter! Every now and then Argus will dash in and take one of the "babies" to play with, causing poor Josie great concern. She follows him around, humming to herself until she can recover her baby. Last night she got up for a drink of water and Sid plopped himself down on the cushion "crushing" the babies. Poor Josie stood and stared at him, but because Sid is the boss she did not know what to do. When she saw me laughing, she "explained" at great length what a bad situation it was (Josie makes a variety of sounds when she is excited or under stress) and asked that I get Sid off her babies. When I bribed him with a biscuit, she gently laid back down and carefully washed her babies and gathered them up close, all the while talking to herself about what bozos the boys are!

Nope, the real babies are in Florida, Argus's first litter sired by chilled semen. Hopefully Carolyn wanted a boy, because she has a lot of them. Last I heard 6 boys and 1 girl, one patched boy, pups of both colors. We only know Reggie from pictures, as she did not have to fly to Minnesota. Instead she got a series of progesterone tests so they could predict when she would ovulate, and when she should be bred. When tests indicated that the time was right, Argus went to the reproductive specialist and they did a semen collections, mixed it with an extender of some sort, packed it in ice (dry ice I think) and sent it off by plane. Carolyn picked it up early the next morning, took it to her vet, and it was surgically implanted. Because of the surgery, only one breeding was required. If artificial insemination is used, then we might have done two seperate breedings. Obviously the timing was just right, as the litter arrived on schedule, with a normal number of pups - too bad there were not a few more girls though!

A Worthwhile Pastime?

A friend of ours decided to get out of dogs because she wanted to do something more useful than "just being a dog breeder". She was at the time a wife & mother to two teenagers, worked a part time job and was a Dalmatian hobbyist who bred very good dogs and was an excellent handler, active in a Dal club and an all breed club. Because that was not enough for her, she got out of dogs and went back to school, and is now working in a career that I hope she finds satisfying.

Breeding & showing quality dogs is not a career, but rather a very satisfying hobby, something most of us do in addition to our "real" lives. It certainly is not a money-making hobby, and if you figure in the time you spend on doing a litter of pups PROPERLY, your time could be better spent as a greeter at WalMart. It can also be an expensive and heart-breaking hobby, as breeding dogs is not without risk. Sometimes a breeding does not take, after you have spent money shipping your bitch to Mr. Superstar and paying a huge stud fee. Sometimes things do not go well at all. My first Dal died during a caesarian, as did 10 of her 13 puppies. And I still had to pay the stud fee and the vet bill. . . Sometimes you have deformed or sick puppies to deal with, and with Dals there is always the chance of having deaf puppies. We once lost a wonderful bitch several weeks after whelping and were left with 4 orphans to raise, a very time-consuming operation.

Even when things go well, and the puppies are healthy and all hear, you may not get the show potential pups you were hoping for, and the homes may not be there for the pets. After the popularity boom for Dalmatians in the early 90s, the bottom dropped out of the Dal "market" and there was NO homes for pet puppies. Many breeders kept pups until they were 6 months old or more. Those pups had to socialized, housetrained and obedience trained, so that IF the homes came along the pups were placeable. And there are the pups that come unplaced for whatever reason. The breeder is/should be responsible for those pups for their lifetimes, and if they need to be rehomed (or perhaps even euthanized) that has to be done.

Dealing with puppy buyers can be wonderful, and many of our buyers have also become our good friends. When I go to the National each year I renew acquaintance with many people who have owned my dogs and my granddogs, or bred to my males. I love to get Christmas cards with the whole family pictured, including the beloved Dalmatian, and when the end comes I also get calls from people to tell me what an important member of their family the Dal was, or how it was the best dog or best Dal they have ever owned. I've cried over the phone with many grieving owners, and know that I'll continue to do that for years to come.

Some owners turn out to be much different than you had expected. No matter how carefully you check them out, some are not willing to honor their committment to the puppy and the breeder, some find that pups are a lot more work than they expected (even though we make that point over and over), and sometimes financial, personal or family issues become overwhelming, and the dog gets shortchanged. Sometimes you just shake your head and can not believe the stories. Years ago I got a call that someone wanted to returned a Dal - one they had had for ten years. They had made the decision to sell their house and move into a condo that did not accept dogs! They were making the decision my choice, not necessity, and their livestyle change was not including the dog that had been a member of the family for ten years! Fortunately, they did change their mind when I explained that ten year old dogs are not placeable, and that euthanasia was the most likely option in this case.

Most homes are wonderful, and the joy that the dogs bring to their families makes all the frustrating and heartbreaking parts more than worth it. Most buyers reserve pups well in advance and wait for their new family members, This is really the best, as it gives people a chance to have second thoughts before they buy a puppy. We never sell a puppy on the first visit, just for that reason.

I'm very happy with the homes we have lined up for Boji's pups, and I hope Tom & Dawn will be comfortable with my choices too. No matter how carefully homes are selected, we always worry about how well things will work out though. It's only natural. By the time you have put this much time, money, work and EMOTION into raising a litter, the pups become a huge part of your life. Their welfare is your concern, and it that concern does not end when they are carried out the door.

Which reminds me, I need to check out a couple of Josie's pups whose owners have not been in touch with me for awhile! Hopefully I will get Christmas cards with pictures from many of their owners!

Winding Down

Apologies to all for not getting the 7 week pictures up, but I've been doing catch up here and "playing with my fish". That means water changes, 30-40% on each of the 40+ fish tanks (done every 7 to 10 days). Takes me a couple of evenings every week, especially when I stop to admire my scaley beauties! Argus is my Assistant Fish Keeper and loves to "help" which means I am forever tripping over him. He pretends to bite the fish, leaving mouth marks on the glass, and his favorites are the black spotted Knight Gobies, my Dalmatian spotted fish. I'll work on pictures and a webpage update tonite!

Sherman & Spencer leave tomorrow morning - the babies birds are leaving the nest! How can that be? Seems like only yesterday we were discussing the litter, and now the pups will soon be leaving for their new (and hopefully, forever) homes. An enormous amount of money and time have been invested in this litter, and we can only hope that the new owners follow up on what we have begun.

Although I agonize over each puppy placement, we've been extremely successful with that over the years. Very few of our pups have come unplaced for any reason, and when they do it has generally been because of family issues, primarily divorces. Pups are placed with the understanding it is forever, but people's health, financial, and family situations change, and we can only hope for the best for both the pup and its owners. The most recent situation occurred when the youngsters developed serious allergies and a new home had to be found for the 6 year old Dal. Fortunately I had someone waiting who was happy to take on an adult. One of the most aggravating situation was when a buyer dumped one of my pups at the Humane Society rather than notifying me that they were having problems. Fortunately, someone who was looking for a Dalmatian adopted the handsome liver boy who came with paperwork - which contained my name and address, and he contacted me. That dog lived a long and happy life in an excellent new home.

All the homes this time are previous Dal owners. Two parties I have interviewed, and who have met the pups, another I had previously sold a puppy to some years ago, and a fourth that is a referral from Bonnie, who had previously sold them a dog. We don't anticipate that they will have any problems with new puppies, but I always tell people that my pups come with Lifetime Service Policies - if you have problems PLEASE CALL ME! It's much easier to solve small problems than large ones, and many issues do not go away on their own, but may have easy solutions.

I started an Excel spreadsheet to show the various costs of raising a litter, and sent it on to Tom so he could add his expenses. Whew! Now I know why I don't normally track those things - I might never do another litter!

But . . . We are waiting for Violet's CERF eye exam, and if her eyes check out fine (her OFA xrays looked good) she may come to spend the winter in Paisleyland. Because she is liver factored, we will see what Argus will do in brown. But that's the subject for another blog . . .