Joys of Motherhood...

It's been 7 years since our last litter... the Flag Day Litter. Up until Glory's singleton pup, We've never raised a single puppy like this. Here is one thing that I've noted about the experience....

I'm paranoid.

Glory and her single puppy

For instance, if the puppy sneezes, which they sometimes do, my thought... OMG, she's got pneumonia! Or, she sure seems to be sleeping a lot. Wonder if she's 'lethargic' and sick? Or if she's not moving around a lot, "Is she breathing?"

Yesterday, she slept a lot. Since Glory has been taking such good care of her, I've not seen a single stool or pee spot. So, the brain went into overdrive and the thought was, "I wonder if she's constipated?"
Mind you, no one that I know has ever heard of a constipated, 2 wk old puppy but with my luck (Murphy was an optimist when he wrote Murphy's Law)... So, after a long, long conversation with Bonnie in OK, my mind was set at ease.

Went back into the house, picked up the puppy, and sat down to enjoy some puppy in the lap time. Uh oh... here comes Grammy Abbey Lou. With Glory on one of the beds and the puppy in my lap, Abbey decided that the baby needed to be polished. Abbey started buffing & polishing & stimulating the puppy, so much so that the baby deposited a 2" long puppy turd right in the middle of my shirt and then she peed.

Well, I now know that she is defecating & urinating. Those bodily functions are working.

One worry down.

Glory and Stuff...

Well, Glory's season has come and gone.  I so wanted to breed her but Chance stepped in and changed our plans.

For one, she acquired fly parasites, which according to our vet, were probably due to the conditions at our neighbor's place, i.e., too many donkeys on too small acreage; manure; etc.  There's no denying that manure & livestock draw in flies, especially if the manure isn't picked up religiously.  I know I'm out there on a daily basis picking up our dogs' waste to keep the flies at a minimum.  Those fly parasites live under the skin and they are gross & disgusting and she was put on a 2 wk course of cephalexan to prevent secondary infections from the parasites.

For another, the dog we were going to use came up with poor semen and it was doubtful that she could be impregnated.  Sigh....

Ya know, everything happens for a reason and it is always for the best, even if it is disappointing & hard to believe.  So, the search for a new beau for Glory has started.  She's next in season in either February or March 2014.

Glory - Nov 2010 ASFA Greyhound Specialty "Singles Stake" Win

On the positive side, Glory finished her Grand Championship under Mexican judge, Ricardo Forastieri Gonzalez at the Valencia Valley Kennel Club shows held in Los Lunas, NM on Saturday, Oct 12.  There was a good, overall entry of 6 greyhounds.  We are absolutely delighted!  Pictures were taken and they'll be posted when I get them.

Not to be outdone by his littermate, on Thursday, Nampa, took a 5 point major towards his Grand Championship, beating a champion of record, and a couple of points on Friday, when he finished as Select dog.

Ellie went Winners Bitch on three days, picking up another three points.  She needs majors and it looks like we're going to have to travel to get them.  Not looking forward to that.

Overall, it was a very good weekend.

More later....

Glory Puppies?

I'm thinking about breeding our lovely Glory.  However, it won't happen unless I have some solid buyers (more than 1) lined up.

Glory Gaiting at Fun Match

Glory is not your typical AKC greyhound.  She's moderate in angulation, very balanced, and she has a strong topline.  She's not a small girl, as she's tall & leggy and weighs in at around 70 pounds.

We hope to breed her to a dog owned & bred by Carol Curlee - Ch Chaparral Tour de France aka Lance.  The breeding is based upon the dog's pedigree, carrying several crosses of the much admired dog, Ch Solstrand Fine N' Dandy.  The hope is that this will give her pups a better shoulder than she has, as her shoulder is a bit straight and it limits her reach while running which makes her a bit slower than her brothers.

Why were we looking for lines back to Ch Solstrand Fine N' Dandy?  Well, back in 2000, I approached  his breeder, Dagmar Kenis-Pordham, about breeding Glory's granddam, Feather, to him as Feather's damline was directly related to his damline.  Feather's great-granddam (4th dam) was a littermate to his maternal granddam. It was lovely on paper.

(Feather's test mating to Frankie - http://greyhound-data.com/dbtestmating.php?&sireid=329719&damid=322839)

Sadly, I was informed that she did not believe in breeding by way of artificial insemination and there was no way that Feather would be shipped to England to sit in quarantine for 6 months to allow her to be bred.  So...

Ch Chaparral Tour de France (Lance)

Now it's Glory's turn to be bred and I still want to collect (for want of a better term) that Frankie blood.  Lance has it...  Carol is agreeable to the breeding.  However, I really don't want to be raising 7 puppies here after one or two go to their homes.  I'm not set up for it and it also goes against local animal control ordinances.

Here's the proposed pedigree....

http://greyhound-data.com/dbtestmating.php?&sireid=1781820&damid=1384365

Glory is next expected to cycle in either August or September.  So, if you're looking for a well bred greyhound puppy....

Call me....  don't be afraid to just call me....

Jetty - DM Fast Frigate, Part 1

Jetty, Age 6 wks

Jetty was a Feather son. As white as his mother was, Jetty was that black.  Like his mother, he was gorgeous and graceful.  Sadly, his testicles did not descend. At 3 months of age, it was time to find Jetty a loving pet home, an appropriate home for a greyhound puppy.

Due to the wonders of the internet, a home was found for Jet in Michigan.  The people had great references and sounded perfect, so arrangements were made for Jetty to go & live with them.

I should have known better...  The relationship between us started off with a disagreement over castrating the boy prior to his going there.  Greyhound puppies as a large breed should not be castrated before their growth plates close, which is usually around 13-14 months of age.  This is something in which I firmly believe as early castration leads to excessive bone growth and it has been linked to some other health issues such as incontinence. But, the home sounded so good for the boy...  I went against my gut and judgment and had the boy castrated prior to his trip to Michigan.

Gizmo the Cat & Jet

Please note that castration for a bilateral cryptorchid is not an easy surgery.  The vet has to go in through the abdominal cavity to find the hidden testicles and, in Jet's case, they were way up by the bladder. Anyway, we had him castrated and about a week later, he developed a urinary tract infection (UTI).  He was put on antibiotics and arrangements were made to transport him to Michigan.

Laurel Drew & I transported the boy part of the way to his new home in Michigan.  We had him in a crate with a pad. He was such a good boy!  He never whined, never messed... He was so good.  We met up with the next person (name now forgotten) in what we call a GUR (Greyhound Run). Along the way, Adrienne Breummer in St. Charles, Missouri, had agreed to house him until he could meet up with the next transporter on his way.  Jet made such an impression on Adrienne, she dropped us a line asking to have him if the new home didn't work out for any reason.  Uhm...  OK...  but I don't think he'll be going anywhere...  even so, I saved Adrienne's email.

The transporters kept in touch with us all along the way, giving us updates and telling us how good he was.  Finally, Jet, his medical record, and his medications for the UTI were handed off to his new owners and then she handed him & his medications over to his new owners.

Jet at Adrienne's Home

A couple of weeks later, we got a phone call from the new owners. It seems that Jet was having problems with urinary leaking.  They had taken him to their vet and he told them that Jet's urinary tract and bladder were not properly formed.  What?  I asked my vet, who had neutered him, if there were any problems with his urinary tract and she told me everything was normal. The new vet wanted to do some kind of surgery that was the equivalent of a urostomy! After discussions with the new owners, it was decided that Jet would come home.

On the return trip, Jet again had the chance to stay with Adrienne.  She again asked me if she could keep the boy.  We discussed it and I told her that I could not saddle her with a defective dog, one that would probably leak urine uncontrollably for the rest of his life. We went round & round with Adrienne getting a concession out of me...  I'd let the boy stay there on a trial basis.

(End Part 1)

Slate

DM Snow's Legacy on the Wind  

Wayne & Slate - Best Buds

Slate was owned by and lived with Kathy & Wayne Johnson in Michigan.  Kathy is also known by her business, Feathered Gems Jewelry.

When Kathy found out that I was breeding Feather, she really wanted one of the puppies.  You see, Kathy owned his granddam, Snow (Ch El-Aur Fair Deal FCh) and his cousin, Allegra (El-Aur Dragon Magic JC). You can definitely see the family resemblance.

Slate's registered name was DM Snow's Legacy On The Wind, which was a compromise between Kathy & I.  In sticking with the sailing theme, I wanted to call him "On the Wind".  Kathy wanted to call him, "Snow's Legacy".  As it is, combining the two worked out quite nicely giving him a beautiful and melodic registered name, which also gave credit to his granny, Snow.   And (we later figured this out), if the letters of his call name are rearranged, they spell "Tesla", which was the name of the Johnson's very first greyhound, Greys Gold Rush.

Feather's Litter - Slate on top in the middle

The pups were whelped at the home of Laurel Drew, they lived there for the first 5 weeks of their lives.  I am ever so thankful that they were whelped at Laurel's home because she helped me through the experience of the difficult birth and the c-section and then, when it was discovered that Feather had very little milk, bottle feeding the entire litter of pups!

Slate was a strapping 16 oz puppy when he was born, but he had a very poor suckle. We don't know why as he was a lovely & well developed baby.  There were a couple of times I thought we were going to lose him because he lost weight & became dehydrated. That was when we started bottle feeding.  Even on the bottle, the boy had a poor suckle. We wound up tube feeding him.  Eventually, he got stronger and a couple of weeks later, the entire litter was eating a slurry of meat, baby rice cereal, and goats milk, which was supplemented by the bottle.  He ate quite well and was fine after transitioning to the food. Who knows...

When Slate was a puppy, I convinced a reluctant Kathy to try dog shows.  "Just try it..." I'd cajole her.  Kathy is probably a lot smarter than me as she really doesn't care for the dog show routine. She's definitely saving herself some money that way!  Anyway, She did attend two specialty shows with the boy, one in TX and one in Upstate NY.  In Texas, the boy won his class and somewhere there is a picture of this lovely blue dog with a medallion & blue ribbon. He & Kathy stopped showing when he developed an overbite. In the words of Marty Bradford, "He should finish, but I wouldn't breed him."  We don't know from where the bite problem came.

Slate was very smart.  He had favored toys and he learned to ring bells to go outside. He would wait at the door until given permission to come inside.  One of his favorite things was a gumball treat dispenser that Kathy filled with Cheerios.  She had to take it away because he was getting fat!

According to Kathy, Slate was never really friendly with other dogs.  He wasn't nasty, just didn't want to associate with them. But, at home, he was never anything but sweet. When she brought home the 13 weeks old puppy, Jack (UKC Ch DM Union Jack FCh) he was very good with the rambunctious puppy.  She said he was much the way with Jack, teaching him the rules of the house, they way cousin Allegra taught him.

Slate has his own webpage, with many of the photos that Kathy took during his life with her.  Sadly, Slate was diagnosed in Nov 2009 with chronic renal failure.  That disease combined with a bad back injury cost him and in late July 2010, he joined his Grandma Snow, Momma Feather, and cousins Allegra & BJ at the Rainbow Bridge.

Slate was one of the Sailing Litter born by emergency c-section on May 26, 2002. Kathy has a larger website with lots of pictures of his entire litter from birth to 10 weeks of age.  You can view it at Feather and 'Cuda's Puppies and you can see the litter's pedigree at Greyhound-Data.

Code of Ethics

DM Union Jack - 7 wks old

We AKC hobby breeders create life by breeding dogs. As a result, we need to protect those animals which we produced.  They are our responsibility as they would not exist, except for us.  Our responsibility does not end when they are purchased.  We continue to be responsible for them and it is our duty to bring them home if they should want for love, a place to live, or for any reason.

We also have a responsibility to the breed, which includes striving to produce long-lived, healthy dogs with the physical and mental ability to do the job for which they were historically bred and used.  Most of all, the dogs we produce MUST be able to live with people, as companions and friends.  They are, after all, "man's best friend".  To that end....

• DM Greyhounds strives to achieve the highest quality greyhound in each and every litter with regard to: temperament, health, intelligence, physical ability and conformation while maintaining breed characteristics.

• DM Greyhounds breeds temperamentally sound and physically mature dogs, preferably those who have attained a championship in either the breed ring or the coursing field.  We also believe in testing for genetic health conditions.

• DM Greyhounds has each puppy examined by a vet prior to them being offered for sale. 

• DM Greyhounds urges people with pet puppies to voluntarily spay / neuter their pets, after they reach physical maturity.  It is not a requirement because of recent veterinary studies indicating the potential of an increase in specific health issues, which include, but are not limited to: bone cancer, incontinence, and tendon & ligament injuries in performance dogs. Pet pups are placed with AKC Limited Registration.

• DM Greyhounds' puppy purchasers become part of our extended family. We stay in touch with them to make sure that everything is working out OK with their dog and also to help the owners with any problems they may be having. It allows us to keep tabs on the health & temperament of our pups as they mature.  We gladly disclose any issues in our hounds to potential buyers and other breeders.

• DM Greyhounds requires that any dog of our breeding is returned to us, if it cannot be kept for ANY reason.  This requirement is NON-NEGOTIABLE.  It is put into every contract for the protection of the dog.

DM Star Spangled Banner - 6 wks

• DM Greyhounds retains the right to breed our personal bitches to dogs of our breeding.  We will notify and discuss the potential breeding with the dog's owner and, if the breeding comes to fruition, we will provide the dog's owner with appropriate compensation for expenses they may incur that are the result of the breeding. For bitch pups, we ask that you contact us prior to any breeding to discuss the merits and problems associated with it.

• DM Greyhounds does not engage in false or misleading advertisement of our dogs.  We encourage people to contact owners of greyhounds of our breeding.  We will provide email contact information, but only to serious purchasers.

• DM Greyhounds neither sells nor gives dogs of our breeding to pet stores, wholesale dealers, known substandard breeders, labs, or animal shelters.  We require that our dogs be companions first and that they live in a home where they are provided with appropriate shelter, nutrition, control/restraint, and medical care. 

• DM Greyhounds strongly encourages our dog owners to do something with their dog.  Doing something with your dog strengthens the bond between you.  It also makes for a happy, well adjusted animal.  A bored dog is a dog that gets into trouble.  We believe that a happy puppy (and puppy owner) is a tired puppy.

• DM Greyhounds continues to educate ourselves, our 'extended family' and other with regards to the greyhound breed.  We participate in "meet the breed" and adoption "meet & greet" events and we have actively participated in greyhound rescue & adoption since 1995.