CONGRATULATIONS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh wow, congratulations!! When are puppies due??

Congratulation to all...wow...we are suddenly awash with puppies

oh congratulations melona and storm. when they ready to be born?

but can i ask why use the same stud dog again [not that his not a lovely boy] when we need to increase the breed instead of using same ones. when you have two litter sisters both studded to storm and now yet another from same mating. its not really increasing the diversifying the breed is it.

not that they didnt produce lovely litters but thought would of been better to use different lines.

oh you did keep it all quiet very well i take it lyn knew. well she kept that quiet aswell

Congrats to you both June and Chilli, and of course the proud parents to be Sulin Mealoner and Engrish Storm.

Carol I had no idea at all for just over 4 weeks, I only found out a few days ago, I did not even know that she had been in season lol " honestly " XXX

I used Storm again because I wanted a daughter from him and Lona and Janine wanted a son from them. Due to what has happened to Zillar I am unable to put her in the breeding programme, so she is still looking for a pet home. Of Zillar's 2 sisters, one was spayed (Eigre) and with Banshee being so poorly she doesn't want to breed from Celtic Gold, so I am back to square one. Zillar was earmarked for the breeding programme, due to the excessive overfeeding and the weight she was carrying, not to mention the other issues I took on when I took her back with me, she cannot be bred from. I have already answered this question, as Lyn put it to me, so am surprised she hasn't discussed it with you Carol. There have been no reported health problems whatsoever within the last litter from Storm and Lona, of the people that committed to hip and elbow scoring their puppies, only Karen (DixieLou) has kept her word, and for that I thank both her and Sean.
Due to the lack of genetic diversity within our breed it is very difficult indeed to find a nice male with good hip scores and clear eyes, that is not closely related, as I am sure you already know. Storm ticks all the boxes and is a lovely boy with a great temperament, like you say they had lovely babies last time.
Puppies are due around 3rd February, the vet commented that they were very big, she said she could see 4, Lyn says 7. I am not looking for a large litter anyway, so 4 would be fine by me.

oh nice look forward to seeing what she has on the 3rd then.

but would of thought that if you wanted to keep a pup of melona and storms you would of kepted one of the pups from the last mating?
then you could of used one of those males you found.
then you would of had a new lineage coming in as well.
and you had pups from cariad storm mating to choose from as well.
as lyn didnt let on to me about this mating when you told her, we wouldnt of chatted about it would we.
we dont tell each other everything we are thinking of doing. like it came of a shock to her when arwen went on her hols to geri's as she was of my breeding. and lyn confessed to be i thought it might have been one of my boy her meaning merl or stryder.

was only wondering why but thank you for telling me your reasons.
look forward to seeing them come on how many did the vet recon she might be carrying????
be good to see if they come out the same colouring or if your get different colours as these things you cant say untill they are born

sorry just see that you already put how many the vet recon i think you might have couple more in there than that.

Lyn wrote:Congrats to you both June and Chilli, and of course the proud parents to be Sulin Mealoner and Engrish Storm.

Carol I had no idea at all for just over 4 weeks, I only found out a few days ago, I did not even know that she had been in season lol " honestly " XXX

i didnt even get a idea of you had a sceret lyn i know sometimes without you knowing your keeping something but on this i didnt get anything you must be getting better at it

here june your txt just came through to me it says you sent it at 8 something or other that took its time.

I wanted to keep Eigre from the first litter, however at that time BUA ran a campaign against Lona's litter to hide the fact that the majority of the litter from the white gsd x Cochise had been dumped in a rescue. As a relative of one of the owners of a girl from Cariad's litter wanted her, I let her go there. Zillar was the best bitch in the litter, having won Utonagan Puppy, Wolflike Puppy and RBIS at 8 months old at Leyland Show, the person she went to promised me she could have a litter, so that was fine, till I found out she weighed in at 60kg at 17 months, was catatonic, unsocialised and untrained. It has taken me months to unravel her as you all know, and it is still ongoing, so she is not able to go into the breeding programme as I first thought she may do, that meant all my plans were scuppered and it was back to the drawing board. All of Cariad's daughters that were of a decent quality were booked, and they have all ended up in pet homes and/or spayed. I still have plans to keep a daughter from Cariad, but from a different mating I have had arranged since last year, but been unable to do due to the Zillar Factor. So, in fact, there are no daughters available to me from either litter. To ensure that I am not at the mercy of a numb nuts again, I will be keeping the daughter that I like best from this mating. Cruz was earmarked for Zillar, but of course that won't be happening, but Lyn was discussing the possibility of me using Lona with him as she feels it would be a good match, he will of course be available to anyone who wants to use him within our breeding programme as that is part of the reason he is here in the first place.
The mating between Lona and Storm took place at probably the worst time possible, Leon was attending hospital on a Monday and Thursday that week, the vets said Lona should be mated Tuesday or Thursday. Tuesday was out for Leon, Thursday we were at hospital, so we went over on the Wednesday, Lona wouldn't stand still for Storm.... so we ended up leaving her there, with my greatest worry being that I wouldn't be able to collect her on the Thursday if she started howling as we couldn't get over till Friday. She behaved perfectly as it happened and there was a ruckus around 4am on the Friday morning, but no tie was seen, so I didn't think it had happened, just one of those things, animals aren't machines.
Then at training just before Christmas one of the trainers made a comment about her that got me thinking, then I was out with her 10 days ago, and was looking at her thinking she looked a bit full, and a ripple ran across her tummy, I still didn't want to get excited, but booked her in for a scan yesterday. I told Lyn when I saw the ripple, because I thought better for her to be prepared for a surprise, yesterday I was watching her and I knew then, lots of movement in her tummy, and the vet said she thought she was when she examined her, so we went for the scan, and the rest, as they say, is history. I am well pleased with her, and Janine is really happy and excited, because she too didn't think it had happened.
I sent the text when I did brekkies this morning, so's you would have some warning, I could have got the message over to you quicker if I had caught the train!!!

fair enough i still would of kept eigre if that is what you planned to do even though that was going on. but then everyone different.
but you do things different from me like all breeders do i wouldnt of booked any up untill i knew if i was going to have first pick or the stud owner, i would of course had people on a list ready for when i knew.

lol it took its time getting here

I was very concerned that my puppies got good permanent homes, and if I had kept Eigre then I would never have been able to take first Blaidd, then Zillar back as it would have been too much for me to manage. One of my greatest fears is becoming over dogged, there are big problems on the exercise front for a start, then affording to feed them all properly and making sure there was enough money for veterinary attention, insurance etc. When I take a committment on I look at all aspects of what it would involve and give serious thought as to whether I can actually fulfil that committment. I have seen so many people in both the horse and dog world come a cropper when they become over-committed, and I don't feel it is fair on any animal to put it in a situation where I can't give it the time necessary to enable it to live a happy life.

Why does the fact that Zillar was over weight when you got her stop her from you wanting to breed from her now?? Just curious...she always looks in pretty good shape to me but then I'm used to chunk!!

Because she was carrying all that excess weight (nearly double what she should weigh) as a puppy when her skeleton was still developing it has caused irreparable damage to her. That is why we are so hot on not over exercising them before around 1 year as this is the sort of thing that can happen. I have had a long conversation with a vet about it, and she feels that she should be in a pet home and not used for breeding. Her back legs were quite literally bowed out, she is a lot straighter now, but the damage is done I am sorry to say. In fact I am gutted she is such a lovely girl, the vet says it probably will never bother her, she won't get HD or anything, but I am left with the fact that she needs to be kept on the light side for the rest of her life, be kept fit and active, and cannot be allowed to have any strain on her. She has a lot of muscle now, so is carrying herself better, when I got her she had no muscle to support the weight, so it was a double whammy for her, excess weight, no muscle, so it all impacted on her skeleton

Oh..poor girl. Glad it won't lead to H D but such a shame
I always ask the vet about Mia and Maska's weight when they go ....just in case! He always say they have waists and you can feel their bones...they are fine. I worry about Maska as he looks so big but hopefully he is ok

Just hope you can find the right home for her soon...

Yeah so do I,everyone who stops to admire them gets told that Zillar needs a new home, I am going to advertise her again now Christmas is over. She so deserves that forever home, poor girl
I don't think I could do anymore than I have, she has been to see a vet that x-rayed her and then rang me up to discuss the results with me, the first words were....'what is the story behind this dog...' so I knew it wasn't good news that was coming my way. However on the positive side, she is a heck of a lot more confident, looks nice and trim, has good muscle tone, and walks nicely on the lead, is doing well at training. Just got to make sure she keeps the weight off her and gets plenty of exercise.

Admin wrote:I was very concerned that my puppies got good permanent homes, and if I had kept Eigre then I would never have been able to take first Blaidd, then Zillar back as it would have been too much for me to manage. One of my greatest fears is becoming over dogged, there are big problems on the exercise front for a start, then affording to feed them all properly and making sure there was enough money for veterinary attention, insurance etc. When I take a committment on I look at all aspects of what it would involve and give serious thought as to whether I can actually fulfil that committment. I have seen so many people in both the horse and dog world come a cropper when they become over-committed, and I don't feel it is fair on any animal to put it in a situation where I can't give it the time necessary to enable it to live a happy life.

yep but thats with anything is a risk you take.
if you keep a pup and risk having one returned while you keep a pup.
So you make the best of it you can.
But now you feel you can keep a pup and risk one coming back its a chance you take if are a breeder.

Nothing for certain in this world.

There have been no reported health problems whatsoever within the last litter from Storm and Lona, of the people that committed to hip and elbow scoring their puppies, only Karen (DixieLou) has kept her word, and for that I thank both her and Sean.

It's a shame no one else got the hip and elbow scoring done. We all knew how important it was to you with everything that had been said.

I'm soooo looking forward to seeing puppy pictures. Shaun's already told me there's no chance of us getting another at the moment... but a girl can dream eh???

No nothing is for certain, but what is definately for certain as far as I am concerned is that I will always be aware of what can happen if anyone has more dogs than they can comfortably cope with and look after properly. I will always make that my first consideration. The only reason I am looking at keeping one of these pups is that Cariad and Lona are getting that little bit older now and aren't quite as harum scarum as they used to be, so are that little bit more relaxing to take out these days. Hopefully I will find a home for Zillar and that leaves a space for me to start all over again

DixieLou - your poor sainted mother, hasn't she enough to contend with already, the twins, Raiden and her own new puppy, without another little visitor finding it's way to her door
I'm surprised Shaun can find room to put his foot down

Haha!! Very true!! The twins were 5 yesterday and they both got those toy dog things that walk and bark....... Raiden is not impressed at all...... but they think they're hilarious!!

You mean the twins had a birthday that wasn't on a Saturday
I bet Raiden can't make out what exactly it is that they have got, sounds like a dog etc. but won't play like a dog

Unfortunately their teacher told them on Wednesday when they went back to school that it was their birthday on the 6th. Amy, being the clever little madam that she is, worked out that that meant Friday - I did try to lie, but I'm afraid she didn't believe me..... so for the first time ever, they had their Birthday on their actual Birthday.

Hope they have forgotten by next year, otherwise you'll be dragging them off to school by their hair

Admin wrote:No nothing is for certain, but what is definately for certain as far as I am concerned is that I will always be aware of what can happen if anyone has more dogs than they can comfortably cope with and look after properly. I will always make that my first consideration. The only reason I am looking at keeping one of these pups is that Cariad and Lona are getting that little bit older now and aren't quite as harum scarum as they used to be, so are that little bit more relaxing to take out these days. Hopefully I will find a home for Zillar and that leaves a space for me to start all over again

yeah no what you mean. putting my dogs first and foremost in everything. and also your health you have to think about like me when turned i'll thats why arwen is up with geri. fen was going off anyway. and a dear friend who lost his old dog asked if was possible if he could have freya whos getting spoilt rotton i must say more spoilt than i let my dogs get. lol lol
Just been to see a lady thats got a pup. the person she got the pup from well the mother of this pup was just 1year old and the lady asked if they were now gettint the mum done. oh no they said. and she asked why they let her get pregant well they turned round and said thought it might happen as we have a full male.
The mother of the pup was very thin. poor girl. I said to the lady can see on her next season this poor dog of theres being preggers again.
What a good way of killing a poor dog early in life.