It’s been 6 months since I’ve had the time to update my website.  I have added several dogs to the kennel and retired Bismarck, Mooney, Sadie, Maya and Sage.  Bismarck went to a nice young couple with two children, but has since come back due to the father losing his job in a business closure.  Mooney is still here, but I have high hopes that a nice “little old lady” wants a lap dog (he’s sitting on mine while I’m typing this).  Sadie went to a grandmother/granddaughter home where she enjoys bed privileges. Maya is living the high life in Portland with a nice gent who thinks the world of her (along with everyone else in the “55 and older” apartment building.  Sage has her new very best friend, a 2 year old boy and his mother – dad travels a lot so mom wanted a professional “noise maker.” 

There are several new dogs in the kennel (pictures coming sometime – hopefully soon).  Silver, a silver merle male poodle who weighs about 20 lbs, has just bred for the first time with Tivo.  They should have merle cockapoos in March.  Angel and her daughter Lina (Angel-lina – cute huh?) came this summer.  Angel is a chocolate tri merle cocker spaniel.  She has been bred to Mickey and they should have merle cockapoo pups in late February.  Lina is now 6 months old and a real pain – just like a lot of teenagers.  She’s a red and white parti, not carrying merle (at least to my knowledge).  Scooter is a very large, old style buff cocker spaniel (very exuberant too).  Annie is a black and tan female out of my first Sadie.  I’ll also be keeping pick-of-the-litter from Dia (retiring this year) and possibly from Washi.  I also got Jimmy, a phantom poodle boy from James Faircloth of Doublerun Kennels in Georgia (James life ended way too early December 10^th).  Frankie and his litter sister, Sadie, came early last summer from Suwannee Cockers in Florida.  Lu specializes in sables and merles.  Frankie is a sable merle male cocker and Sadie is a mahogany red sable (no merle).   

That’s a really good example of what happens in a merle litter.  Statistically speaking, half of the pups in a litter will be merle and half will be normal coated.  Because you only breed a merle to a non merle, any merle dog should be heterozygous for the merle gene, meaning half and half.  If you double up the merle genes (breeding a merle to a merle), you’re going to have pups with hearing and eye problems.  They might be blind or deaf or worse.  The merle gene works as a dilution gene and affects melanocytes (pigment producing).  Melanocytes are also important for hearing and sight.  When you double dilute something, it makes it pretty ineffective.  When you just have one gene (heterozygous), it only affects the coat color – which gives some pretty nifty coat variations and sometimes blue eyes, but it’s why you REALLY want to know what you’re doing if you’re going to breed merles.  It’s also why I sell ALL of the pups in a merle litter on a strictly spay or neuter basis (because sometimes the merle gene doesn’t show up in the coat).  The first three merle cockapoos I had turned out wonderfully.  Their families tell me that they are stopped all the time and asked about their dogs.  In fact, I was told one person actually stopped their car as they were driving past to ask.  Now that’s a striking dog!  I’m eagerly waiting Angel’s cockapoo pups next month – it’s better than opening presents on Christmas morning!  Truthfully, every litter is like an extra-special birthday party. 

The rest of the kennel has been coming along slowly.  Right now, I’m waiting for the Planning Commission to approve my expansion plans for the kennel.  Not a whole lot, but enough that the county has to have their penny.  Once that is done, I’ll have weatherproof quarters for all of the dogs, not just the pregnant ones.  Not that they don’t have protection now, but it’s not wind proof. 

Recently, a friend and fellow breeder died.  Since we were both retired military, we had shared lots of stories and he passed a great deal of his expertise on to me – I saved all his emails.  It came as quite a shock when I heard he had died, he was only 15 years older than I am.  It really shook me up and I did a lot of introspective thinking as a result.  We shared all the major “events” of our lives which were pretty interesting, but I’ve since come to believe that life is really what you live between the events of your life.  The events make good stories, but it’s the living that counts.  Every day’s work and every day’s relationships are what make up life.  And those are the things that I plan on concentrating on.

Upcoming Litters

(dates are earliest possible) 

January 11^th Cockers (1/2 merles) from Washi and Frankie

January 20^th Cockers (1/2 merles) from Dia and Frankie

January 24^th Cockapoos (chocolates, blacks, Café au Laits, Silvers) from Taku and Mickey

February 24^th Cockapoos (1/2 merles) from Angel and Mickey

March 10^th Cockapoos (1/2 merles) from Tivo and Silver

On a final note, Shilo has grown into a wonderful teenager. She weighs just about 17 lbs and is the center of attention every time I take her to the farmer’s market. Her beautifully curved tail with its white tip, wags gaily over her back as she greets everyone. When she’s in her “Princess Josephine” state, she sits regally waiting for someone to come up and pay homage to her. She sits quietly and doesn’t jump on anyone and tolerates all of the little accidents that happen when uncoordinated children/babies want to pet her. She gets along with all other dogs and she’s a real sweetheart. I’ve had several offers for her and I just smile, as if to say, “There’s not enough money in your bank account…”