Committed to the improvement of the breed by breeding for health, temperament and better structure in dogs that have the ability to herd.

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Ell Bell

Well my little Ell Bell Miester Girl is a riot in our Beginner's agility class that we are taking along with Mac and my sister. On Monday we did the jumps again and the tunnel (which she was way better at this week) and then we did the A frame again but were introduced to the table and the weaves. Ell was never really taught to sit (as per dog showing you want them to STAND and WAIT all the time) but she learned really quickly that if she sat, she got some cheeseburger from McDonald's which I think is a bargain for .89 cents for an hour of treats!

However today marks her official 2nd heat, about 3 weeks after I expected her to come in. I wasn't surprised she took a bit longer as her first heat wasn't until her 1 year birthday (literally on her birthday she started her first season) and I didn't know if she'd be one to only cycle once a year or if she would do it every six months after her first time. So now I have to call the training facility and see if she can still be brought to class there or not. I know at FMKC she cannot be in training while she is in season in case there would be males fighting or trying to breed her or something. I may have to take Zoe instead for the next few weeks just to be safe. And since we started just a few weeks ago, I figured Zoe wouldn't be TOO far behind if we started her!

Today I made an exciting new contact with a black/white male for Zoe that would have somewhat of a line breeding, but just over 5% line breeding coefficient. I've asked that he be DM tested. If he is a carrier or clear/normal I will probably use him so we shall see. I will keep you posted. Zoe 'should' be in season sometime in August, which would make for October babies if she comes in when she should and whelps when she should.

Now comes the part where I have to start saving newspapers and towels and such and get all the dog supplies ready for the pups and whelping. I'm going to have to check Jinnie's blog again to see where she got her whelping box from.

Any suggestions on what i should be preparing for what always comes in handy? Its better to be TOO prepared than not enough (if you dno't believe me, check out my farm blog about the supplies i had for my lambing...I didn't a single thing out of it except the ear tags!)

4 comments:

Sharrie said...

Better to have toooooo many supplies than not enough. There sure is a lot of heart in that tiny CWC body we have. BUT...I don't know how you handle five of them.

Rayna said...

a puppy bottle and milk...just in case =/

Emily said...

The Phi-Vestavia site has some wonderful things for whelping on it under Cathy's articles. I have always used her forms and such to keep track of the litter and I think she has a good supply list on their. Make sure to check it out!

Anonymous said...

Jinnie's wonderful whelping box came from DuraWhelp. I loved it, light weight, easy to clean and then folded it up and put it back int he box it came in for storage. It will be fun to follow your babies now that mine are growing up.