Mera's girls

Today when I was taking puppy pictures, Jill climbed up in the chair and said she needed to hold the pups for me. She loves holding the pups while I take the pictures, but she isn't good at holding them still and that it makes it harder. At least she loves the puppies and tries to help. I don't do anything to discourage that spirit.


These are the two cream girls.

Insane Asylum

The girls, Velvet, Ashes, and Mera, are driving me insane. It has been days since anybody has peed or pood in the house, that is until today. For some reason Mera pood
in here around 3:30 in the morning. The smell woke me up. She did it
about 4 more times this morning. It isn't like she has loose stools or
anything, thank goodness. I don't know what is up. It could be that
Ashes joined her and did some of them, but I don't think so. Ashes just
doesn't "go" in the house. Anyway, that is just one of the issues. The
other is the constant in and out today. It is cold but sunny outside
today and they have been wanting to be outside. However, they won't
just stay out. Velvet has been in a very playful mood these last few
days so she is wanting to stay outside.Mera barks to go out, I let her out. When Mera goes out, Ashes wants to come in. Within a couple of minutes Ashes is barking to go back out, then Mera wants in. Velvet doesn't care who is out there with her, just as long as one of them is out playing with her. Mera and Ashes are also checking out each other's babies. Mera doesn't mind, but Ashes doesn't particularly care for it when Mera messes with her babies. She doesn't growl at Mera, but she does try to block her way and nudges her back out the door.

Ashes' chocolate girl has been spoken for. Her name is Ellie. She is going to do therapy work with people with head injuries.

Rosie is in heat. Since she had a rough delivery last time we are going to skip this cycle. She can get together with Pepper again in the fall.

Mera's puppies hang out in the area by the kitchen during the day, and in the whelping box in the utility room at night. They have a litterbox and some are actually using it already. I'm so excited. They are so cute. They are playing and growling at each other now. It is still too early to know what their individual temperaments are going to be like.

I shoulda done it myself

Dangit! Every single dew-claw-hole whatever you want to call it, is infected in Ashes' litter. All the pups have infections. They are swollen and nasty, poor little things. I took pictures, but I'll spare you. I wasn't real thrilled with something the vet does when he removes the claws. I noticed it when he was first showing me how to do it when I was just starting out. He did it again the other day for Ashes pups. He has this jar of styptic powder that he uses. He just opens it and dabs a q-tip in it to put on the fresh wound to stop the bleeding. ...but...he uses the same bloody q-tip for all the pups and dabs the same bloody swab in the jar. That is terrible cross contamination. Who knows what horrible kooties he is putting on those newborn baby feet. As badly as I hate removing them myself, out of all the ones I've done I only had one infection. Even that one wasn't bad enough to require a trip to the vet. I had to take these guys to the vet today and now they are on antibiotics. They are fussy (of course) and not gaining weight very well. They should have nearly doubled their weight by now, but haven't even come close.

Mera's puppies are cows. They are so big already.

Today was the first day any of them showed interest in the big dog food.
Mera is giving a lesson on eating solid food.

Francie and Tucker

Francie and Tucker are from Rosie's first litter.
This is Francie's baby picture. Her guardian mom doesn't know how to take pictures so I don't have a recent picture. Francie

This is Tucker's puppy picture. His guardian mom doesn't have a camera either :(

So, Francie and Tucker are red F1B's that I kept back for breeding. They are in guardian homes. They went to the vet today for their PennHip and blood testing. The vet said he thought they have great hips. Their mom is .24/.32, OFA good, dad is .38/.42. I'm so excited and hopeful about having another line with excellent hips. Now I get to figure out with whom to breed them. Francie and Meeko seem like an obvious pair, but I'd really like to find another true red to breed her with. Tucker can breed with Ruby. They will make a nice pair.

I've become a chicken

Today I took Ashes and her pups in to the vet for him to remove the dew claws. He said they all look great and healthy and should do very well. He also checked out Ashes and said she looks really good too. I took her out to the van to wait while he worked on the pups.

Did I mention that on the 9th I had my two new assistants take Mera's pups to the vet for him to remove their (the pups, not the assistants) dew claws? I loved not having to take them but felt guilty too.

I can't do the dew anymore

It is time for Ashes' puppies to have their dew claws removed. I hate doing that. I hate it I hate it I hate it. Probably not as much as the puppies hate it though. This evening I got everything ready to remove them. I went so far as to have a pup on my lap, dew claw pulled taut, and sissors in hand poised to make the Big Snip. I just couldn't do it. I put them down and put everything away. I'll take them to the vet tomorrow. It will be worth $100 to have him do it.

Here are all 17 puppies. Meeko is the daddy of them allMeeko's guardian family is so proud.

Ashes had her puppies

Ashes did so well with her labor and deliveries. She complained during the first birth, of course. I also had to help pull that first one out. After that, everything went great and she knew exactly what to do. Here is what/when she had:
1) 4:05 a.m. curly black boy 13.3 oz
2) 5:33 a.m. curly boy - light cream 12.8 oz
3) 6:03 a.m. female curly light cream, black pigment 11.9 oz
4) 6:09 a.m. female apricot long straight hair 12.4 oz
5) 6:26 a.m. boy curly a little darker 12.3 oz
6) 6:56 a.m. cream girl curly rose pigment 12.3 oz
7) 7:30 a.m. girl light cream, rose pigment 11.1 oz
8) 7:39 a.m. girl chocolate 11.9 oz long straight-wavy
9) 8:12 a.m. girl long straight black plain 12.5 oz

Midway along

Ashes is in labor

Ashes is going to have her babies very soon. She is restless and panting, but not acting distressed. This is a very welcome excuse for me to not have to sit and act like I care about the football game. Yay Colts!

Why I have chosen to withdraw my membership from the ILA

I have been suspended from the ILA (International Labradoodle Association, aka Labradoodle Association of America, aka Australian Labradoodle Association of America).
Here are the highlights of the story:
Picture it...the year was 1936 and it was a hot day in Cicely....wait a minute, this is supposed to be serious.

I gave a Velvet/Koby daughter, Ashes, to someone who wanted to become a breeder (yeah yeah, I know...when will I learn), and in return she was to pay for the
testing and give me some return pups. At 12 months, Ashes'PennHip scores were .58/.68 no DJD. That isn't that great, but I've seen respected breeders breed with
higher scores with good results. She opted to breed one litter then
spay her. The breeding didn't take and Ashes didn't get pregnant. At 18
months she took her in for retesting. The vet told her Ashes' hips were
bad and there was no way she would pass OFA . (yeah I've heard that
before. Remember the stud I neutered at the vet's word and then the
results came back with good hips?) I told her she could either spay her
and sell her and keep the money to recoup some of her expenses, or she
could send her back to me. I told her if she sends Ashes back to me,
I'm not going to just take her vet's word for it and I'd have her
retested. I told her if she does not pass the Pennhip , I'd spay her and
try to sell her and give her the proceeds to offset some of her
expenses. If she did pass, I would breed her one time with Meeko (PH .27/.27), and reimburse her expenses. So, she opted to send her back to me. On Nov 9, 2006 I took Ashes to my PennHip vet for retesting. I told him about the other vet's findings and asked him that when he was doing the PH x-rays to please spay her while she
is out if he agrees that she obviously has hipdysplasia. Well, he did not spay her. The PennHip report came back .60/.65 no DJD (no hip dysplasia). Again, that is not great, but if bred with the right stud, there should be no problems. So, that was two different PH tests by two different vets that showed no DJD. I bred her one time with Meeko. His mom's PH is .38/.38, dad is Good, brother is .26/.26. Ashes' dad is PH .38/.38 and BVA 2+2, mom is BVA 10. Ashes and Meeko ought to make some good pet puppies. ...but I digress, sometime after I bred them I heard from the other person. She got the results of the OFA Preliminary Evaluation and said Ashes has mild hip dysplasia. Hmm, interesting that it doesn't match the 2 PHs or what my vet said. Some time later I received a notice from the ILA that there was an incident report filed against me. With that report they included the OFA report. That was the first I had seen it. The report date on the OFA report was Nov 14th. Two weeks later I was suspended from the ILA. I will copy and paste it here, it is so stupid I couldn't make something like that up:

"Summary: The ALAA has determined that Lincoln Manor Lady Ashes ALAA-003292, was diagnosed by OFA on November 14, 2006 with Mild HD and sublaxtation. Jane Stanger determined to withhold this knowledge and retest Lady Ashes using the PennHip testing agency. PennHip did not detect the previous diagnosed condition. Jane Stanger of Lincoln Manor Labradoodles then bred Lady Ashes while a member of the ALAA under the ALAA Code of Ethics. It is unknown if the PennHIP diagnosis was a misdiagnosed, or if the previous OFA report was in error. Furthermore a more accurate retest would have been to request OFA
to reevaluate a new set of x-rays with full disclosure of the previous
report. Due to this absence of disclosure it is assumed that theOFA report is may be accurate and/or PennHIP was mislead by Lincoln Manor."

O.k. now, let's go through this line by line:

- The ALAA has determined that Lincoln Manor Lady Ashes ALAA-003292, was diagnosed by OFA on November 14, 2006 with Mild HD and sublaxtation.
= I did not do this test and the results were not sent to me. I did not
know about it. Incidentally, this is a Preliminary Evaluation.

- Jane Stanger determined to withhold this knowledge and retest Lady Ashes using the PennHip testing agency. = Uh...Nov 9th comes before Nov 14th. I had her tested on Nov 9th, there was no knowledge to withhold.

- PennHip did not detect the previous diagnosed condition. = What previous diagnosed condition?

- Jane Stanger of Lincoln Manor Labradoodles then bred Lady Ashes while a member of the ALAA under the ALAA Code of Ethics. = Yes I did, with the knowledge of the two PH reports.

- It is unknown if the PennHIP diagnosis was a misdiagnosed, or if the previous OFA report was in error. = Two PennHip tests reported no DJD and one OFA preliminary evaluation reported mild HD. Apparently the ALAA chooses to assume the OFA is the correct one.

- Furthermore a more accurate retest would have been to request OFA
to reevaluate a new set of x-rays with full disclosure of the previous
report. = The PennHip was the retest of a previous PennHip test. Again, the 9th comes before the 14th.

- Due to this absence of disclosure it is assumed that the OFA report is may be accurate and/or PennHIP was mislead by Lincoln Manor. = I'm telling you, I am not making this up. The suspension report really says this. Again again, the 9th comes before the 14th. There was nothing to disclose. There was no OFA report to disclose. The PennHip radiologists are capable of determining their own diagnosis. I am not psychic.

When I told my vet about this he laughed. I won't say his exact words, but ...um...he thought it was pretty ridiculous.

Catchup

On Sunday 14th, a family came to look at Mera's pups. They put a
deposit down and will probably be getting one of the cream girls. That
pup will grow up to be best friends with Louis,Mera and Da Vinci's black boy from the summer litter.

On Monday 15th,
Beau went home. I'm sad. I miss him. He was the only puppy here
(besides the newborns) so it was like we had our own puppy. Here he is
afterbathie time
That really wiped him out. Now it is nappie time

I'm
so proudThis
is Honey, the Josie/DaVinci breeding girl that lives in a guardian home.

Mera's puppies are growing by leaps and bounds.

Remember
that ILA inspection? I
never received a copy of the report because a report was never written
up, nor will it ever be. That issue has been lain to rest.

That ILA fiasco is old news. I'm really in trouble with them now. This time it is so stupid it is just plain asinine. I do feel free though. I don't have to worry about any surprise inspection or worry about anyone trying to get me to change my diary. I have been holding off on my diary until this new issue has been resolved. It kind of has in a way. Now I can go about my merry business and not worry about what anybody thinks. ...free to be you and me...

Long time no see

Guess it has been awhile since I've posted here. I forgot my username and password.

Let's see...what all has been going on...Tink's pups have been spayed/neutered. Tink went home. Kris, the first born has a new family and a new name. His name is Indiana and he will be called Indy. He already went home. He moved to a town in Illinois and will live only 6 miles from his littermate Beau. His family and Beau's family don't even know each other, it is a complete coincidence they will be neighbors. I told the families about each other and they are going to try to take the pups to the same training classes. Anyway, Missy's new name is Molly. She went home too. Beau is hanging out with us. It is fun having him. Since he is the only pup it is like we have our very puppy. I take him with me on errands. Velvet decided to come out of retirement for while. She has decided to take care of him. She has been playing with him and sleeping with him and even cleaning him.

Mera came back and had her puppies already. She had the first two on the very couch where they were conceived. The real kicker is I was sleeping in the chair right next to her and didn't even wake up. She is such a pro now.

Did you know I'm not a psychic? Remind me to tell you something stupid that happened.

You want poo? I'll give you poo!

I have never seen so many types of worms in my life. Tinkerbelle's puppies are so healthy and they have had perfect poos since they went on solid food. I've wormed them 3 times so far with no signs of worms. They got spayed/neutered Tuesday and spent the night at the vet's. They came home yesterday and have been pooping up a storm ever since. Their poos are getting a bit squishy and upon close inspection of one, I found a worm. What is that all about? I gave them all some Panacur earlier today...and now...I just cleaned up some poos with worms worms worms... tall worms, short worms, fat worms, skinny worms, even worms with chicken pox...
Well, o.k., so maybe that was a slight exaggeration. Maybe there were only a couple of worms; but really, one or 10, it is all gross and creepy. Don't know about you, but it makes me want to do a total body cleansing and detoxification with a parasitic wash (or whatever you call that). Please note this poo rant is at the request of my Laaaazy River rafting buddy in Ohio.

The puppies are doing really well. They are running around and wrestling,, when they are not busy pooing.
Tinkerbelle went home yesterday. Ashes didn't hesitate at all and is taking them over as if they were her own.She is a great big lovable pacifier.
Beau found something fun to do.
Missy and Kris.

The pups spent their first night in a crate last night. They did so well. They all stayed in the same crate and that really helped. I put them in the crate shortly before midnight. I put their crate up on the table beside the chair I slept in and stuck my fingers in the crate at first. They just whimpered a little bit at first. They were quiet until 4:00 a.m. when one started barking. I took them out and put them in the bathroom for them to do their business, then I put them back in the crate for 2 more hours until we were up for the day.

Mera came back this evening. She is here to have her puppies that are due the 8th. I checked her temp and it is 99.1. That means she could have her pups tomorrow. Righ now she is digging in my sleeping chair. Humf! She may think she is having her pups there, I don't think so.

Happy New Year

Hi everybody, I missed you. Thank you all very much for the flood of emails and phone calls. That really meant so much to me. Guess I better not give up the diary.

Here is a really quick update:

Tinker Belle went home today. Her pups are at the vet right now. They were spayed/neutered this morning. I'll pick them up tomorrow. They are all spoken for.

We have no available pups right this minute.

Mera is coming over in two days. She will be here to have and raise her puppies. Her guardian dad says she is huge. Meeko (the pups' father)'s guardian family is so excited. This is Meeko's first pups. Mera's family is excited because this is Mera's final litter. She will be spayed and retired after she recovers.

Bessie is doing really well in her guardian home.

Nobody is cycling now. I'm not sure who/when the next litter is going to be.