The Puppies Have Arrived!

Yesterday Courtney and her sister drove the long drive from Northwest Arkansas to Memphis to meet up with me and do puppy exchange.  A few things happened, which might come as a shock to you all.  I think Courtney’s still in shock as well.

The First Surprise!

Twenty-four hours prior, I logged into BetterBred, a breeder software tool I utilize to help keep diversity in my breeding program and in the Standard Poodle gene pool.  The US Postal service lost the pups original swabs, which were taken and mailed when they wree 2 weeks of age.  Last Monday I called UC Davis to find out if anything had arrived and they said no, zero swabs from my litter.  So, Courtney took more samples and Fed-Xed those to UC Davis for testing last Tuesday.  UC Davis emailed me Wednesday and said they had the swabs and would run the samples immediately.  These results were back in 4 business days, props to UC Davis!   

I was happy with the results of the litter.  While not really outliers, I had a few good candidates for the program.  Outliers were not possible with two very mainstream AKC conformation line parents.  The most diverse of the entire group happened to be Jack.  From birth, Courtney’s husband had been attached to this single puppy.  He has never really paid much attention to the dogs over the years.  Courtney has owned Poodles from me for 20 years now.  For some reason, Jack had Todd’s number and wormed his way into his heart.  He kept having Courtney ask about maybe fostering a boy from this litter (specifically, Jack), but Courtney kept telling him “Becky needs to keep a girl”.  A boy was not an option.

Then, Jack became ill.  Todd put his heart and soul into helping him get well and the bond between those two grew even stronger. 

Let us just say when I saw the results of the test, I decided I needed to do more research.  I had Better Bred run a test breeding with Locket and Biscotti to see how he might look, siring a litter with each of those girls.  Locket was a fabulous match.  Biscotti was not bad either.  I sent Courtney a message saying, “You will never believe which puppy is the most diverse in the litter” and she just knew it was Jack.  That is when she dropped the bomb about Todd’s love for that puppy and how, if I decided Jack should stay in the gene pool, they wanted the first option for his guardian home. 

The Second Surprise!

Another thing you all probably do not know, is that Courtney has wanted to learn how to breed Poodles.  She is at a point where her kids are leaving home, with the youngest child 18!  Her goal is to become a Karen Prior certified obedience trainer and she really wanted a confident, focused, sport minded puppy in brown color.  We all have our dream colors and Courtney has owned a cream, blue, and black from me.  She informed me several years ago brown would be her next puppy, which is why she didn’t want to keep a girl from Mabel. 

I have been working Biscotti for several weeks.  From the time I took her, I knew she would be placed either on a co-ownership or guardian type situation, unless I thought it best to remove her from the program and put her in a pet home.  I contacted a few of my first-choice pet homes for this highly active girl to see if the timing was good, but most needed to wait until next year at the earliest.  I kept looking at her and her beautiful structure and decided I needed to keep her in the gene pool.  She IS an outlier like her mother, so her genes are rare. 

Courtney raised her hand and asked me to please consider Biscotti for her on a co-ownership.  She felt her temperament is just what she needs to build her skills in training.  Mabel is VERY bonded to Courtney, so the only option for another female coming into their home was one who was independent and not clingy. 

The Puppy Trade Off!

Yesterday I evaluated Jack and found him to be a structurally sound boy.  I gave him a kiss, hugged little Miss Biscotti, and said a prayer for Courtney as she drove away with TWO PUPPIES!  Courtney’s husband, Todd, will be Jack’s primary trainer, while Courtney works with Biscotti.  Courtney said she will be gifting Todd training classes with a friend for Christmas, because there is no way she will be teaching her own husband.  Husbands are so bad!  They get attached to a dog and there is no changing their minds.  All of us have been there.  If you want to have a supportive spouse with a house full of dogs, you must allow them to keep their favorite at least once.    

The Final Count.

I drove home with one boy and five girls. The pups are precious and very sweet.  I’m in love with them all!  Here are some videos taken today. 

I snapped a quick photo in Memphis of Jack for my records.  He is a LOVELY boy.  Very balanced, good rear and front, nice head and substance.  Really good tail set.  I’m happy with his structure and style.  He is not trimmed up and made to look better.  No scissor work on this puppy.  That is how nice he looks.