I’m doing a three part series on the changes we are making to our breeding plans this year.  This is post number 2 in the series.  Post number 1 can be seen here: Tag Update: Health Testing News.  Post 3 can be seen here Georgie Update

When I was in Arkansas last month, I was able to make the 3 hour drive up to Northwest AR to see all the dogs up there and pick up River to start his UKC titling venture.  I spoke with Courtney about the future goals for Georgie.  I spoke to Diane about Zelda’s future litters and options, and I spoke to Sarah and evaluated Piper to see what her future would hold.

Piper is the puppy we fostered from Georgie and River’s litter last year.  It was the first litter from Georgie and the second litter from River.  The litter was really nice.  The temperaments were very outgoing, not a shy baby in the entire group of 7.  I placed 2 of those puppies as service dog prospects, many others going as light performance dogs or future therapy dogs.  The conformation in the litter was good to excellent.  Overall, a nice nice litter of out crossed puppies.

I picked up all the puppies in the litter at 7 weeks of age except the puppy I decided to foster.  This puppy was “Piper”.  She had the temperament suitable for the foster family and her conformation was really good.  A bit straight in the front, but other than that, she was really nice.  Good head, really nice rear, perfect top line, long neck.  Her sister Hazel had a nicer front, but Hazel was to much dog for the foster family to handle.  Because Sarah and her family lived not far from Georgie, it would have been silly for me to pick the puppy up and keep her for a week or two, only to have to drive her all the way back to Northwest AR and deliver her Sarah.  With that in mind, Courtney decided she would just keep Piper for one week until she was old enough to go home to Sarah.  Courtney and Sarah are best friends, so this seemed to be the best solution for all involved.

At just under 8 weeks of age Piper broke her left front leg in a freak accident.  We think the other household dog (a hound mix) caused the break, but are not sure as no one ‘witnessed’ exactly what happened, only heard the puppy scream in pain.  Courtney was crushed, we spoke many times on the phone, vets were contacted, choices on what to do were made.  I told Sarah I would take this puppy, fix her up and find her a home, that she absolutely did not need to take a puppy with a broken leg.  She insisted she still wanted Piper.  Long story short, the leg has not healed properly.  This was not unexpected, puppies and broken legs do not mix.  The leg is 2 inches short and starting to twist.  Multiple specialist have been visited over this pups life in both OK and TX and there were/are no good choices.  Due to the amount of crate rest, her entire front is atrophied especially the Left side.  Eventually, the leg might have to be amputated.

Here is as close to a stacked side shot as this pup will ever get.  She simply cannot stack like the other dogs or she would fall over sideways on the short front leg.  Note her poor front, due to crate rest and the way she must stand to stay balanced.  The rest of her is very correct (amazing neck, top line, tail set, rear, etc).

Notice in this photo you can see how short that left front leg is.  Her feet are not shaved so it is harder to see, but her leg is not touching the ground.  Notice how far down she is in her pastern on the right, due to the extra weight she carries in her front.  Also this is how she must stand to be fully balanced.

Piper cannot be shown and the stress of carrying and whelping a litter is not a good option.  Could we breed her?  Yes.  Should we breed her?  No.  Because of this, I have decided to remove Piper from the foster program.  Sarah loves her, no matter what happens with that leg.  That is the beauty of the foster program and why I foster most of my ‘prospective’ breeding pups.

~Becky