A story of a whelping!
May 13, 2010
My dear friend Annie has a delightful Border Collie called Buffy, she is a half-sister to my Pie, by a Grandson of my Teddy. Buffy combines both mine and Annie’s breed lines and Annie kept her especially to breed from and keep the line going!
Buffy with friend Molly and Annie's grand daughter Emma
It seemed that Buffy had other ideas! She is now nearly six years old and has only had 3 seasons! A very unusual lack of seasons, considering many bitches have a season every six months! Annie had too many commitments to mate Buffy at her first season, which didn’t happen until after her second birthday, and hoped that now she had started having seasons that the next one wouldn’t be too long coming. Alas it was another two years before the next season, when Buffy was mated but with no outcome! At nearly six years old, Annie was concerned about mating Buffy again, but assured by her vet that Buffy was very fit and in great health, she went ahead and mated her to Solo, my Teddy’s grandson, who has a very similar temperament to Teddy, bursting with joy for life!
At three weeks the Vet examined her to see if she was in whelp, but despite a lot of searching could find no evidence of pregnancy! At five weeks, Buffy was acting like her throat had been cut, eating Annie out of house and home and behaving oddly, so Annie talked to her Vet and they decided to scan Buffy, and indeed he found at least three puppies on the scan! Game back on!
On Friday the 7th May, the due date, nothing happened, no sign of the expected labour, on the saturday she was looking a little restless but other than that on top form, Annie waited! Sunday still very little sign of labour, Buffy eating well and full of energy. Annie getting concerned spoke to her Vet who said lets wait a bit longer. Poor Annie her tummy was getting upset with anxiety. Buffy is a special dog to Annie and now she was wishing she hadn’t mated her at all, concerned for her safety she kept watching and waiting for any sign of difficulty. Monday and Buffy was now looking a bit restless, wanting to dig from time to time and being restless for short periods, in between she would settle down to sleep and looked totally at ease! I went to dog sit while Annie went off to take her Monday night class, I did little but drink tea and observe her, and she was much the same as she was all day. Annie was on full alert by now and slept little that night, watching Buffy for any signs of distress or the hoped for puppies!
Tuesday and still nothing, it is not unusual for a bitch to be two days late, but this was getting worrying now! Annie spoke to her Vet that morning and he said if nothing had happened by tea time to bring her to see him. I went over to go with Annie, I arrived around four pm to see give a quiet push, for the first time! It was the first sign, we took her to the Vet at five pm so that he could see how she was doing. Annie’s Vet Marcus, is a good friend and Annie has the utmost confidence in his care of her dogs (vital at a time like this in your dog’s life). Marcus gave Buffy a good examination and after some discussion it was agreed to see if Buffy could finish her labour unassisted, but Marcus assured Annie he would be at the end of the phone all night, should she need him! Marcus predicted a puppy in the early hours of Wednesday morning!
We went home to wait some more! And wait we did! Buffy had clear ideas about how we waited and made it quite clear that she wanted regular back massages, and if one of us stopped she squeaked at us until one of us started again! At 12.30am Buffy became more intense in her activities of digging and pushing, we even caught a glimpse of a puppy! Eventually at one am a one pound tri colour baby boy was born, followed fairly rapidly by another just twenty minutes later! Buffy was so calm about the whole procedure and l Our relief and pleasure was only dampened by our tiredness, though I can hardly complain, Annie had already missed one nights sleep!
Buffy obviously had more to come, and having cleaned her two babies thoroughly she started to feed them, she had copious milk and the babies had to little more than put their mouths to her teat and milk almost fell into them! We could see them growing already! She lost all interest in her back rubs now that she had some babies, and was immediately in love with them. I have never seen a bitch so careful of her new babies, any movements she made in the box she made slowly and gently to avoid hurting them, yet her cleaning of them was robust, and she bossily pushed them back to feed when her cleaning was done.
More waiting, I have to admit that at around three am I fell asleep on the floor and Annie delivered the next boy on her own at around four am! Still no girl for Annie to keep and continue the breed line, though it did look like there was another yet to come!At this point I clearly remember saying that the only way Buffy could redeem herself now, was to produce a brown and white girl for Annie!
At six am Annie’s husband Mick surfaced to see what the outcome was, we were both slightly hysterical by this time, brought on by lack of sleep and the relaxation of the loss of tension and anxiety, and were full of giggles at the amount of time it had taken to produce just three puppies! Yet with the possibility of another puppy to come, we were not out of the woods yet, there was still the possibility of a caesarean to deliver any remaining puppy! At seven am I didn’t want to go home in case there was still an emergency, so instead retreated to Annie’s living room to get a couple of hours sleep in comfort! At my request Annie woke me with a cup of tea at nine am and said to come look 🙂 and there she was, a brown and white girl for Annie to keep! Her name is Sydney and Mum and babies are thriving!
Buffy in the bluebell wood!
Dog behaviour health check!
May 10, 2010
Dog Behaviour rarely falls apart over night, signs of trouble ahead are always present (except in the rare
A dog with attitude can cause problems!
case of illness), the tricky part is to spot them before they turn into a major issue! In this post I am including a behaviour health check for your use, if you would like me to email this to you, just drop me a line or put in the comment section of this post? Please feel free to return the questionnaire to me if you would like my feedback on your dog’s behaviour.
Please be as honest as possible.
Dog’s pet name?
Breed or nearest type of dog?
Dog’s age?
Age dog came to you?
What type of establishment did the dog come from? E.g. Home reared/kennel reared /breed specialist /puppy farm /rescue
Did you see either of the parents? Yes / No
Is this the dog first home? Yes / No
Has the dog ever attended any formal training? Yes / No
If so for how long?
Is this your first dog? Yes No
Have there been any major changes in the dog’s life recently? Yes / No
If major changes what kind?
Has the dog had any medical treatment in the last 6 months?
If so what?
Where does the dog sleep?
Do you ever use a crate? Yes / No
Does the dog come when called at home in the house or garden? Yes / No
If yes are there any circumstances when the dog would not come to call at home for example “if the postman was at the door”? Yes / No
Away from home? Yes / No
Does the dog pull on the lead? Yes / No
Does the dog like retrieving? Yes / No
Does the dog drop toys at your feet or in your lap? Yes / No
Are toys and/or bones left down all the time? Yes / No
What games does your dog like best?
E.g.
Retrieve tugging digging in the garden stealing and running off hide and seek solitary games playing with other dogs dog runs you chase any that involve a person
Is the dog destructive when left? Yes / No
Is the dog noisy when left? Yes / No
Is jumping up a problem? Yes / No
Is the dog possessive over food or toys? Yes / No
Does the dog ever growl or bite anyone? Yes / No
Does the dog play bite? Yes / No
Is there any behaviour would you like to change?
In what order? 1. 2. 3.
How would you describe your dog’s personality?
Is there any behaviour you are concerned about?
What do you most like about your dog’s behaviour?
More news of Dennis!
May 10, 2010
I met up with Maggie and Dennis yesterday and got some new photo’s 🙂 Dennis was on good form as ever and here are my snaps! Maggie is now being asked to open Fetes with Dennis this summer! The price of fame!
And yes he is pushing a pushchair here!
Dennis
Dennis pushing the pushchair
Warning for dog owning gardeners!
May 6, 2010
This warning comes from the USA, but my guess is it will be just a matter of time before this becomes an issue here. We can learn from their mistakes hopefully!
Please tell every dog or cat owner you know. Even if you don’t have a pet, please pass this to those who do.
Over the weekend, the doting owner of two young lab mixes purchased Cocoa Mulch from Target to use in their garden. The dogs loved the way it smelled and it was advertised to keep cats away from their garden. Their dog (Calypso) decided the mulch smelled good enough to eat and devoured a large helping. She vomited a few times which was typical when she eats something new but wasn’t acting lethargic in any way. The next day, Mom woke up and took Calypso out for her morning walk . Half way through the walk, she had a seizure and died instantly.
Although the mulch had NO warnings printed on the label, upon further investigation on the company’s web site,
this product is HIGHLY toxic to dogs and cats.
Cocoa Mulch is manufactured by Hershey’s, and they claim that “It is true that studies have shown that 50% of the dogs that eat Cocoa Mulch can suffer physical harm to a variety of degrees (depending on each individual dog). However, 98% of all dogs won’t eat it.”
*Snopes site gives the following information:http://www.snopes.com/critters/crusader/cocoamulch.asp *
Cocoa Mulch, which is sold by Home Depot, Foreman’s Garden Supply and other Garden supply stores contains a lethal ingredient called ‘Theobromine’. It is lethal to dogs and cats. It smells li ke chocolate and it really attracts dogs. They will ingest this stuff and die. Several deaths already occurred in the last 2-3 weeks.
Theobromine is in all chocolate, especially dark or baker’s chocolate which is toxic to dogs. Cocoa bean shells contain potentially toxic quantities of theobromine, a xanthine compound similar in effects to caffeine and theophylline. A dog that ingested a lethal quantity of garden mulch made from cacao bean shells developed severe convulsions and died 17 hours later. Analysis of the stomach contents and the ingested cacao bean shells revealed the presence of lethal amounts of theobromine.
A new puppy class!
April 29, 2010
We have started off teaching them to sit and watch, go down, lead work and how to stop them jumping up, as you can
see they are making excellent progress!
- Sue and Nessa giving a great example of the watch exercise!
Herbie being a very good boy!
Cathy and Herbie demonstrating the watch on command!
Pauline and Ben showing small dogs can be obedient too!
Pauline had to get down low to start Ben off on teaching him to watch.
Ben is just too cute! But he is very clever too!
Nessa showing that Staffies can be nice!
Recall training morning at Barbary Cottage!
April 28, 2010
Sarah giving great body language for the recall
Sharon looking great on heelwork!
Sarah looking very pleased with Charlie!
We start by getting the short recall right!
more short recall for Charlie
Jane and Freddy can do the short recall too!
A lovely shot of great lead work!
We all need a tea break, well we had worked hard!
We had a great morning, and the sun shone for us too! The dogs responded well to the strutured training, by the time we felt brave enough to leave the safety of the fenced garden and go into the paddock, the dogs were responding well. Anne and Sharon had been to the training session a month before so were able to advance more, I was thrilled to see the improvement in their dogs and in their handling!
Recall on the long line out in the fields
The long line is our safety net!
Dennis is not the new Toto! :(
April 26, 2010
The whole litter!
A little girl puppy from Gracie's current litter
Cassie (Sister of Dennis
Gracie pups at 4 weeks! It'A boy puppy
Another girl!
But he did make it to the last 10 out of 1000 applicants!! A major achievement for any dog, and he and Maggie looked great on the results show last Sunday night! A big congratulations to them both on a great performance and what a great time they both had at the “Lords” home!
I will chase Maggie for an up to date photo of Dennis, but the moment I do have a lovely one of his sister Cassie, who is just as beautiful and a lovely little person!
If any of you know of a great home out there Dennis’ Mum Gracie gave birth to 6 more babies last week, the Daddy is my Pie so they are set to be very lovely little people too, who need homes as special as they are! They are very loving little dogs with great temperaments and a little poodle in Mum Gracie gives them this shaggy look, though some do end up looking like Dad!
Avril on the Steve Scruton show at BBC Essex Radio
April 23, 2010
Steve hard at work behind the desk
As ever I had a great time with Steve Scruton at the BBC Essex Studio in Chelmsford! We had some great callers with Dog questions and covered dog behaviour subjects like toilet training, separation anxiety, biting, dog to dog aggression and several more, if you missed the show and would like to listen in you can do for the next seven days via i player at the address below:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p007d8bd/The_Afternoon_Show_on_BBC_Essex_23_04_2010/
Avril behind the mike
John came in to tell everyone about his show later in the day!
Steve with the BBC sign!
Me and my good friend Steve!
Could this be Toto?
April 8, 2010
A young Dennis on his skateboard!
I am proud to introduce you to Dennis and his owner Maggie (of Allsorts Dog training),
Dennis was from a litter I bred from Gracie and my Teddy and I am very proud that Maggie has been attending the auditions for Toto, fingers crossed for Maggie and Dennis this week as they wait to hear if they go before the “Lord” next week!
Needless to say I will expect you all to vote for him on TV should he get to the last 5!
Do you want your dog to help with the gardening?
March 31, 2010
Does this look familiar? Have you got a photo of the real thing to share?
Spring is coming and the dogs will be spending more time out there, typically I am sure to be having a lot of questions about how to stop the puppies turning the garden into a bomb site! In anticipation here are some tips for those of you who are keen gardeners and do not want to lose your favourite plants this summer!
The good news first, dogs grow out of gardening by around their second birthday! If they don’t, it is not normal behaviour and you need to come and see me to correct the misunderstanding they have!
While growing it is natural for a puppy to explore their world and the garden is a wonderful place for them to do this, eating dirt, chewing sticks up, eating plants, digging around for insects, or just to see what is there is all normal behaviour, and if you fight this natural need to explore you will create more behaviour problems for yourself.
Management is the answer, by either fencing off an area that you give over to the puppy, or protecting your precious shrubs by fencing them off, to protect them from your puppy will make your life simpler, and allow your puppy to develop without upsetting you!
Ideally create a digging area for your puppy that is more interesting than the rest of the garden, this can be an earth area or you could make a sand pit, to reduce the mud you might get in the house. For a sand pit/digging area to be interesting you will have to dig it over once a day, add toys and objects of interest to the area, preferably bury these bits to make it more fun to find them!
Remember if you have just dug a part of the garden, or even better planted bulbs or plants, your puppy will make a bee line for this spot, your scent will make him think it must be interesting, prevent the puppy having access to this area for a few days until your scent has faded.
I am always delighted to have your queries and comments on any of the articles as it can lead to more clarity! Do you have a photo of your puppy digging in the garden for me to add to this post please?
Avril Munson's Blog 
