The Leavings Begin -- Slowly...

At about eight weeks, formal evaluation of structure can happen.

Mirak

None of the puppies have bad structure and at the same time, all puppies have faults — they are living creatures, after all, and no more perfect than us humans.

Structure matters for soundness, and it also matters for the beauty pageant part of things.

Sun

And so the process of evaluating puppies is first and foremost an evaluation for structural soundness and secondly (and related), to assess which of the puppies is likely to be most successful in the show ring.

We have spent the past two days doing that.

So many photos — and videos. We watched the videos in slow motion and discussed — thank you to Eden Jonas for coming out to help with this process, and also to Suzanne for her unending help with all things puppies.

Capella

Since there are no perfect puppies, we are basically counting up strengths and faults and seeing how that balance sheet looks.

For example, Lyra is a structurally sound puppy with lovely movement — and she doesn’t have the substance of some others.

Lyra

Nova is lovely with great breed type and sound movement — and she has Claire’s bigger ears.

Her head is turned — they are not as long as they appear in that photo :)

You get the idea.

I will place show puppies in a limited number of homes with people I know and trust — that means some puppies that could indeed qualify as “show puppies” won’t ever be shown. That is just fine. All show puppies need wonderful homes — they do not all need to be shown.

Heze is a lovely show puppy who will be shown.

I will co-own him with Alison Jaskiewicz who also has Heze’s Aunt Kiri (Sparkler) and Uncle Tristan (iPup).

Heze was the first to leave — he headed off to New Hampshire this morning.

The process of assessing homes — and puppies — is always ongoing and yes, things can change at the last minute. Placements for both litters are not all settled — that is normal and expected.

WHEW.

With Heze’s departure we have some new math: it is now 10+9+9+me.

Evening Report

Thank goodness for good friends — that is what I have to say about that. All ten Bright Stars had wellness checks in the past two days. I never leave puppies alone — hence the good friends remark.

All ten passed their health exams with no issues. Stool samples were negative. And so on — a more complete report soon but zero issues with the wellness exams.

Orion had some GI upset late this afternoon — thank goodness we have a vet in the family and much gratitude to her. But between that and the vet adventure and Claire and work and all the normal stuff, I did not accomplish as much as I wanted to today and that includes emails and videos; I hope to catch up tomorrow and Saturday.

Claire is doing well and is amazingly cheerful and happy. The puppies are all alive and well. There you go — success, under these circumstances.

March 17

When Your Son Sends You Videos of the Soup Nazi from Seinfeld...

Being a breeder who cares is such a fine line to walk — like being a mother-in-law or a grandparent. Even when you see or know things you consider cringeworthy, you have to preserve the relationship at all costs.

All costs.

As a breeder, I know about those costs: Anxiety, worry, regret, soul searching, and lost sleep.

Moonshadows - telling secrets.

As I look at potential puppy homes, I am keenly alert for red flags that suggest I might be paying future high costs for a placement. This is what careful and caring breeders do — it is not unique to me.

A red flag for a puppy mill or backyard breeder might be concerns about whether someone can pay — for me, red flags are all about incongruence with what I consider an optimal life for a puppy.

Bright Star Heze

“Who the heck gets to decide whether my home is optimal for a puppy?” one might indignantly ask.

Fair question and here is the answer as it relates to the Bright Stars and Moonshadows: Me.

I created these lives. Of course I am the one who must decide what is optimal.

Cross Talk with Moonshadow Portia

There are so many variations of optimal, and this is wonderful because puppies are individuals who need different kinds of homes.

But what all puppies need — in my definition of optimal — is to be a priority. A high priority. One worth time, attention, adaptation, and yes — sacrifices.

Novel toy today — it was a HUGE hit.

This is tough. People want a puppy. I want to sleep at night. And the truth is that sometimes those two things cannot both happen; that reality doesn’t make anyone a bad person.

This is a busy week. We will be doing formal evaluations of the puppies. The Bright Stars will have veterinary exams, get microchipped, have blood drawn both for titers and Berner-Garde sponsored research, and based on titer results, may get their first vaccination. In addition, Claire’s surgery is tomorrow.

And so all things considered — the 10+10+9+me of us are doing some variation of fine. In my case, it looks like more like an acronym (F.I.N.E.) but never mind that — we knew it would be March Madness, right?