Litter Announcement: Rush x Phoebe

This litter has turned out to be quite memorable. The puppies decided to come a couple of days late and that couple of days happened to fall on Friday June 12th. The following day (Sat the 13th) I was due in the show ring with Khaleesi at 1pm, with the show being a couple of hours away. It was a long sleepless night delivering puppies ( my loving husband delivered the last two so that I could get a couple of hours of sleep....we're made for each other I tell ya) followed by an early morning packing and driving to the dog show. The show was very much worth it as you may have read here.

What makes the litter so memorable however was the first puppy born....

I have never had dilute puppies before so it was quite a surprise, and very exciting. I will be perfectly honest, when the above boy arrived I wasn't even completely sure if he was a fawn or a blue. I even looked up pictures of puppies online but that didn't help much. It wasn't until the little blue girl arrived that I knew for sure he was a fawn.

Phoebe whelped all nine puppies with ease and very little warning she was about to give birth...no nesting or panting, just totally relaxed. This is her third and final litter and apparently she's decided it's old hat.

The puppies are growing like weeds and are very strong. This picture is at about a week old.

 The puppies are two weeks old today, all eyes are open and they are crawling everywhere around the whelping box. We have four black boys, a black girl, a blue girl, a fawn boy, a red girl and a red boy....a rainbow! The sire is Rush and the dam is Phoebe.

A couple of these puppies will be available to loving homes, for more information and a puppy application please email: braebrookdobes@yahoo.ca

Remy x Hadley - 9 Weeks

Took the first stacked photos of the Remy x Hadley ten last night and I'm very happy with what I see. They are smooth with pretty heads, good bone, great toplines and outgoing temperaments. I had to lighten a few of the pictures because the puppy's bellies against my shorts was very dark and it is hard to tell where one ends and the other begins, even lightened it's still not great. My apologies...note to self, light clothing only.

 Here are the little ones at nine weeks:

White collar

Green collar

Blue collar

Double collar

Purple collar - he needs just a little bit longer before being in ear tapes, but he's almost there.

No collar male

Orange collar

No collar female

Black collar

Pink collar

I can't believe they are nine weeks already...time just flies when you're having fun. ;)

New Champion Khaleesi

What a crazy last few days it has been! I was up until 2:30am on Friday night whelping puppies and then back up again at 6am to drive to the Comox Valley Kennel Club show, but boy was it worth it! Khaleesi is now Ch Braebrook's Love Me Do, finishing her title in just two weekends with multiple breed wins over specials and two group placements as well. Khaleesi is from our Brody x Phoebe litter and is the first one to finish her championship.

I don't have any ring candids from this show as Chris wasn't there (where is that guy when you need him?? Oh yeah...home taking care of dogs, love that man. ;) ). Here are a couple of quick snaps of Khaleesi and I with her group ribbons.

Pacific Playgrounds is the show site for the CVKC show and it is right beside Saratoga Beach which is so beautiful and where the kids and I spent  a good bit of our time. I highly recommend this show if you get a chance to go. It's small but the beach is so worth it and there are cabins right on the show grounds so it's a great destination show as well. 

 I had so much fun catching up with my family while I was away and managed to get in a visit with just about everyone. I stayed with my brother Abel and his family which is just a few minutes from the show grounds. He owns Coastal Black Winery so I enjoyed some great wine while I stayed there too. ;)

The kids played and played with their cousins and we all got lots of sun, the perfect combination to put you to sleep on the long drive home (the kids not me! lol). Here is Marshall passed out with Ryan (Braebrook's Revolution - littermate to Khaleesi). Ryan had her eyes closed but one popped open when Ella snapped this picture. So sweet...

Congratulations to Khaleesi's owners Errol and Toni on their new champion! Thank you so much for letting me show her, she was a whole lot of fun. 

BPIS Ch Braebrook's Hennessy

You have probably already seen some of these pictures on the Braebrook Kennels Facebook page but I've included them here again to share with those who haven't as well as have a blog post completely dedicated to Bravo.

I had been working out details for quite sometime to purchase a bitch named Kyra (stay tuned for an upcoming blog post for more about her). She decided to come into season just as things were finalized and because I had her in mind specifically for Bravo details to get him here had to move along quickly. Thankfully Calgary is only a quick flight from here so when I contacted his owner Wendy to say we were ready for him things were able to happen with nary a hiccup.

Bravo happily came out of his crate in Victoria and after a quick potty break, a drink and some welcoming cuddles we headed back home with him.

There were a few health clearances that needed to be taken care of right away so before he arrived I booked him in with my vet to have his hips OFA'd and strapped him into a holter so we could check his heart. My vet said his hips looked great (still waiting for the final OFA grade) and he had just three single PVC's on his holter test. He gets to add these clearances to being vWD clear, Kate Meurs swab negative, and he was CERF cleared as a young dog.

Bravo was shaved for his holter so that is the mark you see in this picture. He fit right in during his stay here, like he'd never left.

One of my favorite things about Bravo is how he moves. He's a big dog (not in height...we measured him while he was here and he's 27 and 5/8 at the withers) with lots of bone and substance, something that is getting harder and harder to find in the breed, but he is not cloddy. He moves big, free, easy and powerful. He's very balanced as you can see in this photo...perfect triangles and no crossing over under his body.

Bravo was quite heavy when he arrived ( Wendy does admit to spoiling him ;) ), so he joined in on the evening runs with the other dogs here (I'm running too...I have a 5K race coming up in a couple of weeks) and with some careful portion control we managed to get him slimmed down nicely.

Here are a few stacked photos, I can't believe he's going to be five in August...time just flies along.

 And here's a little throwback to when he was just 10 months old. He finished his championship on this day with a Best Puppy in Show and a third in the adult group.

I know I say this all the time but I'm very excited about this litter (can you tell I'm living my dream when all this dog stuff is just so exciting to me??).  If all goes according to plan we should have puppies at the beginning of August. Stay tuned for the litter announcement!

The Remy x Hadley Ten

This blog post has been highly requested and I apologize for the delay. Things have been very busy with lots going on and I finally grabbed my camera for this play session. The Remy x Hadley ten are seven weeks old today and were just cropped. Usually I don't crop until eight weeks but my vet was going away on vacation so we arranged to do it a bit earlier. The litter was so large that they were cropped over two days, the first five are in their little sock hats as you can see and the second five still have their vet wrap covers. I'm really pleased with how these guys are coming along, very smooth bodies, well balanced and some pretty heads. Temperaments are outgoing, sweet and engaging. Stacked pictures coming soon!

This goofy face makes me laugh...

Meeting Sniffy the cat (side note...his name was actually Smith but Ella couldn't say that as a wee thing and called him Sniff...it stuck).

So smooth....

Stay tuned....more pics of this litter coming in the next few days.

Update On The Harrison x Pelly Girls And Some Thoughts

The last time I posted about the Harrison x Pelly girls I had two that I was running along. The litter was very nice (the two red boys who had already gone to homes were very nice too, as is the black boy Q) and I was having trouble making my final decision (always a good problem to have). While I was struggling to make a decision I was contacted by Lyn Korella, a man who first got involved in Dobermans in 1969 and who has been breeding for many years under the Defender prefix. He and his wife were without a Doberman for the first time in many years and were looking for a show puppy. I think fate stepped in here as that made it much easier to let go of one of my show girls and the girl who I'd been leaning towards went to live with them on a co ownership. This is the Braebrook's Allegria "Allie" on the morning she left to her new home. Look at that beautiful face and lovely crop, so pretty.

The bitch I decided to keep was Braebrook's Varekai "Dusty". She was a bit of a sleeper puppy to me, pretty and finishable (could finish her championship) but with a little extra time she has been blossoming and I think she is turning into something very exciting.

 The temperaments on this entire litter have been excellent, very outgoing and confident. This is Dusty just a few nights ago picking out a stuffy at Petsmart. She met staff, other customers, a pushy young rottweiler who needed some work on her dog skills and she took it all in with a bang up tail and quiet confidence. I was very very pleased with her.

When we were at Petsmart there was a staff member who came over to say hello and bring her a cookie and the first question out of her mouth was "is she a rescue?". My answer of course was "no, not at all, I bred her". I am very proud of my dogs and and work very hard to produce good pets and show/working dogs with excellent temperaments and I'm quite happy to tell people that I bred them. Now the reason I bring this up is that I think it's sad that people immediately think that dogs are rescues, even clearly well bred ones in ear tapes. Now I have nothing against rescue dogs but what bothers me is that the first thing that a person assumes is rescue rather than "wow, I wonder what breeder that beautiful puppy came from?". Well bred, purpose bred purebreds are no longer the norm, people want to say they saved their dog and I get many puppy inquiries asking what my adoption fee for a puppy is. Let me be clear,  you are not adopting, you are purchasing. You are purchasing a well bred puppy from titled and health tested parents, a place for your dog to come back to if something happens in your life where you can no longer keep it and a lifetime of support whenever you need it. You know what you are purchasing as far as size, temperament, and trainability, which is one of the biggest bonuses in buying a purebred dog. You also know you are purchasing a breed of dog that pleases your eye, and a well bred example of that breed. I get told so often by my puppy people "everyone always comments on how beautiful he/she is". You know that they have been well socialized and loved from the moment they were born into my hands, and you know if anything should go wrong at any point down the road I am there for you 100%.  I put my heart and soul into my dogs and I love what I do more than anything. 

I am thrilled to share these dogs with my puppy owners who I welcome into the Braebrook family. I am so thankful that you are all getting your dogs out and about and introducing them to people. I think it's important that everyone see these well bred dogs from breeders and know what wonderful pets they are. I know I say it all the time but thank you Braebrook family! :D