J&A's Brittanys - Hanging With Puppies

Hanging out with Beauty, Hawkeye and all the pups.

Tomorrow is opening day for Maine's bird hunting season.  This morning John is helping with the state's pheasant stocking program in Southern Maine, something he thoroughly has enjoyed doing for many years now.  The email arrived from IF&W last week indicating the date, time, and locations.  I was going to go with him but as everyone knows I am NOT a morning person. This is especially so when we have puppies.  Last night I hung out with the Jack of Hearts litter of 9 until midnight. This morning I am working through my pumpkin spice coffee and relaxing briefly while trying to catch up here!

Evenings are a special time when there are puppies. At 8pm I turn the lights down in the puppy area and make sure that the music is set to something relaxing.  During the day when pups are not outside there is always something playing.  They have listened to westerns, situation comedies, talk radio, sound effects, and of course lots of music. Yesterday I actually turned the t.v. to face the puppies because a couple of them were sitting there looking up at the television! As their energy dwindles and their playful, typical mouthing and biting comes to an end they will crawl up into my lap. I will cuddle each pup one by one and gently place them back into their box. Timing is critical as I don't want them to wake up for another round of puppy playtime! At least not at midnight.

Pretty soon photographs and memories will replace the reality of 8 weeks of loving, nurturing, and caring for Arrow, Beauty, Carly, Dude, Eclipse, Flint, Ginger, Hawkeye, and Ike.  As surely as every planned breeding we have ever done is special in it's own right, the Jack of Hearts puppies is even more so.  John and I remain in awe. While Jack was alive, he was a frequently used stud dog not only for us but for other breeders who are focused on a close working gundog.  Everyone always knew what to expect and that was especially so with this pairing with Holly.  Yet even at 7 weeks old we felt these puppies exceeded our greatest expectations. I don't believe there was ever a happier litter.

For starters there was only to be 4-5 pups born according to the ultrasound. We know ultrasounds are just to confirm the pregnancy in most cases.  And because this was an artificial surgical insemination using semen frozen 5 years ago, we didn't expect 9 and our reproductive veterinarian were as surprised as we were. Good job JackDog!

We looked for and identified the desired traits in these pups from the very beginning.  Many were obvious such as natural retrieving instincts at 7 weeks of age. ( I believe in crediting the dogs that are behind these pups.  Birch Springs Wish Upon a Star, their great, great grandmother had incredible natural instincts, strong prey drive and more. This paring doubles up on our Wish.)  As the pups grew and matured they just kept getting happier and happier!  All pups get excited and are happy, that shouldn't be unusual at all.  But it was the wiggly butts with waggin tails that got me.  One of Jack's many memorable traits all hunting ability aside was how joyful he always was and how he made others happy. I see this in the pups. With Jack, all you had to do was gently scratch the base of his tail over his butt and he would immediately turn into a gleeful, happy boy!

Note  Miss Beauty's wet left ear as she sits next to Ginger.

Another thing that Jack always did was to suck on the ears of other dogs. Not just get them a little wet, but get them absolutely soaking wet!  It took me awhile to figure out why the hair on the ears of these pups were often drenched but last night the light went on.  I watched in amazement as a couple of the pups gently mouthed the ears of their sleeping littermates.

From the time they are born up until when they go home our puppies benefit from specific  'extra curricular activities'.  For many years we have used the Volhardt's Puppy Aptitude Testing for evaluation of a litter. I have also used the "Super Dog" (early neurological stimulation) which begins at 3 days old for newborn pups. If you're not familiar with this one here's a great article on it www.royalspaniel.com/health-testing/early-neurological-stimulat.html. I also implement many suggestions found in the book "Another Piece of the Puppy Puzzle" by Pat Hastings as well as use her DVD called The Puppy Puzzle." The greatest benefit?  Well, while this utilizes the best possible use of time spent with each and every puppy it also allows for the human/animal bond to become solid. And above all - what could be more fun than hanging with puppies with a purpose?! Oh how I love these baby dogs.

Carly's reaction to a suspended bird wing for visual response.

We wait until after the P.A.T.s to determine puppy selection. From the start we ask puppy families to fall in love with the entire litter, wait until they  meet them in person to give us their top 3 choices.  Following the evaluations and based on what we know about each family we determine the best possible fit.  While it's true any puppy would be a good choice there are also subtle differences in each personality which a breeder is aware of.  We rarely guarantee a specific color or gender but do try very hard to honor someone's preference. This was a busy week. Microchips, PAT's and well puppy exam and first puppy shots. As of yesterday, everyone now knows which puppy they will be bringing home.  No one was disappointed. For the time being, I will enjoy hanging with the puppies and making sure to make the days count while we count down to the first day of the rest of their lives.

As always, take care, God bless, and thank you for your interest in All Things Brittanys.
John, Ann, and our amazing crew

The Joy of Becoming a Great-grandmother

Updates about puppies and life here at ATB are frequently the subject and focus of my little blog here. As the Jack of Hearts litter is now 5 weeks old though there is something so much more exciting, so much more awesome, and yes even more important than anything I could share here about the puppies although I do share a bit about them at the end.

We recently became great-grandparents!! Our oldest granddaughter delivered the most beautiful little baby girl and we had the pleasure of meeting her for the first time when she was just a few days old. As surely as I can remember the joy of becoming a parent when my son was born, and then the incredible experience of holding my first grandchild when she was born now I have known an even deeper joy and love as I held her daughter!  To see my grandaughter and her husband so full of happiness, their eyes aglow with pride and love about being parents is truly beyond my ability to describe. Their baby, my great-granddaughter, is absolutely gorgeous. She's so pretty! And our entire family just rejoices at her birth, a family that has really gone through some 'serious stuff' over the past year. I'm so thankful to God for his faithfulness that extends from generation to generation. My heart is so full and it's overflowing by the pure joy of it.  John and I are blessed with two awesome kids, our son and our daughter and their families.  Between them we have 7 grandchildren who mean the world to me.  Time goes on and we realize how precious each moment spent together is.  Those moments are many in the beginning but then life happens and the times with each other are not as frequent as they once were. Schedules, work, obligations, and the whole cats in the cradle syndrome affects even the best intentioned family members.  My happiest moments are when the entire family is gathered together in one place and this happens on most holidays and birthdays.  I'm blessed that our sons family and our daughter's family are close in relationship. That is the same for my sister's adult children and theirs. We all experienced the reality of our immortality last December when John almost died from a massive heart attack. But God!

We have had puppy families come to visit and that has gone so well. I have so many pictures to share! Speaking of pictures though you won't see any of our great-granddaughter here on this public blog so you will have to be happy with those of the puppies many which I post on Facebook. In the meantime you may enjoy revisiting The Art of Raising a Litter which I wrote last year. 

There is also good news from recent dog shows in Union, Maine! Toph (who is loved and owned by our daughter and family) won a 3 Point Major, her first major every and was handled by our granddaughter Alana. I'm so proud of this team!  Toph has had very limited showing so it is exciting that this brings her more than halfway to winning her AKC Bench Championship.  (Three of her littermates have also recently finished their championship as well!)  We're especially proud because Hemi is her father. You may remember that Revere earned his first major back in July at the Vermont shows we went to.  That was only his second time out and he too will have limited showing.

I really don't have much down time to sit and write as much as I'd like to.  Quite frankly I am exhausted!  Weaning is just about complete and the pups are eating 3 meals of puppy food daily. I am getting them outside in the fresh air as often as I can.  They have had many visitors this past week including most of their soon to be new owners.  Keeping the pups as clean as possible is a 24/7 job as Miss Holly has turned the reigns over to us.  Up until 4 weeks of age momma will keep the nest clean and still nurse them.  Then at 5 weeks of age she only wants to be with them for minimal amounts of time. The pups have not only been introduced to a lot of new people but also to new sounds and activities. They love their new puppy toys!  I am using a clicker with them on an informal basis in hopes of teaching them to sit.  One day soon they will also be exposed to a game bird wing and eventually a real live bird before they go home.  I look in the mirror and the exhaustion I feel shows. But it's all good, a true labor of love as far as I'm concerned!

Thanks for your interest in J&A's Brittanys.  And yes, there is limited puppy availability but I do not know for how much longer.  Please contact us via our website if you are interested. Take care and God bless, John & Ann