Six Week Evaluations: The Snack Cake Litter: DingDong

 Beatrix O'Honey (AKC) and Rocketdog Rockford Rhoades (AKC) gave us seven wonderful babies in this litter and we couldn't be happier with the results at six weeks. This is Beatrix (Bit) O'Honey's (AKC) second full litter and Rocky's first. We evaluate all of our litters using a six point psuedo objective standard and it is a good idea to become familiar with it by clicking here.

No signs of brown fur in his coat. 
The white bit toward the rear end
is his tail tip. It never stops.

Bit O'Honey, out of the Dog Hills Farm in Idaho, is a good -pet quality Basset Hound. Outside of a few minor structural issues Honey is correct to form in most respects when compared to the AKC Standard for the breed. This makes her puppies pet quality and we will not be offering breeding rights for any of this litter. Honey paired with our younger male Rocketdog Rockford (Rocky) Rhoads (AKC), from our own Rocketdog stock. Rocky is a very good quality Basset when compared to the AKC Standard. His sire ClarkeBar Grizwold (AKC) is a very good quality, smaller form, male whose characteristics are all true to form; ClarkeBar is a very good example of the breed. Rocky's dame, Grizelda Laffee Taffee is a small form Basset out of Country Corner Bassets in Idaho. Taffee is a very good quality Basset, with exceptional Basset traits, who has thrown three wonderful litters. Many pups from ClarkeBar and Taffee were of show quality and have exceptional Basset characteristics. Our expectation is that Rocky's genetics, will shine through Honey's minor flaws, but that none of these will be better than very good as they grow into adulthood.

DingDong came to us on September 10th, 2022 at around 9:45 P.M. weighing a good 10.8 ounces and was very active from the start. DingDong was a wriggler and very hard to hold onto. He has nearly doubled in weight every week since that night and today weighs a very healthy 11.1 pounds.

His personality is unique in this litter. He is, and always has been, very active. At birth he was a real mover and since then he has shown himself to be a roamer and curious about everything. He is always happy and seems to prefer men, who he snuggles down tight with.  Lock your gate, he'll find a way out of the yard anyway. Obedience training is a very good idea.

You can see the slightly flanged
rib in this picture. 

Structurally DingDong is very well built with only one slight flaw, a flanged left side rib. His sire carried the same slight defect and so DingDong is not suitable for show despite his absolutely adorable skin folds, perfect head dome, and well set ears that stretch all the way around his nose.  His jaw set looks perfect at this point, but other litters of this Dame have had juvenile jaw setting issues which cleared up when adult teeth emerged.. His stance, the way he stands when at rest and perhaps the best way to predict hip joint health as he grows, is very aggressive and strong. His foreleg bone size is very heavy and his paws are large and promise a fairly large Basset Hound. His sternum is deep and strong as well. Aside from the slightly flanged left side rib he is nearly perfect physically. 

A very strong stance.

 Aesthetically Ding Dong is lovely. DingDong has ample skin folds and his coloring, though nearly all black and white, will eventually change to include much more brown as he grows into adulthood.

Using our pseudo objective evaluation system DingDong receives four and a half points when judged against the AKC Standard and, though he is a lovely puppy, one half point for aesthetic qualities. Breeding is not a good idea for this litter in general, and doubly so for DingDong since he carries a fault which persists through generations. He will make a wonderful companion for anyone wanting an active playmate and we suspect a Boy will find a real friend in DingDong.