Rocketdog Bassets: November 2024

Tuesday, November 19, 2024

Six Week Evaluation for the Snack Cakes Litter : Chocodile (available)

Chocodile at Six Weeks

We have been writing litter evaluations since 2015 using a Six Point Evaluation which takes into account the five key points of the American Kennel Club descriptive criteria for the breed, and one point which we assign subjectively and is based solely on looks and personality. It's a good idea to look at Our Six Point Evaluation page to familiarize yourself with how we determine what is important in each evaluation. There were some health issues in this litter which should be discussed prior to evaluating the individuals:

One little girl had heart murmurs and an inoperable double hernia, among other things, which eventually led us to make the hard choice to relieve her suffering. This was our only "Sad Puppy".
The second major problem came in the first puppy of the litter, a little male named HoHo, who displayed a condition commonly known as "Failure to Thrive". Happily for us all, we caught this lack of eating skills defect early on and were able to hand feed him back to health and he is now a healthy and scrappy little boy.
The third problem we encountered as the happy problem of puppies overeating and having weight become an issue in early development. Two of our pups need special training to get them up and running on their feet. We caught the condition in the first weeks and were able to train the pups with lazy backsides to use their legs as they should.

Since Abba Zabba is retiring, were are not worried about passing bad traits on to future offspring. We haven't had health issues here since we retired Bit O'Honey early and since Bit O'Honey and Abba Zabba are littermate sisters from the same kennel we suppose these problems were genetic in some ways, but none of this should be a problem for the breed going forward. Certain of the pups will not have the option for purchase of breeding rights and we do this for the good of the breed more than any warning of future health concerns. We expect no further health troubles in the litter and have not experienced any health problems in the past four weeks.

At the time of this writing Chocodile has yet to find a forever family. It you are interested there is an email widget to the left of this article if you are interested.

Chocodile is a lovely little girl. At birth she was inky black in color with little white or brown fur; hard to see in low light conditions. She favors her mother in color, though does have a bit more white fur, and also favors her mother in body cues. She is in it for the fun. Loves playing unless she is asleep and is hard to keep on your lap since the world is so very interesting to her. We expect she will develop into a carbon copy of her mother for shape.

She was one of the two puppies requiring a bit of additional training to get her up and running around as other puppies do. We point at excessive eating as the cause of her slight "Swimmer's Syndrome". But one she got to her feet she began running as one would expect out of a Basset Puppy. Today she shows little of her earlier proclivity toward lounging around, but she needs exercise to be truly happy. Chocodile has adequate bone size and the body shape of an eel, tapering smoothly from shoulder to tail. She has a weak stance, so again, make exercise a big part of your puppy's life. Her head shape, ear and jaw wetting, are all very good. But show quality dogs take on much more European shapes (much more blocky and loose) , so Chocodile will become a fine pet with very little show quality to her.

Chocodile is colored as is her Dame. Mostly black fur with a small white underside. And she will continue as she is until some brown fur shows up later in life. She is a lovey puppy, but difficult to see int he dark. She will likely be very clever and you will need to lock the gate and check the fence for holes. She will become an excellent companion and will likely not be given to a lot of barky behavior.

Of the five AKC derived points Chocodile received 4.5 because of the general state of this litter. She gains the full point for pretty though. So she is 5.5 point of the six. She might be bred providing the rights are purchased, but we are not recommending breeding in any of this litter unless you are a professional breeder and know what you are looking for.

Six Week Evaluation for the Snack Cakes Litter : Moon Pie

MoonPie at Six Weeks

One little girl had heart murmurs and an inoperable double hernia, among other things, which eventually led us to make the hard choice to relieve her suffering. This was our only "Sad Puppy".
The second major problem came in the first puppy of the litter, a little male named HoHo, who displayed a condition commonly known as "Failure to Thrive". Happily for us all, we caught this lack of eating skills defect early on and were able to hand feed him back to health and he is now a healthy and scrappy little boy.
The third problem we encountered as the happy problem of puppies overeating and having weight become an issue in early development. Two of our pups need special training to get them up and running on their feet. We caught the condition in the first weeks and were able to train the pups with lazy backsides to use their legs as they should.

Moon Pie is a moose. The largest of the litter at 9.8 pounds. Though a well built puppy, she was one of those two which needed some help in dealing with her relatively large size when it came time to start walking. We caught this "swimmer syndrome" early and began training to get her using her back feet. Today she is a strong walker and good runner, but doesn't like standing on her rear feet unless there is a food bride near the top. Moon Pie is among the huggers. She will definetly stay on your lap and allow herself to be loved for as long as someone wants her to.

MoonPie is large, robust, and generally favors her father for skin folding and blocky structural cues. She has strong European traits: a very blocky head shape with long ears hanging from the back of an adequately domed head. A strong jaw setting without any defect. And very large foreleg bones. she is a bit weak in stance and should be given regular exercise to assure fewer hip bone problems later in life. Don't let this one become lazy or overweight and her life will be better for it.

Moon Pie is particularly well marked. He extra soft and loose fur coat is pure white at the shoulders, but her head and ears are a wonderfully distressed brown. She is a lovely little girl, but not in a show quality fashion. Of the six points available, Moon Pie receives 4 points for her AKC derived structural evaluation and one full point for being very pretty. We don't think it a good idea to breed her, but would have no objection to it since her only flaw is in eating a bit too well.

Six Week Evaluation for the Snack Cakes Litter : Little Debbie

Little Debbie (Pickles) at Six Weeks

Abagail (Abba) Zabba and Rocketdog Rockford (Rocky) Rhoades got together to produce a wonderful litter of pet quality puppies. This was the third and final litter for Abba Zabba (who will be spayed and retired to our farm). This is the fifth litter for Rocky and his first as our only breeding male. This litter presented some challenges which I will note in this introduction, but the outcome today is that we have six wonderful and healthy puppies to evaluate.

We have been writing litter evaluations since 2015 using a Six Point Evaluation which takes into account the five key points of the American Kennel Club descriptive criteria for the breed, and one point which we assign subjectively and is based solely on looks and personality. It's a good idea to look at Our Six Point Evaluation page to familiarize yourself with how we determine what is important in each evaluation. There were some health issues in this litter which should be discussed prior to evaluating the individuals:

One little girl had heart murmurs and an inoperable double hernia, among other things, which eventually led us to make the hard choice to relieve her suffering. This was our only "Sad Puppy".
The second major problem came in the first puppy of the litter, a little male named HoHo, who displayed a condition commonly known as "Failure to Thrive". Happily for us all, we caught this lack of eating skills defect early on and were able to hand feed him back to health and he is now a healthy and scrappy little boy.
The third problem we encountered as the happy problem of puppies overeating and having weight become an issue in early development. Two of our pups need special training to get them up and running on their feet. We caught the condition in the first weeks and were able to train the pups with lazy backsides to use their legs as they should.

Of the six pups, Little Debbie (family named Pickles) has been the easiest of them all. She is a wonderful, beautiful little girl with all that one wants to see in a Basset hound puppy. Funny, inquisitive, and cuddly; also chompy and loves hard play too. Pickles is our Beauty Queen. She loves to cuddle, loves her food, and loves nice play with her litter mates, but she is often found playing alone with a toy too.

She favors her father for looks and style, but has a slightly tighter coat owing to her mother's Normand Basset genes. She is of normal weight, at 8.6 pounds, but carries the weight very well on stout forelegs and chunky hips. Her stance is not strong, but otherwise is normal and healthy. Pickles is a well built puppy with long ears which droop from their attachment at the extreme back of her well domed skull. She does have a slight overbite in her jaw setting, but this is very minor and will likely correct itself as her adult teeth come in. She is not a European Basset for size or weight, but is relatively close to it in most other ways. She is dynamite and the only candidate for show quality marks in this litter. But she is not of show quality.

Pickles is lovely to look at. Her sleek body is covered well in soft, shiny, mostly black, fur. But she is definetly a tri-colored hound with symmetrically marked coat and facial fur. The entire puppy, when taken as a whole and without knowing her history, would appear as would a much larger type of Basset hound. She will become a fifty pound Basset with one-hundred pound good looks.

She receives 4.5 points for AKC Standards and one point for pretty. The best of the litter at 5.5 of six possible points. Breeding is not a good idea with Pickles and rights are not being offered to anyone not a professional breeder of Basset Hounds due to the special nature of her few structural flaws.

Six Week Evaluation for the Snack Cakes Litter : Cupcake (Celia)

Celia (Cupcake) at Six Weeks

One little girl had heart murmurs and an inoperable double hernia, among other things, which eventually led us to make the hard choice to relieve her suffering. This was our only "Sad Puppy".
The second major problem came in the first puppy of the litter, a little male named HoHo, who displayed a condition commonly known as "Failure to Thrive". Happily for us all, we caught this lack of eating skills defect early on and were able to hand feed him back to health and he is now a healthy and scrappy little boy.
The third problem we encountered as the happy problem of puppies overeating and having weight become an issue in early development. Two of our pups need special training to get them up and running on their feet. We caught the condition in the first weeks and were able to train the pups with lazy backsides to use their legs as they should.

Cupcake (now Celia) favors her mother's Normand styling and color, but will likely favor her father's strong European traits as she grow into adulthood. She has great

Celia has more than adequate foreleg bone thickness, favoring her Sire, and a narrow shoulder width, favoring her mother. She has two unique structural flaws, a slight kink in her tail, which she was born with but would be hard to spot if you did not know what to look for, and a slight overbite flaw in her jaw setting which will likely clear itself when her adult teeth arrive. She is adventurous, but likes most laying around with her sisters. Celia is a bit lazy and should receive extra exercise to avoid problems later in life. She is happy to snuggle, so long as she is allowed to nap. An easy puppy to hold.

Cupcake (now Celia) is a fair example of the Basset breed, though she is styled somewhere between two distinct types of American Basset. She is a bit narrower in her face than her more blocky European siblings, and she is a bit narrower in her shoulders as well. Both of these traits are indicative of the Normand Styling coming through the much stronger Basset features of her father. He head is not highly domed but her ears are set perfectly and add quite a wonderful appearance. He bone structure is a bit lighter than the heavier of the litter and her foreleg bones are sufficiently heavy. But her stance is weak, lacking the strength of her heavier sisters.

Cupcake (now Celia) is darkly colored, and it appears she will eventually turn brown in the ears and perhaps a few spot on her body. Though her head coloring is symmetrical now, this will go away as her head becomes entirely brown in color. Expect a quick, sleek, and clever Basset.

Celia gains three and one half points against the AKC Standard since she has three minor flaw in bone structure areas. We will not be offering breeding rights for her for this reason alone. She gains the entire point for being aesthetically pleasing. In total Celia received four and one half points of the six available.

Six Week Evaluation for the Snack Cakes Litter : Zinger (Waylon)

Waylon (Zinger) at Six Weeks

One little girl (DingDong) had heart murmurs and an inoperable double hernia, among other things, which eventually led us to make the hard choice to relieve her suffering. This was our only "Sad Puppy".
The second major problem came in the first puppy of the litter, a little male named HoHo, who displayed a condition commonly known as "Failure to Thrive". Happily for us all, we caught this lack of eating skills defect early on and were able to hand feed him back to health and he is now a healthy and scrappy little boy.
The third problem we encountered as the happy problem of puppies overeating and having weight become an issue in early development. Two of our pups need special training to get them up and running on their feet. We caught the condition in the first weeks and were able to train the pups with lazy backsides to use their legs as they should.

Zinger (his kennel name), now Waylon, will be living his life with his sibling brother Willie (kennel named HoHo). His new family knows, as do most Basset families, that the breed does much better in groups. We always tell people that two Bassets is half the work of one and offer a large discount for families who take two of the same sex. Willie, at 5.3 pounds, is quite small in comparison to Waylon, who weighs in at a healthy 9.3 pounds. But Waylon is not at all large in comparison to other Basset Hounds since we are attempting to breed the Basset a bit smaller. Waylon is a wonderful little boy and everything one expects to see in a Basset puppy. He should grow into a full sized dog in the American Basset mold and weigh about sixty pounds as an adult providing he is kept well exercised and not over-fed. Since he is quite a bit larger than his brother, care ought to be taken at meal times to keep Waylon from stealing extra meals. He is aggressive, clownish, playful, scrappy, and waggy tailed. He is a wonderful puppy to watch and to cuddle with, though he is not particularly cuddle minded for the most part. He is adventurous, quick, and loves to patrol the puppy pen while the others sleep.

Waylon is built sturdy, with large foreleg bones and narrow hips. He didn't need training to get on his feet and begin a life of running, as some other had, but will still need lots of exercise to keep him from bone health problems later in life. He is sleek and tapers from shoulder to waist smoothly. His hips are chunky and strong and he is often found standing on his hind legs to look at things in the larger world outside of his pen. Waylon has a nicely shaped head with long ears well set. He does have an overbite flaw in his jaw setting, but this flaw will likely be outgrown as his adult teeth come in. Waylon has poor stance, a possible indicator of good future hip bone health, so he will need running exercise to stay healthy throughout his life.

Zinger (Waylon) is a tri-colored male with quite a bit of new brow fur showing up among the darker coat he was born with. His brown bits put one in mind of a well worn leather jacket; the coloring is not smooth, but the texture is fantastic. He will definitely have a brown head and ears to match, while his body might retain much of the black coat. He is developing ermine spots on his white collar and should be a great looking Basset as he grows into adulthood. His fur is wonderfully soft to the touch and he has ample kin folding at his shoulders.

Despite the problems of some of his siblings, of the five AKC derived points Waylon loses only half of one point for the troubles in this litter and the genetic trait which causes occasional overbite in every Abba Zabba and Bit O'Honey litters. He does gain half of one point for aesthetic appeal, making his evaluations five of the six points. Waylon might be bred to a high quality female if rights are obtained. But breeding for this litter, in general, is not being encouraged (or at least ought to be done with extra care looking at possible litter problems of his paired mate).

Six Week Evaluation for the Snack Cakes Litter : HoHo (Willie)

Willie (HoHo) at Six Weeks

One little girl had heart murmurs and an inoperable double hernia, among other things, which eventually led us to make the hard choice to relieve her suffering. This was our only "Sad Puppy".
The second major problem came in the first puppy of the litter, a little male named HoHo, who displayed a condition commonly known as "Failure to Thrive". Happily for us all, we caught this lack of eating skills defect early on and were able to hand feed him back to health and he is now a healthy and scrappy little boy.
The third problem we encountered as the happy problem of puppies overeating and having weight become an issue in early development. Two of our pups need special training to get them up and running on their feet. We caught the condition in the first weeks and were able to train the pups with lazy backsides to use their legs as they should.

HoHo, the name we used when he was whelped, is now called Wille. He will be a lifetime companion our other male puppy, now named Waylon. Willie was one of our major health scares early on. He had trouble focusing his attention of eating. We pay close attention, in the first days of a new litter, to the weight of each pup and HoHo (Willie) was losing weight even though he seemed to be feeding. While not all pups are "good eaters", in some this can develop into a condition known as Failure to Thrive and this is often fatal since it occurs during the most important part of puppy development. We caught the condition as it developed and put HoHo on bottle feeding and a lot of extra care. Eventually his weight began to rise and he made a full recovery. In our experience our pups nearly double in weight every week, HoHo reached this first week milestone after three weeks of extra care so we were concerned he would suffer permanent development deficiency issues. Today he weighs in at just over half the size of his siblings and is eating solid food with the litter. We have been trying to breed some of the size out of the Basset Hound and in Willie it seems likely he will be a small Basset adult. But this is not to say that he doesn't meet the Standard. Nor does this say we have bred a genetically stable smaller Basset.

Willie is a good example of the breed at this point in his life. His foreleg bones are stout and sufficient for his diminutive size, his body is shaped well and his hip stance, perhaps a good indicator of future bone health, is aggressive and quite strong. Willie tapers well from shoulder to waist and has fairly well developed hip width consistent with his smaller frame. Head shape, ear size and setting (with his ears being set well back on his well domed head), jaw setting, and tail, are all quite good. His feet are sized well and we expect that he will continue to catch up in size to his litter mates, while not reaching what might be considered completely full size.

Wille had quite a lot of extra attention in the early going, so he has quite a bit of lap sitter in his personality. He is accustomed to being slightly abused by his large litter mates and has learned to snap back and defend himself, while often looking to others for protection. He loves to snuggle up closely and spend time with humans. He is a serious boy, not given to joviality, but he does love to play chase games, at least until the game turns to rough and tumble play. He likes to spend time alone with a toy occasionally. Being small Willie likes special treatment, but is otherwise a normal happy puppy.

Willie is a tri-colored buy, with little brown fur showing today. But we expect he will eventually develop quite a bit more brown in his coat and have a red head and ears as an adult. His fur coloring is very symmetrical in the face. The texture of his fur is soft, but not especially luxurious. While Willie is a lovely puppy, he is not of show quality. But he will make a particularly lovely pet.

Though a bit unexpected, Willie receives full marks for structural development and loses one point for his early days of not eating since the outcome of this is not known. Willie may become something of an oddity for his size, but only time to grow will tell us how large he may become. He is a good looking little guy and gets half a point for aesthetic appeal (and almost got the full point for pretty). Four and a half points on our six point scale is a good set of marks considering how he started off.