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| Waylon (Zinger) 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 (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.
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.
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).
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