Rocketdog Pricilla Pixie Stix

Our latest new Rocket girl is Rocketdog Priscilla Pixie Stix (AKC). She came to us from NW Brothers, a breeder up on the Washington Peninsula. She had been returned to them because of a "cherry eye", an infection defect which is easily treated surgically. Pixie was nearly six months old when she arrived and Banks Vet fixed her eye defect right away. Since then she's been out clowish little sister, entertaining to say the least.

Pixie is now nearing two years old and ready to have her first litter. 

Though she has been reluctant about having babies, until this morning, we have been talking to her about it for a while. She's been here for two litters and didn't seem in a hurry to have her own but was a good aunty for Lucy's first pups. Bassets share mother duty once the pups are weened and Lucy let Pixie watch the babies after six weeks. She took to it well so we're pretty sure she will be a good mother.

Pixie is in her third Season and she is nearing becoming receptive to the romantic offerings of our Rocketdog Rockfore Rhoades (AKC). The stage is set for a wild two weeks and puppies sometime in late February for delivery in early May.

Pixie on the day whe arrived.

Other than the Cherry Eye Pixie is a very good example of the  breed. She is strong, mostly because there are a few acres of fenced yard to chase around in, and of the smaller form that we look for in our breeding progam. Her markings and temperment are wonderful too, so with Rocky we expect a litter of tri-colored puppies with very good Basset traits.  TIme will tell.

All of the Classic Cookies are Spoken For

 I have been a bit behind on spending time writing about this little litter. The bigger truth is that I haven't written much on any subject surrounding our farm and breeding business for a bit over a year now.  For those interested in our puppies I appologize. 

We did find good homes for the three Classic Cookie puppies Lemonhead Lucy (AKC) and Rocketdog Rockford Rhodes (AKC) gave us. The only marketing effort we used was our American Kennel Club page and Ann spent some time updating it. Three puppies is a very small litter for us so it didn't take long to find people interested in a new baby Basset. 

There was never a six week evaluation written up for this litter. Again, I appologize. But had I taken the time it would have pointed out that, in our twenty years of breeding Bassets, this was perhaps one of our best litters so far. Something of a surprize to tell the truth. Lucy is a good Basset, Rocky is a very good Basset, and we are only interested in breeding pet quality, so good qualities are sufficient. But in this litter the sum of the parts exceeded the parts themselves by a bit.

All three pups had very good personalities. There were no sad puppies or unexpected trips to the Banks Vet. All three had wonderful form and there were no serious faults. All three did have slightly flanged first left side ribs, one had a slight tooth gap. Certainly nothing to worry over for any of them. None of them had trouble moving around and each gained an appropriate amount of weight as they developed. Head shape was very good and the ears were both plentiful and set back well on the neck. We had no jaw issues or other worrisome bone concerns. All three had very good rear leg stance so their hips should develop well providing they are given plenty of excersize. Each puppy had a distinct coloring pattern and all three were symetrical in facial fur coloring.

Had I done the evaluations, as I should have, each would have scored five and a half point of the six available (the only deduction being the slightly flanged rib). There was nothing wrong with any of them. Where this litter stood out was in personaly. This was a fun litter.

Spritz, the first puppy to leave us at eight weeks, was a border-line monster. She was always scrappy, always inquisitive, and always completely lovable. She has gone to the NWBrothers Basset kennel which produced our lovely girl Pixie Stix (AKC) and will have a good life there among her own kind. 

Moose (whose kennel name was Tollhouse) is a lovely boy with beautiful markings. He might be a contender in local dog shows if given the right training and grooming. He was smart, as Bassets go, and figured out the latch on the whelping pen so that he would let everyone out as he saw fit. We have a sense of humor about these things, but had to find a secondary means of keeping the gate closed.

Pina Colada (Lemon Zest) is still with us for another few days. She is as nice a Basset as we have ever had. Loving, audacious, and fleet of foot. She loves to follow her mother around the farm hunting squirrels and carrying sticks.  She will go to a home where another Rocketdog Basset lives, so there will be snarling, fighting, and lots of laughter in her future.

For those families who took a puppy home to love. . . Thanks. 

For those interested in perhaps looking later on . . . Pixie and Rocky are the scheduled next pairing and this should happen in mid-Winter or early Spring. 

The Cookies are Checked Out

 

We routinely take our litters to Banks Vet. They don't accept many new customers because they are small, but we've been using them for nearly ten years and have been very happy. The Doctors come and go a bit, but they are carfull to get good ones.

The Cookies are all in very good health. The only thing called out was a potentially cleft pallet in Tollhouse, but it never did develope into a problem. Humans get this same thing and we often call them "gapped tooth" because there is a small but noticable gap between front teeth. Some call the trait "cute". The defect is only about as wide as a pencil lead right now and not into the upper mouth at all. It will likely close up completely when the adult teeth make their appearance. Other than this minor thing, and a regrown dewclaw on Lemon Zest, the pups are perfect in every way.

Personalities are beginning to show up. Each puppy looks quite a bit different, but the way they act is hasn't been too different until this week. They have also had their ears grow in and often step on them when walking around with noses to the ground. We call this bear walking because it pulls the head left and right as they walk. 

It looks like two of the three have families, not that this was ever in question. We haven't spent much time marketing simply because there are just the three this time. Lots of interest in the third puppy right now and I assume they will all be spoken for by this weekend. Call Ann (503-351-0212) if you are interested in Tollhouse. He still needs a family to call his own. Expect a very active little boy.

The Classic Cookies Litter - Week Four Update

Click for a larger image.

The weeks seem to fly by so quickly. I find myself writing an update at four weeks and this is unusual for us. In past litters the updates were quite a bit closer together. More often than not, most litters are quite a bit larger and finding good homes takes quite a lot more time. So anyway . . .

The Cookies are doing wonderfully. They have developed very well and all three are showing superb Basset traits. I will write full evaluations in a few weeks, so this post will be a bit less complicated. Here are the highlights: All three had marvelous body shapes with no flanged ribs or swimmer backsides. All three are beginning to run more than walk when they move. All three have well developed head shaps without any bite issues or flat skulls. In truth, these are the sorts of troubles we might find, if there were any troubles at all. And there are none to speak of. 

At four weeks we expect they will begin taking water from mom's water dish, and also they will begin looking at solid foods as a possible alternative. I put a dog biscuit into the whelping pen with them yesterday and they were quite interested. Lucy left the biscuit for them for about an hour before eating it herself. She is a very good mother.

Today we will be worming the pups, because worms are definetly a thing puppies all seem to have. We also worm our entire tangle of hounds at the same time, just in case. Vaccines will happen around the fifth of September and people will be allowed to visit the litter after than. There are some nasty sicknesses in the world and we are careful to keep them safe. 

If you are considering bringing one of our pups into your family it is always a good idea to visit us prior to making a firm decision. Call Ann at 503-351-0212 to set up a time.

Spritz is a wonderfully happy little puppy, but a bit scrappy. Her tail wags constantly as she plays with her sisters. She is very well deloped and weighs four pounds, fourteen ounces, today. Her first nail clipping and worming were a snap, but getting good pictures was not so easy. She wants to explore and will charge the gate of their pen any-time the door is open.

Lemon Zest is a real snuggler. The largest of the group, at fiv pound, seven ounces, she would rather do lap sitting than go looking for trouble. She will eventually share roughly the same coloring scheme as her dame.

Tollhouse is everything we look for in a baby Basset boy. He is rubust and loves to play. His facial coloring is symetrical and lovely deep browns and blacks. He is good natured, but rough on his siblings. If I were to keep a puppy, this would be the one. He weighs five pounds, four ounces.

The Classic Home Made Cookies have Arrived

At around three in the morning our oldest boy, ClarkeBar Grizwold (AKC), informed Ann that Lemonhead Lucy (AKC) needed to go out for a walk. He is in charge of watching the house at night and made just enough noise to get one of us out of bed to come look.

Lucy wasn't showing any signs of labor, but we always go out with our girls when they are coming close to their due date for safety. Ann let Lucy off the leash and Lucy wandered around in the dark for a little while. Nothing out of the ordinary happening so far.

Dogs in general, and Bassets in particular, tend to look for a hiding place to have thier pups. On our farm there is a wonderful place under the shipping container we use for storage. Every girl who had babies since we moved here has picked this spot and we have to be careful not to let them have their way. Under the container may be a wonderful hiding hole, but we simply cannot access it like the girls so we can't help Mother and protect the pups there. Ann didn't know that Lucy had changed course in the dark and headed back toward this prime hidy hole. Luckily for us both Lucy didn't make it back there before deciding to drop the first puppy. Her yelp in the dark brought Ann running . . .

Lucy's first baby was still well protected by her placental sack when Ann found Lucy standing in the dark with a surprised look on her face.  Ann scooped the baby up in one hand and Lucy in the other. I (David) was asleep as this all happened so I came late to the party.

Abba Zabba heard the commotion outside from the big dog house and began makeiing a warning bark very softly outside of our open bedroom windows. She watches the place at night, barking most nights over some noise, so this wasn't enough to wake me fully. Bassets have difffernt means of expressing different meanings. A warning bark is a sort of "muff" sound. Low and relatively quiet. This sort of warning puts everyone on notice than something might be happening some- where without getting everybody out of bed. If a louder noise comes out of the darkness the soft warning become a very loud and high pitched  "ROO". This brings out all of the hounds and humans.

As Ann grabbed the baby and scooped Lucy up Abby made the softer sound because she knew who was moving around in the darkness. I woke up, but didn't get out of bed until I heard a human voice through the open window. Voices are not usual here at night so I was awake and moving right away.

Turning on the outside security lights that light up the farm to its edges I could see that the front door was left open and outside I went. Ann and company were nearing the house as I left the front steps and we were all back inside a few moments later. By this time everyone on the farm was up and moving around. 

Safely back in the whelping pen we found that this new puppy was a robustly healthy little tri-colored girl Basset. She was born on a sultry Summer night (not a cliche), at 3:10 a.m. weighing 11.8 ounces, and very mobile.  We named her Spritz. 

Not knowing any more than this and expecting a Friday delivery we were about two-thirds ready for whelping a litter of pups. Half the puppy linen was on half the open shelves, gloves and other equipment was available but needed brought out. The whelping pen was ready too. Despite our preparations most litters seem to come as a bit of a surprise until we realize that we are ready for it. But Lucy is a new mom. This is her first litter. And each mother is an individual. So whelping each litter is slightly different. The themes and motiff are the same, each litter a like a familiar song. The melody and words change but the key and tempo are closely related. With Lucy the main difference was the she wanted to have her babies outside the walls of the small kiddie pool we always use to keep the new Bassets contained, at least until their eyes are open and they stand up.

We were well on the way and had the right stuff where we needed it, so our job became to get our stuff set up to receive newborns and keep Lucy from picking a new place to have babies. 

Bassets can be stubborn and whelping is a bit messy. It's better that Mother stays in her place for many good reasons. So after picking Lucy up and putting her back in the pool four or five times, at 3:50 a.m., suddenly Lucy birthed a nice little 12.7 ounce tri-colored boy which we will call Tollhouse. 

We usually spend time during all of these early minutes deciding a puppy name for each new arrival from a prepared list of names made early on in the pregnancy. We also begin to record weights and measures and I begin writing the social media and BLOG posts. 

Ann rubs the new arrivals before trying  to get new babies on boobs as quickly as she can. Puppies are better off if they start eating right away. But Mothers can be difficult to help. 

At around 4:15 Lucy got a serious look in her eye and gave us a wonderful little girl we called Lemon Zest. She came into this world a compact 12.4 ounces with an excited attitude.

With twelve paws on the ground, our whelping stuff in place and working normally, we can start breathing normally and waiting to meet the next whomever that shows up. But, at 8:30  a.m. it seems that three was going to be the magic number. 

It's entirely possible to end the day with a small litter. Unusual, but possible. Abba Zabba had four in her first. For now we'll call it three. 

Big News! Lucy and Rocky are a Pair.

 It has beeen a while since I posted on this page. A deep depression kept me out of things for quite a while but I am back to normal (if you can call it that). And I bear good news. Lemonhead Lucy (AKC) and Rocketdog Rockford Rhoades (AKC) have achieve their first pairing this weekend and we are likely expecting an August litter for delivery to new familes in early October. 

We thought we were having a Spring litter this year, but it wasn't to be. So we're ready for a puppy fix.

More to follow. The Wait List is Open. Use the email widget to send us  contact information and I will add you to the List.

It is likely we are not pregnant.

 Lilly does not seem to have taken in our accidental pairing. We have no evidense of anything going on in there and we are nearing the due date. So, as far as we can tell, there will be no puppies in February. This is not a sad thing. We really were never happy about Rocky making the effort to break out of his segregation, absolutely not happy about him finding Lucy all ready to go. Had there been puppies we would have happily accepted them into our lives, but it is better there are none. 

Nobody should be having children back to back like that, it is too hard on Mothers.

So until we find out differently (there might be a singleton litter) we are calling off the panic. Lucy is scheduled for pairing normally on her next season and we are really looking forward to this happening. Pixie will be in line for the Fall litter. There willl most certainly be puppies in our future.

But not so soon.