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.
No comments:
Post a Comment