Puppy Update

We have a whole lot of news. 

Taffee is getting big. She is on a diet
of puppy chow and whole organic milk.

The first is a bit of old news. Laffee Taffee and Clarke Bar Grizwold are having puppies in a week to ten days. This is an unexpected litter and so we had to do a whole bunch of immediate preparation to make space for a litter in our tiny home. So we built an eight foot by eight foot addition to our tiny home. Taffee will have her pups in the laundry room and they will stay in there exclusively for the first few weeks, moving out to the addition during the daytime providing the weather doesn't turn cold.

We will keep this litter until ten weeks old. This will give the pups a chance to get a bit bigger, but also time the deliveries for Christmas time. It looks like there will be five or six this litter, so getting on the wait list is a very good idea.



Secondly, we took delivery on two new little females today. Abba Zabba, and Bit-o-Honey are nice little Bassets.

Abba Zabba on day one

Bit-o-Honey on day one

• Abba Zabba is a beautiful little girl, if she were from our kennel she would have received four and a half points (of the five). Look at out standards, and the reviews of previous litters to figure out what I mean. The half point she is missing is entirely in skin volume. She is too light weight and her wrinkles are not showing. She ought to grow out of this negative trait.  She has a superb coloring scheme, being mostly black with some red, and very little white fur. Her stance is that of a potential champion, but only time will tell if these winning traits continue on into adulthood. My first impression is that Abba Zabba is a bit of a handful, perhaps a chicken chaser.

• Bit-o-Honey is a very nice little pet quality Basset girl. She is developing a lot of brown fur, but she seems well suited to farm life. She would only have received three of five points due to inconsistent coloring and a less than desirable stance. My first impression of her was that she would be the most likely to escape the fence. 

Both came to us a bit lite in weight so it is hard to tell how they will wrinkle up once well fed. The male litter mates were nearly single colored (light brown), so there is a possibility that these new girls might throw single colored pups. The others have not yet  fallen in love with the new girls, but they will. Cinnamon has taken charge of training them for us.

We finally received the permits to build the new farm house. The new kennel facilities will be the first thing built after the house is occupancy ready. The new Kennel will act more as a living room for the dogs than anything resembling a regular kennel with stalls. There will also be a veterinary room for hot water grooming and puppy whelping. There will be two yards attached to the kennel, one for segregation and the other for daily use during business hours when the hounds cannot be allowed free run of the place. We will begin offering long termed boarding as soon as the thing is up and running.

Puppies are on their way!

Our waiting list for an expected five puppies is now open.

AKC ClarkeBar Grizwald and AKC Grizelda Laffee Taffee are surprised to announce that they are expecting a litter of Puppies around October fifth. This promises to be a great pairing of Basset Hound genetics.

ClarkeBar at three months

ClarkeBar is a proven winner, turning out three litters in his first five years. He is a smaller male, just fifty-five pounds, very athletic, loving, a bit shy, and only aggressive in defense of his place  and his people. He is never snappish with our other Bassets. Of his offspring there have been four worthy of taking to show, but all have become good companions. His health has been excellent since he joined us, and his size, stance, coloring, nose, head shape, and ear length are very good examples of the breed.

Laffee Taffee at three months.

Laffee Taffee is new to breeding and to tell the truth, a bit young. She showed none of the characteristics associated with going into her first season and so this is a surprise litter. She too is a smallish sort of Basset at only forty-two pounds at one year ( about the same size as was ClarkeBar at that age ) but she has not yet hit her full growth potential. She has a very good nose and has become the leader of our pac's hunting expeditions. She is very athletic, always affectionate, and never snappish. Though untried she is an excellent example of the breed in every respect. Laffee Taffee has had no health issues since joining us.

These puppies will be available for delivery to their new homes very near Christmas time. We intend to keep them for ten weeks, but have in the past allowed delivery any time between eight weeks and twelve. The price for these puppies will be $1500 (U.S.) and include the customary wellness checks, vaccinations, and limited registration paperwork for the American Kennel Club.

• Full Registration , including breeding rights will be an additional $500.00 (U.S.). 
• We are sorry to announce that we will not offer any sort of delivery outside of the Portland metropolitan area with this litter. 
• Air Freight delivery can be arranged on a case by case basis at additional cost. 

As has always been our policy, a substantial and non-refundable five hundred dollar deposit will be expected to join our waiting list. The list for this litter will be five places deep as this is also our expectations for the litter. This is a first come, first served, list where the first deposit assures the depositor first choice of the available puppies, the second depositor the second choice, Etcetera  . . .

Choosing a puppy will occur at six weeks of age, after we have evaluated each puppy, and in the order of list position. We reserve the right to remove any puppy from availability at any time at our own discretion. If fewer than five puppies are available, or we remove a puppy from availability, the deposit will be refunded to the appropriate list member. Final payments must be made in cash upon delivery, or prior to delivery by pre-arranged payment method. We take all credit and debit cards through Square.com.

Our list is open as of this posting and will remain open until five puppies are spoken for. If more than five puppies arrive in this litter we will reopen the list and announce this on this blog and on our Rocketdog Facebook interest group.

Evidence of previous litters can be found in this blogs archives. Owners from previous litters may be found on our Rocketdog Facebook interest group. We welcome visitation to our Farm near Banks, Oregon prior to whelping, or four week following whelping, and you can rest assured that we will post a steady stream of puppy pictures to this blog and to Facebook.

Contact us via Email CreeksideFarmOregon@gmail.com for more information.

It's has been another long while

Since moving to Creekside Farm, following on Carmel Corn's final litter and her subsequent re-homing to Ferndale, there hasn't been a whole lot happening with the Rocketdog Kennel. There are a great deal of reasons for this. The Winter came and went since my last posting, so much has happened since we moved here and you can look at the whole period of time at the parent blog.

We have yet to build the new Farmhouse despite having the cash to do it. The County is dragging the process out, telling us the whole thing is going forward, for well over three years now. They insist on new studies, reports, and surveys, all of which are largely immaterial to our permit being issued. Our thinking was that we would re-start the kennel as soon as the house was built. But since we are in permit hell we have decided to begin making progress toward opening once again. So here is where we are as of today.

Clarke Bar, The Cinnamon Bear, and our newest girl Laffee Taffee, have all become farm dogs completely. They spend their days hunting around the Farm for something to do. The have taken to performing a choir practice howling session daily, usually triggered by the chickens all clucking loudly. Otherwise they pal around the place and are really quite happy. Occasionally they find a squirrel or some other rodent, once in a while they corner one of them and we find Cinnamon walking around with a dead animal in her mouth. She doesn't eat them, she simply wants to play with them and protect the catch from the other two. At dinner time Ann takes the dead animal and throws it out.

We have built enough of a doggy infrastructure to keep the females separated from males during the routine breeding season. Cinnamon has had two since moving to the Farm and these seem like they take a few months to come and go. Her actual receptive periods are fairly normal in length, but the prelude and epilogue are rather long. Laffee Taffee seems to be headed into her first season this week.   Clarke hasn't shown any interest in her yet but this may be because Cinnamon Bear is in the early stages of her next season. Taffee will make a good mother and has the right stuff to make good puppies, but we're going to hold off all breeding until the new Kennel is built, along with it's whelping area. Same for Cinnamon Bear.

Another girl-puppy will soon come to the Farm. A farm family in Idaho had a litter this past week and we put down a deposit. The puppy won't come until mid-September. We still need to find another female to add to our tangle of hounds, but there is plenty of time. Our dreams, and the goals set on those dreams, seem to be following their own schedule. But acquiring new breeding stock and allowing them to grow to sufficient maturity to have offspring takes time. So we're moving ahead with bringing in the new blood in spite of not really having a great place for them to live. We are in the same boat, having no permanent home yet, but we are all quite comfortable.

We have been thinking about building a tiny home kennel for the dogs before Winter comes again. Time will tell if this will be necessary. If the permits come through we might just have a proper roof over everyone's head before the cold and rain sets in once more.