I am a planner. I love to know what is coming next and when it comes to planning my litters I often sit down and plan out a year in advance. But the reality is even the best laid plans usually don’t happen as planned when it comes to breeding. There is a lot when it comes to breeding that you just can’t control. One of those things is the timing of heat cycles. While most dogs will cycle every 6 months some dogs are on 8 month cycles, some have delayed heat cycles after a litter, and some have no schedule at all.
Another thing that can’t be planned out for sure is deposit list. If you know my program you know that I don’t like to breed any of my girls unless I have full deposit list. I feel this is the most responsible thing to do. I love for my puppy families to be along for the ride from birth until they go home at 8 weeks. I love these weeks to be able to connect and get to know the families that my puppies are going to. But I also know that plans sometimes don’t work out for my deposit holders and sometimes they may fall in love another litter that has current availability, have a change in preferences, or a change in timing that works for them.
So why am I sharing this? A few reasons. Kate is due in just a few days on Christmas Eve. Kate’s litter has been planned more than once but due to a lack of deposit list I have skipped several heat cycles. This was finally the heat cycle. I had deposits down and I was so excited for her first litter. Kate then had a weird heat cycle where I thought I missed her ovulation only to figure out a couple of weeks later that she had not yet ovulated and a breeding could still happen. I went ahead with the breeding. Now we are almost to her due date and her deposit list is empty except for my breeder spot. And believe me I want everyone to be happy with the puppy they choose so if that means moving to another litter or waiting for timing to be right I gladly will let them move to a different litter. I know that not all breeders are so flexible but I know this is a commitment to the dog for it’s life so I want everything to be as perfect as possible for both the puppy and the family. Kate’s ultrasound showed a belly full and the size of her belly tells me this is going to be quite a big litter. This will be one of our few Large Mini/Medium litters and I know they are sure to be stunning. Kate is the only caramel I have in her shade and her color has held so nicely. She was bred to Dandy who is my darkest caramel boy so I know these are sure to be some gorgeous puppies.
The second thing is Fancy’s litter. Fancy is in heat now. Her litter list was full quite sometime ago. Over this year though deposit holders have moved around leaving only one person on her list at the time her heat cycle started. As I always do if I have space open when one of my girls goes into heat I posted in case anyone wanted to jump on her litter. No one did so I decided to skip Fancy’s heat cycle and not breed her this time. This was a super hard decision because again this would have been Fancy’s first litter and I have been dreaming of those babies since I picked her out to be a future mama at 7 weeks. Fancy’s sister went to one of my breeder friends and has had her first litter and they were beautiful making me more excited for the day Fancy has a litter but now that will be a little longer.
Patience is something I am ever learning as I watch my best laid plans go down the drain and I have to start over. I have learned that I must be flexible and have to try not to stress when things don’t go the way I had planned them. Sometimes having to re-evaluate things day by day. Flexibility and the ability to handle ever changing plans is a must to be a responsible breeder.
I finished up to the above paragraph last night saved the draft and low and behold my plans went down the drain as Kate went into labor several days early late last night. So I pulled an all nighter last night and welcomed 8 beautiful babies into the world. Kate is being an amazing first time mama. Stepping right into the role like a pro. More information coming soon on her litter but here is a sneak peak! They are just as gorgeous as I expected them to be!
Stay tuned for all the exciting updates!
-Casey