It has been awhile since I have shared an update from Thunus’s family in DC. This past week, one of his family’s university aged children, returned home from school. Thunus has been over joyed and glued to his college aged human. He’s also made a new lab puppy friend in the DC neighborhood at well.
We’re finally settled in America and starting to get into a routine with the puppies. It was a crazy few days and on top of that Walter aka the husband/animal whisperer is out of the country until next week. Fortunately I am lucky to have a close friends, and a sister in vet school, helping me with pups so I can run some errands and get some sleep here and there. Cleo of course is being an amazing, attentive mom.
The puppies are now 1 week of age and have changed so much already. They’ve all nearly doubled in weight and are much more active in nursing and crawling around. It is a beautiful thing to watch them grow and change through the weeks.
Here are their E kennel names, which are named after places, at day 5 of life. More photos to come!
After quite the journey, TeaCleoPatra Biscay’s Sapphire and Quaciendas Chouffe Cristaline Barbet Puppies have arrived. There are 8 total 5 girls 3 boys in browns and black colors. Some have small white spots on chests and chins. It was a long labor but mom and puppies are resting and eating well. More news, photos, and so forth will follow in the weeks ahead. We’re exhausted and thrilled.
Things have been hectic around here to say the least. Between the house renovations that are still not complete, prepping for puppies whom are to be born in Canada and then return to America next week, and wedding season we’ve been on our toes which is how I prefer life to be.
Last week, a dear photography friend, Brook Rieman, came out to our neck of the woods to photograph our family of human and four legged variety as I had documented her family last fall including her daughter’s pet chickens. We packed up our VW and headed for some red bud trees in our neighborhood. Brook snapped away as Domino’s owner, Liz, used everything she could to get all of the dogs to look towards Brook while we held our smiles. Quite the adventure. We had a family shot a few years back, but didn’t include the Chihuahua, which ever since my darling husband has reminded me of that fact.
Over the Big Blue Ocean: Barbet Cleo in America is expecting puppies!
In the Netherlands (via Walda Brands Von der Leibrucke):
“It was exciting to do. The time for the collection changed several times because of Cleo.
Then, suddenly the sperm must be in Canada by Friday!! (It was Wednesday afternoon @ 3:30pm when we found out.) Our Quaciendas Chouffe Cristaline had been chosen to father this litter for over a year, and now, the time had finally arrived!
A phone call from Paula, and from the vet. Our appointment was set for Wednesday at 8:30pm for the first collection. We had to take care that the package would get to the airport because the normal courier the vet used couldn’t make it in this time. The vet found another company and flight for the semen to get to Canada on time!
The package had to be at Schiphol Airport Friday morning before 10:00am. Thursday morning at 8:30am the appointment was set for the second collection and the vet made a nice package for the flight, filled with a lot of papers.
The collection was piece of cake. The vet had a female available who was Chouffe’s inspiration. Dr Verhaag looked just like a chef. A little bit of this and a little bit of that and he used some kind of splitter to separate the prostatic fluid from the semen. Then he counted the sperm and their mobility and he let us see on a computer screen. He put some food with the semen and put it all together in a big box with cooling elements who stays cool for 48 hours.
The package was then couriered to Schiphol Airport and arrived Thursday afternoon at 3:00pm. Ready for the flight the next morning.
Friday I saw that the package had left Schiphol and I was relieved. I couldn’t do anything about it anymore. Now it was in Paula’s hands…..”
In Canada (via Paula Ballak Biscay Water Dogs):
After a few days of progesterone testing, it was determined that Cleo was READY! (about 4 days earlier than we anticipated, so it was a little stressful) However, with the expert help of Dr John Verhaag in the Netherlands, and the friendly co-operation of fellow Barbet breeders Henk Hilbrink and Walda Brands they were able to expedite the process and ship the chilled semen to us in Canada. The semen extender “cani-rep ” developed in Sweden by Prof Catharina Linde Forsberg www.canirep.com is what was used for packaging.
(Mainly due to CKC rules and regulations, Cleo was bred and will be whelped in Canada, so that all the puppies can be CKC registered with no issues.) We picked up the package at Pearson International Airport, in Toronto, Ontario on Friday night around 6:30pm…and drove Cleo and the package to Dr. Alison Bell of Graham Animal Hospital in Hillsburgh, Ontario for the procedure.
We chose to do the Transcervical Insemination, based on many factors. (A write up is available on Dr Verhaag’s site – under Transcervical Insemination.)
It was truly a wonderful procedure to witness…and the professionalism and positive attitude of the team at Graham’s was so great! Being a nurse, of course, I was interested in all the facts, and the process. I will spare you that here…for I have been accused of too many graphic details in the past….suffice to say, Cleo was 100% cornified and her progesterone that night was 9 nanograms. She was very accepting and stood for it all like it was real….flagging tail and everything.
We tried hard to go to NL with Cleo – but it was so very difficult. Only 1 direct flight all week, very expensive, and the timing would have been wrong – with a very high fail rate due to her peak in progesterone. Thanks to Henk and Walda for agreeing to send Semen!!
This was a very good experience. I would do it again, and recommend doing it – if with a good reproduction vet on both ends….even if it had not resulted in puppies, because it was done for a reason, and with a purpose.
In the United States (via Stacy Able American Barbet/Ginkgo):
Cleo came home to Indiana a few days after the breeding (and after a dog show where she won WB and Best of Opposite in breed competition…it was a good weekend!!)
I booked her Ultrasound for April 5th as per Dr Jones’ recommendation.
Here is her tiny sonogram photo by Athens our local vet in Columbus, Indiana where you can see at least 5 puppies.
The happy ending to this wonderful story is…Cleo and Chouffe are expecting puppies!!
I will make the journey back up to Canada closer to Cleo’s due date in early May and we will whelp her in her “homeland” to ensure proper registration of these little ones.
Cleo is TeaCleoPatra Biscay’s Sapphire – a pup I got from Paula in 2009 (after Pat Hastings personally evaluated the litter, and chose Cleo as the “pick” female. She is CKC registered and AKC-FSS registered. At 4 years old, this is Cleo’s 2nd litter. Her first litter was an all natural breeding with Nelum Himalis Disque D’or “Disco” (11 pups).
Timing of breeding
The aim is to identify when the progesterone level reaches 2.5 ng/ml so the mating schedule can be set up, or the veterinarian and owner of the male dog can be notified that they should be prepared to collect and ship a semen sample. Depending upon the type of semen used, optimal times for natural or artificial insemination are:
*ng/ml = nanograms per mililitre
Special thank you to all involved as the breeding took place a month before we had anticipated. Everyone involved was so helpful to make this happen and we are beyond excited to welcome these puppies into the world soon!
Dawson, our male pick of the litter from the Gingko D 2012 Litter of Isis and Cinna litter is nearly full grown. Last week, his owner Taylor shared some professional photos of Dawson taken by Austin Green of Windy Peak Photography. While Taylor was visiting a farm in North Carolina Austin, an amazing photographer happened upon Dawson while doing a wedding shoot at the farm in NC where Dawson was honing his obedience and retrieving skills. Austin was kind enough to track Taylor down on Facebook to share these sunset Barbet Dawson images that are stunning.
We received Isis’s Best Of Show photo in the mail this week and we wanted to share. I am so grateful Amelia was there to help with Isis, as the night before the show I sliced part of my toe off during our ongoing house renovation shenanigans.
Treasures Biscays Sapphire aka Isis is the first AKC FSS Barbet to win a Best of Show. This show was put on by The Wirehaired Vizsla Club of America. This was an AKC Open show for Miscellaneous and FSS Groups. It was held in Louisville Kentucky on March 16th 2013.
Happy Birthday (and Easter by the way) to Lia’s Barbet puppies. They were born 2 years ago on April 4th, 2011.
