Friday, September 9, 2016

Seven weeks old and we all hear!

This was a crucial week for the Jewels. As a breeder you always know in the back of your mind that this is a breed with several issues and hurdles to cross as you go along. One of the biggest hurdles is hearing. The incidence of deafness in Dalmatians is highest of all breeds, with as many as 29.9 percent of Dalmatians born deaf in one or both ears. (From an article published on May of 2011). 

There are various ways of home testing, one I use is a small bell. I wait until all of the puppies are asleep and ring the bell, not too loudly, and watch for heads to pop up. I am always comforted by all the tiny heads that raise as the pups react to the sound of the bell. It is a sad thing when I don't see a head pop up. Even when I do see all of the pups react to the sound of the bell, I cannot rest until it is made official by the BAER Hearing test. BAER stands for Brainstem Auditory Evoked Response. The pups are wired up to a computer and each ear receives a sound emitted by an ear plug. We test each pup, one ear at a time. 

Good news with the Jewels, all of the puppies can hear! Six of the Seven can hear in both ears. One pup hears in only one, but he should be able to live a perfectly normal life. So we are very happy to be able to say that out of seven puppies, no patches, no blue eyes and thirteen hearing ears out of fourteen!

Next week I will travel to CA to see the Jewels and evaluate their temperment and structure. I am so excited to see them, they just get cuter every week and it is so hard to have to watch them from such a distance away!

Here are the seven week photos. Please excuse the blurry parts as they puppies were giving Marilyn and Jackie a hard time trying to stack them. 

Flint

Jasper

Amber

Opal

Ruby

Sapphire

Pearl

See you all next week!

Saturday, September 3, 2016

Six weeks and looking great!

There were no pics of the puppies last week as Marilyn and Jackie had quite a bout of the flu bug! But this week's photos look pretty darn good and I cannot wait to see them in person!

Next week they pups will have their hearing tested and so we will cross our fingers, hold our breath and pray until we get those results. The pups all hear but we need to know if they hear in both ears.

Here they are, I hope you enjoy seeing them.


Flint


Jasper


Amber


Opal


Ruby aka Little Whoopi


Sapphire


Pearl

Please do come back and visit us again! And post comments if you like. Next week is the BAER hearing test so we will post those results here. See you soon...

Tuesday, August 23, 2016

Sally's Precious Jewels 4.5

It has been a busy few days. I received four week pics of the puppies but was on the road over the weekend and suddenly realized I had not posted them! Bad Grandma!

So without further adieu, here they are...


  
Dark green boy Flint


Light green boy Jasper


Gold girl Amber


Pink girl Opal


Red girl Ruby, aka Little Whoopi (because she looks like her grandma)


Blue girl Sapphire


White girl Pearl

See you next week!

Tuesday, August 16, 2016

Some cute faces

Since I posted the three week stacked photos of the puppies I also got some pics of their faces. I thought I would post them so you can see just how cute these puppies really are! Enjoy!

Here is Flint




Jasper




Amber


Opal


Ruby


Sapphire


and Pearl


See you next time!

Saturday, August 13, 2016

We are three weeks old!

Chaplin and Sally's puppies turned three weeks old yesterday. It has been a hectic few weeks as owners Marilyn and Jackie Wooden had a lot to deal with! There were a few trips to the vet, a new mama with not much milk so the pups had to be hand fed. Sally was not quite sure what to do for awhile but things are getting better and the puppies are growing!

Searching for a theme for this litter Marilyn came up with a perfect one after a casual comment about the pups being precious jewels so they are officially Sally's (and Chaplin's) Precious Jewels!

For being only three weeks old Jackie and Marilyn have been able to get some pretty good stacked photos of the Jewels so here they are, I hope you enjoy them!
 
This is Flint

Jasper

Amber

Opal

Ruby

Sapphire

Pearl

We hope you have enjoyed the photos. Please come back and visit us again!

Friday, July 29, 2016

One week old!

Today marks the end of the first week since the puppies were born. The first week is always the most critical. Anything can happen to pups and mom, so it is the scariest time.

It has been a bit of a bumpy road and I give HUGE kudos to Jackie and Marilyn Wooden, Sally's owners and midwives. Two boys were still born and that is always hard to accept. And most times we never really know why. One pup was clearly not fully developed but the other appeared normal so who knows what may have happened in the womb prior to his birth.  Another pup, a girl, was born alive but Sally kept pushing her away and even though she was placed on a nipple several times she was just not strong enough and we lost her later that night. Another mystery to ponder.

Things are still not quite ideal as Sally has not had much in the way of milk for the pups so they are being bottle fed formula several times a day when not nursing. They are gaining weight but not as much as they would be if they had a "full bar" to nurse at. But they will catch up I'm sure.

Sally too is settling into her role as mom and has been great as far as keeping them clean and warm. Here are a couple of photos from today, enjoy!



Tuesday, July 26, 2016

They're here!

Back in May we bred GCH Smiln Dal's Letter To Santa BN RN RA RE CGC CGCA ...


...to GCH On The Spot's Chase Me Charlie.


In June it was confirmed that Sally was pregnant.


And an xray was taken about a week prior to the due date.


Then on Friday July 22, 2016 Sally's precious jewels arrived! Sally meets her babies for the first time.



Getting acquainted.


Pups are now 1 day old. Here they are individually with collars colors and names. Dark Green boy Flint was first born.



Next, Light Green boy Jasper.


Then came Gold girl Amber.


This is Pink girl Opal.


Red girl Ruby came next.


Blue girl Sapphire arrived.


And last but certainly not least, White girl Pearl.


Group photo.


2 days old.



3 days old.


Come back and visit us again soon...