Neverland-Retrievers

During the day of July 16, Wendy was quite restless. She refused to eat her breakfast meal, but did drink some chicken broth. She made many trips to the potty to empty her bowels and spent most of the day panting. At around 6pm, I noticed some yellow stringy stuff hanging from her tail after a trip outside, but on close inspection I could not find anything left on her coat. I was expecting to see discharge from the cervical plug remaining on her coat. She spent much of the evening arranging the newspapers in the whelping box preparing a nest for the upcoming puppies. Then without much notice, we saw a large contraction and out popped a puppies! Deb and I were talking on the couch next to her, so we were semi-ready, but was still I expecting a bit more contractions before the first puppy arrived. It was a female, but the placenta was missing. Did Wendy eat it or was it still inside? We couldn’t tell, but we kept watch in case it would come out later. By the time the night and next morning was over, we had 12 puppies born, 7 males and 5 females. The pups birth weight range from 390 to 580 gr, seven of the puppies were over a pound each. Quite amazing! The chart below shows the details.

The following picture is of Wendy and the puppies shortly after whelping.

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The morning of the 16th Wendy’s temperature dropped, right on time, almost 3 degs, see chart below.

Within 24 hrs she will whelp the puppies.

As I mentioned in the prior posting, Wendy had gained 20lbs over the course of the pregnancy. The picture below show her on the day of the temperature drop just before the whelp.

Her rib cage is bulging out as can be seen better in this image.

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On June 21th, I took Wendy to the vet for an ultrasound exam. She was definitely pregnant! We saw 6-7 puppy embryos on the u/s display. If all goes well her due date is July 16th. Then on July 11th, we took her to Dr. Dove for the pre-whelping X-Ray. The goal of the x-ray was to better estimate the number of puppies to be whelped. However, since Wendy had gained a whooping 20 lbs, it was difficult to get an exact count. We saw at least 8 puppies in the film and there maybe one or two more, little did I know!

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About this time last year, I started looking for a stud dog for Wendy. As you can probably tell I really like the Swedish Flat-Coat type. Their dogs are robust but still maintain the raciness of the breed standard. There are many nice Flat-Coats in our area as well. The Swedish type has many other positive features I like, but that is not the point of this posting. A friend in Sweden, recommended a particular dog, Inkwells Truly Yours, call name “Bamse” the little bear from a cartoon character. As it turns out, Bamse is a son of Inkwell Let it Be, a great Swedish and International Flat-Coat Champion in five different events. Bamse has done very well in the breed ring, in hunt tests and field trials. He has also sired several litter and the offspring have been healthy and had excellent hip scores . Based many on Ulla’s recommendation, I contacted Bamse’s owner, Gunilla Grahn, and over the course of a couple of months we reached an agreement to breed.

The summer months in Sweden is the time for vacations and from my perspective, not much happens. Even the Swedish Canine Semen Bank is mainly offline until early September. Gunilla lives about four hours north of Uppsala and needed to coordinate her trip with a bitch coming into season. All this came together in late September of 2010 after Wendy came into season. I was very fortunate to have also located a superb Flat-Coat just outside of Stockholm, Almanza Wild at Heart, call name “Sune” to breed with in time for last fall. As you can read in our C-Litter postings, the puppies out of that breeding are doing great and the dogs have a wonderful demeanor.

Bamse’s semen collection was performed by Dr. Catharina Linde Forsberg of the Canirep Semen bank. The collection produced good results with 100 million spermatozoa per straw with 65% motility. Prior to Wendy’s breeding, Dr Dove thawed a sample to confirm the quantity planned for used. He exclaimed how excellent was the semen quality and only two straws were needed. So on May 17 and 18, Wendy was breed with Bamse’s semen by Trans-Cervical Insemination.

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What’s better to break up the Winter Blah’s then a trip to the beach. Never mind the air temp is 32 degs.

Pippa's First Trip to the Beach

Henry Doesn't Mind the Cold Water

Wet and Dry Flat-Coats

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Recent pictures of Shadow.

Shadow in the Hay

Believe it or not, the body will catch up with the tail

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Chester has made it home and is doing very well in his new environment. The following is an update from his owner:

“Wanted to give you an update. First, he is just a really great puppy. He has pretty much adapted since Day 1.  Chester is also a real character and has quite a swagger to him when he is out and about – after doing what he is meant to, he will grab the part of his leash by his collar in his mouth and prance home very proudly. He has met neighborhood people and other dogs and adjusted very well.   

We had our whole family here last weekend: our daughter and her fiance as well as our son and his girlfriend. Chester got slathered with attention and played so hard he slept for almost a day after they left. He also loved the fire in the fireplace. 

 We have had a lot of snow and he seems to thrive on it – loves to burrow his nose under it, make little tunnels and generally romp around and pounce on things.  He is doing quite well on the housebreaking although there are still occasional accidents, mostly in his daytime crate……

….. In short he is joy and we adore him. “

Here are a few pictures of Chester

Chester on the Way Home

Could this be Meal Time?

We Hope this Snake is Stuffed?

Chester, the Girl Magnet

Can't get Enough Lov'n

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The C-Litter puppies are 11 weeks old and all living with their adopted families. It looks like Henry, the Kennelly’s original Flat-coat, has adopted Pippas as his little sister. Check out these pictures just recieved from Liz.

Sleeping Flats

Henry and Pippa in the Snow

Snow Chase

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Its been wonderful having Chester around these last few week to watching him play with Wendy and Morgan. I think Wendy will miss him almost as much as us. Here are a few pictures of Chester before being picked up today.

Chester and Morgan

Chester at 11 Weeks

One Stick for the Road

The Sykes Family with Chester

Chester’s AKC Registered name is Neverland’s Colonel Mustard.
Good luck to Chester in his new home and to the start of a wonderful adventure.

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I recieved a few picture of Lily at the Bank’s home. She looks so adorable in this first image.

Lily at approx 11 weeks of age

 I think they’ve got a wee bit of snow, don’t you?

Snowball Chase

Here is what mom says about this picture:
“Also love the one of Chip on top of our snow mountain tossing snowballs down to her.  The two of them have become fast friends.”

Also, it turns out that Lily and Pippa are almost neighbors, so stay tuned for a puppy reunion in the near future.

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