Find Your Puppy

Fable's first litter, sired by Varro, whelped naturally over a long night on August 7: three males and two females, all black and rust, as expected from a BB sire. Five is a small litter for the breed and a kind one for a first-time mother. Tails were docked and dewclaws removed at three days by our veterinarian. The puppies started Early Neurological Stimulation on day three and moved from the whelping room to the kitchen pen at three and a half weeks. At six weeks they are fully weaned, meeting a new surface or sound every day, sleeping in open crates, and getting short dawn sessions on the turf before the patio heats up. Each wears a colored collar until the families choose names, so the names here are ours. Next week each puppy has a structured temperament evaluation and a conformation review, and we match puppies to homes after that, not before. Natural-eared puppies go home from October 9, at nine weeks. Cropped puppies go home a week later, once the sutures are out.

Isa is due in season in early October. If all goes to plan we expect puppies in the first week of December, going home in early February. Cairo is red and rust. Isa is black and rust and carries red, so we expect both colors in roughly equal numbers. Neither parent carries dilute, so there will be no blues or fawns. Cairo carries one copy of vWD and one copy of the DCM2 variant and Isa is clear of both, so no puppy can be vWD affected and none can carry two copies of DCM2. Cairo had a normal Holter and echocardiogram this year at five. Isa had her first at two and will be tested again before she is bred. We expect a medium-drive litter suited to active family homes and to owners who want to try obedience, tracking or a BH. This will be Isa's first litter and we intend to keep a bitch from it. Three deposits are held so far.