Meet me in St Louie .....

Yesterday we returned home after several days in St Louis which was this year's sight of the Cardigan National Speciality show.  This week long event draws close to 500 Cardigans competing in all types of events -- obedience, agility, herding and conformation.  Although I had attended the National before -- I never took a dog to compete with.  

 

 

This year I decided to enter both Gloria and Gideon in conformation.  Gloria did really well by placing in second in a class of twenty one 12 - 15 month old girls.  You will notice that the rosette looks a little shop worn.  Molly decided that she needed a new chew toy and chewed the rosette portion off. 










Speaking of Molly -- she met her new owners Kristine and Jason from Illinois.  She decided that she really liked them and wanted to go home with them.  As a result Molly is now a resident of the great state Illinois.  Below is a picture of Kristine, Jason and Molly.  You will note that Molly is not in the picture.  That was because she was twirling around when I snapped the picture.  Since she wasn't putting her best paw forward I cropped her out.  I did add a better picture of Molly girl.  Since I am not a Photoshop expert you will have to use your imagination and just believe that she was on the other end of the leash that Kristine is holding.


 

 

Although Gideon failed to win any ribbons at the National he did garner a few nice compliments.  As a result he is going to be a father again someday soon.  The lucky girl's name has been withheld until the new owner announces.

 

 

 

 

 









Meet Rapunzel ....

My 3 year old granddaughter is a big Disney princess fan.  She has decided to name the puppies after her favorite princesses --- Ana and Elsa (from Frozen) and Rapunzel (from Tangled).  Unfortunately although Rapunzel is a cute girl --- I am not sure that she is aptly named.  You can see by the pictures below she is a cutie (apologies for the fuzzy picture) -- but the tail doesn't quite live up to "Rapunzel expectations".  Remember Cardigans are the Corgis with a tail!  As a result Rapunzel is available to a loving pet home.  If you are interested in this cutie feel free to email me at mark.clarke@cox.net.
Rapunzel and her sisters are 2 weeks old.

 

 





Sad news ....

Unfortunately we lost two of the puppies.  Despite heroics from my vet and a couple of all nighters by me --- the tiny girl and the boy didn't make it.  The little girl was not a surprise as she was stressed after the section -- but, the boy was totally unexpected.   Saturday night I found him in the corner of the whelping box and his mama had no interest in him.  Despite around the clock supervised feeding it just wasn't meant to be.  This is one of the heartaches of being a breeder.  We now are focused on the 3 girls that are remaining.  They all seem hale and hearty and Cybil is being an extraordinary mama dog.  I will post pictures of the babies tomorrow.

Cybil X Dickens puppies are here

Via emergency C-section Cybil delivered 5 brindle puppies last night -- 4 girls and 1 boy.  The boy is the biggest of the litter and there is one very tiny girl.  We had scheduled a C-section for today -- but, Cybil (and Mother Nature) thought that was to long to wait.  So far, everyone is nursing, and Cybil is recovering as expected.  However the first few days are critical and I always worry about the tiny pups.  If you don't mind say a quick prayer for the pups and Mama Cybil.

 



Planned Litter

Today I took Cybil (Champion Notz Cybil Liberty) for her 30 day post breeding ultrasound.  I thought she was probably pregnant, due to her expanding waist line, but was surprised that the vet saw 5 or 6 puppies.

Although the breeding had been planned for a while every thing that could go wrong with the breeding seemed to happen.  The Reader's Digest version of the story was that Cybil came into heat early, needed to be bred on a Sunday (stud dog in Florida -- Cybil in Arkansas), semen prep kit did not reach the stud dog owner as planned and she had to use an outdated kit, stud dog escaped the fenced in yard prior to collection and when found was overheated,  semen arrived and was implanted on Tuesday a couple of days post "optimum" day, etc.  Needless to say I was less than optimistic that Cybil would get pregnant.

I guess the good Lord is smiling on me as I have wanted to do this breeding for a long time.  Cybil had produced a very nice puppy girl from her last litter that has already done some big winning in her young show career (see blogs about Gloria).  I was really anxious to breed Cybil for her last litter to Dickens (Grand Champion Twinroc Santa Paws) -- who is a proven producer of some very nice dogs.  His most famous offspring being the beautiful Coco that recently won the Herding Group at the world famous Westminster Dog show.

Here is the pedigree for the litter. 

Cybil is due on or around the 28th of March.  I am expecting brindle and red puppies.  If you are interested in a puppy feel free to email me at mark.clarke@cox.net.  At the earliest these puppies would be available to go to their new home some time in June.  All pet puppies are sold on a strict spay / neuter contract.

Cybil

 

 



 

Dickens

Introducing Molly

Here is a picture that I took tonight of Molly who is the girl that we kept from the Sadie X Gideon litter.  She is growing on nicely --- and has personality plus!  Molly is owned and loved by my son Adam and daughter in law Jessica.  They have agreed to let me show her ---- so, we will be getting her out to a few local shows in the Spring.  She will be a fun girl to show.  She is 15 weeks old.

It's official ....

I got this in the mail a short time ago.  It is now official Gideon is a champion.  We can now call him Champion Davenitch Valiant Warrior at Giants Dance.