Good news! Aggie and Penny are showing all the normal pregnancy signs, including very large and firm bellies. So we won’t be doing ultrasounds this week. There is no need to put them through a stressful vet visit to confirm what looks fairly obvious.

The updates aren’t too exciting right now. They are super hungry so they get a little extra food. We’ve also transitioned them to a higher calorie food. They drink a ton of water and sleep a lot. They are starting to nest, which means they dig the carpet as if they are creating a burrow for their future puppies.

They will be growing much more in the next couple weeks. During the last week or so, we will be able to see and feel the movements of the puppies.

We will be doing x-rays a few days before they are due – this is where we will be able to count the number of puppies.

We are happy to report that Penny’s final OFA hip x-rays came back EXCELLENT!  Elbows normal.  It doesn’t get any better than that! Here is an iPhone photo of the radiographs.

http://www.offa.org/display.html?appnum=1600037#animal

 Penny earned her Working Certificate (WC) title on 3/8/2014

View the Labrador Retriever Club Working Certificate pamphlet for details on working and judging requirements.

What is required for a Labrador Retriever to earn a Working Certificate? 
The minimum working certificate requirements shall be designed to establish that the Labrador Retriever is not gun-shy: accordingly, the dog will be expected to retrieve a shot game bird at a distance of 50 yards or greater on land; further, the dog will be expected to retrieve two ducks from swimming water 1 in immediate succession to establish the dog’s willingness to reenter water.  Only shot birds shall be used on land, and only shot birds or freshly killed birds shall be utilized on the water. Steadiness is not required so a dog may be held on line, however the dog may not be released for the retrieve until the bird has fallen. Any reasonable command and gesture may be used to direct the dog to retrieve and return. Nothing may be thrown and no coercion may be used to encourage completion of a retrieve once the dog has been initially released to retrieve.

Qualification:
Any dog that has satisfactorily completed both a land and water series in a field trial licensed by The American Kennel Club, or has received a placement or judge’s award of merit in a field trial sanctioned by The American Kennel Club, has successfully completed an AKC Junior Hunter Title, or has achieved at least one (1) leg on a Senior or Master Hunter Title shall be deemed to have satisfied the working certificate requirements. In addition, a working certificate requirement may be satisfied by establishing to the satisfaction of any current member of the Club’s Board of Directors that the dog in question has performed in accordance with the minimum requirements set forth above.

Note:
No member of the Labrador Retriever Club (LRC) shall use the title “CH” in front of the name of a registered Labrador Retriever dog until said dog, having won a conformation championship, shall also receive a working certificate or the equivalent as defined in this Article.

Click here for information on how to obtain a LRC Working Certificate.

“Memphis” was helping put up the Christmas lights!

Happy 1st birthday to our second Axle x Aggie litter!

Sadie, Latte, Sky, Maci, Achilles, Rover, Lucca, Roscoe and Boomer

Happy 2nd birthday to our first Axle x Aggie litter!

Penny, Rocky, Etta, Memphis, Kona, Brutus and Dexter

Congratulations to Crystal Walch and Michelle Gross for working with Sadie to earn her Canine Good Citizen (CGC) title.  Sadie will turn 1 year old in December.

This is Penny’s first time dock jumping at Courteous Canine in Lutz, FL.

Aggie at hunting retriever training in Bushnell, Florida.

Central Florida Hunting Retriever Club

We received great news today! Penny’s OFA Prelims came back EXCELLENT!

“Superior hip joint conformation as compared with other individuals of the same breed and age”.

She was also negative for elbow dysplasia.

Whooooooop!

Happy birthday to Aggie!
Yes, we spoil our dogs!

Penny passed her Canine Good Citizen exam tonight at KETCH!  So proud of our girl.

http://www.akc.org/events/cgc/training_testing.cfm

http://www.ketch.biz/training.html

CGC Certificate

We just left Dr. Wolf’s office for the girls’ annual CERF exams (Canine Eye Registration Foundation). Aggie and Penny had their eyes dilated and then examined for heritable eye diseases.  Happy to say that both were certified as “normal”!

http://www.offa.org/eyes.html
http://www.eyevettampa.com/

We had a great time at the Central Florida Hunting Retriever Club training day on May 4th.  I encourage all dog owners to be active with their dogs and this is a great way to keep your dog challenged.  Check out the website and try to attend a club training day.

http://www.cfhrc.net/

CFHRC Training Day at Wayne Gey’s Golden Oaks Ranch in Montverde, FL

Organized Confusion Drill – Single marks on land with lots of distractions in the field

Gey’s Golden Oaks Ranch is on the west side of CR 455, about one mile northwest of Montverde and two miles south of Ferndale. The gate is located at Katie’s Landing Road (a dirt road). The gate is on the corner of CR 455 and Katie’s Landing Road. Just type “Katie’s Landing Road, Claremont, Florida” into your GPS or click here.

Bring your lunch, drinks, chair, water for the dogs, training stuff, and of course the dogs. At all locations please shut gates if you found ’em shut. See you there!

The puppies got their second vaccine today and had their first vet appointment for their health certificates.  All puppies were got a clean bill of health!  They played around in the exam room until they all got tired and fell asleep.

We spent our Valentine’s Day evaluating puppies. It was a true puppy party with a lot of picture taking, good food and even a bit of wine! Not much wine though since we had an important job to do!

We spent hours assessing the puppies’ body structure/conformation and trying to decide which puppies we feel would do best as show, breeding and hunting dogs. We were very happy with the litter as a whole. They were very consistent and it was tough to make the final choices!

I’m excited to tell the owners which dog we will be placing with them. I know everyone is going to be very happy with their new family members. All of the puppies are so good. They are the perfect balance of friendly/playful and calm/affectionate.

They turn 8 weeks old on Saturday, February 16th.  Here are a couple photos from our evaluations:

Orange Female

White Male

Here are some photos to give you an idea of how the puppies currently spend their days.

They spend the nights in the AC/heat controlled garage. The puppy area takes up half of our garage (about 18′ long  x 10′ wide). They have plenty of room to play.  They are paper trained as they can’t hold it throughout the night right now.

Weather permitting, we try to keep the puppies outside as much as possible. We like them to have the entire backyard to run and explore.

Chewing on a beef knuckle

Digging a hole – bad puppy

King of the mountain!

They get some good time out in the sun!  Sunshine and exercise are key to their development!

If the weather is warm enough (which luckily it has been a very warm January!), we let them play in the kiddie pool. They love the water!

Are you my mom? No, this is Penny! She has no milk!

Then we bring them back inside for a good night’s sleep!

Winding down.

They have a tough life (yeah right!)!

We weighed the puppies today. They weigh between 12 – 14 pounds. Pink is our biggest girl; she is quite the little piggie and will push the other pups around to get more food. Yellow male is a little less assertive than the other boys and he gets pushed around at feeding time. Red female is petite. They are all very good eaters!

The weights are important as we administer the dewormer based on weight. So now they have been dewormed with pyrantel pamoate at 3 weeks (1/12/13), 5 weeks (1/25/13) and 7 weeks (2/8/13).

Note to my new puppy owners: please tell your family vet that the puppy HAS BEEN DEWORMED. Do not allow them to deworm your puppy again unless for some strange reason the fecal test shows worms (which it shouldn’t)! I have seen vets deworm the puppies when they just got dewormed 3 days prior! I don’t know if they aren’t reading the health records or if they are just trying to add another charge on the bill, but it was completely unnecessary.

2/8/13, Almost 7 Weeks Old
Black Male: 14.1
Pink Female: 13.5
White Male: 13.4
Green Male: 13.3
Blue Male: 13.2
Purple Female: 12.7
Yellow Male: 12.7
Orange Female: 12.2
Red Female: 12.0

Below is a photo of Blue Male getting weighed before we dewormed him.

Here are some photos we took of the puppies on Super Bowl Sunday, 2/3/13. They are 6 weeks old in these photos.

Black Male

Myra Savant Harris has written three books on canine reproduction: Advanced Canine Repro and Puppy Care Book, Canine Reproduction and Whelping – A dog breeders guide, and Puppy Intensive Care – A breeders guide to care of newborn puppies.  She is coming to Florida in February to give a seminar.  Click on the following link if you are interested in attending.  http://www.myrasavantharris.com/