It's been a few days since my last post so I figured some of you may be anxious for an update. Truth be told though, there's not much new to report on the pups. They're all doing great and Getka, finally, really seems to be settling into motherhood. The pups are getting much more mobile and Getka much more willing to leave them for short periods of time. She even joined me today for a short session of frisbee. I'm not sure who needed that session the most... Getka or myself. She seems happy and content which is great to see.
The pups are due for their weekly weigh in and I'll get that done before going to bed tonight. A visual tells me the red girls are running neck and neck with the boys... in fact I won't be surprised if the blue collared red girl is this weeks heavy weight. Irish appears to be about half the size of the largest pups but gaining ground on the smaller girls. Honestly, I think the weights are going to be a little bit of all over the place. Anxious to see the actual numbers myself.
On the home front, we had a bit of a catastrophe yesterday when a couple of my girls, Majestic and Remedy got into a pretty heated scuffle. When taking calls from people who have a desire to add a pup to their family, one of the questions I always ask is what they have for current pets, if any, and their sexes. Dobermans typically want to be top dog in the home and it's 99% of the time always best to keep them with a dog of the opposite sex. More often than it should it seems, people want to stick with a particular sex and co-mingle that sex. Generally I do what ever I can to discourage that. Spaying and neutering can help but I still firmly believe it's best to have mixed sexes in multiple dog homes. With that said, and maybe regarding the 1% of time things are rosy, some breeds of dogs are quite passive and could care less about gaining and maintaining an alpha role. Dobermans, with some breeds, may do fine living with a dog of the same sex as long as the alpha position isn't challenged. Another exception may be small breeds which Dobermans generally afford a break to even if the small dog is a bit of an a$$. Even so, I still believe mixed sex is best.
I consider myself to be a responsible breeder and absolutely love all it entails but it does come with it's inherent drawbacks. Multiple dogs and resulting girl fights among the pack are absolutely the biggest problem of all. It's not just an intact male thing... it's a girl thing too. I think I'm beginning to understand why many breeders, who take breeding seriously, re-home their breeding dogs once no longer breeding. What I once considered cold may actually have more to do with keeping the dogs safe. All can run smooth as silk and then all the sudden chaos erupts. Yesterdays squabble required two vet visits- one for each dog. I took Majestic shortly after the brawl occurred as I noted a laceration on the top of her head that I knew would require suturing and an ear tipping laterally. Remedy too had some lacerations around her neck that I anticipated treating at home. On closer inspection once home with Majestic though, it was obvious Remedy was definitely going to need more attention than I was capable of delivering. It appeared in fact, she received the worst of the wounds. So that's what we did this morning. Bright and early trip number two addressed multiple lacerations that extended beneath the skin much further in length than was visually evident as a result of tearing. Trip number two left Remedy with a shaved neck, a drain and me feeling very melancholy. Borderline sick actually. The whole thing- a really terrible experience!
The pups are due for their weekly weigh in and I'll get that done before going to bed tonight. A visual tells me the red girls are running neck and neck with the boys... in fact I won't be surprised if the blue collared red girl is this weeks heavy weight. Irish appears to be about half the size of the largest pups but gaining ground on the smaller girls. Honestly, I think the weights are going to be a little bit of all over the place. Anxious to see the actual numbers myself.
On the home front, we had a bit of a catastrophe yesterday when a couple of my girls, Majestic and Remedy got into a pretty heated scuffle. When taking calls from people who have a desire to add a pup to their family, one of the questions I always ask is what they have for current pets, if any, and their sexes. Dobermans typically want to be top dog in the home and it's 99% of the time always best to keep them with a dog of the opposite sex. More often than it should it seems, people want to stick with a particular sex and co-mingle that sex. Generally I do what ever I can to discourage that. Spaying and neutering can help but I still firmly believe it's best to have mixed sexes in multiple dog homes. With that said, and maybe regarding the 1% of time things are rosy, some breeds of dogs are quite passive and could care less about gaining and maintaining an alpha role. Dobermans, with some breeds, may do fine living with a dog of the same sex as long as the alpha position isn't challenged. Another exception may be small breeds which Dobermans generally afford a break to even if the small dog is a bit of an a$$. Even so, I still believe mixed sex is best.
I consider myself to be a responsible breeder and absolutely love all it entails but it does come with it's inherent drawbacks. Multiple dogs and resulting girl fights among the pack are absolutely the biggest problem of all. It's not just an intact male thing... it's a girl thing too. I think I'm beginning to understand why many breeders, who take breeding seriously, re-home their breeding dogs once no longer breeding. What I once considered cold may actually have more to do with keeping the dogs safe. All can run smooth as silk and then all the sudden chaos erupts. Yesterdays squabble required two vet visits- one for each dog. I took Majestic shortly after the brawl occurred as I noted a laceration on the top of her head that I knew would require suturing and an ear tipping laterally. Remedy too had some lacerations around her neck that I anticipated treating at home. On closer inspection once home with Majestic though, it was obvious Remedy was definitely going to need more attention than I was capable of delivering. It appeared in fact, she received the worst of the wounds. So that's what we did this morning. Bright and early trip number two addressed multiple lacerations that extended beneath the skin much further in length than was visually evident as a result of tearing. Trip number two left Remedy with a shaved neck, a drain and me feeling very melancholy. Borderline sick actually. The whole thing- a really terrible experience!
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