Today is day 16 (from ovulation) and I see what I hope are promising signs (ultrasound appointment is July 9)! I’ve been looking back over my notes and posts from the last litter.
Zhora is very, very mellow. Happy to go for a walk and bouncing around all over the place when we are getting ready to go, but otherwise snoozing most of the time.
She is very, very affectionate, especially with Jim.
She has that cow-eyed, lovey look all the time.
It’s important to remember that her body is going to behave more or less as if she is pregnant, whether she is or not.
If she is pregnant, the embryos will be implanting very soon (roughly day 18-21). This is called “nidation”. Right now they are little blobs floating around free in the uterus after having migrated down into the horns over the last week or so.
She is eating her normal food, and getting her usual probiotic and Omega Fatty Acid supplement, plus folic acid. Normal walks and fetch in the yard but no agility.
Friday Orbit took the point, bringing him to 14 points with one point to go for his AKC championship!
Saturday was Alice’s turn, not only did she get the point under judge Krista Hansen (bringing her to 14 with just one to go for her championship), Ms. Hansen also gave her an Owner-Handled GROUP 1!!! And then Dr. David Hansen gave her a Bred By Exhibitor Group 3! What an amazing day this was! Standing in the OH Best In Show ring was incredible. We had to do three groups in quick succession, we got the OH group win, then I handed her ribbon to Ruth and ran over to the Bred-By Exhibitor group ring, showed there, then ran to the regular group ring, entered late, and showed there. The show superintendent kept stopping by the various rings and telling me what was going on, that she’d alerted the ring steward and that they’d let me in when I got there. It was SO COOL!
OH Group 1 and the treat jar trophy that went with it, BBE Group 3. Alice 6/22/19
Sunday Orbit took best of breed to become my very first home-bred champion. I couldn’t be more thrilled, and Ruth has done such an awesome job training him and handling him. He has a great home AND he stays part of my breeding program. It’s just amazing!
AKC CHAMPION Alkemi Cosmic Curiosity LT! 6/23/19Ruth, Jim and new Champion Orbit. Thank you!
And then they went on to be awarded his SECOND Owner-Handled Group 2!
Orbit OH Group 2 6/23/19
What a weekend! My first home-bred champion, Alice within a single point of becoming my SECOND home-bred champion. Orbit two best of breeds and two Owner-Handled Group 2’s. Alice one best of breed, an Owner-Handled Group 1 (someone asked me today what it was like being in the OH Best in Show ring….the answer? IT WAS FREAKING THRILLING) AND a Bred-By Exhibitor Group 3. The Zhoraberts are proving to be as awesome as I hoped.
Judge and dear friend Sherry Jefferson gave us some typically awesome, fast, fun courses. Nina went 3/4, picking up Preferred QQ #4 (also 4/7 for the 2020 NAC). Alice had a LOT of fun, showed some moments of brilliance, and we had a jumpers run that was the best run I’ve had with her to date. Her name is “AliceAliceAliceHEY!” right now, since zooming is the order of the day.
Nina Saturday Jumpers (Q, first place, 4.955 YPS, 25 points):
Alice Saturday FAST (OMG IT’S SHERRY YOU GUYS!):
Nina Saturday Standard (NQ, nice run):
Alice Saturday Standard (ZOOM):
Alice Saturday Jumpers (NQ, but what a lovely run, the best so far!):
The awesome Bekka met me Sunday night to do another blood draw. I drove that sample to my repro vet Monday morning first thing and also sent some of the same sample to the IDEXX reference lab. I got the call about 10:30 that it was 10.9 per my repro vet’s machine and 10 per the reference lab, so we needed to breed Monday night into Tuesday for ideal timing. Thanks to my awesome co-worker and friend Caroline, I booked it out of work, ran home, threw some things into a bag, and Zhora and I hit the road for Massachusetts!
Ollie’s owner Kat had come up with an awesome plan for a location. I was asking if she had a quiet room at her house or, failing that, we should probably do it in my motel room. She had a better idea. We met at her campsite, out in the country and very quiet. Plus! We stayed there!
Now Zhora is a strong-willed dog with a lot of personality, and that, plus her being more mature than Ollie, meant that I think he found her a little intimidating. She snarked at him a bit (as many do), and he took it personally (she also snarked at Bert, but Bert is experienced and comfortable being assertive). He was very interested, but very polite. So we didn’t get a natural breeding Monday night. I’d made an appointment for Tuesday afternoon with a local repro vet as a backup plan, and I was VERY glad I did! Tuesday morning we drove the dogs over to Kat’s training center, where they could run around together and have some room. Zhora was very flirty and I think if Ollie had been a tad bit less polite they’d have managed a natural, but this is his first time being bred and I REALLY didn’t want her to put him off the whole idea so….off to the repro vet we went!
We showed up at Slade Veterinary Hospital in Framingham, where we met with Dr Gatlin. She and her staff (all breeders) talked us through what was going to be done. Kat commented that this was the weirdest thing she’s ever done in the dog world. Poor Ollie was horrified, then thrilled, then horrified again, then he wanted a sandwich and a beer. His semen was excellent (92% motility (“are they moving?”) with over 88% progressive motility (“are they going somewhere?”), it was also a large sized sample for a smaller breed, so yay Ollie. We did a vaginal insemination and then I agreed to take part in a study which required a blood draw, so I decided to run another progesterone while we were there to decide if we needed to try a second breeding the next day. The progesterone came back at >20, which made me panic until I asked if it was an IDEXX in house machine, which it was. Dr Gray had told me (and others on my repro groups also said) that the IDEXX in house machines can be very inaccurate with the higher numbers.
I emailed Renee and Dr Gray with the details, and Renee sent me a pregnancy calendar (due date is August 11), and Dr Gray said not to worry about that progesterone number at all, that she’s seen colleagues report >20 on the in house with reference lab numbers closer to 7. So we should have been comfortably in the window (Tuesday would have been day 2-3, which is well within the ideal window).
So now we wait. I have some planning and thinking to do, but first we will see if she’s pregnant or not. That will be around July 7th.
I am so grateful to Kat for all her help, for her hospitality, and her company. We had an awesome time talking dogs dogs dogs for a day and a half!
Zhora’s progesterone was at 1.3 on Thursday (day 6), which was higher than I expected that soon (she ovulated on day 14 last time, but day of ovulation can vary wildly from season to season, as any repro vet will tell you, Nina didn’t ovulate until day 21 when we did the frozen semen breeding for the B litter!), and then late yesterday (day 7) she was already at 2.5, which is associated with the LH surge, which happens before ovulation. So we could be looking at breeding as soon as Monday (eggs take 24-48 hours to mature and live for about 5 days after they are ovulated).
So the plan right now is to do another blood draw late tomorrow (Sunday, of course), drive it to my repro vet (the awesome Alliance Animal Hospital) in addition to sending some out to IDEXX so we know whether or not the numbers match. And then we may know about travel plans (one of the reasons Vallhunds are tough to breed sometimes is that you generally have to travel, or ship dogs or semen, to get the breeding you want).
Even when I have my ducks in a row, this time-critical stuff is always stressful!
We had EIGHT Vallhunds competing, super exciting, including the #2 (#1 until recently) dog in the country. So grateful to everyone who came and showed! Rebecca James, Pat Ray, Becky Lueth, Kat Klein and Ruth Travers!
Friday May 31, 2019 Judge Mrs. Murrel Purkhiser: Alice Winners Bitch for 3 point major, Orbit Best of Winners for the crossover major
Saturday June 1, 2019: Judge Dianne P. Miller. Alice Winners Bitch for 3 point major #2, and Orbit BOW for the crossover major again for major #2!
Sunday June 2, 2019: Judge Donna Conod. Alice BOS for a FOUR POINT MAJOR (3 point major for WB and then another point for beating the bitch special), Orbit BOW again for the crossover FOUR POINT MAJOR! What an incredible weekend!
