So yesterday (day 14 of the season, day 3 or day 4 after ovulation) we scoped Alice to see if we thought she was ready. Dr Gray said she thought we should wait. You want the vaginal walls to look “crenellated”, which means the folds look sharp-edged/angular and white/cream in color. Yesterday they were softer than ideal. However, since we were in there anyway, I suggested we use the semen collected when Zar was older, that was of lesser quality, just to cover our bases. That semen was analyzed at 60% but Dr Gray thought that number was “generous”, it really wasn’t great.

Today (day 15 of the season, day 4 or 5 after ovulation) we went back and the walls were much more crenellated, even I could see the difference. Yesterday the folds looked like hills, today they looked like mountains, and were paler in color. Dr Gray was much happier with how they looked today, so we used the good semen from when Zar was 3. Dr Gray said that collection looked great! And looking at it myself there were a LOT of happy, active little swimmers! The plan is to do another tomorrow. Tech Renee did the insemination today with Dr Gray present (Renee has done it several times). Let’s hope she has the magic touch! Many people do a single breeding, and if the timing is right, that’s all you need (that’s all we did when I bred Nina to Tempest, and we got 5 puppies, that was with a surgical AI). But since we have the option to do more than one, more is better. I’m so thankful that Zar’s owner Michelle is so invested in this litter, we’ve worked together three times now, our lines cross well, and I’m so happy she likes Alice so much!

Judging by how things looked, and the progesterone testing, we are calling November 1 ovulation day (that’s day 0). We weren’t sure if it was late 10/31 or 11/1, but we’re calling it 11/1.

Alice is a rock star. She was paid well with cheese and Charlie Bears.

After tomorrow, all we can do is wait.

Renee the repro vet tech said “she didn’t mess around!”. We’re calling Monday 11/1 ovulation day. The Witness LH test at the repro vet from Saturday’s sample was inconclusive. I ordered an LH test on that same sample at Idexx, we’ll see what that says but it could take a couple of days so we’re going with late Sunday/Monday for ovulation day.

The plan is to breed tomorrow 11/4 and Friday 11/5. Think fertile thoughts!

10/22/21 day 1 (afternoon)

10/25/21 day 4 0.4 ng/mL (AM)

10/27/22 day 6 0.6 ng/mL (AM)

10/30/21 day 9 1.8 ng/mL (AM) (Alliance machine), 1.7 ng/mL (IDEXX reference lab), Witness LH negative to inconclusive, IDEXX LH pending

11/1/21 day 11 7.8 ng/mL (AM) IDEXX

11/2/21 day 12 12.4 ng/mL (AM) IDEXX

Alice’s progesterone from 11/1 was 7.8 ng/mL! So we’re running the luteinizing hormone test on her sample from Saturday. Seems likely that she ovulated Sunday (to me, but we’ll see what the repro vet says).

Alice’s progesterone was 0.6 ng/mL on Wednesday, and 1.8 today (Day 9). This was on the repro vet’s in house machine, we also sent some serum to IDEXX so we will see how they compare when we get that back. The in house machine is pretty accurate but it uses a different technology than the IDEXX reference lab uses (meow meow science meow).

We are also freezing some serum from each blood draw so that once we know she has ovulated we can go back and test it from the relevant day for lutenizing hormone, that gives us a much more exact date to go by. Because frozen semen is quite delicate (“compromised” as they say), once it thaws you only have a few hours for it to get where it needs to go and do its thing, so the closer to perfect you can make your timing, the better. With live cover or side by side AI, you’re actually better to be a little early with your breeding, since fresh semen can live for 5-7 days inside the female, so it can just hang out and wait for the eggs to be dropped and then ripen (ripening takes roughly 2 days). The more compromised the semen is, the shorter its lifespan, so chilled lives far less time than fresh does, and frozen lives the shortest time of all (just 12-24 hours).

Awesome repro tech Renee said “if I were a betting woman, I’d put money on next weekend being go time, so clear your calendar”. So we will see!

Yesterday Alice’s progesterone was 0.4 ng/mL. We want to see a 3-4 point jump in a 24 hour period (usually you want to see them hit approximately 5 and then jump) to show ovulation. So not yet! Retest tomorrow.

Usually I test every other day starting on day 3-5 until we need to start testing daily. The only panic will be if we need to breed at a time the repro vet isn’t available but let’s not worry until and unless we need to!

This little drop of blood means Alice is in season! First progesterone test on Monday!

Alkemi “E” Litter

Zar X Alice

The litter’s registered name theme will be Lotus motor cars that start with “E”

Breeding is planned for fall 2021 using frozen semen (Zar is an older gentleman now!)
Born: TBA

This is a line breeding on Mystarz Bailey’s Blazer (Tempest), who has produced amazing dogs who have been successful in a variety of performance and companion events, and conformation. And this pedigree is actually (I believe) an example of Brackett’s Formula

What can I say about Zar? I first met him when I was stud shopping for my B litter. I absolutely fell in love with him then (I ended up using his father, Tempest, for that litter but always wanted to use Zar at some point. He is an incredible dog with an amazing temperament. Zar was the first Swedish Vallhund to become a dual champion (Silver Grand Champion AND an AKC herding championship, which is very difficult to accomplish), and he is the sire of our breed’s second (and so far only other) dual champion. He is a Swedish Vallhund Club of America Versatility Grand Champion and has titles in agility, Barn Hunt, rally and multiple herding titles. He’s a working dog down to the bone but also sweet, friendly, outgoing, stable, even-tempered and has a solid “off switch”. All that and handsome too (he’s a Silver Grand Champion after all). Zar is a total dog and I am absolutely thrilled to finally have the opportunity to breed to him. I think he and Alice will be a great cross. Zar is OFA Fair, normal elbows, normal cardiac (cardiologist), normal eyes.

Alice is a fantastic working dog with a lovely, stable temperament. Alice has OFA Good hips, normal elbows, normal patellas, normal cardiac status, full dentition and is a Retinopathy carrier. She is an AKC breed champion, is Canadian Kennel Club championship pointed, and has several agility titles.

I will most definitely be prioritizing performance homes for this litter. While they should have “off switches” like all Vallhunds should have, these will hopefully be dogs best suited to homes where they will get to do something like herding, agility, Barn Hunt, etc. While all Vallhunds should make wonderful pets, I expect that these will not be couch potatoes! Vallhunds don’t need hours of exercise every day, but they do need brain exercise and this litter most likely will do best in a home where they have a job. If you would like more information or if you are interested in a puppy, please email me and tell me something about yourself and your home and what you are looking for in a puppy.

I have so many pictures and videos and things to post, the last couple of weeks have been crazy and I really have had to just neglect the blog in favor of work and getting the puppies home.

Unsurprisingly, I have some thoughts about the last couple of weeks here.

Choosing homes for puppies is one of the best and one of the worst things about breeding. Some breeders just let people choose a puppy and it’s all good. That works for them. That isn’t what works for me. The way I do things doesn’t work for everyone and that’s ok. I use an application, talk to people, and see if there’s a puppy who seems like a good fit once their personalities come out and once I’ve done their structural evaluations at 8 weeks. My obligation is to my puppies, and I hope people realize that I’m doing my best to find the best home for the puppy AND the right puppy for the owner. And that making a bad match does neither party any favors.

There was a lot of frantic, last minute running around this week and COVID makes everything more difficult (I mean, obviously most difficult for those who are sick or who’ve lost someone to the virus, but it’s amazing how many things you never even think about are harder because of it). And obviously the background level of stress and anxiety is so much higher, so it’s unsurprising that the usually-stressful time of sending the puppies out into the world to start their lives was even worse this time.

Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE the homes for this litter. I always hope I did a good enough job raising them. Both parents are stellar dogs with great temperaments, the puppies all seem like great dogs. But you always worry. Will their owners love them as much as they deserve? Will they love them as much as we do? Will they kiss them on the nose the way that puppy loves? Will they play tug the way that THAT puppy loves? Will they talk to them in the stupid squeaky voice that makes their faces light up and their tails wag? Will they blow on that puppy’s face the way that makes her crazy happy? Will they realize what an amazing being they have to share their lives with now? Will they realize that they are about to become that dog’s whole world?

Letting go is hard. Packing up and putting away the puppy stuff is bittersweet. Going back to normal life is comforting. Planning the next litter is exciting.

I don’t know that people who haven’t raised a litter understand just how much work it is. It’s a labor of love for sure and it’s so gratifying and so fun. But it’s also work. SO much laundry, SO much poop, SO many days you just want to come home from a hard day at work and sit on the couch and veg out and you can’t. But so worth it to see them out there starting their lives and learning about their new people.

Red girl Alfa is now named Mimic and is living in Canada with her great aunt (Grandma Zhora’s sister). She will learn to play agility and probably already knows ten tricks.

Orange boy Bravo is now named Timber and is living in Canada with a lovely couple who are first time puppy/Vallhund owners and who did everything right from research to networking and were so excited to get him it makes me smile every time. It does your heart good.

Yellow girl Charlie is now named Valkyrie (Kyrie) and is living in Vermont with a lovely family who’ve had a Vallhund before. She will learn agility and will go kayaking!

Green boy Delta is now named Whiskey and is living in Canada in an experienced dog home. He will learn agility!

Blue boy Echo is now named Enzo and is co-owned by me and a lovely couple who are friends of mine. He will learn Barn Hunt and will hopefully be a show dog too!

Purple girl Foxtrot is now named Daisy and is living in beautiful Prince Edward Island where she will hopefully be a show dog and will definitely play on the beach!

Pink girl Golf is now named Jovie and is co-owned by me and a wonderful couple who also have Jovie’s great uncle (Zhora’s brother). She is their third Vallhund from me and if that’s not an enormous and humbling compliment I don’t know what is. She will learn agility, hopefully be a show dog, and will go some way towards healing hearts broken by the untimely loss of their oldest dog.

Have wonderful lives my D litter. We will miss you.

Here are the puppies “manding”, or sitting politely in order to ask for something (in this case, be picked up). This is not so much about training them to sit, but rather to teach them that they can communicate their needs (and “you give me something I want, I give you something you want”):

So I made a video about how to play this game. I didn’t invent the game but it’s a super useful way to train your dog to come when called!

This is classical conditioning (like Pavlov): you are teaching the dog to associate their name with something good. They don’t have to DO anything to get the reward, they just have to hear their name, and then eat a cookie!

Here’s how I play this:

• choose a boring (to the dog) and small room in your house (the bathroom is perfect)
• take a handful of kibble or treats (literally no more than 10-15 per session is enough)
• take the puppy and the food into the room and close the door
• say the puppy’s name, feed a treat
• say the puppy’s name, feed a treat
• not “come”, not “sit”, not “down”, this isn’t teaching the dog a command, it’s simply building an association between their name and something good
• do this twice a day for two or three weeks, until you can tell the dog is looking for the treat when they hear you call them
• periodically just walk up to the dog, call their name, feed a treat (I still do this with my 13.5 year old dog!), this keeps putting money in the bank that the one time you really REALLY need them to come when you call them, they’ll think it’s worth their while
• try your best not to “poison” their name by using it for negative things (baths, nail trims, end of playtime, just go get them).
• occasionally call your dog to you, take their collar, feed a treat, and let them go back to what they were doing (so they learn that coming when called doesn’t mean playtime is over necessarily, sometimes it means snacks!)
• it is NEVER a bad idea to play this game at ANY point in your dog’s life!

I have Orange boy Timber on my lap for this video, but in a bathroom you can just let the puppy wander around (remember, he doesn’t have to come to you, he just has to hear his name and eat a treat, even if you have to follow him around and say his name and feed him like a crazy person!)