an adventure of a different kind

The search for a compatible stud dog for one's bitch can certainly lead down new, unexpected and interesting paths. 

I had it easy for my first two litters.  The dogs were right here in the UK; in fact, in the case of the second litter, the dog was right here in the same house.  And in each instance I had help trying to figure out how to accomplish a mating.  (Oh, did you think it was easy to get two dogs to mate?  If they were neighbourhood mutts then I have no doubt it would be easy as pie.  I'm sure it would be a matter of turn your back and - bam! - a litter of 12 or 14 more little mutts on the way in 2 months' time.    Take two prized pedigree dogs, their ancestors all pairings carefully chosen and planned for many generations over many years to maximize looks, health and character, and try to get nature to take its course - see how far you get without a little experience and knowhow.  Uh huh.) 

For the next two litters I cast my eye abroad in search of dogs unrelated to mine and to specific lines I was interested in crossing with mine.  In each case I took the bitch and dragged her to France at the appointed time.  It wasn't exactly simple on those occasions - oh no.  The first trip to France started well enough on time and with the stud dog in question accomplishing his task with the least pomp & circumstance you could imagine.  The trip home, in contrast, was hair-raising involving way too much snow and summer-grade tyres on the car.

The second visit to France was also a little more "interesting" than I would have preferred.  The French ferry workers were striking on and off with little or no warning so I took off very early in the bitch's cycle and waited it out safely within driving distance of the stud dog.  In the end we were away from home for a whole week and I had a complicated return home with an unscheduled drive south to a ferry that actually was running. 

That was followed by two more relatively straightforward matings with dogs located here at home.

My next planned litter will be a whole new adventure in dog mating.  The planned sire is the gorgeous Uni, aka Dk Ch Lapinlumon Noiadi.  You can see some more photos of him on my website here.

Uni - Dk Ch Lapinlumon Noaidi - pretty blinking boy

Uni - Dk Ch Lapinlumon Noaidi

The first intended stud dog was one of those conveniently-located-here-in-the-UK types.  In the end, though, I had to change my arrangements, which just goes to show that even an apparently straightforward plan can go haywire for one reason or another.  By contrast, Uni is not living here in the UK.  He's not even living a simple ferry ride away in western France.  Nope.  He is in Sweden.  And there's nothing simple about getting to Sweden for a mating.  Particularly so when one's bitch doesn't have a passport.  

So what's a breeder to do?

Artificial insemination, that's what.

And so it begins.  First of all it's absolutely imperative to know exactly when the bitch ovulates so that you know exactly when to inseminate.  Of course, it is also absolutely imperative that the semen of the stud dog is collected at exactly the right time so that it can be chilled and sent off by courier for nextday delivery to the waiting bitch.  (Did you know that the drivers for Fedex, TNT and the rest have in their vans canisters of semen from various species?  Bet you didn't.  Next time you receive a bag of clothing from your favorite online retailer, have a sneaky peak into the delivery van.  Those big metal urns?  Yup.  You're welcome.)

Having established that the timing is crucial, you can be certain that the bitch's season will coincide with the longest holiday it possibly can to make getting blood tests tricky.  Enter Easter.

However, the gods of Finnish Lapphund puppy breeding were smiling on me this week because somehow everything went brilliantly.  The timing worked, the blood tests were done, the results discovered in good time, the stud dog delivered the goods, said "goods" made it to the UK in tiptop condition, and so the deed was done.

"The deed" was very different from the usual "deed" that results in puppies, though.  It involved Jane and I setting off with Emmi (and Jaana for company), and heading 3 hours up the motorway to Surrey where a very nice vet at UK Clone was waiting with the Uni juice on ice.  A little root around to find Emmi's cervix with a scope of some sort (ok, a big root around that took several minutes that felt like hours to the one kneeling on the floor holding Emmi still).  Then in went the juice, then a few minutes' wait as the vet held Emmi's altogether together in a somewhat undignified manner.  Then his hand cramped and so we were free to go.  

All in all it was much less traumatic for the bitch, in my experience, than their first mating.  I do worry, though, that not having gone through the mating process, Emmi will wonder where the puppies are coming from.  But then, maiden bitches always seem to have no idea why puppies are popping out of them anyway.  Luckily hormones take over and all is well, so I'm sure it will be a similar experience for Emmi.

No, there are no photos of Emmi in flagrante delicto with the scope.  And if you are wondering how the boy-juice is obtained from the stud dog, I'm not telling you.  Suffice to say I wish I had never asked.  

And now it's a waiting game for a month or so to get Emmi scanned by ultrasound and find out whether this was all worth it.  

worms & snails & puppy dog tales

Yes, I know it's supposed to be snakes.  And it's supposed to be about boys.  However, it's appropriate in this instance.

When Tuuli arrived she was enamoured of the grass - I guess it was novel after the frozen winter ground of Sweden.

Just look how small she was only 3 weeks ago!
















She still loves nothing more than a tuft of grass to carry, chew, toss into the air and play with.  Oh, and eat of course.  And if it has a great clot of mud on the end, then so much the better.  But now that the weather has warmed up and everyone has been mowing their lawns, I spend rather a lot of time extracting from her mouth wads of fresh cut grass the size of tennis balls.  How does she fit it all in there?

In addition to grass, she has added worms to her list of desirable prizes.  I suppose there is the element of the first hunt and kill about it, but it's quite disgusting.  I've taken several live worms out of her mouth.  And she swallowed far more than I managed to get from her.

Soon it will be snail season and I've never yet met a Lappy puppy who didn't like crunching up snails.  Eeuw is what I have to say to that.  But they really love them - it must be something about the texture.  That combination of crunchy with a slimy centre is apparently irresistible.  Like Ferrero Rocher for puppies, perhaps.

Don't let your puppy eat snails.

Apart from the ick-factor, snails carry a lungworm parasite that can be life-threatenting to dogs.  And dogs can pick up lungworm even just from snail slime.  So, keep your puppy away from snails.  But I'm warning you now, it can be tough.

Like all worrying things puppy-related, though, it is something they eventually grow out of.

There has been plenty of socialising still going on, of course.  We graduated from town centres to city centre and had a lovely sunny afternoon in Exeter window shopping and getting treats from strangers.

Sitting in Cathedral Green people watching and listening to some excellent close harmony being performed by a bunch of students.

A bit overwhelmed by all the feet going by.

Not too sure about the stairs.  This is the same staircase that flummoxed Neka as a puppy.  But where I eventually had to carry Neka to the top, Tuuli was a bit more brave.  But then again, Tuuli has already negotiated the stairs at home...

It was pretty slow going at times.

Made it!

















At home, she enjoys playing with her new bear, a gift from the Collies down the road.

my Swedish souvenir

So, what was I up to last weekend?  Well, because I clearly didn't have quite enough to do with looking after Keksi, our own 3 dogs and Keksi's 6 puppies, I nipped over to Sweden for a day and picked up our new puppy.  That's right.  We are now the proud (and rather frazzled and stupefied by sleep deprivation) hosts to no fewer than 11 Finnish Lapphunds in our modest, suburban, semi-detached house. 

And so if my blog suffers somewhat as a result, I'm sure you will all completely understand.

Introducing Black Blossom Troll Fia, otherwise known as Tuuli.

Off to Arlanda airport on our way to England.  She was such a good puppy in the car!

"Troll" is Swedish for "magic" and Fia is a girl's name.  We had intended to continue calling her Fia, especially as she already knew her name, and it's such a pretty name.  However, it is phonetically too close to "Neka" and we have found that it is causing rather more confusion than we are able to cope with just at the moment.  Therefore, Fia will now be known as Tuuli.  After a day of being called Fia-Tuuli, she knows her new name, and in the 3 days she has spent in my company, she has also learned a few essential words of English:  sit, stand, wait, wee, poo and, of course, food/hungry.  

On the other hand, it's possible that she doesn't exactly know "food/hungry" so much as she hopes that most of my questions translate into "Would you like to eat now?"  She's a greedy little thing, which makes a nice change for us, having had 3 Lappies who were fussy eaters as youngsters.  In order to slow down her meals, she eats them from a ball that she must roll around the floor getting it to dispense the pieces of kibble.  It's good exercise for her and adds a little dimension of interestingness to her day.  That's what I keep telling her, anyway, when she complains that she can't swallow her entire meal in one inhale.

She is getting rather good at the ball already, though.

 She was a complete angel staying overnight in the hotel near the airport before heading to England on Monday morning.






Lying on my boots to make sure I didn't go anywhere without her.


















But for a proper snooze, only the stuffed moose will do for a pillow. 

There was the long and (for me) incredibly stressful journey from Stockholm to Heathrow and from Heathrow home to Devon, arriving at something after 10pm.  To keep the mayhem to a minimum, the big dogs had already gone to bed and so we snuck Tuuli straight upstairs for some getting-to-know-you cuddles on the bed.  A rare, one-night-only treat!  After the first night she settled into her crate at bedtime like everyone else. 

Next day, playtime with Maija.

And, napping in her den (there's that moose again):

Thanks

I cannot tell you how grateful I am to Pia Juhlin at Black Blossom kennel in Sweden for entrusting this little Troll to us!  Pia has never sent a puppy so far away before, and I can only imagine how difficult it was for her - especially after keeping (Fia) Tuuli at home with her until the age of almost 4 months.  But thanks to her trust in us, she has made my dream of importing a new bloodline Lapphund a reality.

Thanks are also due to Pia's son who travelled with Tuuli from Mora, where Black Blossom is, 3 hours by train to Stockholm.  And also to Pia's daughter, Camilla, who then took care of her and delivered her to me at my hotel.  Between them all, they took what could have been difficult and stressful and made it incredibly easy and trouble-free. 

Finally, huge thanks to the person without whose help I may never have been able to translate my good intentions to Pia at all.  Susanne, for your superior Swedish translating abilities and your generosity in helping me out time and again, what can I say?  I owe you one.  A really big one.  And you've got that in writing.
  
Thank you to you all!