milestone

What's so funny???

Happy 10th birthday to the puppy blog!

And, of course, that means it's also happy 10th birthday to the Monta puppies who were the inspiration for starting the blog in the first place.  There were 9 of them - still the biggest litter of Finnish Lapphunds born in the UK to date - and we had several weeks of very hard, noisy work ahead of us.

All of Monta puppies - the Devon Nine!

Their mum, my beloved Neka, popped them out unbelievably quickly... except for the last two, who arrived after I had gone for a much-needed shower after being up all night with the mama and babies.  With so many of them - almost twice as many as my first litter the year before - we had to dash out and buy two of everything.  There was another indoor pen, another outdoor pen, several more vet beds for the whelping box, and more food.  Lots more food.

Then there were the towels.  Many of our good, human-grade towels went to the Monta puppies because as I recall, it rained every single day of the 7 or 8 weeks they were with us.  No sooner would we put them into the outdoor pen to quickly clean the indoor pen when the sky would open up again and drench all nine of them.  To say that we were quickly exhausted doesn't even begin to cover it.

Viivi & Inko - soaking wet AGAIN

We had our ups and we had our downs with the Devon Nine, and, boy, did I learn a lot.

So, happy birthday to my blog that has given me so much pleasure for 10 years and an irreplaceable record of 11 of the 12 litters born here.  And wishing the very happiest of birthdays to the Monta puppies who grew into 9 of the noisiest, most beautiful and sweetest natured Finnish Lapphund dogs you could ever hope to meet.  Special then and special now.

Here are some of my favorite photos of each one of them at various ages.  In some cases, they are some of my only photos.  If anyone has some great updated pics to share with me, please feel free and I'll happily update this page.

Infindigo Monta Jaana - Sybi

Sybi 7 weeks - photo by Joanna Bradshaw

Sybi with a "few" toys - age 9

Infindigo Monta Tarmo - Tarmo

Tarmo 6 weeks

Tarmo 5 years

Infindigo Monta Maija - Maija 

Baby Maija with Lenny

Maija 10 Years

Infindigo Monta Viivi - Viivi

Viivi 12 weeks with big bro Jaska

Viivi age 9

Infindigo Monta Tarkka - Tarkka

Tarkka 8 weeks - photo Joanne Bradshaw

Tarkka 9 years - photo Joanne Bradshaw

Infindigo Monta Aurinko - Inko  

Sand baby 9 weeks

Inko 9 years

We have lost some of the Monta puppies - taken far too early.  So we are remembering them today at the rainbow bridge.  Gone from us but never forgotten.

Infindigo Monta Jaska - Jaska

Jaska 7 weeks

Jaska 1 year

Infindigo Monta Sulo - Kaija

Kaija 7 weeks

Kaija 2010

Infindigo Monta Rauhan - Rauhan

Rauhan 7 weeks - photo Joanne Bradshaw

Rauhan handsome showdog

happy 1st birthday to the lintu litter

Just in the nick of time, I managed to scrabble together some photos of the Lintu puppies to celebrate their first birthday.  Here they are in birth order with current pics as well as shots from when they were still Woody, Robin, Raven, Rook, Buzz, Puffin & Merlin.

welcome to the sisko puppies

One of the things I love about breeding dogs is watching family traits get passed from generation to generation. Sometimes a trait will skip a generation or even two, and then turn up when you least expect it. That goes for good stuff like cute habits, cleverness or pretty eyes as well as the less desirable stuff like, say, a long nose, a propensity to run off on walks or a tendency towards noisiness. Not that our dogs have any of these rather unfortunate problems.... just an example, y'know.

One thing that Ulla has apparently inherited from her mother, Emmi, along with a sweet temperament, is an inclination towards whelping puppies early. Emmi's first litter, of which Ulla was one, took us quite by surprise as I had not had puppies turn up 3 days early before. You can read about that exciting event on the old blog. Her second litter came, as I recall, about a day early - not so unusual. Ulla's puppies? Four days early. FOUR!

In my early days of breeding, I always worried about puppies coming too early and suffering the various complications and problems that often beset preemies. Wait a minute - who am I kidding? I still worry about that. In fact, as the time creeps past the one-week-to-go milestone, I breathe an audible sigh of relief as I was once given the advice that puppies can probably survive if they are born as much as a week early.

You might think that Ulla's 4-days-early puppies are small, then, for newborn Lappies. Think again. They are stonking great weights. Not over-size or anything, but definitely not petite.

Ulla doesn't live here, but she does spend a lot of time at my house. Nonetheless she was determined not to have these puppies until she could find some privacy - after dark and after we were all long asleep. There had been no digging, not much in the way of panting, and certainly no evidence of contractions. She refused to settle in the whelping box. She told us in no uncertain terms that she was not ready to give birth anytime soon. And so we left her in the crate where she always sleeps when she visits. Four hours later, at 2am, Jay woke me up because he heard a little yelp. Sure enough, there was Ulla with her first puppy in the crate. She had done it all by herself with barely a squeak. We hustled mama and baby upstairs into the waiting whelping box and I settled down to wait for the next one. We were expecting about four, according to the ultrasound scan.

It was quite a wait.

In fact, by 5 am I had given up hope and was resigning myself to having only one puppy to raise and all the complications that brings. Then at 7 am she had 2 in 15 minutes and a fourth about a half hour later. Unfortunately the last puppy was stillborn. He was born without his sac, so he didn't have much of a chance. I am just grateful I have lost so few puppies over the years, but it's still a sad event, although I do believe that you cannot argue with nature.

In the end she had 3 strong and healthy girls. They are all wolf sable like their dad and granny Emmi, I think. The jury is still out on number 2 who might be black and tan like her mum. Things should be clearer in a day or two as the wolf sable coat changes so dramatically and rapidly day-to-day.

Individual puppy photos to follow shortly.

After much deliberation and consultation with various Lappy friends, I finally decided to give these puppies the litter name Sisko, as that is Finnish for "sister" - appropriate for my only all-girl group ever. As always, their new owners will get to choose their Finnish kennel names, but I decided to give them baby names after the first ever girl group. I know that the Supremes are traditionally given the credit for being the first ever girl group, but actually it was the Andrews sisters, so these puppies will be Patty, LaVerne and Maxene.

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welcome to the lintu litter

Happy mama with her 7 babies

Emmi has done it again - produced a litter of beautiful, strong & healthy puppies with very little fuss or fanfare.  Well, I say no fuss, but there was the matter of the 2 full days of stage 1 labour, during which time we scarcely dared take our eyes off her for a moment, looking out for contractions or some other clue that we were progressing to stage 2.  Last time her puppies came a few days early and the stage 1 lasted hardly any time at all.  In fact, so surprised did she take us that she almost had her puppies in the car on the way to me.  It just goes to show that birthing events can be vastly different, even with the same bitch. 

But after an interminable period of panting, digging and clear discomfort, at about 9am, a day earlier than expected, Emmi scuttled outside for a last poo then settled down to her contractions.  Which lasted all of 10 minutes before the first puppy arrived!  In fact, I was at work when I got the call from Jay that contractions had started.  Before I had even made it to my car, the first one was arriving.  And, oh boy, did they come thick and fast after that.  A new record was set for quickest birth - between puppies 4 & 5 only 3 minutes.

Props to Jay for presiding over the delivery of a puppy all on his ownsome for the first time.  Perhaps next time I can nip to the pub for the event and leave him to it.  No?

So here are the Lintu puppies.  Lintu is Finnish for "bird", chosen because the sire of these puppies is Finnish & Norwegian Champion Shacal Tiltaltti, and Tiltaltti is Finnish for "chiffchaff".  These puppies have all therefore been given bird baby names too.

Puppy 1 - WOODY (woodpecker)

Time of Birth:  9:15am

Sex:  Male

Weight:  355g

Colour:  Brown tri (or possibly brown wolf sable)

Puppy 2 - ROBIN

Time of Birth:  9:50am

Sex:  Female

Weight:  320g

Colour:  Brown tri

Puppy 3 - RAVEN

Time of Birth:  10:10am

Sex:  Male

Weight:  354g

Colour:  Black wolf sable

Puppy 4 - ROOK

Time of Birth:  10:21am

Sex:  Male

Weight:  268g

Colour:  Black (possibly wolf sable)

Puppy 5 - BUZZ (buzzard)

Time of Birth:  10:24am

Sex:  Male

Weight:  270g

Colour:  Cream

Puppy 6 - PUFFIN

Time of Birth:  12:13pm

Sex:  Male

Weight:  330g

Colour:  Brown wolf sable

Puppy 7 - MERLIN

Time of Birth:  13:05pm

Sex:  Male

Weight:  375g

Colour:  Wolf sable - with markings just like daddy

Yes that's right, for the second time, Emmi managed to produce an entire litter of 7 puppies with only one girl present.  She likes her boys, clearly.  And who can blame her, when she does them so well?

Thanks to Jane & Mark not only for lending me their sweet Emmi-pie, but also for coming up with the great names.  Puppies are a family affair after all.

For those of you who are wondering why I can't tell whether some puppies are solid tricolour or wolf sable, it's actually not always easy to spot at birth.  It will get more obvious over the next few days.  Hopefully.

happy birthday

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L-R: Taika, Taito, Karhu, Koda, Diesel, Torvi, Keksi

Ten years ago today – a very special day, as it was the day that Neka gave birth to our very first litter of puppies.  Stoic as she was, and inexperienced as I was, I didn’t see the signs that they were on their way and so I left her snoozing on the sofa when I made the 20-minute round trip to pick up Jay from the park & ride on his way home from work.  When we got back she had gutted the sofa cushions, leaving chunks of foam all over the floor.  Ah, that would be the "nesting" that I had read about, then.

Pretty soon I noticed she was grunting, and a quick phone call to a more experienced friend confirmed that this was certainly contractions, so we retired to the whelping box in the back room. 

I cannot now remember how long I had to wait for the first puppy to arrive, nor how long it all took for the 7 to arrive.  I do have notes filed away of the event, but sadly there was no blog in those days, so when an old computer died without a backup a few years ago I lost most of my photos of this litter (back up your computers, people!).   

But I have a few.

I was hoping to have a reunion for this milestone birthday, but with one of the gang in Scotland awaiting the imminent arrival of a new human baby brother or sister, and a family member of another out of the country at the moment, it was never going to happen.

These dogs are a great bunch of characters – good-natured, friendly & easy-going, occasionally lazy & stubborn, blessed with excellent health & good looks.  Very happy 10^th birthday to the oldies, and many happy returns, in birth order, as always:

Koda

6 weeks & 9 years (Photo: Helen Golden)

Taika

6 weeks & 9 years (Photo: Kate Wilson)

Karhu

10 weeks & 10 years (Photos: Wendy & Scott Gilmour)

Diesel

6 weeks and 10 years (Photo: Melinda Groves)

Taito

6 weeks & 10 years (Photo: Mark Treasure)

Keksi

6 weeks & 10 years (Photo: Daniel Spencer)

Torvi

 

9 weeks & 9 years with Steve (Photo: Steve Giles)

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention all the special families who have loved and cared for these fabulous dogs for the past 9 years and 10 months:  the Goldens, Wilsons, Gilmours, Groveses, McCarthys, Spencer-McGinleys and Gileses – with special mention of Steve Giles who loved Torvi so much and who sadly died earlier this year.  Thank you everyone for 10 great years.

welcome to the kuume litter

Ok, I take it all back.  Since these puppies were born, approximately 15 hours ago, I have been saying I had 2 black dominoes, 2 brown dominoes and varying numbers of black ones that maybe were turning out to be brown.  Well I can now confidently report that, apart from the 2 black dominoes, the rest of them are all brown of one kind or another.

You may wonder how it is I can't tell the difference between black & brown.

Well, it's not so easy 11pm at night under artificial light.  Then in the morning, in good daylight, things usually become clear.  However, these poor puppies were wet for a solid 10 hours.  No sooner would they start to dry then Kaija would need to go outside for a wee.  And, as we live in Devon, it was raining all night.  Of course.  So, damp puppies once again.

Finally it stopped raining.  Finally the puppies dried (mostly).  Finally we got some photos of them.  Finally I figured out that we have 2 black dominoes, 2 brown dominoes and 3 browns.  4 bitches and 3 dogs.  Pretty sure.  But to be honest, it was a very unsettled and sleepless night for the new family and for me, so I reserve the right to change my mind on the sexes.

I'm calling this litter the "Kuume" puppies (pronounced koo-meh, approximately).  Kuume is Finnish for fever, and represents how ill I was (with pneumonia, as it turned out) when I returned from California at the end of January.  I immediately jumped in the car, drove 30 miles to Plymouth to pick up Kaija then turned around and drove 200 miles to Shropshire to mate her to the fabulous Terhakan Jallat.  I was more or less incoherent the whole time and, in fact, I can barely remember the trip at all.  So I really must say many thanks indeed to Elaine & Steve for having us, facilitating the mating and feeding me Lemsips.

Anyway it was all worth it for 7 fabulous little puppies.  They are pretty little, but strong and noisy, so hopefully they will go from strength to strength.

In my sleep-deprived state this morning I wasn't able to settle on any baby names for them, but Jay came to the rescue and suggested some of our favorite jazz singers and musicians.  So, here they are, the Kuume jazz babies.

Ella

Sex:  Bitch
Colour:  Black domino
Weight at birth:  290 grams
Time of birth:  9 pm

Duke

Sex:  Dog
Colour:  Brown domino
Weight at birth:  337 grams
Time of birth:  9:15 pm

Nina

Sex:  Bitch
Colour:  Brown, tan & white
Weight at birth:  259 grams
Time of birth:  9:40 pm

Billie

Sex:  Bitch
Colour:  Brown, tan & white
Weight at birth:  294 grams
Time of birth:  10 pm

Louis

Sex:  Dog
Colour:  Brown, tan & white
Weight at birth:  315 grams
Time of birth:  10:15 pm

Etta

Sex:  Bitch
Colour:  Black domino
Weight at birth:  320 grams
Time of birth:  11 pm

Dizzy

Sex:  Dog
Colour:  Brown domino
Weight at birth:  237 grams
Time of birth:  11:40 pm