Meggie is almost ready

We have had a progesterone test earlier this week to determine when Meggie is fertile and ready to breed.  She will need to hit level 5 before she has ovulated.  Once she ovulates she will have a few days before she is ready to be bred and her eggs can become fertilized.  The test she took on Tuesday placed her at .02 and so we are going to retest her this Friday to find out if she will be ready to breed over the weekend.

There is a lot of science as well as art involved in breeding great dogs.  We want to do our best to make sure that we are producing the best Australian Labradoodles we can in terms of health, temperament, and aesthetic beauty.  The puppies from this litter will be small mediums or large minis.  They should have red to apricot colored coats, and they will have beautiful fleece coats.  

Scarlett is almost ready for her ultrasound to definitively confirm her pregnancy and to give us a first sense of how many puppies she is carrying.   That will be a very exciting day for us here at Evergreen Manor Labradoodles.  We always enjoy knowing that there is evidence of the work we have done and we love to tell the families who are on the puppy list when the pregnancy is confirmed.  We have an appointment for the ultrasound on Tuesday May 29th.  Look for an email that evening if you are one of our buyers for this litter!

We will keep you all updated about where things stand with the breedings and with the ultrasounds.

Steve

Meggie is also in heat!

Great news!  We learned today that Meggie is also in heat.  She will be tested for her progesterone levels in a few days and once we know she is close to fertile we will be breeding her to Seeker.  That means that in a little over eight weeks we will have her puppies here (around the Fourth of July), and after that it will be another eight weeks before we are able to deliver them to their forever families (Labor Day Weekend?).  We have already closed the reservation list and have people who are preparing to welcome their new family members into their homes.  These puppies will be going to homes in Oregon, Washington, and even to the Netherlands!  We have two breeders coming out of this litter.  

Scarlett is doing very well and is several weeks into her pregnancy.  In a couple of weeks we will be having an ultrasound done to confirm the pregnancy and to give us an idea of how many puppies she will be having.  We have at least one family on a waiting list in case we have more puppies with Scarlett than the reservations we have already taken.  Scarlett is known for having eight to ten puppies per litter, and we may well have more puppies than the number already spoken for on our puppy list.  We may know more clearly what to expect once we have the results from the ultrasound.

Stay tuned, we are in the midst of exciting days here at Evergreen  Manor Labradoodles.  

Exciting Days!!

We have finished raising three litters over the winter and they are nearly all in their new homes.  We still have a puppy from Bella's litter that will go to her new home (a breeder in Texas) on Thursday, and we have another puppy that we are still allocating to her new family.  Home is a lot quieter now.  We do have two puppies that are going to be breeders in our program that we are raising and testing before we allocate them to guardian homes (see our page on Guardian homes).  

The quiet will not last forever.  We have exciting news to tell!  Scarlett has been bred to Seeker yesterday and today.  She will be delivering her next litter of puppies in nine weeks.  We already have a full reservation list for this litter, but we are still putting people on waiting lists in case she has more puppies than we have reservations.  The last litters Scarlett had were ten puppies each.  We have taken six reservations and we can take two or three additional applications for her waiting list.  This litter is going to be spectacular.  We expect reds, apricots, and perhaps a cream puppy.  These puppies will have wonderful conformation and boning.  They will be athletic and outgoing.  They will be friendly and have gentle temperaments.  The pictures below show some of the puppies Scarlett and Seeker have produced in the past.  

We also expect that Meggie will be going into heat in the next few weeks.  We also plan to breed her with Seeker so that we will have dark reds and dark apricots that will be small mediums or large minis.  This litter also has a full reservation list.  We are not expecting as many puppies from Meggie as Scarlett has produced.  We will wait until we have the ultrasound to have more of a sense of how many puppies she is carrying to take any more applications for a waiting list for her.  

Puppies, Puppies, Puppies

We have a house full of puppies.  It is wonderful!

There are still two puppies from Juliet's litter here (until tomorrow when Amore is scheduled to go to her new home), five of Velvet's puppies (four of which will leave in the next few weeks to go to their new homes) and ten of Bella's puppies.  They have a load of fun as they play outside in the grass when it is warm and dry enough for them to be outside.  Today was just such a day, and I got some great pictures of the three litters playing together.  

They are  so much fun to watch.  They run all over the yard chasing each other and finding toys to play with.  The older puppies are gentle with the younger ones.  There isn't the kind of competition we would normally expect with three different litters of three different ages.  
Having so many dogs in the house can also be stressful, but we know that all but three of the twenty puppies we had in these litters are already reserved and now we are spending time socializing them and doing temperament testing to make sure that the dogs go to the home where they fit best.  It is a delight to fit the families to the puppies.  After spending so much time, energy, affection, and yes money, on these puppies it is very important to us to make sure that they have a wonderful future with their new families.

We are setting up trips, and flights to get these puppies to their new homes.  We will be taking dogs to Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and New Jersey.  We have a dog flying to Florida.  We also have other puppies from these litters going to Oregon, Washington, California, and Texas.  We are building relationships with extended family members all over the country.  We love raising puppies and making new friends! 

Bella's Puppies are growing!

The puppies are growing quickly!  They are now three and a half weeks old.  They have moved on to eating ground up kibble and goat's milk.  They love it!  

These beauties are also mobile!  They are walking all over the pen and actually climbing out over the lip of the pen into the area where they go potty.  

Bella is a wonderful mom.  She spends time with the puppies and still nurses them.  It is a big job to parent ten puppies and make sure that they are well behaved and well fed.  We are so proud of her and of the puppies she is raising.

Those of you who have reserved one of these puppies have a treasure coming to you.  They are on target to go home in mid-April.  We will be doing a final temperament testing and verifying each puppy fits with the family that has reserved them.  We want you to be fully satisfied with your new family members!  


We will be working with these puppies to make sure they are well on their way in both crate training and potty training.  They will be familiar with going potty outside and if you continue working with them on both crate and potty training they should adjust quickly to your home and how to potty outside.  We will send you information on how to build on the training we will have done.  If you have any questions you can always call or e-mail us.  

 

Here is a video of Juliet's puppies playing outside today.  I hope you enjoy it.

Crate Training! Potty Training!

We have moved Juliet's puppies down to the kitchen where they get a lot of attention.  They love it!  We have set up a pen for them with a crate (the door is always open and it is their favorite place to relax) and a special tray with artificial grass where they potty.  It is amazing that even at four weeks they are choosing to go to the "grass" to potty.  Boy do they potty!  We have to clean out the reservoir twice a day.

The puppies are also moving to eating from a bowl and are going to start on "mush" this week.  We add ground kibble to goats milk and feed the puppies from a large, shallow bowl.  It is hilarious to watch them figure out how to lap up the food and to see them experience new taste sensations.  These puppies are motivated and learn very quickly that they can have full tummies when they go to the bowl.  It is providing a break for Juliet who has been nursing her puppies from their birth.  She is relieved to see the puppies feeding and is enjoying more time playing with them and less time feeding them.

We are also introducing the puppies to new experiences and new people.  Soon we will be taking them on car rides to the bank and other places where we can introduce them safely to a variety of people.  This helps them to be well socialized when they get to their new families.  

This litter is very social already and loves people.  As I write this blog I am sitting next to the pen and the puppies are whining to get out and have me sit with them.  They prefer to play over eating.  

I think you will enjoy the videos I am taking and trying to edit so that I can put them on You Tube.  I should have them up within the week.  Pester me about them if you do not see them soon.