Cruz is extra cuddly these days

Us on the couch late at night.

Good news for a change

Indy is in heat! This will be her last breeding and I will keep one of these pups for my breeding program. I have the "all clear" from the vet that Indy is 100%. She will be bred in approximately a weeks time which means pups will be due mid June! Yay!!

Mary Ann

This msg was sent from my phone so please excuse the brevity & if there are any errors. Thank you.

Un-Happy Easter 8-(

It is with great sadness I must tell you that Cruz has lost her entire litter of puppies.  She is quite ill and I’m very worried about her.  She has been “off” for the past 2-3 weeks and I was extremely worried so we went to the vet.  He said that she may be having either kidney or liver problems and put her on antibiotics, for the third time in six months.  He said at that time there was a small chance she may lose the litter.  I didn’t want to worry anyone needlessly so I decided to keep the news to myself.  As the days went on she had less and less energy and had trouble keeping her food down.  She couldn’t hold her bladder for more than a few hours at a time.  If I was too sound asleep to hear her, she would run down to the basement and pee.  She has lost a lot of weight and whines during our walks.  I have stopped including her and she seems to feel ok with that.  Now that her due date is past, I can take her in for testing to see what her problem is.  I am praying everyday that she will get better.

 

On another note, I am so, so sorry to disappoint everyone who is waiting for a puppy.  As I write this I feel sick to my stomach and have tears running down my cheeks knowing how many people are reading this with great sadness.  I can say with all my heart I did absolutely everything in my power to have a successful litter.  Before she was bred, she was updated on her shots, dewormed, transferred to puppy food for those extra calories and calcium, bathed and groomed and given extra exercise to tone her muscles.  From the 6th day of heat I collected vaginal swabs and blood samples and checked for the changes required to let me know she was ovulating.  And I did that 3 times a day for 10 days.  I prepared Merlin for his job by deworming, bathing & grooming and removing him from the pack several days before she was ready to be bred.  By keeping him in isolation for a few days, it saves up on energy he will need for breeding.  It is hard work and he’s starting to show his age a little.  When Cruz was ovulating she was bred every other day for 6 days until the swabs and blood showed she was no longer ovulating.  I breed every other day because the semen survives inside the bitch for at least 48 hours.  That way she is subjected to sperm for every single moment she was ovulating and it didn’t wear out Merlin in the process.  Each time she was bred she was put in a crate for 2 hours to prevent her from losing any ejaculate and therefore raising the chance of pregnancy.  During the early weeks of pregnancy I treat the females like Queens.  Extra food, extra walks, nothing to do with anything they perceive as unwanted.  For instance Cruz and Fia don’t get along so I make sure they don’t cross paths and cause any stress for each other.  I add extra kelp & salmon oil to the girls food as well as a supplement called “Missing Link”.  I do everything I can to be sure that both the dog and the puppies have the best possible chance.

 

In all honesty I have done the very best I know how to do.  But I still failed.  And I feel so incredibly bad.  More for you than for me, by far.  I feel like I’ve let so many people down.  I have been dreading writing this email for weeks.  I’ve been writing it in my head every day and every night.  Several times each day.  I can never get it right.  I can never describe how incredibly horrible I feel.  All I can say is I did the best I could and I’m very, very sorry to put you through this.

 

And I am sick with worry over my girl. 

 

Mary Ann

 

The First Signs

Today I saw the first signs. The first signs that tell me Cruz is pregnant. I'm afraid to get too excited, just in case. However! Her belly appeared to be a little larger so I took a measurement. Two weeks ago I measured her at 26 inches. Today she was 28!!

Mary Ann

This msg was sent from my phone so please excuse the brevity & if there are any errors. Thank you.

Here's something a little different!

Crates are not cages! They're dens!

For those of you who are unsure about crate training your dog. Here are three pictures of 3 different dogs enjoying their den. Of course the den needs to be placed where they can be part of the family. Not in the basement boot room!

My dogs will even put themselves to bed at night if they feel we are staying up too late. We have crates in just about every room of the house & they can pick whichever one they'd like.

Mary Ann

Puppies Due April 4th!!!

FINALLY!  Cruz came into heat on January 20th.  She and Merlin were put together on Jan. 26 and again Jan 29th but it just wasn't quite time yet.  Jan 30, Feb 1 & Feb 3 were successful matings.  Usually I breed only twice but I wanted to be absolutely sure of the timing so this time she was bred a third time. 


There are two scientific ways that I use to determine when the female is ovulating.  One is to collect saliva and let it dry without disturbing it.  After it dries, it will have a crystalline look thru the microscope.  It is called "ferning".  If there is no ferning yet, there is no point in breeding.  (This works for people to by the way!)


The other way I use, is to collect swabs off the vaginal wall.  By staining the blood cells on a microscope slide you can see if the cells are "cornified".  When they become flattened and jagged, and you can no longer see the nucleus, the female is ovulating. 


I collect samples both in the morning and evening to see how far things have progressed. It takes about an hour each time. I try to leave nothing to chance.  According to both tests, she was ovulating on all the days she was bred.  The sperm can last 2-3 days inside the body so essentially she had viable sperm from Jan 30 all the way thru until Feb.5.  That should cover all of our bases!


It will be 30-35 days at the earliest before we know if she caught.  I'm not going to bother ultrasounding her again because last time it was a waste of $150.  They told me they saw puppies and in hind sight I really wonder if they saw anything at all.  I think maybe they just wanted to see puppies.  Whatever the case, I will take her in to be palpated at 30-35 days and even then, it may be hard to tell. 


So wish us luck.  Pray for us.  Whatever your lifestyle is.  Please send your good thoughts to Cruz to have a healthy litter and a successful birthing process.  Maybe my dog building will have finished being constructed by then!  It's hard to find the time to work on it.


So after death, comes life.  Kahlua was Cruz's mother so she would have been a Grandma again.  I miss my old girl terribly but time marches on.  Hopefully I can spend my time with her Grandpuppies in a few months from now. 


PUPPIES DUE APRIL 4, 2015!

This is not a pleasant post. Those with weak stomachs should stop reading now.

It has taken me 3 weeks before I could write to you about an incident that occurred on January 9th.  Our beautiful Kahlua has passed to the other side.  She would have been 16 years old shortly.  There was a terrible incident that happened.  One that I have a very difficult time talking about. 


Kahlua was attacked by a cougar.  In her own yard.  It makes me sick.  It makes me sad.  It makes me angry. Kahlua and her daughter Indy were outside in their yard.  It was a beautiful warm night so I left them outside.  As close as we can figure, Kahlua must have left the doghouse in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom.  She must have been attacked at the furthest end of the yard.  Mark heard a big commotion thru the night but he said it only lasted about 15 seconds and then everyone was quiet.  He listened for a few minutes but heard nothing else so went back to sleep.  When we started doing chores, I noticed that Kahlua hadn't come out of her doghouse yet.  That wasn't terribly unusual because she couldn't hear much anymore.  I've often thrown a few kibbles onto the wall so she could feel the vibrations.  When she emerged from the doorway I wasn't even sure what it was.  Her head was swollen twice its size and she had pieces of flesh hanging from her face.  I was in shock!  She stumbled out of the doghouse and I screamed for Mark.  He came running and just stopped cold in his tracks.  It was horrible.  Something that is emblazoned in my memory now and I wish I could forget it.


We believe that Indy was woken up by the noise and went running to the defense of her mother.  Luckily Indy was not hurt in the confrontation.  Kahlua managed to make it back to the doghouse where she lay waiting for us to discover her in the morning.  Mark carried her into the house and straight into the bathtub to start washing her off.  It was soon evident how devastating the injuries were.  I phoned Dr. Curt Luzi who dropped everything he was doing and came out to the ranch.  God bless Curt.  I knew before he got here that she would not recover from her wounds.  The kindest thing to do was to put her down.  She died on her favourite couch surrounded by people who loved her. 


As for the cougar, I have no ill feelings.  It was just doing what cougars do.  I've been lucky enough to raise many orphaned cougar kittens in my life and I know a fair amount about them.  I love them, as I love all animals.  Fish & Wildlife officers have come and we've discussed how to help prevent anything like that from happening again as well as why it might have happened in the first place.   As far as I'm concerned, as long as I don't see it's face anywhere even remotely close to my house, it can stay in the area.  However, if I see it close by, it will be a death sentence.  F&W said once they have discovered something as an easy food source, they will come back again and again.  In this case, it turned out not to be an easy food source so hopefully it will be on its way and never come back.  It is likely an 18-24 month old that has just been ousted by it's mother.  They lack the skill needed to take down big game and they are surviving on squirrels and mice.  The deer numbers are low and the cougar population has exploded.  Not a good combination.


One of the things I've missed is her exuberance at dinner time.  No matter the weather, every time we went out to feed, she would run a lap around the yard.  It's a large yard and there's obstacles like downed trees that cut across their paths.  Just like it would be if they lived in the wild.  But she would actually CANTER around the yard every time it was chore time.  Pretty darn good for a 16 year old German Shepherd.  It was always so cute...


So we say goodbye to dear Kahlua.  (I can't even see the screen thru the tears).  Her mother was bred in East Germany (DDR bloodlines) and the litter was born here in Alberta.  She added a great number of attributes to my breeding program.  She will live on in her daughters and sons.  Goodbye my sweet girl.

Congratulations Are in Order!!

Congratulations to Judy & Guardian Angel's Dugan on passing their final test. They are a Certified Canadian Search & Rescue Team! What a fantastic accomplishment!

I'm so proud of you both!!

Mary Ann

My Guardian Angel Extended Family is the Best!

There is nobody better in this world than my extended Guardian Angel family. The number of condolences on the loss of puppies this fall has been overwhelming. Everybody's first concern was the health and well-being of Cruz. I have been able to reassure everyone that she is doing just fine and has more energy than ever. She is healthy and happy and full of life!

The overwhelming concern for myself has touched my heart. I've always known my extended dog family was a good one but it has exceeded all my expectations and then some. Some people have gone as far as to volunteer their time to help was mundane chores so I can spend more time with Cruz and the other dogs. I am overwhelmed with people's generosity.

The biggest surprise for me was that every single person who had a deposit on a puppy has decided to continue to wait for the next litter. I am so humbled. Your faith in me and my dogs is incrediblle. Thank you just doesn't seem enough.

I know that I fall behind on paperwork and can be very slow to return emails and phone calls. I appreciate your patience & understanding. For those that have met me, you know I put my dogs far above business. They truly are my family. Each & everyone of them mean more to me than profits or the state of my business. I can guarantee you that I have lost potential puppy owners because I didn't respond to their emails or phone calls fast enough. But you know what? That's okay. If they can't understand my reasoning they shouldn't be part of the family. I may be slow but I answer everybody eventually.

So thank you everyone for all the phone calls, emails & visits. There's just no other way to say it. You Guys are the best!



Mary Ann