Tis The Season………Dec. 04, 2004

Now, I bet when you read the title of this entry, you were thinking it probably had to do with Christmas. 

Nope…….not at all..LOL.

When a female dog (bitch) is ready for breeding, she has what is called a "season".  Bitches have 2 seasons a year and anyone familiar with breeding understands the "challenges" of keeping both sexes under one roof. (boy, these words should bring up some interesting searches in my stats..hehe). 

When girl comes into season, frequently it will bring any other girls in the house into season as well and this is where the agony, fun begins.  I own this lovely boy, Max.  He is an incredibily beautiful dog and is very well built.  His one flaw is that he likes to bless us with his vocal cords frequently.  Most of the time, it is not that bad, but oh my, when the girls are in season, I always scratch my head wondering why I keep a male.  He whines and he winnies and he yodels and on and on an on.  I know my husband really loves me when we go thru this….because Max is still here…..

Starting the beginning of November, this little sweetie started the ball rolling.  Bliss is only a little over a year and much too young to be bred.

   Then came Shelley, who is the foundation of my breeding program.  She is that cute little Dora’s grandmother.  Shelley is the dearest dog and the apple of my eye here.  She was THE naughtiest puppy that I have ever owned, but thankfully she has mellowed with age. Shelley will be 6 in January, but she is still as nimble as she was when she was a pup.  Shelley has had 2 c-sections due to carrying huge puppies.   I personally feel that is enough for any girl to have, so she will not be bred again.

So, by now, you can imagine the mounting frustration building up in my boy……..whine, whinny, yodel…….yodel, whinny, whine………….aacckk!!!

Now, the final girl that is close to coming into season comes in on Thanksgiving Day.  This is the girl that I planned to breed this fall.  She is Dora’s mother and because I was so happy with the 1st breeding, I decided that I wanted to repeat the breeding again.  I knew that she was getting close to being ready, but not quite, so I let her into the yard this morning with Max and Dora and another girl, Libby.  Well, Max and Breeze had ideas of their own and I found myself sitting on snow covered steps in my pajamas and slippers at 8am for 20 minutes………bbbbrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.  Breeze (Ballymena Winter’s Wind) has earned her "chilly"name on more than one occasion.  We can look forward to puppies sometime in Febuary :-)).

Being the ham that she is……..that cute little pup, Dora did not want to miss out on another photo opportunity.   She is growing in leaps and bounds, and is promising to be almost as mischievous and as beautiful as her grandmother, Shelley.