I hope this Blog proves to be both fun and educational for anyone interested in Showing and/or Breeding Dogs. Spend some time with us and you will really understand the time and effort and emotions that goes into this hobby. Join me here for the good times and bad times, the joys and sorrows, the wins and losses. Welcome to life at Vista Dei!

Well, a new dilema! Hahahah as I said prior, I like TWO of the puppies in my litter.. they are both very different from each other, I would like to keep one, but can't make up my mind!  I guess I will have to wait longer and see how they grow, so much changes as they age, but I keep going back and forth in my mind as I watch the litter play.  I wish I had room to keep them both, just to see what I get, but that will put a strain, take me up to NINE.. nine dogs!! Noooo I was only going to limit myself to 5 dogs, but it is very hard if not impossible to have a quality breeding program with only 5 dogs.. sigh.  I know! I am going to put their pictures up, and you can help me decide!

The first puppy is a sable female (the dark one in the picture), she is small and will probably mature at about 14" right in the nice small size for a female, perfectly marked, probably show material and she could be bred to Darby (all the other females I have kept have been Darby's daughters, so must be taken to other males)  She would produce puppies with him that would be on the smaller size and nicely marked, yet I believe that I would really get more puppies that are pretty much the same as I have been producing for the last 5 years.  That is not BAD, but I have a goal that I was hoping to move toward, to better my breedings with each generation.

The second female is a sable merle female,she is the bigger lighter one in the front of the picture, and she is the prettiest puppy to walk the face of this earth!  She is just a real eye catcher, balanced in structure, and has the overall look I was going for in the next generation. However.. she is a sable merle, and she has 2 china doll baby blue eyes, and the AKC will not allow a blue eyed sable merle to win in the show ring.. waaaaa... so no matter how nice she is, she really can't be shown (well she could be, but it would be a waste of money) and she is a big girl, probably will mature at 16" which is right at the tippy top of our breed.  Now, she too, could be bred to Darby, and he would be able to control their puppies size and bring it down to a little smaller pups, but half of all the puppies they had would also be sable merles and couldn't be shown.  On the other had, if she was bred to a Tri color male, she would make all sorts of colors of puppies in one litter, Tri colors, Blue Merles, Sables, Sable merles, so in a theoretical litter of 4, we could have 3 that would be colors that are allowed in the show ring. It might not be easy to find a nice Tri stud for her and one that would balance size.

Here are 2 more pictures Let me know what YOUR opinion is!

 

Posted by: Vistadei at 16:32 | link | comments (4)

We are starting to really focus on getting Decker ready to show seriously this summer.  Now that Drifter the puppy has settled in with Denise and Dave and is going to live with them permanately, I have started to send Decker back and forth between my house and my daughter's house.  This will get him used to being away from our home and our "pack" of dogs, teach him to potty in strange places, etc and get him ready to travel with a handler from show to show.  It was hard the first time, he kept wanting to come back to the house and hide behind me etc, but this time he is doing better.  He will get more confidence as he starts to have fun at their house as well as at mine.  I am starting to bath him and line brush every week to stimulate the hair growth.  I think I will order a product called "in-flight" it is supposed to help keep them from shedding and hold the full coat into the spring/summer show season.

Well I like 2 puppies from this current litter, both could contribute in different ways to my breeding program, but I think I only have room for one.  So.. choices choices!  I wish I had a sheltie friend who wanted to work with the same lines as I am trying, and then we could make better use of the dogs, but I don't so will have to choose.. I have many weeks yet to make my decisions!

 

Posted by: Vistadei at 15:43 | link | comments

Wow, it is harder to keep up on this blog than I thought it would be!  I have so much to say, so little time to type!  The litter is doing well, they are 4 weeks old today, had their first solid meal, getting teeth, can walk and starting to bark and play.  I took Darby to Cleveland for the Rally show, we did really well, I came off the course thinking we had done a nearly perfect job, but the judge "No Qualified" me because she said I held the leash too tight (I do NOT agree!) so that was a long 4 hours on the road for nothing but experience.  I have to get on line this afternoon and enter the next show.  It was fun, I wouldn't have been so bummed if it was like.. a 20 min drive! hahaha  I got the book order from Dogwise, oooohhh can't decide what to read first, but I am going to pick one and start this afternoon.  Two teenage sisters who bought  littermate puppies from me last year took them for their CGC - TDI tests over the weekend.  One passed, the other didn't, but I hope they remember how young they ALL are and what a great job they did.  I know Sampson will pass the next time! Great job "Aslan" who at only 10 1/2 months old is now Vista Dei Luvme Tender CGC TDI yippeee!!  Oh I did a neat thing on my web page, did a photo "how to" to show how to brace and glue a puppies ears to get them to tip nicely.  Oh it is HAIR glue.. don't think we are strange, but collies and shelties often need their ears done when they are young to get a nice tip.  I want to work on a photo how to for Feet triming and line brushing yup yup WHEN I GET THE TIME!

Posted by: Vistadei at 09:32 | link | comments (2)

Oh it is a new month, and I have been so busy, I haven't posted for days!  I have had to change the order of this blog, so it is more traditional, with the newest posts at the top working backward in time. Otherwise it was too akward.  Well what is new?  Drifter the puppy is staying with Denise and Dave and their collie Spirit.  Don't know if they want to keep him yet or not, but they would be the perfect home for him, he loves them, they love him, they have the time and energy to train him in obedience and agility, their extended family came to his puppy class graduation (well Spirit was graduating from the intermediate class too) and they all seemed SO NICE.

Our puppies are doing fine, growing fast, healthy and fat.  They are what.. 12 days old now?  Soon their eyes will open and then they will be more fun to play with.  Now they pretty much just eat and sleep, sleep and eat. 

I just ordered some books for the Kennel club library, will let you know if they are any good as I read them.  Got one for breeding, one for agility, one for Rally and one for judging.. oh an one for calming ring nerves in every area.  I might need that one, I entered Darby in his first Rally show for March 11th.  Two hour drive each way, did I mention I hate to drive.. oh yes I did!! hahahahah  see I need a book on my nerves already!

Posted by: Vistadei at 22:38 | link | comments