A brag......of sorts

[ForMyACDs]

I don't get to post nearly as much as I used to but I just had to brag. I'm having to sit home today to nurse a sick goat so I have a little more time on my hands today than I usually do.

The ultrasound last week says we're having PUPPIES!

Sire is our red male ("Oscar" - ACD of course) who has done VERY well in the show ring. He was in the AKC Top 25 the first full season shown - with limited showing, 2nd place in his class at the US and at the Candian National Specialty and Best Puppy of Breed at the Canadian Regional Specialty. He also finished at 11 months old with a BOB over TWO Top 10 specials! and has an incredible temperment (earned his CGC with flying colors). Oscar was tried on stock but had a little TOO much drive so we'll be working on that and will see how he does again later this year.

Dam is our blue female ("Nona") who hasn't finished her AKC championship yet (one major finished), but has finished her UKC Championship and won the Top 10 Best of Breed for ACDs last year at the Premier. She earned her HIC last year with a lovely performance and I can hardly wait to get her really working stock.

Both dogs are health tested (hips, elbows, hearing, PRA and CERF). This is essentially a test litter for us as my male tested deaf in one ear last year. He was tested as a pup and although he wasn't deaf in that ear he wasn't passable but last year he tested as deaf. Genetically linked deafness in ACDs shows up by the age of 6 weeks. All off Oscar's family tree as well as all his brothers, sisters, half-brothers and half-sisters are full-hearing so it's pretty unlikely this is genetic, but we will be testing the entire litter at the appropriate time to make sure. I have several people that want to breed to Oscar, but until I can get an idea as to the whether he's likely to pass on this deafness I won't do so.

To say I'm excited is an understatement.

 

[Beccy]

How exciting! Can't wait to see pics when they arrive.

:

Hope your goat is better soon, I know how hard it can be dealing with those.

 

[Pepipony]

Congrats!!!! :aktion033:

I'm fairly well adicted to my Heelers as well. Have a female, Belle, never did show her, only local fairs. My male, Dallas, same thing, they are just my rotten little furkids. Dallas has PRA, didnt hit till he was around 7 though. Didnt know about it, kinda glad I didnt, then I wouldnt have him and he is my little man

: Not many dogs get their own seeing eye human LOL

Wish I was in the market for another, cant with him being blind. Maybe in a few years, make that, maybe in a decade, not ready to loose my 'kids' quite yet

:

Again, Congrats!

 

[runamuk]

How exciting. I hope your goat gets to feeling better. How is kidding going? or are you kidding yet?

Rori

 

[ForMyACDs]

How exciting. I hope your goat gets to feeling better. How is kidding going? or are you kidding yet?

Rori

Unfortunately, we lost the doe......my best doe too. She aborted 3 weeks early but came in to milk (she's out of a national top 10 milker). She'd developed a staph infection on her pasterns and the only thing we found that was working was iodine scrubs and injected PenG. Well, let this be a lesson to all......ALWAYS have your epinephrine right next to you when you're injecting ANYTHING! Even tho' I followed protocol (I work at a vet clinic after all) somehow a small vein must have burst and Pennicillan got in to a vein. She went down immediately, unable to breath. I got epinephrine in her within a minute so she pulled thru the initial attack, but we weren't able to pull her thru the after effects (blood clots in the lungs etc). I'm distraught. REMEMBER!! THIS SAME THING HAPPENS IN HORSES TOO!! BE CAREFUL!!

Kidding has been tough. The only doe kid born so far this year was a doe kid that the doe I just lost aborted. Not a problem.......any boys I have are all spoken for, but it's still frustrating. I have one doe due tomorrow, two due mid-April and due to a "buck malfunction" we have a doe due in June, one due in July and one due in AUGUST!! Normally, our kidding is all done right about now. Sounds like a lot of people had a tough time getting does bred this year.

I'm fairly well adicted to my Heelers as well. Have a female, Belle, never did show her, only local fairs. My male, Dallas, same thing, they are just my rotten little furkids. Dallas has PRA, didnt hit till he was around 7 though. Didnt know about it, kinda glad I didnt, then I wouldnt have him and he is my little man

: Not many dogs get their own seeing eye human LOL

Wish I was in the market for another, cant with him being blind. Maybe in a few years, make that, maybe in a decade, not ready to loose my 'kids' quite yet

:

We had an ACD with PRA too......unfortunately, he didn't take it well. He was so incredibly unhappy not able to see. We were just about ready to put him down (a tough decision for us for sure) but he decided to just go peacefully in his sleep. It was odd. He wasn't sick........he just died. Boy was he a great dog tho'.

 

[Beccy]

Sorry to hear you lost her, I know how difficult it can be with sick goats sometimes, some of them just seem to give up.

 

[Pepipony]

Sorry about your Doe :no: How heartbreaking.

Dallas is SUCH a happy little man, too much so! He will take off running and completely forget he is blind! Luckily, he responds well to verbal commands 'lookout!' 'stop' easy, up, down etc. he still thinks he is 10' tall, wont back down from the horses ( have to be really carefull there) and when I had some firemen out a few weeks ago he stood there barking at them, but facing a wall, was actually quite funny

: He acts as though he was sighted, hes amazing. I think that since this hit with me being home all the time, he adjusted better, if I wasnt home he would have a harder time of it. These are just amazing little dogs, so stoic and SO incredibly smart.

 

[ForMyACDs]

For a long time it was nearly impossible to tell that "Simon" was losing his sight. I wondered only when I noticed that he didn't really "track" the progress of a ball, but waited until he heard it bounce. I took him to MSU to see if it was his sight and even tho' there wasn't much sight left he passed their "preliminary test". They set up cones in a room, turned off the lights, used a small penlight so there was enough light for us to see and had me call him thru the cones. Even tho' he couldn't see any of the cones he still avoided every one of them by feeling with his feet. It wasn't until they looked IN his eyes that they were able to see that he had advanced PRA. As long as he had a little sight he was okay. He LOVED to play ball and we eventually began to use a jolly ball so he was more likely to see it (it's so large) an could find it by bumping in to it if he didn't hear it bounce. He would also listen to his "seeing eye dog" Gidget who would run to the ball and bark so he could go pick it up. However, once he lost all sight he got depressed and disinterested in just about everything. I think he just plain lost his will to live. Simon was a rescue dog and we can only hope that we made his final years as happy as they could have been. Gosh, he was a cool dog.

Simon......two days after our wedding. This photo was a wedding gift from our best man/matron of honor who watched the animals for us while we were in Chicago for the weekend......I LOVE this photo. I love how he's covered in dirt (including his tongue) from his ball chasing. He just looks so happy and this photo is SO him.:

 

[Pepipony]

Wow what a handsome boy! He looks so very much like my first Heeler Boder

: I have been wondering something, when the 2 I have now were younger I noticed that at night Dallas' ( the PRA one) eyes glowed red while if memory serves, all my other dogs glowed green. Wonder if that was from the PRA? Since his dx we havent been back to TX A&M so I havent been able to ask that Vet. The local Vet doesnt have a clue. Think that red glow might have been an early sign?

 

[runamuk]

Sorry to hear about your doe. I have had a bumpy lambing season as well we have had a number of losses and at this point I just want to be done with it. I know a few other sheepherds have also had a weird year. I will send good thoughts your way to have an uneventful kidding and maybe the rest will give you some does.

 

[ForMyACDs]

Simon glowed green......some people claim you can see by the glow in the eyes, but it's really not true. Usually the first sign is pupils that don't dilate in the light.

It sounds like a lot of goat people had rough breedings seasons and it seems like the kidding season has had trouble for more people too. I bet this odd weather this year has a lot to do with it (heck, it's colder here now than it was just about all winter!!).