Farmington Valley Golden Retrievers

Being a longtime medical professional, I am resigned to the fact that nature and life seem to demand a balance between good news and bad, blue skies and grey, birth and death. In my daily contact with patients, in one room there might be a family celebrating the happy news of a new baby on the way, while in the next a husband and wife are there to discuss the issues involving a return of her breast cancer. This is a sequence that is repeated without end, it seems, whether in the delivery room, the office setting, or on a mission trip. I had just come off a 24 hour call this morning, and it seemed that happy events had won the battle last night with five new healthy babies to celebrate, while only one patient and her family were suffering from the loss of her pregnancy hopes.

We had performed another ultrasound on Riley earlier in the week, and my mood was brightened by the fact that she is carrying a nice size litter of at least eight plus puppies. So hopefully we are going to make a lot of waiting families happy with the arrival of a successful litter around the second week of April. We had an appointment to go to the Southern Berkshire Golden Retriever Clinic this morning at the Suffield Veterinary Hospital. This clinic is held once a year to allow breeders of Goldens to get their dog’s medical clearances done in a timely and cost effective way.  Breeders from all over New England attend and I was told they expected between 90 and 120 dogs to be screened. Here are a few photos..

With the breed being Golden Retrievers, everyone was well behaved and social. Our Riley was first up and needed only her eyes to be rechecked which is a yearly requirement if you are a breeder of quality. I joked with the Veterinary opthamologist and Riley breezed through. Up next was Lucy, our beautiful two year old that we had pinned our future hopes on now that Emma is past her breeding prime. She had passed last year and we expected no problems.

The vet suddenly got quiet and said keep your fingers crossed while he changed instruments and took another look. His next words left me shaken. “I’m sorry she doesn’t pass. Early cataracts are present that have a genetic appearance. Her vision should be fine, but she can’t be bred”. That was it. Without a glimmer of anticipatory worry, our breeding plans had suddenly collapsed. Our ride home was particularly quiet.

We are not big-time breeders with a large stable of animals. We have five females, but now only Riley is breed-able, and she hasn’t had a proven litter yet. Most of our breeding mentors don’t keep their dogs when they can no longer reproduce. Instead, they give them to families that want such an older dog that is better behaved and better trained than a puppy. Barb and I haven’t been able to do that. Our dogs are family for better or worse. So.. we now have a dilemma that will require thoughtful reflection on what our future efforts will be. Our Solo didn’t pass her test due to mild hip issues, and now Lucy didn’t either because of eye issues. There had been no occurrences of either of these issues in our line before, so they probably represent spontaneous mutations as they are called. But that is precisely why you test all your dogs.

We actually co-own Riley with two of our breeding friends. One of them, Donna, has Riley’s sister and also our Emma’s sister. She expects to breed “Ebby” with her next heat this spring. Ebby had a litter of twelve last year, so we hope there will be no issues. I spoke to Donna, who lives in Hebron, at the clinic today and she may be able to handle the needs of the people who don’t get one of Riley’s puppies because of their place on the list. Genetically and in appearance, the puppies would be the same as ours if she decides to use champion Mulder at the Cape.

So there you have our good news with the bad. We intend to make the greatest effort to enjoy Riley’s upcoming litter, as there may not be another for some time. We are grateful that Lucy’s health won’t be seriously affected by the eye issue that was found today.

There are so many people suffering more serious disappointments than what we have dealt with today. And we will move on. But pardon if I let out one tiny sound of frustration after another two years of planning and hopes have been wiped out… Damn!

I thought to start this week’s tales with a question for our readers. When I went to the Fields this week, the dogs were particularly interested in something on the ground.

Usually obedient, the girls did not want to leave the area of interest. On further investigation, this is what I found..

Then it occurred to me, another weather season was about to begin. And along with the change of season come repetitive behaviors of nature. Any ideas? Maybe this photo will give you some help.

And the answer is:

There is a large migration of geese that use the fields as a stopover both in the fall on their way South, and in the Spring on their way North again. Evidence of their resting here was very evident in the number of footprints and droppings. Since some of us view goose livers as a much desired delicacy, I could understand why a retriever might find the taste of their pooh to their liking..

This past week we have been vacillating between warmer touches of mother nature and some chilly days. While it is refreshing not to be cold, the arrival of the sun and blue skies means wet dogs and mud. Some parts of the run were snow covered, but much not.

And that means our kitchen floors get extra dirty. One day this week the dogs were so matted with dirt that I had to fill the small pool in the garage. They didn’t mind the water, and look how much dirt almost made it into our home on this one run.

Everyone’s moods were much calmer at the change of weather and the appearance of greenscape underfoot. If you are a regular reader of this site, you might be able to identify everyone by name here..

As you can see from the first photo, not all of the mud is easy to get off their feet, and you just have to sweep or vacuum when they are finally dry.

And now the news that we, and many of you have been so anxious for.. Riley is pregnant! We brought her to have an ultrasound today. She was very well behaved. Look for the small circle on the ultrasound picture. That is a gestational sac with a puppy embryo in it.

We were able to identify three to four sacs on one side of her uterine horn. It is still early from when she was inseminated, so we will repeat the scan over next weekend .  A dog usually carries its puppies in each horn of the uterus. The other horn was not well seen, but that is due to my lack of knowing how to do the ultrasound properly on a dog. I am sitting here with a smile on my face.. a great moment to sit back and reflect on the efforts of so many that made this possible. We hope that God will bless Riley with good health for the remainder of her pregnancy.

And finally for this week, Gayle sent us some photos of puppy Cooper playing with her two goldens: Emmy and Swimmer. Gayle is happy to dog sit for Cooper when her sister Gwen goes away. And Cooper is a puppy from our last litter, and brother to Rocky. As you can see from these photos, Mulder and Emma should be very proud of their efforts.

What a hunk he is going to be.

This week has continued the welcome trend to a more civilized existence for all here in our household. Everyone sleeps in the bedroom, and we have been averaging only one wee hour visit to the backyard now for the puppy. The pack’s inner alarm clock is still set for 4:30 to 5 AM, but I get a lot of early work done before leaving for the office or hospital at 6:30 to 7 AM.

I was hoping to take all six to the high school this weekend in the truck (too many squirrels out already to walk them), and see how everyone fared running together for the first time. The rain today, instead of snow,  nixed that idea. Barb had bought some new stuffed animals for everyone to play with at Ocean State Job Lot. The buffalo bones and antler chews are more favored, but the cost is prohibitive to have frequent hand outs of these items. With the stuffed animals, there is a lot of competition and jealousy for the toy they don’t have in their mouth at the moment. So you have to be watchful that tempers don’t rise and a fight erupts. This day everyone was well behaved..

We are anxiously waiting for the necessary two more weeks to pass to see if Riley has conceived. As I was pulling the camera card to create this blog, I came across several new photos of Mulder, our champion stud, walking and playing with his son, Rocky. These were taken when Mulder was at our home three weeks ago.

Rocky is growing by inches in height and length every day. At a quick glance, he is sometimes hard to pick out from his sister Lucy of an earlier litter. Being the two youngest goldens here, they often pair up to play.

Here Barb caught Rocky in a more Halloween like moment the other night..

And finally for this week’s news, Barb caught our dogs enjoying a new configuration in their napping on our leather chairs. Doesn’t seem to matter that they are literally on top on each other at times!

Hoping everyone reading this finds time for a restorative nap this week!

My cousin Ron and his Barbara recently sent some photos of their Sandy and Maggie out for a nice stroll along the Housatonic River. Now this is the relaxing sort of walk you can have if you only have one or two Goldens with you. Looks like a nice change of pace I might enjoy sometime.. But I would feel badly about leaving someone behind. They make such sad faces and dejected barks when they are not going with the pack.

Back here in dogville, we have returned to mostly G-rated behavior. Lucy is the only one in heat and that is subsiding. We had been getting up between three and four AM with the puppy still, who would not stop barking until we let him out of his crate, and cuddled him for awhile. This was not a good habit to continue. So with me on call this weekend, Barb brought the fourth crate upstairs and put him in our bedroom with the rest of the gang. And lo and behold, he slept through the night. So we will try this again. Goldens are such social animals that they really pine when they cannot be with their kind or ours. A non interrupted night’s sleep would be a luxury as I am back on call tomorrow. The only downside is that our bedroom is starting to look like a dog crate warehouse…

Unfortunately, this morning I have to write that Rocky was up and barking at 3:30 AM, coinciding with the chimes from our grandfather clock. Then the other five had to be let out at the same time. A fifteen minute interlude that then settled down for another two hours before our dog household stirred again. All this to be expected I guess when your hobby  grows to the point that it has its own special requirements of separate space and another level of commitment.

As I sit down to write this post today, Sunday afternoon, a sense of calm finally pervades our home. Barb and I have just weathered the “perfect storm” in dog adventures. Riley, Emma, and Lucy are still in heat but their mating fevers have peaked. Rocky has recovered nicely from his neutering operation performed last Monday. Riley had two artificial inseminations in the middle of the week that went well. Mulder, the lion sized champion stud has been returned home to the Cape after spending five days with us. The amount of energy expended keeping everyone separate, fed, happy, and exercised was enormous. Both of us now realize that our house is not set up to handle this much dog. As my cousin Ron remarked to me, “we were seriously outnumbered”. Without formal kennels, your home takes a beating. Previously, all our girl’s heats came farther apart, and we never had a puppy, never mind a male in our home at the same time. Our mentor, Berna Welch, expressed some of the same sentiments having lived through three simultaneous litters last year resulting in 35 puppies. She is now puppied out emotionally. Our sense of calm however, arrived just today. As I look back on the week, we were more frazzled than anything else…

Sunday we went to the Cape and picked up Mulder. What a large happy go lucky golden. With all the estrogen floating in the air in our home, he never really sat still for me to get a good profile shot so these two photos were the best I could do.

Rocky did well with his neutering operation on Monday. Unfortunately he had to wear an e-collar for most of the week to keep him from licking his stitches. Never having worn a hood before, he was constantly banging into the other dogs as well as the furniture. The only easy time of it was when I took him out for a solo walk.

Riley had a “natural” artificial insemination on Tuesday and then a surgical insemination on Thursday. She then had to wear a hood for three days so that she would leave her incision alone.

Our walks this week were as complicated as the football plays at the Superbowl. The combinations were 1-1-5 to 1-1-3-2, to 1-5. This morning we saw a coyote about three hundred yards away from us at the High School Fields. It looked very well fed and about the size of one of our dogs. Thankfully it moved off before our girls got too much of a scent. Otherwise I could have been pulled into yet a new crisis.

From the untracked snow, I could see there had been no other dog walkers out to appreciate winter’s charms. Riley, by herself, still had her natural smile on..

With all the mess of the three heats, the dogs going in and out, and keeping the boys separated from the girls, we sometimes lost track of the puppy. Chewing the kitchen footstool was not too bad, but when Barb started putting ducktape on our rather new family room table, I knew we had lost the battle.

But here we are, Sunday afternoon, and all is peaceful. Rocky has his spot on Barb’s chair. The girls are gathered together on the kitchen floor, and I am writing this blog. Barb had a well deserved “girls weekend away” and so it is just the dogs and me.

Looking forward, we wait for about four weeks to see if Riley has conceived. Since there are no easy doggie pregnancy tests, I will do an ultrasound to look for puppy sacs. In the meantime, the heats have to finish, and Rocky has to recover fully before he can resume his play with the other girls. And Lucy still needs her hip Xrays next month to get her motherhood clearance. So lots of adventure to come, but hopefully in smaller, swallowable doses…