ConnieXHogan2

From Great Things Come Greater Things.

The Legacy Continues.

Hogan x Connie 1 & Hogan x Connie 2 come from the breeding of
Am/Int Ch Chambrays Out Of The Ruff bred to Am/Int Ch Chambrays Chance N Counter.

As a breeder there is no greater joy than the miracle of producing
the next generation to perpetuate the kennel and the breeding program. So much goes into
producing top-notch, show competitive puppies, including "lady luck"!

Every once in a while the purist breeder is rewarded for
all their efforts with a puppy or a litter that goes beyond all reasonable expectations.

To me, it happened first in 1990 with the birth of Ch Chambrays Indian Summer,
as she was heads and shoulders above everything else ever produced at Chambray.

Lo and behold, bred to Am/Can Ch Lindenhall Grandquest Rebel in 1992,
Summer produces the most outstanding litter for our kennel to that date and a
litter that held that accolade until the year 2001.

From that awesome #1 litter came Chambrays Summer Rebel Amber (13pts & both majors),
who when bred to Am/Can Ch Granquest Chambray Slapshot in 1997 produces the highest rated puppy ever, Am/Int Ch Chambrays Chisholm Chancey, surpassing Summer, her grandmother's previous #1 high rating.

In 2001, Chancey gave birth to the highest rated litter ever,
once again surpassing her own grandmother's #1 litter of all times, producing Am/Int Ch Chambrays Twist Of Fate, Am/Int Ch Chambrays Mad About Madeline and Am/Int Ch Chambrays Chance N Counter (Connie).

From that awesome rated litter in 2001, it would be Am/Int Ch Chambrays Chance N Counter (Connie),
that would take the torch and carry it to the next level for the betterment of the breed, raising the bar to the highest level ever seen in a litter of puppies in 37 years of involvement with Labradors. Bred to our super
star stud dog, Am/Int Ch Chambrays Out Of The Ruff (Hogan), they produced in
their first litter puppies that rank in the Top 5 of all times and
then added 5 female puppies in their second litter
that rival the superb quality in the first litter!

Raising the bar one generation at a time!

The Divas now weigh between 13 and 14 lbs. Each has developed a very special personality of their own. All are very outgoing and very showy! So, without further ado, here is the tale of the tape of the much anticipated 8-week evaluation!

The first litter of 4 puppies from Hogan and Connie 8 month’s ago was “as good as it gets!” The best overall litter in 37 years of breeding Labradors and that covers a lot of ground and it produced the best rated female and male puppy ever! Plus, every single puppy rated over a 95 on my Evaluations Rating System! For those not familiar with the rating system, a 95 or over puppy is considered a WOW, the highest Show Quality category possible!

So, how have the High Five Divas female puppies from Hogan and Connie’s second litter stack up to that Fantastic Four litter of February? Did they surpass, equal or fall short of that astronomically scoring litter?

The final evaluations were done on Sunday October 7^th for the High Five Divas. They all rated WOWS!!!!! Each puppy scored over the 95 threshold putting them into the rarefied strata reserved for those top show quality dogs referred to by the truly knowledgeable as being a WOW!!!!

That makes 2 litters in a row from the same parents scoring all perfect WOWS!!!!! Amazing, never, ever been done before!!! To put it into perspective, before the 2007 litters were born, there had only been 5 other dogs that had each scored a 95 or above, that’s 5 dogs total in 37 years of breeding!!!!

Although the 5 Divas each scored 95 and above, their average score is slightly below the Fantastic Four’s average score, making this litter the 2^nd highest scoring litter ever. In addition, the highest scoring puppy from this new litter would place her in third place behind 2 puppies from the 1^st litter.

Of course now we have to wait and see how these beauties develop with the old saying “time will tell”, with time being very kind to the first litter in their fantastic 8 month journey. So far we have from the Fantastic Four:

Will the 5 Divas be as successful as their older full brothers and sister? The journey should be an adventurous one as we will keep track of each and every one of these priceless beauties!

All 5 of the girls have been placed in my mind, which is a nightmare ordeal for me, as I obsess for weeks as to whom each puppy will go to. Keep in mind that it is not a matter of just placing a puppy in a great, loving home. It is about placing a great show puppy in a great, loving, show home! Although they are now 8 weeks old, I plan on keeping them an extra week to further evaluate and begin show training each puppy.

For those of you that are looking for a preliminary evaluation ( 6th week) of this litter, there will not be one! Normally, I do one at 6 weeks and then the real deal at 8 weeks, however this litter of 5 girls is so close to call that I do not want to be influenced at all until the 8th week evaluation! Each puppy is now over 9 lbs, with Surprise, Clarity and Chancee (nee Charger) at 9 lbs 14oz, Xena is now 9 lbs and 4 oz and Feisty is 9 lbs 2 oz.

Connie and the 5 Divas are still in the air conditioned travel trailer that now serves as my delivery and rearing area until the pups are 5 1/2 weeks old. Early this morning I got around to cleaning up a mess Connie made in the trailer away from the immediate areas where the puppies are housed. Connie was in her Away-From Puppy Pen, a small partition divided by a 1 by 12 board to keep the pups away from her until she is ready to milk them. I was sweeping up the leftovers of several stuffed toys that Connie dismembered when all of a sudden there comes a very distinct loud bark from the puppy area. I don't pay much mind, but there it was once again and this time I glance over to where the 5 Divas are.

"Bark" once again resonates within the 18 by 9 trailer and I see who the culprit is, none other than Surprise, gee I wonder why I am not surprised!

Staring straight at her I ask "Are you barking at me?", now bare in mind that I have not fed them yet, which is part of the early morning ritual.

All of a sudden Connie, my right hand man enforcer, turns to Surprise and barks directly at her.

All of the puppies are startled by Connie's bark but not one of them retreats, instead each goes into attention mode and holds their ground.

"Bark" once again comes from Surprise as she stares her mom down and with that, Connie jumps over the 1 by 12 board and nose pushes Surprise over on her side.

It is hard to believe that the HIGH 5 DIVAS are only 36 days old today! Each now weights more than 7 lbs, with Charger at 7 lbs 13oz, Clarity 7 lbs 10oz, Surprise 7 lbs 8 oz, Zena 7 lbs 4oz and Feisty 7 lbs 2oz.

Today was their first day eating the special gruel that I make to wean them away from suckling the mom and the bottle. Up until today they were consuming 60oz of goat milk, buttermilk and Enfamil formula.

The gruel is a combination of baby rice cereal, goat milk, buttermilk, soaked whole wheat bread and chicken noodle soup, all mixed together to form a thick liquidy consistency. The puppies are taught to lap it up instead of suckling as they have been doing with their mom and with the bottle, by encouraging them to suck it off my fingers until they can get the hang of bending their heads down to the bowl and lapping from there.

Once they get the knack for lapping, they will slurp up the contents 10 times quicker than it took to bottle feed all of them with the bottle.

Tomorrow they will receive their 1st inoculation, an intranasal dose for all the upper respiratory ailments that can afflict small puppies.

They have become very independent of each other, with no clear leader between them, in fact each one seems to want to dominate the others with no one backing down or backing away from confrontation as is the normal case in most litters.

I am now starting to "see" some conformation about them. So far so good as there are no negatives or faults that are detectable.

The little Divas had their first worming today and each was weighed. Here is the tale of the tape (scale).

They are consuming 20 oz (4 oz each) of special formula per feeding and they receive 3 feedings per day, in addition they are still suckling from their mother. Their teeth are now very evident and the Walrus game is not as nice as it used to be as they are now feeling each others teeth. Tail pulling has now become the main thing to do as they each tug at one another's tail at random. Tempers flare at the drop of a hat and no one backs down! Satin used to be the softest, but she has turned into Xena the Warrior.

In my 37 years of raising Labradors, you would think that I have seen it all and then something new comes along!

Usually at 21 days of age, puppies begin to play very simple socialization games of pushing each other around a bit or mouthing legs and ears and generally these games last a few seconds and they move off to another spot. Well, live and learn as these 5 girls have come up with something that I had not experienced in all my years of raising puppies.

They latch on to each other's mouth, mouth inside of mouth and begin to turn each other sideways until one of the flips over on their side and then the one left standing sprawls over on top of the flipped one. The game will last for minutes and then tempers begin to flare! In the photos above you can see the Walrus Game as I call it. There variations, as two will go up against one and then the two will mount on top of the one that got turned over.

The inevitable was going to happen sooner or later, although later is always best if you are talking about mom’s milk running low! So, here were are at day 20 with Connie’s puppies and all the food supplementing to create a richer, bigger milk supply from Connie was about to reach its critical point of lesser returns. The puppies, now over 3 lbs each, totaling a combined weight of 17 lbs were drawing out her milk supply dry in less than 2 minutes of suckling, not enough for their fast growth curve.

Yesterday it became very evident that 4 chicken backs, ½ lb of bison meat and ½ of deer meat and 6 cups of 31/21 Intimidator Dog Food per day to Connie was not creating enough milk to satisfy the puppies’ ravenous thirst/hunger. Not only were they draining the milk out in record time, they were also fighting and growling at a higher pitch than the regular play fighting that comes at close to 3 week’s of age.

For those of us that have been breeding and raising puppies long enough to put two and two together and come out with the right answer 9 out of 10 times, natural mother’s milk has absolute no substitute when it comes to raising big, fat, healthy puppies. Nothing comes close and as Tony Baretta would say on the TV show Baretta (Robert Blake character) “you can take that to the bank!”

Besides the natural immunity that the dam’s milk provides for their offspring, each species has specific needs that are met from their own supply of milk, so that any substitute is never the same. However there are special formulas that seem to aid in achieving great results when used in combination with the dam’s milk.

Over the years, mostly through trial and error, I have come to rely on a combination of products that have served me well when raising orphan puppies. One of those products is fresh goat’s milk. Although there are several goat farms in the South Florida area, Publix Supermarket carries Meyenberg Goat Milk that is high in saturated fat (11%) and protein (16%). To the goat milk I add pasteurized cultured whole milk buttermilk. There are several brands, but Marburger is also available at most Publix stores. Buttermilk usually has saturated fat at 25% and protein at 16%. A third ingredient to my special puppy formula is Enfamil Lipil Milk Based Infant Formula.

I use 3 parts goat milk, 1 part buttermilk and 1 part Enfamil and serve at room temperature. In this situation, Connie still has enough milk to feed the puppies throughout the day, so supplementation will only be needed 2 to 3 times a day with the special formula. Usually, puppies will stop suckling when they are full and at 3 to 4 lbs each it comes out to about 3 oz per feeding which is about 5% of total body weight.

A trip to Publix this morning brought home all the needed ingredients, including a baby bottle found at the infant’s section of the store. Mixing and warming of the special formula took less than 10 minutes, so now what was needed was for each puppy to take to the new taste.

No disappointment what so ever, as each would learn how to manipulate the nipple and suckle down their allotted 3 oz in less than 3 minutes each! This procedure will now get us to the 4 week mark when we take the same formula and begin to add baby rice cereal, yogurt and cream cheese to make it a more thicken gruel in order to prepare them for the addition of regular puppy dog food to the gruel by the 5^th week and then just regular puppy dog food by the 6^th week.

Puppy Update since supplementation this morning: After downing almost 16 oz of high octane puppy formula they have been as lazy as fat, contented cows, no fighting, no growling, just 5 plump, cute as pig's ear, little puppies!

The puppies are now 8 days old and thriving like there is no tomorrow. At a week old, two of the 5 girls have already out-gained in weight the biggest puppy from the previous litter between
Connie and Hogan.

We already have some very definable personalities. Both Feisty and Charger, both darker beige colored are very bossy and usually get their way. Surprise, the whitest one is very independent, but doesn't like to be pushed around. Clarity, the other white one is very soft and gentle as is Satin the other dark beige colored one. They tend to stick together by color, with the 2 whiter ones together and the 3 beige puppies being together.

All 5 puppies are now reacting to my voice when I come and talk to Connie, probably because I usually make Connie lay down and have them suckle on her, so they have associated my voice with eating! They all like to be held and will relax as I whisper into their ear area.

Surprise, Clarity and Satin do not mind being turned over, however Charger and Feisty make a big deal about being rolled on their backs! Feisty is also the most vocal and demanding.