Kensington Tibetan Terriers

Our lovely GRCH Piccolo and her five babies. 26 Nov 2019.

The lovely Piccolo has hit her stride and seems to have settled into her maternal routine and is FINALLY back to eating her kibble.  Here she is, comfortably nursing her brood of five in her whelping box.

Ziva’s enjoying playing individually with the October born puppies, whether hers or Koko’s.  We let them out individually to scamper around the perimeter of their Xpens.  It gives them a great opportunity to taunt and tease their littermates, as they test out their newfound freedom.

And Koko’s enjoying outdoor sunshine and the best that the Maple Street kitchen has to offer.  She has learned that patience pays off in the kitchen.  What could be better?

A life without puppy poops on the linens, I’d say!  ;>)

Oh, how Leo loves being the center of attention! With a bunch of 8 year old girls in Newton, MA.

All is well, here at Maple Street.  Thanksgiving is only days away and Piccolo’s puppies will be two weeks old that day.  There are five of them: three males and two females . . .  and they keep Pic and me MORE THAN BIZZY!  I still have the baby monitor on their pen, so that I can hear any nighttime calamity . . .  but they’re all happy and quiet.  We’ve got the temperature stabilized, nursing is happening predictably & every four hours – and everyone’s digging Jazz Piano on Pandora, while yours truly plays in the kitchen.  Life is good.

Meanwhile, we await the second television broadcast with a Kensington Tibetan Terrier up on the big screen – please watch with us on Thanksgiving Day!

Here we are: like mother, like son, thanks to Photoshop!

Questa took Best of Breed down in Oaks, PA on 16 November 2019 at The National Dog Show.  THIS is the dog show that is televised annually at 12pm on Thanksgiving Day.  Watch it on NBC.  They are airing it in every time zone at 12pm.  Tibetan Terriers are in the Non Sporting Group.  We already know that he did not place in the Group – but that’s ok by me.  He’ll be up on the big screen!  Questa is out of a Yogi x Billie breeding and he has a number of brothers and sisters out there including Gryffin and Bodhi.  If you’ve got the time?  Please ‘watch’ with us!

Meanwhile, it’s back to the laundry for me right now.  I am changing pen linens today, so that I can have a couple of hours off on Thanksgiving to WATCH THE DOG SHOW on NBC!  Join me at noon on Thanksgiving Day, as we root for one of Kensington’s finest.

Woof.  ;>)

Young Ben, enjoying our CH Oskar x CH Gigi puppies, Memorial Day weekend in Marblehead, 2016.

I’m REALLY clear that I’m wonderfully fortunate to have an opportunity to live my passion during my retirement by breeding & raising the dogs of my dreams in a place that’s clean and beautiful.  And that is exactly how it looks, from the outside. . .

With or without a litter in the house, I begin my day between 5 and 6am, if not earlier. Usually, it’s the sunlight that wakes me. These days? It’s Piccolo who ‘boofs’ at midnight, again at 3am and by then?  I walk down the hall to the other mums in the house and let them out, too, hoping that between the three of them?  They’ll let me sleep until 6am.

This morning, I got lucky – but it was a tricky day.

Sable Louis in the Puppy Warmer incubator and Oxygen Concentration equipment. Staying warm, as he dries. Newly born!

Last evening, we lost the second sable male and Piccolo & I each had emotional reactions.  I cried and wished the little animal well on his spiritual journey . . .  and Piccolo washed him, so that he’d be clean for his trip.  This morning?  She and I were both despondent.

I was in a bit of a trance walking down to the big doggies to let them out into the snow – but was crystal clear that I needed a triple Nespresso this morning.  Piccolo appeared out of sorts and stuck very close to me, through my morning routine.  She walked with me to the laundry to grab the fresh load and bring it back to the kitchen for folding.  As soon as I put the basket down?  She burrowed into the basket and emerged with the pink monkey.  Piccolo took her monkey dollie back to the whelping room with her puppies.  The poor little dear curled up around the dollie in the corner under my desk, in the same manner as she does with her live puppies, and I couldn’t help but think that it was a substitute for little Ralph.

Rebecca Bradley with GRCH Kensington’s Questa o Quella?. In the ring at Westminster, 11 February 2019.

We got through the day and tomorrow will be another day.  Questa’s in the ring down in Springfield for the first of four days of Conformation competitions.  Ziva and Koko’s puppies are now five weeks old and starting to act like precocious puppies.  Lord, help me!  There are nine of them!  And I spend 15 minutes with each of those puppies every morning, handling them & letting them play individually on the towels that ring the puppy pens.  In this way, they begin to show me their unique puppy personalities.  I make notes and use these notes, as I begin studying each puppy with the forever home lifestyles we have ‘on deck’. 

From yesterday morning to this morning, weight gain was great for three of Piccolo’s puppies but not so great for the other two.  We now have five vigorous and apparently healthy puppies from Oskar x Piccolo.  I think the latter two will have plenty of time on the nipple overnight tonight, as I gave Piccolo some freshly cooked liver from The Frozen Butcher and the B vitamins, iron, minerals & other trace elements will be good for her pretty little head.

We will have a better day tomorrow!

So many thoughts about an opening line for this post – not sure which one to choose.

The lovely Lady Piccolo and her seven babies. Day One: 15 November 2019.

There was the thought that sleeping on the tile floor of my office last night next to Piccolo and her new puppies reminded me of traveling in Europe in the early 80s by Eurailpass and sleeping in some of the MOST uncomfortable positions on night trains.

There was the thought this morning that I was losing my first puppy out of the litter and it was only constipation-inspired lethargy.  All he needed was a fanny irrigation, a bowel movement and a drop of Karo syrup by mouth to get him revved up.

And there was the thought that Miss Piccolo seemed to have found her groove, after having lost it last night – although, you can’t lose something, if you’ve never found it, right?  ;>)

Can you count the skulls in Piccolo’s tummy? Monday, 11 Nov 2019.

Tuesday evening, earlier this week, I thought for sure that the puppies were coming within 24 hours, as Pic went off her food at 4pm and that’s ALWAYS been the sign to date with every one of my girls.  Down in Wyndham, New York, Lady Cheryl hopped into her car – arriving in Stowe before 11pm – and no action.  I slept on the floor of my office with Piccolo in the whelping box, thinking that we’d have action – but it never came.  And the lovely Lady Cheryl went upstairs to her room for a restful night’s sleep.

Wednesday morning?  Piccolo ate a healthy breakfast of poached chicken, mashed sweet potato, Monterey Jack cheese, Helm’s dried liver and Golden Delicious apple.  Shot my expectations to hell and Cheryl & I proceeded to just live through the day.  But Wednesday evening?  I had my doe eyed girl acting like she wasn’t EVER going into labor and so, I decided to bring her to my VT repro clinic and have a progesterone blood draw done to see where she was on the downward progesterone curve that happens before labor.

She came in at 2.5ng/ml and Dr. Cindy Pratt estimated 12-36 hours, before we’d have puppies.  That was at 7:30pm Wednesday evening and all I needed was a number, so that I could manage the household and know whether I had to sleep on the tile floor AGAIN on Wednesday night.

Sable Louis in the Puppy Warmer incubator and Oxygen Concentration equipment. Staying warm, as he dries. Newly born!

Well, I didn’t have to do that and so, Piccolo and I slept on the blow up mattress in the dining room.  She woke me up on Thursday at 4am panting and I knew that ‘all systems were go’.  By 6am?  I got Cheryl out of bed and said, ‘We’re on’.  And by 9am?  We had our first puppy: solid sable Louis, butt first and all 9 1/4 ounces of him.  As in humans, the ‘water breaks’ and it breaks for each puppy.  Solid sable Louis was first – then, solid black Dolce (another male) – then, boldly marked B&W Pierre (another male) – then, Ralph who is sable with bold white markings – then, Chanel who is black with a pearl necklace – then, sable Kate with white markings and finally, Calvin, our black boy with four white paws.

https://youtu.be/UWSaVSkQqd4

Kate’s delivery was the most memorable, as it took 23 minutes for her placenta to emerge after most of her body and during those 23 minutes, she kept going for the nipple to nurse – but couldn’t quite reach it, while her little umbilical cord stretched as much as it could.  That, I’d never seen before and I believe she is a seriously food driven little rascal who is both vigorous and beautiful in structure.

Scampi and puppies – what could possibly be more fun?

Every litter makes me nervous and I maintain that this is a good thing.  These are the words that come out of my mouth – but I think I’m always trying to convince myself of this.  Lady Cheryl was an angel to come and help, as she is experienced in the art of whelping and always brings scampi for dinner.  The girls know her well and love her energy; we are so grateful for her friendship.

Last night was our first night with new puppies in the house and I slept on the tile floor next to Piccolo in the whelping box, yet again.  She’s a first time mum and is learning the ropes, as she goes.  While potty training has been a recent issue, she woke me every 90 minutes last night to pee.  Making milk for the puppies requires that she drink an awful lot of water – so, in addition to fresh water, we feed her a soupy mix and make sure she has ice cubes available, when she needs a break from the warm heating pad.

It is unclear whether we have puppies available from this litter.  If we do, we have only one or two males.  If you are interested in a Kensington puppy, please know that we are planning three breedings for 2020 and expect our 2020 puppies to begin coming available in late Spring.  Applications are required, as are visits and deposits – and puppies are offered in the order of the dated applications and by the wishes and wants of our forever families.

TTCA 2019 National Specialty. Award of Merit for Questa, handled by Rebecca Bradley. Very exciting! May 2019.

Last to mention is the latest Canine Chronicle national standings in our breed.  They were just released TODAY through October 31, 2019 and our boy Questa (GRCHB Kensington’s Questa o Quella?) is now ranked #9 Nationally in our breed against all other TTs competing in AKC Conformation.  We hope to have him finish in the Top 10, having bested his mum Billie who finished #14 in 2016.  All very exciting and we are forever grateful to Rebecca Bradley, Questa’s wonderful handler, for loving him and handling him to the top of his game.  Whoo hoo!

12 November 2019

The lovely GRCH Kensington’s Pic, Pic, Piccolo! Littermate of Penny and Paisley. DOB 24 August 2017. Au naturelle in the snow. Stowe, VT.

And yes, we knew she was pregnant.  But yesterday we learned and saw that our dear GRCH Kensington’s Pic, Pic, Piccolo! is carrying seven very well developed puppies!  Obviously, we won’t know gender or coat color until they’ve arrived, dried and we’ve had a chance to study them – at least the markings will be quite apparent, upon arrival, and those markings will help us tell them apart.  As we bred sable Oskar to charcoal Piccolo, we’re hoping for at least a few sable coated puppies.  Fingers crossed!

Ziva’s puppies are several days more than four weeks old now and have begun their weaning onto a gruel of Royal Canin’s Starter kibble and water.  The proportions of kibble to water are very important at this stage, as the puppies’ digestive systems are not yet totally mature.  We present them with their gruel three times daily, while Lady Ziva continues with her sporadic nursing.  I actually think she prefers nursing at night, when the house is quiet and the lights are low.  Whatever she’s doing has to be more than enough, as her puppies are growing about 4 to 5% in their body weight daily.  Coats are glossy black with small white markings.  Eyes are bright and heads are gorgeous.  I am very pleased with our Beckham x Ziva puppies.

Day Zero: Sunday, 13 October 2019. Lady Ziva and her babies.

Koko’s puppies will be four weeks old tomorrow and so, they’ve recently been introduced to a canned Starter Mousse slurry.  The starter mousse slurry is the first step in the weaning process.  Next comes straight canned starter mousse and finally, the gruel of crushed starter kibble with water.  Koko is a wonderful mum, when it comes to staying with her babies to feed them and keep them warm.  But same as last time?  She’s just not that interested in keeping her babies’ butts clean and so, that job falls to me.  We call it ‘irrigation’ and since puppy stools are pretty loose, it dries like cement.  More than you wanted to know?  Oh, you have no idea how much there is to this process that you don’t want to know!  Irrigation baths are just the beginning.  ;>)

Leo at two months of age. He and Campari could be twins.

Leo was here boarding for five days, during which time we had him successfully collected and his semen evaluated.  He’s shooting live ones, whoo hoo!  At fourteen months, he appears to be mature with all of his parts in the right places and we look forward to using him with Lady Piper, come spring.

Life is pretty good, today.  I slept well and am still on top of the laundry.  We cleaned one of the puppy pens yesterday morning and had a full load for the doggie Bosch.  Being efficient always gives me satisfaction and being able to fit everything in the machine keeps my house smelling neutral.  And my dear friend Lady Cheryl arrives tomorrow to help with Piccolo’s whelping, during which time my current routine will go to hell.

Lady Tracy holding Billie’s three puppies by Oskar, with Leo in the middle!

The heavy wet snow is still falling and the roads are quiet.  The only traffic going by seems to be the snow plows and an occasional commercial vehicle.  I continue to clip puppy toenails but really need Lady Tracy’s help.  I can handle the fronts with my jeweler’s headgear – but it’s tricky for me to do the little rears and having a second pair of hands makes a huge difference.  Lady Tracy raises birds, so she’s well experienced with toenail clipping of tiny creatures.

It takes a village!  And I am grateful to have the village of Stowe, Vermont in which to breed and raise our Kensington Tibetan Terrier puppies.  Thank you, friends!

Next up?  We are watching Piccolo intently and keeping notes that will become part of her litter file.  She’s still eating, although very selectively.  Once she refuses her favorite foods?  I’ll know to expect puppies within 24 hours.  Then, we’ll watch for the ‘doe eyed’ look – you know, the ‘deer in the headlights’ stare.  And soon, the panting.  And then, the contractions.  She is seeming very much like her paternal grandmother Georgie Girl.  Gigi was a terrific natural whelper.  Fingers crossed for puppies during the day!

I must prepare Piccolo’s whelping room today, as I have a hunch we’re going to see puppies within a very few days.  We’re going to use my kitchen office, as that’s where the incubator and oxygen concentrating units are located.  Oranges to Buddha and fingers crossed for vigorous & healthy babies!

Thank you for your support.