Kensington Tibetan Terriers

7 May 2020

First minutes of life, out of the sac. Look at that head! Yogi x Annabel. Nee Bianca and now Susie. 18 March 2019.

Unlike my mentor Nina Wagner, never did I ever think that we’d use C-section as a tool in my breeding program.  But when you get a singleton puppy?  The puppy doesn’t secrete enough of the hormone that stimulates first stage labor and so, the procedure is very often used to get the puppy out safely and protect the life of the mum.  If you wait too long?  The puppy can begin to deteriorate and then, you have a dead puppy and a sick mummy dog.  Since it’s OBVIOUS that I wouldn’t ever want such an experience?  We had our first C-sections in March 2019, with singletons in Koko and Annabel, the ‘traumatized TT’ (if you’ve been following her posts on FB).  Annabel is Billie and Whittaker’s littermate, out of Michael x Coppi.  Those C-sections in March 2019 were my introduction to the world of repro surgery and every one has been a fine experience.  Until Ziva’s C-section on Cinco de Mayo, 2020.  Successful, yes.  Took a year off my life?  Maybe two.

Day One: 6 May 2020. Born on Cinco de Mayo, they are Diego, No Way Jose, Poncho, Luisa, Fiesta and ???

And it is now behind us, Tuesday’s C-section that brought six healthy and beautifully formed puppies into the world.  Thank you, Dr. Kelleher of Broadview Animal Hospital in Rochester, NH.  We had to go this route with my New Hampshire repro practice, as my Vermont repro practice wasn’t offering full repro services, especially surprise C-sections, and Ziva came early.  And of course, now?  They’ve just announced that they will be resuming full repro services, come Monday, 11 May 2020.  Just my luck!  Missed out by one week!

Lady Izabela played a pivotal role with the arrival of Kensington’s latest litter.  Not only did she care for Ziva and her babies during the three hour ride home from Broadview?  She cooked & fed me, managed the other four doggie ladies in the house and brought us flowers.  Izabela helped me manage ‘re-entry’ and covered for me, while I showered and napped on Wednesday morning.  I’m operating on three hours sleep last night, two hours sleep on Tuesday night and maybe three hours sleep on Monday night, when Lady Ziva experienced her most uncomfortable moments.  With so little sleep, I take lots of notes, knowing that surely!  I won’t remember much about these early days in the new puppies’ lives.

Izabela, our lovely Lady in White in Stowe with Billie, her girl puppy Campari and the lovely Piper, half sister to Billie (both out of Michael). October 2019.

The babies have gorgeous chests and I think they’ll all mature as charcoal or silver, just like their mum and dad.  Questa has now been ‘proven’, as we say, and that is important for his career as a fine stud dog.  My friend Earl Miller is using him this week with Dude’s mum, Bronte.  Questa’s in Kentucky with Yvette (Beckham x Ziva) and our handler Rebecca Bradley, while she shelters in place with her mum.  And Becky did all of the driving to and from the repro vet for Questa’s collection and shipment of his freshly collected and chilled semen.  Fingers crossed for a beautiful litter out of Questa x Bronte, come July 2020.

So, what else do I have to report?  I believe that these puppies are all spoken for – but it might be that we have a male available, as many of our peeps live in other parts of the country and while Mr. Virginia is excited to move forward and can drive to pick up his family’s new baby, it’s not clear that everyone else will be able to.  If we do have a male puppy available, I will let you folks know with a blog post, so that we can keep his availability reasonably private.

Today is Day Two and we have named three of the puppies.  We have Diego, No Way Jose and Poncho.  Poncho is fun to say and will be easy for the puppies to recognize, with its hard consonant and long vowel.  I’ve been thinking Lucia and Fiesta, for the females, and that leaves one more name needed for a boy pup.  In time, it will all become clear!

Dan, as cowboy, and Annette, as cowgirl. Halloween in Stowe, 2013.

So, to the day!  Everyone’s quiet here and that means that they’re all comfortable and well fed.  Campari’s on a week long play date with her friend, Miss Paige, and the lovely Lady Annette will be coming up for the weekend to help, I do believe, and staying over at Birch Hill with her man, Dan.  So great to be part of a community that helps me to breed and raise some of the most wonderful Tibetan Terriers on the planet.  I absolutely could not do what I do, without the love, support and care that my friends provide to me and my pack of thieves.  Thank you, all.  Let’s do another ZOOM call soon and I can introduce the new puppies to you all, personally.

15 April 2020

How this girl stays bizzy. Obviously, this linen closet indicates WAY too much time spent in the laundry!

So, today may as well be Sunday, after yesterday’s ‘Sunday’, and before tomorrow’s ‘Sunday’ . . .

I’ve been cooking, washing & ironing bed linens, grooming dogs, making doggie treats and cleaning my house, with not much else to do.  Next on the agenda is to vacuum the carpeted stairs to the second floor and maybe even Spot Bot them.  And last night?  I went to bed with a blank head.  It was the weirdest thing but as I was drifting off to sleep, I lost track of the thought I had in my head and there was nothing left in its place.  I had nothing in mind.  I don’t know that I can remember a time when I had nothing in my head, just before dozing off.  We all yearn for a more complex lifestyle and for things to ‘get back to normal’.  I realized that my next credit card bill is going to be considerably lower than usual, as there’s been no dining out, nevermind impulse buying.  I’m following orders and ‘staying put’.

Veronika with Kristof (on the far left) and his littermates.

Those with the responsibility to do so have begun strategizing on how to get the show back on the proverbial road and how to slowly open things back up.  I know that they’re soon to do it in Vienna, Austria and that is especially exciting for me – you want to know why?  Because my friend and fellow TT breeder Veronika Kucerkova bred a sable male TT for me who was born in December 2019 and is now happily playing with his littermates outdoors in Slovakia, as we all wait for international air travel to eventually open back up.  Once that happens, we’ll be able to resume planning how to bring our new boy Kristof to Montreal and then, from Montreal to Stowe to join our pack of ladies.

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

It is ideal to have a stud dog in residence and that is how I started my breeding program.  Kensington’s foundation stud was CH Shalimar’s James of Kensington.  He sired his first litter in 2009; born on 19 March 2009.  GRCH Kensington’s Oliver Twist was my pick out of that first litter and he went on to become Kensington’s first Grand Champion.  Since then?  We’ve bred a bunch of Champions, five Grand Champions, two Bronze Champions and GRCHB Kesnginton’s Questa o Quella? is five points shy of achieving our first Silver Grand Championship title.  All very exciting but not helpful, if you don’t have a boy in the house when the girls come into season.

So, I chase boys around New England; something that would thoroughly embarrass my mother, if she were still alive.  But they are boy doggies – not humans – and I think that would embarrass her more!  As I’ve just about had it with ‘the chase’ (and the driving), I bred Questa to be our in house stud dog but he’s so gorgeous and successful out on the Conformation circuit, that he spends more time with his handler Rebecca Bradley than he does at home with me and the girls.

Kristof, as a very young puppy. Great chest, lovely movement and strong shoulders.

Having Kristof in the house will accomplish the goal of having a resident stud dog and as an Erbosedition boy?  His mostly unrelated pedigree will allow me to use him with all of the Kensington girls and then, breed whoever I keep in the future to the fabulous GRCHS Questa in order to maintain genetic diversity in the Kensington line and take advantage of Questa’s gorgeous structure and temperament.  Veronika’s Tibetans are similar in ‘style’ to mine and that means that I shouldn’t have to manage too many ‘surprises’ out of the future Erbosedition x Kensington breedings.  It sounds like a terrific plan to me and so, we are moving forward.

Who would have guessed that Alpha wanted my Christmas peppermint bark? ;>) 16 December 2018.

That said?  I now fully believe that the Questa x Ziva natural breeding on March 9th took, as Ziva’s belly is expanding nicely.  We await Piccolo coming into season and hers will be our second litter of puppies to release this summer.

Please know that all of our 2020 puppies already have forever homes and we don’t expect to have any puppies available to new applicants until 2021.  It takes time to develop a breeding program and also, an incredible amount of time to plan and raise a litter.  Literally, it starts with a seven or eight month cycle – then, the breeding – then, nine weeks for gestation – then, nine to ten weeks for socialization of the puppies and then?  Your new life with your new puppy will begin.  Even if I could speed things up, I wouldn’t be able to do it my way, with more than three or four litters annually – and that’s why Kensington peeps choose to wait.

I have scheduled Ziva’s XRAY for Wednesday, May 6th, down at Broadview Animal Hospital in Rochester, NH to count puppy skeletons.  This is going to be a very long three weeks!  She’s eating like a horse and stole raw beef off of the counter, yesterday.  Chunks of raw beef were air drying, before freezing, slicing and drying them in the AGA for special beef treats.  Well, Lady Ziva stretched tall on her hind legs and got at least four chunks into her mouth and down the hatch they went!  Pregnant girls often get into things and I’ve lost chicken sandwiches, raw salmon filets and other edibles off of the kitchen counter in the past.  You’d think that I’d learn!  But, non – apparently, I have yet to learn that lesson.

OMG. I saw this and thought it was hilarious.

Thank you all for checking in on us.  Thank you for sewing & sending masks to me and for your cartoon text messages & letters by  mail.  We remain well & happy and I am grateful.  The stonemason will begin working in the courtyard next week to fix the big holes to China that Campari & Piccolo have been digging.  Campari went down a hole and got stuck under the porch floor last week and I had to remove the snow grate, in order to get her out.  FORTUNATELY, she did not like the experience and I do not think it will happen again with her . . .  but . . .  action needs to be taken and the lovely courtyard pea gravel will soon be replaced by a Vermont quaried slate patio that will be inpenetrable to doggie paws!

WB, caught in a Harry Potter moment with Mojo dancing on the floor and Leopold, in the crook of my arm.

Never a dull moment, up here at Kensington Palace.  Only wish we had a changing of the guard to keep me entertained.  ;>)

We hope that you’re all hanging in there, while safely sheltering in place.  This will soon be behind us and slow & steady is the way to go.  That is also the way that you climb a mountain.  ;>)

May you all stay safe & remain healthy.  Let’s ZOOM again, soon – that last time was fun!  Thank you for your interest in my breeding program and for staying in touch.

Yours truly,

WB.

4 March 2020

Pipes, on the right. Dr. G, on the left. Planning to breed Piper next week.

Once again, it was off to New Hampshire that we drove yesterday.  Piper was a very good girl in her crate in the way back and the lovely Lady Ziva sat next to me in her harness and seat belt in the passenger’s seat.  At 28.4 pounds, my car knew she wasn’t a handbag.  ;>)

Yesterday’s blood draws down at Broadview gave us very important information.  By now, you all should know that I’m a data junkie and simply ADORE my spreadsheets, graphs and charts.  Yesterday’s numbers confirmed that progesterone levels are on the rise, we are pre LH surge (and ovulation) and I have previous charts to study, in order to begin preparing for breedings next week.  People often ask me why I’m willing to drive three hours each way for progesterones.  Well, I’ll give you the straight answer: accuracy and timeliness.

The rise and fall of hormones associated with reproduction in canines.

The Broadview Animal Hospital has four full time repro vets and at least seven full time repro vet techs – a TOSOH machine that delivers results in 20 minutes AND it gets tested and calibrated every two days.  It is accurate below .5ng/ml and above 30ng/ml – so, we’re covered, whether we’re working with fresh, chilled or frozen semen AND whether we’re doing natural, artificial or surgical breedings.  This is very important to me.  I want accurate information and I want it fast.  And I love working with a team of repro vets, any one of whom I trust.  And I get all of that at Broadview – so, it’s worth the three hour drive each way.

BROADVIEW Progesterone comparison chart

With Piper at .45ng/ml of blood, we might need three more blood draws on her to assess her peak fertility.  As I have only one previous chart for a breeding that did NOT take in April 2019, I’ve got less history to study with Piper.  But I can tell you that the love dancing between Koko and Piper has begun and I’ve got behavior to study now, that I didn’t have last year.  Piper has been with us in residence for close to 15 months and she has fully transitioned into the regal queen of our pack.  Leo x Piper is the plan.  Fingers crossed and oranges to Buddha for a litter of vigorous healthy females!

Mark Desrosiers with Ziva, Best of Breed win. 2015

Ziva was at .56ng/ml yesterday and I am guessing that we’ll catch her LH surge on Friday.  I’ve got both girls on the schedule for blood draws at 11am and with our Friday numbers?  I will make a ‘final’ plan.  From where I sit right now?  It is looking like an artificial insemination for Ziva with Questa’s frozen semen down at Truesdale’s, sometime early next week.  And if we’re lucky?  Natural breedings between Leo and Piper in Stowe.

Meanwhile, our weather is now milder and the chickens have started laying for their 2020 season.  We get between one and three eggs daily – well, sometimes we get none.  Gordon has dubbed them the ‘thousand dollar eggs’.  And as with a canine breeding program, the up front cost and effort is very high, with a very slow payback.  We’ve gotten twelve eggs out of my girls, in the last two weeks.  It’s going to take at least 2,000 more eggs to break even.  Hang on – let’s do the math: 5 hens laying 5 eggs daily?  Gonna take two years to break even.  ;>)

Campari in the courtyard garden. Turk’s Cap lilies started blooming today! 8 August 2019.

So, with spring around the corner and Daylight Savings Time coming up this weekend?  It’s almost time to start thinking about the gardens.  We have some lovely daylily beds on the eastern side and raised beds on the southern side of the house for vegetable and herb gardening.  Digging in the dirt is both a favorite puppy activity and my antidote for dealing with dirty puppy linens.  If Mother Nature looks kindly on us and holds the course?  We’ll have puppies, come mid May 2020 and I’ll be planting & sowing seeds before Memorial Day.  Sounds like the timing just might be perfect!

Fingers crossed and oranges to Buddha!  Here’s to healthy litters for Ziva and Lady Pipes and no surprises, along the way.

Thank you for your interest in my breeding program and for the trust & confidence you all place in me.

Woof.

22 February 2020

Isn’t it a curious expression, ‘Free time’?  I wonder what the etymology is of this phrase.  You know what?  I’m going to check . . .

Well, this is very interesting and it explains why ‘leisure’ rhymes with ‘pleasure’, when spoken by an Englishwoman.

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

Apparently, ‘free time’ is time available to one’s self when not working.  It is something you have in your ‘leisure’, and the development of the word ‘leisure’ during the last few centuries is also associated with the development of the word ‘pleasure’; hence, their rhyming pronunciation.

So, there you have it!

I have been enjoying ‘free time’, since our litter of Oskar x Piccolo puppies departed en masse on January 16th, 2020.  And what have I done with that ‘free time’?  I have been to the Post Office several times, caught up on my personal laundry, packed up the aero bed and removed it from the dining room, washed the tile floors in the living and AGA rooms, washed all of the cage banks and prepared them with fresh wee wee pads, washed and sterilized all plush puppy toys, run all of the rubber toys through the dishwasher, dried chicken treats in the AGA, made sweet potato chips on the AGA, replenished the freezer inventory of rare loin lamb chops and blanched green beans, tried a couple of new recipes, given up wine for two weeks . . .  I don’t know that these things sound like ‘leisure’ or ‘pleasure’, as I go back and read the list.  But I can assure you that having a clean fragrance free house and empty laundry room give me great pleasure!

Oskar x Billie’s litter of three. Shot by Kate Carter. November 2018.

Earlier this month and with more of my ‘free time’, I drove down to Pomfret Center, CT to bring Questa home for a couple of weeks.  Our boy turned two years of age on 8 February and needed to have his hips XRAYed and sent in for evaluation/registration by the OFA.  We also need to get him collected/evaluated/frozen for the second time, as a fellow breeder wants to use him later this month and I’d like his pipes to be cleaned and see what he’s shooting, before it’s time to perform for Bronte.

Last week, with more of my ‘free time’ I drove down to the Boston area to visit the grooming operation of one of our forever gals who has a littermate of Piccolo’s and to take care of a couple of errands.

He can sire, but he can’t drive. ;>)

And last week and with more of my ‘free time’, I drove up to the Canadian border for my NEXUS interview.  It has arrived and will allow me TSA Pre-Check/NEXUS expedited boarder crossings, as I prepare to bring Kristof (the Erbosedition puppy from Slovakia) into the US in April 2020 and continue my recreational jaunts over the border to Montreal, with more of my ‘free time’.  ;>)

Snug as a bug in a rug. Leo! Same breeding as Campari = Oskar x Billie. DOB 6 Sept 2018.

Meanwhile, my waiting game continues.  Past experience and cycles indicate that Ziva will next come into season in March, Piper in April and Piccolo, in May.  We’re going to skip Koko’s upcoming cycle, as I like to give the girls a season off periodically – and we’re shooting for lots of sable coated puppies with these next breedings.  Leo is at the top of the list and frozen semen from Oskar will be considered, if logistics with Leo become difficult.  Questa x Ziva is something I’ve wanted for her last breeding, but I don’t know that we’ll be able to swing that.  Questa x Campari will be a 2021 breeding and once Kristoff arrives from Slovakia?  His sable coat color genes will replace Leo and Oskar’s in my breeding program.  We’ll be able to accomplish two things with our Erbosedition boy: a genetic outcross and getting back to coat color diversity, as we had in the beginning of the Kensington breeding program.

Leo, ne Rocky. Seven months old and stunning. 10 April 2019.

I am excited for spring!  It has been wonderful to have been able to take a break and get my house back in order.  Lady Cheryl’s bedroom has been prepped and is ready for her next visit and the laundry hamper is empty, thanks to all of the ‘free time’ I’ve had.

We’re ready for visitors and look forward to breeding & raising our upcoming 2020 litters for the Kensington peeps who’ve been waiting so patiently.  As soon as there’s news to share?  Trust me, I’ll be eager to share it!

Thank you all for the trust and confidence you’ve placed in me.  We very much look forward to sharing future joy with you!

If I didn’t write things down, I’d be lost.

Daily weigh ins are vitally important, so that I find out early, if anyone is having a problem.

Think about it.  The shopping list.  Directions to a destination (before GPS).  The times you administered a medication.  Who’s eating which kibble?

There are 19 dogs in this house right now and that is down two, because Mlle. Campari and GRCHB Questa are both competing in Springfield, Massachusetts under Rebecca Bradley’s professional hands.  Three of the girls here have litters and we hope that dear Piper will come into season in the next three months, get bred and have puppies.  We’ve been hoping that, since she was bred last April and did NOT conceive.  But I have way, way, WAY too much on my plate now to worry about when Piper’s coming into season!

How else can I keep it all straight? The easel pad sheets from Kensington’s September 2018 litters.

You should see the clipboards and easel pads that hang around my house.  And scales – I have three.  And hygrometers and thermometers – there are at least six of those.  My own office gets repurposed, with every litter.  For the first four weeks, the new litter and their mum hang with me in my office off of the kitchen, as I attempt to stay on top of daily weighing, note taking and mummy dog care.  Once the puppies can climb out of the whelping box (and that will be happening within days)?  It’s time for the 2″ height extender that will buy me most of a week’s more time, before we move the puppies down to an Xpen in the AGA room at about five weeks of age.  This year?  That is scheduled to happen, just as Ziva’s puppies begin leaving for their new forever homes.  Thank you, Mother Nature!  A four week gap between litters is just about perfect.  Now, she needs to work on her ratio of males to females.  ;>)

Monsieur Moustache, in the front of the crate. Crate training begins with a crate included in the X-pen setup.

And then we have the oldest litter which will be the first to leave, beginning on December 14th.  At nine weeks of age, Monsieur Moustache will depart for a wonderful new home that’s been grieving the loss of their Golden for some time.  He will move to Richmond, Vermont to live with an athletic couple and their seven year old son.  Mrs. will be home 24/7 for the first week with the new puppy, as they have their own contracting business.  I’ll get to see the puppy occasionally and will always offer him board & room, when requested by his humans.  His first day on Albon was Thursday – boy, THAT was fast!  They just met him on Wednesday and moved quickly with their decision making.  The Albon protocol is important, as we proactively treat for the potential of coccidia by putting each puppy on a ten day course of Albon liquid, timed ten days backward from the departure date.  And Pinot and Preta’s Albon protocols began yesterday.  Kuro starts today, as he’s leaving next weekend, too.  Yvette (formerly Chesty and no laughing  ;>) is staying with me and so, she won’t need it.  And then, depending upon Preto’s departure dates, we’ll add him to the Albon calendar, too; that will be five out of six in that litter.

The big blue balls provide first exposures to unexpected touch and moving obstacles.

Koko’s litter is only four days behind Ziva’s and I’m keeping Eddie, one of the Beckham x Koko puppies and, yes, named for Eddie Redmayne.  That puppy won’t need the Albon (as he’s staying with us) and I now have departure dates for the other two; have figured it out and added their Albon protocols to the calendar.  And the only tricky thing to remember and calculate about the Albon protocols is that the first day is a double dose: .5ml per pound for the first day vs .25ml per pound for the next nine days.

Piccolo’s puppies are too young to have to worry about anything other than the Nemex II dewormer protocol (administered at two, three, four, six, eight and ten weeks), although the two females are going to Dallas by jet plane on January 16 . . .  count back ten days and add those two to the Albon calendar.

My desk, after a big Questa win – like his BOB and Group 2 placings on 6 Dec 2019! ;>) Perrier Jouet rose on my laptop. Panacure, show photos and temperature data in the background.  Cheers!

Understandably, sometimes I just want a break and need to take it down a notch or we celebrate a Questa win!  Where’s the wine?  Only issue there is that with my overnight sleeping interruptions?  I sleep better without the alcohol.  And I remember in the early 2000s, when my dear Italian aunt was still alive and suffering from Alzheimer’s with me as primary caregiver . . .  I’d meet my brother for a two martini lunch at Legal in Chestnut Hill to ‘dumb’ myself down . . .  only to realize that she was exactly where I left her, upon my return.  I drank to make her go away, but it didn’t work!  (Anyone out there who’s done the same?  It’s pretty funny and absolutely pointless, in retrospect.)

So, the training routine continues and morphs a little bit with each passing day.  Puppies are now outside playing in the freshly fallen snow, twice daily.  Car training is in full gear (pun intended).  Lady Bernadette is here daily and becomes more highly valued with every passing day and tomorrow?  Nothing will have changed.  Clean laundry will await folding by early morning – dirty laundry will predictably be waiting my morning arrival down in the AGA room – the Albon’s sitting on a windowsill to keep cool and the ladies will greet me with circular wags of their happy tails – and out they’ll go to bark at the world and announce the beginning of another day.

One day at a time.  Nevermind the wine; where’s the coffee?  ;>)

Girl dogs of different blood lines and different breeds come into season on different cycles.  Lady humans cycle every 28 days or so and ovulate in the middle of their cycles.  Lady Tibetan Terriers cycle every seven to eleven months (in my experience) but most of mine cycle every seven to eight months and ovulate about ten days after their discharge begins.

That’s the simple description of what truly is a complex situation.  Figuring out when to breed the bitch to the sire involves science and a little bit of luck.

Some breeds put out a big pheromone radius and have a similarly obvious discharge.  Tibetan Terriers have neither.  While the pheromones are intoxicating to nearby intact males, the discharge is oftentimes inconsequential and can happen without notice, especially with a Tibetan Terrier puppy under one year old.  All you might see is a lot more licking ‘down there’ and maybe even not terribly much more than normal.  When I get the sense that someone might be coming into season, I spread white cotton sheets around the house to ensure that I capture any discharge and know when to begin counting for a progesterone test.

Georgie Girl and Oliver

Sometimes a natural breeding based solely on when the discharge begins can be done, but progesterone testing gives me the numbers we need, to know when ovulation has occurred.   Early on in my breeding program, I was able to use natural breedings, as my males lived with me.  Now, as my breeding program has grown, several of my stud dogs live in other forever homes.  And because I always err on the side of safety to both bitch and stud, I prefer artificial insemination when the stud lives with another family.  This way, I know that no one will get hurt, as the vet and I are always in total control of the dogs being bred.  But if I know the stud and he’s proven himself naturally?  That is my preference, every time.  It has been my experience that Mother Nature outperforms Mr. Science and my only failed breeding has been with a questionably timed artificial insemination.

Billie Jean on the couch

At this time, we have Oliver just beginning to sniff around Gigi and Billie’s privates.  He’s my barometer.  Soon, we’ll have more excitement and then, it will be time for the boys to be separated from the girls.

Given what I see, my guess is mid-June breedings, with puppies arriving mid-August or so.  Summer will be in Princeton and whelping will be in Stowe.  At this time, we are planning to breed Gigi to Whitaker (or Oskar) and Billie Jean to Oskar (or Connor).  Our last litter was Gigi to Oskar and the puppies were wonderful.  Oskar is a proven Kensington stud dog who has sired two of my previous litters and several of Nina Wagner’s litters.  He is available to proven bitches, with both Nina’s and my approval required.

Oskar, loving springtime on the grass

Mother Nature never ceases to throw curve balls at me and I appreciate being kept ‘in my place’.  It keeps me humble and that is where I want to be.  And plans are made to be broken – but we are going to do our best!

Oskar lives in Burlington, Massachusetts and Whit splits his time between Montreal and Stowe, Vermont.  Logistics need to be taken into consideration, as do everyone’s travel and work plans.  Wish us luck!

Happy Memorial Day!