At long last, we’re planning a litter here at Newcastle. Evie has been bred to Abe, Ch. Weston’s Cry for Freedom. We had one breeding, on November 25, with a half-hour tie; progesterone testing indicated Evie ovulated that morning, so the one breeding should have been all that was necessary. We should know just before Christmas if the breeding took, and then we can start planning for puppies. If it took, Evie has just started her third week of pregnancy (knock wood!) and so far we haven’t noticed any changes (nor, really, would we expect to have). This is the week the embryos implant in the uterus, but that doesn’t typically correlate to any outward signs in the bitch. Morning sickness is a possibility in the third week, but we would be quite surprised if Evie missed a meal!
A little background on this breeding; Evie of course is our Hugo daughter. We’d always planned on having a Hugo son at some point; when we lost Hugo so tragically a couple of years ago, we had to revise our plans, and now are hoping for a Hugo grandson. For Evie’s first breeding, we wanted to stay with the Cameliard lines, both to give us a solid base for moving forward and to see if Evie produced true to expectations. We looked at several dogs, and almost went with one of Hugo’s half-brothers, but in the end we felt that Abe was a better fit for Evie. This is a linebreeding – Evie’s maternal granddam is the littermate to Abe’s dam – for our intents and purposes on Hugo’s sire, Sunny (Ch. Cameliard’s Tribute to Starjax), who appears on three sides of the pedigree and whose littermate sister appears on the fourth side.
Evie is a nice bitch who honestly by all rights should be doing better in the show ring; she’s got the attention span of a gnat, though, which doesn’t do her any favors! (If you’ve ever seen the Happy Cows Finish Line commercial – well, that’s Evie. We love her dearly, but she is easily distracted.) She’s got a long elegant neck, good topline, nice tight feet, balanced angulation, moves like a dream, dark eyes and a pretty expression. She could use a bit more turn-up and width of lower bite (it’s straight, but a bit narrow), more forechest, a bit of smoothness in the neck-to-shoulder transition, and some depth of muzzle. She’s got a fun temperament but is a bit over the top at times (typical of many Boxers we know!). Abe has everything Evie has, as well as a good solid front, bone, depth and width of muzzle, and a solid, moderate temperament; more importantly, he’s passed those traits on to his offspring. (For a long time we considered Abe’s son, Cruise (Ch. Cameliard’s Cruise Control), but as the adage goes, “If you like the son, breed to the sire”, so we did!)
Both Evie and Abe have been Dopplered clear of Aortic Stenosis, and Holtered multiple times. Abe’s Holters have all been well within normal limits; I believe his highest was 12 VPCs in 24 hours. Evie’s first Holter (10/07) showed 116 single VPCs, which is just into a grey area; however the vast majority (99) were within the first few hours of wearing the monitor. After discussion with our cardiologist, based on his review of the reading, his knowledge of her heart from prior exams, and the history of her relatives, it was surmised that most of the abnormal beats were either artifact or caused by the stress of wearing the monitor (we also tried a different hookup method, which may have increased susceptibility to artifact). Evie’s second Holter (10/08) showed only two single VPCs – well within normal limits. We have not had Evie’s hips tested, for a variety of reasons, the main one being we procrastinated and she came into season two months earlier than we expected! Given the history of the line and the lack of any known diagnosis of HD, and the low incidence of HD in Boxers in general, we feel there is a very very low risk that these puppies will develop clinical hip dysplasia. Evie was tested for thyroid function in October 2008 and everything was normal. Evie has been DNA tested as a carrier for DM; Abe’s results are not back yet but we know he is at worst a carrier, because he has produced clear offspring. (Our DM Page explains how we can know this, as well as what the results mean and other information about degenerative myelopathy in Boxers.) The puppies will be tested for DM status before being placed in their new homes.
