Black & Yellow litter born October 16, 2015

Note:  This is a dual-sired Litter

I originally posted this breeding with only Albert and Addie as parents, not even sure we'd get puppies.  But, for 8 years, I have been devastated that my beloved Elmer did not have viable semen.  I love this dog, and easily put 4 majors on him before I relocated to Virginia ... without resorting to any pro handlers.  He only needs one single point to finish his AKC championship.  Instead of just using Albert on Addie, I decided at the last minute to add Elmer to the mix, hoping that I may get a puppy from him to keep for myself.  His semen was very concentrated with 95% motility, but only 17% normal sperm.  We inseminated Elmer's semen first, then waited about 15 minutes before inseminating Albert ... giving Elmer's sperm a head start.  There are a lot of extra expenses and processes involved with doing and registering a dual-sired litter with the AKC.  All three parents and all the puppies need to be DNA profiled to determine parentage, which is expensive and time-consuming.  Registration fees are escalated too.  I hope all this will be worth the cost and effort..

Albert is a beautiful dog, powerful and athletic.  He is a Study son, out of a Lacey & Tad daughter.  Although a slow maturing bloodline, Albert has won most of his 12-18 month specialty/supported entry classes (major shows) and, although I haven't been showing in recent years, he is AKC champion pointed..  He is well balanced with a strong topline, good angles, plenty of bone and moves flawlessly.  He has developed a beautiful masculine headpiece and has a wonderful temperament and very strong retrieving instincts.  Even as a little puppy, Albert showed extraordinary intelligence ... thus his name.

Addie is a very gentle soul and almost overly conscientious in the house not to get in the way or do anything wrong.  She's extremely obedient and patient and loving.  But, when it's time to play/work, she has one of the strongest retrieving instincts, and more endurance, than I've ever seen I think.  Addie is very athletic, moves beautifully, would have hunt titles actually if I'd tried.  She has beautiful pigment and nice golden tones to her coat, and lovely expression; nice angles, fabulous tailset and tail.  Both Albert and Addie take flying leaps into my pool to retrieve bumpers and balls.

I expect possible show prospects, definitely nice companion dogs and dogs with high intelligence and strong hunting and working ability.  Inquiries are welcome.

UPDATE

Addie  surprised me and threw my vet and I into semi-panic mode when she delivered a dead puppy on October 15, 4 days early.  I was not fully prepared and had to scramble to get everything ready, then glued myself to the whelping box for 7 more hours.  Nothing was happening, like she was in uterine inertia.  Finally I took her to an emergency hospital in Richmond; they found 4 good heartbeats with ultrasound and at least 6 puppies on x-ray.  They consulted with my repro vet and agreed it was too early to do a c-section, as the puppies could be too premature to survive.  I took Addie home, cared for my other dogs, then back to Richmond where my repro vet planned to monitor fetal heart rates all day.  We were hoping we could go another 24 hours but the heart rates started dropping around noon, so we had to take the puppies.  They got 3 more dead puppies and 4 live ones.  It is very sad when we lose puppies but, under the circumstances, I am happy to have at least 4 live puppies.

Addie is doing fine and is a great mama.  We have 2 black boys, 1 yellow girl, and 1 tiny black girl.  I have been tube feeding the tiny 8-ounce female every 3 hours round the clock.  For the first 4 days, I just kept her alive, weighing in at 7.8 to 8.0 ounces.  On day 5, we had a weight gain, and she had hair on her ears that had been lacking.  She now (at 1 week) is up to 12.4 ounces, so appears to be out of the woods!  The other three puppies were pretty normal size and fully developed.

I have collected DNA samples on Addie and Elmer (Albert was already profiled), and all 4 of the puppies, and submitted to the AKC.  Now, it's a matter of waiting, as it can take 6-8 weeks to get results.  I will not be able to make my own decision regarding keeping a puppy until I get the DNA results back, so everyone will have to be patient if they have a deposit on this litter.  ALL the babies are beautiful!

SECOND UPDATE

With a very heavy heart, I tell you that we have lost the little Green Girl.  Starting out at only 7.8 to 8.0 ounces the first 4 days, I had her up to 13.4 ounces by 10 days.  I had just stopped the tube feeding and transitioned to a bottle since she was doing so well.  Then went in to bottle feed her again and found her dead.  Total shock and great sadness have consumed me ever since.  I did all I could for her, and she knew that she had love, comfort and care in her short time on earth.  I guess, as my repro vet warned me, I shouldn't be surprised if she doesn't make it.  As tiny as she was, there likely was some congenital defect, or something not developed well enough.  As she grew, it put more demand on her system, and she just couldn't keep up.  This little angel is now full or health and vigor, joined with her grandparents and other relatives, and her other littermates that did not make it.

The AKC is on my blacklist.  After calling them to discuss using my own DNA swabs for the puppies (rather than wait for the AKC kits to arrive), making sure I provided everything they needed in paperwork, they called to tell me that it would really cost $95 per sample rather than the $50 quoted, just because I used my Q-tip type DNA swabs instead of their kits!  Twice the cost is crazy.  So I had to order the AKC kits and used their swabs for the 3 surviving puppies, setting me back about 2 1/2 weeks.  But, I did authorize them to process the sample I had sent in for Green Girl, at a cost of $95.  I just have to know if she was an Elmer daughter or not.  Due to this delay, puppies may not be able to leave at 8 weeks.

THIRD UPDATE

The DNA results show that all the survivor puppies are Albert's.  Although Albert is a very nice boy, and has produced outstanding, very smart, versatile puppies, I was hoping to get something from Elmer to carry on his bloodline.