Havanese Haven

Time to Start Taking Temperatures

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Taking Maxi’s temperature will help me know within 24 hours when she is actually going to whelp her little Havanese puppies.  She is due Saturday so I began Monday. I take her temps in the morning and the evening when she has rested a while…which is pretty much all the time right now!

If she gets any bigger she’ll be dragging on the floor!

Her temps are hovering between 100.0 and 100.8 degrees Fahrenheit. A dog’s normal temp is 101.5 but the hormones prevalent in a pregnant bitch will lower her temp to closer to 100.0 during her last trimester.

Maxi chilling this morning while the others play around her!
You can’t really tell from this photo but Maxi is as big as a doghouse!

With a little luck we will catch the dramatic surge to over 101.0 F which happens 12 hours before the drop to the 98.0 F area. When her temp drops I will know the puppies should arrive in the next 24 hours!!

So, we actually have about a 36 hour heads up on when the pups are likely to be born, which is very helpful.

This is Maxi’s private apartment! I think she likes it. The box on the left is where she’ll whelp her pups.

Some Havanese Puppy Updates

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From time to time I’m fortunate enough to get photos of my fur babies. Here are just a few along with notes from their happy owners!

Dear Jacqui

We thought you would be interested in Sammy’s progression over the last couple of weeks.
He has quickly adjusted to our house and has himself quite comfortable.
Sadie our Wheaton is reluctant to play and tries to ignore him as much as possible.
Sammy goes for walks with Sadie and has already become familiar with the street.
He went to the vet and weighed in a little over 4 lbs and is in good health and spirit.
Sammy, iS quite smart and has at times surprised us with his knowledge.
He is certainly teething and is nipping at everything.
We hope all is well with you.

Jim and Judi

There’s just no getting a non-blurry photo of Sammy. He’s a wild one!

Hi 

We are back in Vermont and Lily is terrific. She is loosing her baby teeth for which I am most thankful and she is house broken and comes most of the time and sits consistently. She is of course brilliant.  I have a great shampoo that needs no cream rinse or detangler and is sugar based as opposed to detergent/soap based. She gets a weekly bath. I have not had her trimmed and not sure anyone around here has even seen a havanese much less trimmed one. Would appreciate a good book on grooming a havanese if you can suggest one.

Not sure if I wrote previously but Lily had a spot on the inside of a front leg that the vet thought might be a allergic reaction; but hindsight would say it may have been the halter breast piece rubbing on her. The vet did suggest that since her mother had a chicken allergy I should avoid chicken and stick with the food you had started the puppies on. Evidently chicken is one of the things that many dogs react to and so much of the food has chicken in it.

I have some pictures of Lily that are on my iPhone so will send them separate from this email. Hoe all of her litter mates are doing well and that the new litter also. Lily has certainly proved the puppy psychological profile wrong. She is wild about strangers and goes up to anyone. Very confident and outgoing. I can only guess that she was having a bad day when the testing was done.  Again Lily is doing very well and we are both so happy with her. Susan

I’m afraid Lily is getting terribly spoiled!

Jacqui,

We are most definitely enjoying the 20+  inches of snow! 

Please feel free to share my email . . I love talking about my girls to anyone who will listen.

Here are some pics that I had on my ipad…sorry about the first email I sent it by mistake while trying to upload the photos! 

Fondly,  Wendy

This family loved Breezy so much they got Chloe from us a year later! They are best buddies!

Hi Jacquie

We are crazy about this dog.  You did GOOD, he is loved by everyone who meets him.  Today he got his summer cut — Mr FredD Spiderman!  He is almost two and such a riot.

Thanks again.  Enjoy the summer.

Sue

These three are FredD. Don’t you just love his puppy cut in the middle photo?

Hi, Jackie.

Hope you are doing well. Everything here is going great!

Here is a picture of Nattie at 16 weeks. She got her final set of shots yesterday and weighed 7.7 pounds! She’s happy as can be and just so much fun to have around! As the vet says, “she got the happy gene!” We take her for walks in Old Town Alexandria and she loves everybody and everyone loves her. Housebreaking is going really well. She’s very smart and has it pretty much figured out. We have been training her on our own and it’s amazing how fast she learns. We also enrolled her in “Puppy Head Start” with a trainer and she’s an A student. We just love her!

The vet asked me to ask you a couple of questions — do you know if anyone in her line is allergic to Lepto? Since we have a weekend place that is on a river, the vet is concerned about waterborne illnesses and wants us to consider the Lepto vaccine. She says that some dogs have shown an allergic reaction and suggested I ask you. The other question is at what age have your female puppies gone into heat? She says it’s generally at 6 months but was wondering what your experience has been with Nattie’s line.

Thanks,
Darlene

This is Nattie!

 In answer to some of Wendy’s questions, Lepto is a virus to be taken quite seriously. It is spread through the urine of animals like raccoons, rats, deer, etc and can be picked up by your dog if he walks where these creatures frequent. Unfortunately, the older vaccines can pose risks to toy breeds. The good news there are newer vaccines on the market.

As for going into heat, it is different with every puppy but generally between 6 and 9 months of age.

Puppies Are On Their Way!

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We had a successful breeding between Maxi and Dino this past weekend. This will be their second litter together and the first litter was wonderful. All black and white parti and as sweet as can be. You can see photos of their puppies in my January postings.

If you are curious, here is Maxi’s health certification: http://www.offa.org/results.html?all=carneys+maximum+return

And Dino’s is here: http://www.offa.org/results.html?all=+%09TR98721403

Puppies are due July 12. Most are spoken for but we may have one or two extras!

Dino as a puppy

Handsome Dino

Dino’s big win…now he’s a grand champion!

Maxi loves the snow

Big win for Maxi

Maxi (in front) with her fellow fur-kids

First Vet Visit

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Marli’s puppies had their vet exams today and all got and A+!

All of them are very close in size with Delilah weighing 2.4 pounds and both Daffy and Dillon weighing 2.2 pounds. Since they are almost 8 weeks old we can kind of predict their adult weights to within about a 15% degree of accuracy. The norm is to double and then double again their 8 week old weights. So that would make Delilah about 9-10 pounds; and, Daffy and Dillon about 8-9 pounds as adults. I will be curious to know how this pans out. Marli weighs 8 pounds and Ruger (the sire) weighs about 10 pounds. Most males are larger than the females. Basically, no real

surprises here.

I am posting photos of the puppies as of today. They are turning out to be a very handsome group. Because there is a slight chance Dillon is a satin-coated Havanese, I have sent blood work into a DNA lab verify whether she is or whether she just has a very flat, silky coat that is slow to develop.

Potter, our 4 month old, with Dillon

Daffy, short for Daffodil, has a sweet smile.

Dillon, with Potter, searching the bushes for lizards.
Delilah on a mission
Here’s Dillon again

Little Dillon has wonderful coloring.

Mother Marli on the hunt for the wild and mysterious anoles (lizards)

Potter, Zola (now Oreo), and Daffy not quite ready to share the toy!

This is Zola (now Oreo) who is going to her forever hom

Delilay (left), Dillon (middle) and Oreo

The Results Are In!

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My friend Linda assisted me in assessing the temperaments/ personalities of Marli’s puppies and they are closer in most respects than I thought. All three have socialized nicely. It helps to have them exposed to lots of dogs at various ages as well as lots of different people and children.

Dillon went first. Over the past several weeks she has gone from being the “leader of the pack” to one that kind of held back and now to a wonderfully adjusted, yet lower keyed, than the other two.

She scored three 2’s, three 3’s and a 4 on the sound sensitivity. In other words, she is a confident and outgoing puppy that will respond well to human companionship but might require a more consistent hand in training.

Delilah was next. She scored four 3’s and three 4’s, making her slightly more social but not enough to make much of a difference. She also has displayed a more outgoing character than Dillon, but again, not anything close to what I would call wild.

Daffodil was kind of all over the map, scoring two 3’s, two 4’s, a 2 for Following, a 6 for Dominance, and a 1 for Sight Sensitivity. Of the three she is definitely the most energetic and outgoing. So, while she will make a fine pet she might not be the snuggle bug some are looking for.

So, none of the pups display overly excited behaviors. They play well and seem to take turns being “boss.”

If you’d like to read more about the Volhard Test, go to the February 19, 2014 posts.

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