We stopped in at the Color Country Animal Hospital today.
The LunaBot (2015 Bo x Mika Purple Girl JH NAVHDA NA 112) would like to announce that she will be taking this summer โoffโ from bird dog camp to take a crack at motherhood. ๐
Luna, about halfway through her pregnancy in Idaho Springs, Colorado.
We expect to have a few field trial fanatics out of this litter. Those not graded out as field trial prospects will be placed into hunting and companion homes. Also, this is the first home-bred Barrett litter expected in TWO YEARS.!!!!!!!!! To say weโre stoked would be an understatement. Cheers!!!
P.S. The technology may be outdated, but it still works, and the vet bill for todayโs office visit and ultrasound was a whopping $51.73. #weloveutah
More about Luna:
Luna is the product of a very special breeding.
The Weimaraner breed as a whole has backslid in the last 50 years. Our dogs are nowhere nearly as competitive as some of the others (Pointers, Shorthairs, Setters, etc.) The majority of Weims today can’t hunt or run worth a lick, despite the breed being developed for that very purpose. We have a long way to go to fix it, and the gene pool is small.
Despite best breeding practices (breeding the best male to the best female), it’s impossible to tell at eight weeks whether or not a particular puppy has the goods to move the breed forward. So in the litter that Luna was born, we KEPT THE WHOLE LITTER. ๐ At eight weeks of age, they were farmed out to friends for further evaluation, and one by one, pups washed out of the program and were placed as companion dogs.
Every time we had an eval, Luna “bought herself another day.” That became a running joke. I’d tell Luna, “if you don’t run big today, I’m going to place you.” “If you don’t find that bird, I’m going to place you.” “If you don’t swim, I’m going to place you.”
Fortunately for Luna, every time I took her out, she made it to another day. Another day became another week. Another week became another month. Almost three years later, she’s still here. I don’t know what it is about that girl, but I love her. And at this point, she’s 100% mine, and staying with me forever. You’d have to pry her out of my cold, dead hands.
Unfortunately, we’re at a place in our breeding program right now where if we’re breeding for talent, we’re NOT breeding for “looks.”Ask any “show breeder” to evaluate Luna from a looks standpoint, and they’ll all tell you, SHE’S UGLY. Her coat’s too wiry, her nails are too dark, her hears are too short, she doesn’t have that “regal” look about her. I know that, and we’ll fix it down the road in a couple of generations, but right now my obligation for Luna‘s pedigree is to produce better field trial and huntin’ dawgs.
That said, not every puppy will make it as a field trial dog; we certainly expect that some of the kids will test out to be “companion dogs,” and therefore will be available to companion/pet homes.
On the chance that you might want to consider a puppy out of a different litter, or from a different pedigree, I do have a couple of breedings planned for later this year; puppies will go home in November and December. Please shoot me a message at trailingfriday@gmail.com if you might be interested in learning more. Cheers!
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