In collaboration with Rugerheim Kennels in Las Cruces, New Mexico, Barrett Weimaraners is pleased to announce an upcoming litter with King and Luna.
The purpose of this breeding is to preserve a moderately-sized Weimaraner with exceptional hunting ability.
Luna (my keeper from the 2015 Bo x Mika litter) is on the smaller end of the breed standard. From a hunting perspective, Luna is a dark colored medium range gun dog with good ground speed, an excellent nose, and reliable retrieve. Luna is also a natural water dog and will happily swim anywhere she’s sent. At home, Luna is an easy keeper. She’s not much of a barker, quiet in her crate, and gets along with everyone in the pack. Luna is also happy to provide pawtographs to anyone who wants them; After being hired by Hollywood bigwigs to appear in a television miniseries with Cuba Gooding Jr., Luna now thinks she’s hot stuff. LOL. Luna’s litter will be bred for hunting ability.
King is a serious hunting dog who currently lives with Terry Chandler of Rugerheim Kennels in Las Cruces, New Mexico. King is currently at Summer Camp in training to be steadied over game birds. He will make an appearance this Autumn in Ardmore, Oklahoma at the National Field Trial if he earns a qualifying placement later this year.
Health clearances for Luna: Hips: OFA EXCELLENT (WE-12721E29F-VPI), Elbows: OFA NORMAL (WE-EL2035F29-VPI)
Health clearances for King: Hips: OFA Prelim Good (Final OFA has not been completed due to COVID)
Puppies arrived on the afternoon of August 6th
Below is a micro-blog of the King x Luna litter:
Thursday, August 6th. Day 0. Luna’s puppies arrived between middle of the afternoon and early evening. The party started while I was at work, so husband Barry delivered the first half of the litter, and I delivered the last half. Total count: 5 girls and 3 boys. We’ll be sending an announcement to prospective puppy owners sometime over the weekend.
Friday, August 7th. Day 1. Barry and I took turns staying up all night with the puppies to make sure they got a good start (nursed well, didn’t get rolled on, steadily gained weight, etc.) Because some of them were so small, we supplemented them with extra milk to make sure they had all the nutrients they needed. At the 24-hour, everyone had gained weight and started to fill out.
Saturday, August 8th. Day 2. Today is Luna’s fifth birthday! We celebrated the day with extra breakfast and a slice of bacon. Unfortunately, somewhere between dinner and the post-dinner check-in, we lost the little green collar girl. She was very small and got stuck under Luna when she repositioned herself and by the time I had discovered where she was and started a few rounds of puppy CPR, it was too late. Once I realized there was no saving her, I offered her back to Luna and let her lick her for a few moments to say goodbye. It’s a hard reminder that breeding isn’t always rainbows and unicorns; but we accept those risks anyway because there are other moment that make it all worth it. RIP little puppy; your brothers and sisters will carry the torch for you.
Sunday, August 9th. Day 3. By now, Luna’s colostrum has turned into milk, and all puppies are reaping the benefits. We’re pleased that as of this evening, everyone has gone from being slightly thin to good in body condition!!! Puppies are robust, active, and strong. And they’ve all gained a substantial amount of weight since they were born three days ago. Luna continues to be a great mom, constantly staying in the whelping box with her babies, only leaving to drink, eat or potty. She’s also doing a great job cleaning up after them; the puppies are spotless.
Tuesday, August 11th. Day 5. Yellow Girl ate so much lunch today she looks like a little walrus. LOL. Everyone continues to do well. Tails and dewclaws have been done and no one seems to have suffered any ill effects from the procedure. Not much else to report; quiet puppies are happy puppies. Luna’s eating well and nursing well.
Thursday, August 13th. Day 7. We’ve made it through the first week!!!! And everyone continues to do well. Since neonatal puppies can’t see or hear, it’s really important for us to sit in the box with them a few times a day to touch them, hold them, and pet them. We do this to desensitize puppies to being held because research shows that doing this stimulates a gene that encourages them to be more relaxed in response to stress. A year from now when your dog is sitting under the table at Starbucks, and a big hairy dog walks by growling at him, simply petting your dog will help him keep his cool.
Friday, August 14th. Day 8. What a diference a week makes! The puppies have all responded really well to early neurological stimulation; we’ll keep this going until they’re about 17 days old. Usually, by about a week in, the mammas are looking to spend more time out of the box. Not Luna; if she’s not eating, drinking, or pottying, she insists on being in the whelping box with her kiddos. Thank you Luna for being such a great mom!!!
Monday, August 17th. Day 11. A few times a year, we get inquiries from well-meaning folks who want to know if we could please leave their puppy’s tail and dewclaws intact. Some feel so strongly about this subject that they’ve offered to pre-pay for their puppy. 
We’ve declined every single one of those requests. 
Here’s the thing:
Decades upon decades of really hard work by a lot of really passionate people have gone into developing and then preserving the Weimaraner as we know it today. Our roles as modern breeders is simply to carry the torch.
If you close your eyes and have someone read for you the current (American) Weimaraner breed standard, a very clear picture will form in your head. Primarily, it will be of a medium-sized gray dog with fine aristocratic features. His coat will be short, smooth and sleek. In his silhouette you’ll see a moderately long neck, well developed chest, straight strong back, firmly held abdomen, well-angulated stifles, and finally:
A docked tail. 
To put it plainly, the docked tail is a big part of our breed’s type, and to change that signature silhouette, to un-do all that work, now, just seems a little… rogue. 
Wednesday, August 19th. Day 13. We have peepers! Pink Girl is officially the first one to open her bright blue eyes. This also marks an important milestone; the transition from the “neonatal period” to the “transitional period” of development. Once everyone’s eyes are open (probably in the next day or two), we’ll start introducing toys that “feel” different and interesting, like soft crackle plush toys and stuffies with squeakers. We’ll stay in this period until we know puppies can hear.
Days 14 through 51. A big thank you to Beth of Sporting Dogs B&B for raising the King x Luna puppies for us between days 14 and 51 so we could focus on the Gracie and Stella litters. It takes a village! Below are some photos of the puppies once they were older and back with us.
Blue Girl on birds
Red Girl in the backyard
White Boy in the backyard
Below are additional photos of Luna and King:
Luna was Purple Girl out of the 2015 Bo x Mika litter.
Luna at about three weeks of age.
At about four weeks of age, I had Luna with me on the sofa watching Hope Floats. 🙂
This is me with baby Luna around February 2017 at a field trial. She was about six months old in this photo.
Luna out training to be a huntin’ dawg in California City with Carlos DeTevis.
Another photo out on the training grounds.
Baby Luna at home.
Every now and then, Barry and I would take one of our dogs with us to dinner in town. This is at a local Italian restaurant. Luna is always well-behaved when we take her out and about.
Luna’s first litter arrived in Summer 2018. This was the first litter we raised in our Cedar City, Utah house.
King doesn’t live with me, so all the photos I have of him are what I could scrounge from his handler, Terry:
This is King on point (wild pheasant) in eastern Colorado in June 2020.
King – Second Place in Open Puppy (handled by Terry Chandler and scouted by Curt Cress) at the Desert GSPC Field Trial in Parks Arizona – May 2019.
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