Future Breeding

I have a tentative breeding plan for Bryn for 2024, I think I’d like to go ahead with the BC x Borderpap plan. Obviously this would be an ‘agility breeding’, and that’s what I’d like for my next dog. I went ahead and put it out there that I was considering the breeding and got a lot more options than I anticipated – there are a lot of nice BP boys that are available (way more than it seems nice border collies). There are also some pap boys out there if I wanted to go that route, but I’m more leery of that, as they are mostly ‘unproven’, it’s more of a gamble, you can get some VERY small dogs and I know absolutely nothing about pap lines (who as small dogs seem to have a lot more health problems, including horrible teeth). It’s not out of the question, but there are lot of borderpaps out there that I do know about their lines and relatives (as the breeding pool is pretty small!).

The other option was to just get a borderpap from someone else, but they are definitely few and far between, and much harder to get on a list. Besides the fact that I just adore Bryn, and those other dogs … well, who knows? I think Bryn will make fun puppies, but also she’s very solid and easy to live with – I hope if I place the puppies and they DON’T end up doing anything, they should hopefully make good pets. Most people looking for BPs are looking for sports dogs though.

As to why I’m leaning that direction – I have two nice herding dogs, but not a lot of opportunity to herd. I’d like to focus just on agility with this pup, because I have a lot of opportunity for that! I think the borderpap brings more handler focus and food drive, which I think compliments Bryn well. In general, Bryn shares a lot of qualities with BPs, I think the litter will be predictable in shape and personality. With the right sire, these should hopefully be small to medium sized fun agility dogs that like to train, are environmentally solid and easy to live with. Well, except for barking – I expect a lot of barking. But at least barking that I think is more easily controlled than, say, sheltie barking, which they don’t seem to have any control over.

I’ve gotten to talk with a lot of nice people sharing information. The other thing that’s nice about borderpaps is that it’s a SMALL community, the lines that have been being bred are very well known, strengths and weaknesses. There are definitely some BPs that lean way more into the sensitive ‘pap’ side, and have been more of a struggle to train. I’m looking at males that have been easier to train, and also happen to be on the smaller size. That doesn’t mean Bryn won’t end up with larger sized puppies, but especially with something like a 5/8ths BP (more pap than bc), I imagine they won’t end up much larger than her (though one never knows!).

I like the BPs I’ve met because they always seem to be so happy, it’s a quality I enjoy in a dog. They seem to love the act of training and problem solving, with a much higher food drive. They are also less independent than a lot of border collies. Not that the right border collie won’t bring that to the table, but they are much harder to find – and, quite frankly, definitely not with a smaller size. I DO like papillions, which I think is important – though I have found them to much more quirky and sensitive.

As for timing of it all, Bryn seems to go into season every 7 months – I’m expecting her in season late March or April of this year. Which means her next season would be in the Fall, and for 2024 my options would be late Spring breeding for summer puppies, or Fall breeding for winter puppies … and, well, summer is definitely a better time for puppies. So basically looking at a year from now, Bryn will be 3.5 years old, which I think is old enough to have a good idea of who she is and any potential health concerns, but also young enough I’m not worried about her. I have heard that the bitch controls the size of the puppies, but I still feel like if I breed her to a small dog she should have little puppies that are easier on her, that just seems fair.

So basically that gives me a year to plan and get everything ready, which starts with finding the right boy. Right now I have a very strong candidate who is actually a sibling to a BP I have in classes that I adore. He’s had a couple other litters already that have turned out nicely, from lines I know and like and a great personality, temperament and jumping style (and small, under 12 inches). The unknown with him is EOAD, so need to get that tested – fingers crossed! I’m going to consider all the options, but that one definitely would be easy as it’s very ‘known’ qualities about it all (including relatively close to me).

Not sure about AI vs natural breeding, in many ways AI is easier, as the boy is already ‘there’ as opposed to traveling. I’m fortunate we have a fabulous reproductive vet locally, which is helpful. There is also a new emergency vet in Salem that is breeder friendly and knowledgeable, so that helps as well. We already have the dog room/laundry room/dog run set up that I think will work really well for a nursery that expands as the puppies grow. They’ll be able to learn about the dog door and take themselves outside at a certain point, and have both outdoor and indoor safe play areas. I’m guessing Bryn is going to be much more maternal than Bright was, and probably more protective – though she could prove me wrong.

I’ll be able to take time off to raise the litter, or do less teaching, depending. There is a lot more I know about raising puppies since I did it with Bright – and Heidi has done two litters since then as well. I enjoyed the puppy raising process, though I remember being terrified of killing them the entire time. Puppy raising when nothing goes wrong is a lot of fun … it’s just you don’t always get what you order in that regard.

I also feel more comfortable sending puppies out in the world that if they’re returned to me, it will be easier to place them. Once again, borderpaps should make nice pets, and easy to place. A border collie litter can be much trickier in that regard. I’d like to think the BCxBP litter will have less chance of issues like epilepsy, but it certainly could happen. Seems like small dogs have a much smaller incidence of things like HD and OCD though. Bryn was one of 8 puppies, so her maternal line has the potential for larger litters. Once again, I feel really confident I could place a lot of sport mixes if need be. And somehow 8 LITTLE puppies just sounds adorable, while 8 BIG puppies sounds like a nightmare.

Nothing is set in stone, and a lot can change by next year, but after a lot of waffling, this feels right … at the moment. What needs to NOT happen is any tempting litters that might come my way that would be a hell of a lot easier than breeding my own. But I’ll admit I’ve always felt my place is set up really nicely for puppies, seems a shame not to have some. I’m also counting this puppy as ‘bonus’ dog in the household, as small dogs don’t count as real dogs 😉 I do still want to get another Rooster puppy in the future, but that’s a lot more dog and I definitely want to get a herding litter there. I have plenty to keep me busy in the herding department for now, I most definitely don’t need another sheepdog to try to train.

As for the current dogs, going to keep focused on making sure they’re getting the work this year. With just a little bit more focused work, Asher is already feeling more ‘comfortable’ to run, he IS growing up. The jumping … well, who the hell knows. Once again, we just practiced a little before running the league course at Lori’s place, jumping was stuttering and weird – ran it all together and it was pretty normal. He’s trying SO HARD, it was another 7 backside course. Such a good dog, that boy has so much heart – I hope he can continue to improve. In practice we did serpentines and he is actually really good with those. I am feeling mildly more optimistic about the upcoming UKI trial than I was for the last one.

As for Bryn, she also made some improvements, though going more from ‘completely ridiculous flanking’ to ‘ridiculous flanking’ is more the type of improvement she’s making. She got through the league course, but if you send her out, just forget about getting her to come back in. SO MUCH FLANKING. So, yeah, handling from 50 feet away again. She actually DID the serpentine work in class, with much flanking, but she actually came in! One small step at a time. I feel better about our teamwork, but expectations for the UKI trial are ridiculously low.

This course I set up I thought would be a fun one to run, but, oh my, Asher and I just could not get through it. Maybe it’s all the serpentines we’ve been working on, but from 9-10 I could not get him to 10, he’d either come in over the off course #3 or push out to #26 – this should have been totally his thing! Asher did well with that weavepole entrance off the dogwalk (with me behind, of course!). This course was our nemesis:

Bryn actually did better with it than Asher. That’s a relative term, and doesn’t mean she did well with it. She actually got all the pieces … just not together. There was much arguing about not flanking around #21, which should not have been that hard. But she does get points that when she did get 21, I was able to wrap her tightly with a rear cross to 22. Those rights and lefts actually have been helpful, for both dogs. And Bryn did better at 15-16 as well, the benefits of a dog that CAN collect, if she’s not flanking around.

And Navarre and Martine did amazing with this – they are such a cool team! He had some little struggles, like commiting to the backside at 19 and finding the right handling to get his drifty ass from 21-22. He remains super happy with Martine, and I look forward to seeing what they can do at the UKI trial. I have high expectations for Navarre, I have low expectations for Asher – and I have zero expectations for Bryn.

We did get out to herd as Ron was down, I am definitely in a place of limbo with herding right now, no real plans. I’ll try to enter Bryn in the AKC trial at Brigand’s, but I’m not holding my breath. Then maybe a trial at Ian’s this Spring? Trials always seem to turn into disasters, which is not fun. Asher CAN do so many things though, that’s the frustrating part! Love that boy, so much heart. He’s definitely comfortable at Maddy’s, and that really helps. We worked lifts, which has always been his big weakness, and he actually did fairly well listening, even at the bigger distances. Always making me think he knows what he’s doing … until he doesn’t.

And then we blew Bryn’s little mind – I wanted to work on just the basic concept of shedding, so she could have the idea that sometimes you come in. She’s a little TOO good at keeping those sheep together and I wanted her to know that sometimes we do other things. So just basic calling her through sheep at a fence, and I thought this was going to be REALL HARD. But it turns out my dog that WILL NOT COME INTO ME for agility thinks coming through sheep is SUPER FUN. Admittedly, Ron was like, “don’t get on her case about gripping or slicing” and Bryn just RAN with that. She was all too happy to come in and grab onto sheep or slice through them – whooo-hooo! So apparently that won’t be the issue I thought it was going to be. We were trying to spread out the sheep, make a nice gap for her to come through – oh hell no, she would just dive in like a little whirling dervish, she needed no gap. So that made me laugh, and then there was no working with her after that, she had felt the wind in her hair and decided this whole self restraint and listening to me was totally optional.

Still, before that we worked on some driving and she was doing well. It’s tricky for me as she’s so good at holding lines, and with the strong draws that are in the field it’s hard for me to set her up with that. I don’t think she’s quite got the idea of it, but she was driving across the length of Maddy’s main field, so I’ll take it. And could do inside flanks and would MOSTLY listen to her lie downs. Mostly.

Bryn is a fun little thing, and such a wonderful feel for sheep. Want to get her driving straightened out this year, lengthen those outruns and get her on some whistles. Hopefully try some baby dog trials to get her out and about, and maybe next year she’ll be ready for some more serious work. Realistically I know we’re not going to make a huge amount of progress, but we will do what we can with the time we have to work with.

The dogs are loving the warmer temperatures and getting to hang out in the yard again. It’s been so muddy that yard time has been limited. Today I came home and the cats (except Dragon, of course) were just basking in the sun in the dog run (aka the catio). We are all ready for spring! Just hope it doesn’t get too hot too fast. No danger of that yet, SNOWING this weekend – and windy and cold and just yuk. Truly, the worst winter I’ve had since I moved to Oregon 28 years ago.

Dogs had their appointment with Dr. Sara, which was Bryn’s ‘check up’ appointment since she’s now returned to ALMOST total freedom. There are a couple things I’m remaining cautious with, which I SHOULD remain cautious with all the dogs – but when you take Bryn out of the picture, turns out they are all much less crazy in those situations anyway. So when going to take the dogs out to run on the property I make sure they have warmed up either in the yard or the arena before releasing them to do all the full out racing. When hiking I still leash Bryn up and walk her for the first 10 minutes before releasing her – by that point the boys have got their yayas out (which, once again, are less crazy when Bryn isn’t involved). Anyway, Bryn passed her check up with flying colors, Sara said she felt great, no more restrictions, very flexible really didn’t find anything. Whew! Navarre was my other concern what with doing more agility including backsides, and he was a little more crunchy than normal, but nothing in the ‘problem area’ he’s had before. We will continue to monitor, but I’d like him to have another year of agility, maybe two if I’m lucky. Asher was great, no issues – go figure. And Haku, well, he’s old, he’s always got a lot to work on.

I keep accumulating online classes, and not having time to watch them. But It’s hard to justify not checking out things that could be interesting or helpful, it is my job, after all. I still hold the Shape Up stuff to be most thorough and useful, I tend to be pretty disappointed in the shallow nature of most online courses comparatively speaking. I did sign up for Jenny Damm’s puppy diary, as that is a lady that likes to train, so curious about that. I signed up for a couple puppy diaries on facebook pages and they’re a nightmare to follow in order. But it’s always fun to see what other people do. There are now a bunch of seminars locally that are coming up this year, but as they’re so expensive it’s hard to justify in relation to online content. And international seminars are pretty predictable, though still fun.