In last
month’s column, we reviewed how my wife and I decided to breed our female
German shorthaired pointer, the process of artificial insemination and
selecting buyers for our litter. We
finished the column explaining that, as litter owners, we had first pick. I promised that I would reveal, in this
column, the puppy we chose to keep.
As mentioned in last month’s column, we
loved all eight of our puppies. Choosing
which puppy to keep would be very difficult.
There were no bullies and no wall-flowers in the litter. All appeared to be bold and ready to
learn. In the end, we chose to keep the
runt of the litter. She was the very first
puppy to lick my face. Also, she was
cooperative always in everything we attempted to do…like trimming her nails. She’s a sweetheart, and we feel she has great
potential in the field. Her litter nickname
was Hearts; however, we now call her Cordie.
At eight and one-half weeks, all the other
puppies went to their new owners. This
was a very sad day for the Fuller household.
We said goodbye to pups that we handled and nurtured every day. As mentioned last month, we found seven
buyers we’re very comfortable with. We
hear from four of the buyers two or three times per week; that’s comforting.
Now the fun begins. We have a fresh student that wants to
learn. However, we don’t want to go too
fast. Cordie needs to have puppy fun or
we’ll have a puppy that loses its puppy time and will be difficult in the
future.
At eleven weeks, here is what we’re working
on. We start the day with a run at
approximately 6:30 am. The early hour is
due to the warm weather. Little Cordie
is running with our ten-year-old Dillon and Cordie’s mother, Dena. The run is for about 45 to 60 minutes. We alternate between woods and fields since
we hunt the prairies in the early fall and the woods during October and November. We avoid paths as much as possible since we
want to develop a dog that hunts cover and not take the easy way…paths. Also, we make sure the puppy has chest protection. Both of our senior dogs ripped open their
chests as puppies while running through the woods. We want to avoid that issue with Cordie. Also, during our morning walk, we attempt to
walk in a shoelace pattern. The reason
for doing this is to develop a back and forth search pattern that covers the
most ground. Dogs that run in a straight
line will find very few birds. In
addition, we put a small Christmas bell on Cordie’s collar. We want to introduce her to noise while she’s
running. This will help introduce bells
and beepers in the future.
In addition to field work at eleven weeks,
we work on neck control…having a lead attached to a collar. We do this almost daily. We want a good citizen puppy that is under
control at all times. And, to provide
even more training, we’re including the “whoa” command while we work with the
lead.
And, of course, we can’t forget
water. The puppies were first exposed to
water when we put a water bowl in the weaning box. They would stumble into the bowl almost every
day. Once we started taking them
outdoors, we put a child’s swimming pool in their run. The entire litter would often be found in the
pool. Early-on, we put two to three
inches of water in the pool…today we fill it with six inches of water.
That concludes Anatomy of A Litter through eleven weeks. We’ll keep you posted in future columns on
Cordie’s progress.
Paul Fuller is host of the Bird Dogs Afield TV program. Paul’s website is www.birddogsafield.com.
