Friday, March 9, 2012

Pedigrees And CHIC #s


Lucy's "husband" Indie is an Agility Star


Finally put together a pedigree for the Indie/Lucy pups.  Wow!  It really looks nice on paper.  So many of the top winners and producers in the breed, dogs with wonderful dispositions, plus a large number of dogs with their CHIC numbers.  CHIC numbers mean the dogs have had the appropriate health testing done - OFA hips, BAER hearing, and either CERF eye exams or complete thyroid panels.  That's the minimum testing, and many of the dogs have had both eye & thyroid testing, OFA elbow x-rays, cardiac exams and more.  Because the CHIC program is new, the older dogs don't have numbers, but I included their OFA hip results.  The concept of health testing is a relatively new one (although we have been doing hips & eyes & BAER testing for many years), but one of the things that separates "responsible breeders" from "puppy raisers".  Always amazes me that puppy raisers often ask the same price (or more!) than those of us who have put so much money and effort into producing the best possible puppies - pups with good dispositions, properly raised and socialized, from parents who are truly quality dogs.  And I am even more amazed that people buy those over-priced pups from questionable backgrounds.  Why don't more people do their research before purchasing a puppy?

If you're waiting to hear back from me, I'll be contacting everyone next week, to see if you are still on the waiting list.  If you don't hear from me, please send me another email in case I misplaced your contact information.  We should know in a week or two if Lucy is pregnant.  If she was down here I could palpate her at about 25 days, but with her family living so far away we'll have to depend on their observations.  Yes, the pups will be with me after they are weaned, and we'll do the BAER testing, health check ups, pictures and additional socialization - although I know the Pella kids and their friends will do a great job of socialization!

2 comments:

Helen said...

Lovely picture!

Anonymous said...

Great picture.Had to do a double take at the caption.He really does look like an agility star.It's ashame some people claim that of their dog--especially if they have never been seen in a class.It's an insult to thoes of us who really DO agility with our dogs.But anyway--handsome dog and they should have beautiful pups!