Puppies are here!!!!

Starting Sunday night and going through Monday afternoon, our sweet little Mama dog Ana blessed our lives with her beautiful puppies.  It was a long and exhausting experience for everyone, but Ana was such a trooper!  We are so proud of her!  As a first-time mom she has really taken to it and is so very gentle, loving, attentive, and concerned about her babies.  It is a joy to watch her with them.  Ana delivered 13 puppies.  Sadly, 2 were stillborn and 2 had small but fatal birth defects (underdeveloped lungs & abdominal).  But, we still have 9 healthy puppies who, so far, are doing very well.  There are 3 girls (1 blue, 2 black) and 6 boys (1 blue, 5 black).  They are eating well and are very vigorous.  Prepare for puppy picture overload!!!  :o)  Ana is such a happy, proud little mama!  She loves her babies and it shows on her face!

X-ray Results

This morning we took Ana to the vet to get an x-ray to determine a puppy count.  We were absolutely blown away with what we discovered!!!  Our little mama is expecting 13-14 puppies!!!  Wowza!  We've really got our work cut out for us over the next couple of months!  We are still in a state of shock but we are also so very excited.  The vet thinks her puppies will come on Wednesday, September 24th.  So, not too many more days until we meet all these little sweeties!

Babies are growing bigger!

Puppies are growing and growing!  We have an x-ray scheduled for this coming week (Sept 19th) to find out how many babies Ana is expecting.  We can hardly wait!!!  She's such a cute little mama.

Puppies are Moving!

We started feeling puppies move yesterday morning! We are so excited to meet the babies in 2 weeks! This picture does NOT do justice to how big Ana is getting!  She grows visibly from morning to night everyday!!!  Basically, all she does now are rest and eat.  Poor little mama!

Happy Birthday, Boys!

All the boys from our "Brothers Litter" celebrated their 1st birthday this week.  Happy birthday, boys!!!  It is amazing that a year has passed already.  They have all grown into such handsome guys and we receive glowing reports from their families.  Here are some updated pics from 5 of the 7 brothers.  We are sure proud of all our boys!

PUPPIES ARE COMING!!!

PUPPIES ARE CONFIRMED!!!!!! We just returned from Ana's ultrasound where we learned that Ana is definitely expecting puppies! We are so excited! The vet thought he could see up to 10 little ones in there! Wow! He did admit, however, that there is a possibility he counted some of them twice. It was obvious, though, that there are a lot of puppies.  Either way, we are so excited and September 24th can't come soon enough! Yay for Ana and Vivaro!!!!!!

Breeding: Ana X Vivaro

Amazingly, we were able to get all Ana's health clearances completed and everything lined up in time for Ana to be bred to an INCREDIBLE stud--Vivaro v. Noblesshof: IPO-1, BH.  Everything just seemed to fall into place quite easily.  Ana & Vivaro spent the week together; and if all goes as planned, we should be expecting puppies around September 22nd!  We are so excited to see what these two beauties produce! Pregnancy will be confirmed via ultrasound August 22nd.

Vivaro was imported from Noblesshof Kennels in Serbia.  He has a solid, thick, European frame and the working mentality to go along with it.  He is also amazingly gentle, calm, and personable.  We REALLY like this guy and everything he has to offer!  He's got the whole package: working aptitude, solid character and temperament, proven lines, strong health, great looks and coloring.  He is a perfect compliment to our Ana girl.

Ana's Hips

We had Ana's hips checked out today at the vet.  He says they are BEAUTIFUL!!!  Possibly among the most beautiful hips he's ever seen.  That is excellent news for our girl!  The vet said, "If the OFA does not give her an 'excellent' rating then they are either smoking something or having a really, really bad day!"  We are so pleased with this news.  Things are moving forward in wonderful, positive ways!

This Girl is Full of Surprises!

Well, it appears as though our new girl Ivana Di Altobello has surprised us all and came into heat much earlier than anticipated! We've only had her one week and were anticipating her to be in heat in 2 months, however, the previous owner was not certain of the date.  She certainly surprised us all!!!  We have some of her health tests completed/in the works and others are now being expedited! If we can get all our ducks in a row soon enough we are going to see about getting Ana bred this heat. Wow, things are happening so quickly!!! It's been quite the whirlwind of a week!  If everything goes smoothly with testing and lining up the stud, we could have puppies toward the end of September!

Ivana Di Altobello--"Ana"--She's here!!!

Ivana Di Altobello, "Ana," has finally joined our family! We brought her home a week ago and have been enjoying her company and getting to know each other. She is a pure joy! She has transitioned very well and acts like she's lived here all her life. She and our male Mack are getting along great and we all love her! She is SOOOOOO affectionate and sweet! She loves being nearby and checking up on everyone. We have started the process of getting all her health clearances done and are excited to begin this new chapter together.

 Mack and Ana are getting along really well.  I think Mack enjoys having another 4-legged friend around and Ana watches him to learn all the house rules.  They are a good pair.

(In case you are wondering...NO, Ana does NOT need all those collars in order to keep her behaved.  We've been doing some collar desensitization with her where we put different collars on at various times of the day. Sometimes she has one, other times she has 2 or more.  It's an exercise to get her used to the feel of lots of different collars--types and number--around her neck.  This creates a dog who learns not to associate the feel of a particular collar with a specific type of correction.  In essence, they learn that the correction does not come from the collar, but from their behavior.)

Big Breeding Announcement!!!

We are excited to announce that Ivana di Altobello, age 3, will be joining our Snow Springs Dobes family very soon! She is a beautiful, happy, very friendly girl. We'll be getting all her health clearances done in the next several weeks. Once those are completed and she is shown to have excellent health (hips, eyes, heart, thyroid, vWD, etc.) we will then begin making plans for breeding. We are eager to see how things come together with this beautiful girl!

Ivana Di Altobello is the daughter of world famous Maxim Di Altobello. She is one the most well bred European Dobermans in the world and will be an incredible addition to our breeding program. Ivana was imported to the US directly from Altobello Kennels in Serbia. She has a high Doberman drive but is very loving and sensitive to those she cares about. The ultra velco Dobie, Ivana has a very friendly and happy temperament, loves to play, and is eager to please. We are excited to see the quality litters Ivana will produce. Ivana was born 03/22/2011. You can view her pedigree here: http://www.pedigreedatabase.com/doberman_pinscher/dog.html?id=1875915-ivana-di-altobello

Anya's Passing

It is with a very heavy heart that we share the sad news that our sweet Anya girl slipped peacefully into the realms above May 27th. She fought her recent battle valiantly and with great courage. The last few days with her on earth were a pure gift from heaven. It has been an honor and a privilege to have her in our home and part of our family for these last 4 years. What a sweet, loving, forgiving, fun-loving, happy little soul she was. From day one she was full of enthusiasm and love for life and the people around her. She was a sweet little mother to her babies and a much cherished companion and friend to the rest of us. We've learned so much from her about courage, love, joy, and living life to the fullest. We mourn her passing but know that she is now running free with the angels in pure joy.

We extend our heartfelt thanks and appreciation to each of you who have followed Anya's progress and expressed concern, support, and given encouragement and love. Your prayers and tenderness have been humbling. Thank you a million times over! We have received much strength knowing that we are not making this journey alone. Thank you, thank you!

Goodbye, for now, sweet Anya girl. We love you!

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Anya, full of life and with that happy sparkle she was known for.  This is how we choose to remember her.

Our son was blessed to have some special quiet moments with his pal Anya throughout her life, but these ones toward the end were particularly sweet.  On this day, 4 days before she passed, he came home from school and went straight outside to see her--not even bothering to remove his backpack.  He was talking lovingly to her and trying to coax her to eat a little rice and broth.  These are sweet, tender memories we will always cherish.

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With Anya's passing it has changed the current outlook for our breeding program.  We are carefully evaluating our next step and will update our progress and things move forward.  We hope you will be patient with us as we seek to make the decisions facing us, our family, and Snow Springs Dobes.