Puppy Portraits: Week 6
The Boys
Mr Black.
Mr Blue
Mr Bronze.
Mr Green.
Mr Red.
The Girls
Miss Fawn.
Miss Lime.
Miss Orange.
Miss Pink
Miss Purple
Miss White.
Miss Yellow.
Puppy Portraits: Week 5 (a bumper crop!)
THE BOYS
Mr Black 1.
Mr Black 2.
Mr Black 3.
Mr Blue 1.
Mr Blue 2.
Mr Blue 3.
Mr Bronze 1.
Mr Bronze 2.
Mr Bronze 3.
Mr Green 1.
Mr Green 2.
Mr Green 3.
Mr Red 1.
Mr Red 2.
Mr Red 3.
THE GIRLS
Miss Fawn 1.
Miss Fawn 2.
Miss Fawn 3.
Miss Lime 1.
Miss Lime 2.
Miss Lime 3.
Miss Orange 1.
Miss Orange 2.
Miss Orange 3.
Miss Pink 1.
Miss Pink 2.
Miss Pink 3.
Miss Purple 1.
Miss Purple 2.
Miss Purple 3.
Miss White 1.
Miss White 2.
Miss White 3.
Miss Yellow 1.
Miss Yellow 2.
Miss Yellow 3.
Puppy Portraits: Week 4
The Boys
Mr Black.
Mr Blue.
Mr Bronze.
Mr Green.
Mr Red.
The Girls
Miss Fawn.
Miss Lime.
Miss Orange.
Miss Pink.
Miss Purple.
Miss White.
Miss Yellow.
A month old already and huge changes in the pups this week. Nearly fully weaned they’ve learned how to polish off pretty much every morsel of their raw food diet and now manage to eat in a very orderly fashion:
Team 2 tuck in.
They also started to come out of the whelping box into their indoor run about a week ago, and now merrily hurtle up and down squeaking and yipping as they go. They have also taken to their cozy mini-dens (aka cat carriers) with the same enthusiasm as did their older brothers and sisters and can regularly be found in randomly piled arrangements within in or more often spilling out of the dens:
Meanwhile… an unusual new puppy joins the litter.
Puppy Portraits: Week 3
The Boys
Mr Black.
Mr Blue.
Mr Bronze.
Mr Green.
Mr Red.
The Girls
Miss Fawn.
Miss Lime.
Miss Orange.
Miss Pink.
Miss Purple.
Miss White.
Miss Yellow.
Probably the busiest week of all for the pups. With eyes and ears now wide open and fully functional the pups have started to explore and investigate their environment, and one another, with increasing curiosity and an ever increasing range of vocalizations too!
At the same time appetites are growing exponentially and so we started the process of weaning on Sunday, when the pups were 19 days old. This was 3 days older than with our previous litter and that extra bit of maturity meant that the process of lapping (which is obviously a very different skill set from that required for suckling) seemed to come much more easily to these babies. Still, as with any babies, progress was initially slow and messy, with each pup being taught individually twice a day whilst Phoenix took care of their main food intake.
By Day 23, though, their lapping skills had increased sufficiently to try the pups out on their multi-stall “WeanaFeeda“, which they took to with huge enthusiasm. So now, after another day or so of their starter mousse, we’ll start to blend in their raw food diet and by next week they should be happily tucking into a pureed version of the same diet that their parents and big brother already enjoy.
Miss Fawn winding down.
Can I eat this?
Mr Black.
Mum comes to sort everyone out., meanwhile Mr Bronze discovers that he can climb…
Mr Green looks thoughtful.
Miss Fawn winding further down.
Everyone on the go.
Puppy Portraits: week 2.
The Boys
Mr Black.
Mr Blue.
Mr Bronze.
Mr Green.
Mr Red.
The Girls
Miss Fawn.
Miss Lime.
Miss Orange.
Miss Pink.
Miss Purple.
Miss White.
Miss Yellow.
Pup Report
This was a big week for the baby Beltarr’s. Their eyes started to open, with Mr Green taking an early lead by opening his eyes at day 10, which is very early indeed! The rest mainly waited until day 13 or 14 and a few are still only just on the verge even now. Mostly they keep eyes closed though, and can be seen in their pics, and vision is extremely limited/blurry for now in any case.
Coupled with their senses gradually coming on line they started to wobbly-walk around day 11 and 12 and are getting more proficient each day, although mostly walks still consist of a few wobbly quick steps and then a turn-turtle.
Weight increases briefly slowed at around day 9 so we started to supplement with bottle feeding. Within 24 hrs they had also got the hang of it (rather surprisingly, since the action required is totally different from that used when feeding from mum) and they are all now piling the weight on once again, most passing 1kg on day 14.
Finally their 2-week old claws have already turned into razor sharp needles, so claw-cutting began in earnest on day 14 – here’s a very compliant and super cute Miss Purple getting her tallons seen to:
Puppy Portraits: week 1.
Seven days old and already around 75% heavier than when they were born, we’re pleased to report that all 12 pups have had a very satisfactorily smooth first week of life….so without further ado let’s introduce the gang:
The Boys
Mr Black.
Mr. Blue.
Mr Bronze.
Mr Green.
Mr Red.
The Girls
Miss Fawn.
Miss Lime.
Miss Orange.
Miss Pink.
Miss Purple.
Miss White.
Miss Yellow.
With no hearing, vision or coordinated movement at this age all focus is on eating and sleeping in endless, looping succession, so, with that in mind here are some additional shots of snoozing pups from throughout the week:
and finally, just to prove that they are occasionally awake!
Puppies have arrived!
Tuesday saw the arrival of our excitedly anticipated new generation of Belatarr babies as, right on schedule, Phoenix and Mingus’ second dozen were born.
The whole gang together
Miss Orange was the first to arrive, at a very respectable 10:53AM, with 10 of her brothers and sisters duly following in quick succession and puppy number 11, Miss Lime, making her appearance at 15:15 that afternoon.
Miss Lime & Miss Orange.
All of the births had been very quick and very easy, with just one or two contractions and then a new arrival. So far so good. However, after puppy number 11 things ground to a halt, although it was very evident that at least one more pup was still waiting to arrive. After a few hours of waiting and no signs of any further action we all decamped to the vets (11 puppies included) where two shots of oxytocin, a 15 min IV drip of liquid calcium, a vigorous walk up and down the road and 5 hours later puppy number 12, Miss Fawn, finally decided to put in an apperance, arriving (in the car boot) fashionably late to the party, but (despite our fears over the worryingly long wait) very fit, healthy and at a good weight.
Mr Red takes centre stage.
Now, some 48 hrs later, all 12 babies – 7 girls and 5 boys – are feeding very well and all are gaining weight at almost identical rates.
Random puppy pile-up.
As with Phoenix’ first litter there are no tiddlers or weaklings amongst the bunch and all twelve are vigorous indeed! With mum having only 6 functional feeding stations we have, as before, divided the pups into two teams and feed them one team at a time, every two hours, night and day to ensure that everyone gets their share.
Team 1 take their turn.
Whilst team 2 wait to be called into action.
Phoenix herself has been a wonderfully attentive mother, as ever, but today she surprised us by deciding that she wanted to go out with the boys for a swim in the river and a quick hurtle around the land before thinking that she really should zip back up the hill to return to her offspring.
Mum forms a comfy resting spot for Miss Yellow.
That’s the story so far.. .more pics follow below and watch this space for ongoing puppy antics and the ever-popular weekly puppy portraits too!
Mr Black and Mr Green.
Mr Blue hangs out his teeny-tiny ears.
Miss Purple.
Mr Bronze, who is so dark that his collar often looks as though it’s disappeared…
Mr Black, on the other hand, is the palest of the pups.
…and a good contortionist too!
Miss Yellow.
A snoozy heap.
…and another.
Everyone together once again.
Windsor Win
Yesterday’s Windsor Championship show brought another very memorable outing and another great win for Belatarr Mahalia Jackson (Billie), who, at the grand old age of 19 months, is becoming quite the star. She firstly won her big Post Graduate Bitch class before beating a star-studded array of top bitches to take another excellent Reserve Best Bitch award, under judge Christine McDonald.
The judges critique read:
“Lovely bitch, super shape, in harsh body coat. Super head, just right in neck, shoulders, bone and feet, well sprung ribs carried well back. Good topline, excellent hindquarters and very sound on the move. RBB”
Billie taking RBB in the bitch line-up.
Belatarr Mahalia Jackson, fresh from the ring.
Meanwhile in an extremely competitive 10-strong Post Graduate Dog class Belatarr Dizzy Gillespie and Belatarr Charlie Parker scored a solid 3rd & 4th places, respectively. We’ve been trying to take an up-to-date ringside shot of Dizzy Gillespie (Gryphon) for the last few shows, invariably being defeated by the weather or timing, but this time we made sure to get a shot in the bag to show him as he now is, at 19 months of age and maturing very nicely:
Belatarr Dizzy Gillespie.
Take 2.
Belatarr: The Next Generation
We’re delighted and excited to be able to announce that we have a forthcoming litter, confirmed yesterday by ultrasound:
This snapshot shows a few of the pups as they are now, at 31 days gestation, only around 1cm in size and each sitting at the top of a gestational sac (the dark, circular areas on the image). Amazing to think that these small marble-sized embryos will have grown to the size of plump guinea-pigs in just another 4 weeks or so! We saw approx 7 or 8 pups, which is exactly the same result as our 2011 litter, which turned out to comprise 12 pups…
We have been absolutely delighted with the uniformly healthy, sound, happy and high quality pups from our 2011 litter and have been fortunate to be able to watch many of them regularly and at close hand as they have grown into the superb young dogs that they are today. Four of the pups from that litter have gone on to have great success in the show ring and several others of their brothers and sisters could undoubtedly have followed suit, so it was an easy decision to undertake a repeat mating, using Mingus as sire, when Phoenix was ready for her second litter.
After an initial mild panic when the progesterone testing lab that we were using had their machinery break down, resulting in a 3 day delay in getting Phoenix’ blood test results back (urghhhh!) we achieved 3 very easy matings, all with excellent ties, commencing on the same day in Phoenix’ season that her previous litter was conceived.
Phoenix’ due date is 23rd/24th July and we are now able to take enquiries from show, pet and working homes, about this forthcoming litter. All puppy homes will be carefully selected to provide the best possible start in life for this next generation of Belatarr HWV’s.
If you would like to be considered for inclusion on our puppy list or would like to discuss Belatarr dogs and life with this wonderful breed in more detail then please do contact Tim directly at: renfromail@aol.com.
Belatarr Babies in the ring.
The Belatarr babies had another excellent show weekend, and all in blazing sunshine too…
First up on Saturday was Django who was awarded Best of Breed at the 3-day benched Royal Cornwall Show – another award previously bagged by his father 3 years earlier, and Django’s 6th consecutive Open Show BOB.
Following his win, and whilst seated on his bench, Django played host to a pretty much non-stop array of well-wishers (including brother Otis – Belatarr John Coltrane!) and fans, old and new, all of whom he was very happy to have provide their stroking/tickling and patting services…. although the continual attention, stifling heat and 4-hour wait combined to ensure that he was utterly exhausted by the time the Gundog group finally rolled around and he spent much of the time lying flat out on the grass in the Group ring whilst other Gundog BOB’s gamely trotted up and down.
One lovely show day was followed immediately by another and whilst Django snoozed his Sunday afternoon away siblings Billie, Gryphon & Charlie went into action at the Three Counties Championship.
Now 19 months of age the Belatarr youngsters are firmly up amongst the big boys and girls in Post Graduate. Charlie Parker & Gryphon went head to head, as usual, in a competitive Post Grad dog class and Gryphon (Belatarr Dizzy Gillespie) bagged 2nd place, with brother Charlie a solid 3rd. The judge was very keen to see Gryphon again to consider him for Reserve Best Dog, and waited for as long as she could, but to due *logistical complications* he was, unfortunately 5 mins away in the car park at by that time, and so sadly it was not to be…
The judges critique read:
“A soundly moving dog with many attractive attributes, excellent harsh coat, balanced front and rear angulations, deep and long ribs giving the correct body length, topline firm and held on the move.” Eileen Hughes
Sister Billie (Belatarr Mahalia Jackson) proved to be our biggest star of the day, though, and took an excellent 1st in a tough and large Post Graduate Bitch class.
Her critique read:
“It was difficult to separate the first two quality bitches. I preferred the firsts length of body and her coat; correct head and body proportions, good tight feet, very good topline and tail-set, she moved well.” Eileen Hughes
In the bitch line-up Billie then went head-to head with a previous Crufts Best of Breed winner (who had been called back after being placed 2nd in Open Bitch) and Billie emerged victorious to be awarded a terrific Reserve Best Bitch. An excellent day’s work, team!
Billies Three Counties wins.
Belatarr Hungarian Wirehaired Vizsla. 