I know he looks sort of solemn here, but that is just an illusion. He is as bouncy and playful as any five-week-old puppy ever. Or Cavalier puppy, at least; I’m sure he is calm compared to a terrier puppy. He has hit every behavioral benchmark right on time, well, a tiny bit late as you expect for a single puppy. Unfortunately I’ve had too many opportunities to observe that single puppies start off slow (they are understimulated, obviously). They catch up by about six weeks.
I know I said I might swear off showing and just quit the whole dog thing entirely, other than just having dogs as pets of course, but . . . and I know that this puppy is only five weeks old, and we do not truly evaluate puppies this young, but . . . probably I am completely insane to even consider this, but . . . I am thinking that right now, this is a very, very promising puppy. For the first time, I am thinking of keeping this baby. I’m thinking that he might be exactly the type of puppy I was breeding for: a fabulous show-stopping puppy who owns the ring from the moment he steps into it. The kind of puppy who catches your eye right from the first and never lets you look away. That kind of puppy. I remember seeing this puppy’s, um, great-grandfather, in the ring. He was maybe the first dog that ever caught my eye like that. Not a perfect dog, but extraordinarily showy.
Well, well . . . early days, early days. Maybe he’ll only have one testicle descend, disqualifying him completely. Maybe his bite will go off, though it’s fine now. Maybe he’ll have serious freckles, or small eyes, or or or . . . who knows. To walk into the ring and compete right at the top, he would need to be practically perfect in every way. Which is exactly what I hoped for from this breeding. But obviously hard to get.
If I did keep him . . . maybe I would breed him just one time. Or buy a bitch who would be a total outcross and breed him to her. Yeah, that would be insane, another huge gamble. Or get with a friend and make a deal to breed him to one of her girls in return for a puppy back, or something. He would need to be so fabulous for me to do any of that. But maybe . . . argh, who knows. Where IS my crystal ball?
Anyway, I thought you all might like to know that this little guy is perfectly fine.
Please Feel Free to Share:
He is insanely cute! Even if he doesn’t end up being a show dog, he’ll out-cute anything else.
I’m glad to hear this puppy is doing okay. Best of luck to you both!
I’ve been wondering how he was doing…. I hope he brings you many reasons to smile in the days ahead! I suppose if you do decide to keep him you’ll let us know his name?
I’m glad the little one is doing well!
Thanks so much for letting us know Rachel. I’ve been wondering and wondering, but didn’t want to ask after all of the grief this litter has caused you. He looks adorable!
The crystal ball is under your couch. Balls are always under the couch. His face is rather symmetrical. Perhaps the solution to troubling bitches and soul-destroying litters is boys – let someone else deal with the litter. Boys.
He’s cute, and he has big feet!
So glad to hear this! I wasn’t asking, for fear of jinxing.
I’m rereading some Liz Williams Detective Inspector Chen novels right now. I just love Singapore 3, where anything can–and does–happen!
Yeah, if he’s good enough, that’s one way to handle it. But I think ONE intact boy is probably my limit!
I keep picking the first one off the shelf and not quite being in the mood and putting it back. One of these days…
One thing I like about DI Chen is that (Chinese) Hell is not so different from Earth, except the vices are predominant. On the other hand, unless something is going horribly wrong, Heaven is boring, and many humans–including the otherwise incorruptible Chen–find Hell more to their taste. In fact, Chen has demons both for his police partner and his wife. The underlying theme is that without sufficient knowledge of evil, “good” is essentially ineffective.