26.07.2010:
Just took some pictures that were too cute not to share... See them here.
Otherwise nothing new to tell... All the puppies are doing great and Clio is too....I little too great sometimes, I'd say.... She enjoys all the help she can get with the puppies and will sometimes leave the feedings to me if she has gotten comfortable elsewhere in the house. Clearly she sees this as a joint custody thing... Only difference is she sleeps all day and I look like Frankensteins wife from all the interrupted sleep! In about 10 days we can start the puppies up on solid foods and I can return to my own bedroom.
23.07.2010:
Luckily everything is going great now and all the puppies are growing and developing like they should. Big relief!! Clio has also regained her usual appetite so life can be enjoyed again. The puppies are on the verge of opening their eyes so next update they will probably look more like little dogues. See new photos of them here.
19.07.2010:
Unfortunately we have had a bit of a rocky start with the puppies although everything seemed to go smoothly in the beginning. The day after they were born we realized that Clio did not have enough milk for them. She fed them often, but it seemed they they had to work too hard to just get a little bit and it left them exhausted and (also because of the heat) dehydrated. We started helping Clio out by bottle feeding them as a supplement. That seemed to work except for one of the little girls and on day 2 we had to rush her to the vet because something seemed wrong. The vet couldn't find anything on her, but confirmed what we already knew; that she was dehydrated. She had even lost weight since birth where all her litter mates had gained at least a little weight. She's got an injection of saltwater and we were sent home with the message to bottle feed her every 30 minutes. Sadly she continued to get weaker and 30 minutes after we came home she died in her sleep. It was very sad to loose her... although we will never know for sure we suspect that something might have been wrong. This is our third litter and the first time we ever loose a puppy, so I guess we have just been extremely lucky so far. After that we took absolutely no chances with the rest of the gang and bottle fed them every 2 hours the next 24 hours. Clio also fed them often to get the milk flow going and luckily the hard work immediately paid off. After that all the puppies had each gained between 50-100 gram and weren't dehydrated anymore. We have continued to bottle feed them just with bigger stretches and Clio has begun to produce more milk. After a couple of gruelling days where we feared to loose more it's a massive relief to see everybody do well and they are now a bunch of loud active fatties! See more pictures of them here.
The rest of the dogues spend the days lazing around until it's cool enough in the evening to go for a walk. Here's a few of Mambo in his favorite couch (same one that his mother J'adore loves! Must be genetic :-) )
15.07.2010:
The puppies finally arrived yesterday - 7 of them and this time with a very fair split between boys (4) and girls (3). The birth went well and started at 4 am and the last puppy arrived at 11:30. Clio is a wonderful attentive mommy and takes excellent care of them. I (Karen) will continue to sleep in the puppy room with them to help her get settled and see that all puppies are eating well. However it is obvious that Clio has tried this before and 7 puppies (compared to the last time where she had 12) is a nice number - much easier! They are quite even in size ranging between 550-670 gram and they all look quite dark in color. So far they all seem to be doing fine. See them in their gallery here.
Updated the 2010 gallery. See the new pictures here.
When selling a puppy abroad and even very far away it requires a great deal of trust. Sadly we felt that this trust was broken and we therefore decided to cancel the transaction for Matrix who was supposed to travel to Australia later this year. As he is such a great boy we have been very tempted to keep him, but with a new baby in December we need to limit our household of dogs a bit or at least not expand, so we will be looking into finding him a new home. He's a very promising, beautiful big boned boy with a very nice construction and a beautiful head. He's a dark red color with a minimum of white and has a very sweet and gentle personality. If you are interested in Matrix feel free to contact us at; (+45)29721799 or kontakt@amazonite.dk
6.07.2010:
The Summervacation started a few days ago which we enjoy to the max :-)
If all goes well Clio will give birth in a weeks time or so. She's doing fine, but at this point she's heavy and a bit bothered by it. So for her sake I hope it will be an early birth and that the next week will pass by fast. Although she is visibly pregnant she is not as big as the first time she had puppies, so my guess would be 6-7 puppies, but time will tell. She hasn't been scanned so we have no idea...
For those os you who don't already know we are expecting a baby in December, which means that we will need to slow down on breeding for a while. For that reason we have decided not to breed Sienna, but in stead just show her and have her as a pet. At least for now.... Her sister Sevilla has also turned out really great and when we sold her to Belgium we luckily kept the option open to potentially get a puppy from her, so we might do that at some point in stead. We are definetely interested in keeping the bloodline in our breeding programme. We will breed J'adore again next year when we have found the right male, but we feel that one litter a year will be more than enough with a new baby in the house as well.
So far all the puppies from J'adores litter are doing well. Poor Memphis caught pnemonia, but after a treatment with antibiotics he's back on track. So far none show any signs of growing pains or growing related problems which sometimes show at this age. Below are a couple of photos of Montana (an avid German football supporter!) with a friend... I think he's a little Jaques - copy :-)
28.06.2010:
We had a great weekend with shows Saturday and Sunday; Saturday it was the Danish Dogue de Bordeaux Clubs circuit show judged by breed specialist Bas Bosch and Sunday it was the World Show.
We had entered 5 dogue Saturday; J'adore, Sienna and Mambo, Matrix and Madison in the babyclass. All babies received an "Very Promising" with excellent critiques. Mambo showed himself off with a little more confindence which was the reason why he was placed before Matrix. But Bas Bosch said that he thought it was obvious that they were litter siblings as they were quite similar in expression, construction etc. Sienna was placed 3rd in her class which I thought was great as it is only Siennas 2nd time in the showring. J'adore was not placed that day, but got a good critique. It was a wonderful day and the atmosphere was great! Always a pleasure to be surrounded by nice people with the same interest as you :-) I think the show commitee did a fantastic job getting this event together! We are already looking forward to the next!
Sunday I (Karen) went alone to the World Show with Sienna and J'adore. It was a hectic day in a jam packed hall where the noise was incredible. Sienna received an excellent but wasn't placed any further. J'adore did really well and ended up 3rd in her class which was quite a big class with lots of great females. Needless to say we were really happy. Especially since J'adore is not even fully back in her old shape after having puppies. My pictures from the show were not that great,so I'm waiting for the better ones to be edited. Until then here's a few;
We were so happy with the litter J'adore had with Jaques that we decided to use Jaques for Clio as well. See more about the breeding here.
18.06.2010:
Some pictures are just so wonderful that they must be shared immediately! I received these from Amazonite Maximus' (aka Djargo) owner. They had walked the streets of Copenhagen when a photographer saw him and asked if he could pose for some pictures. This is (part of) the result;
09.06.2010:
We have had a couple of very hectic weeks... It started 2 weeks ago hen Mambo suddenly started whining/crying for no apparent reason. It was a Friday night and we rushed to the vet. When we arrived it had stopped again and there was nothing to see or find. Then Sunday it happened again only this time worse. It was when he woke up he seemed to be in pain and it sort of escalated it a situation where it seemed like he couldn't move at all without screaming. Off to the vet again- this tiem a different one and the scenario was pretty much the same; when we arrived it was gone and Mambo acted normal again. This vet did a full check up on him and was able to locate the pain to his neck. To cut a very long story short then Mambo was taken to different vets who all had very different and serious ideas about what could be wrong with him... From what they told we almost thought we were going to loose him which would have been completely devastating! Loosing such a young dogue before his life has even begun is just so unfair! Varies tests were made (and came back perfectly fine) and x-rays and in the end it turned out that Mambo had gotten a tiny fracture on a bone in his neck. Poor baby.... We have no idea how that has happened. Luckily the treatment is very easy as he only has to be kept quiet for 4 weeks and then it should be fine. Now 2 weeks later it's already much much better and he seems fine again. Pheeeeeeeew.......
See new pics of Mambo here.
See new pictures in the gallery here.
Unfortunately we had to face up to the fact that after J'adore had her puppies she and Calypso no longer got along. It wasn't anything dramatic, but it was just very clear that there were tensions between them and none of them seemed happy. Obviously we tried to work on this, but without any real luck. Although it took us a very long time to come to this decision we decided to find a new home for Calypso. It was a very tough thing to do as Calypso was a very beloved family member and a big part of our life. She wasn't a breeding/show dog and for that reason she probably wasn't mentioned too often in these updates, but she was the best companion you could imagine and absolutely always by our side. In other words; Calypso was just a very special dogue! Because it was a very dreaded decision we didn't try too hard to find her a new home... Then one day I was on Face Book and was chatted up by someone I've known a little bit for a few years... It seemed to be fate, because she had just lost an older dog herself and funnily enough her favorite in our gang had always been Calypso. She was more than thrilled with the idea of having Calypso and she picked her up that same day. It is a bit of an adjustment on our side to get used to life without her and I would lie if I said we didn't miss her. However her new family just loves her and she has settled in very well with them.
On the brighter side we received thesewonderful photos of Sevilla. I think she keeps getting better and she has just been x-rayed with what looked like an excellent result. Her owners are waiting for the official results, so until then we are keeping our fingers crossed.
23.05.2010:
Finally Spring seems to be here for good! And the dogues love being able to spend more time outside. I updated the 2010 gallery - See it here.
Seraphina takes her job as a guard job very seriously!
All the puppies are doing well in their new homes. Below is Montana and Ludwig (Minnochio).
05.05.2010:
Too hard not to take pictures when you have a new camera and a wonderful puppy. Love my Mambo... See new pics of him here.
02.05.2010:
I finally got the new camera I've been wanting, so I tried it out and updated the 2010 gallery with the result of today. See it here.
30.04.2010:
The M-litter now has their own page where they can be followed in their new homes. See it here.
21.04.2010:
Mambo has his own page now. See it here.
Calypso is doing better, but it will take some time to recover fully. Sienna has turned out to be a great nanny and J'adore now seems to enjoy some extra help playing with them.
16.04.2010:
We had a very dramatic week here Calypso suddenly started limping again on her operated leg. Within days it got worse and suddenly one morning she seemed week and feverish. She didn't want to use her leg at all. There wasn't anything to see on the leg, no swelling etc., but we had to rush her off to the hospital in Aarhus where the surgery was done before X-mas. She was checked and x-rayed and luckily the bone looked perfect and the knee has been totally stabilized after the surgery. However the reason for the pain and the limping was that the joing had become infected. As everything looked fine in terms of her crucial ligaments operation, the vet put this incident down to bad luck. Poor Calypso had to stay 3 days at the hospital. Now she's back and on the way to recovery - although she needs some time.
The puppies are doing great. They are an active crazy gang :-) 3 have left already and another one leaves in a few days. They really enjoy being able to be outside. We had a very busy weekend and I'm too tired to write a whole lot right now,but I will make a new puppy-page where the litter can be followed as they grow and of course Mambo will have his own page as well.
The puppy-gallery is updated - see it here.
11.04.2010:
The puppy-gallery is updated - see it here.
It's hard to believe that the puppies are ready to leave next week! But they are and 5 are picked up next weekend, 2 of them will be staying here for a while until they are ready to travel to their new owners and Mucho Mambo stays with us. We have been wanting a male for a while and he caught our eyes from a very early stage. So far he's just a lovely boy and has a lot of his temper and personality from J'adore which is important to us. He'll have a page here soon.
I just entered some of our dogues for both the World Show and the Club show judged by Bas Bosch. I had hope to show the babies at the World Show, but sadly they don't have a baby class. They do at the Club Show, so it will be fun. Otherwise we are bringing Sienna and J'adore (given that she's back in shape).
Sienna is impossible to catch ... so here she is...in a private moment.
03.04.2010:
The puppy-gallery is updated - see it here.
28.03.2010:
The puppies turned 5 weeks old yesterday... They are all doing well and are running around a lot now, so keeping up takes a little more work now :-) The updates here on the news site are not what they used to be, but I've had a frantic time at work and the gang demands pretty much the rest of my time, plus puppy-visitors ...well I just can't find the time to do these updates:-(
I updated the puppy-gallery - see them here. The picture quality vary quite a bit due to bad lighting.
24.03.2010:
New pictures in the puppy-gallery - see them here. And we got these great collages from Jaques owner :-)
14.03.2010:
The pups turned 3 weeks old yesterday. They weigh between 2300-2700 gram now and they jus had their first meal of solid food yesterday with great succes :-) They seem to understand the concept "eating of a bowl" very fast without too much stomping around in the food - smart babies!
J'adore has recovered from her breast infection and is doing fine again. She's very different from Clio as a mom... After a week Clio was up for long walks again, but J'adore still doesn't want to leave them for that long. We manage to get her out on a 5-10 minutes walk, but that's it. When we turn around she'll literally run home, so we won't stress her with it, but just give her the time she needs. Normally she's a dogue that never misses the opportunity to go for a walk, so I'm sure she will be back to normal when the puppies are older. The other dogues are now allowed to look in through the baby-fence in the door, but J'adore prefers to sleep nearby at all times. I updated the puppy-gallery - see them here.
We received these fantastic pictures from Sevillas owners! I love looking at beautiful photos and I think they are wonderful photographers :-) But you can see for yourself :-)
Amazonite Shea is this month's calender girl!
07.03.2010:
New pictures of the puppies who just turned 2 weeks. About half of them have eyes now and soe are trying to take a few steps. See them here.
The collage is made by Jaques owner Christiane :-) Thank you so much!
02.03.2010:
The puppies are doing great and seem to be growing by the minute. They are all between 1100-1300 gram now. A few will have opened their eyes within a few days, so everything is going the way it should. Poor J'adore on the other hand has suffered badly from a breast infection and even though she was on antibiotics she ran a very high fever (over 40 degrees) over the weekend. We could literally milk mucus out of her and spent the entire Sunday trying to get her better. Monday her temperature was back to normal, but we got a stronger penicillin for her and are now constantly watching out for lumps in her breasts. Poor baby....luckily they can start eating solid foods in a few weeks and she will be off duty..
I added a few new pictures in the puppy-gallery. See them here.
25.02.2010:
Just a quick update from puppy-land...
J'adore has turned out to be a super-mother! She's extremely careful and would rather trip backwards than step on one of the puppies. She's pretty much in the maternity box 24 hours a day although the heat in the room is killing her (we keep the room temperature around 27 degrees) to feed them and taken care of them. She only ventures out for 5 minutes at a time and well, for the first time I can actually say something nice about all the snow; J'adore loves to cool down in it!
We noticed a big hard lump in one of her boobs that blocked the milk (puppies had no interest in it) and we put her on antibiotics right away. I have heard so many horror-stories about breast infections that we werent't willing to take any chances. Today it's already much better.
We also weighed and marked all the puppies yesterday. They vary a bit in size now as 4 boys has now taken the lead weight wise (700-725 grams) - the rest are around 650 gram. Only one boy is around 575, but he's very eager and seems fine, so we just try to make sure that he gets the chance to eat when the 4 bulldozers are sleeping. Surprisingly all of the puppies are darker than J'adore at this point. About 4 of them are very dark clearly taking after their father. I didn't expect that since J'adores was quite light as a puppy.
A few new pictures from today in the puppy gallery here.
21.02.2010:
We are now 8 beautiful Dogue de Bordeaux's richer! Let's say if Jaques is a patriarchal kind of dad he has every reason to be thrilled; they are pretty much all boys! ;-) However there is one very special girl.
J'adore was very restless all day yesterday, so we had a feeling something would happen soon. Her appetite was good though (not for kibbles, tripe or raw meat) and she had 2 fried chicken steaks for break fast and grilled salmon steaks in the early afternoon. J'adore is a naturally very athletic dogue and went for a couple of walks in the garden. That doesn't sound as much, but we have so much snow at the moment, so really it's crawling through 50 cm of snow whereever you go... Her water broke around 18 (6 pm) and the first puppy arrived at 18:30. The first puppy seemed to be very hard to get out and for a moment there I really got nervous that it was stuck. Due to the weather it would be very hard to get to a vet fast; at best it could take over an hour to get to one and at worst...well, it would be too late. So my relief was overwhelming when the first puppy was finally out. It was the only female of the litter and she was big and strong - same colors and markings as J'adore. After that they just popped out with no problems. The last one was born at 23 (11 pm), so it was a fast delivery. So far J'adore has done a great job as a mom. At this point she has not left the puppy-box yet and she's very attentive to them. She did stress a little last night and for that reason Ryan stayed up with her all night to make sure everything was alright. I went to bed and when I came in this morning everything was peaceful :-)
All the puppies are very even in size and strength and they all seem to be doing well at this point. Some have J'adores coloring, but others look quite dark. Obviously a few more females would have been nice mostly because we will have to dissapoint people who had reserved a female. But everything went well with the birth and mother and babies are doing well, and that's the most important thing.
Here's a few pictures from the big day. See more in the puppy gallery here.
Dying with curiousity! (Calypso, Sienna & Clio) A good wash-up
Goooooood girl :-) Job done! Time to admire the accomplishment
19.02.2010:
Unfortunately nothing new to tell yet, just wanted to share these pictures. J'adore is obviously very big now, but she's in great shape and great spirits and still insists on going for a walk every day. However most of the time she sleeps :-) And I think she's looking forward to get her body back. And we are reeeeeally looking forward to the puppies' arrival :-)
14.02.2010:
Just a little pregnancy update... The mom-to-be is doing great although she has slowed down a lot the past few days. She still enjoys her 15 minute walk, but she only walks now - no running. She has gotten quite big the past week, so it will be exciting to see how many puppies she has. If she goes the full 63 days period they should arrive on Thursday or Friday. Her appetite is still good, but she gets 3 smaller meals in stead of 2 big, because she can't eat too much at a time anymore - I guess she doesn't have room in her stomach anymore.We just hope and pray that everything will go well with the birth.
Calypso is doing really well 7 weeks after her surgery :) For a long time it seemed to be the same, but lately she has become more active, playful and walks much better. I also credit this sudden improvement to the fact that I started using a "Back-on-Track" coat for her. It was suggested to me about 2 weeks ago by a friend and I ordered one after that.
(See it on this link: http://butik.back-on-track.dk/group.asp?group=8). It has a chemical effect that improves the bloodflow, helps heal injuries, release tensions in the back and eases pain. Since Calypso has been limping for a while now it is only natural that she must have a sore back too, so she wears it 6-8 hours a day now and so far it really seems to have helped her.
02.02.2010:
Last Saturday the first Danish Clubmatch was held and 47 dogues were entered. I (Karen) went and had a great time :-) The show comittee of the Danish Dogue de Bordeaux Club really deserves a lot of credit for getting this event together in such a short time. I'm already excited about the next Club show in June - the day before the World Show! Of course the day was made even better for us when Jaques von Butjadingerland won the whole thing! Being the father of J'adores puppies we were just thrilled :-)
Thanks to Candy (www.bozzzpadrino.de) for the photo!
Still a few weeks to go, and as you can see J'adore is visibly pregnant now :-) She sleeps a lot, but still gets excited about her daily walks.
23.01.2010:
J'adore was bred just before Christmas and now it's starting to show. She's been very tired so we decided not to take her for a scan, but just wait and see... We have stared at her for the past 5 weeks and now we feel quite sure that it is not just wishful thinking on our part :-) If everything goes as planned the puppies should arrive around the 19th of February. We are very excited about this combination and can't wait to have puppies in the house again :-)
See more about this breeding here.
På dansk her.
20.01.2010:
The snow is still here and for that reason life here is mostly lived inside the house in front of the fire...
It is almost a month ago since Calypso had her surgery and the recovery is going well. The biggest challenge is actually her weight... Calypso is a true Italian and loves great food :-) I would say that her ideal weight is around 58-60 kilos - she has strong bones and substance - but because of her love of food she has a tendency to get plumb. She weighed 63,5 kilos when she had the surgery and the vet said we should try to slim her down a little. It's pretty hard when she can only go for short walks... I'm afraid we haven't done too well in the weight department so far, but except for that her recovery is going well.
We are looking forward to the first Danish Clubmatch in 10 days where Amazonite Sugar Babe will be shown for the first time.
Seems everybody has a lot of snow these days... Above is Sisco aka Zeus (15 months) and Seraphina aka Karla (15 months).
PUPPIES FOR SALE at our friends kennel!
2 beautiful boys are looking for a new home! They are 10 weeks old.
For more information go to www.kennel-centio.dk or contact their owner Marianne at centiojonsson@mail.dk or mobil +45 28102796
02. 01. 2010:
The new year has begun and for this part of the country (Northern Jutland) there is a ton of snow and minus degrees :-( Bad news for me as I hate snow and cold weather, but the dogues are thrilled and have a lot of fun in the snow!
Calypso was operated for her busted ligament (korsbånd) on the 21st of december and we picked her up on the 22nd. Basically the difference between this operation and the traditional one is that the alter the angulation of the joint a little and by doing so the ligament becomes unnecessary. It is a a very well-suited method for giant breeds as it is often seen that a busted ligament often busts again after being operated. The dog can stand on the leg almost immediately after the operation and will be able to use it much faster. A weeks rest is necessary, but after that week the dog is allowed out on short walks (5 minutes). After 6-12 weeks the dog should more or less be fit for fight again. However it is recommened that you are careful with rough play etc. So far Calypso is recovering nicely and is happy to be home again after her night at the hospital. I will write more about this procedure as we go along.
Here's a few more snow pictures;
