Dinky Daisy meets her Stud

 

My husband is driving us up to Wales to pick up Dinky Daisy from a week away from home – she has been staying with the Neibullshowdog family

Why, well we are hoping that she is now a pregnant Frenchie as she has been busy being wooed by ‘Gucci’ ,http://neibullshowdogs.co.uk/stud.html resident Casanova and Stud dog.

So a week after doing the 3 ½ hour journey we are all packed in the car again on our way to the Welsh Valleys to pick her up.

Now this is the first time I have done this sort of thing, and believe me it was gut wrenching when I left her – Neil from Neibulls is a professional in the Bulldog world, so I tried to play it cool when I walked in to his up-to-the-minute looking dog set-up and kennels -. Neil talked about hormone levels, not mine the dogs, just to make it clear and how he tested these levels, and he showed me a colorful  chart. To be completely honest I heard little of what he was saying as all I could focus on was where I was leaving my ‘baby’ and the size of the stud dog that was brought down by his son – HUGE, I mean he was 3 times the size of my baby – really…did I want that beast ( how ever handsome he was ) to,, you know, do the do with my little girl ( I know she is a dog but still ) – ok keep it together Emily…so smiling I handed Neil the lead and said goodbye to him and walked out to the car… sobbing. What was I doing… I got in the car and said to my husband …just drive, 1/2 a mile down the road  he piped up – wow glad you handed her over, I couldn’t have done it. Great thanks.

So on the way home I questioned myself about what I was putting Dinky through, I thought  about making money off my Frenchie ( a member of our family )  – was it unethical to do what I was doing?

Look I know the arguments around the subject of breeding, but I was questioning it on a smaller more personal level, was it wrong to be breeding her, leaving her in a kennel, somewhere in Wales.

I suppose, if you are thinking of doing it, just be aware, that if like me your dog is a member of your family and like me you get angry when people say ‘but they are just a dog’ when you know they are so much more, be prepared that is isn’t that easy to leave them with someone else for potentially  10 days who is going to mate them up to 3 or 4 times. Also don’t forget the costs involved, for me it has been – petrol to and from Wales, Stud fees ( £500) and many coffee stops, you could make a saving on the coffee – but I can’t get through the day without.

Since my Frenchie has been away I have been reading and watching videos, mainly from The Kennel Club website to learn as much as possible on how to be a good breeder, carer of this litter and my Frenchie mum to be – I am determined to become an ‘assured breeder’ which I will talk about in a following post and I will continue to read up on the subject so I can bring healthy, well socialised puppies into the world which will hopefully be a credit to the breed and me..

In the end I do think we did the right thing sending her to Neil,  and we did the responsible thing choosing a top stud dog to make sure we were breeding the most healthy next generation of French Bulldogs– Poorly bred French Bulldogs have led to a lot of health issues ,for example  breathing difficulties   – at least I have the knowledge that we are enhancing the breed not diminishing it.

So it is 7:30pm and we are all home, Dinky is fine and happy ( think the Mc Donald chips that we shared help to smooth over any Frenchie bad feelings she had  towards us ) . I look over to her sitting on her Dads lap in front of the fire – I still think that she gave me a look of ‘how could you’ when I picked her up – you know mum is the bad guy and dad is the good guy’ thing going on – Neil handed me a sheet to show the dates that she was mated – 4 times in the week and he said for us to get a scan in 24 days from the last date mated – so 28^th Feb we will take her for a scan.

If you are looking for a Stud dog I suggest that this is a good first article to read – Finding a Stud dog