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Ellie-May
Ellie - well, what can I say about her - she is from my first home-bred litter and is the apple of my eye. She is such a sociable animal - loves everything and everybody. She’s very excitable and ‘talks’ constantly. She has the sweetest of natures and is quite a comic too. She has her own character and her temperament is exceptional.
2007 saw Ellie produce her first litter of puppies. I have tried previously to mate her but she appeared reluctant to conceive. Fortunately, using a different stud dog and the technology available to accurately pinpoint ovulation we succeeded this time. I made a very hard decision not to keep one from this litter, as the stud dog I used was not my first choice, but for various reasons I used him as I felt we weren’t going to achieve puppies again. In saying that, both the stud dog owner and I were extremely pleased with the quality of the litter and I may end up regretting that decision - Sue thought one of the dog puppies in particular had great show potential. Actually, one of the puppies was born with a small tear deep in her throat and was extremely lucky to survive - intensive nursing in the first few days proved to be worthwhile and the problem was diagnosed at 4 weeks, but we had to wait until she was 10 weeks old before the vet could operate to repair the tear. Amazingly, Tilly woke up starving and ate a meal immediately and hasn’t stopped since. As my granddaughter Shannon was so involved with all aspects of this litter, from conception, delivery and the nursing care, she didn’t want me to re-home her, so I have given Tilly to Shannon and they absolutely adore each other.
I intend to have another litter from Ellie next year and I have approached Wendy Andrews - a renowned breeder and judge, who has owned bred, shown and worked Golden Retrievers for a great many years and whose dog was Reserve Best of breed at Crufts 2007. This dog - Catcombe Corblimey - will be Ellie’s next mate and fingers crossed for another super litter in 2008. I already have several reservations for this litter.
Ellie-May is also a regular at Seaford Dog Training Club and holds the Kennel Club Good Citizen Gold Award. Ellie and I have been invited to train in obedience with Michelle Boys who competes to a very high standard with her dogs. Unfortunately, due to Ellie having puppies and me having hurt my knee, I have only been able to attend a few sessions, but hopefully we will be able to return as soon as we are both fit and well again.
2008 - Ellie was mated to Catcombe Cock A Doodle Doo in May. We decided to use Corblimeys son for the mating for various reasons. Both of Wendys dogs are absolutely stunning - I feel very privileged to have been able to use either one of them. Ellie gave birth to 10 puppies - 5 bitch and 5 dog puppies on 26th July. I will of course be keeping a bitch here and now have to wait until they are 6 weeks old before making the decision on which one. I will be having experienced help with my decision as I would love to show her.
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