After many days of waiting for the timing to be just right, Finley was bred today! Her due date, according to the reproductive vet, is June 8th, give or take a couple of days.
We’re looking forward to more normal days around here as her hormones drop off and she can again be in the unmonitored company of Chev and Xupe.
We’ll post occasionally during these weeks of waiting. For now she’ll be treated like a queen, our mommy-to-be.
Finley’s breeding date is imminent. Meanwhile, “the boys” have been residing in the barn, well away from Finley’s scent. Biff and I tag team between the house and the barn, always
wearing clothes devoid of Finley’s scent when we are with the boys. It’s worth the trouble. Although it’s been a long two weeks, they haven’t gotten too crazy. We’re just a few days away from her hormones dropping off and we’ll all be back together in the house again. Then we’ll have 9 weeks of normal until puppies arrive.
As we wait for the day Finley will be bred (just days away) it seems fitting that all of nature is coming to life at Norling Rise. Xupe flushed a wild turkey up into a tree this morning and then flushed him again from the treetop out into the marsh. I flushed a few pheasant as I walked a tree line this morning. Ducks, geese and migrating birds were audible throughout the day.
And just now, as I was beginning this post, I noticed three wild turkeys moving slowly around the pond out our sunroom window. Finley, who had been snuggling next to me, took notice when I got up to catch a photo of them, and she watched them intently before dashing out to get a closer look. Never a dull moment around here.
As of last night, Finley von Herrenhausen is “in season.” We expect her to be bred in about 7-9 days. Calculating out 63 days from then suggests that the puppies could arrive on June 3rd, give or take a day or two. We’ll be sure to post after the breeding has taken place.
That’s mama Finley, with our Xupe, from her first litter.
Forest, Norling Rise’s Juniper Berry, from our “B” litter, just became an AKC Junior Hunter. His person sent this great shot of him on point during one of the four legs he had to complete. Touché Forest!
Edgar (“Norling Rise’s Loganberry”, from our “B” litter) lives in Wisconsin. We recently received this update from Edgar’s people…
We are pleased to announce that we will be breeding our female, Finley von Herrenhausen (left) to Simon von Herrenhausen (right) in just a few weeks. Both are purebred Korthals Griffons, both are International Champions, both are AKC Junior Hunters and both earned NAVHDA Prize 1’s for Natural Ability.
There’s a lot about Finley throughout this website. Here’s a bit more info about Simon:
To view Simon’s pedigree more closely, visit the data base on the Herrenhausen website:
http://www.herrenhausensportingdogs.com/cgi-bin/geneal.plop=tree&index=15201&gens=5&db=griffon.dbw
No Minnesotan really believes that winter is close to being over in late February, but we were certainly feeling like it is as our temps rose into the 60’s this week. The overnight temperatures have been in the 30’s or below, but the days have warmed up unseasonably, delighting both dogs and humans. It feels so good just to be outside when it’s in the 40’s and warmer and the dogs are completely entertained just moving and sniffing around.
Chev turned 8 today and Biff is now 62. We had ginger desserts to celebrate – a ginger pancake for Chev, Finley and Xupe to share and gingerbread cake for Biff and me. It was a beautiful January day in Minnesota, with snow sparkling in the cold sunshine this morning. The peace was broken, however, when the dogs cornered an unlucky rabbit and Chev wound up with the bunny. ((t was a mercifully quick kill.) Griffs are known in Europe for being hunters of feathers and fur, and they proved their dual purpose today.
