Vulpine Great Danes

I would like to post a nice preview of our new logo!  Quick quiz:  Which two dogs are part of the logo?  A big THANK YOU to Bel at Fall Hollow Designs (www.fallhollowdesigns.com) for designing our new logo.  We hope to have her work on a new website design for us in the future, so keep an eye out for that.  It won't be hard to miss I'm sure!  Let me know what you think. 

Jenn bought MiMi from us, and tragically lost her in our parvo episode.  She's been great to deal with and chose to wait for another puppy to replace sweet MiMi.  Jenn traveled all the way from Japan back here to pick up MiMi.  So she graciously extended her stay, in order to wait for her new puppy.  Matrix had just sired a litter with Karma, a beautiful Michaeldane bitch bred by Serenity Great Danes.  Jenn picked the only harlequin male in the litter, and he just turned 8 weeks so she was able to get him picked up.  She is leaving in the morning to head back to Japan with London (yes, the puppy's name is London) and we expect LOTS of pictures of London in Japan enjoying the various architecture and landscapes. Jenn, are you listening?!?!   So stay tuned for updates on London & Jenn's adventures traveling the world.  Or just traveling Japan.  We're not picky! 

Anyway, thanks again Jenn for being so patient and believing in us. We're glad that you have your puppy now and I hope your husband thinks he was worth the wait, after he had to wait an extra two months for you to be gone.

"Jenn & London" Self Portrait

We have a few upcoming plans we’d like to let our “loyal readers” know about.   Bijou (now she’s called BB) has returned from her co-owner Laurie in Pennsylvania to be bred with Duffy our Hungarian import. Her sire recently completed his AKC Championship to add to his Canadian/International and National titles. Way to go Archie! We think this breeding should produce some great color and big beautiful show prospects. Above all we will be looking for great pet homes for these babies. We will be planning to hold back one for a show prospect. After Bijou is bred, she will return to Laurie in Pennsylvania for her pregnancy and whelping. Laurie and her Mom have much whelping experience as her Mom and her co-owned and whelped pups with a top Weimeraner breeder. Laurie is just as excited as we are to see what this breeding will accomplish. This should happen in the month of October, with puppies due sometime in December.

Also, we plan on a repeat breeding of Duffy and Aurora for a fantastic full European breeding. They had a lovely litter of girls last time, and we hope for another litter of beautiful puppies with a top European Champion pedigree. This also should happen in the month of October, with puppies due sometime in December. They will be whelped and raised here in Kansas in our living room as always. This will be Aurora’s second and final litter. She will be spayed and we will be looking for a loving pet home for her. It’s not because we don’t want to keep all of our retired foundation dogs, but it is because in order to keep moving forward in our program, we just do not have room to keep each and every dog and give them the time and attention they deserve. We hope that every litter we produce is better than their parents (the BMW philosophy we like to follow). This means dogs do not have to be bred multiple times if they are producing better than themselves in each litter. If they are not, then they shouldn’t continue to breed them anyway.

It appears Zsa Zsa has found a SUPER new Co-owner. Stay tuned for updates on her future plans and the fantastic European import that she will be bred with in the coming months.

Since we’ve had parvo, it has been a real eye opener to how people don’t understand how the disease is transmitted. They think we are like a toxic waste dump, since we’ve had the “parvo”. I can see why many people keep this a secret! But I don’t have anything to hide, and I’m going to continue to be honest and truthful. I’m also going to post some information that I’ve learned about parvo.

The thing is, every single breeder I’ve spoken to, all has a parvo story or know another breeder that has had a bad incidence of parvo in their dogs. Everyone thinks our dogs are now parvo carriers, when that is completely untrue!! The virus is actively shed for 10-12 days on a dog that has parvo. It is shed in their feces. The way it is transmitted is another dog coming into contact with their feces. Yes, it can stay in the ground for many months. Bleach is the only way to kill it. You can use a virus spray to kill it on furniture and carpet.

The key to keeping parvo out of your house and kennel is two-fold in my opinion, and this is what I’ve learned.

1. If you have a dog out to the vet or to another breeder’s or to a show, I would isolate that dog a minimum of 2 weeks from all of your other dogs. This would give time for any symptoms of anything they may have picked up to present itself. Then you would be catching it prior to it spreading to any of your other dogs.

2. I do not believe in limited vaccination protocol anymore. I will be vaccinating our puppies at 6, 9 and 12 weeks at a minimum. This way I can catch any puppy when mom’s antibodies start declining, and they need to boost their immunity. This is the best way to stop parvo from happening. Mom’s immunity in her milk will be passed on to the newborn puppies, and then the vaccinations will take over the work.

You can be at risk for parvo anywhere and at anytime. This is not meant to scare you, but this is meant to say that my house is no more a risk than your local vet’s office! Most likely it is a lesser risk, because I have less dogs, and have control of where they have gone. Vets see parvo cases on a regular basis. We’ve spoken to many vets since our recent problems, and they’ve all said unanimously it has been a very bad year for parvo and kennel cough. Even though they follow strict disinfection protocols, guess where we picked it up? At the vet’s! And I can attest from personal experience, when we brought our dogs in for treatment, and went in to visit the ones that were hospitalized, we would track parvo through the office, into the bathroom, etc. It would be darn near impossible to disinfect everything. I was even trying to limit where I went.

Dogs do not “carry” parvo. They cannot pass it on to their puppies. When you vaccinate them, just as with any other vaccination, it does not give them the virus. But they do build up antibodies against it. In our case, it was our unvaccinated or not fully vaccinated puppies that caught the virus and died from it. This was because they were still young and had not received their full series of shots. All of our adult dogs were fine because they have been vaccinated! Their puppies receive all these wonderful antibodies FROM their mother’s milk, to protect them from any harmful thing their immune system has not built up an immunity against yet. Then you start vaccinating them against these viruses at 6 weeks, which is the earliest you can and when the Mother’s antibodies MIGHT be wearing off. Then you continue every three weeks until they have received their full series of vaccinations. Our puppies will not be leaving until they have had at least their first two shots in the series. They will be sufficiently protected from this at that time to be able to successfully go anywhere and be safe from any outside influences.

Here are also some excellent links that describe the parvo virus, how to prevent it, and how to keep your pets safe from this. Make sure your puppy has had it’s shots and get proof of that prior to having any transported to you.

http://www.avma.org/animal_health/brochures/canine_parvo/parvo_brochure.pdf

http://www.avma.org/careforanimals/default.asp

http://www.heirlair.com/parvo.htm

(More links to follow as I do more research.)

Since there are so many misinformed people out there, we have not had any luck, so far, in finding suitable homes for Duffy, Aurora and Zsa Zsa. They are scared they are carrying the parvo virus and will give it to their dogs. Which, if you do your research, you know is untrue.  Since this is the case, and I’ve had time to step back from the horrible experience we went through, we will continue moving forward with our breeding program as originally planned. Our dogs are awesome and we love them and WE support them. They do not support us. Stay tuned for any upcoming breeding announcements and plans. We have exciting things to come here at Vulpine.

In honesty and integrity,

Talena

Hi everyone.  I just wanted to say thank you for the outpouring of support and understanding that we have recieved.  It's been comforting (although sad) to hear your stories of similiar experiences with parvo or some other contagious disease.  I appreciate what you've had to say, and it really has helped me through this tough time.

Some people may not understand why we would reevaluate some things here, but I think that is the appropriate response due to the circumstances.  We love our dogs, and although some people want to be haters (I will not name any names because I AM BIGGER THAN THAT), they don't know what they are talking about. 

We are not rehoming our dogs out our backdoor to the first persont that is willing to "make a deal".  They will only go to the BEST home for them.  They each have their quirks and will require the perfect home before it is even considered that they leave us. 

And another thanks to Jenn for hanging in with us with the loss of her beauitful MiMi and we are looking forward to getting you a stunning puppy, that will have great potential for you.

Many thanks to my wonderful husband Nick for doing the things that I am unable to do.  I am forever grateful.

Due to the recent shock of losing 5 of our beautiful puppies to parvo caused us to do some deep thoughts about the future of our program. What we wanted to focus on for the next couple of years and where we wanted to grow and what we wanted to change.

During this discussion we have decided that what would currently be best for us at this time, would be to part with our Europeans, which are Duffy, Aurora and Zsa Zsa. Now don't get me wrong, this is not due to anything they have done, but just that we are feeling overwhelmed by our losses lately and want to cut back a bit so that we can really enjoy the dogs that we have chosen to keep.

Duffy is going to be offered to an approved breeding program that can get some use out of his awesome pedigree and his beautiful temperament. He is heavily marked, but he has proven to throw correctly marked harlequins when bred with a mantle or mismarked black (Aurora). We will offer the girls separately to pet homes where they can be loved on and given the individual attention they deserve or to an approved breeding program.

Duffy will be 2 at the end of October. He is currently standing between 34? and 35? tall. He weighs approximately 150lbs. He is very light on his feet and prances when he walks. He is extremely loving and has an unbeatable temperament and personality. He gets along well with all dogs and our children. He would take a little time to introduce to a male dog, but I think he would be fine once they got to know each other. He has an outstanding pedigree that goes back to one of my two favorite harlequins from Italy, which are Quentintarantino Del Castello Delle Rocche and his sire Obelix. Del Castello Delle Rocche is and has been the top kennel in Italy for many years in a row. Their dogs are fantastic. Duffy's sire is an Italian Champion and his dam is a Hungarian Jr. Champion. I had the pleasure of talking with a cardiologist at K-State who is from Italy and has worked with their dogs many times. He spoke of how beautiful they were. Duffy is AKC registered and DNA?d.

Aurora is 3 and has had one litter for us with Duffy. Litter "C" on our photo gallery page. She is small in size, as most of the dogs from the Moloseum kennel (the top kennel in Poland) tend to be. She is minimum height standard at 29" and weighs around 110lbs. She has great conformation and is an absolute sweetheart. She loves to come in the house, curl up in a ball and go to sleep as long as she possibly can. We purchased her from a gal in Maryland who had imported her as a puppy. She is a very easy keeper and keeps weight on and eats well. She did have a C-section with her litter, due to the lack of contractions after she had 3 pups. I was anxious to ensure the safety of the puppies. She did an excellent job as a mother. She is line bred on the famous World Champion, Amon Dog Eros. Her sire is a Multi Champion along with her Dam. She would do great in a breeding home or as a pet. She is OFA Thyroid certified and DNA'd along with AKC registered.

Zsa Zsa is almost 2 and both of her parents were imported from Russia. She is between 32" and 33" tall and still has some growing to do. She weighs around 115 lbs but has a lot of filling in to do. She is high strung and needs a lot of human attention and interaction. She can climb a 6' fence if given the opportunity. She is very sweet and loving once she gets settled in inside. Her sire has received a CAC (National Ch. Award) while being shown in the USA. Her sire is line bred on the famous and very sought after harlequin stud Aljoscha v. Allersdorfer Bach. Her dam has many Russian champions in her pedigree. Zsa Zsa has a beautiful head and great structure. Her parents were both hip/heart/thyroid certified.

We hope to continue with our European breeding program in the future. We now have a better idea of what we want in our Euros, and look to add them when we are ready.

I just wanted to let everyone that watched our site know what has been going on the last two weeks here at Vulpine. At our best guess, when we took Avy to an outside veterinarian clinic to have her surgical a.i. performed, we believe she carried the parvo virus back into our home. It started with Matrix becoming very ill and he went into the vet for emergency surgery, as we suspected a blockage due to the excessive vomiting. While he was in ICU, Cappy, our beautiful mantle male started vomiting. We took him in immediately. He tested positive for the parvo virus. He was admitted. The next day, Forrest and MiMi started with the same symptoms. Then LuLu. Then GaGa. During this time, Matrix had a slow recovery. Forrest did a turn around on day 4 and we lost MiMi, then Cappy, then LuLu, then GaGa. And today we lost Boo.

We took all of the puppies into the vet IMMEDIATELY at the very first signs of any symptoms due to what happened with Matrix. It still wasn’t enough. Parvo is a very deadly disease and we feel blessed to still have Matrix and Forrest with us at this time.

We were aware of parvo when this happened. We has subscribed to the “limited vaccination protocol” that we had learned from talking with other Great Dane breeders. Our puppies had received their initial inoculations, but due to their age, they had not received the full series. Parvo is most deadly in young puppies. It is very rare for an older dog like Matrix to have parvo. We still have not received Matrix’s shot records from Canada, although we have been assured he was vaccinated against parvo. Needless to say, we have decided to change our philosophy on the limited vaccination protocol and do the best we can to protect our puppies as early as possible. We would much rather take the risk of a vaccine reaction then suffer this horrible loss of 5 of our wonderful animals.

Right now our biggest concern is our upcoming litter with Avy. We have been disinfecting like crazy (bleach is the only thing that will kill the parvo virus) and Avy is now in isolation. We will keep her and her litter in strict isolation until the leave us fully vaccinated. We are working on preventive measures, such as vaccinating her with a killed virus 3 weeks prior to delivery to provide the maximum amount of antibodies in her milk to the puppies.

Parvo is an ugly ugly virus. I’m so sad for anyone that has ever lost a dog or puppy this way, and I’ve been at a loss for words these last two weeks. I know God has a plan, and everything happens for a reason, but it’s easy to question the reasons why when situations like this occur.

I want to thank Jenn for hanging in with us due to the loss of her beautiful MiMi, and our sincerest apologies.

We don’t plan on giving up on our dogs as this is truly what we love to do. We are trying to learn as much from this experience as possible, in order for something like this never to happen again. I just thought it was important to share the bad news along with the good news on my site. - Talena

A couple of weeks ago, Charm decided to bless us with a little surprise we like to call "Boo".Apparently Matrix and Charm decided to be sneaky on us, and we officially have had our first whoops litter. She delivered one beautiful Harlequin female on July 17th. Her page will be up shortly. She will be staying here at Vulpine and we will be showing her when she's ready. If we had to have a surprise litter, it doesn't get any better than Boo! See her pictures in her Album in the Photo Gallery.

Cappy's stitches are out from his ear crop and he's taped up now in "big boy" tapes!  He has got a head piece to die for!  It's just incredible.  He's looking great and new pics will be coming of him this weekend.  Stay tuned!

We took Cappy up to KC on Thursday for an ear crop by Dr. Rose at Raytown Animal Hospital.  While we were waiting on him to do the crop, we took the kids to Worlds of Fun.  We rode all the rollercoasters, although we decided that only one ride on the Mamba was necessary. LOL It was SO tall and fast.  We had to talk Jaxen into going on it, although he was sorta glad we did....

Grandma stayed and babysat the animals while we were gone.  You can read more about that at her blog here:  http://geoffryshometown.blogspot.com/

The puppies are getting up and around on wobbly little legs and their eyes are open. These girls are chunky!  I will get new pictures and videos uploaded this weekend. 

Cappy and his new cup.  Pictures and updates to come on this boy.  Dr. Rose was kind enough to wrap his legs with PURPLE bandages as he saw Nick was wearing blue/red KU stuff.  How nice of him!  LOL