Barbet Pups at 6 weeks

 

A beautiful winter day, sunny but cold, and the puppies were able to spend a short time outside. They are brave little pups who do not seem intimidated at the total change in scenery. They are eating well, using their pee pads, and growing like crazy. Their teeth have also started to come in. Our sweet little babies will soon be sharks!

Solene had her checkup with her surgeon yesterday and her incision has healed perfectly. Stitches removed, she is now completely back to normal and is enjoying her babies again! She is keeping them clean, spending time snuggling, and of course cleaning up their food bowls!

Give Thanks!

Solene's Homecoming

After a very rough week in the hospital, Solene is home! We are beyond grateful to Pittsburgh Veterinary Specialists, both South and North locations, for their expert diagnosis and care when Solene crashed on Thanksgiving with a temp of 106+ and a systemic bacterial infection. I fully expected a call Thursday night to tell me that she had passed. PVSEC treated Solene throughout the weekend and she improved enough that Monday morning I was able to pick her up and bring her to Meadowlands Veterinary Clinic for surgery. 
 

Solene between hospital stays

Our own fabulous vet, Dr Kathryn Gardner, removed a now necrotic mammary gland and other tissue. Solene is home recovering and we continue to bottlefeed the fast growing puppies. This episode was really scary as Solene went from normal to near death within two hours. Our Thanksgiving thoughts are filled with appreciation for the wonderful vets who work so hard to save our sweet pets. This time we’ve got a very happy ending. Thanks to everyone for their concern and good wishes!
The puppies are doing great and are growing like crazy on their bottle formula and gruel. I can't wait until Solene is allowed back to her babies! 

The babies at 3 weeks with one of their stand-in moms :)

Pupdate

Things have taken an unexpected turn here as Solene has been hospitalized since Thursday with acute septic mastitis. With excellent treatment and supportive care, she is now stable enough for tomorrow's surgery to remove the problematic mammary gland. Thankfully the puppies had the benefit of Solene's care for the first few weeks as we are now hand-raising 10 puppies. Solene will no longer be able to nurse them but I'm sure she'll be happy to snuggle and keep them clean once she is back on her feet. Splitting feedings between bottles and gruel, the puppies are doing great and are extra social with us. They are a bit sloppy learning to eat! Here are a few puppy pics taken this morning before their breakfast cleanup. Our response to email is necessarily diminished; thank you for your patience.

Please help us think good thoughts and wishes for Solene's complete recovery. Our special girl means the world to us.

 

Beth is Best in Miscellaneous at the National Dog Show!

 

Beth won a really nice Best in Miscellaneous at the National Dog Show in Philadelphia, PA for 3 points, bringing her within one point of finishing her Certificate of Merit! Thanks to handler Erica Sanden Cross and judge David Kittridge for this honor. 

Congrats Beth & Erica!

Beth won Best in Miscellaneous in Oaks, PA both yesterday and today with handler Erica Sanden Cross. Judges were Rita Holloway and Doug Johnson. We're very proud of Beth!

Hickory Tavern Fortune Cookie DJ

Barbet Puppies

 

Our puppy pile is getting larger. Now 11 days old, the pups will begin to open their eyes and ears in the next few days. They are already wobbling around the box on all four feet. The boys are red, green, gray, and purple collars. Girls are blue, yellow, white, pink, orange, and black collars. Solene is the perfect mother!

Barbet Puppies

 

One black boy and one brown girl :)

Solene's Pups Have Arrived!!!

Solene is having a great day of rest after spending yesterday giving birth to her babies right on her due date. We have 10 wonderful puppies, 6 girls and 4 boys. Two girls are brown and the rest of the pups are black. She started whelping at 2:00 in the afternoon and was basically wrapped up by 9:30 pm. The pups are beautiful, vigorous, and strong.

With Solene carrying such a large litter, we knew there were risks that not all puppies would survive. In the end, Solene gave birth to 14 puppies and the loss of those 4 perfect little babies breaks my heart. When we have a puppy born, my immediate action is to open the sac at the head, insert my finger in the mouth to check for a cleft palate, and wait for any movement from the new baby. Usually they latch right on to my finger and I withdraw and allow the mom to tend to her newborn. With a stillborn, my heart skips a beat when I get no reaction. I try many different methods to resuscitate the baby but in the end, nature can be cruel and not all puppies are meant to live. I will never get used to this aspect of breeding and I never forget each lifeless puppy that I've briefly held in my hands.

It is days like these that make each success with my dogs so sweet.

Solene's puppies are almost here!

With a week to go, our sweet Solene is really showing her pregnancy. Her belly is huge and she looks like she'll be giving birth any minute! At this point, we just hope for a safe delivery for the babies and Solene. She still feels great and enjoys her time outside. Only a few more days until we meet her Pascal pups! This will be Solene's final litter. Her other two litters have produced beautiful puppies with special personalities and we're excited to learn what this litter brings us!

Flynn Receives Her NADD Dock Diving Invitation!

 

Flynn got mail yesterday -- her formal invitation to the NADD Dock Diving National Championships! We are so excited that she'll be participating in Orlando. Good girl Flynn! 2018 is the first year that a Barbet will compete in Orlando. Best of luck to Flynn and Astrid!

Recent Dog Show Photos and Ads

 

Canine Chronicle Nov/Dec

 

Roger winning a 4 point major under Rita Biddle Esq in Wilmington, OH 

 

Dana winning Best in Open Show in West Friendship, MD under judge Priscilla Gabosch. This win finished her Certificate of Merit title.

Barbet Grooming Chart

Often I am contacted by groomers who wonder just how the Barbet is to be trimmed. I created this drawing to help but over the years I've found that hand scissoring is the only way to achieve the correct coat on the Barbet. Longer on the top of the head, shorter on the neck and back, long on the legs, shorter on the belly...it's been a lot of trial and error to come up with the trim that I'm happy with on my dogs but I do feel like my dogs are now consistently presented with an easy and attractive cut.

Dana Wins Two Bests in Show!

 

Hickory Tavern Former Child Star CM

Dana hit so many milestones this week. She won Best in Show at both FSS Shows in West Friendship, Maryland to finish her Certificate of Merit title in three short weeks from the puppy class!  We are so proud that Dana is our tenth homebred CM winner and is also the third generation of CM dogs that we have bred. We are really excited about the future of our Barbet.

Roger's PWCCA National Win Pics

We are still over the moon with Roger's results at the Pembroke Welsh Corgi National Specialty. He won both his Regular and Sweeps classes, plus Best of Opposite in Sweeps! Our sincere thanks to judges Andrew Carter and Shannon Stone and our forever gratitude to legendary breeder Anne Bowes of Heronsway Corgi fame for sharing Roger with us.

Heronsway Run for the Roses at Hickory Tavern

Dana's Photo Shoot

I sat down and Dana plopped herself on my legs!

Sweet puppy face

Hickory Tavern Former Child Star - Dana

Pembroke Welsh Corgi National Specialty 2018

A national specialty is such a wonderful event. An entire week where the spotlight is on the Pembroke Welsh Corgi is heaven! This year we were so fortunate that the PWC National was held in Wilmington, Ohio at the spacious Roberts Centre. We were able to squeeze it in between dog show weekends for Dana and Beth and picking up Russell from Justin at the Wine Country shows in Romulus, NY.

Our handsome puppy Roger started with a bang by winning his Sweepstakes class in a large entry that was judged by Shannon Stone. Shown by his breeder Anne Bowes, Roger then went on to Best of Opposite in Sweeps! Roger had not seen Anne since December, but his little butt never stopped wiggling for her!

Heronsway Run for the Roses at Hickory Tavern

First, 15-18 Month Dogs

Best of Opposite, PWCCA Sweepstakes!

The next day, Roger showed in the regular 15-18 dog class and again he placed first under judge Andrew Carter of Saddle Lane! It was so much fun to watch him out in the ring with Anne. Truly we are fortunate for her to have shared Roger with us. Thank you, Anne!

Anne & Roger, 1st in Regular 15-18 Dogs

Anne making Roger look great!

Barbet Puppies on the Way!

We are so pleased that after missing on the last two attempts, Solene is now safely in whelp to Pascal. These two beautiful Barbet met up in Arlington, VA in early September and Solene is now carrying a large litter. Our fingers and toes are crossed that everything goes well!

Litter Pedigree: https://pawpeds.com/db/?a=p&ids=3:1061709;2:1113310&g=4&p=bar&o=ajgrep

Pascal. Yes, he really does have a black dot on his tongue!

Pascal

Russell is a Champion!

Thank you to our good friend and handler Justin Smithey for completing Russell's AKC Championship in record time! Russell earned his majors in one weekend in Deland, FL. We are very proud of our handsome boy. Russell is anxious to begin performance events.

Ch. Hickory Tavern Gold Margarita

(Ch. Sporting Fields Son of a Beach Babe x Bo-Bett O'Calla Lily of Hickory Tavern)

More NADD Barbet Pics

 

Wow, thanks to Cindy Noland for capturing these beautiful images of Flynn at Duke's K9 Dash & Splash. What fun to see her determination in the air!

Summer Fun!

We've been having a super summer with the dogs. Flynn and Beth took a road trip to Michigan with handler Erica Sanden Cross to show at Michigan Sporting Dogs and the Barbet Club of America supported entries in Monroe, MI. Friday and Saturday, Flynn won Best of Breed, then on Sunday our 8 month old puppy Beth won Best of Breed over a beautiful entry of mature Barbet.

Hickory Tavern Fortune Cookie

Last weekend, David and I took Flynn and our grandpuppy Otis to Duke's K9 Splash & Dash in Mantua, Ohio for the hot, busy, and awesome dock diving competition. Otis jumped a personal best of 23'8" and earned his Dock Master NADD title!

Hickory Tavern Superdog JH DM

Flynn was all set to earn her Junior dock diving title, but on her final splash jumped 15'5", putting her into the Senior division! Flynn will have to wait a few more weeks to earn her first dock diving title but it was fantastic to see how much she loved jumping into the big pool!

Hickory Tavern Wish Upon A Star CM

Goofy Russell has been enjoying some time at the lake house and is learning to swim!

Hickory Tavern Gold Margarita