Tabby's Puppies

It has been awhile since we have had a litter to post. Almost 2 months since the last one left. We took off so that we could enjoy Joshua's baseball season without worry about puppies at home. Well we now have the first of several litters this week. Tabby is our black based red long hair female. This is her first litter and she is a wonderful mommy. She takes care of them so well. They will be going home around June 8th. We have two females (red and black/tan) two males (reds) Females are $350.00 males are $300.00. Full Akc registration is $100 more.

My Beau

I will be the first to admit, I am partial to the black n tan mini dachshunds. They have such a look to them. On December 22 Tootsie gave birth to three black n tans. 2 males and 1 female. We have sold all but one male. His name is Beau. I am a firm believer that there are reason why things happen. Well I could not figure out why no one wanted this little man. He has become my sweetheart. This week we realized that he had found his forever home. Ours. While lying in my lap I noticed that Beau was breathing harder. I picked him up and it was like he would grunt. After a couple of days of hearing I felt something was wrong with him, Ben said take him to the dr. I dropped him off at the vet and it was not long before I received a call from the vet. Beau has a congenital birth defect inwhich there is not a "wall" keeping his liver, intestines from going around his heart. Dr Andrew said that this was the first case in which he had seen this in a puppy this young normally this is something you find in 5 yr old dogs. After a 10 min phone call, I called Ben and said that Beau has found a home, ours. We both agreed that we could not let him leave our home. After a long meeting with the vet in his office looking over xrays, blood work, we have decided that we are going to let him be right now. Let him grow and at the age of 6 months go back and retest again. This will be a continual process in his life. The vet says that right now he is ok and there is no need of surgery this young. So right now we are loving him and spoiling him. and we have a Beau. The reason I am putting this in my blog is to let you know that we really do care about our puppies. A normal breeder would probably made the decision to have him put to sleep. Not us we believe that is the last resort. So when you come by and visit our kennels ask to see the king of the house Beau.

We have to be greatful that in 2 years of breeding this is our first puppy that has had any major problems.

Dachshund shuffle

This is a new dance that we have created in the last couple of weeks. It seems that we have several females that have came into heat. So we have been shuffling females in and out of kennels rearrange kennels to get the right mix of male/female. So far we have Tabby, Muffin, Daisy, Foxy, Bunni that have came into heat and a couple of more any day now. By June/July we hopefully will have puppies to sale.

The great wall of Seymour

For about 6 months now we have been discussing how can we get more room for our puppies. If you have ever seen our back yard, it really is not a yard but a big driveway. It has gravel all on it. You could probably put four cars side by side that is how wide our driveway is. Well we decided to put up an area that would block off more area for the dogs/puppies. Ben worked very hard on the design of this. I would say it is a great design. He knows that I am very particular in the fact that I do not want for people to come up and all they see is a big fence. For over a week now we have been working on this area. We put up fence post and then lattice. This goes from one corner of the back of the house to the other corner of the house. To put this into more of a prospective. It has taken 16 pcs of lattice work to make this fence. Or as I jokingly refer to it as the great wall of Seymour. We have it up right now to the point that the inside dogs can go outside and run. The rottie really loves it. Unfortunately, mother nature is not cooperating with us and we have not been able to extend the kennels yet. There is also not a gate. So to access the house from the back right now, we have put up the swimming pool ladder to climb over the fence. Now can we say redneck.

Now hopefully after the time changes and the weather will break we can get the kennels expanded and let the other ones out. We are also decided on how to expand the kennels in the inside. We are wanting to divide them into the point that we have 8 kennels. That way we can have just a couple of dogs in one area. It seems that we have a couple of girls going into heat and things are a little snippy in their areas. Can we say cat fight???

So here is to the great wall of Seymour. Hopefully we can get it completed so that the dogs/puppies can run and play.

The name game

When we have puppies, we do not call them by any particular name. We feel that the new family should be the one that picks out the name. They will call us and we will start calling them by that name. This set of puppies, we had an Ellie, Sydney, Baxter, Jake and a Dozier. Now that all of the puppies who had families have went home, we have some left. We have a boy and two girls. So this weekend, we pay the name game. This is where we look at them and find the name that we fits them. We do not want them going any longer without a name. So we have Beau, Sissy and Lacy. Hopefully they will ony have to go by these names for just a few days until their new family arrives.

Go home weekend

We try to schedule go homes on weekends. That way the family and the puppy have time to bond before the family goes back to work/school and leaves the puppy alone. This weekend was go home time for two of our puppies. There are several times in the life of a puppy with us that I enjoy. Them being born, them opening their eyes, them trying to walk and them going home. I do not know who is more nervous, the puppy or the family. It is a big time in the life of the puppy. They are trying to learn to adjust with out mom but with the help of their brothers/sisters. The next step in their life is to learn how to adjust without them but with the help of their new family. We work very hard to find the perfect family for our puppies. Every puppy that leaves our home is told good bye and are given and hug and a kiss from us. We beg our familes to send us updated pictures of the puppies as they grown. If we get a pic from the family I try to put them on the site. This weekend Baxter and Ellie went home to be with their families. I had their stuff packed up and ready for them to go. The smiles on the face of the new family means so much. You know they are loved.

So this weekend was a wonderful weekend for Collins Doxies. We hope that we will have more to come. Sydney will be going home soon. He has a little bit to travel he is going from Tn to PA. But he is going home to Bella. She came from one of our litters last year. The family keeps us updated on her and we were very excited that they decided to add another one of our puppies to their family.

Vienna's litter

Tootsie's litter

It is a crazy life but I love it

To say that I actually knew what I was getting into when I approached my husband about the idea of breeding would be funny. I thought it would be this nice wonderful easy thing to do. My husband and I both work a regular 40 hour week job and we do this on the side. I make it sound so easy but it is not. Yes we do this on the side but "on the side" equals to more hours than the 40 hour a week job that we hold down. Today was one of the few days that I actually wondered why I am doing this and if I was actually crazy in doing it. I had a rough day at work that flowed in to a rough day coming home. At that point of time, all I wanted to do was to climb into the bed and cover my head and say good night. As I drove up the driveway I realized that for a once in a blue moon event, I got home before Ben.

I at this time set in the car and did not want to go in. I knew as soon as I hit the door that it would start. I was wrong, I did not even get to the door, they could here the car, it gave me away. The howling and barking started. I came in and said hello to the ladies, Peanut and Brindy. They hang out in the house during the day. They are the only ones allowed to room free. I then went into the nursery area to let the dogs out, one by one they got out and we all went to the back door to go potty. Of course with little ones, sometimes we get distracted and then we have an accident of course that happened. This time it was Tbone. He decided that we need to play a little game of chase before going out side. I won and he eventually went outside. The whole time I looked at this as a job. I then went in and say the babies. Tootsie's little black n tan girl looked at me raised her ears and cocked her head and barked at me. It was like she said it is ok. As long as you can bark, life will be ok. I picked her up and let her give me sugars. As I checked over the puppies to make sure everyone was ok, they all proceeded to let me know that it was ok. Each one giving me that lick on my check. By the time I was done with the 8th baby it came back to me. I do not do this as a job, I do not do this to make money, I do this because I love the breed. I love the puppies.

At that moment, I promised myself that when it got to the point that it was a job, chore to take care of the puppies, and this feeling lasted more than a couple of minutes, it was time for me to hang the collar up and to not do this anymore. To me dachshunds are the most loving breed there are and I am glad that I am the lucky one to come home to a house full of doxies.

PETER PAN-

The one type of dachshund that Collins Doxies has not gotten into is English Creme's. Well due to one of our breeder friends having to make the hard decision to stop breeding, we were given the opportunity to get her English Creme's. We have two females that we got from her at a previous time but recently we got Peter Pan. He is a handsome young man that has quickly become a momma's boy. Every where I go he is there. I am the only one that he will allow to do much interaction with him. He is gradually getting use to the other members of the family. We are very excited to start this new road in our business. We are hoping to have our first litter of English Cremes sometime around late summer. We will keep you updated on him.

Baby its cold outside

Not only do we breed mini dachshunds, but we also help rescue Siberian Huskies. We work with Siberian Husky Assist located in Bristol Virginia. We pull huskies from local shelters from around East Tennessee as a last resort before they are put down. Unfortunately, we can not save every one, but we do our part. On Saturday, January 17th S.H.A. held a reinactment of the 1925 Serum Run starting at Abdingdon Virginia and ending in Damascus Virginia. We had several mushers that participated in the event and it was a blast. Mother nature provided the background for the event. For us humans, it was cold. Everyone was wrapped up tightly. I myself, had three layers on, not to mention two pair of gloves. I was frozen. The later in the day it got, the colder that it got. The huskies loved it more. Everyone was howling and pulling having a great time. It was nice to see the families bringing back the huskies they had adopted from the rescue for a visit. We saw several that we ourselves had fostered. It was nice to see them so happy and loved. That is all we ask for in life.

As far as the humans were concerned, baby its cold outside, as far as the huskies were concerned, yeah its cold outside.

Peanut the Princess

Peanut is our very first dachshund. You could say she started the this whole chapter in our lives. A chapter that we hope have many many many pages in it. She is the one who taught us how loving a dachshund is.

Peanut had one litter (Vienna, Spike and Frankie) after that she got a very bad infection and we decided that we did not want her to have any more puppies. So we decided to have her fix. She became an inside pet that is a total diva. Among the many hats that she has, she is a mom. When the puppies and their mom's are seperated, in comes Peanut. She helps them learn the rules and regulations of being in the house. If she sees a puppy doing something wrong she will either give a bark or go over there and get their attention. This lets them know that they are doing something that is not right. The reason that I am telling you this part is that in Jan 08 we had to make the hard decision to put our Rottie Tasha down. Around August of 08 we found the "perfect" Rottie to add to our family Raider. Well Peanut has taken him under her "wings" and is currently teaching him the rules and regulations of the house. It is funny to see a 12 pound Doxie put a 50 pound Rottie in his place but she does. I forgot to add that the rules and regulations are ones that she has came up on her self. It is very funny thing to watch.

Peanut is also our bed warmer. She sleeps with us and keeps the bed nice and warm. She loves to go bye bye in the car. She will go with us to pick up our oldest son from ball practice. In the cold weather, she will put on her coat with the "Pearls and fur" to diva it up.

But most important hat she has is the one that lets you know that you are the most important person in the whole world when you walk in the door at night. She lets you know how much you are loved. EVERY NIGHT AND EVERY DAY. In today's time we get too busy doing things for ourselves and forget to let the other people in our lives know how much they are loved and cared for. A dog does that every single time they see you.

I will be introducing you from time to time to all of our family members.

Today is Peanut's turn.

Vienna's litter

Vienna's litter are a week old. They are doing great. We do have a little bitty guy that is really surprising us. You can see them by going to COLLINSDOXIES.COM click on puppy click on nursery2.

Tootsie's litter

Well Tootsie's puppies are 2 wks old. We went away for the weekend and came back to eyes looking back at us. It is very exciting when they open up their eyes. They are growing very fast. To see pictures of them go to COLLINSDOXIES.COM click on Puppy then click on Nursery1.

Vienna's Litter

Here is a pic of the proud but tired mommy and the babies.

Tootsie update

Here is the updated pic of Tootsie's litter. As you can see they are growing.

Tux

My husband and I found each other later in life. We both had been previously married and we have children from those marriages. We were unable to have children ourselves so our puppies are our babies. The one thing about it is that you get to experience the birth without having to do it yourself.

The reason that I told you about that is that we have had one puppy in our home for 6 months. That is very rare that we have a puppy that long. Tux is a special little boy that had become part of our family. Today, he found his forever family. He meet his new mommy and daddy and gave them kisses. He moved to Asheville NC to live with them. After he left, Ben and I looked at each other and discovered something was wrong. What could it be? Our house was quiet. We did not have Tux running around chasing his brother TBone barking and playing. TBone climbed up on Ben's lap and just layed there. Lucky for him he has Smoky to keep him company.

Now we kind of know how it feels with your child moves away and they promise to write. We made Tux's mommy and daddy promise to send us pics of him. We are always happy/sad when a puppy finds their family. Happy that they have found that forever family, Sad that they will be leaving us. It is especially hard when they have lived with you for 6 months.

So today is a Happy/Sad day in the Collins Doxies household as our Tux has found his forever home. It is more happy than sad for sure.

Congratulations Tux!

1-1-09 Happy New Year!

How did you ring in the New Year? Going to a party with friends.

Well we spent it sitting in a recliner holding Vienna and telling her it will be ok. (Maybe a little you can go ahead anytime and have your babies). Finally at 3:00 the first one was born. A pretty little girl. Followed not so far behind was a handsome young man. Then it happened. She had the biggest baby that we have had yet. I felt so sorry for her. At a little past 4:00 she had another pretty big girl. A little after 4 she had another little boy. The first three appear to be more of a clear base red and the last little boy is a black based with white on his chest. We will take pictures and post them a little later.

There is nothing like watching the miracle of life happen before your eyes. Ben and I try our best to make sure one of us is always with mommy as she becomes a mother. It seems to relax them when that happens. Oh I forgot one other person that was present. Mommy Peanut. Peanut is our inside pet that becomes mom to the puppies once they get old enough to leave mom. She is also the mom to Vienna so I guess she could be called grandmother Peanut.

Ben and I would like to say thank you for all of the families that have welcomed one of our puppies into their family this past year. We wish everyone the best for the coming year. Happy New Year and May God Bless your family.