What a weekend at the Northwest Arkansas Kennel Club we had amazing success. It all started on Saturday when he won Best of Breed under judge Mr Donald A. Gill and then went on to a Hound Group 2 under judge Mr Timothy Catterson.
Then, on Sunday, something extraordinary happened.
Nick (GCH Kazuri’s All I Want For Christmas) went Best of Breed under judge Mr Timothy Catterson. Nick went on to a Hound Group 1 and then Best In Show under judge Mr Donald A. Gill. OH My Gosh!! Words can not express how over the moon I am!! I am so grateful to these judges for finding my beagle in amongst some beautiful dogs and finding him worthy of this honor.
I am walking on air. Huge thank you to Mike and Karen for their amazing handling and care of our sweet boy. I can’t wait to see what he does next!
As promised, I took some nicer pictures of Allie’s babies. They are thriving. I don’t think I have ever had a set of puppies put on quite the weight that these guys have. Not that I am complaining at all – I am just amazed at their growth.
Allie has taken to motherhood like she was born to do it. I guess she was. She adores her babies and dotes on them as any new mother should. She watches as I do ENS on them, but never growls or fusses – just makes sure I put them back 🙂
Without further ado, I will introduce them to you. Since they were born on “National Beagle Day” it felt only fitting to name them after the most well known beagles.
*please note that none of these pups are available at this time*
Girl 1 – born at 10.62oz – now 1lb 1.1oz. Will now be named Miss P (because we joke that she should be called “Miss Piggy” as she put on 3oz in the first 36 hours)
Girl 2 – born at 11.46oz – now 1lb 1.4oz. Will now be named Shiloh.
Girl 3 – born at 10.82oz – now 15.9oz. Will now be called Bagel.
Boy 1-born at 12.35oz – now 1lb 2.4oz. Will now be called Snoopy
Boy 2-born at 11.82oz – now 1ob 1.5oz. Will now be called Gromit
This post will be quick as we had newborn baby beagles this weekend, but I wanted to show you that these beautiful bonny babies are growing up like weeds and doing so well.
We gave them some playtime outside and they were a little nervous but also excited to look around. They are adventuring around the house more and more and have loved meeting the rest of the pack, so are getting time with other big dogs too.
Life is zooming along thats for sure.
*please note that these pups are not available at this time*
Allie went into labor on her due date and labored, as first time mamas usually do, all night long and during the next day which happened to be Earth Day AND Beagle Day.
Around 1:30 her waters broke and so we were excited that maybe we were going to have a daytime birth. However, she started to push every now and then, but not with a lot of vigor and certainly not consistently.
At 4:30 another water sack appeared – this one clear and so I figured there was a puppy close….but we waited and waited and no puppy came. Allie was not in distress, and I kept in regular contact with breeder friends and with my trusted vets Dr Cyndi Smith from The Pet Dr and Dr Anders Thorsen from Klahaya Animal Hospital. Since we weren’t having green (indicating placental detachment), and Allie was calm, we decided to wait patiently, but around 9:30pm it just felt like we weren’t progressing and I didn’t want to wait all night and lose a baby (or worse all plus Allie) because we waited too long.
So, Dr Thoreson kindly allowed us to come in for a c-section. My loving husband and 14 year old daughter were there to rub puppies after I “caught” them.
We quickly realized why the puppies didnt come out – they were HUGE. 2 boys and 3 girls. Boy 1 was 12.35oz, Boy 2 was 11.82oz, Girl 1 was 10.62oz, Girl 2 was 11.46oz and Girl 3 was 10.82oz. Those were some big babies. And they were HUNGRY. We got them latched on as Allie was waking up – poor poppet.
She is adjusting to motherhood slowly – she doesn’t dislike them but i think she is very confused as to why these little beans keep wiggling all over her. I am doing all the potty work right now – I am sure she will catch on soon. <3
These puppies are sired by my homebred by Leo – CH Kazuri’s Hear Me Roar. This is his first litter and i have to say I like what I see so far.
Enjoy their brand new pics – proper ones coming soon.
*please note, these pups are not available at this time*
Introducing:AKC GCH CKC CH Lockestar ‘Cause I’m Up To No Good, CGC CGCA CGCU TKN RATN RATNX RATO (and Crazy8s Bronze)!
Our boy Sirius has just finished earning THREE new Barn Hunting titles in a single weekend, and might be the FIRST Cavalier to have accomplished one of them! (we are just waiting on the confirmation of this).
His co-owner, Susan Lockleer and Sirius have worked so hard together to get this far and make an amazing team! Sirius is truly a once in a lifetime dog with his eagerness to please, willingness to work, intelligence, versatility, and bomb-proof happy go lucky temperament. He’s definitely not stopping here. I can’t wait to see how far this team goes!
Sirius is sired by Mary Beth Squirrell from Embee’s lovely boy CKC CH Embee’s Mischief Managed, ROM – “Loki” and out of LockeStar Love Struck, CGC – “Arrow” (sired by CH Turretbank To Sir With Love – “Sidney” daughter). Both of his parents are heart clear 5+ with SM0 MRI scans.
Sirius is currently heart clear at 4.5yrs also with a SM0 MRI scan.
As a breeder and owner I am so proud of both his brains and beauty.
The cavalier babies are getting bigger. This week they had their first taste of food and they loved it. I always start them on a little ground beef and Answers Goats Milk as it is very easy on the tummy. If you want to see a little video, go to my instagram page @kazuri.beaglesandcavaliers as you can see a little video there 🙂
The babies are starting to move around the pen more. We have given them a “big bed” to sleep in and mama Charlotte can come and go as she wants to. She now feeds them and then spends the rest of the day sitting in the sun or getting belly rubs on the couch.
Okay – I know this is the part you are looking forward to – the updated pictures of these cuties. I woke these guys up from a nap, so thats why they look a little sleepy.
*please note that none of these puppies are available at this time* If you would like to apply for a puppy, you may do so through our “puppy page”.
I get asked this question all the time – aren’t breeders all the same? How can I tell the difference between an ethical breeder and a backyard breeder or a puppy mill?
Well, the answer is simple. No. They are not all the same.
And more than that, just because it is “pure bred” does not mean it was “well bred”.
For this blogpost, I want to define that an ethical/preservation breeder is someone who breeds to improve the breed as their primary focus. They are not in it for the money and having puppies is not their income source. A backyard breeder, for this blog post, is defined as someone who has a dog that has “papers” and wants to have a litter to have fun or the experience. They generally don’t do any health testing. They sometimes will purchase a male and female and just breed them together. A puppy mill, for this blog post, is a breeder who breeds solely to make money. They are not always the horrible images we see on TV (although there are extreme puppy mills that do treat their dogs like that), but mostly they cut as many corners and costs to maximize profits. The health and safety are not really a priority and so the dogs have limited routine vet checks and don’t usually have the recommended health tests. Some of these puppy mills have beautiful websites and photos and so as a buyer you have to really be vigilant to make sure that is not where you are buying your puppy from.
I also want to make something else clear – AKC is a pedigree registry. It is a place that records the history of your dog’s parentage so they can prove that it is (or isn’t) a pure bred dog. Each breed of dog has a written standard of what they should look like. It does not monitor how close they are to the standard and so it is up to you as a buyer to check that your breeder is adhering to what they need to, to keep to the standard.
Many ethical breeders will show their dogs in conformation shows. This is not just for prestige – although the ribbons and awards are certainly fun. Most of the time it is to make sure that the dogs they are producing are adhering to the standard. When you get together with other breeders, you can compare your breeding stock with other breeders and see if you are “on track”. You also get feedback from impartial judges. It helps many breeders try not to have “mommy goggles” as lets be honest – we all think our dogs are the most beautiful in the world.
What separates ethical/preservation breeders from backyard breeders or puppy mills is their commitment to the breed itself. By showing their dogs, a breeder shows their commitment to keeping their dogs to the standard. How can you tell if your breeder is committed? Ask your breeder what clubs they belong to. Ask them if they do any sports with their dogs such as tracking/scent work or barn hunting or obedience or even good canine citizen awards. Even if they don’t show their dogs (their is no reason not to) they should be committed to being part of the local clubs – this requires them to adhere to ethical standards of breeding, and accountability.
If a breeder talks about their dogs “champion bloodlines”, they are probably trying to trick you into thinking they show their dogs, or that they adhere to the standard in their breeding. However, this “champion” could be far back in their pedigree and pretty meaningless.
Health testing also sets ethical/preservation breeders apart from those just in it to make money. AKC has a list for each breed, of the health tests recommended by each parent club. The images below are the beagle and CKCS recommended health tests.
Ethical breeders will have these tests and have proof that they are done. There is a registry for health tests online called www.ofa.org – here you can look up any dog by it’s registered name and verify information given to you by the breeder.
However, I will note that it costs money to register the results online so many breeders do the tests but don’t put the results online, so make sure you ask if you don’t see them.
For Hearts, check that the check was done by a cardiologist, not just a vet practitioner. Breeders that are not taking their dogs to a cardiologist are not adhering to the standard and are cutting a very important step but pretending they aren’t.
Cavalier hearts should be checked every year. Many backyard breeders and puppy mills will do them once (if at all). So, check the dates and ask questions if they are not current.
This is an OFA eye check – this girl has extra eyelashes (distichiasis), but her eyes have no eye disease. It’s important to read results thoroughly and feel free to ask or google anything you aren’t sure about.
The final way to tell an ethical/preservation breeder from a backyard breeder or a puppy mill is by looking at if they are working towards making their breeding program and the breed better by their breedings, or if they are just pumping out puppies.
An ethical/preservation breeder will search out the best match for their dams (moms). Most of the time, it will not be in their back yard. They are not afraid to import semen from overseas, across the US or from their network of breeder friends. A backyard breeder or puppy mill want to save as much money as possible to maximize profits and so use the same stud and dam for every single litter. If they never use any other studs, it should be a red flag.
Every puppy will be cute. So, don’t base your decisions on a cute puppy. Ask questions and be prepared to walk away if you are not liking what you hear. You deserve to get a puppy that has had the best start in life.
Both Cavalier King Charles Spaniels and Beagles should have their hearts checks before breeding.
CKCS should go one step further and have theirs checked every single year, since our breed is plagued with a heart disease that can develop over time.
Hearts, while they can be checked by a general practitioner, *should* be checked by a cardiologist. Cardiologists train to hear the difference in the clicks and ticks that hearts make and what these noises make. They are trained to see things on echocardiograms to understand how the heart valves work and blood flows.
To know if your breeder is having their hearts checked properly, check their documentation. Have a look to see what is written. I will show you two examples.
This beagle was seen by a cardiologist as you can see on the bottom right.
This cavalier was seen by a regular vet (unfortunately).
As I mentioned earlier, heart clearances for cavaliers are only valid for 1 year. If your breeder is breeding dogs that haven’t got current clearances, you should ask them why not.
Not every breeder posts the results online – it can get expensive to do so. So, they can just show you the paperwork that would be submitted to www.ofa.org. Below are some examples for you to look at.
If you want to know more about what a heart murmur is, there is a little video about it here:
We are SO excited to announce that the February statistics of the “Canine Chronical” shows that Nick is the #2 15 inch beagle in the USA (All Breed points) and #3 15 inch beagle in the USA (Breed points). He is also the #15 Hound in the USA.
He has had group wins and placements under judges such as Mr Raymond V. Filburn Jr, Mr Dana P. Cline, Mr James Mitchell, Mr Thomas Kirstein, Mr John P. Wade, Mrs. Linda Hurlebaus, Mr Allen L Odem and Ms. JoAnne Buehler.
We can’t wait to see what the march statistics show, and what the rest of the year has in store for us. This boy certainly makes us feel like all our Christmases have come at once.
2 weeks flies by so quickly. As a breeder, I can breathe a little sigh of relief as it means I can start getting a little more sleep. I don’t have to wake up every hour or two through the night anymore to check on them. Not that I mind – but my bed is calling after 2 weeks of broken nights of rest.
The puppies are thriving, and by all accounts a little on the advanced side. Because cavalier puppies are born “early” (by dog standards), they tend to be like preemie human babies that can be a little developmentally delayed – they get there eventually but maybe a month or two behind their peers sometimes (or in puppy cases a few days or a week behind what i would expect a beagle pup to do).
However, these little guys, the two blenhiem pups decided day 10 was the day to start opening their eyes. This means that they are also starting to hear and they are moving around the whelping pen more. The two tri girls are not far behind and at 14 days both have slivers of eyes opening.
I can’t wait till we start seeing their little personalities emerging. For now we are just enjoying their little blobby snuggles. Enjoy the photos of them growing up.
*please note that they are not available at this time. *
