Some of you may remember that we bred our Cassidy several weeks ago to a lovely boy from Wisconsin. Well, despite the use of some special extender and transcervical implant, she didn't get pregnant. She was delighted; we were less so. With that and Rowdy's declining health, we were in a bit of a funk here in Orlando. Then, one week after we learned about Cassidy, we found out her daughter, Juneau, was in heat.

Juneau recently finished her championship, she has all her health clearances and she's just 2.5 years old (Sundance's sister) so we and her owners have decided to breed her. Based on Progesterone tests, she'll be bred next Tuesday and Thursday to a lovely boy from West Palm Beach whose name is Presley (Ch Acosta's Blue Suede Shoes). So, to get us in the mood and to get some good vibes going, I wanted to post some pics of Juneau and Sundance when they were puppies (not all that long ago)!!

First, Juneau (Red Ribbon) and Sundance (Green Ribbon) at 2 weeks of age just before their eyes opened. You will note that both had tremendous Agility potential even at this young age .





Here they are at 5 weeks of age.





And at 8 weeks.





The entire puppy pile at 6 weeks.



And Sundance at 5 weeks being held by Linda. The look in that photo -- confidently and directly into her eyes -- is the reason we chose Sundance to stay in our family.



And Sundance today: if you look closely, the eyes are the same.



And Juneau, that sleepy little ball of fur, is now this lovely young Rottweiler Champion.





We are looking forward to this litter. Juneau will be whelped here in our home where she was born. This is the first time we will whelp a litter out of a girl we ourselves have whelped so it's a very exciting time for us. And, we intend to keep a girl who will be a Rowdy great granddaughter. That would mean so very much to us.

So, expect puppy pics in about 65 days.

Jim

Aww, good luck with those pups! I've bred and shown Bengal cats on a small scale for about 13 yrs and know how hard it is when you're SO looking forward to that special litter and it doesn't happen. Then when it does it is so much fun. I've only had one kitten this last year and not sure I'll breed anymore so will have to live vicariously through you and others. Good luck to Juneau and the "lovely boy from West Palm Beach" (that made me laugh...).

Diana

Diana,
we've only bred 4 litters in 12 years so this isn't something we do often and we try to breed only for us to extend and improve our line. Cassidy is a Rowdy daughter and an Annie granddaughter. Annie was the foundation bitch for us and Rowdy the only dog we've ever used at stud. But we really didn't want to breed Cassidy more than twice. When she came up empty from the last breeding, we had mixed feelings.

But Juneau is an improvement on her mom, Cassidy. She's met all the qualifications to produce a litter for us and her owners want us to whelp it. So, we're excited to see what Juneau can do. The "lovely boy from West Palm Beach", Presley is Ch Acosta's Blue Suede Shoes. Presley's dad was Elvis (Ch Keerocka's Entertainer) and Elvis was the number one Rottie in the Country in 2004 all systems. In addition to being a wonderful show dog, Elvis was a wonderful dog that we once took to Graceland for a photo shoot. He recently passed away.

Here are a couple of pictures of that "lovely boy".





Enjoy.

Jim

Gorgeous, gorgeous dogs! Beautiful litter. Congrats!

Nice work, Jim. Thanks for sharing the story, and good luck with the breeding.

Man that dog has a big head!!Adorable puppies, but, you knew that!

I was going to say something, but it was obviously Photoshopped. And a good job of it at that.

Not quite sure which image you're referring to but neither shot of Presley was PS'd to emphasize his head. That's the way it looks. The handler was using the lead to clean up the neck area but that's standard operating procedure when you're doing headshots.

Julie, we chose Presley because he has a lovely headpiece and a gorgeous front. And impeccable temperament. Not to mention two of the nicest owners on the planet. I first met Presley when he showed for the first time at 6 months of age and he's been giving me puppy kisses ever since. His mom, Magic, was bred to Rowdy and they produced some really nice puppies so I know what to expect from him.

Ironically, although he has a large head, he's medium-sized overall -- 25 1/2 inches tall, 120 lbs. In comparison, Sundance is 26 1/2 inches tall and 135 lbs. and Rowdy, in his prime, was 26 1/4 inches tall and 120 lbs. Since size is clearly in Juneau's genes -- as an example, I present her brothers Sundance and Jasper who is actually bigger than Sundance -- we wanted a more moderate boy to breed to.

We're excited. So are Presley's owners who want a girl out of the litter.

Jim