8 1/2 Weeks Old and How to Place a Show Puppy

I have been with Marion for almost 10 years and I have Never seen her place a puppy before 12 weeks of age. Well, that changed with this litter as we placed our first baby at 8 1/2 weeks.

We consider ourselves blessed to have found Melissa and Greg and welcome them into the Legacy/Winsor family. More to the point, they found us. They came to Westminster 2008 and searched out the BTs, where we exchanged business cards. Melissa has wanted a bully for years. She is a groomer and comfortable with all kinds of dogs and they have both been dog owners. They followed up with a phone call, then drove almost 6 hours to come visit. They then joined the BTCA AND came to Silverwood, using up their only vacation week. This is all before they owned a BT. They impressed everyone they spoke to; their knowledge and passion is obvious. At the mention of a dog, Melissa could recite a one, if not a two, generation pedigree! She has been looking to get into showing and we sponsored her BTCA membership and asked her to wait for one of our pups. They were more than happy to wait for the Hope/Grimi babies. Here are some pics of the litter at 8 1/2 weeks.

This is Baby Huey, who will be Legacy Hughes Your Daddy of Winsor, with Marion. His left ear is mostly fawn in color (which you can barely see in the second pic) and quite distinctive:
Below is Legacy Lucky Rose of Winsor, the tri girl we have kept.  She is playing with Momma Hope in the second picture. Hope, as you can see, is still nursing.

Next is my Buddy; my baby brindle boy. This was his first venture into a large side yard and he is watching his brothers and sisters in the first pic.

Here in the pic below he is in the middle of a hucklebutt:


Here is Hope with the smallest baby, Glo "aka Baby Hope". She has Momma's lovely turn to her head:


Here is two of us trying to get Glo to "stack" LOL:


Marion and I decided early on that the pick show pup that we were willing to let go, would go to Melissa and Greg. We kept them in the loop during Hope's pregnancy and whelping. As the babies began to show their virtues, Marion and I honed in on the tri girl with the white splash on her back as a great bitch for them. She has a fabulous body, an extremely alert expression, energy and a head and total package that we believe will work in both all-round and specialty venues. That said, Melissa and Greg wanted to come up for two days, spend time with the litter, get to know them, and see if indeed that girl clicked. They all fell in love! Here are some pics of them socializing with their new baby. We think this will be a long relationship; look for them at shows with us!

After Greg, Melissa and "Caia" got home to NJ, Greg got busy with photoshop and created a triptych of Momma Hope, Caia and Daddy Grimi:

Here is a pic of our other white girl, who I have referred to in previous posts as our big boned gal. Yes, she is peeing; it is the only time I could get her being still that day!

Here is David, our babies "Daddy" meeting and hanging out with Huey and Rose for the first time:


And last but not least, here is a photo of my Dad, Moses Acosta, who along with Marion is the reason I have chosen LEGACY as my kennel name. He gave me my first BT when I was 9 years old. These are his great-grand children! He is holding Buddy.

BAER testing

Bull Terriers are one of those breeds that can carry deafness and the only way to tell for sure if the babies can hear is to do BAER testing. We live fairly close to Tufts and used to go there, but their machine hasnt been working for over a year at this point and they have no plans to fix or replace it! The closest place for us was Weymouth, MA at the VCA South Shore Animal Hospital, so we drove about 2 1/2 hours out there to have the tests done. The vet tech, Lydia, was wonderful and said our babies were very well behaved! She said she tried to do a Border collie the week before and they could barely keep him on the table. This is one time that the non-reactivity of BTs is a godsend. Here are a few pics of the test.

The pups are placed on the table one at a time. Each ear gets an ear-plug and then 5 needles are inserted. One behind each ear, one at the top of the head, one at the base of the neck and one in the back. Different machine will have different configurations. All of these are attached to wires, which are attached to the machine where we can see a digital read-out. They are registering brain activity and how the brain receives sound.

Here at VCA they have a very strict protocol. The machine sends a series of audible clicks into the ear plugs. They do one ear at a time. Lydia said that some technicians run the machine for 250 clicks to get a thorough read-out. VCA does it for 500, then they do 500 in the other ear, then repeat the entire process, so they are four times as thorough! Each series of 500 clicks takes just a few minutes. The babies were Very good. Occasionally they would wiggle, but none of them tried to remove the ear-plugs or needles! (I would have!)



I am pleased to announce that All the puppies can hear in Both ears! Yeah! Marion always likes to have this done before she places any puppies and we also need to know this for future breeding purposes.

BUT always remember, just because a BT can hear DOESNT MEAN IT WILL LISTEN!

Better Late Than Never

I love living in the backwoods of Massachusetts but we have no high speed connections! Among other things it makes it very difficult to post pictures! Here, better now than never, are pics of the pups at One month and One Day.

Below is our one white male, still Un-named. Marion is beginning to like him A Lot. When we was a week or two old I noticed what was then a very small colored area at the base of his ear. It looked fawn to me from the get-go and low and behold, it is!


Here is our brindle boy who has the shortest back of them all. I think he had an itch because that back leg was just going and going and I couldnt get a good pic. I call him Buddy, but that's just because he IS my buddy. Not sure of what his name will eventually be.



Next is our larger white girl. She still is showing the most bone of any of them:


The tri girl with the white splash on her back is going to be a great show dog. She is the one in the litter with the most alert expression and attitude to spare. Her body is looking great ....and for now, ALL of their bites are looking good including canines:


Below is "baby Hope". Comparing Momma Hope's baby pics with this girl and they look so much alike. She is the smallest, being more feminine than her sisters, but her head is the best of the bunch. Marion loves her, as you can see:


Rose is our tri girl with the solid black back. She is turning into a lovely girl who we think will great for all-round as well as specialties: