It’s complicated
You know how humans sometimes say ‘it’s complicated’ when they are talking about their relationships, well for us dogs it really is. Oh, I’m not talking about your day to day who shall I sniff next sort of thing. I’m talking about when we have litters of puppies. Even under normal circumstances we take as much care as we can in our breed. Do we match on health tests? Do we look like an Entlebucher? Are we of good character? You know the sorts of things. Anyway, to make sure we get it right it can mean travelling far and wide to meet our best match. Mum and her colleagues in other countries run a sort of big dog dating service, where we fill in our profiles, likes, dislikes – you know the sort of thing. Then they try to match us with a suitable partner.
Then came Covid-19
If you are planning to travel abroad to meet your perfect mate the day lockdown starts, it tends to get in the way of things. That’s what happened to my niece Izzy. She was supposed to head over to the Netherlands in March and had to decide not to travel. Now she’s hoping to go in September. Mum is trying to look at possible contingency plans just in case it is not safe for her to travel this time. It isn’t easy.
The Importance of Genes
Our breed has not been around that long when compared to some. It makes it all the more important that we work toward genetic diversity. It also makes it important that as many of us as possible go on to have puppies. Mum ends up working out some odd numbers on what it means if one dog mates with another dog. I hope she understands it, as I certainly don’t. It’s all to do with how many different ancestors those dogs have and if there is any overlap. The less she finds the same dogs appearing the better.
I can’t remember why I was telling you that, but I thought you might be interested. I will of course tell you when Izzy does get to travel and about Leo (Shadow’s son from her fourth litter) who is due to mate with my niece Sybil if everything goes ok.
Love
Wilma
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