Texangals

On various Facebook groups for this breed, we're discussing ways to protect the future, and one of the ways is to communicate with each other about where the breedable dogs are, so I've made this map for the Texangals extended family. One thing that's obvious is that we have a lot of young dogs out there, which is understandable given that I'm a new breeder, my oldest litter being still under 3, and my youngest, just 7 weeks old. But you have to start somewhere, and so this is a snapshot of where neutered, spayed, and whole dogs are located throughout the country, to help other TMT breeders get in contact with me if there is a Texangal dog living near them. I suppose one could assume that we're breeding tons and tons of dogs, but given that all of North America saw a total of 162 puppies in 2019, you can see this is not about churning out dogs just for the fun of it. In fact, the trajectory is that we'll be out of our beloved black & tans in fewer th...

Introducing our "Bizarre" litter: Rohan, Trish, Lisa-Lisa, and Suzi Q, named after our family's favorite anime show, Jo-Jo's Bizarre Adventure. Our 3-ounce diddy Lisa-Lisa alongside Rohan and Suzi Q Like most popular culture, particularly films or comic-type stories, we had a lot more boys' names lined up than girls, but are thrilled to pieces that we have 3 girls and one boy from the breadth we get from the stud dog's line and its St Lazar influence. The puppies arrived in the early hours of Sunday, at least four days earlier than expected, but being (mostly) larger than any of the mama's previous pups, we're assuming she had ovulated earlier in the week than we'd thought, and probably just caught the end of her fertile period when we bred her the day of her progesterone test. Phew! That was a close call, then! Mama and babies are doing well, but the up-shot of this is that I'll be having puppies looking for homes in about 8 weeks...

Oh my gosh! You couldn't make this up! I return to Texas from a business trip to the UK to find that my foundation bitch (and new champion), Bonnie, is not only coming into season, but IS IN SEASON NOW!!!! Fortunately, I had lined up a stud dog in north Texas many months ago, and they were around to accept a flying visit right after the vet said, "Yup. She wants breeding today!" I didn't even have a chance to gather up her favorite food or pack her crate or anything, because it was a long drive ahead of me JUST TO GET THERE, much less come back that night. We left her up there for a few days and had a lot of good "action", so all being well, we should have puppies around the middle of August. We are already taking puppy applications for them, so if you want to get high up on the list, you'd better fill one out sooner rather than later! For your benefit, I've included the pedigrees of the dam and sire so you can feast your eyes on some lo...

It felt like the treadmill was on high speed, but the ultimate reward was worth it! Chilling after a crazy month The month of March saw my son and me traveling from dog show to dog show, all of which were more than 2 1/2 hours from our home so we stayed in Air BnBs rather than waking at 4 am and trying to get the girls to the ring in some kind of decent frame of mind. The long and the short of it was that all three of our girls - Bonnie, Zoot, and Ted - were picked as top bitches at some point during the month, gaining points and majors, and ultimately, we FINISHED the championship for Bonnie at Navasota! Bonnie, the new champion Ted gets her first points while still a puppy Zoot gets a major We're so excited that Bonnie can now retire and focus on having babies while her daughters, Zoot and Ted, can continue their campaigns for champion status. If you want one of Bonnie's future babies, be sure to fill in a puppy application and get into o...

The past six months or so has seen a resurgence of interest in the breed in the great state of Texas. Whereas I spent most of the early part of 2017 on my own in the show ring, we've seen as many as nine at a single show, and more puppies are coming of age every month. I really should make an effort at the next one to photograph us all together. The top moment so far has been my foundation bitch's second "major" at the recent Austin area show. This means that she has jumped a big hurdle on her way to a championship. As of writing this, she needs five more points, and hopefully, with Navasota, Crosby, Kerrville, Rosenberg, and possibly a one-day appearance at Ft Worth, I think the likelihood of her success is pretty high. Bonnie and Zoot celebrate Winner and Runner-Up at Austin One of the best parts of having more people at the shows is the community we're building up: everyone is friendly and supportive, and we're making the effort to populate th...

Wednesday was a rough day ... my mama whelped, first losing one that hadn't quite closed up its skull (stillborn, thank goodness), and then two more straightforward, head-first, wiggly-body squeakers, and me with my excitement and trepidation, getting all their sexes wrong! My kids thought we'd got two boys long enough to name them Bill and Ted, and now for love nor money, they will not budge on the names even after we discovered that one of them was a girl. So, please meet Bill and "Theodora" or Ted: They're bigger by nearly about 30 g (1 oz) than any of our babies from last year, and over the first five days, they've been gaining at nearly an ounce a day! We are very relieved that both puppies have show homes ready for them, but there are never any guarantees in this kind of situation, so should you want a Toy Manchester puppy, please get in touch to fill out a puppy form. Just in case. The mama has been as good as gold as usual, ...

So now it's got to May and I haven't been posting in a long time. I don't know why not ... so much has been going on! The first thing that I want to show off is my new doggy buggy. It's a Gen7 Regal Plus that I bought to replace my old purple one after its zippers broke. This one is definitely better made: the zippers are silky smooth, the fabric of a higher quality, the frame more sturdy, and the wheels roll like they're on glass. I can't recommend it enough. The other thing we've been doing is taking Zoot to dog shows around central Texas. The highlight so far was winning OH Group 4 at Navasota back in March. In the meantime, we've had the most awesome time in catching up again with little sister, Coco AKA "Sophie Mae". She's no match for the speedy long legs of "Zooty-Pie", but they do nothing but non-stop play when they get together. And now for our biggest news: as I write this, I am on puppy watch for ...

Don't Breed for Greed!