Texangals

  Zoot is from the very first litter I ever bred at Texangals, the Monty Python and the Holy Grail Litter, and coming off the back of a wonderful set of five potential show puppies, I have really high hopes for the quality of her litter with Robbie. I bred Robbie, too: he was the gentle and sweet boy from the "Bizarre Adventure" litter from 2019 (Jo Jo's Bizarre Adventure is an anime that I'm particularly fond of, and Robbie's registered name comes from one of the characters on it). He is owned by Tonda Curry and Terry Fehrman from the Canton area of Texas. Rohan Kishibe, aka "Heaven's Door" Both Zoot and Robbie have pedigrees that are heavily influenced by their English roots, with a generous helping of Maggical/Rosewood and a splash of St Lazar. They're also a couple of lovely, portable, compact 10-pounders, and talk about athleticism, Zoot has always shown that she was born with springs in her legs, jumping over 32-inch x-pens from a standstil...

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...

Bonnie in the Buttercups We're expecting puppies at the end of this month at Texangals in Central Texas. The dam is "Bonnie" (Ch Bluebonnet Dreaming Spires at Texangals), currently #13 TMT in the country, and the sire is "Bentley" (GCH CH Dream Maker's One Sweet Ride At Jhen TKN) who is #7 in breed and #1 in TMT Owner Handler. Bentley  Bonnie with her Boy in Junior Showmanship Bonnie is a 3/4 English bitch imported in 2016 who goes back to Amalek lines with Maggical/Rosewood TMT. Bentley also goes back to the English Reeberrich kennel via Velvet Firefly where his lines connect up with Bonnie's. For those of you who don't really care about lineage, the bottom line is that they're very well bred, they are bred with a number of international influences, and as far as temperament, get along well with other dogs, other types of dogs, and children. A number of dogs in Bonnie's line back in England are Pets as Therapy dogs, visit...

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 was so good to get out this weekend with the dogs and not be hundreds of miles away at a show. March in Texas means bluebonnets, so obviously, I had to get our foundation mama, Bonnie, out there for her annual photo: her official name is "Bluebonnet Dreaming Spires", after all! Then she started running through the butterweed. Zoot and Ted had a terrific time when chasing each other at the local lake, prompting people to come over to us and ask if they were Italian greyhounds!

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...

Where has the time gone? My little hands-ful of black-and-tan are now arms-ful!! We have been hitting the dog shows in Texas and finding it very useful to have three female dogs to enter, needing only one more girlie to come along and make a major. Bill and Ted's mama won one of these in Tyler, but the big news was when Ted took Toy Group 1 in Beginner Puppy in one of the Belton shows. Our next appearance will be at the Nolan River club's show in Glen Rose on 5th and 6th of January. It would be lovely to see some "fans" to turn up and talk TMT!

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 ...

Coco, the Christmas present, arrives at her Furrever Home! For those of you who have been tracking the fate of this little puppy since she first entered the world at a mere 2 ounces, her journey has come to a wonderful and loving end: she has gone home to my friend's mother who lives a mere ten miles from me! Surprise! You got a puppy from Santa!!! No, I am not just trying to keep an eye on her! We're expecting great things from our little bundle of clever smartness when she enters Good Citizen training. Judging from her being the first to potty train - at 6 weeks! - I think it will be an easy road to success!! You've come a long way, Baby!  Did you spot Coco's head under her mother's eye on the bottom right???

Don't Breed for Greed!

Meet Justina from Minnesota. Last month, her beloved miniature pinscher of 14 years passed suddenly, and she searched and searched online for a little girl puppy to try to fill the hole in her heart. Justina's Soul Mate Within a few hours of my appeal to online homeschooling moms who pray for people's prayer requests, Justina was contacting me about Dennis. I knew this was the one. We were bandying ideas back and forth, feeling each other out, when her Facebook feed turned up a neighbor who wanted one of the puppies, too, so Tim was now spoken for. It was just a few days later when Justina arrived in Central Texas on a Delta flight to pick up both Dennis and Tim. A Fabulous Threesome! Little could I guess that Justina would bond so much with Tim over night that she talked the neighbor out of keeping him, and has now adopted both puppies into her family's lives. Cuddling Dennis would put anyone to sleep! Don't forget Auntie Bailey, th...

After lots of video and lots of long phone conversations, after bribing my young teenager to splice film and photos into a montage, after changing my mind one way and then another, it is finally time to announce the puppy that we're going to keep with us at Texangals: Meet Zoot. Zoot was our first born. She has always been the confident one, and when it comes to moving on the lead, she's happy to move ahead of me instead of being tugged along like her mama! There are times when I see her in the grass outside that I'm reminded of our little boy puppy, Ozzie, who died last year, but she's got more balance to her than I remembered of him. Even from a young age, she impressed me with her commanding presence. What I like about her, too, is how she's so comfortable in the group or alone, such as here when she's showing off her new sweater made out of fluffy socks (she's in the bright green).               Of...

The pups are now sporting their collars so we can tell them apart. We took them through their paces this week to make videos that we could share with our breeding mentors: nothing too professional as my kids had the time and the desire to make a few bucks, and I didn't have the time to do more than that. My boy "Busy Timmy" with Puppy #1 Zoot After a few aborted attempts to navigate the AKC website today, I got a very helpful customer service person named Amy to help me through the process. The next step will be to choose the puppies' official names, but Amy suggested I do this with the owners so we pay only one fee. Sounds good to me! On the progress front, Mr Tim is not only the most photogenic because he keeps crossing his paws, he is also the first to use the doggy door! (Mr Banksy who is now 13 months took about 7 months to work this one out: Tim took about 7 weeks. Clever chap!) Tim with Mama, not to be confused with Busy Timmy I was very im...

We have puppies! Our lovely English Toy Terrier, Bonnie, delivered four puppies on August 31st, about four days before we were expecting them (thus ruining a romantic weekend for hubby and me, but we've been given a raincheck by the cottages so we'll get there eventually!). Shhh ... tired mama. The children have always intended to use Monty Python and the Holy Grail names for the puppies, so first one out was immediately called Zoot. Bonnie was quite restless and seeming to try to get comfy to nurse, but NO! She was actually contracting to deliver a teeny, tiny little thing we called Coco. The third was called Dennis, even though she is a girl, and finally, we were blessed with Tim. Dennis, Zoot, and Tim with the kids - (Coco was sleeping) Bonnie turned out to be a great mom, but we were worried about little Coco. The others were born at 4 1/2 ounces or around 130 grams, but Coco was only 2 ounces and 60 grams. We think perhaps she was Zoot's twin, sharing...