*** UPDATE – the two puppies pictured above have gone home and we do not have puppies at this time however I believe we will have one JLo/Koa puppy available to go home in late August, they are due in just a few days.

Shakira is now retired! Not “officially” since she still has puppies here at the house, they will be 8 weeks old on Tuesday so she’s still assisting me with their care but she’s close.  I haven’t decided on an appropriate gift for retirement because massages and diamonds have no value to a dog and she gets bones and treats all the time. I’m open to suggestions to if you think of something let me know.

Beyonce will have one more litter and she will also be retired. I had originally planned for her final litter to be in October, going home in December however I have decided to give her a break and skip a heat cycle. My vet does a full blood panel on our moms after puppies are born and before we breed them the next time and every time our results have been great, very healthy dogs! Our girls are still very young, Beyonce just turned 3 years old on May 20th and she has already had 3 litters, her first was born December 14, 2014 when she was 1 yr, 7 months old). I’m basing my decision on Shakira’s final litter which was tough on our little girl and she ended up spending the night in the ER on Mother’s Day. After discussing with our regular vet, Dr Raja from Finn Hill Animal Hospital and the vets we worked with at Veterinary Specialty Center of Seattle, there was nothing that we did wrong, no indication prior to puppies that this would happen and the only improvement that was suggested was to do a 2nd blood test when puppies were 2 weeks old since Shakira had such a large litter. The issue was that the nursing puppies were taking all of her calcium which resulted in eclampsia (eclampsia is different in humans). If we had not been home and caught the early signs when we did, eclampsia can be fatal in dogs, which obviously was scary and very upsetting to us! If we have another large litter we will definitely do a second blood test. All of the veterinarians that we spoke with agreed that Beyonce is healthy, based on exams and lab work, and it is fine to breed her with this next cycle but I’ve always said these wonderful animals are our pets FIRST and this is more of a passion project than a job, I actually have a FT job and have worked for my employer for 13 years so this isn’t something that I do to pay the mortgage. I want to give my girl a break; she gives me so much joy, I want to be sure I’m keeping her best interest in mind. Females dogs can safely have puppies up to 6 years old so I’m going to breed Beyonce for her final litter when she goes in to heat in March 2017 which will mean a due date of approximately May 28 with puppies going home July 23, 2017. I realize this is 13 months away and red minis are VERY hard to find but we are using Beyonce’s son Koa with JLo so there is a good chance we will have more reds in our future. I am sorry to disappoint people but I hope you will understand my reason.