Last Chance Wachtels Blog

Ella is in Heat -Feb 2011

admin — Sun, 13 Feb 2011 21:56:20 +0000

Ella has come into heat. Now if nature takes its course we should have puppies about April 20th…

In preparation, we went down to the local indoor dog wash for a deluxe wash, trim, and groom – it’s a girl thing!

Plans for the Q litter

admin — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 04:05:33 +0000

A quick note on when LCW will have new pups. The P litter taught us that having pups in the fall/winter is a challenge. We’ve always had spring litters and we’ll be returning to that tradition. Therefore, the next litter will not be ready until Spring of 2011. We are taking deposits. Inquire on the contact page.

Since it isn’t hunting season, we don’t have pups, and spring chores around the farm are calling - the frequency of new blog posts will probably suffer. We’ve just started new Twitter and Facebook pages and hope to send out quick updates. Even that takes time though, so you may have to allow us some lengthy breaks (as you’ve already done).

Last Montana Pheasant Hunt 2009

admin — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 03:46:39 +0000

We spent most of the last day pulling porcupine quills out of Duke. At the end of the season the birds have seen it all. My hunting partner and I have a hidden coulee not known to many. Later in the season as snow and cold builds the pheasants congregate to the bottom for cover and food. It is a long way off the road and not very big. These are all keys to a late season success for running roosters!

One down side, the porcupines like it too. Early on Ella found one and left it alone. We got to the end of our push and the birds were outsmarting us. We began making our way back and after taking a nice photo of both dogs in the coulee we started in the first brush patch.

Duke got birdie right away, and I was on a cliff above him. I could see him hesitate on the scent. This should have been a clue to me, but I was thinking about those running pheasants and gave him the one last, “get’em Duke!” He took one jump and came out with a mouthful of porcupine quills.

Living in a small town has its benefits in looking up the local vet. One hour and 15 minutes of pulling quills. That night he ate a full bowl of food. The next morning you wouldn’t even know it, he was playing like nothing had happened.

All puppies are placed!

admin — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 02:31:33 +0000

Having a litter puppies is difficult during hunting season, not to mention in the cold Montana winter.

Our next litter will have to wait until March 2011. We are currently taking deposits.

Video of puppies learning

admin — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 15:34:13 +0000

Wachtelhund Puppy movie 11-25-09

Last Female Ready to GO!

admin — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 15:18:01 +0000

Piper vom Last Chance is 8 weeks old. She is still available! She is very smart and showing all the great traits of a Wachtelhund. She is a bigger female that is red schimmel in color. She is very loving. Feel free to send us a note on our contact page.

7 week old Wacthel Pups

admin — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 04:21:48 +0000

The pups are so much fun now. They play and play. They love exploring and don’t like being confined to their puppy box. We take them outside multiple times a day. We’ve set up a “play” area. There are toys, animal hides, bird wings, tubes, boxes, and lots of new things to experience. Ella is really enjoying the pups as well. She’s become a playmate rather than source of food and we think she likes the new role.

The pups love dragging around the badger hide we’ve put in the play area. The current favorite game is to grab the badger hide and drag it through the white plastic tube. The tube is of great interest to them and crawl through it frequently.

The pups are very social and enjoy personal attention. They should be ready for new homes very soon. The question is – are we ready to give them up?

Starting to play

admin — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 14:52:46 +0000

The pups are just about 4 weeks old now and are starting to explore their world. They are very mobile and are starting to wrestle with each other. We hear lots of little barks and growls. They’re even nibbling a little on puppy food. We’ve started to bring them out into the kitchen for brief “field trips”, giving them some new experiences and expanding their comfort zone.

Two week old pups

admin — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 02:15:11 +0000

The pups are two weeks now and are getting big. Unfortunately, we lost one of the male pups over the weekend. One male pup was just not growing. At about 1 1/2 weeks old we wormed the pups and mom. The pups were weighed to determine dosing. All the pups were 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 pounds, except one male who was only 3/4 of a pound. This is almost the weight he was born at. We made sure he was latched on well and made sure his big brothers and sister didn’t knock him off. We even began supplementing his intake. He still didn’t put on weight and finally just stopped breathing. It was very disappointing and sad for our family.

The good news is, the other pups are great. They are well over 2 pounds now, they’re eyes are open, and they are wobbly leg and belly crawling and all over the whelping box.

All the brown and white pups will be brown schimmel. They have dark flecking starting at their paws and coming up the legs now. We’re still unsure about the red pup. The red pup is looking to be a Redscheck. Her paws are staying pink in the center and we don’t see red flecking coming in. The red is such a light color, though, the schimmel may be difficult to see.

In the photos, the males are the 4th and 5th from the left.

Wachtelhund Coloration

admin — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 02:29:13 +0000

Having this litter of pups, has created some questions about the different colorations Wachtelhunds can have. We’ve always had brown schimmel in the past, even with Duke being the sire. But, seeing the little “red” pup arrive, reminded us that there a number of recessive colors waiting to surprise us. On the Wachtelhund forum, Dave Pepe, has posted a great article on Wachtel Colors (click here to go to the DWNA forum, click the topic Breeding and Litters, and then “Identifying Proper Wachlethund Colorations”). The litter Dave features is out of Elisabeth von Eschenbach, who is Ella’s litter mate, and Joe vom Eagle River, who is Duke’s son. We may have jumped the gun on declaring all our brown and white pups Brown Schimmel. We’ll post with pictures as color becomes more definite.