It's going to be Puppy Time!

I first started looking into getting the right puppy probably a year and a half ago - I've never raised a dog from a puppy before. But... time and again, I would get my hopes dashed. I was in line for a great repeat breeding that the owner decided last minute not to do, so then I moved on to a breeder I thought would have a great dog for me, and found out it was going to be at least a year before they did a breeding again. Then after more research, I got on a different breeder's list and sent them a deposit for a 3rd time repeat litter that was about 6 months out. One week before the puppies should have been born, I heard "the litter didn't take" - that's a long story but it soured me on that breeder.

In the meantime, I found a puppy from Ignited border collies who was available, and told my wife about it who ended up getting the dog for my 17yr old daughter who had an interest in getting back into agility after being out of it for a few years. I may have gotten the dog for myself, but I was already 'in line' with a different breeder.

I looked into what Ignited produces and decided I really liked what I was seeing, so I got in line with them for a puppy. My primary requirement was a female dog with lots and lots of drive. My Skye dog really likes the girls, but can be a real jerk with other boy dogs. The next litter that Ignited had produced 4 boys. Ugh.

Well, out of that, my wife decided to get a puppy! So here I am, still without a puppy and both my wife and my daughter are raising pups.

So, I was in line for the next Ignited breeding, a 3rd time repeat of Singed & Fetch. I was concerned because early on in the pregnancy, they only confirmed that Singed had 3 pups in her. The breeder said she was really big though, too big for just 3 pups, and as luck would have it, on Feb. 27th, Singed gave birth to 6 puppies - 2 boys and 4 girls!

The 4 girls are pictured above - 3 blue merles and 1 black & white. I have 4th overall pick, and the 1st and 2nd folks in line each want a boy, so I will get to choose from at least 3 girls. Three of us on the picking list are Engineers, so the litter them by popular demand is the "Geek Squad", with some mathematical names :)

So finally, it was a long long wait, but I should have my next superstar in about 8 weeks.

Now, some people don't agree with getting puppies from breeders - there are plenty of homeless rescues, dogs in shelters,  etc. Yes I know, we did Border Collie rescue for years, and still have 6 of the rescues living with us right now. Not every rescue dog makes a good agility dog - I know, I've tried quite a few!

So, right now Skye is coming up on 9 years old, and Rip is 5 1/2 - I think this is a great time to start a youngster. As they get to being ready to compete, Skye will retire and I can continue running 2 dogs, which I like a lot more than running just one. I expect to be posting more updates as the puppies grow - I wont know which one is mine until they are 6 weeks old!