Isabelle's Litter!

Well, we've come full circle here at Briarwood Pups.  Everyone says "how can you place the babies?"  Well, it's not easy, but I'll tell you what's harder - placing the adults who have lived and slept with you for years.  Any good breeding program has to be willing to place at least enough adults to allow space for new, younger dogs to be able to carry the lines forward, but I find that hard to do.  And since our house only has so much space, I've decided to discontinue breeding pugs.  Maybe in the future, as mine get older and pass away, 3-5 years down the road, I might reconsider having one litter out of a younger pup, but as far as being able to average a litter a year, we won't be able to do that anymore. 

With that decision, we thought that Jolene's litter born in August would be our last because only she and Isabelle remained intact and Isabelle couldn't have any more babies.  And what a shame, I kept thinking to myself, that we couldn't have an Isabelle pup to keep and have for the future since most of our remaining pugs are all around the same age and statistically, will probably pass close together.  But with family histories, and Isabelle's previously unsuccessful matings, we knew that we were just out of luck as far as getting a pup from her was concerned.  So when she came into her last cycle and didn't have any bleeding, we were totally surprised with a hook being our only indicator that she was in heat.  But, I didn't even bother to write down the date since I "knew" she couldn't have puppies. 

Well, as Gomer would say, Surprise, Surprise, Surprise!!  Isabelle became not only pregnant, but as huge as the Hindenberg.  I could see the puppies kicking her ribs, as though if she didn't let them out soon, they'd just dig their way out the side and be done!  And their little heads were bumping on her ribs and she begged me not to put my hand on their stomach to feel them because it only encouraged the little devils. 

When the day came, Isabelle spent the preceeding 24 hours destroying anything fabric in my bedroom.  She opened up my wardrobe and completely pulled everything out of one side and made a nest in there for herself, and she left the rest of the room in shambles.  I was up all night with her, trying to put things back only for her to sneak them back out and around again.  And we were up till 4am when I finally dozed off into a deep enough sleep that I managed a few hours before going to work the next day.  So she stayed with relatives all day, being watched like a hawk for any signs of contractions.  The following night, she began labor and delivered 7 puppies between 11:30 pm and 7:30 am on December 3, 2011.  And they are beautiful.  They are strong, healthy, gorgeous, and full of life and love.  I feel so blessed to have this precious gift.

So Isabelle, thank you for this gift to bring this stage of our lives to a close.  Girl, you sure know how to go out in style!

We invite you to join us in this journey, in the lives and adventures of this litter over the next two months with all the ins and outs that breeding can have, and join us in sending love to these little ones so that their lives will get off to a great start to help them in finding and fulfilling their destinies!

Fall Delight

Made with Fall Delight by LDrag Designs

Beer as a wormer

This is from another board I'm on (in response to a dog who is heartworm positive and so advanced that it is danger of dying from the treatment) and I requested permission to re-post and it was granted:

This will kill heart worms without endangering the dogs as what the beer does is is make the worms sterile. It's seen as food by the worms so they don't put out the poison to try and stop the dog from eating anything more that 'bothers the worms', plus the die off of the worms is slow so there's not toxic overload there. This was studied in Japan.

The tests were done with several types of beers and the Guinness Draught is the one that works. This is because 1) the special ancient type of hops they have there and 2) the really good water. It's the hops that sterilize the worms. This special hops is only in the Draught Black Label beer imported directly from Ireland. I originally purchased Guinness Stout but when I got home I read where it comes from Canada and they don't have the special breed of hops. Only the Ireland Import does.

The dosage is 1 ounce of beer to 25 pounds of weight. Normally people let the bottle sit with the lid off to get rid of the carbonation (so the dog doesn't get gas). It's ok to let it go completely flat, and if you don't use up the whole bottle in one setting you just cap it and put it in the fridge. The hops never 'go bad' and so it will work until you empty the bottle.

So you give 1 ounce of Guinness Draught to 25 pounds of weight every 2 weeks. Just pour it over their food if they won't lap it up (some will, some won't) After 3 months you can have the dog tested to see if there are any filarie left (baby worms). If so, continue for another 3 months and test again. When all the baby worms are dead then you switch over to dosing once a month.

This kills all worms except whip worms.

I hope her dog can last long enough to utilize this treatment. Very simple, very cheap and it works. There are a couple ladies on a pet list I'm on who foster dogs. They have had dogs tested to have heart worms, put them on this beer method, and then the dogs are tested and--no heart worms. All the foster parents in their groups use this now.

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Further posts discussed how hops is toxic to dogs, but it turns out that it's misinformation - the hops dregs from making the beer is toxic to dogs, but not the portion of hops that remains in the beer. They researched this heavily because they are in Florida and in rescue and many dogs were coming through as heartworm positive. The amount of alcohol needed to kill the worms is not harmful to the liver, and the treatment has been extraordinarily successful in their rescue program.

Star Student by Jeanine DeOre

Jeanine's latest release, Star Student, was lots of fun to work with. I made some numbers and capital letters to go with it and with Jeanine's permission, am offering them here as a coordinating freebie to her kit!

The alpha was used to make "Life" and the numbers were "75" in the above layout. Enjoy!

Sneak Peeks

Here is a sneak peek for a kit being released by Eledhwen on April 1st. She'll be opening up shop at the Shabby Pickle!!


Also, Marshmella Designs has THREE new kits coming out April first, so get ready for the fun!!

Dancing Princess also has something fun up her sleeves, will have to let you know a release date later.

Soul In Bloom & ADSR

Dancing Princess Designs has teamed up with Simply You, Simply Me to bring you this beautiful new collab called Soul in Bloom. The papers, elements and word art in this kit are simply fantastic!

I used the kit to make the first of my pages for the Amazing Digital Scrapbooking Race - kind of like the Amazing Race on TV, but scrappers haunt digi-world, finding the next challenge and making pages for their albums based on the challenges presented to them. Each completion brings the possibility of a prize. This is the first year I've attempted it because I'm worried that with my limited time, I will have to drop out early, but I found someone who's willing to give it a go with me! Anna is my partner this year and we're both having a blast so far!


Can you believe this beautiful layout came out of a speed scrap? I love it when they flow together like this, and the kit and the instructions made it so easy!

New Release and a Freebie!!

Check out this gorgeous new release!

Sunshine In Your Heart

A collab by Jeanine DeOre and Plum Dumpling Designs.



The kit has so many awesome papers and elements!! It even comes with two complete alphas!! And for your enjoyment, here is another alpha :)



And here is a link for download.
sunshine_alphafreebie-briarwoodpups.zip

For more information on the kit and other available freebies, visit Jeanine's blog here.