The story of
The 12th Fanaberner’n Litter
This story started when I was told at Spring 2007 that a litter was born in France, and that they’d let me have one of the puppies. There was three females in the litter.
The Breeder was keeping one of the girls, Margunn and Hege in Sandnes were buying the second one, and the last one could be mine. Boy was I happy. Hege went to France, rented a car in Paris and drove to Des Roches du Mettey. She stayed there for a few days before bringing Catalina and Carla back home. It was wonderful to meet them at Sola Airport and get to meet for the first time little Carla, eleven weeks old.
Carla handled everything with impressing calm. After only two days with her new family she came with us to her first ( - and last) Annual Speciality Dog Show At Geilo. Everyone found her charming and thoroughly enjoyed herself with her sister.
She has been living in Liland with Miriam and Mathea, and “the blondie” Tikka. Carla’s been a lovely addition to the pack.
Having the x-rays done was nerve wrecking, but they turned out great. I have also had good results in dog shows with Carla, although the judges at some of the shows felt she shouldn’t be quite as proud of her tail and lower it slightly.
One after one the older Berners passed away, and from the summer of 2009 Carla was the only Berner in our yard. We were hoping for a litter from Carla and Lenny in august 09, but had no such luck. Then I saw photos of Jayson van de Weyenberg, and after asking around and studying some more photos, I decided to try breeding Carla with this male from Holland.
It was a long journey driving to Holland, and it was very nice of my friend Kari to come with us. We drove to Kristiansand, slept in the car at the dock, took a ferry over to Denmark, and drove through Germany. With good help from the SatNav we did in the end find our way to Bea and Jayson in Linde in Holland. Without it, we probably would have never found them. Also later on the journey it came in very handy.
At Bea’s we were very welcome, and it was very exciting to have the lovebirds finally meet. We don’t know if it was because of the long drive or natural reasons, but it took Carla a few days to get in the right “mating mode”, by getting her progesterone levels at the right level, and in the mean time we spent the time looking around the area. We spent some time Christmas shopping in a town nearby as it was December and Christmas was close by.
Kari had to go back home after three days, while I had to hang back for a whole week before we got the dogs to mate.
In the Netherlands they take bloodsamples from the neck, well they tried to, but ended on her foot. And Carla was patient and let them just keep on trying...
Carla and Jayson
Bea, Nina and Erna having dinner
It was a long week just waiting and waiting for something to happen. I had to call up work in the end and ask for more time off. After the mating sessions three days in a row, Carla and I felt it was time to return home. On big European motorways we travelled fast, but it still took us about 24 hours to get back. All in all we had travelled for about 270 metric miles.
And now, the waiting game. After 28 days I took Carla for an ultrasound scan, and I was thrilled to hear that they’d found at least six fetuses with a great likelihood of there being more. Kari and I had a little celebration at a café, we were both over the moon about the good news.
From then on Carla was weighed and measured every week and she was progressing nicely. In the end she measured over a meter around her waste, and weighed well over 50 kilos.
I planned to take holiday time off work to look after the puppies, also since Gisela, the vet, assured me that I shouldn’t worry is they weren’t born the weekend of the due date which I had all along had had put down as the 15th of February.
Wednesday the 10th I had work for a few hours, and then I was asked to run the Berner training session that evening. I let them know that I was expecting puppies, but not until the weekend, so that should be fine. Just before I was off to the training Carla had mysteriously disappeared. She has gone for little adventures on her own before, but always come straight back I’ve whistled and called for her. This time she had just vanished. I ran around looking everywhere she could possibly be, but found her nowhere. Then, suddenly, she appeared from behind the garage somewhere, and I guided her inside the dog room. She’d be safe waiting there while I was away at the dog training.
When I came back later in the evening the first thing I observed was that the door to the dog room was open. I found that somewhat odd, and asked my sister in law who were visiting about it. She said that Ottar was out walking, and probably had brought the dogs with him. I couldn’t understand why he’d bring highly pregnant Carla, but he was due back any minute so I left it for the time being. After 20 minutes he was finally back and I asked about Carla, but he thought she still was in the dog room. I immediately grabbed a flash light and ran outside. I had some ideas of what I could expect to find outside in the snowy winter weather. I headed behind the garage where she’d been hiding earlier in the day. She was not underneath the Caravan. I found tracks in the snow and followed them. And soon I could hear whimpering puppies. Under a snowed down trailer I found Carla. She was just looking up at me. I dive down under the trailer with my hands feeling around behind her, and there I find a puppy. I picked it up carefully, opened my coat and put the puppy inside my bra against my skin, to try and keep it warm. I told Carla to come out from underneath the trailer but she refused to move. I then got my mobile out and rang Ottar shrieking down the line that he had to come quick, Carla was in labour outdoors. I probably didn’t even need the phone when screaming as loud as I was. He came out and we dragged Carla out from underneath the trailer, and got her inside, in the dog room. Only moments later Carla had pushed out puppy number two, this one born in the dog’s bed.
According to the plan we were meant to go get Carla x-rayed again the next day, to find out how many puppies she was carrying, and then sort out the dog room accordingly, so the welpingbox was not yet installed in the room. Ottar gathered the things I needed the most while I made a comfortable labour bed for Carl using several blankets.
The rest of the puppies came one after one. Carla was an amazingly good mother. She cleaned them all up, bit off the naval cord and cleared the mess. The puppies were fed their colostrum milk, and were taken good care of, and everything ran smoothly. We really had just a nice and calm time, and now and then I could pick up my mobile and send texts around to my shocked and surprised dog friends who never would have expected the birth to happen like this. The order the puppies were born in was; Lexie out in the snow cave, second female, Thelma, Cornelis, Marie, Dina, Zavannah and last Emil. By this time it was 3.25 in the morning. Carla stayed calm and were good to the puppies who all gathered around her and got comfortable.
Now eight weeks with mummy Carla have passed and it is time for the puppies to go away to their new families. My hope is for them to have a good life and bring happiness to their new owners. A breeder is never further away than a phone call should any questions arise. Visits, letters, emails and photos are always much appreciated. I’d really like to keep in touch.
Good luck with your new family member.