The first thing I did was go check on the puppies. The temperature dropped last night into the 40's, so I had turned on the heat lamp to take off the chill. I wanted to make sure the clamp had not shaken loose and the lamp fallen in with the pups! I only use the heat lamp when I am home. The heat lamps are great for warming up a section of the whelping box, so the pups can get warm, but the mom can lay outside the radiated heat in a cooler section.

The downside is they are a fire hazard. I got one of my Irish Setters from a heat lamp tragedy. His breeder had left the heat lamp on over the whelping box. Somehow the bulb exploded, catching the whelping box on fire. The mother of the pups had dragged 4 of them out of the box to the kitchen door. The box burned, catching the room on fire. The blaze spread until it had burned out due to lack of oxygen. No one called the fire department, because no one realized this flash fire had taken place. The breeder came home to find a badly singed mother, and her 4 chilled pups huddling by the kitchen door where the only fresh air was coming in under the door. The pups were all singed as well. Its amazing that any of the lived. The fire department said they were surprised that the fire had stopped and not consumed the whole house. I took one of the puppies, and of course had to name him Phoenix. ( The mythological 'fire bird' that burns itself in the flames - then is reborn from the ashes ...) Needless to say, I have always been cautious with heat lamps!

I checked all the pups this morning while cleaning the box. No one has eyes open yet. It should be any time now. The eyes look less creased. Not so much like they are sealed shut, but more like they are sleeping with eyes shut. ( I guess that doesn't really explain very well how they look....but I get a feeling that they will start opening later tonight)

Not much to do with the pups today, so here are some morning pictures. I like to take a lot of morning pictures, since that's when the whelping box liner is the cleanest! Seger does a good job of cleaning the pups, but between her shedding, and the pups doing their business..... it does not stay snowy white very long!

Pile of pups

Bio Sensor exercises

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The Curly Coat can be a bit of a mystery. As you can see, the pups aren't born with the nice crisp curly coat that Seger has.
When does the adult coat come in? Does the coat go through stages? Are there any coat problems in this breed? Which coat problems should I worry about? Why does my curly have this bald spot on its tail? Is the collar too tight, my curly doesn't have hair on her neck.... Hey! I heard they don't shed!!!!

These are things breeders hear all the time!

Not much is published about the Curlies coat. (You may have found this out already if you have looked for books, or looked on the internet)
Over the next few days, I will try to share with you what I have on the subject, or what I can get my hands on about the subject! Our AKC Gazette Columnist, Ann Shinkle, has written several good columns about the coat of a curly. I have asked her for permission to reprint them here. She has to check with the AKC and its policies, so cross your fingers that they let us use the info!

Lets start with Curly Coat Patterning.

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Patterned Baldness

The "Curly Coat Problem" can be frustrating -- it is often misdiagnosed for other diseases such as thyroid deficiency, and it is detrimental to a breeding program trying to establish the proper coat. It is difficult to say how many Curlies are affected with this, as many are not shown, are not noticeably affected, or the problem is thought to be something else, such as wear from the collar. In mild cases, the patterning may appear once and then never again when the coat grows back in. While mildly affected dogs generally lead normal lives, it is an indicator of more serious trouble, as it is caused by some type of auto immune problem. Affected dogs are more likely to have allergies, reproductive problems; in its severest form, it affects the growth hormones and the dogs mature at about 40lbs.

Very often dogs with patterned baldness will have good coats as a puppy, with the bald spots appearing at sexual maturity. Bald patterning appears on the backs and/or insides of the hind legs, and/or on the flanks, and/or on the front and/or sides of neck, and/or the deepest part of the chest and/or as an overall thin or brittle coat. A minor indication of the problem are dogs that are fully coated but only have real curls on their necks and backs. The hair loss is very distinctly bilateral -- that is, on both sides of the dog. There are varying manifestations of this syndrome, from appearing nearly normal to being almost completely bald. In some cases, hair grows back after shedding, but within months rather than weeks.

Diets and supplements do not take care of patterned baldness. You should inform your dog's breeder (send clear, closeup photos of all the spots) of any symmetrical bald spots appearing on your puppy so that they can take this information into account in their breeding program. Unaffected dogs seem to produce affected puppies, implying a recessive gene or genes, but the exact mode of inheritance is unclear. Very few veterinarians know about this problem in Curly Coats.

Note: Yes, I used pictures I have found, borrowed or swiped! But the main baboon butt shot of the curly on the top of the page is a curly I bred myself. Annie. (SoftMaple's Avanti Anti Up) Patterning happens. Im not proud that Annie was patterned, nor did I ever try to hide it. Im not ashamed. I didn't intend to have this happen, and I certainly did not let her reproduce. But, I could not tell at 2 weeks, or at 4 weeks, or at 8 weeks that she was going to be patterned. It is a defect. It did not make her any less of a Curly at heart. As breeders, we are still studying what causes patterning. We are still trying to eliminate it from our bloodlines. But we still love those dogs that have juvenile, seasonal, or out and out patterning.

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1:30 pm pictures:

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4/21/2002 Day 11

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To SoftMaple Curlies