What Is the Most Frequent Inquiry?

You know the answer to that question. It is about the current availability for our puppies. I pasted in the information I shared not that long ago about how things work. It is not as people imagine. Regardless, I wanted to drop a universal message that we have a couple of males that are not yet promised.

I am not frantic–this type of thing always shakes out as it is meant to be and I have not said much for several reasons. One—we have been insanely busy with the pups, the garden, the farm, and life in general. You understand I am confident your life is similar. Secondly, we only want the right type of inquiry. On the car lot, you have tire kickers–those who spend a lot of time but never are going to buy a car from you. Here, we have puppy-crazed folks who are either looking for the perfect pup and maybe their ideas are off the chart or those who are in love with the idea but they know they are not getting a pup. They can fill out the application and write me somewhere between 50-100 times. They are not willing to invest a small amount to get on our Wait List–that is a clue.

We have a Wait List that leans toward the female. That will color the future availability. Of course, as you read on you will discover we don’t have a clue how things will shake out. What if we get an entire litter of females? It has happened. Then too, what if we get mostly males–we won’t have a pup for these folks. We do have quite a few families who might favor the female, but they are willing to accept a male if that is what they can get. That kind of situations is more natural (and tends to work best of all) because we have so little control over the situation.

Please skip to the bottom to read about our Spring 2018 Status if you read this explanation before. If not, please consider investing the time to understand our situation. Thank you!

Inexplicable Craziness

The inexplicable craziness associated with raising the Weimaraner cannot be precisely defined. Nonetheless, we would like to shed some light on things from our side of the fence. We understand that many folks who come to us in search of the Weimaraner have waited until the eleventh hour and now they are in the hope of finding a pup sooner rather than later. On a rare occasion, we might see ourselves with an available pup upon your inquiry. This scenario could happen if the folks on the wait list are not ready (have a different timeline). There are the other factors too–the sex, the coat color, and the coat length to mention the three biggies. Also, for example, some folks want to hunt upland game, truffles, or sheds. We are looking for the Weims with the most hunt-potential for those engaged in hunting. During our Discovery and Placement Test process, we ascertain whether the pup is more inclined towards scent, and other cues. That doesn’t mean the less hunt-potential pup could not be a suitable hunting companion; however, we hope to place those pups with the Companion Weim folks. Other than the Weim-seeker’s preferences, availability and litters are affected by factors we often have little to no control over.

Heat Cycles

The female’s heat cycle might not be entirely consistent. Certain age-appropriate females will come into season every six months–others not so much. We figure on average any female might cycle about every seven months; however, there are times when our best guess is off. Last winter, for example, all the girls came into heat way behind schedule despite the chagrin of many. The lateness caused the arrival we got to be later and for some people, this time change was not going to work.

Mating Complexities

The complexity of mating cannot be understated. There is a reason we have more than one sire–we don’t keep breeding back to the same lineage. The right sire choice is essential. In some situations, we have had the luxury to use multiple sires; however, many times we have but one option. Or, where we have mixed in the Longhairs, we might have one option if we don’t want any Longhair pups in a litter. For example, Boone doesn’t carry the Longhair DNA marker–whereas, Stackhouse is a Longhair. Any female that carries the Longhair marker and is mated to Stackhouse would produce some Longhair pups. All this planning doesn’t always end up producing a litter.

When You Get Nothing

There are times when a mating happens, and it doesn’t produce pups. We suspect this happens a lot more than anyone talks about because we get inquiries from folks who have waited elsewhere and after two matings they never got a puppy. We also know, as we talked about with the four (from the Callie X Zee litter), not every female is a good producer. Vidalia never produced a single pup despite many efforts. Ginger and Cindee inconsistently produced small litters. Only Mousse produced the average-sized litter consistently. Who would have guessed? The lack of litters from a mating thing is not the end of the challenges.

To list a few other things–some females do not carry the litter to term. You watch their tummy grow, and they miscarry. Yes, it happens to the Weimaraner just as it does to some women. Or the litter might only produce one or two pups. All that time spent hoping, and you have not much to show for it. Those folks waiting for a puppy can become disillusioned. We can experience these feelings too! We have to shake off anything negative quickly. After waiting, and the pups arrive new information is available. Sometimes it is not as we hoped.

Spring 2018

We have the pups–but possibly not what some wanted. You know, the silver-gray female is the most popular choice at this point in time. Many times in the past, we have had a lot of silver-gray females born and everyone seemed to want a blue or a male. We cannot just mate endlessly. We have to have homes for pups–so there is a limit to what we can do. This applies to the workload as well as the placement process. We (Cliff and I) wanted to make you aware that if you are thinking of getting a male, we might have one available very shortly. If you are serious, we would love to hear from you.