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"Lovers" litter:
BORN: 16.04.2024
SIRE: Dusk (Atreyu NeverEnding at Sylvaen) - outcross
DAM: Echo (Sylvaen Wolfmoon Serenade)
 
7 PUPPIES (1 female & 6 males):
 Sylvaen Aphrodite (Ada) - USA
 Sylvaen Casanova (Ghost) - USA
Sylvaen Cupid (Lunas) - SWITZERLAND
Sylvaen Don Juan (Miko) - USA
Sylvaen Eros (Draco) - GERMANY
Sylvaen Lothario (Meeko) - CANADA
Sylvaen Valentine (Hati) - POLAND
Originally, we planned to breed Oberon X Echo in Autumn 2023, as a repeat of our Summer 2021 "Hogwarts Houses" litter.
Unfortunately, despite several matings in September 2023, with a planned ETA of November 2023, Echo did not get pregnant.
Since we also mated Astra with Oberon around the same time, and she also didn't get pregnant, it was obvious that Oberon was no longer fertile.
Sadly, this is a well-documented risk with older "geriatric" stud dogs.
Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) occurs at a rate of 80% of unneutered males over the age of 5, and 95% of unneutered males over the age of 9, and it is the leading cause of infertility.
Therefore, we retired Oberon from breeding and had him surgically castrated, and we decided to use a younger outcross stud dog for Echo's next heat cycle.
We planned to breed Echo with our new outcross stud dog, Dusk, in summer 2024 (once he was 18+ months old) since it would be a nice combination in terms of complimentary traits and it would provide an ideal balance of the breeds in their recent respective ancestries.
Unfortunately, Echo came into heat a little earlier than expected (after only 5 months, instead of 6-7 months) so for her 2024 litter we decided to breed her with our other outcross stud dog, Ranger, instead since he is several months older than Dusk.
That being the case, we decided to breed Echo with Dusk in 2025. For us it was all the same, since we have 2 new outcross stud dogs to choose from, so it made sense for us to breed Echo with the older one (Ranger) first, and just postpone our plans with the younger one (Dusk) accordingly.
As soon as we saw that Echo was in heat, we put her together with Ranger.
Echo and Ranger had a mating on Valentine's Day (14.02.2024) and every day thereafter, for approximately 1 week, and it seemed hopeful that it would be successful.
Finally, in March 2024, after almost 2 years since her previous litter ("Paw Patrol" litter) in Summer 2022, Echo was confirmed pregnant!
We were very excited to see our lovely litter of Ranger X Echo puppies!
Echo had an X-ray on 10 April and we counted 7 puppies.
Right around her anticipated due date, on 16.04.2024, Echo started whelping.
It was quite a shock when we saw that the first puppy was born white/cream (ee). Ranger doesn't carry Ee. Dusk does.
This meant that Dusk must have mated with Echo, without our awareness, while he was with Echo (before we saw that she was in heat and I put her together with Ranger).
As whelping continued, a second white puppy was born, along with 5 darker puppies... who all looked like mini versions of Dusk.
In total, there were 7 strong and healthy puppies (1 female and 6 males) and it seems they are all sired by Dusk (we will confirm parentage for each puppy via EMBARK).
Therefore, the "Lovers" litter theme was an obvious choice.
Sadly for Dusk, he will no longer be allowed to mingle with our females unsupervised at all, since he has a knack for getting them pregnant the moment they come into heat, before it is even noticable/detectible.
Litter Pedigree:
Please click for FULL SIZE version!
| PHOTO GALLERY |
| "LOVERS" litter -- (Dusk X Echo)
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