We Visit the Puppies – Aug. 15, 1999
| Raising Picard
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We followed Picard's entry into the world more closely than we had with any other dog. We learned when her mother was mated, when she was pregnant, how long she gestated, and when she was born. The breeder was heavily invloved with bull terrior clubs and rescue. |
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Picard's mother was Calliope, a sweet brindle bullie. Mary
Ann had two joys and a sadness with the litter: she was happy when we were told Calliope
was pregnant and once again when we were told she delivered three pups. The sadness was
when the breeder told us that the male puppy had died. We hadn't wanted a male, but any
puppy's death is sad. We couldn't wait to visit the pups, but had to be patient until they were six weeks old. We went out the first weekend we could.
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There were two puppies: an all-white and one with brindle ears. The breeder released them in her kitchen and we watched the antics of what looked like to little piglets. |
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Being dogs, they, of course, are fascinated with the smell of each other butts. Whitey liked to bite Brindle-Ears ears and nose. Brindle-Ears seemed more curious about people. |
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Whitey was the acrobat. She jumped over one of the chair's stringers, but decided she'd better crawl under the other one, not realizing that she'd grown since the last time she was outside of the whelping crate and no longer fit under it. |
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We didn't realize it then, but we later found out that bullies take being stymied as a personal insult. When Whitey couldn't fit under the chair stringer, she stopped and pouted for a moment. We'd see more of this behavior later. |
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Up until this point whenever the pups encountered a human
hand it had a treat, or at least something curious, in it, Brindle-Ears decided to
investigate Mary Ann's palm when she presented it. Since there was nothing to eat or play
with, Brindle-Ears decided to gnaw on Mary Ann's fingers. This could be a cute behavior
when you're a visitor, but it actually foreshadowed misery to come.
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After checking Mary Ann's hand, Brindle-Ears went on to the blouse. Once again a terrible portent of future behavior. The upside, however, was that Brindle-Ears was more human-sociable than Whitey. |
| Calliope was a very gentle and sweet dog. She
had the coloring Pete would have preferred. We'd have taken her if the breeder had been
willing to part with her. Her demeanor in the whelping crate was that of a very tired
mother of twins. Poor Calliope's teats were elongated and very pink. Having those two pups
chew on them didn't help at all.
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The breeder was too soft-hearted, in Pete's opinion: she let the puppies get away with behaviors that should have been corrected. They liked to chew on shoes and watch bands and were "nippy." |
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After about 45 minutes outside of the whelping crate, they
began to tire. And, like tired children they began to get crankie. The breeder picked up
Brindle-Ears to show us something and Brindle-Ears didn't like being held, so she started
nipping at the breeder. The breeder tried to correct her, but Brindle-Ears was having none
of it. The breeder put Brindle-Ears back in the crate before Whitey. Brindle-Ears didn't
like that, so she turned her back to us and hid her nose in a corner of the crate. You
couldn't see such behavior and not think "pout." She fell asleep like that.
Whitey also got tired of running around the house, biting things, and peeing on the
carpet, so she went back into the crate, too. The breeder eventually extracted
Brindle-Ears from the corner and placed them together -- both dead to the world.
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| Eventually, the breeder decided to keep Whitey
since she looked to be the best dog for confirmation showing. Pete wasn't disappointed.
He'd been worried about genetic deafness, a trait that appears in all-white dogs. We went
out one Saturday after the pups were 12-weeks old and brought Brindle-Ears home and named
her Picard. You can see the reason below. It has something to do with eyes and nose . . .
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