05/10/2024
Emma is my next momma dog. She's from Minx's second litter and turned 3 in April. She will likely be bred in late October or early November this year, for puppies born in approximately early January and going to homes in April 2025. I was hoping her heats would work out to give me a summer litter next year, but she just finished her third heat so now I have an actual idea of her normal intervals between and know that it's either a spring 2024 go home or an end of year rainy winter 2024/beginning of 2025 go home. Ideally I would prefer to wait until she turned 4 to breed to give health issues even more time to pop up and a longer generational interval. However it is absolutely worth the trade off to send puppies home in the PNW in April instead of a wet and cold December or January!
Emma has many things going for her, but also some things that are not ideal, so I'd like to go over all the factors as well as my thought process so it's all publicly available. Breeding is an art and a science and, most especially, a big roll of the genetic dice, and while I do all I can to give puppies the best start in life, not everything is in my control.
In terms of what's going for her, first, Emma has a lovely temperament. She's fine with strange dogs, plays with dogs she knows, loves humans, is food motivated and biddable. Inside she's a big cuddler, a good eater, and zero drama. Our friend and dog sitter has said she was a bit more stressed than the others at their house and was a little squirrely and didn't want to go outside with everyone, but settled and cuddled in the house. She's been on road trips and vacations with us and been her normal, cuddly, attention seeking self. She's pretty chill and not as "spicy" (goofy, ridiculous) as her sister Fae, but still has personality.
Second, I think she is beautifully built and moves really nicely. She was a standout at her first Silkenfest in 2021 at 6 months old winning a Best Opposite Puppy in the regular show and getting a shout out from the judge in Sweepstakes the day before that she wished there was a third prize to give because Emma would have gotten it. Emma then won Winners Bitch at Boofest in 2022 at 18 months old over lots of competition including her mother. She then went on to be Best of Opposite S*x in that show. Getting the ISWS major by a year and a half old is huge, since that's the hardest part of an ISWS Championship.
The first downside is that Emma is from a litter of four and one has environmental allergies (Fae that is here with us chews her feet seasonally and has been managed with cytopoint) and another, Zhara, was just diagnosed with IBD. There are several relatives on her dad's side with allergies and some with other issues, including one without a diagnosis who is fine on a hydrolyzed protein diet, which is actually how Zhara's owner discovered that she should try that diet which helped Zee and lead to the testing to pin down IBD. Solely based on this, if silkens were a more populous breed, I wouldn't be breeding Emma, but silkens are a rare breed with a small gene pool and despite her sisters' issues, I think she's worth breeding. Minx, her mother, has produced a dog with Addison's in her first litter, and a dog with PRAA in her third litter, but no one from either of her other litters has allergies at this point in time.
Second, she's from a project line in silkens that has many, many, many descendents and will be hard to avoid in years to come. This actually gives me the most anxiety. The only saving grace is that she's not down from the most popular dam in that project. As a breeder I try to do what's best for the breed as a whole, not just what's best for me, and this is the thing I've agonized over the most while lots of other breeders don't even register it as an issue or anything worth consideration.
As you can tell, I've wracked my brain and argued with myself tons about this decision, but I think her personal merits overcome her pedigree downsides!
