Oasis Companion Canines

12/25/2024

Happy holidays to and from our Oasis family ❤️❤️❤️

featuring Sunflower (Mellow x Finch 2024) slapping Santa for cookies, and Mollie (Mellow x Dorian 2021) with grandkid 🥰

11/19/2024

Couldn’t be more excited about our upcoming litter!The anticipation for this pairing really is the one thing keeping us going these days. Our fellow breeder Tara Doherty has met both Mellow and Cuba, and has confirmed that Cuba is indeed very similar to Mellow as we thought. This litter will be our ultimate temperament goals ❤️

(we have 6 wonderful potential homes lined up and will only be taking backups for if someone drops out or if we end up with a bigger litter)

11/19/2024

We love Quill 🥹❤️

Hey friends, we cannot contain our excitement any longer.

Just a few weeks ago , Mo () and I were talking about future hopes and dreams for the project. At the top of the wish list was a Samoyed breeder that would be willing to partner with us… The Sammy is the happy, affable, clever & friendly kid in the Spitz family. So much so that their breed standard says they make terrible guard dogs.

And that dang we’re still sad we didn’t get one of those golden X buhund puppies because we’d love a bit of retriever biddability & resilience but not so much that it overpowers the Spitz personality.

Enter 🪶🪶Quill 🪶🪶!!!

[note: taking suggestions for reg’d name “Figment’s…..??]

His parents are two purebred and fully health tested beauties - a Samoyed & Golden - who snuck in some unplanned action. I’m still absolutely pinching myself that his amazing breeder saw the value in our little project (and him) and has agreed to share him with us.

His toys and my bags are packed… .n.poe are off to visit favourite aunties and Air Canada’s lovely gift last fall of first class tickets are being put to good use. Watch this space for more updates as I travel home with this bundle of FOOF!!!

🪶 Those who know me well know one of my very favourite Cadey puppies of all time was Quill (from her Story Litter, but name also partially inspired by the movie of the same name) - and I have a Poet & Finch… so given he’s likely gonna have the most feathers in my flock it seemed only fitting!

10/09/2024

❤️❤️❤️

09/29/2024

In preparation for our upcoming litter, since Cuba is half silken and the breed has copper toxicosis risks, we have tested Mellow for the variants. We are pleased to report she does NOT have any copies of either variant of copper toxicosis ATP7A or ATP7B.

Copper toxicosis is an inherited metabolic disorder in which the liver fails to excrete excess copper and this can lead to liver failure. There is a genetic marker that has been identified as an increased risk factor in development of the disease.

This means that dogs who have one or two copies of this gene are more at risk for the development of copper toxicosis. However, not all dogs with a copy of this gene will develop the disease. Dogs with two copies are most at risk.

More info about copper toxicosis risk:
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=994026492733787&id=100063793350353&mibextid=cr9u03

09/24/2024

❤️

09/24/2024

Clarifying some confusion about Mellow’s DMS status, as it was mistakenly described as clear instead of “low risk” in our litter announcement. Despite this extremely trivial error, Mellow’s DMS status remains unchanged and the same as it always has been: aabb = low risk.

We have always been transparent about our health testing. You can easily find our dogs in the OFA database by searching for Oasis+dog name. For Mellow’s results, simply search for “Oasis Mellow”. Mellow has 2 copies of CEA and 1 copy of DM, which is why we pair to dogs that are clear for those. It’s not a gotcha to have found results we intentionally made public and have been very open about sharing.

Mellow is not AKC registered and none of my dogs are, even if they could be; we see no point in doing so as it is meaningless for our program and has zero bearing on health or temperament.

Again, we currently have no plans to work with any purebred registry or outcross project (though not opposed to helping if approached). This is a companion mix program. If we do breed back to a collie, it would be because it would be a great pairing for our pet homes, not because it would “better the breed”. Ironically, the same people who seem to be upset that we are not crossing back to purebreds would also be in uproar if we were trying to do that. We are currently not working with any other registry except the Companion Dog Project .

And once again, the highest we have charged so far is 2200 for our last litter; the litter before that was 1800. Unfortunately we have not been able to break even with expenses and rising costs, which is why the next litter will be 2500-2800. The listed 2500-3500 range in the FAQ infographic is a generous estimate for future litters, in case of extra expenses/complications. Payment arrangements for low income homes are available on a case by case basis. For more info, check out our pinned FAQs and join our group Oasis Companion Canines.

Lastly, when we say COI we are referring to genetic COI. If someone is claiming their purebred dog has 1% COI, then they are likely referring to pedigree COI which is entirely different from genetic COI.

We already have 5 exceptional homes lined up for the Cuba x Mellow litter, and will only be taking one more. Their genetic COI is estimated to be 2% by the Embark pair predictor.

09/18/2024

For clarity around pricing, our last litter was 2200 and the next litter will be 2500-2800 due to rising costs. We do have homes in each litter that were approved for payment arrangements on a case by case basis. This allows our puppies to be affordable on a sliding scale, especially during times of financial hardship.

Contrary to speculation, we currently have ZERO plans to contribute to any purebred outcrossing project or registry. Our goal is indeed solely to produce companion mixes with stable temperaments from health-tested parents for the average pet home, i.e. dogs that thrive as “chill pets”.

We believe companionship and being a pet is the most common purpose for modern dogs and we select for that as our top priority. If you’re interested in our dogs, please join our groups (commented below) where you can learn more and connect with other owners of our pups. You can also check out the pinned/featured posts for FAQ.

If our dogs are not your cup of tea, we promise to not make you get one!

09/12/2024

So grateful for our amazing puppy families! 🥹❤️

And the wonderful Anna Becker-Simpson for making these!

09/12/2024

Do you have questions about our program? We have answers! Made by the amazing Anna Becker-Simpson

*Edited to add: the fee for our next litter will be on the low end of the range in the infographic (2500-2800), with affordability arrangements made on a case by case basis. The price range in the infographic is a future price range that we have not yet charged, but anticipate due to rising costs (our last litter was 2️⃣2️⃣0️⃣0️⃣).

08/15/2024

Copied with permission from a post by Anne Rogers:

"It is perfectly acceptable, normal and ok for a pet owner to want a family dog, who is safe, fun and can be brought places without that requiring military standard operations and arrangements.

It is perfectly acceptable, normal and ok for a pet owner to not want to or need to become a dog trainer or behaviour expert. To just be a dog owner.

It is perfectly acceptable, normal and ok for pet owners to not want project dogs, who take over their lives, require complete changes to their lifestyle, and mean that, for the remainder of their dog's life, everything must be micro-managed because just one human mistake can mean serious compromises to safety and welfare.

Human welfare is important too, not least because that helps to ensure canine welfare too. We need both.

Dogs wouldn't choose this either.

It's not welfare if we are just keeping them alive under conditions that limit that dog's needs being met.

We're not rescuing them if their lives aren't getting better.

Picture of this beach boy because many years ago, an online/social media bullying campaign was instigated against me by, among others, "force-free" or whatever trainers (I have the screen shots, IPs and all sorts of info) because I decided to choose an impeccably produced, reared and cared for dog so that I could have a fun, safe, nutty companion who challenges me in all the right ways, whose needs I can meet pretty easily and whose welfare I can maintain without massive lifestyle overhauls for either of us.

Been there, done that, and will never do it again, and nor will the countless pet owners who didn't know how to make those choices, and are now stuck and overwhelmed with a dog they love but whose needs are so difficult, and sometimes, impossible, to meet.

I'm tired."

[Photo: Ann Rogers]

08/14/2024

Our next litter will be with Mellow and Cuba of Mandala Dogs / The Sporty Companion Spaniel Project! Mellow is a rough collie and Cuba is a silken x cocker.

The breeding is planned for end of this year, with the litter going home in April/May 2025. Both parents are fully health-tested with OFA/Pennhip (Mellow has her CHIC and can be found in OFA database by searching “Oasis Mellow”). As always, we raise our puppies using R+/FF methods following Avidog and Puppy Culture protocols.

We are expecting the pups to mature into chill and mellow dogs like their parents, with low-moderate energy and high biddability as well as excellent social skills and intuition. Our goals for this litter are “easy keeper” companions suitable for the average pet home. We’re very excited for this pairing and still have a couple spots available!

Join our group for more info: Oasis Companion Canines