More joyful news now

On the 8th of June, our Falco van 't Hof Diabolo (Duke & Skye) obtained his obedience-license. He also may go to class 2 Large of the agilty. Good news to from his halfsister Veny aka Girl Fever van 't Hof Diabolo (Skye & Spark), she participated at a socialisationtest and passed with honour! Congratulations Kim and Veny (see pic below)

We also recieved some new pics of Hypnos "Roxy" van 't Hof Diabolo (Skye & XTC)

And from Glamor Puss "Gini" van 't Hof Diabolo (Casey & Bruse)

More photo's can be found on our site

Sad news

What had started out as a lovely Saturday, has turned into dissaster.

As every day, we let our dogs out, the border collies as well as the aussies and the little dogs from inside.

Our Eros, the smallest one from the gang, but a very bossy little fella, ran, as always, along with the other dogs, up and down the fields. (We live quite some distance away from the street and our dogs can run free across the fields and paddocks here)

I came behind, I can't walk that fast!, and suddenly I heard Eros cry. I didn't see what had happened but suspected that a big dog had run over him, they 're very boisterous when they pass you by once they are at 'full speed'. But Eros is such a whimp sometimes so it could be nothing to. I called him to come to me, to see what was going on, and saw that he was raising his right behind leg. I grabbed him and was shocked by what I saw, his foot was broken in two, the bones even went through his skin!

We had never put the rest of the dogs back in their cage as fast as then, I called the vet and we drove there as fast as we could. When we got there, they took a couple of pics of his leg and they saw that all four of the bones were broken, just snapped in two. They couldn't do a lot, they had to call a specialist to fix this.

We could bring him back around 1pm, by then, the doctor would be there, and she would do the surgery, they would give us a call when she got there. We were also free to let him stay there until 1pm but we didn't want to do that, he was in quite some pain, and then leave him there in a small cage, with no-one around him he knows, no, we didn't like that. We asked if he could get something against the pain, but they said better not, he would have to be fully sedated for the operation and it was too dangerous, he might never wake up.

Finally, two hours later, they phoned us to say the doctor had arrived. We could stay with him for the last photo's and then we had to leave him behind. It could take two to three hours, it would depend on how smoothly things went.

At 4 pm the phone rang again and surgery was done. it didn't go as planned, they wanted to stick some little iron things in his bones, but his bones were so small and fragile, they didn't had any pins that suited. So they had to do things differently and attach the iron pins on the outside of his foot. We need to go back every month to take a photo and see how it develops. As soon as the bones are fully healed, the pins can come out. But it will take about three months

Another surprise

Our black and white bitch Ginger (Golden Wish van 't Hof Diabolo - Sunny & C) had to come in season any moment now. We've already found a very nice boy for her, Illusion in Red from Borders Paradise, aka Zion. More information about this dog you can find on my site

I had already called Zion's owner that it wouldn't be long now, and to keep them ready ;-) Daisy told me they were on vacation from the 3th of June till the 10th and that hopefully, Ginger wouldn't come in season in that period. But if it was so, I could phone her friend, who was looking after the dogs while they were away, and that she would help me then. Ginger was kindly enough to wait until Daisy got back and started bleeding the day after she was home. I've called D. on Wednesday to tell her about it. We will draw blood to see which day will be the best to mate Ginger and then we will be on our way to Beerse to get out little girl covered by this handsome young man. To be continued....

The telephonecall we've been waiting for...

After seeing Casey yesterday, I knew it wouldn't be long before she came in season. Falco is the studdog we were planning to use, now we know the hips from both dogs are fine, we can go ahead with this combination. Falco has recently been tested for CEA through his DNA and is NORMAL, so all our puppies will be HD and CEA free.

I 've always wanted to keep a puppy from Casey, but for some reason never got to it. She was still young and we had plenty of time left to do that. Now it's the perfect moment to keep a puppy of those two. We are hoping for a nice red merle bitch that has the character of her dam and the will to please from her sire.

Casey has been in season at the beginning of January, it was almost the moment again, but you know, if you're waiting for something, it could take a long time!

And then...finally, the day after we saw her, Martine calls me up, Casey is in heat!

Hooray, we can expect puppies! :)

Monday 9th June, an exciting day!

As I just start with this blog, I have lots to tell you about what happened last week.
On Monday we, my friend martine and I, went to the vets in Antwerp with a couple of our dogs to test their hips for HD. It was a very exciting day, because the hipscores are very important for the future of our breeding dogs.
We had to be there around 11 am and strange but through, we were almost on time!We were a couple of minutes too late, but that wasn't that bad because there was still someone inside with the vet. When we went in and all the papers had been delivered, Falco could go first. For him, it was very important to have good hips, as he will be our future studdog. So he went first on the table, Martine stayed with him to keep him calm. After three x-rays, the job was already done. Then it was Casey's turn, it only took one x-ray to get a good look at the hips, then it was Ginger and Spice's turn and them to just needed one x-ray. It all went very smoothly, they are very good vets!
After the x-rays were put on a disc, I could go and take a look. We were very suprised to hear Spice has the best hips from those 4 dogs, we didn't expect it, with Spice being almost 5 years. But we should get all A's and B's, what I think is very good. A very exciting but great day that was. I'll keep you informed what the scores turn out to be.

More News

Although I update my site regularly, I thought it was a nice idea to start up a blog to, to keep you all a bit more informed about what 's going on at van 't Hof Diabolo. The "what's new" page will certainly be maintained to, but this is the ideal way to give you some more info about what's happening with all our dogs and especially when there are puppies born or expected!
Prepare yourselves for lots of pictures and a lot to read!