Evaluations at 8 weeks of age

Roadtrip!!!

May 25th

The puppies experienced their first lengthy road trip at 8 weeks of age and went to Portland Oregon for a professional evaluation with Pat Hastings. Pat has been a professional handler and breeder, and is now an educator and AKC judge. She gives seminars on puppy and dog development and structure, and has written several books on the subject. Pat feels puppies should be structurally evaluated at 8 weeks, + 3 days as they are proportional structurally to what they will be as adults. Pat looks at how the dogs are put together piece by piece. She reviews how variances in this structure will affect their daily life and what jobs they may or may not be able to perform. Pat is constantly observing the interactions between puppies during her evaluations.


Candids of Pat with each puppy durring the evaluations:

Exhausted!

The goal of evaluations such as this is for a breeder to better understand what they have produced and what their bloodline is moving forward in the breeding. In any breeding, there are positives and negatives. A breeder should embrace both and be as knowledgeable as possible about the negatives to address them with any future breedings. Evaluations also help to review and understand personalities and temperaments of each puppy. As puppies move on to their forever homes, breeders should help place puppies with families who are the best possible fit for the puppy. A breeder should not place a high-energy independent puppy with a retired couple looking for a dog to be a companion and take short leisurely walks with them.

Stacked pictures from the evaluation:

Staten

Bronx

 Rockefeller

 Manhattan

Liberty

Madison

 Hudson

I must say the trip was fun, and something I will always cherish. The adult dogs were left at home, including mom Ruth. We traveled in an RV, and although I initially intended to have one or two pups out at a time to play and stretch their legs while we traveled, we were not far before the entire gang was out and it was a play fest, which lasted several days. Nights were spent in a crate, which allowed for some good initial crate training.... that is except for the one or two who sneaked into bed with us each night for cuddle time :))

Rockefeller looking to see where we are at

Brooklyn wants to know if we are there yet

Bronx taking a turn at the wheel

Dad....I think we need to get off there

More Evaluations

The eighth week

The 8-week period during a puppy's life is a very busy time. We were very fortunate to have local Dalmatian breeders visit and evaluate the puppies, not only for structure but also for breed specific qualities. The puppies also had visits from other dog fanciers wanting to learn more about Dalmatians.

Bronx

 Hudson

 Manhattan

 Madison

 Brooklyn

 Staten

 Rockefeller

 Liberty