Puppies Arrived Early

Ivy had her puppies early yesterday on February 23, 2016, Ivy has had a total of 5 puppies for her second litter. Mother and all the puppies are doing well, see Ivy below right after he delivery late last night, she was pretty sleepy.

Ivy's Due Date is in One Week

Ivy will be having her puppies in about one week, see her x-ray below, how many puppies do you see?



Click the photo to make it bigger

The Start of a New Year

Sorry this is late however we have been busy with the new year activities.  The year has started off with lots of action for Ivy Piper and Ace.  Ivy was bred last month and the puppies are on the way. Piper is keeping up with her agility training and hunting for all creatures on the property, even though it is winter. Ace is having the time of his life at agility class already advancing to level 2.

Ivy is becoming a mother again we bred her one month ago and is showing all the signs of pregnancy. She has already put on 5 pounds in one month! has an increase apatite and is starting to show. All clear signs of pregnancy. Although it is too early to see the puppies we are expecting puppies at the end of February, keep following for updates.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas Everyone!!!!! The holidays are here and we love to celebrate with presents, cookies and of course Santa. All the Braques this past month went for pictures with Santa, they had a great time and got an great picture. We have also had a very busy month not only with Christmas but Ace has graduated from level 1 of agility already and Ivy has gone into season, early, which means it is time for breeding.

What to do when hunting is not an option?

With the arrival of November comes the arrival of winter, we already have snow on the ground here in northern Ontario.  With the arrival of winter means the end of hunting season; Braque Francais don't like the end of hunting season.  This comes the more difficult question with a Braque Francais, or any hunting dog for that matter, is if the dog is not hunting what do they do? Everyone who hunts has to admit that there is only a small window for hunting season and not a lot of time each year for training, especially in cold climates like here in Canada.  This means that you end up with a high energy dog all year round with only a limited amount of time each year for the dog to use it's energy and natural ability. This is where we run into issue with the dogs becoming board resulting in them getting into trouble and being sent to back to us.

The fact is that there are options too keep the Braque Francias happy and their energy requirements at need and believe it or not walking your dog everyday is not the best option.  I am not saying that you should not walk your dog however if a Braque Francais was to only be walked everyday you would have to walk the dog about two-three hours twice a day to tire them out and have some piece and quite in the house; believe me I have been there. If the dog is only walked what you will end up with is hours and hours of this:

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween everyone, today is Halloween and here at Safron Kennels we like to celebrate. Ivy, Piper, Ace and even Moby got into the Halloween spirit this year. This year my husband dressed up as a fireman and of course no fireman costume is complete without a Dalmatian, however since we only have Braque Francais here Ivy had to fill in.