Week 2 - Maya's litter

The Guide Dog breeding stock are called Brood Bitches (BB) and Stud Dogs (SD) and they live in peoples homes who are called Brood Bitch Holders (BBH) and Stud Dog Holders (SDH) but they do go into the breeding centre to be mated, also the BB spends her season in the centre, even when she is not being mated, to ensure that she doesn't have an unwanted illicit mating. The puppies are born at home unless mum gets into difficulty, or she has had a difficult previous whelping, then she will go to the breeding centre to have her puppies, and then return home when all is well. When the puppies reach six weeks of age, they leave their mum in peace and go into the breeding centre, where they will be micro chipped, weighed, have their first vaccination, and be checked over fit for travelling, and after two days they will set off on their journey to live with their appointed puppy walkers, where they will spend the next 12-14 months.

When Maya was due to come to me, I met my puppy walking supervisor at the meeting point where the van bringing the puppies from the breeding centre stops off. Maya travelled up with her brother Marley, so I managed to get a photo of them together. Maya is one of eight puppies born to mum, Lexis and dad, Aussie on 1st March 2010. Their names are Maya, Misty, Midge, Max, Mercer, Monty, Merlin and Marley. The whole litter have the same initial for their names, unless a pup is sponsored, when sometimes the sponsor is allowed to choose the name. The BBH also has Lexis's mum Pella who had a litter of ten puppies two days later, so there were 18 GSD pups in one house along with the two mums, so there was plenty of rough and tumble going on!

I took my gorgeous bundle from my supervisor, and set off for home, for Maya to meet my other guide dog puppy Rea, a Black Labrador/Retriever cross. Maya did plenty of ‘singing’ on the way home, she was no doubt missing brother Marley, even though I did put her 'comfort blanket' in her crate with her that came with her, which has all the scents of mum and siblings on. German Shepherds are noted for being very vocal. Maya met Rea and got on really well, although she was very bossy with Rea. She immediately sank her needle sharp teeth into her, but little sweetheart Rea was so tolerant and gentle with Maya. Rea and Maya were here together for six months, which is what Guide Dogs call an overlap, and they got on fantastic, and never fell out. If they each had a hide stick to chew they would swap several times, no possessive aggression at all.

The question us puppy walkers constantly get asked is “how can you give them up?” My one liner at the moment is with pride, “knowing that it is going to change somebody's life, and give them back their confidence.” But hey, I do have to be honest, most of us do shed tears when the day comes when we have to say ‘goodbye’ to our pup. Nevertheless I do absolutely love being a puppy walker, and would recommend it to anybody, the sheer joy outweighs the few tears.