Week 9 - New pup Quella arrives

Quella has arrived in her new home, she is a Black Labrador. Her mum is a Black Labrador called Mollie, and dad is a Yellow Labrador called Ralph, there are nine puppies in the litter, and they are the 'Q' litter, and their names are Quella, Quala, Quest, Quaser, Quinny, Quaver, Queenie, Quiz, and Quiver. Quella like Maya, is prospective breeding stock, so she too will need to be seen at eight months of age, then an eye test, followed by x-rays at eleven months old.

Guide Dogs need to select more than they need, to allow for the ones that are not accepted onto the breeding programme. Guide Dogs currently have 270 Brood Bitches, which they want to increase to 300, and they have 70 Stud Dogs, which they want to increase to 80, to enable them to minimise the waiting list, for Guide Dogs. They also buy stock in, from other breeders, to increase the bloodline, and to prevent it becoming a bit too incestuous.

Quella travelled up from the breeding centre with her sister, a Black Lab. called Quala, and a Yellow brother called Quest, and I collected her from the meeting venue, where her microchip was checked, to make sure that I had the correct puppy, also each puppy is marked with a harmless colour, to identify each one, while they are in the nest, i.e. left ear, right hip etc. it is much easier to identify each one, when it is time to be weighed, or wormed. Each puppy arrives with a bag, containing some food, and a years supply of worming tablets, also a years supply of flea control.

As usual it was love at first sight, she is just so cute, with a tiny sweet face. So after collecting Quella's bag of supplies, it was time to set off on our journey home, to let Quella see where she is going to live for the next 12 months, and let her settle in.