Good afternoon to you all. It has been some time since my last update here at Northwest Lagottos, and for that I am sorry. During the summer, COVID slowly worked its way through our family and while mild, each member was down for a few days. In late August I started to feel just a general sense of less energy, as you do when a little run down. This lasted a month until in late September I felt it move into my lungs. I battled it at home under doctors supervision for over two weeks. I have since enjoyed a week's stay in our local hospital and greatly appreciate the care of their great staff. I am now slowly getting back on my feet, though limit speaking as it results in little communication and lots of coughing.
As for our breeding program, the fall has presented its challenges. Chai had a silent season and thus we missed breeding her. Her puppies were expected October and would have been ready for a late December pickup. Dolce took almost an extra two months to go into season and was bred late sept. Her ultrasound to confirm pregnancy is this week and if pregnant will whelp approx. Nov 20 - meaning pups will be 8 weeks in the early new year.
Because we missed chai, I have reached out to the best Lagotto breeder (perhaps in the world) in Europe and offered to buy one of her breeding program females. As you can imagine this is a girl that she has kept for herself and is highly valuable to her. The cost is significant but we have reached a deal. I am awaiting for her to go into season. Once she does, she will be bred to an Italian champion and will travel to us. There is no certainty as to timeline at the moment but a whelp date in the new year with a puppy home date of March or later seems likely.
Beyond that, several of our young girls, and our stud Roman, are reaching health testing age and thus we anticipate X-Rays, DNA results and eventually Cardiac and Eye exams over the next several months. Looking forward we can see several more litters through the spring/summer time period and look forward to being able to open up our list once again to those patiently waiting.
That covers our expectations for the winter at this point. Stay safe, Stay Healthy.
Mark Nelson
