This is the final week of the cavalier and beagle pups being together. Fergie (now known as Penelope) has already gone to her new home, and the other cavaliers will be heading to their new homes on Saturday after their ophthalmologist check. **For those who don’t know, I send my cavalier pups home with a cardiologist heart check, an ophthalmologist eye check and a vet check from my regular vet.
The pups are all happy and healthy – I couldn’t be more pleased. I have just loved raising them and being their first mama.
Due to no fault of their own, we have 2 beagle girls available. I am working through my waitlist to find the perfect fit for both. I am hoping to find a “guardian home” for Miss Shiloh (if you want to know more about that click here: Guardian home for “shiloh” | Kazuri (kazuribeagles.com)) and a pet family for Bagel.
The puppies are all so wiggly now, it’s hard to get individual photos of them. 🙂 I might try again in my studio again next week. But, they get out in the garden daily for playtime in the garden so I love to document their play sessions. They have so much fun together.
Enjoy these photos of both litters plus our adults. They all get along so well.
*please note that none of the puppies are available at this time*
With the cavalier puppies getting bigger, they get more and more time outside playing with the pack. The beagles are so gentle with them – I have an un-neutered male who is super gentle with them which makes me so proud of the temperaments of the dogs I produce.
Enjoy these photos of the babies at play in the garden with the big dogs. 🙂 *just a reminder that these puppies are not available at this time*
Charlotte’s babies are continuing to do well. they are exploring more and more and gaining so much confidence in new things. they can now navigate a few stairs and are more than happy to walk on the uneven teeter totter as part of their play. These things help with confidence building and making them well adjusted to their new life as they go home.
We introduced them to all our big dogs, who love them dearly. I am so happy to have a pack of adults, including an unfixed male, who are all gentle on babies. The babies can play with them and learn lessons from adults that arent just mom, which makes their learning so rich.
Enjoy the latest updated photos. I dont know how many more photos of them sitting i will be able to get as they are so wiggly. 🙂
*please note that these puppies are not available at this time*
Anyone who knows me, knows health testing is important to me and my breeding program.
I woke up to great news this morning that two of my cavalier girls have OFA HIP scores of “Excellent”. And that is a hard score for cavaliers to get so I am over the moon to get it.
Nellie (Kazuri’s Notorious Nellie) and Phoenix (Kazuri’s On the Wings Of Love TKN) are both out of my foundation girl Arrow (Lockestar Lovestruck CGC).
I am forever grateful to these breeders for allowing me to use their studs and furthering my breeding program one generation at a time. These girls also recently cleared their eye exams.
A huge thank you to Dr Anders Thoreson from Klahaya Animal Hospital for doing such a great job at taking non-sedated radiographs. He is truly an OFA magician.
This post will be quick as we had newborn baby beagles this weekend, but I wanted to show you that these beautiful bonny babies are growing up like weeds and doing so well.
We gave them some playtime outside and they were a little nervous but also excited to look around. They are adventuring around the house more and more and have loved meeting the rest of the pack, so are getting time with other big dogs too.
Life is zooming along thats for sure.
*please note that these pups are not available at this time*
Introducing:AKC GCH CKC CH Lockestar ‘Cause I’m Up To No Good, CGC CGCA CGCU TKN RATN RATNX RATO (and Crazy8s Bronze)!
Our boy Sirius has just finished earning THREE new Barn Hunting titles in a single weekend, and might be the FIRST Cavalier to have accomplished one of them! (we are just waiting on the confirmation of this).
His co-owner, Susan Lockleer and Sirius have worked so hard together to get this far and make an amazing team! Sirius is truly a once in a lifetime dog with his eagerness to please, willingness to work, intelligence, versatility, and bomb-proof happy go lucky temperament. He’s definitely not stopping here. I can’t wait to see how far this team goes!
Sirius is sired by Mary Beth Squirrell from Embee’s lovely boy CKC CH Embee’s Mischief Managed, ROM – “Loki” and out of LockeStar Love Struck, CGC – “Arrow” (sired by CH Turretbank To Sir With Love – “Sidney” daughter). Both of his parents are heart clear 5+ with SM0 MRI scans.
Sirius is currently heart clear at 4.5yrs also with a SM0 MRI scan.
As a breeder and owner I am so proud of both his brains and beauty.
The cavalier babies are getting bigger. This week they had their first taste of food and they loved it. I always start them on a little ground beef and Answers Goats Milk as it is very easy on the tummy. If you want to see a little video, go to my instagram page @kazuri.beaglesandcavaliers as you can see a little video there 🙂
The babies are starting to move around the pen more. We have given them a “big bed” to sleep in and mama Charlotte can come and go as she wants to. She now feeds them and then spends the rest of the day sitting in the sun or getting belly rubs on the couch.
Okay – I know this is the part you are looking forward to – the updated pictures of these cuties. I woke these guys up from a nap, so thats why they look a little sleepy.
*please note that none of these puppies are available at this time* If you would like to apply for a puppy, you may do so through our “puppy page”.
I get asked this question all the time – aren’t breeders all the same? How can I tell the difference between an ethical breeder and a backyard breeder or a puppy mill?
Well, the answer is simple. No. They are not all the same.
And more than that, just because it is “pure bred” does not mean it was “well bred”.
For this blogpost, I want to define that an ethical/preservation breeder is someone who breeds to improve the breed as their primary focus. They are not in it for the money and having puppies is not their income source. A backyard breeder, for this blog post, is defined as someone who has a dog that has “papers” and wants to have a litter to have fun or the experience. They generally don’t do any health testing. They sometimes will purchase a male and female and just breed them together. A puppy mill, for this blog post, is a breeder who breeds solely to make money. They are not always the horrible images we see on TV (although there are extreme puppy mills that do treat their dogs like that), but mostly they cut as many corners and costs to maximize profits. The health and safety are not really a priority and so the dogs have limited routine vet checks and don’t usually have the recommended health tests. Some of these puppy mills have beautiful websites and photos and so as a buyer you have to really be vigilant to make sure that is not where you are buying your puppy from.
I also want to make something else clear – AKC is a pedigree registry. It is a place that records the history of your dog’s parentage so they can prove that it is (or isn’t) a pure bred dog. Each breed of dog has a written standard of what they should look like. It does not monitor how close they are to the standard and so it is up to you as a buyer to check that your breeder is adhering to what they need to, to keep to the standard.
Many ethical breeders will show their dogs in conformation shows. This is not just for prestige – although the ribbons and awards are certainly fun. Most of the time it is to make sure that the dogs they are producing are adhering to the standard. When you get together with other breeders, you can compare your breeding stock with other breeders and see if you are “on track”. You also get feedback from impartial judges. It helps many breeders try not to have “mommy goggles” as lets be honest – we all think our dogs are the most beautiful in the world.
What separates ethical/preservation breeders from backyard breeders or puppy mills is their commitment to the breed itself. By showing their dogs, a breeder shows their commitment to keeping their dogs to the standard. How can you tell if your breeder is committed? Ask your breeder what clubs they belong to. Ask them if they do any sports with their dogs such as tracking/scent work or barn hunting or obedience or even good canine citizen awards. Even if they don’t show their dogs (their is no reason not to) they should be committed to being part of the local clubs – this requires them to adhere to ethical standards of breeding, and accountability.
If a breeder talks about their dogs “champion bloodlines”, they are probably trying to trick you into thinking they show their dogs, or that they adhere to the standard in their breeding. However, this “champion” could be far back in their pedigree and pretty meaningless.
Health testing also sets ethical/preservation breeders apart from those just in it to make money. AKC has a list for each breed, of the health tests recommended by each parent club. The images below are the beagle and CKCS recommended health tests.
Ethical breeders will have these tests and have proof that they are done. There is a registry for health tests online called www.ofa.org – here you can look up any dog by it’s registered name and verify information given to you by the breeder.
However, I will note that it costs money to register the results online so many breeders do the tests but don’t put the results online, so make sure you ask if you don’t see them.
For Hearts, check that the check was done by a cardiologist, not just a vet practitioner. Breeders that are not taking their dogs to a cardiologist are not adhering to the standard and are cutting a very important step but pretending they aren’t.
Cavalier hearts should be checked every year. Many backyard breeders and puppy mills will do them once (if at all). So, check the dates and ask questions if they are not current.
This is an OFA eye check – this girl has extra eyelashes (distichiasis), but her eyes have no eye disease. It’s important to read results thoroughly and feel free to ask or google anything you aren’t sure about.
The final way to tell an ethical/preservation breeder from a backyard breeder or a puppy mill is by looking at if they are working towards making their breeding program and the breed better by their breedings, or if they are just pumping out puppies.
An ethical/preservation breeder will search out the best match for their dams (moms). Most of the time, it will not be in their back yard. They are not afraid to import semen from overseas, across the US or from their network of breeder friends. A backyard breeder or puppy mill want to save as much money as possible to maximize profits and so use the same stud and dam for every single litter. If they never use any other studs, it should be a red flag.
Every puppy will be cute. So, don’t base your decisions on a cute puppy. Ask questions and be prepared to walk away if you are not liking what you hear. You deserve to get a puppy that has had the best start in life.
Both Cavalier King Charles Spaniels and Beagles should have their hearts checks before breeding.
CKCS should go one step further and have theirs checked every single year, since our breed is plagued with a heart disease that can develop over time.
Hearts, while they can be checked by a general practitioner, *should* be checked by a cardiologist. Cardiologists train to hear the difference in the clicks and ticks that hearts make and what these noises make. They are trained to see things on echocardiograms to understand how the heart valves work and blood flows.
To know if your breeder is having their hearts checked properly, check their documentation. Have a look to see what is written. I will show you two examples.
This beagle was seen by a cardiologist as you can see on the bottom right.
This cavalier was seen by a regular vet (unfortunately).
As I mentioned earlier, heart clearances for cavaliers are only valid for 1 year. If your breeder is breeding dogs that haven’t got current clearances, you should ask them why not.
Not every breeder posts the results online – it can get expensive to do so. So, they can just show you the paperwork that would be submitted to www.ofa.org. Below are some examples for you to look at.
If you want to know more about what a heart murmur is, there is a little video about it here:
