I’m writing these notes in the last week of April, a third of the way through the year and my ‘doom and gloom’ report really is aptly named!
So far this year, only five litters have been born; resulting in just twenty two puppies – thirteen dogs and nine bitches. These comprised of two litters of six puppies, one five and a three and a two and with three ‘misses’ thrown in for good measure! To make matters worse, from what I’ve heard there aren’t even any litters ‘in the pipeline’; although there are a few planned for later on in the year.
This is the fewest number of puppies born in the first third of a year since 2009 and the number of puppies born during that period hovered well below the one hundred mark for a few years. Ten years on and our gene pool is even smaller now than it was then and if this trend continues it really doesn’t bode well for the breed.
Anji Marfleet