Happily Ever After Schnauzer Stories

I have been dreading this week’s blog post. That’s really sad to say isn’t it, mostly because it’s sad news. Everyone that has been following Wendy and her puppies know that we knew that it was a longshot that scamp would make it. Unfortunately, we lost him. I also realize a little too late that Wendy’s milk wasn’t coming in well and we lost her other son and one of her daughters.

We still have Xena, and she is doing well. She was checked out by the vet, and he gave her a clean bill of health. It was a small amount of comfort after so much loss. This is and always was going to be Wendy’s last litter. She is retiring after this litter. She is 5 years old and ready for the next stage of her life, just to be a pet!

The other litters of puppies we have are doing well. It’s so exciting to see Sunkist’s puppies exploring their toys and surroundings. Watching them change and learn every day. There is something so appealing and soothing about watching them toddle around. Lolly and Zelda’s puppies eyes are open, and they are starting to get up and move as well.

During all this excitement, we are also packing our home and getting ready to move. We spent the weekend painting and cleaning our new house. The moving truck arrived this afternoon and God willing we will be sleeping in our new home this week. Moving a family, our size, as well as all of our dogs, is quite the undertaking. We are definitely going to need some prayers and a whole lotta grace.

I know this is an excellent move for us, a much better set up for our dogs and our family. I am so excited to have a room in our home that is dedicated to our puppies and to have a permanent grooming area for myself and Abby to do our dogs. You know that you are a Schnauzer owner when you swoon of the idea of an oversize utility sink with a sprayer to save your back with baths! After the coyote scare, on three different occasions that we had at this house, I am so ready to move to a safer place for my fur babies.

I am sorry that this is going to be a short post this week, but I need to get back to packing. We will be posting photos soon, and as I said on our Facebook page I am hoping as of next Friday to be back to our much more regularly scheduled videos, Facebook lives and updates. I really appreciate everyone’s patience and support during this transition.

Today is bitter sweet, we went through a lot with Bella Grace’s birth and we are delivering the last puppies from her litter to their homes up North. While Abby’s is driving I will bring everyone up to speed on the happenings at HEA. We are very busy with moving, our closing on our new house is June 12, we are on the count down. It’s the perfect home for us, our children and fur babies! So exciting, we will continue to share those adventures with you. Moving a family of 10 plus our 4 legged children is always an experience!

We have never had this many litters at once, with our nasty winter here in NC we had hardly any puppies much to everyone’s dismay. But as soon as Mr Sun came out to bring along Spring and we had a few pretty days it was a schnauzer orgy fest. (Coordinated but still crazy!)

We have Sunkist and her 4 babies, Zelda and her 3 babies, Lolly and her 3 babies and now Wendy and her 4 babies!!!!

For those that follow my page on Happily Ever After Schnauzers you saw the excitement with Wendy yesterday. For those of you that don’t I will give my run down, as well as some thoughts and feelings.

Wendy had her temp drop on Wednesday so we knew in about 24 hours +\- we would have puppies. Sure enough Thursday at noon Wendy was in full blown labor. At 12:20 the first salt and pepper little girl was born, Xena is here! But then nothing. We had talked to our vet about Wendy being in labor and he wanted us to contact him when she hit 3 hours because we had an issue with uterine inertia during her last delivery. Dr Dan wanted us to come in right away and so we packed up Wendy and her daughter and took her right to our vet. Luckily for us, that is only two minutes up the road. After an x-ray and examination he determined that it would be best to give her a shot of oxytocin. It showed on the x-ray that there were four more puppies. Not much happened after the first shot so a second shot was given. One of the things he discusses in the video is that the amount of oxytocin that is given is a math equation based on the mothers Weight. After the second shot a salt and pepper a little boy was born. We knew right away though that something wasn’t right. He was not really breathing, no noise and completely floppy. So we got to work! Suction, “flinging”, rubbing and praying, Sonya took over adding in her 23 years of vet tech experience. But we didn’t get a lot of change unfortunately. Not long after that we had another puppy, a salt and pepper girl! She came out just how they are supposed to, squirming and moving. After suction and some rubbing she squealed and we felt such relief. The next puppy was Scamp, who was super tiny 2.5ozs compared to his 5 & 6 ozs siblings. He was just fine though, moving and squealing. Poor Wendy had to have 2 more shots and then the last sweet salt and pepper boy made his appearance. He was also very healthy.

Once we were home we got everyone unloaded, we had to bring Lolly and her puppies home too! They were at the vet for a check up and to have their tails docked and dew claws removed. They all got A+ health checks.

Scamp got right to nursing along with one of his brothers and his sisters; Wendy was licking her babies and doing all the mommy stuff we like to see. Alas Champ was not doing any of the normal puppy behavior. He was still not breathing the way we like to see. He was not moving or making any sweet squeaky sounds. Our hearts were breaking, but we continued to try. We made our homemade high calorie puppy formula and got a bottle together. I was determined to give him any chance I could.

We tried but he was not able to latch on to any of the nipples we tried. We then did a tube feeding. But there was only changes for the worse. His breathing got worse and he started peeing blood, even before we tube fed him.

We accepted that he was not going to make it. I held him on my chest and bawled. I cried for the fact I would never watch him play, enjoy running with children and his siblings. Never get to love having his tummy rubbed. He would never have a family to grow old with.

I held him until he took his last breath and then cried even harder. I knew I had given him every chance but still felt like I failed. That never goes away. Every time I lose one an overwhelming sense of failure washes over me. I question why I breed dogs. Why I put myself through that, I think; I’m not good enough. Thankfully, I am blessed with a wife who knows just what I need, she brought me one of Sunkist chubby sweet little girls. She had just opened her eyes and was quite happy to snuggle up to me. I got my reminder of my WHY. I love this breed with everything inside my soul. After a good snuggle I looked through pictures of families with their fur babies.

I go through the pain of loss because I get to raise puppies for families who love the breed the way I do. Who enjoy all the funny quirks of the miniature schnauzer.

We got up them every two hours, checking location to mom, temperature and we supplemented little Scamp through the night. In the bright morning hours I got a wonderful surprise of coming in the check and little Scamp was nursing right along with his siblings. He was sucking away and kneading. Just what I needed, with a huge smile I joined my family for breakfast. For the moment everything was golden. I don’t have any guarantees but, for right now, he is okay. All of our puppies are happy and healthy and I can’t ask for more.

Too many people believe that it’s “easy money” being a breeder. That the dogs do all the work, you just sit back and get “paid”, pardon me while I laugh and then get angry. 

That is so far from the truth it’s not even funny. This month, on Mother’s Day our Esme had her litter early. She had 6 puppies, three died as soon as they were born. Then over the next four days we lost the rest. They were too small to nurse so we fed them every 2-3 hours with makeup sponges. It’s very exhausting work. Constantly worrying about temperature and stimulating them to use the bathroom; Liver water and making formula. Not much sleep and lots of tears, especially when you cannot save any of them. You know when you start that there isn’t much hope but you try with all your might anyway. Every feeding and .01oz is a victory. Every death is heart wrenching and completely devastating. My children are so aware of life and death and how fragile life is. Their excitement when the puppy is still alive when they get home from school and their devastation when it passes. My seven-year-old was especially heartbroken after watching us perform mouth-to-mouth and CPR and every other trick in the book we know to try to keep a puppy alive. Watching him kiss her head after we did the final, she’s gone, it’s been an hour. It makes my mama heart ache, but at the same time it makes me thankful that my children are learning how precious life is. Being a breeder is not glamorous, it’s also not easy. Having to bow out of certain engagements because of a dog being due to deliver or having new puppies. Having to set up a babysitter in order to attend your children’s school functions and worrying the whole time your at the grocery store is a way of life. 

I know lately people have wondered why we have been so quiet on our page, we had two litters born this week. We have puppies going home this weekend, and last week we were dealing with the devastation of puppies born too early and trying to keep them alive. I am looking forward to the next week of celebrating Sunkist and Zelda is precious puppies who were born on time and are doing wonderful. There will be pictures soon, we are all just catching up from lack of sleep and mourning. 

But please, never think being a breeder is easy. 

My first breeding female was CiCi, she was a beautiful mega coated white chocolate. Her first litter was text book, from pregnancy to delivery and raising her babies. The second time not so much and this is that story…

In 2017 we bred CiCi and Sarge things progressed pretty much in the same manner. Until we got into week 7 of her pregnancy, for a dog this their third trimester, then we saw a knot on her belly, it looked like a bouncy ball under the skin. It hadn’t been there before, so I sent a photo to Allison, she told me that it was a hernia and that CiCi could die if we didn’t have a C-section. I am now freaking out, at this time we have had her for a year, I am so invested in her. I go to the vet I used at the time, from this experience I no longer use this vet, they told me the same thing that Allison did after an x-ray and exam. But it also became evident that they didn’t seem to know very much about any of it or feel confident in their ability to understand what was going on and how to handle it. They also didn’t seem to think that it was essential to seek counsel from another Vet who may be more experienced. They also told me that if CiCi for some reason went into labor after 4 o’clock, we would have to go to the emergency vet even though they close at five and that there would be no support for me after 5 o’clock on Friday and told him 9 AM on Monday. I realize then that this was not going to work for me. As much as I was growing my business and wanting to cultivate a relationship with my vet they did not seem interested in this. I learned very quickly that there are some vets who hate Breeder’s, and some who tolerate them and then others who want to and support them.

When looking for a vet, it’s essential to find out where they stand and what their plans are for your relationship. This Vet fell into the tolerate category. I asked around and found out about a vet two towns over who had been an emergency vet for over a decade and now worked in a practice that a friend knew about. I was so thankful to meet Dr. Wells, with all of her experience after reviewing the x-rays and doing an exam it turned out that it was not as dangerous as we initially thought. The hernia wasn’t affecting the uterus we could do a planned C-section or see how it went. We decided that we did not want CiCi to have an unnecessary surgery if it was not needed, so we were going to go ahead and come back to see her in another week and a half and see how things were progressing. We went home and had lots of discussions we kept coming back to the fact that we did not want her to have a surgery that she didn’t need because sometimes dogs do not do well-taking care of their puppies after a C-section as well as there are always more complications when surgery is involved.

We went back to see Dr. Wells on day 61. They did updated x-rays because we were going to make our decision that day, we wanted to know where we stood. Thankfully there weren’t any changes no puppies were where they shouldn’t be such as, going into any hold with the hernia and she also told us that she was already in labor. Her advice was since it was the morning to go home and let her labor and if there were any problems we could always bring her in for a C-section. CiCi at this time was 2, almost 3 years old. This was her second litter we were going to be spaying her after she recovered from her delivery. 

She immediately started delivering puppies on the drive home. There was so much excitement that day. She delivered three puppies by the time we got home, so Dr. Wells was utterly correct, and Puppy number four was the only one out of that litter born in the whelping pool. We knew from the x-rays that she was done after Puppy number four and so thankfully we made the right call she did not need surgery. I knew things on the Vet front we’re going to need to change. I made mental notes of lessons that I had learned so far.

Excellent, knowledgeable Vet was supportive staff key to a successful program

Invest in healthy breeding stock; looks are second. When in doubt do more research on their lines

Make sure that you have other breeders to ask questions when something is off.

After CiCi fully recovered and her milk dried up she was spayed and rehomed with a wonderful widowed and retired woman and she is still doing well to this day.

Enjoy these photos of our beautiful CiCi!

I’ve always had an entrepreneurial mindset. From a very young age; at the tender age of eight as a matter fact I talked to my poor brothers into helping me make a ton of artwork which I then pedaled to all of our elderly neighbors for anywhere from $.10-$.25. In case you’re wondering yes I was successful in selling them. In my mind I thought it was my excellent selling abilities, maybe it was. But probably more the fact that there was an eight-year-old girl going door-to-door with her six and four-year-old brothers selling construction paper drawings done with Crayola crayons bragging that they were original one-of-a-kind. They would look amazing on their refrigerator and brighten their days. Fast forward to when I was 12 and I started a babysitting business. I had read the babysitters club books and knew I was going to make great money as a professional babysitter. I created flyers and I networked with everyone I could think of. And oh how I love networking, from homeschooling co-op’s, my church and I even took a job in the nursery and working for our local MOPS group. Which is a mothers of preschoolers group that met the first and third Fridays of every month. Thankfully, I am tall so most people thought I was at least 15 even though I was only 12. I rode my bike to every job I could and gave up almost every weekend. And then I saved my pennies. I had a very successful business until I moved from PA to NC at the age of 16. I should not be surprised at my entrepreneurial spirit, considering my father owns his own business and is quite successful and I come from a long line of successful entrepreneurs on both sides of my family. I can’t help it, it’s in my blood.

Moving forward into my young adult years in my early 20s I decided that we needed a dog. I did my research as I had two small children and I absolutely loved having dogs and decided that we needed two dogs. I knew that I needed a smaller breed as my mother-in-law was terrified of anything even medium size. And I knew with having small children I needed a sturdy breed. I didn’t want to deal with hair so I settled on a toy poodle. I discovered our newest family member in our local paper and he was the cutest apricot party poodle we named him Riley Romeo. Because I was a stay at home mom I thought why don’t we get three dogs. I’ll get two females and I have this male and then I could make extra money breeding them! My mind started turning about how great this would be, the life experience for my children, it would help my entrepreneurial needs and we would be able to do some fun things such as vacations and such with the money that I would make breeding our pets. Now I was on a mission I wanted to find a red female because I thought they were adorable. And I succeeded once again just as easily as I had found Riley. Although where Riley was amazing in every way, gorgeous coat, smart, playful and had tons of personality. Juliet was not, I had no idea what I was doing. What I should have been looking for, asking. She had so many health issues. She died pitifully at the young age of two. This was such a painful experience I shelved the idea of breeding, I labeled it my biggest business failure yet. We had our other female dog spayed I didn’t even get another dog for several years. We were heartbroken when Riley was hit by a car and decided no more pets for now. But of course, that wasn’t to last forever. Once a dog lover, always a dog lover. When our hearts healed I started to become miserable without a dog. I saw a litter of golden retriever puppies advertised. They were local and I just had to have one. They were obviously supposed to be the perfect family pet. I could just imagine our beautiful family photos. The children laughing and playing in the backyard running around with our brilliant happy go lucky golden frolicking alongside. I went to see them and they were only two left. So in my very scientific decision making, I decided to just pick the fattest little boy. At this point thank God I chilled the idea of breeding because fast forward four years…

I had started an in-home daycare, once an entrepreneur always an entrepreneur. I knew that I couldn’t afford to be a stay at home mom but I couldn’t bear the idea of not being with my children, especially having a baby so I decided to become a licensed in-home daycare. Jack our golden, of course, had all of his shots and had been neutered and microchiped. I did all the perfect pet owner things. And while Jack was originally wonderful with the children and very patient, I was very careful to make sure that he was handled appropriately and most times he would just retreat to my bedroom if he wanted to get away from all of the noise and affection. I had taken him to training courses and he was so well behaved. Jack was a wonderful dog but then things changed, one afternoon one of the four-year-old little girls that I enrolled into my daycare tripped over Jack and fell on him and he bit her in the face. I thought he’d never hurt anyone before, it must’ve been because she scared him & hurt him. It wasn’t a serious injury there was no stitches needed or anything, but still, he bit her on her cheek. I have to admit it changed everything, I didn’t trust Jack anymore. Just after this my then husband and I split up and he took Jack because I did not trust him around my children. I didn’t even want him around our children and I begged him to let us rehome him but he refused. He blamed a little girl, he told me I was simply overreacting. But unfortunately, I learned later that I should’ve stuck to my guns because a few months later he bit another child. My ex had a babysitter over and her two-year-old son got in Jack’s face and he bit him. She sued, it was messy in the end it was settled out of court. He had bitten a child again, though did not need stitches and he wasn’t mauled but still, he was bitten on his jaw line. So I got my way and we found a home for Jack with only one older teenager. The family was aware of all of the issues and when they took Jack to the vet for an exam we found out that he had an aggressive form of cancer, it was causing him a great deal of pain and was why he had become so crotchety and was no longer a patient sweet dog that I had always known. It was genetic and hereditary. I was dumbfounded, he was an AKC purebred dog, I paid good money for him. How is this happening?

All of that build up inside me. Jack, Juliet, AKC purebred dogs with hereditary and genetic issues. Problems that should never have been being bred. What is funny is out of all of those dogs the cheapest one I purchased was the healthiest. I found out that Money does not equate health. I felt so betrayed.

A few months later I met a groomer, Addison a few towns over. She had two retired females that she was rehoming. I really wanted a dog but had been very badly burned from my previous experiences so I went to meet them and learn she was actually a miniature schnauzer Breeder. She told me of her program, her story. I placed a deposit on her upcoming litter. I was intrigued. I’ve hit a wall with my daycare I couldn’t grow it anymore and I had had another baby and closed it. I helped my wife with her cleaning business but that took me away from my kids. As well as was very physical labor, so I was exhausted when I came home at night and I was not the kind of mom that I wanted to be. I thought back to Juliet, to Jack. The pain from my children and myself. The pain of feeling betrayed by my breeders. My entrepreneurial mind kicked into overdrive, I can do this better! I didn’t really know much about miniature Schnauzers, but I was about to hit an expert level! I read every article, watched videos on YouTube, any book I could find. I was so excited to get my puppy. Little clover was born by emergency C-section and only lived about a day. We were crushed, none of the litter made it, we met the Darkside of breeding early. Sometimes, bad things happen, death happens.

But my story far from the ends there. As my major crash course in miniature schnauzers was ongoing the Facebook guides took notice of my search history and quickly suggested groups for me to follow. Have I mentioned yet that I happen to be blessed or is it cursed, with a form of ADHD called tunnel vision. It’s seriously a thing. I can research. For. Hours. Literally. I will barely come up for air. I forget everything else until I have learned every single thing I can on a subject. Again this could be a blessing or curse I haven’t decided yet. Anyways, I found at 9 PMat night a post for two white chocolate miniature schnauzer adults. They were in Wisconsin, have I mentioned that I live in North Carolina. They were $2700. I will never ever know how in the world I talk to my amazing wife into agreeing but she did. We had many talks with Allison. We set up an April weekend to drive 16 hours to pick up this adult breeding pair. It was a turnaround trip. Something I’ve gotten used to doing now as a breeder. Traveling with animals is very necessary, but also very difficult as stopping frequently for their bathroom breaks as well as when you travel long distance is having somewhere to sleep that you can take your animals isn’t always easy to find. Sarge and CiCi my first amazing beautiful schnauzer babies. I was hooked. This was it my perfect breed has been found! Everything I wanted in a 6 1/2 pound and 8-pound package. And I also cannot forget that on the way there I also picked up in the state of Virginia a liver parti Schnauzer who I named Pippa. You will learn in the story that I have this habit of jumping into things both feet first. And so as I had decided to get these two white miniature schnauzers. I obviously was going to need a few more females if I was going to have this be a business. So I picked up Pippa, and Beau. Beau was a CKC miniature schnauzer who was salt and pepper. After owning these four schnauzers I quickly learned that I didn’t know anything. I did not understand the different sizes that could be in the miniature schnauzer beyond the breed standard. I did not understand about coat quality and lots of other things that we will discuss in this book. I am hoping that you guys can all learn from my mistakes. Of course I also hadn’t had my crash course in the school of hard knocks with Breeder’s either. I have met some amazing people who have really helped me with my program. I have also met some not so great people who set me back in my program. But back to the story at hand, I brought home my four schnauzers and quickly realized that Beau was not going to work. He was all the wrong size and Coat quality for what I was looking for. It also became clear that Pippa was not going to fit either. She was very small, and her adult age she ended up topping out at just over 5 pounds, and she also had a traditional coat which was not what I was wanting. Now since I’ve talked so much about their coats let me clarify what I’m talking about. There are four different types of coats in my book with miniature schnauzers. The first coat is what I tried to breed for, the mega coat. Mega coated schnauzers are harder to produce, but their coats are absolutely beautiful they are very dense, soft, silky and more luxurious. Then there is the super coated which is a step down from mega coat in the amount of hair. But the hair is still very soft. Then you have wire hair, which is referred to as traditional coated. And last but not least you have what I referred to as a trash coat, this is where a dog has almost no hair at all it is course and nasty and in all respects ugly.

Since Pippa had a traditional coat, as well as Beau this was not going to work. As a breeder when you purchase a dog you have the initial investment of buying them, but then you also have all of the upkeep expenses and there is the fact that you have to raise them for over a year before they are going to be ready to produce any litters. After having to rehome these two I realized I was going to have to start getting a lot better at making decisions on where I was going to invest for my business where this was going to get really expensive without having any return. I was able to sell Pippa To a pair of breeders in Georgia. I didn’t know then but this was going to be a huge turning point in my future. That this meeting was going to change the course of my breeding program. I saw pepper to a woman named Jane, but then with her was her friend Wanda. Wanda in the future would become an amazing mentor and one of my dearest and closest friends. I am so thankful to meet her and have never been so thankful to make a bad purchase in my life. But of course at the time I had no idea and was only frustrated that I had made a bad decision and was just thankful that I was going to be able to get back what I paid for her. 

Due to family issue, no negative comments needed! We have a puppy back from our Sapphire & Sarge litter. He is a liver pepper baby boy, he is 5 months old. (All our puppies are required to come back to us if something doesn’t work out, no questions asked!!! It is unacceptable that any of our babies are in homes not approved by us.)

We will be keeping him for a bit to get to know him and working with our trainer to decide the best home for him. He is UTD on all shots, fixed and super sweet. There will be a rehoming fee and interview process to get to adopt him. I hope our awesome family here at HEA will follow his story and share so that when the time comes we can find him a prefect forever ever home.

We are excited to announce that Annie safely delivered 6 healthy pups last night! She had 3 girls and 3 boys. They are all little toddlers weighing over 8ozs! Not too surprising since she was at day 69.

We were very worried that we could feel another puppy so after 2.5 hours we called our vet and did an after hours visit to be sure. Our moms safety is number one to us! After Dr Emmadi did two xrays we discovered she really needed to poop! 🤦🏼‍♀️💩🙄

So we were able to take her and her babies home knowing she was done delivering and needed some coconut oil in her food. Extra blessing though was Dr Emmadi looked at mom and babies and was very happy with everything. They will all go back to the vet on Wednesday for another exam, tail docking and dew claw removal. We will absolutely update everyone after that visit.

We have notified everyone on our notification list and those that had deposits. So if you are interested in one of these puppies please let us know. They will be pet home only, no papers will be given.

Update on Bella Grace and her babies!

First thank you so much for the love and support that has been poured out on us for Bella Grace and her babies.

Second, everyone is doing great! We had a check up today and Dr Emmadi has given everyone a clean bill of health including Bella Grace. The puppies had their tails docked and dew claws removed. There is not a whole lot going on with the puppies on the surface as eyes and ears are still sealed and they eat and sleep and mom stimulates them to go potty. Their brains and neurons systems are growing like crazy though.

They are gaining weight (hooray!) and we will start Early Neurological Stimulation tomorrow. This is done day 3-16 but not in the day of tail docking. So tomorrow. We are going to do a video this weekend about our mom nutrition so stay tuned!

To answer the big question, of the 5 puppies only two males are available. Male #2 and #3. If you are interested please send us a message.

Bella Grace has had her puppies!!! We are so thankful. Unfortunately it did not go according to plan and we are so thankful for our amazing vet, Dr Emmadi and his fabulous staff Elizabeth and Amy. She had her first puppy a healthy baby boy, and he was quickly followed by his still born brother. A beautiful salt and pepper parti. We had a long stall, so we had to rush to the vet. Of course after hours. One of the biggest reasons why whenever someone asks me about getting started in breeding my first piece of advice is find a great vet and establish a relationship. They will save your dog one day. 

But back to the story, once at the vet Amy did two xrays and we knew that she had 4 more babies inside. Dr Emmadi arrived and gave her a shot of oxytocin. She gave birth to a gorgeous platinum salt & pepper girl within a few minutes. 15 minutes later she gave birth to another female. This time a dark salt and pepper. After an hour of no more babies Dr Emmadi had Amy do another X-ray. There were two more puppies high up in her abdomen. He gave another shot of oxytocin and we waited. He decided to make a coffee run for everyone and and as soon as he left she promptly gave birth to a salt and pepper boy! Then we waited more. She was clearly doing small pushes working her baby down. He joked he needed to go get more coffee. But we had her take a small walk and waited some more. She nursed her babies and finally a big push and gush of fluid she delivered her last baby. A beautiful salt and pepper boy! 

We are so thankful for her pretty healthy litter of 5 puppies. Most of this litter had families waiting but if you are interested please contact us! Stay tuned to watch them grow and of course Annie is due next week. Praying for a text book delivery with her!