Minka almost loses a paw

Minka is one of our beautiful Bernese Mountain Dogs. Her one blue eye and impressive size make her one of our most striking-looking dogs and her loving temperament makes her the friend of everyone she meets. She has a flaw, though: she likes to jump out of fences. Her height and athleticism (unlike most other Bernese Mountain Dogs) mean she can scale almost any fence with ease. She looks like a deer leaping up and over five-foot barriers like it’s nothing.

Well, the other day, I was outside taking pictures of the puppies with the kids when we heard the chilling sound of howling and yipping. We looked over to the dog’s outdoor area and could see Minka struggling against the fence. I dropped the camera and ran as fast as I could to the spot. It only took a second to understand what had happened: the stupid dog tried to jump over the fence and caught her foot in the wires at the top. Thankfully, she was tall enough to keep her back feet planted and wasn’t hanging from the stuck paw, but in her panic, she kept pulling backward, tightening the wires around her foot.

“Go get Dad!” I yelled at the kids as I reached over the fence to grab her collar and stop her from pulling back more. In her panic and pain, her teeth closed over my hand. I’ve never been bitten by one of our dogs and felt only sympathy for her. The poor thing thought I was the one hurting her. Even in her state of panic, though, she didn’t bite hard. She didn’t break my skin or even leave a bruise.

Brian came running out and took over trying to hold her while I ran to the shed to get wire cutters. I should have just let him get them because it took me a few minutes to find where he kept them. With each agonizing second, I imagined what could happen if we didn’t get her out fast. She could sustain serious damage to her foot if she pulled too hard and the wires squeezed too tight. I had to find the wire cutters! There! Finally, I located them in the mess of tools and ran back to where Brian was trying to calm the panicked dog.

In an instant, Brian clipped the fence in the perfect spot and she fell free. We immediately evaluated the foot. Amazingly, she seemed generally unharmed by the incident. She wasn’t even limping! I breathed a sigh of relief and noticed for the first time how hard my heart was beating through the entire ordeal. Minka got a few extra snuggles and pampering the rest of that day.

Whenever something like this happens, we try to evaluate the situation and fix the cause. The type of fence we used in the area is a field fence which has larger gaps between the wires than some of our other fences. We decided we wouldn’t be using field fences for future projects. It’s just not safe for dogs.

The other thing we are going to do to prevent further accidents is run electric fence wire along the top and bottom of the fence. It may seem harsh to shock the dogs when they test the fence boundaries, but I' would rather them receive a small shock and learn to respect the fence line than have accidents like this. At our old house, we had electric fencing and it only took one or two encounters with it for the dogs to learn never to touch the fence. They were all safer because of it.

Minka’s Pregnancy Confirmed

A few days after that scary incident, we had an ultrasound appointment scheduled for Miss Minka. We found out about a local high school student who lives on a sheep farm. She invested in an ultrasound machine to use for her sheep but also to provide ultrasound services to others to save up for college. Her price was extremely reasonable and she came to our farm and saved us a trip of going to the vet.

We’ve never done ultrasounds on our dogs to confirm pregnancy for a few reasons. It didn’t seem to make much sense with such a short gestation. Dogs are pregnant for 63 days and you can’t use an ultrasound on them until day 30. By then, I’d prefer to just wait 33 more days than pay $200 and take a trip to the vet. In addition, I always worried about the stress of a trip to the vet and the risk of picking something up while there.

But, having Bayla (the high school student) come out her cleared up any worries I had and made financial sense as well.

Minka was very well-behaved for her and laid almost perfectly still. I peeked over Bayla’s shoulder and could see dark, open areas that looked like what I’d seen for my ultrasounds. Sure enough - Minka is pregnant! Not just pregnant, but Bayla said she saw “lots of puppies”!

We were fairly confident that her belly was growing, but it’s so nice to know for sure! If you remember, Minka’s last litter was a tragedy. She was only pregnant with a singleton who didn’t make it. Thankfully, Akira had a litter of 11 puppies a week earlier, so Minka was able to adopt some of her puppies.

Bernedoodle Waiting List

Now I have to do my little “sales pitch” - We have a waiting list started for F1 Standard size Bernedoodles that would include Minka’s litter. She was bred to Winston, so these Bernedoodle puppies will have his beautiful coloring and relaxed, loving temperament. Minka is due October 13th which means the puppies will be ready to go in the middle of December: just in time for Christmas!

We ask for a $400 deposit to join the waiting list which goes toward your final bill. I’m always happy to answer questions or set up a time to visit.

Lulu and Nala

Lulu and Nala were also bred, but last week was too early for the Ultrasound to see anything. We are having Bayla come out on Saturday again to look at them. Lulu is expecting Bernedoodles and Nala was bred to Conley for Bernese Mountain Dog puppies. Lulu was bred via AI and Nala was only bred once, so we aren’t super optimistic about either, but are praying that at least one of them is pregnant. We’ll keep you posted on the results!