Maple & Willow Retirement

I’ve tried to write this update for a few days now and the words never seem to want to come out. Maple and Willow have been retired from our program. This was a difficult decision to come to. On one hand Maple and Willow are two of the most sweet, loving and loyal dogs you’ll ever meet. They are beyond kind to every living thing, and listen to commands beautifully. Having them in our home and in our lives has been nothing short of easy, carefree, and simple. On the other hand, both have had separate challenges with breeding, and it made sense for our program to let them move on to the next phase of their life, rather than spinning our wheels trying to conceive our next litter.

Let me explain - Maple has always had a difficult time getting pregnant. The family we adopted her from stated they had tried to breed her and she didn’t take. A lot of factors can effect this so we thought we would try our method and see if we were successful - and we were! Maple had an incredible litter of 3 puppies. She was the very best mom, took to caring for them easily, and never left their sides for 8 weeks.

Fast forward to just recently - we used the same stud (Nash), same testing protocol, and same breeding schedule. She looked like she was gaining size and we were so excited to get her ultrasound done. Her appointment day comes, and she turns out to be not pregnant. Everything internally looked great, but no babies.

From this point on, we knew deep down it was probably time to retire her. We were hoping and praying her litter would take and that’s just not how it worked out this time around.

Once the decision was made, the next choice to retire her sister Willow with her came easily. They could do fine in separate homes, but they’ve already been together for 2+ years, why separate them if you don’t have to? Obviously retiring 2 females when you only have 6 is a huge deal, and we thought that through too. But we wouldn’t be able to sleep at night knowing we separated two sisters that absolutely love playing together, napping together, and just being together.

All in all, everything worked out exactly as it needed to. Maple and Willow went to their forever home this week. Their new mom lives on 4 acres and is a dog trainer. She’s smart, capable, and so excited to have these girls as her personal dogs and demo dogs. They will be loved beyond measure, and we rest easy knowing they will never be apart.

This was our first time retiring a female and rehoming an older dog in general, and we learned a lot. We learned how heartbreaking, yet beautiful it can be to find the right fit. We loved these girls with all our heart, but their next home will too.