Puppies

Throne of Glass Litter: Fall 2019

Zazu

+

George

+ more about the parents

Zazu (purebred Chinook) and George (purebred Bernese Mountain Dog) are producing the second litter of the Chinook Breed Conservation Program (CBCP) of the Chinook Owners Assocation (COA) and approved by the United Kennel Club (UKC). The program's goal is to produce a healthy, genetically sustainable Chinook population, with the breed’s historical temperament, working ability, structure, and appearance. Both Zazu (57 pounds, 24 inches) and George (95-100 pounds, 25.5-26 inches) are average sized for their breeds. In addition to improved genetic diversity, we expect pups from this litter to be above average in size (for a Chinook), have excellent temperaments, and have good working ability. George is a sweet, mush-ball first and foremost. He is smart, good-mannered, confident, and outgoing. Zazu is zany and fun, loving, particularly enjoys children, and is athletic with excellent drive in harness. Both are conformation Champions (Zazu in UKC, George in AKC).

Both have OFA 'Normal' eyes and have OFA 'Good' hips and are free of genetic diseases common to their respective breeds. Neither has a history of seizures or food allergies. When selecting George as sire for this litter, we researched hundreds of Berners and found George (and his pedigree) to be the perfect balance of health, temperament, and type that we are looking for. We expect to see tawny and black & tan pups (with the possibility of tri-color).

Unique to this litter is that we are also working with the BMD Vitality Project. Pups from this litter will aid in improving the genetic sustainability for both Berners and Chinooks. Desert Sol is proud to be a part of the CBCP program to help improve the health and longevity of our breed while maintaining the excellent temperament we love in our Chinooks.

CH 'PR' Desert Sol Zazu's Pride DNA-VIP

Birth Date: 5/1/2014

Pedigree: Click here to see Zazu's Pedigree

Hips: OFA Good

Eyes: OFA Normal 8/7/2019

Genetic Testing: MDR1/Dwarfism clear

Stats: 57 pounds, 24 inches

Other: Seizure & allergy free

More Photos & Info: Zazu's page

Zazu is a sweet, smart, and fun loving girl. She is an outdoorsy dog and will let you know when you are late for her morning walk or when she wants to go bask in the sun on her favorite lawn chair out back. Zazu loves playing with other dogs. She also loves people and can be just as friendly as her mama Kyra, although in her home she's a bit more reserved with strangers. After lots of training and socialization, she now warms up quickly to strangers- the more dog friendly the people, the faster she starts to lick you and shove her head under your hand for pets!

Zazu is a curious dog and will follow you from room to room to see what's going on, and will try to play with anything if she can. During chore time it's really hard to use the Swiffer sweeper with all the barking and attacking of the sweeper going on. Zazu has that perpetual puppy personality that we hope she passes onto her puppies! She was a great mama during her first litter with the perfect balance of responsibility, discipline, and fun in regards to her pups.

George

Pedigree: Available to puppy owners

Hips: OFA Good

Eyes, Elbow, Heart: OFA Normal

Genetic Testing: SOD1-A, SOD1-B, VWF, MDR1 clear

Stats: 95-100 pounds, 25-26 inches

Other: Seizure & allergy free

George is a sweet, mush-ball. He is very smart, a very easy to live with dog, quiet, and his family has trained him well - he is a dog with good manners. George went to obedience classes through his first 18 months, off and on, and to doggie daycare a couple times a week. He waits at doors, doesn't beg at the table, doesn't mark/pee on things, doesn't bark for no reason, has self-restraint and patience. He knows all basic obedience, he excelled in his training and his family did and continues to do an excellent job. He is always well groomed, and welcomes it. He generally behaves correctly, with proper body language and respect of older dogs, he is "sweet to passive" with other dogs in most cases. He really wants to play, but often is too big to play safely, even when he does so appropriately. His owner doesn't let him get over-excited in those times. He is confident, outgoing and happy boy. He quite possibly will go with anyone who has a treat and a car ride. He loves his dog sitter, he loves kids of all ages, and he loves cats.

He adores his family, loves his momma best, and human sister. She sings and reads to him. When she plays piano, he sits right with her. George also has elderly people in his family, and while they do not visit a lot, he is intuitive about not jumping and respecting their space. He will only rest a chin on them vs. run his rough paw pad over thin skin...he just knows. His owner loves this aspect of Berners: a high level of knowing just what you need, when you need it! And that it varies from person to person.

George is an AKC conformation Champion.

Birth

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Week 4

Week 5

Week 6

Week 7

Week 8

Week 8+ - 12/22/2019

This was a hard litter to send home! These 9 puppies were so much fun and had such awesome personalities. It was also a more interesting litter since they were a cross litter and it was fun seeing how much Chinook or Bernese Mountain Dog traits they got and how they turned out looks and personality wise. And of course having the litter theme of my favorite book series of all time, Throne of Glass, made it that much more fun to talk about the pups and see what personality traits matched the characters from the book! I’m super happy that we get to keep a puppy from this litter to keep the fun memories going.

These pups made having 9 puppies look pretty easy. We didn’t have the big send off at the 8 week mark since it was right before Christmas (there were only 3 that day), so we had a slow send off over the next two weeks with each puppy going home a different day. It was fun spending more one on one time with each puppy and his or her new family, and being the holidays meant we could have that time off from work to enjoy it more. The weather was gorgeous as well so we got to take many walks with the pups and their families to the park.

Since this litter is benefiting two cross breeding programs, we had the arduous task of finding breed potential homes for all of them, and thankfully, we did. We also were very fortunate we got to spread them out across the country, east coast and west, northwest and northeast, and some in between! Several of these Nook/BMD crosses got to enjoy lots of snow already! Sorry to the southern pups that only get to play in sunshine. :)

Photos

Videos

Don’t forget to “Like” our Desert Sol Chinooks Facebook page, so you can see the pictures we share from this litter as they grow, especially our own little Aelin! (Kristy is doing a happy dance she finally got a black and tan pup!) We couldn’t be happier with our puppy homes and we hope to one day get to visit them in our travels (or their travels if it takes them through AZ). We hope these special pups make a positive impact on their families and the BMD and Chinook breeds. As Aelin Fireheart frequently says in the books, “Let’s Rattle the Stars!”