I'd like you to meet Stoli....

Also know as Mr. Man.   Stoli was born in St Petersburg, Russia March 18th 2008.  He flew with his brother Nikolai to the United states when he was 8 weeks old.  A very long trip for two little puppies.  Stoli's name, DomTotem Yakutskiy Almaz means DomTotem (breeder)'s Diamond from Yakutsk.   Yakutsk is in a very remote region of Siberia and is known for it's Diamond trade.

Here's a map with Saint Petersburg marked

A very quick view of the the City

WHY import a Poodle all the way from Russia???

I belong to a small group of Poodle breeders who's primary objective is to explore ways to bring genetic diversity into the Poodle population.  The group is made up of breeders from around the world and we are trying to share information, knowledge and resources to reach this goal.  The group consists of very hard working people who have dedicated their time conceptualizing, creating and developing a working plan to diversify our poodle population.   One example of their contribution is The Poodle Health Registry poodlehealthregistry.com/ ,  a ground breaking information bank for poodle health, pedigrees and breeding statistics.  I'm incredibly lucky to be a part of this effort and feel that I've been allowed to hang onto their shirt tails while they make many ground breaking advances toward betterment of the breed.  I'm forever saying that it takes a village to raise our poodles and this poodle breeder group has proven to be the quintessential Poodle Village.

My acquisition of Stoli was one way to support this amazing group of Poodle Breeders.  I co-own him with Karen Green of Desert Reef Poodles (in Utah)  http://www.desertreefpoodles.com/contactus.cfm and he lives with his 'forever family', Joanne and Jack Wike (and Stoli's poodle sister Belle) of Sequim, Wa.

Here they are:

Here is Stoli's Pedigree.  As you can see, it is made up of 3/4 old Russian lines that aren't seen in any other poodle pedigrees.  The other 1/4 (in black) are well know poodles that are found in a majority of white and silver lines in Australia, Europe and the US.

Click on Names to see continued ped:

Domtotem Yakutskiy Almaz

Dom Totem Cheshirskiy Kot Zvjozdny Malchik Dom Totem Inei Poel Dom Tarvos Veiviran In Silver Sakramento Zvjozdny Malchik Dom Totem Pandora Dom Totem Dom Totem Kalinka Malinka Martina's Rubi De Bohemia FIN/EST/DK/L CH Marechal The Real Mccoy NOR/FIN/EST CH Martina's Fervoroso Sakramento Zvjozdny Malchik Dom Totem Pandora Dom Totem

Dom Totem Cheshirskiy Kot (Dad)

Dom Totem Kalinka Malinka (Mom)

March 30 Day 19

Ok  today I'm going to catch us up on what's been happening inside of Nickel...  this will be Puppy Making 101.

As  you might remember from Ico's litter,  dogs are unique in the animal world since the eggs are ovulated before they are ready to be fertilized.  This means that they must mature for 3 days before they can accept the sperm.  This's why timing is important in a frozen surgical breeding where the sperm only live for about 7 hours.  In the case of a natural breeding (as we all know happened this time.. eh hem!)  the sperm can live up to a week.  So basically the sperm can be hanging around waiting for the eggs to develop.  Once matured,  the egg can live several days as well so you can see that timing is less critical. You still need to make sure the healthy sperm and egg are in the same place at the same time so a ntural breeding is usually done 2 to 3 times over the course of 5-7 days.

The birth date for the puppies can be calculated very precisely.  We count 65 days from LH surge or 63 days from Ovulation.  Nickel ovulated approximately March 11th so we can expect puppies to be born around May 13th.

Here's a picture of an oocyte inside the oviduct where it waits to be fertilized.









The eggs stay around the oviduct until they are fertilized.  After that they travel to the Uterus Tubes (or Uterine Horns).  They will stay free floating until around day 19.  For Nickel, Day 19 will be around March 30th.  On day 19 the eggs will implant in the uterus.  There will be waves of contractions which will distribute the eggs throughout the uterine horns.  Sometimes this will cause 'morning sickness.'