Past Updates on the first Beauty/Artus Litter

Beauty and Artus's Litter arrived on January 25, 1999!

Blackboys29.JPG (16635 bytes)

To View Weekly updates on the pups, just click on one of the links below!

1/27 Update	2/20 Update
2/3 Update	2/27 Update
2/10 Update	3/8 Update
2/17 Update	3/14 Update

Be watching for information about the next Artus litter!

Here's a special report from Tina Barber, breed founder of the Shiloh Shepherds, with her impressions of the Beauty/Artus Litter:

Upon examining the first litter of Artus pups at one day of age, I was amazed at the size! Except for one smaller (17 ounce) female, the entire litter averaged between 21 and 25 ounces--compared to the average Shiloh litters, that is definitely well up above the NORM! I was thrilled to see such strong, healthy pups with huge heads (as expected) without any loss of size!

Artus and Beauty are proud parents of:

2 black males	3 black females
2 dual males	1 dual female

We will keep you posted on their progress weekly.

Note from Karen and Jim: We apologize for the quality of these pictures. We were so excited that we forgot to consistently use the flash! You should still be able to get an idea of the quality and size of the puppies by clicking on the individual pictures.


Beauty and pups less than 24 hours after their birth

Beauty and Pups on Wednesday Morning 1/27/99

Beauty and pups 36 hours after their birth

Feb. 3rd Update from Tina:

At just 9 days of age this litter continues to amaze me! All of the puppies have already doubled their birth size and continue to utilize their feeding instinct with gusto! The duals are starting to show some beautiful markings while the blacks are as richly pigmented as their sire, Artus. What a fantastic litter! I cannot wait to see them again next week as they start on some solid food and really explode in size!

Just click on the picture to view as a larger size!

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Please excuse the condition of these pictures (due to Tina's inexperience with the flash on our camera)!

Feb 10th Update from Tina

As I arrived at Trillium Hill today to do my weekly examinations, I could hardly believe how much these pups have grown! As I continued to rave about the huge heads and chests, Lisa stated that they weren’t any bigger then our Yetti’s pups were at 3 weeks. I agreed. At that point Karen contributed, " But these pups are only 2 weeks old!" Lisa and I immediately started to calculate. Let’s see, born 1/25, they are exactly 16 days old today? This can’t be! They are huge! And active, you bet! It was a real challenge trying to get them all in one group just long enough to snap a picture!

Then Karen asked me if I would try to guess at coat possibilities. I explained to her how difficult it was at this age, but did show her some "tricks" to look for that may provide some clues. I agreed to take a few early guesses. With Lisa’ s assistance I started examining the puppies’ coats. Then Lisa would state color and sex while Karen documented the information.

After examining the last "dual female" as a "maybe", Karen exclaimed "Hold it! I only have 1 dual female, the other three are black!" I looked at the puppy again and showed her the rust colored hair coming in around the base of her ear. Karen looked alarmed and proclaimed, "Well, then your ‘under the tail’ trick didn’t work." I replied that my trick NEVER fails to determine color at birth, as I proceeded to show her that the color under the base of each puppy’s tail is exactly as it was at birth, only more pronounced with age. When I flipped this bitch over, her base was still black with only a few rust colored hairs! I looked at Lisa and Karen as I exclaimed that I had not seen this in nearly 20 years! I admitted MY ERROR, as I explained that upon my first examination I simply overlooked those "few" rust colored hairs because I never expected to see a bi-color like that! Wow! I wonder what kind of surprise will be awaiting me next week?

Here are Tina's preliminary guesses on coat length:

Plush	Smooth	Maybe Plush
Dual Male Dual Male Black Female Dual Female Black Male	Black Female	Bi-color Black/Red Female Black Male


Our Girls at 16 days	Our Boys at 16 days	The pups and a young friend

Our boys	The Pups

February 17th Update

Tina is alittle under the weather and was unable to make a report but here are some new pictures of the pups. It's hard to catch them when they are not in motion! They are growing quickly and are enjoying exploring the world around them. They are eating with gusto and love splashing food over themselves in the process.

To see a larger view, please double click on the individual picture

February 20th Update from Tina

Despite having a severe case of the flu, I could not stop myself from braving heavy snow to do my weekly inspection of Artus's first litter, and as before I was not disappointed!

As I sat in the box with the pups, now getting more active, all around me, I spotted this huge black with an awesome head! I picked that pup up, he was solid as a rock! What a head! Amazed and excited, I turned the pup around to point this out to Karen as I exclaimed to her that even my Yetti/King males don't have heads anywhere near as broad as these guys. That's when she pointed out to me that I was holding a FEMALE! She then handed me the black male. Was this a Shepherd or a Newfoundland puppy? At 26 days of age, I have never seen Shiloh pups with such broad heads! I just wish the pictures I took showed them better. Maybe we will have a warm day next week and I can get them outside for a really great photo shoot!

Maybe by then I will be able to take some better "guesses" on coats. At this point my smooth black female is starting to look plush and my black and red female is turning tan! Is this a conspiracy? Are these pups playing games with me? Or are we in for more (pleasant, I'm sure) surprises each week?

I guess you will just have to come back in 8 days and found out for yourself!

February 27 Update from Tina

As expected these pups just keep getting bigger every time I visit!! The females are already hitting 8 pounds and males well over 9 pounds!! Yet the size is not as important as TEMPERAMENT! It was only in the mid 40’s today but the sun was shining, so we took a chance to see if they could handle going outside. Most pups would be so traumatized by such an exertion! They would sit where placed and shiver—long enough to get a few quick pictures taken. NOT THIS CREW! They were off and running as soon as they hit the great outdoors! New surface—old grass, great fun!

It was quite a challenge trying to get some clear pictures of all the pups together! Even when I called on some assistance, even poor Cameron couldn’t contain this eager group of explorers! After nearly one hour, and help from Artus, Karen, Lyn, Bobby, John and the Laundry family—I finally got a dozen shots for this week’s report, phew!

I guess we won’t need to worry about lack of confidence with these puppies!


	Upper Left: the Girls Upper Right: the Boys

March 8^th Update

When I arrived at Trillium Hill for my six week (today) evaluation, I was amazed at how much these pups had matured in just one week! They look like they have added at least another 3-4 pounds this week! The males are getting close to 12 pounds now, actually excellent for this (6 weeks today) age! To date the biggest Shiloh pups I ever shipped out at 8 � weeks weighed around 22 pounds, the average should be 18-20 pounds for a "GIANT" adult. In the next 2 � weeks they could easily gain 7-9 pounds! Gee, I guess these guys keep surprising me all the time! They are certainly a lot bigger than I expected J (My normal sized GSD male-pups ran around 12-16 pounds at 8 weeks, and grew to well over 100 pounds at maturity).

As I watched the males run around the living room, I couldn’t help but notice the extra wide bodies, a good sign that they will have the desirable "Shiloh" bulk that we all love so much!

Personalities are definitely "coming out"! It was a real challenge trying to get them to held still long enough to snap a picture. With pups running in all directions, trying to chew whatever they could find, I kept getting distracted enough to forget to set the flash! Unfortunately I did not get any really good pictures and after just surviving the 3 day blizzard that made national news and dumped 42 inches of snow in Rochester (I know my kennels got a lot more than that J ) I was just too worn out (from 3 solid days of fighting drifts and shoveling snow) to do a better job! Trust me, these pups look a lot better in person!

Next week I plan to come during the day for a great 7 week shoot! If those heads get any wider by then, Artus really will have the girls lining up! Personally, I could not be happier with his first litter and I expect Coco’s to be just as nice!!


The pup on the left is still available!

March 14th Update

Even though these pups look like 7-8 week old pups—SUPER BONE ALREADY—they are still 6 weeks old today! Unfortunately between the bright sun and snow, the outside pictures didn’t come out too well, but the pups had a blast while I was trying to take them!

Karen’s camera is not like my fast Olympus. As one pup started to hurdle over the snow mounds, I turned and "snapped" quickly, only to catch a tail sticking out of the snow! I took 18 shots, most came out as blurs of puppy faces—rushing toward me, or rears taking off for new adventures! Despite the fact that it was only 32F and windy, these pups just loved the deep snow! I guess I don’t have to worry about "lack of confidence" with these guys!

When they got back into the house, they were still eager to pull open kitchen drawers and play tug-o’war with the dish towels! Talk about play and prey drive!! When they got all worn out, I sat on the floor, with them all around me, for some more in-depth observations. BRAINS? I am ecstatic! First I "knocked" on the side of the stove, all alerted, three got up to investigate, "Artie" got up to get a better look! The squeaky toy brought out an array of heads turning sideways, a good sign of curiosity and intelligence!


The black males	The dual males

Black and bi-color females	Dual and black females

I then proceeded to do a quick "pre" evaluation. I could not find a faulty "pet" puppy! All bites were good—stops were excellent, I could not have asked for nicer heads! The conformation looks very promising! Nice leg (no short stocky "bassets" here), good length of body (not short-coupled), the fronts look very promising (a full litter without any french fronts?), heavy bone, nice ear sets, etc. Next week will be very interesting indeedJ

Providing we have good weather I would like to put these guys through some additional tests! I have a SAR and SCH test that I have been dying to try on a litter! These guys seem like the PERFECT candidates. Be sure to come back next week to find out how they did.