Lilac Ridge Pups

Welcome to this page, Lilac Ridge Pups. Thanks for joining. For those of you who have welcomed a Lilac Ridge pup into your home, feel free to post pictures and updates of your pup, to ask questions or share stories. For those of you interested in future litters, stay tuned. For everyone here, thanks for sharing the passion. xok

Falling deeper... in love or into sleep, or maybe both. Dear Ruby...

This Cash of mine, destined for the limelight one way or another.

Mud puddle pup.

Heres a spotify link to the playlist of songs Ive been humming as I welcome these pups into the world. https://open.spotify.com/playlist/68nltVck2mIOCxwK8BtlUO

Ruby Tuesday. Eyes opening to the world.

Welcome to the world little ones!

Hello-o-o-o in there!

Somebodys belly is getting pretty big. She still loves a belly rub though <3

Guess whos in heat?Guess whos in heat?

What book? I dont see a book. Im sure some of you can relate.

I havent posted for a while but I was recently reminded of the story of that one-in-a-million dog that got me started on this path of my Lilac Ridge Pups. Dear old Max. I thought you might be interested to hear his story too. Maxs story is inextricably intertwined with every single pup that has been raised on my Lilac Ridge Farm. He lives in my heart, as his legacy lives on this farm and in any pup who has been raised here, forever more. So... here is the story of Dear O...Continue reading

Happy 1st Birthday to my sweet Cash and all of the other Lilac Ridge Rainbow Music puppies! It was about as bitterly cold this time last year as it has been for the last couple of days. Theres not much more heartwarming than the love of a sweet pup though. Enjoy!!

Every day that goes by, I am more and more grateful that little Cash came back home. He was pretty scrawny when he came back home. At six months old, he was barely 60 pounds. At eight months, Ill bet hes pushing 75 pounds at least... not so little anymore! Hes almost as tall as his daddy. (Full-grown, Oreo weighs in at 100+ lbs)....Continue reading

As some of you may have heard... I Got Cash Back! Not the kind of cash back that you get when you pay with your debit card and need a bit of cash, but the kind of Cash back when the little Lilac Ridge Cash pup that started his life here on my farm back in January has come back home. Cash has lived a lot in his few six short months. He was the first pup chosen, one of the biggest and more dominant males. A French couple needed an LGD on their goat farm. It seemed like a goo...Continue reading

Continuing my DNA testing updates... As far as Oreos health goes... It turns out that Oreo is a carrier for Degenerative Myelopathy (DM). Without going too deeply into the genetics, being a carrier means that he or any of his pups that inherited that gene (statistics would suggest that number would be 50%, so ~five of the original ten), will likely not be affected themselves, but if they were bred to another carrier, then those pups could be at risk. Sura is not a carrier so... no worries there. Ill be happy to explain more if youre interested. If youre thinking of breeding your pup, it might be worth asking that the mate be tested for DM. DM is a disease of mature dogs. Its a progressive degenerative disorder of the spinal cord that can cause muscle wasting and gait abnormalities. Affected dogs do not usually show signs until they are at least 8 years old. DM is one of the genetic diseases that is common in these breeds. Again, Sura tested clear for DM so at best your pup may only be a carrier. They both tested clear for the other disease common in these breeds, a disease that affects eyesight, as well as 169 other common genetic diseases of dogs. All in all, great news for my dogs and your dogs and any future pups. :-) See more

So as promised, heres some of the health information on the parents of your pups. (As a bit of background, Embark tests for 171 different genetic health conditions)... Sura has one copy of a mutation associated with reduced ALT activity. ALT, a liver enzyme measured in the blood, is used an indicator of liver health. With this mutation, Sura and any of her pups that happened to inherit it (statistics would suggest roughly half, so 5 of the 10 original pups), would be likely... to have a lower than average baseline ALT level. As such, an increase in their ALT activity could be evidence of liver damage, even though it might be within normal limits for dogs without this mutation. It doesnt affect their health at all but if you happen to be having blood work done for any reason, it might be interesting to know your pups baseline ALT level. If its low, then a future normal reading could actually indicate a high level for that particular dog. Id be happy to explain more if youre interested. She tested clear for 170 other conditions, including two of which that are common in these breeds, so thats good news. More to come on Oreo later...

Thanks for listening. My biggest motivation to get this page off the ground was simple... a reputation for honest breeding. When I brought Soeurette (Sura) home, I was told she was a Great Pyrenees. It didnt take me too long to realize that there must be some Maremma in her, so thats how I advertised her puppies. After you took your puppies home, I started to wonder if she didnt have something else mixed in with the Maremma... her muzzle, her coat, her nose... so I decid...ed to do DNA testing (through Embark - one of the nice things about Embark is that they do tons of health testing, not just breed testing). The results were fascinating! Ill post a synopsis of the results over the next week but basically shes 53/47 Maremma/Pyr. And SUPER healthy! It was the health results that made me want to get Orion (Oreo) tested, even though I was confident he was pure Pyr. Lo and behold, hes 76/24 Pyr/Maremma, and SUPER healthy. So bottom line... your pups are 60/40 Pyr/Maremma, with possible carrier status for two genetic conditions (out of 171)... more to come on that. Again, thanks for listening. See more

Working Livestock Guardian Dogs, raised with love.