Simon Growl

Occasionally I will get a call from someone who has a female and would like to breed. I have a wonderful stud, who is also my spoiled little baby who gets to sleep on my pillow; his official name is Avalon Rock’s Simply Simon and I lovingly refer to him as Simon Growl. I purchased Simon in 2009 when I decided to breed Layla. I wasn’t looking to buy a dog, but I saw an advertisement that said a breeder was selling all of her dogs, essentially retiring from Yorkie breeding. When I saw Simon’s picture I fell in love! His long, silky, silvery coat and small stature were exactly what I wanted in a mate for Layla. He wasn’t as expensive as a puppy would have been, and my friend Sarah gave me $250 toward his $450 price in exchange for a puppy in the future.

I have only attempted to stud Simon once, although he has plenty of experience. A woman named Barbara e-mailed me about her dog Holly, who she wanted to breed. She got my contact information from Elizabeth, Simon’s previous owner. I had a litter of five-week-old puppies at the time and didn’t want to deal with the frustrations of boarding her dog for several days, and she assured me that Holly was at the point in her heat cycle where she was most fertile and receptive; so we arranged to meet at my house to supervise Simon and Holly for a few hours until they tied. I was only going to charge $250.

I kept Layla and her puppies in my bedroom; I was anticipating that Layla would not be pleased about a strange dog in her territory. When Barbara and Holly arrived, I was amazed by how big Holly was; she must have been a 14-pound Yorkie. I was immediately concerned about Simon’s ability to reach what he was supposed to reach, but Barbara assured me that Holly had been bred with studs even smaller than Simon.

We sat in the back yard and watched Simon and Holly meet each other. Of course, Simon knew immediately what to do; it took no time at all for him to start humping. I was happy, this should be a pretty easy $250. But I was wrong. Simon humped his little heart out for two hours, and no matter how much we tried to help them, they could not tie. I noticed that her vulva was not swollen; Barbara must have miscalculated the heat cycle.

I went against my better judgment, in hopes that Holly and Simon needed more time together, and told Barbara I could board Holly for the night. I kept Holly and Simon together in the hallway/bathroom/kitchenette area on one side of the puppy gate; the pups and Layla were in the main part of the bedroom. Unfortunately the gate is see-through so the impressionable puppies picked up some bad habits from watching their daddy.

 Simon kept trying all night long, but eventually Holly started to get tired. Somehow I ended up keeping her for two days, and although she was a mild-mannered and sweet dog, I got tired of watching Simon’s failed attempts at impregnating her.

So Barbara came back and got Holly, and I didn’t get my $250. I still occasionally receive phone calls from people who need a stud, but I often find that they don’t know enough about the impregnation process to give me the information I need to avoid a repeat of the Holly fiasco. For instance, I’ll ask a question like “When did the heat cycle begin?” so I can try and schedule a meet up on the appropriate day. People have no idea, they didn’t write down when they first noticed bleeding or vulvar swelling. If they don’t even know that much, how will they figure out what to do when the puppies are ready to be born? So I haven’t tried again since then.