Excel-Entlebucher Puppies

Breeding- this page is a work in progress, please keep checking back

If you would like to get on our list for an upcoming litter, please contact us for our puppy application.
Our goal is to produce puppies that are moderate to higher drive.
Our entlebuchers will thrive in homes that are active, interactive and want a dog who is part of their family, involved in many to most activities. You should be dedicated to training and socializing the first year to set a solid foundation and relationship of trust.

Our Breeding Philosophy

As breeders, we do all we can to produce healthy, stable, structurally sound puppies that will excel as performance &/or show prospects, but most importantly as outstanding family members and beloved companions.

With over two decades of high-level, active involvement in the entlebucher mountain dog breed, we have:
- carefully followed and tracked many family lines through the years
- visited with and met hundreds of entlebuchers
- assisted with evaluations, training and behavior solutions
- made deliberate, purposeful choices for our breeding program

We are a small kennel and do not produce many litters. When we do breed, each litter is an event that we place much care in planning for and overseeing from the research that goes into the initial mating through the time the puppies go to their new homes. We literally set aside our lives to devote our time to each individual litter's development. We expect the families who get a puppy from us to stay in contact throughout their pup's life.

We health test our dogs with diligence, going beyond the OFA CHIC entlebucher mountain dog breed requirements. We believe it's important to do a couple additional tests, for issues that have sometimes shown up in entlebucher health surveys. It gives us vital baselines for our own dogs plus we feel it is helpful to add to the breed's health knowledge and statistics in the open OFA records. Knowledge is power; having more information about our dogs and their health, empowers us to make better choices. We will only accept the CHIC minimum health testing for any stud we would pair with our females.

We work hard to balance all breeding considerations. We believe in striving for a low COI (coefficient of inbreeding). A low number is different for different breeds, depending on their popularity and numbers of breeding dogs. It is researched and advised for our breed to stay under 5% in 5 generations at this stage of our breed's development. It is well known that higher levels of inbreeding have consequences: increased behavioral problems, health risks, reduced fertility, and inbreeding depression (loss of fitness or immune system deficiencies). In a rare breed with a small gene pool, it is critical to preserve as much genetic diversity as possible. Our goals are: to utilize different pairings, select for lower COI%, breed for strong breed phenotype, and prioritze finding 1-2 homes per litter willing to consider breeding for a healthy future.

Details

Swiss tradition dictates that each Entlebucher Mountain Dog litter is named alphabetically. This makes it easy and convenient to recognize littermates, estimate ages and get an idea what generation an Entle comes from in their family. To honor that tradition, we require that your puppy's AKC registered name begin with its conventional alphabet letter. The puppy/dog's call name can be anything. We also integrate some customary U.S. traditions. The puppy's AKC registered name must also begin with our kennel name: Excel-Ent's. Just for fun, we give each litter a temporary theme with puppy theme placeholder names. It feels more personal to refer to the puppies by their theme names before they become part of their new families and receive permanent registered and call names.
Before going home, our puppies receive:
•   Microchips for permanent identification, registration completed at pick up
•   AKC Registration, filled out at pick up
•   Health check and certification from our veterinarian
•   Appropriate worming, vaccinations and nomograph record for a scientific future vaccination plan
•   A customized flash drive of information and photos specific to your puppy
•   A record of your individual puppy's evaluations with custom training areas and tips to start off on the right paw
•   First 30 days of health insurance for your puppy
•   A "go home" care package with familiar items and food to get you started

Entle Puppies

Entlebucher puppies are very mouthy and nippy in general, from their cattle herding background. Like many herding breeds, Entles can be cautious around strangers. New puppy owners need to devote special attention to socializing! There is a 16 week window where puppies are more curious and interested in people and novelty. Take calculated risks early and often with your Entlebucher puppy to ensure they have neutral to positive, supervised experiences with: adults, kids of all ages, older and special-needs people, tall, short, big, and people of various nationalities. It is also important for puppies to be exposed to other puppies and safe, appropriate dogs of different breed types, heights, colors, activity levels, muzzle lengths, long and short coated etc. We do nomographs to help our new puppy owners make more informed vaccine and exposure decisions. A nomograph measures the immunity level passed to the puppies from their mom.

Entlebucher puppies need to feel safe and supported while they have the opportunity for many and varied experiences. Then they learn the world is a safe, interesting place. Through these experiences they begin to generalize while being rewarded for brave, desirable behavior and coached how to be appropriate, canine citizens. Don't worry, it will not spoil them for protecting you or your property! By learning from different experiences, over time an Entle understands when something or someone really is suspicious and they learn discretion, to only be protective when there is a real threat.

How We Raise Our Puppies

We were fortunate to be part of the original Avidog program while they were in business. We had the advantage of learning from their researched, science-based, experience tested methods and protocols. Avidog laid out an exceptional roadmap for successfully planning and raising litters... a "What to Expect When You're Expecting" for canines! Breeds and individuals can vary, but most follow the projected timelines for puppy growth and development. We also apply what we feel is relevant for entlebuchers from Puppy Culture. We utilize many of the Puppy Culture workbook chapter ideas, lessons and charts but not as much as Avidog. We choose what we feel is the most beneficial for entlebuchers. We raise our puppies by integrating science-based, experience tested rearing methods while using common sense and keen observation!

Puppies are raised in a quieter, extra back bedroom that is transformed into the "puppy room". The puppy room is their home base from the time they are born until about 4-5 weeks old. That same room is for general dog training and conditioning so all our dogs have positive associations there. Depending on readiness, when the puppies outgrow their puppy room, they move out into the mainstream of our home. There they can experience the sights and sounds of routine household activities being a part of the hustle and bustle of normal life. Puppies have specific developmental time periods where they are more open or ready to learn various lessons. We provide an age appropriate, interactive and stimulating environment for the puppies to engage and learn as individuals.

Developmental Experiences

We provide gradual and building sensory exposure to various smells, sights, sounds, tastes, and touch. We look for novel experieces to expose our puppies to as individuals, in pairs and as a group. We invite many safe, dog-savvy friends with an extra effort to bring kids in to play with and handle the puppies. We go for walks and outings to safe places, learn about crates, car rides, strange noises and they have a myriad of toys to engage and interact with: hard, soft, textured, puzzle toys, snuffle mats, musical mats, singing and talking stuffed animals etc and they are introduced to house training. They have free access to their momma; we introduce our other dogs usually sometime after 3 weeks old when the pups and their mom seem ready.

We also feel it is important to give puppies safe opportunities to test out their growing bodies and learn about proprioception. Proprioception is the body's ability to sense where its different parts are in any space, without needing to look. By doing agility and other dog sports we have learned about canine fitness, conditioning and we have collected a nice amount of FitPaws, TotoFit, and other canine fitness equipment. Puppies are encouraged to use our many inflatables like balance bones, discs, and donuts, a K9 Kore Roller and Wedge. We also supervise as they engage the wobble board, Cato tippy board, puppy agility equipment, adventure box and other baby-gym pieces. These foundational skills help a puppy learn body awareness, coordination, weight shifting and balance which can help prevent injuries as the puppy grows into an adult dog. As the puppies get to be 5+ weeks old, we we look for varied terrain on our adventures so they can experience uneven surfaces, slick floors, gravel, wood chips, metal floors, etc. And we love to take advantage of any opportunity mother nature offers! If it storms with thunder and lightning- we have a party, if it snows- we enjoy outside play time. We take nature woods walks and go on sniffari's for enriching exploration.

Socializing Experiences

We offer our puppies exposure to a variety of people all ages and sizes. We go out of our way to plan and provide experiences that are not typical of our home environment for example; people that have infirmities and disabilities, a variety of children, cats and farm animals to name some scenerios. We also expose our puppies to different body handling (cooperative care techniques). We go on safe outings as a group, in pairs, and as individuals. We try to duplicate the same or similar experiences when we do pair and individual outings. Our goal is to build positive associations and allow the puppies to begin to safely explore their world. The breed has a genetic disposition and heritage of being reserved with strangers. We provide the early exposures with the goal to see curiosity and the ability to be neutral &/or optimistic around people, dogs, and kids while maintaining focus in highly distracting environments.

Litters

2019 "A Litter" Theme- Star Trek: The Next Generation

Jaylah X Data: Puppies born April 12, 2019! 5 puppies; 4 females (2 with natural bob tails) and 1 male.
Litter theme names: The 1 male (captain of course); Picard. The remaining 4 female crew members; Lal, Ro, Troi and Guinan. Lal and Ro were the natural bob tails like their mom. The others had full tails with nice white tips.

This was our highly anticipated first litter. They all have classic markings leaning toward the darker end of the spectrum for their face blazes. We tried hard to do everything "perfect" for their best start. In hindsight, we did not feel the formal, 'Bio Sensor' (ENS) program was beneficial. I believe it fostered a heightened environmental awareness & sensitivity. Entlebuchers already have a deep genetic predisposition in that respect so it is not necessary. Our first litter has grown wonderfully and we are so proud of them (and their amazing families)! Three are more reserved with strangers while two are super friendly. Two have mild seasonal allergies with one being more severe. Three are doing well in multiple dogs sports. The male passed all health tests and has sired a litter, our female we kept also passed health testing and will be bred in the future.

** The military "Bio Sensor" ie; ENS program was viewed as a failure, was shut down and is not used by the military, for reasons unknown. There have been no researched studies regarding the formal ENS protocol. Any beneficial evidence cited for ENS is anecdotal and can be bias. There IS widely research and peer reviewed evidence that enrichment, handling and socialization do have a positive impact on adult dogs. We stopped formal ENS after our first litter and focus on enrichment, handling and socialization.

2020 "B Litter" Theme- The Comedians

Avery X Marcus: Puppies born October 12, 2020! 4 puppies; 2 females, 2 males.

Litter theme names: The boys; Robin (Williams) and George (Carlin). The girls; Lucille (Ball) and Gilda (Radner). All had full tails with white tips (both parents with natural long tails).

Avery is a very special girl, she is the daughter of our Data and the beautiful, talented Swiss import Xella. We are forever grateful to our friend Denise, for trusting and allowing us to breed Avery! All the puppies have classic markings with one leaning toward the darker end of the spectrum and one leaning toward more white end yet all are within standard. Two are friendly, one is neutral and one leans toward the reserved the strangers inclination. One is doing incredibly well in agility and the others remain active as pets traveling, hiking and enjoying their best lives. One has passed all the breed health testing and will be bred in the future.

2022 "C Litter" Theme- Comic Action Dudes

Jaylah X Data: Puppies born March 4, 2022! 4 puppies; All males - 3 with natural bob tails and 1 with a full tail, white tip.

Litter theme names: WHAM!, BAM!, POW! and ZAP!

This litter was full of surprises! We had plans for breeding to a different stud and when that fell through at the last minute, we took a risk on using Data's stored frozen semen. There had only been one previously documented frozen breeding of a singleton in the Entlebucher breed plus many, many failures using frozen. There was a lack of any documentation of failure reasons when other breeds have great success with frozen breeding. We had very little to lose yet so much to gain by trying. I will never forget the ultrasound appointment where we learned this was successful! I still get goosebumps remembering that groundbreaking day!

The fab four- All males with classic markings; 3 out of 4 with natural bobtails and 1 with a small "Swiss Kiss". Three are friendly, one is neutral and warms up to strangers quickly after proper introductions. We felt fate gave us another chance, so we kept the "Data clone" puppy which is our Geordi. They are all cherished, spoiled and well loved!