Sage, the third and final female in the Dorndorf S litter was spayed yesterday. Her owner just did not want to have puppies - and that was known when she acquired Sage.

Nevertheless, knowing that Sage is spayed has not been an easy pill to swallow.

It is the end of eight continuous generations of Dorndorf bitches, or the "bottom line" on all of our pedigrees.

Our very first bitch, CH Dorndorf's Dana v Bricken, was obtained at nine months of age from a kennel in Texas in 1972.

• Dana was the mother of

1. 1973 CH Dorndorf's Andrea L (Winners Bitch at DCA in 1974)

• Angel was the mother of

2. 1981 CH Dorndorf's Ericka L CD TT

• Ericka was the mother of

3. 1983 Felda v Dorndorf L CD TD TT

• Felda was the mother of

4. 1986 DC Grissel v Dorndorf L CDX TD VC

• Grissel was the mother of

5. 1990 ABS15 FC Ilsa v Dorndorf L

• Ilsa was the mother of

6. 1998 ABS6 FC Marta v Dorndorf L JE LH

• Marta is the mother of

7. 2002 DC Nadja v Dorndorf L SE CG

• Nadja is the mother of

8. 2009 Sonic, Sage, and Seiko v Dorndorf

Nadja, owned by Stan and Tina Knoll, produced three litters numbering 1, 2, 3 puppies, all females. Of these six offspring, one is dead and four are spayed. The one remaining intact Nadja daughter is Tina Knoll's ABS3 FC Bob's Babe von Knobydox. On the distaff side, then, though not a Dorndorf bitch, it will be up to Babe to carry on. She was bred to Owl in May this year but did not become pregnant. Our plan is to try again in the spring. Wish us luck!

One thing that I have learned from all this is that it is ultimately unwise for a breeder to put all of her eggs in one basket. Yes, it worked just fine for me to have only one producing female at a time for 29 years (!) but...

Here's to Owl x Babe puppies in the spring.

When Mike Suchodolski sent this photo and I thanked him, Mike replied:

"Its truly been my pleasure, she is a wonderful companion, never had a single problem with her, she has a great personality and everyone winds up liking her.  Surprised by how many people are apprehensive about the breed and especially blood tracking, one of my friends would insist that she was just tracking me when I lay out lines, but this proved him wrong as the shooter backed out to leave no scent.  The other guys were behind us with lanterns and were amazed that she was staying right on the blood line the whole time, I had no idea if she was still on it as it is all I can do to hang onto her lead as we are crawling under brush, deadfalls etc.  we were both pretty excited when we came up on it, and as she has done in the past, she won't let any other dog come anywhere near "her deer."

Good going, Mike and Frankie! Please keep us posted on your tracking adventures!