Wednesday, July 11: So many stories, so little time. The pups are more than ready for life's next adventure. They want to run, play and love on me continuously. and are so bored in their pen. I cannot keep an eye on more than one, so they do have pen time This weekend, Ihad cleaned their pen and was laying down with them. They all love my hair and if I have a hair tie in, they will try their hardest to get it out. They crawl all over me like Gulliver. Blue and Irish tend to be front and center. Winston (Samson) always checks in, then explores my clothing and toes, plays for awhile, then checks back in. While he was playing, Blue stayed front and center and Irish laid down in a bed just past my head. I scooted forward to lay next to him, and he cuddled with me. Soon after, Blue joined us, and Winston came up to my chest and laid down. They really are loving pups.
Yesterday was vet day and it was an adventure for me. They got their first full bath. Up until yesterday, they only had body parts washed that needed it. They all did well and I have pictures. No PWD enjoys baths that I am aware of, but they love to swim and play in water. These pups did not try to get out too much, but they did not care for their baths. Then I pulled out one car and the oil light came on. I put it back in the garage and pulled out another car, and the fuel light came on. Good grief. I had wanted to take them in my more comfortable car to ease any potential car sickness, as the jeep has a rougher ride. We got settled in the jeep .I filled up with gas and we were on our way. I had to go down a winding HWY 80 from Park City to Salt Lake City, and none of them got sick. That was amazing to ride that distance, through a winding road and they did well. All is good, they received their immunizations and did well and no one got sick on they way home either. Awesome?
They are more than ready for new homes and wanting to run and play continuously, so the sooner the better for pickup. Irish is now in his forever home. Blue is 10 1/2 pounds of pure love, and Winston is 12 pounds of love and enthusiasm. Blue is turning in to an adventurer and loves to check things out. Winston is right behind him, but not the Houdini that Blue showed himself as yesterday. Irish was content to remain in the kennel in the car and at the vets office.
They are more than ready for new homes and wanting to run and play continuously, so the sooner the better for pickup. Irish is now in his forever home. Blue is 10 1/2 pounds of pure love, and Winston is 12 pounds of love and enthusiasm. Blue is turning in to an adventurer and loves to check things out. Winston is right behind him, but not the Houdini that Blue showed himself as yesterday. Irish was content to remain in the kennel in the car and at the vets office.
Tuesday, July 3: Happy seven week birthday. Woohoo!. They have arrived. I was hoping with such a small litter that they would avoid the Terrible, I mean Terrific Two's, but they have officially arrived. They now tear up their taped down piddle pads. Rope toys, squeaky toys, soft plush, chewables and so much more, yet they go for the piddle pads. This stage is so difficult to keep them clean. Without piddle pads, there is no absorbent pad. They also love to "go" on the tarp as soon as I pull up the dirty pads. I don't know what it is with them, but I now have to change one pad at a time, to avoid this.
They love to run around the house and are pretty good at not making a mess outside of their pen. I have to move mom though, as they still try to nurse and she will let them, which could send her in to calcium shock and that is an emergency. We weaned them from her at six weeks old, and will begin weaning them from goat milk soon.
It is hard to believe that one will be gone in seven days and the others in 12 days. Time passes so quickly.
Thursday, June 28: Sorry it has been so long. No excuse, just summer busy life activities. They are growing into wonderful dogs. Their personalities change weekly. They LOVE tails. If one is wagging a tail in front of another, it becomes a play toy. A couple of days ago, one was chewing on the tail of another while another was chewing on his foot. It was a chain of chewing. Only once have I heard a yelp, so I think they try not to hurt when they play. To me, they are like little alligators. Between claws and teeth, I now wear long sleeves and pants when I play with them. One is fine, but three can hurt. I am really enjoying them all and the personalities are very similar.
Irish has become more vocal this week. If there is one whining to get out, it is Irish. Blue and Irish are all front and center during play time. Samson is too, but he will venture off to find something else on me. He loves toes. He will seek out my toes whether they are under me, straight out or hidden. Two days ago, I had on a nice shirt, scarf material and didn't want it snagged. I put on an apron and went in to play. Samson found his way back to my apron, found the bow and untied it, Blue and Irish went to each side and began pulling on the scarf material. They must have liked my blouse as much as me.
I just came out of the pen from playing. I play until they begin to fall asleep, then I clean the pen as it is so much easier to clean when they are exhausted. To no avail. Blue got up and came over, but was so calm as he was tired. He laid in my lap and nibbled a bit. It was a wonderful one on one time. After about 10 minutes, Samson came over and did the same thing. Pretty soon, the two of them played, so I was able to clean their pen. In the homeward stretch, Irish came over. He LOVES to tug on the piddle pads, then Samson got my tape roll and it must have taken another 20 minutes to finish cleaning the pen, with a full party going on. I took more pictures of our play time and will post as soon as I can figure out how to do so. For years, I downloaded into a Picture Navigator file and modified my pictures in a MS program. Then my old XP became full to capacity, so I have tried it on my new PC and Mac, but neither of them like my Nikon software. I downloaded Dropbox, and it worked initially, but now is full and wants me to pay for more storage. It is not as easy as just putting them on a flash drive. My Nikon wants a program, and I am too ignorant I guess, to figure this out. There are pictures though. I will work on it.
They have been eating baked chicken and green beans cut up in to tiny pieces and put in warmed goat milk.. Today, I was out of chicken after their first feeding and they were still whining, so I gave them tuna. They loved it. Off to the store for more food.
Tuesday, June 19: We moved the puppies down to our main level on Saturday. They adjusted very well and whined much less than past litters. Of course, there are only three of them. They are SO playful now. They still gum me so it doesn't hurt, but their teeth are coming in . Next week, they will be learning how hard is too hard. Right now, Irish has five teeth. He has two back teeth, one lower canine and two upper. Blue is second with three teeth. He has his two upper canines in and one back molar. Samson, my largest puppy comes in last with one tooth. One of his upper canines. They are still pretty soft mouthed and gum me so it doesn't hurt, but Blue got a big rise out of me yesterday. I was feeding one pup and he wanted the food and was going after my fingers. Instead of suckling, he used his upper canine and bit so hard I thought he hit bone. It was a doozie/
After two nights downstairs, I moved them upstairs to the den to sleep last night.. Although I had a space heater and a heated mat under their beds, our home was just too cold at night. We don;t have air conditioning, but don't need it at 7000" and I certainly was not going to turn on the house heat, so I moved them to the den where I can control the temperature and brought them down again this morning. I will keep doing this until the nights warm up..
They still drink goat milk and nurse. We have tried them on solid mush, but they don't like it. They don't even like to lap up food so they just nurse and are still bottle fed. They are very loving and I enjoy getting in the pen and playing with them. They climb all over me and are just so affectionate. It is the best part of my day.
Thursday, June 14: The puppies are actively playing with each other constantly. They pull on ears, tumble over each other and Blue can now get out of the whelping box. Time to move them downstairs in to our main living area, so they can learn the smells and sounds of life. They have been introduced to solid foods just a bit. They get Gerber Rice cereal in their bottled milk now and really like it. They also have had a bit of pureed meat mixed with goat milk. They stay awake about a half hour in between feedings, and are up and down quite a bit, rather than solid sleep. I hear them sometimes playing around with each other, so it is time to bring them down and begin the socialization. All of them are equally affectionate. They can focus on our faces now and lick us if we get too close to their face. They are just the sweetest little pups. I could sit and watch them all day.
Saturday, June 9: They now play with each other. They are gentle, but interact all of the time now. They roll and tumble around. Tonight, Samson and Blue were locked in a gummy lock, while Irish watched them. Irish will nurse the longest of all the pups and Samson will give up quickly. They are all steady on their feet now, will eliminate without prompting and are awake about 30 minutes at a time and play with each other, mom and me. They stare in my eyes and I wonder what they are thinking. Their little ears are open now too, as I have to be really quiet when I sneak in the den.
Tuesday, June 5: The pups are three weeks old today. They are really developing their personalities now. I watched Blue lift his paw and put it on Samson. Samson did not respond so Blue walked away. A few minutes later, Samson walked up to Blue and grabbed his tail in his mouth and pulled on it. They don't have teeth, so it was a gentle pull. Blue responded and they mouthed each other. It was so cute. Irish was sleeping during this time.
They are vocal now and will let me know if they are bored or hungry. They still primarily nurse and also interact with their mom. They now stare at me, probably wondering why I look so different from their mom. If they get too close to my face, I get attacked with sucking kisses. They are SO CUTE.
Wednesday, May 30: I am sorry I have been slow to respond. Life catches up with me and the time flies. I just posted pictures. Their eyes are opening now and you may be able to see that in the pictures. They all eat very well. Blue and Irish will also take a bottle, but Samson prefers just mom. I think they are getting an abundance of food, since there is only three of them, but I still offer the bottle to top them off.
Blue LOVES laying on his back to sleep. I caught him doing this a couple of times and took pictures. Samson prefers to sleep alone, rather than in the puppy pile and will often just walk away from the others and crash. Irish and Blue sleep next to each other often. If I put a small doggie bed in the whelping box, they will all crawl underneath it to sleep. They have not yet begun to interact, as they are just opening their eyes, and their ears are still closed. In the next week, they will have more activity and by four weeks of age, they will be playing with each other.
Friday, May 25: Today, we all went to the vet and all are healthy and growing well. The vet took out mom's stitches and gave all the pups and mom a physical. So happy that our little ones are thriving.
Monday, May 21: Went to the vet today and mom and pups are doing very well. She did full physicals on the pups and mom and all looks great. They are gaining about an ounce a day, and mom is hanging on to 5 lbs of pregnancy weight. She is eating much better and absolutely loves her puppies. They are crawling around much more now, they climb a little bit, so rolled up towels do not keep them in one place. They are beginning to sleep on their backs and it is adorable. They will suck on anything in front of them, and had ahold of my fingers at the vets office today.
Wednesday, May 16: The puppies are latching on well to mom and nursing. We are supplementing a little bit with goat milk. They are so adorable and coo when they nurse. I slept in the den last night, on the couch about 2 feet away from their whelping box. Needless to say I didn’t get much sleep and probably neither did mom. They are eating pretty much constantly but I am trying to give her a few breaks during the day as she is very sore from the C-section and cannot have any pain meds as it passes into the milk. Poor girl. She is a great mom and very attentive and gentle with her puppies.
Tuesday, May 15: Well, after a day and a half of labor, I took mom in to the vet to have her progesterone levels checked. They recommended a C-section as they tried to induce labor and she still did not push. The others, all males) are doing fine. They are now home and nursing. Mom is very sore, but is licking and caring for them. She is such a sweet girl. She has three male puppies that are white with black markings. Tonight, her dinner was baked salmon filet and she inhaled it. WOOHOO!!!
Sunday, May 13: Happy Mothers Day to all of you, and my soon to be precious PWD mom. I shaved her down yesterday afternoon, in preparation of birth. She looked much larger with a full coat, than she does now that she is shaved. I believe we will only have 4-5 pups now that I see her. Before, I would have challenged an x-ray, as she looked so large. I still need to finish her legs and then bathe her today. The den is cleaned, as it has been used for storage for my daughters extra items. I need to set up the whelping area today, so that we are ready when she is. I will monitor her temperature for the impending birth. Ideally, she will give birth tomorrow, during the day, so that I have vet support in case I need it. That would be wonderful, as these midnight births can be a struggle. She sleeps with us every night, we don't leave her alone much during the day, and I recently purchased an Arlo set of cameras, so I have them throughout the house in case I am gone and need to watch her or talk to her. Exciting time!
Wednesday, May 10: We took mom to the AI vet in Draper yesterday for a second opinion. They said she has 4-5 pups, not six and they measured their heads. The vet there said the pups should arrive between May 11-13. THAT'S TOMORROW through SUNDAY. Oh my goodness. Today, I am getting the whelping room ready for them. I will do my best to meet the needs of the five of you that have deposits, and will know more this weekend.
We are having a huge problem with mom not eating anything for the past two weeks. She will no longer eat any kind of kibble or chicken. I leave puppy food out for free grazing, but she won't touch it. I cooked hamburger and she would not eat it. I gave her tuna and she smelled it and walked away. She no longer will eat strawberries, blueberries, green beans, asparagus, turnkey, fried eggs, snow peas.......nothing. Jack is the same way. I don't use their bowls any longer, thinking that may be it, but food is wasted in huge amounts. Every once in awhile, she will eat a carrot. My husband grilled their chicken two nights ago, and they ate it grilled. My husband also came home a $25 package of boneless ribs, so I steamed them and then put them on the grill and they loved that. I will continue to find food they will eat, but feeding them is labor intensive and expensive now. It is like eating out and is about $20-$30 a day to get them to eat. I also bought Fresh Pet, a refrigerated dog food, and mom will eat that, but not Jack. That was $11.00 a package and she ate a package per meal..... I would not cater so much, if she were not carrying puppies, so when the pups are weaned, her gourmet tastes are going to change very quickly.
Both of the vets have said she is very healthy and doing well, just not a lot of pups, but they are growing well. I wanted AI twice, but the clinic said they only do it once. She has now gained 15 pounds with the pups. I will post when they arrive.
Leslie B.
Maureen B.
Marc D.