Last updated : August 13, 2009
July 1, 2008
Happy Canada Day
Splash made us wait for her pups to appear. She gave us a false alarm Friday then again Sunday before popping her pups today.
She wasn't content to make us wait she had to surprise us with the number as well. We expected 4 pups as that was all that could be identified on the x-ray last week. She started delivering her pups at 2pm and we thought she was finished after 5 pups were born. Took her out for a little walk to freshen up and cleaned up the whelping pen, took some pictures, then left her and her pups for a little quiet time. Went back about 15 minutes later and Mrs JRRanch got a big surprise and had to double check but sure enough now we have 6 pups. Total of 4 girls and 2 boys. These pictures were taken before the 6th pup was born so will get pictures of all the pups tomorrow.
JRRanch Splash X Shelmar Tobias
pups born July 1, 2008
Click on a thumbnail to see the larger pictures.
July 2, 2008
A quick update to show all 6 pups. Mom and pups are doing fine. Splash is doing great for a first time Mom. She is very focused on her pups. We have been trying to coax her to lay down and relax a bit more but she will have none of it and continually checks her pups and cleans them. She is young and has plenty of energy so she probably knows better than us what she should do. These pups are not going to suffer from lack of attention and Mom seems to really enjoy her job.
I just updated the pictures with one of Mom relaxing while the pups tank up.
There is a good reason the Mom must constantly clean the pups. They don't p&p unless stimulated by the Mom for the first 2 weeks. We had a litter a while ago where the pups cried a lot in the first week. We would pick up the crying pup because we thought it needed to be burped but it would pee when it touched the warmth of our hand. After this happened a couple of times we clued in that the Mom must not be stimulating them enough. The whelping pen was in too high a traffic area, our computer room, so Mom was paying too much attention to us and not enough to her kids. When we moved the whelping pen to a quiet bedroom the problem was solved. We learn something new each time we breed these amazing little dogs.
July 3, 2008
The pups are doing very well. They all gained over an ounce in the first 2 days. When they sleep, they twitch like crazy which is a good sign that they are growing normally. Their bodies grow very fast in the first couple of weeks and the twitching comes from their nervous system growth. When looking at the bunch of puppies sleeping there is a constant motion from them as one of them twitches every few seconds. All they do now is eat and sleep. When they wake they crawl on their bellies to Mom, fill up, then go right back to sleep.
Tonight they get their tails docked and their dew claws removed.
Early Neurological Stimulation will begin tomorrow. It is believed the stimulation has the following benefits : improved cardio vascular performance (heart rate), stronger heart beats, stronger adrenal glands, more tolerance to stress and greater resistance to disease. It was developed by the military when training their dogs for the combat. Stimulated pups were found to be more active and inquisitive and were dominant in competitive situations over unstimulated pups. Stimulation is done from day 3 to 16.
The pictures on the right are grouped 2 boys and 4 girls.
July 9, 2008
The pups are progressing very well. They doubled their birth weight in the first week. At this stage they just keep eating and sleeping and growing. Their next milestone will occur around 2 weeks when their eyes open followed shortly by developing their hearing. Thats when things get interesting. They start to get more mobile after that and you can see daily progress in their walking. They will start by getting off their tummies a bit when they move and progress to a wobbly walking. By 3 weeks they should be walking around pretty well and will improve until between 4-5 weeks when they will start running a bit. They will make trips out of the whelping pen around 4 weeks to give them the freedom to roam about.
You can see personalities begin to develop now. They will get more vocal after their hearing develops and you can also detect personalities in their voices.
July 18, 2008
Its been a long time since the last update but its been a bit hectic around here. In the meantime, the pups have been doing very well. They all have their eyes open and are beginning to hear. We know their hearing is developing because when we open the door to their whelping room to take Mom for a walk we are greeted by 6 little heads popping up with the sound of the door opening. Some of them also give out a little yip of surprise at being disturbed from their nap.
They are starting to walk a bit and they are able to navigate their entire whelping pen now. We have taken out the tray that restricted them to the bed side and they can now move over to the uncovered side. Soon they will begin to p&p on their own without stimulation from Mom. When this happens all litters prefer to p&p on the metal tray. This is the beginning of potty training as the next step is to do their business outside. Next week they will take their first big trip out of their whelping pen and into our living room to get them started on the next phase of their development. Their first trip will only last for a few minutes but will be extended every day until they are out of the whelping pen most of the day. This won't happen until they are 4-5 weeks old.
The next step will be to spend time outside so check back for pictures of their progress.
July 21, 2008
The kids are almost 3 weeks old now. From the amount of activity we see in the whelping pen we figured they were ready for a field trip out to the living room. We put a blanket on the floor first, so they won't slip and slide when they walk. They did pretty well for the first time. No whining from anyone but a couple of yips and growls to tell us they were getting uncomfortable. A couple ventured a small ways from the pack but mostly stayed close together for comfort and protection. They lasted about 5 minutes then cuddled up together for a nap. At this stage we don't push it but just put them back in their comfortable whelping pen and will repeat this tomorrow.
They are beginning to play in their whelping pen and frequently you will see a couple of them paired off for a serious gumming session. They climb all over one another in their play and occasionaly one will get pinned under a couple of others and then a serious struggle starts followed by some pretty strenuous leg flailing and gumming to get free. As the play gets more serious we will hear more growling and attempts at dominance as they all try their hand at being top dog.
They are regularly going over to the uncovered side of their pen to do their p&p as they begin their own potty training. Mom is still cleaning up thank goodness but sometimes we are left a bit of wet to clean up as if Mom is saying to us that it will soon be our turn to clean up after them so we better get used to it.
July 25, 2008
The pups are getting more bold now that they have made several trips outside their whelping pen. They are starting to wander all over inspecting every new thing they see. We put some toys in with them and they immediately start to play with them. In a couple of days they will be hard to contain so we will have to get out the x-pen to keep them out of trouble when we can't keep an eye on them all the time.
Their teeth will be coming in soon and that will trigger their desire for solid food. Some of them are already trying to get at Mom's food which is too high for them to reach easily but they manage to get up high enough to get their noses in her food. As soon as the kids start to eat Mom will cut back on their feeding and will need less nourishment so we can remove her food bowl from the whelping pen and feed her seperate from the kids.
July 28, 2008
The kids will be 4 weeks old tomorrow. It was such a nice day today we decided to put them outside. Our deck has a perfect spot for them with shade in the morning and most of the afternoon. They were a little overwhelmed at first but we put Mom in with them and that picked up their confidence. After about 10 minutes they wanted back to their whelping pen but they had a very successful start. We put them out a couple of more times later in the day and they gathered confidence each time. By the end of the week they should be spending most of their day out here.
This will start their potty training as we will carry them from the whelping pen first thing in the morning for their p&p. By the time they are ready to go home they will be mostly house trained with only occasional accidents inside.
Their teeth have started to come through so we will begin feeding them softened puppy food soon. It will take them a few days to get into it but by the end of the week they should be almost entirely weaned from Mom.
This is the most exiting time in their development. Changes are happening daily and their individual personalities are beginning to develop. Its great entertainment watching them play and run around outside. They get a fair bit of exercise in the outside pen but we also like to take the pups for walks down our farm lane. This gets them to stretch their legs a bit more and by 6 weeks they will be running all over and it will take 2 of us to keep track of all of them because they could run into the field and be tough to find. This is the time we try to train them to come when called. Most of the pups will comply but we always have an independant one that likes to go their own way so we have to be very watchful on their walks.
July 30, 2008
The first meal. We soaked some puppy kibble with warm water and then fed them in their circular bowl. They dug in as if it was their first meal. We have never seen a whole litter tuck into their first meal with so much vigour. The first couple of times pups will usually pick at their food until they get the hang of it. Not this lot. They all chowed down and almost finished the bowl. They made a typical mess spreading the food around and stepping in it. When they were full we put Mom in to show them how to clean up the bowl. They watched her for a second and then decided they wanted to top off their first meal with a little Momma's milk.
This morning we took Mom for a walk and whisked the pups outside as soon as they woke up to do their p&p. Not much success yet but in a couple of days they will get the hang of it and will wait until we get them to do their business outside. Or at least, thats the plan, and hopefully they catch on as previous litters have.
Their next excellent adventure will be a walk down the farm lane. Maybe tomorrow.
August 14, 2008
We were off for a few days ay the Agility National Trial in Sussex, NB. It was good to visit the Maritimes again. We lived there for 7 years in the 70's and our human kids grew up to their school years there.
The pups spent time with their Mom's owners. Thanks to Rob and Deb for looking after them while we were away cheering on JRRanch Deedee and her very successful Agility Trial (6 clean runs!!).
These are pictures of the pups back at the Ranch and out for a walk on the farm lane today. They are completely weaned from Mom now and slept in crates for the first time last night. We will have them sleep 2 to a crate for a few nights and then for their last week here we will put them in their own crate. They slept right through the night last night without a whimper.
When we heard them stir at about 6am we immediately carried them outside for their p&p. Then a little later they cleaned up their breakfast and went back out for another p&p. Then they spent some time on the deck until about 11 when we went for our walk. When they came back they had a little snack of yogurt and cookies and then power napped for an hour. They will spend the rest of the day in an x-pen on the deck and going for at least one more walk.
We will feed them supper around 6pm then they will spend time on the deck until a little walk before bed time.
