Tick had her pups over about 5 hours the evening of Oct 10, 2005. She had 3 boys and 2 girls. Some have body markings and one of the boys has a heart on his side. It looks like they are all going to be tri coloured. The boy with the heart looks to be mostly black, others will be mostly brown coloured. Tick did an excellent job for her first litter and is extremely protective of her pups just like her mom was. It took 3 days before her mom trusted us to touch her pups. I think she may be the same. If you want to see Tick as a pup go here . Tick is the only pup in that litter with one eye not coloured.
Here are the pups the next day. The two girls are the bottom pups in the left picture. They have the boy with the heart on his side between them. They weighed between 5 and 8 ounces today. They heart boy was the smallest and the girl with no body colour was the largest. She also has the largest head so should mature to having a lot of bone (that's a good thing if she is show/breeding quality).
The pups are 7 days old here. They are getting around by doing the belly crawl and some are starting to stand just a bit. Mostly they just eat and sleep. They are getting fat and growing fast. Even the little male is coming along well though he seems to be a couple of days behind the rest. In time that won't be noticeable because he will catch up. By next week they will be close to getting their eyes open and soon after that they will be able to hear. Next week we will get individual pictures of them so check back often to follow their progress. The two girls are in the lower right pictures. One girl has colour on both eyes and some on her body and the other girl has colour on both ears and no body colour. The little boy is in the picture below and can be recognised by the heart on his side.
Pictures taken Oct 23 2005. The pups will be 2 weeks old tomorrow. In the picture at right they are from left to right - boy,boy,girl,boy,girl. Even the small boy is growing fast now. They just eat, sleep and twitch. Their legs seem to be in constant motion from the growth twitching they do. Every 10-20 seconds some part of their body twitches. They have all tripled their birth weight. The kids below are doing their favourite pose, sound asleep, sprawled out on their backs. You can tell they are well fed because they are almost as wide as they are long.
In the next couple of days their eyes will open and then when their ears have fallen flatter on their heads they will begin to hear. When their eyes open they will progress from the belly crawl to wobbly walking. In a couple of weeks they should be running around getting in all sorts of trouble. Next week we will get individual shots with their eyes open.
The pups are 3 weeks old now. Their eyes are fully open although not for long as they sleep a lot still. They are starting to travel around a bit now between naps. The first to walk much was the little boy with the heart on his side. We call him Rudy as in Valentino and his first steps looked like the tango.
The two girls are on the right and the three boys are below with Rudy on the left. He is going to have the longest coat with the girl far right coming in second.
Next weeks pictures may be taken in their x-pen if they are mature enough then to handle it. It took them a couple of days longer than average for their eyes to open. They are so laid back it is hard to tell yet if their hearing is fully developed. They don't even budge when we whistle in their room. They will be awake for increasingly longer periods now and play should start in earnest this week. So far just a bit of muzzle guming going on.
The pups are 4 weeks old tomorrow. Time for their first trip outside the whelping pen. They all did very well. Usually we see pups start shaking from anxiety a few minutes into their new environment but not this lot. They checked things out a bit and then settled in for another nap. I got so many pics I had difficulty picking ones for this site. Not to worry, we create a Video CD of all the pup pics to go home with each pup.
After about 10 minutes the big boy on the right started to demand to be put back in the whelping pen. Notice how they stay pretty close to the ground. It will take a couple of days before they start strutting around confidently and thats when the fun starts and the X-pen has to come out to keep them contained.
The next big event for them will be solid food some time this week.
The pups are 6 weeks old today. Time for their first vaccination this week. They are in their x-pen all day now. They still sleep in their whelping pen at night. When they wake up from a nap we put them outside for a few minutes to p&p. This happens about every hour. They can take 5-10 minutes when the temp is about 5C then they ask to come in. They play for another 10-20 minutes and its time for another nap. They eat from the communal bowl twice a day. Will get a picture of that chaos soon. Twice or more a day after their p&p they are allowed to run about in the house to get them used to the environment and extra excercise from the flat out running they can do. Hoping for some sunny days when they can spend more time outside where the reflection of the sun off the sliding glass door provides a nice warm spot for naps. They are growing fast and starting to trim some of the baby fat but they are still pretty porky from the excellent care their mom provided. They are completely weaned now but we let mom visit with them daily.
Nov 24, 2005
Lots of new experiences for the pups this week. In the picture to the right they are very intent on the loud sounds from the CD player (car horns, bangs, thunder, etc). Even the statue behind them is paying attention. We play this once a day to try to desensitise them so they can react calmly to loud sounds. The next three pictures were taken early in the morning before the sun was up and it was -5C but they plodded through the snow to do their p&p. They only lasted a few minutes before wanting in so they were in and out a lot today. The next picture is of them in their crate outside around noon. When the sun shines it really warms up a spot on our deck and they napped for a few minutes outside. This is also the beginning of crate training for them. They worked up a big appetite today with all their trecking through the snow and tackled their food with gusto.
A big day in their life.
Dec 7, 2005
The pups are over 7 weeks old now. They are sleeping in their own crates at night. Some whimpering but they are pretty good about it. The weather has been cold and windy for the last week so they haven't been outside for many long walks. Today it was sunny and they had a ball in the new powdery snow. As I am writing this they have crashed in their x-pen after their long picture session outside. They go to New York for temperament testing tomorrow, then to the vet for their checkup and they will be ready for their new homes this weekend. This litter has been a lot of fun. They are a very relaxed and well behaved bunch. They are almost house trained and let us know when they need to go out for p&p.
Three puppies have gone to their new homes. These two will be staying at the ranch as potential breed/show dogs. They are Ticket, the female in the top of the picture and Watson the boy at the bottom. Ticket is named after her grandmother Tickle and her mother Tick. Watson is named after his grandfather Woodleigh and his father Winston. All of them born and bred here at JRRanch. They represent the fourth generation of one of our breeding lines here. We are proud of them and wish them success on the show circuit starting in the early spring.
The Hunt
Momma and the kids went for a walk today and a hunt broke out. Luckily I had my camera and took about 50 pictures and here are a few. It started pretty slowly over at the fence row on the edge of our field. Thats mom leading Watson (TJ for short) into the old fence line checking for the scent of the quarry. The kids weren't too excited yet and did a lot of walking around aimlessly. Rex spotted us from the barnyard and let out a big WOOF. That got TJ's attention and led to the neat shot on the right. Rex's deep woof commands attention because he is one big guard dog as you will see if you go to the goat pages here.
Then Mom took them to the middle of the field and got a fresh scent. She eventually dug a trench about a yard long looking for the critter. Ticket had to get in for a close look to see how this was done. Now they were hooked and TJ found a fresh scent of his own and started to dig. Again Ticket got in close to see what was going on and she lucked out. As TJ was digging he flicked the vole out of its hole and Ticket was in the right spot to catch it. She shook it so hard I thought it was going to fall apart. The kids played with their prize for awhile then they all got back to digging for more. On the right TJ is trying to show Mom and Ticket how he got his first prize.
They didn't find any more this day but our walks since then have been a lot more hunting than walking. The kids are growing up fast and showing the true Jack Russell instinct for hunting.
The kids hunting again. Mom is showing Ticket and TJ how to do it, and the new addition Tess, is getting in on the act. Tess is Ticks half sister (Their mom is JRRanch Tickle) and TJ and Tickets auntie even though she is about a month younger. Thats her in the picture on the right. She was bred by Wootinhille kennel in Kentucky and just got here last weekend. It took her a couple of days to get used to the cold but now she is outside playing as if she was born here.
