Last Entry

That was a really fun day yesterday, everyone. Loved spending that much time with all of you. Please keep in touch, send lots of pictures and not question is a stupid one. I'm here for all of you.

This is a link to one of the videos I took yesterday when we had the puppies playing in the pool. It's pretty funny stuff: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJDLohfgVsI&feature=youtu.be

Countdown Week

Just when I think the puppies are looking big, I find one of them hanging with Bailey, the Maine Coon!

We're into the final countdown now! Puppies are sporting their new tattoos, they've been to Kay's for their testing and I'm looking forward to vegging around the house in the mornings instead of cleaning the potty box and having my ankles bitten!

As a group they were insane tonight. Darryl ended up playing with the three boys tonight in the office. Not sure exactly what was happening, but Blue was racing laps around the room and all of them were wrestling on an air mattress. In the meantime, the girls were busy playing with the little jingly cat balls in the purple saucer. I've uploaded some video of a couple of them doing the balls in the saucer last week. It's Yellow, Green and I think Black. Green was having the time of her life tonight playing in the saucer.

The link to the video is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=MnYc7rKc8zw

Big dog bones!

The babies have their first "big dog bones" tonight. Small beef soup bones. There's a lot of happy whimpering going on in the puppy pen. I was able to pet all of them while they were chewing, and even remove bones....no growling, no freezing, no snapping, no trying to run away. Exactly what I like to see. We'll do this a few more times before they leave for their new homes. Below are some pictures of them with their bones.

Lots of visitors!

Busy weekend for the puppies. Early Saturday afternoon I took the puppies down to the "forest' for an outing. They ran through the underbrush, climbed over logs and checked out the fenceline. Then we had a long, disorganized "walk" back up the pasture to the house. Later that afternoon Jodie & Will Dobie from Grande Prairie dropped in for a visit. They own Boomer, Morley's brother from this spring's Josh/Chime litter. They brought their little 2.5 year old nephew, Aiden, who had to spend a lot of time on the couch to save his toes!

Today Cassie & Sheldon Young from Prince George were down again, and they played with the puppies for a long time, getting them very, very tired! During that visit my co-worker Janine came for a short visit with her two kids. In the early afternoon, my friend Amis came by with his four boys, and we took the puppies outside to play with the kids.

There are a bunch of new pictures from this weekend, starting here: http://pets.webshots.com/photo/2757438380037483664ENjcza

More Adventures

Monday night I took the puppies outside in my arms to see and hear the big, diesel tractor running. I invited them to sniff the tires and the bucket. They were a little apprehensive, but nobody tried to jump out of my arms. Yesterday I took them outside when I got home from work, as we had a nice warm afternoon. For those that don't know/realize, I'm now using up the balance of my vacation to work shorter days, so I have more time at home with the puppies. I'm going in at 10, and home at 3:30, which gives me some daylight and extra time.

Outside, was fun, they were a little quiet to start with, then they became more brave and we did a fair amount of walking around. I'm hoping that Saturday afternoon will be warm enough to take them down to the wooded area on the north side of the pasture. Lots of logs to jump over and stuff to run through.

They all play a mean game of tug (great for those of you looking at doing dog sports!) and they're doing quite well with the whole potty box thing. They'll all take treats from my hand, which lets me reward them for using the potty box. They're very wild and fun!

New pics at the Webshots page: http://pets.webshots.com/photo/2439167850037483664NqhKCi

Visitors

As you can see the puppies had visitors again this weekend. Saturday afternoon saw a group of six kids in to cuddle the crew. My friend Don Zwicker from Grande Prairie was also here overnight, with Nemo, Parker's brother from the first Dalry litter. Don took loads of photos, so hopefully I'll have some to post soon. This afternoon Cassie & Sheldon Young spent a few hours, along with my friend Linda and her daughter Megan. Cassie was here last Friday and really noticed the differences this week. The puppies are very, very busy now, and they can run, rather than stagger around like a bunch of drunks. They are all starting to play a mean game of tug, and they're packing toys around in their mouths. They've spent lots of time playing with Morley who is very gentle with them. Nina is spending very little time with them now, she comes in to feed them 3-4 times a day and never for more than 5 minutes. She's spending her time with the rest of the dogs now, and I'm feeding her regular rations and will just let her dry up now. I'll post some more pictures to Webshots later tonight.

New Skills

This morning I started feeding small treats from my hands to the puppies, in preparation for our next trip out of doors. With seven of them, it'll be a lot like herding cats if I don't have some tools to convince them that I'm worth following. So, I give them bits of food every time they come to find me, call them as a group (they're actually getting pretty good at that) and reward them for finding me. If I keep doing this while they're rampaging in the puppy room, they should be much easier to manage outside.

Orange and Yellow are the greediest and caught on the quickest, followed by Black and Purple. The other three were off doing their thing a lot of the time, so I didn't get as many repetitions in with them as I needed.

I'll likely pair all of this with a clicker shortly, but the mechanics of it all were sort of eluding me at 6:30 this morning!

New Video

New video taken tonight during another round of playing with 9 month old Morley. Puppies followed Morley, played in the tunnel, trashed each other (yes, the screeching does make one cringe!) and running like maniacs. They had a lot of fun. I'm really hoping our cold spell doesn't last for long so that I can get the little beasts outside.

Enjoy the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VsZ-LX9pDXA

Whew!

Where is the time going??? Can't believe these babies are nearly 5 weeks old. How cute is this picture?

Marie is looking after the puppies and Nina on Mondays for me, so I can work a full day, and she was just telling me how wild the group was today. Lots of growling, snarling and snapping going on now, along with little games of tag. They're really darn cute.

On Saturday night, 9 month old Morley finally got to see the puppies up close and personal. I'm not certain the thrill was quite what she has been anticipating, the puppies were pretty nosy and she wasn't sure what to make of them.

They had a few visitors this past weekend and I've posted a few new pictures on the Webshots page: http://pets.webshots.com/photo/2389366990037483664dnSXJf

Wow, four weeks already!

This photo is part of an unintentional series of upside down puppies tonight. They had lots of visitors today, since it was dog food day and I had customers coming to pick up their orders. Then a co-worker and her daughter Emma and Emma's friend Carmen came to visit tonight. The puppies got lots of loving and then fell asleep all over the pen. These toes belong to Miss Green, who was asleep in my lap.

They had visitors last night as well when our friend Bill arrived with his two boys and another of my co-workers also came out.

This afternoon all the puppies tried some chicken parts that Nina hadn't gotten around to eating. Mr. Black was heard exclaiming "Num, num, num" while he chewed on his piece.

All the puppies are starting to pack soft toys around the box and they're very good at getting over the obstacles that I've got in their pen. There is even some toy shaking going on. As well, they're very good about doing their business if we can get them into the potty box quickly. They do seem to be using it overnight as well, so we're on our way to a cleaner pen!

There's a new video that I did on Tuesday: http://youtu.be/tA3pSiKcFoM

New pictures start here: http://pets.webshots.com/photo/2798817950037483664LWuyOj

Days and Days

Seems like days and days since I last posted....huge changes in the puppies. They are all getting teeth (poor Nina!), and they are even more stinking cute tonight than they were when we got home from Victoria on Wednesday. They are very, very interactive, playing with each other, climbing all over Darryl and I and snuggling. There's been a lot of barking and growling, and a few of them have picked up the soft toys that I put in the pen today. Tonight they met 9 month old Morley, who has been fascinated by them since she first became aware of the puppies.

I set up the new pen configuration this morning, so they have a sleeping and potty area as well as a play area. I also gave them a bunch of new things in the pen this afternoon. There is bubblewrap just outside the sleeping area doorway to give them a new surface to walk on. They have a tunnel, pool noodle, some soft toys and a Rubbermaid lid. As well, I installed the official p0tty area, and there have been a few successes so far. They're still more "miss" than "hit", but we know that will change shortly.

They're all drinking out of the water bowl and they've all tasted Nina's ground chicken, which seems to be a hit, but I'm not allowing them to have a lot of it, just a little taste. I'll introduce more solid food next weekend. Awake lasts about 20 minutes, followed by about 2 hours of sleep. Nina is spending more and more time outside, coming in every 2-3 hours to feed the babies.

New pics start here: http://pets.webshots.com/photo/2297949100037483664vXFaET

Big Changes

Darryl and I were out of town for 5 days, arrived home this afternoon. The puppies have changed so much, and they're so stinking cute! I did a video right before we left, and another tonight, so you can see how much they've changed.

Puppies last week at 2 weeks of age: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnyJ8-D-rSs

Tonight, puppies will be 3 weeks of age tomorrow: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vEXraPvsUo

With the cuteness quotient going sky-high, we're also having a lot of barking and growling. All pretty cute. I also introduced them to goat milk tonight, which they got everywhere! On each other, on their blanket, they walked through it, bobbed their noses in it and blew bubbles. They also have pee pads in the pen now and all of them have used them, although not with any deliberation.

Smallish Pupdate

As you can see, Mr. Black is about a day ahead of everyone else. His eyes are nearly open, but certainly not focusing. There's a lot more swinging of heads searching out movement and soon Nina won't have a moment to herself if she's in the pen. Last night's novel scent was Vinny the cat (for the first time ever he really didn't want to participate!). Red, Blue, Green and Purple in particular, were very interested, zooming their noses through his coat. That's my favorite night! Two more days of Bio-sensor exercises, so they'll be done before we leave for Victoria on Friday.

There was a lot of "walking" going on last night, Jordan and Marie should have a lot of fun with them over the weekend while we're gone! Once we're home, we'll start recruiting visitors so they'll get some socializing, and then next weekend we'll change the puppy pen configuration to include the pee box.

Check out the Webshots page for some more pictures.

Pupdate

I'll try to post some pictures before we leave for Victoria on Friday....for now, I think everyone has gone over the 1 kg mark this week. You should see the little tails shaking while they eat now. Nina's arrival is cause for a lot of scrambling to get the best eats, and they're remarkably fast about it now. Meals involve grunting, snorting and lip smacking. They're very serious about their meals!

I'm hoping to also get a little video clip done and posted for you all as well. Just have to find the time.

I Can See Clearly (NOT!)

If you look closely you can see the beginning of eye opening. This is Black Boy. Today my friend Marie did puppy duty at lunch for me. While cuddling puppies she noticed that there were little blue slits on a couple of them. They'll be really cute in a few days when they can see and hear a little. There's a lot of wobbling/walking going on as well. I've tried to get a few pictures of that, but it's hard to convey in a photo. Check out the Webshots, though! New pics start here:

http://pets.webshots.com/photo/2698508830037483664ZAvtjz

Toenails

Well, tonight was the first time we've done toenails....seven puppies equals 126 toenails (front dewclaws on everyone!). Darryl is always a great help, and has discovered that blowing on their faces makes them stop struggling. They're amazing strong for puppies who aren't quite a full kilo in weight.

Nina is spending around an hour away from them at a time, coming out to play fetch and hang with the big dogs, the puppies don't need her 24/7 anymore.

New pictures going on the Webshots page: http://pets.webshots.com/photo/2281671390037483664NDaxXo

One Week

Puppies are one week old this morning. They are growing like weeds, everyone has more than doubled their birthweight.

Eight month old Morley desperately wants to see what's happening in the basement and actually managed to sneak by me on Tuesday morning. The lights were out, I was getting out the door for work, and I let "Nina" in. Imagine my surprise when I got to the kennel and Nina was there. Back to the house and there's Morley in the puppy pen, watching the babies. We think she'll be a great playmate for the puppies when they're able to go outside. The cats want nothing to do with the basement, except for eating. They slink down the stairs and then zip back upstairs immediately.

I've introduced three novel scents while doing Biosensor exercises this week. The first night the scent was leather, next two nights were a rubber Cuz toy and then kelp. Both the toy and the kelp made the puppies very still, breathing deeply. It's an interesting addition to the Biosensor exercises, since the puppies only have scent and touch senses right now.

New photos also uploaded to the Webshots page this morning: http://pets.webshots.com/photo/2877484700037483664GyKRmf

This and That

No pics tonight, had too much else going tonight. Just did the Biosensor exercises with the puppies....Purple decided he should put up a big struggle...I'm always amazed at how strong tiny baby puppies are! And Red screeched through the whole thing. Guess it didn't help that Nina had been outside for a long time, so they were put out to start with. We'll have to do toenails in the next couple of days, always "fun". Weight gains since birth have ranged from 140 g to 180 g, so they've done very well. We don't hear a peep out of anyone overnight, although our room is right above the puppy pen, so we know that Nina is looking after them well. And boy, do they motor around the box! Put them down on one side and if that's not where they want to be, next thing you know they're on the other side. This is a very active group of puppies. They'll probably have their first visitors this weekend for a nice cuddle.

Webshots

If I try to put too many pictures here on the blog, it gets very messy, so I've also started a Webshots album for the puppies: http://pets.webshots.com/album/581551718UjtLpE

These pictures were taken Saturday.

Bunch of pics

Here's a bunch of pictures taken tonight.

They're Here!

The puppies arrived this morning! Nina very nicely waited until nearly daylight before going into labour, and we were done by 10:40. We have four girls: Yellow, Orange, Red and Green. The boys are: Blue, Black and Purple. All weighed between 270 and 310 g, and came out wriggling. They plumped up fast and have been eating all day. There are a bunch of dark red coats, like Nina's and a lot of white feet. A few tail tips, white chests and one male with a small blaze.

Last week of waiting

In theory this is the last week of waiting for Nina's puppies to be born. Their earliest birthdate is the 15th.

She's big, uncomfortable and sleepy.

We set up the puppy pen and whelping box late last week, and she'll be sleeping in it each night from now on. She'll still spend the days with the rest of the dogs at the kennel, but will have to endure having her temperature taken multiple times a day. For those that don't know, a rise in temperature, followed by a sudden drop usually indicates that puppies are due in 12-24 hours. This is usually accompanied by general restlessness and a desire to den/hide.

Countdown

Well, just two weeks or so to go. This picture was taken last Sunday by Jodie Dobie (Boomer's owner from the Josh x Chime litter). She's even bigger this weekend! So far, she's active, happy and her appetite is good. I've scheduled her for a belly x-ray on Thursday. With our not so great emergency vet service, it's good peace of mind to have an idea how many puppies there might be.

We're going to set up the puppy pen tomorrow night, so Nina has some time to get used to it.