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.