Eyes Open and Walking

The babies are adorable right now.  I love how they stumble as they learn to walk.  All eyes are open and the last few days have seen some large weight gains.  I am trying to get a good video of them all walking around, but its for such short spurts of time that I keep missing it.  Its usually when they are all hungry and mom comes into the box.  However, she keeps them so well fed that its pretty rare to see them hungry.  Some of the pups are quite fat!  I have caught pink puppy sitting there and looking over the rails of the whelping box.  I am betting she will be the first to escape!  I can already see her thinking "I wonder whats over there"   Cinders is such a good mama.  Its amazing how she knows to rotate the pups.  She often keeps them in 2 groups.  She nurses one group, takes a short break, and then comes back and takes care of the other group.  Sometimes she lines them all up in the middle for "group bathing".   The brown boy is a mama's boy.  You often see him under her front where she can keep track of him.  He was very upset this morning.  Apparently, he didn't get enough to eat, so he started howling (I have NEVER heard a pup this small howl- but that's what it looked and sounded like).  He was definitely telling her what he thought!    The little burgundy girl is quite the trooper.  Because she is smaller than the others I always make sure she wakes up and gets to mom whenever mom is in the box.  Lately, every time I go to check on her, I find her already nursing!  Her big brothers and sisters come along and try to knock her off, but she holds on and usually they move on to a less determined sibling!  From what I saw, she was also the first to start walking.  The light blue (was the smallest boy) has also been making a push lately. I think we may see more and more from him as he gets older.   Its interesting that people often worry about the "runt", but I find that they often turn out to be very feisty.   I remember Rain had a rough start.  Rain was actually sick a lot as a very young puppy (in contrast - Burgundy has been very healthy).  She was a C-section baby that had been revived by the vets.  She was also the smallest.  By the time the pups were 5 weeks old, no body messed with Rain.  Cinders used to pick on Rain and play rough with her.  Rain would get angry and chase Cinders out of the room.  Cinders would look at her like she was a monster!  I wonder if we will see that with burgundy.    Its interesting to me to watch the pups and compare them as they grow to the last litter.  Right now pink reminds me A LOT of Tessa.  Purple reminds me of Porsche and Burgundy reminds me of Rain.   Well see if that holds true.  Last time Porsche was a sleeper, but I always looked at her and thought she would probably be the one I kept.  I always felt like she was the quiet type that was going to burst forth.  She was highly compliant even as a very young pup.  Never complained.  However, you could tell by watching her that she was the thinker and problem solver.  Later I saw that she had the ability to be calm at times but ultimately had extreme energy and drive.  I''ll be watching purple closely.  For now she is  the quiet puppy that likes to eat.   Green and yellow are my quiet boys.  They always make sure they get their meals and they can hold their own, but they don't fuss like orange.  Orange has been a complainer since he was born.  He lets you know what he is thinking.  He LOVES to eat.  For the most part Brown is pretty quiet.  He is either eating or sleeping.  He usually just plants himself on a teat and doesn't get challenged by the other pups.  He is not really fussy.  Probably because he is usually fat and content.  But he does have the ability to complain. He also seems to get around the whelping box a lot because you ALWAYS find him wherever mama is.    Its going to be fun to see how they turn out!

2 week Pics and Weights

Here are the 2 week weights: Yellow 47.9 oz Burgundy 31.7 Orange 51.8 Green 46.2 hot pink 52.9 light blue 43.3 Brown 61.0 purple 48.3

10 Day Puppy Weights

Yellow 35.2 oz burgundy 22.5 orange 38.8 green  33.1 hot pink  39.5 light blue 34.9 brown  42.3 purple 33.8

We lost a baby

I worked a half day today and came home to find the blue collared boy had died.  I am not sure how he died.  When they are this young its difficult.  He had been gaining weight well and was healthy, so his mama may have laid on him or accidently stepped on him wrong.  I couldn't find any signs of a problem.  I wish I had been here, but I am not sure if it would have done any good.  They are so precious.

Puppies Get Tails Docked and Porsche Gets Her Eyes Tested

The puppies got their tails docked yesterday. I am very pleased with how they turned out so far. The little ones are growing so quickly! I can't wait until their eyes open!

I took Porsche to the Louisville show today and had her eyes CERF'd . The Dr. said her eyes looked great and there were no signs of problems. Porsche enjoyed shopping at the show. She was a very good girl! I really enjoy how calm she can be, especially considering how much energy and drive she has. Just walking down the hall she will spin 5 times, yet at the show she was perfectly content to just hang out while I watched some of our friends show. I think she is ready for her CD. I don't think she will have any problem performing in a show environment. I will most likely start showing her in Novice B in June at the Corydon shows.

Final Puppy Counts and Weights!

Cinders had her last puppy at around noon today.  She has 6 boys and 3 girls.  Everyone is very healthy and mom and pups are doing really well.  All the puppies were black and rust.  Here are the weights, collar colors and birth order:   1 Yellow collar Boy 17.9 oz 2 Burgundy girl 10.2 oz 3 Orange boy  14.8 4 Green boy 12.3 5 hot pink girl  13.4 6 light blue  boy 13.0 7 blue boy 12.3 8 brown boy 16.9 9 Purple girl  11.6

Cinders 8 Weeks Pregnant and Porsche Starts Tracking Again

Well, Cinders is due to whelp Tuesday March 16.  This is a picture I took last night.  She still seems rather hyper so I don't think the pups will come early.  Tomorrow we go to the vet to get X-rays and check up on the puppies and see how many there are.  Its amazing to me to see the x-rays of the unborn puppies.  you can see their little skeletons suspended inside the mama.  Cinders has settled down on her complaining some.  She still gets grouchy when the pups are moving around a lot.  Porsche and her still play a lot, but I try not to let them get too rough.  The weather has warmed up, so I have started taking Porsche to the lake to train after work.  Her obedience is beautiful.  I really think that she could be ready for her BH in a couple weeks.  We still need a little more work on her stays (but she is better than her mom was) and I need to reintroduce her to a formal schutzhund field.  I will likely start looking for a trial as soon as the new pups are in their new homes.  Tracking is one area that I have severely neglected with Porsche.  I have shown her a short track a few times, but she always has so much energy that I kept putting it of in hopes that she would calm down some.  Well she is still very energetic.  I decided today to track her more like I do her mom - tired.  I worked her in obedience first with the ball and took some of the edge off of her then introduced her to a short track.  I had to point out the first couple of footsteps, but then she started tracking in a more calm manner.  She went footstep to footstep and did not pull so much.  I think it might work!  She is SO smart.  She learns so quickly.  I always thought that Cinders learned quickly, but Ruggy (aka Porsche) is amazing!  If exercising her before tracking works, then I expect her to be tracking at a Sch1 level by fall.  Once she figures out what I want she will be amazing!  (at least I hope this works:)