Already Gaining Weight

It is more common than not for puppies to lose weight their first day with their moms. But apparently Maxi has more than adequate milk (nice when there are only 6 puppies!) because everyone of them gained weight. Some more than others and I am encouraging the big weight gainers to use the less used nipples to get them into more production. As with humans, the more a nipple is stimulated the more it produces.

Ooops how did this get here? My grandson Ben who came to see the new puppies. He’s being protected by Lily and Willow

Maxi giving one of her pups a bath. Since puppies cannot control their “plumbing” yet, the mama will lick their bottoms to stimulate them to urinate and defecate.

Most of the puppies taking a nap. All except for the little black and white boy. The other boys are chocolate and white. And we have two black and white girls and one sable and white girl.

We Have Puppies!!!

Our super mom Havanese, Maxi, delivered 6 healthy, beautiful puppies early this morning! We have three girls and three boys…3 black and white, 2 chocolate and white and 1 sable and white. One girl is 5.5 ounces and the others are all 6.0 and 6.1 ounces! I’ll post more photos tomorrow but here is one to enjoy for now.

A proud mama and her puppies are resting nicely!

Time to Start Taking Temperatures

Taking Maxi’s temperature will help me know within 24 hours when she is actually going to whelp her little Havanese puppies.  She is due Saturday so I began Monday. I take her temps in the morning and the evening when she has rested a while…which is pretty much all the time right now!

If she gets any bigger she’ll be dragging on the floor!

Her temps are hovering between 100.0 and 100.8 degrees Fahrenheit. A dog’s normal temp is 101.5 but the hormones prevalent in a pregnant bitch will lower her temp to closer to 100.0 during her last trimester.

Maxi chilling this morning while the others play around her!
You can’t really tell from this photo but Maxi is as big as a doghouse!

With a little luck we will catch the dramatic surge to over 101.0 F which happens 12 hours before the drop to the 98.0 F area. When her temp drops I will know the puppies should arrive in the next 24 hours!!

So, we actually have about a 36 hour heads up on when the pups are likely to be born, which is very helpful.

This is Maxi’s private apartment! I think she likes it. The box on the left is where she’ll whelp her pups.

Some Havanese Puppy Updates

From time to time I’m fortunate enough to get photos of my fur babies. Here are just a few along with notes from their happy owners!

Dear Jacqui

We thought you would be interested in Sammy’s progression over the last couple of weeks.
He has quickly adjusted to our house and has himself quite comfortable.
Sadie our Wheaton is reluctant to play and tries to ignore him as much as possible.
Sammy goes for walks with Sadie and has already become familiar with the street.
He went to the vet and weighed in a little over 4 lbs and is in good health and spirit.
Sammy, iS quite smart and has at times surprised us with his knowledge.
He is certainly teething and is nipping at everything.
We hope all is well with you.

Jim and Judi

There’s just no getting a non-blurry photo of Sammy. He’s a wild one!

Hi 

We are back in Vermont and Lily is terrific. She is loosing her baby teeth for which I am most thankful and she is house broken and comes most of the time and sits consistently. She is of course brilliant.  I have a great shampoo that needs no cream rinse or detangler and is sugar based as opposed to detergent/soap based. She gets a weekly bath. I have not had her trimmed and not sure anyone around here has even seen a havanese much less trimmed one. Would appreciate a good book on grooming a havanese if you can suggest one.

Not sure if I wrote previously but Lily had a spot on the inside of a front leg that the vet thought might be a allergic reaction; but hindsight would say it may have been the halter breast piece rubbing on her. The vet did suggest that since her mother had a chicken allergy I should avoid chicken and stick with the food you had started the puppies on. Evidently chicken is one of the things that many dogs react to and so much of the food has chicken in it.

I have some pictures of Lily that are on my iPhone so will send them separate from this email. Hoe all of her litter mates are doing well and that the new litter also. Lily has certainly proved the puppy psychological profile wrong. She is wild about strangers and goes up to anyone. Very confident and outgoing. I can only guess that she was having a bad day when the testing was done.  Again Lily is doing very well and we are both so happy with her. Susan

I’m afraid Lily is getting terribly spoiled!

Jacqui,

We are most definitely enjoying the 20+  inches of snow! 

Please feel free to share my email . . I love talking about my girls to anyone who will listen.

Here are some pics that I had on my ipad…sorry about the first email I sent it by mistake while trying to upload the photos! 

Fondly,  Wendy

This family loved Breezy so much they got Chloe from us a year later! They are best buddies!

Hi Jacquie

We are crazy about this dog.  You did GOOD, he is loved by everyone who meets him.  Today he got his summer cut — Mr FredD Spiderman!  He is almost two and such a riot.

Thanks again.  Enjoy the summer.

Sue

These three are FredD. Don’t you just love his puppy cut in the middle photo?

Hi, Jackie.

Hope you are doing well. Everything here is going great!

Here is a picture of Nattie at 16 weeks. She got her final set of shots yesterday and weighed 7.7 pounds! She’s happy as can be and just so much fun to have around! As the vet says, “she got the happy gene!” We take her for walks in Old Town Alexandria and she loves everybody and everyone loves her. Housebreaking is going really well. She’s very smart and has it pretty much figured out. We have been training her on our own and it’s amazing how fast she learns. We also enrolled her in “Puppy Head Start” with a trainer and she’s an A student. We just love her!

The vet asked me to ask you a couple of questions — do you know if anyone in her line is allergic to Lepto? Since we have a weekend place that is on a river, the vet is concerned about waterborne illnesses and wants us to consider the Lepto vaccine. She says that some dogs have shown an allergic reaction and suggested I ask you. The other question is at what age have your female puppies gone into heat? She says it’s generally at 6 months but was wondering what your experience has been with Nattie’s line.

Thanks,
Darlene

This is Nattie!

 In answer to some of Wendy’s questions, Lepto is a virus to be taken quite seriously. It is spread through the urine of animals like raccoons, rats, deer, etc and can be picked up by your dog if he walks where these creatures frequent. Unfortunately, the older vaccines can pose risks to toy breeds. The good news there are newer vaccines on the market.

As for going into heat, it is different with every puppy but generally between 6 and 9 months of age.

Puppies Are On Their Way!

We had a successful breeding between Maxi and Dino this past weekend. This will be their second litter together and the first litter was wonderful. All black and white parti and as sweet as can be. You can see photos of their puppies in my January postings.

If you are curious, here is Maxi’s health certification: http://www.offa.org/results.html?all=carneys+maximum+return

And Dino’s is here: http://www.offa.org/results.html?all=+%09TR98721403

Puppies are due July 12. Most are spoken for but we may have one or two extras!

Dino as a puppy

Handsome Dino

Dino’s big win…now he’s a grand champion!

Maxi loves the snow

Big win for Maxi

Maxi (in front) with her fellow fur-kids