1. Pick a breed known to enjoy the company of humans (like the Havanese).
2. Socialize, socialize, socialize.
Guess what we did Saturday?
Liam is very gentle with Sammy
Luke and Filer with Mom Lesley
Bill, Liam and Filer
Bill, Liam and a patio of puppies
El and Luke
with the Puppies
Puppies everywhere!!!
…when the puppies are on their own. Phoebe has been a great mother but I have been working diligently at weaning the puppies. They enjoy their Wellness Puppy Kibble now, soaked overnight in water and served up with some goat’s milk. MMmmmmmm.
This also means Phoebe is finished with clean up so my workload has significantly increased. If I could get right to it rather than playing with them each time I lean over their pen I could get back to my day job. Wait! This IS my day job. Love it!
Finally got some photos. They weren’t what I’d hoped for but I will try again next Friday and work with them on their ‘stand’ command which right now goes in one ear and out the other! Enjoy.
Dee Dee
Dee Dee’s Profile
Filer
Filer’s Profile–
He has more color on his other side.
GoGo
GoGo’s Profile
Katie
Katie’s Profile
A very sweet girl.
Maxie
Maxie’s profile
Rapper
Rapper–
Gotta love his attitude!
He was really into this photo thing.
Sammy
Sammy’s Profile
He was so not into standing!
Turbo
Turbo is the big boy–but very polite!
I cannot believe twelve days have flown by since my last post. Here’s what has kept me so busy!
Friday, May 7: Puppies are twenty-four days old. It is a non-day for me as I had an unpleasant out-patient health exam. No details necessary except to say I received a clean bill of health. Had puppy breath to enjoy when I got home!
Saturday, May 8: Puppies received their second pedicure. Some of them are not happy. Hopefully this exercise will not only prevent scratches on Phoebe’s belly but will acclimate the pups to having their toes handled.
Sunday, May 9: Puppies have their first licks of warm goat’s milk. They love it and lick the bowl clean in minutes. They are rollicking with each other and doing this little crab back-up thing…like someone threw the gear shift suddenly into reverse.
Wednesday, May 12: I’ve started to wean the puppies. Mixed some canned puppy food–Wellness brand–in with the warm goat’s milk. Took them all of half a minute to realize how much they liked it. Reminded me of Mikey in that 1970’s commercial for a breakfast cereal. He likes it! The only ones who don’t are the two little ones who have always been at the lowest end of the weight scale. I’m guessing their tummies just aren’t ready and give them each warm goat’s milk in the bottle.
Thursday, May 13: Cut Phoebe’s food back to three meals a day. That and whatever she cleans up once the puppies have finished eating.
Friday, May 14: I am so worried about our littlest one. He is not taking any solids still and won’t take the goat’s milk either. I take him out of the pen for a private meal with his mom which works.
Saturday, May 15: The littlest girl starts to nibble at the warmed milk and puppy food. The boy is still nursing Phoebe to supplement. He did lick at some of the milk in the dish. Thank heaven!
Sunday, May 16: Phoebe is almost finished nursing. Once a day just to relieve the pressure. Puppies are getting four meals a day and all are eating well. Woo hoo!!!
Monday, May 17: Photo session this week with puppies in their show stances. Maybe we’ll even play outside in the grass if the weather is nice. Stay tuned!
Thought I’d share a few photos. Puppies are learning to pee on the piddle pad. Not too difficult. I just put it in the corner of their box where they already relieve themselves. Hopefully they will get the picture and continue to use the pad when they are in their x-pen.
They are still sleeping most of the day but when they are awake they are playing with their litter mates. It is so cute to see them challenging each other with their play growls then tipping over sideways before converting the growl into play bites. They always sleep in a huge pile which I find endearing and Phoebe is still quite protective of them when the big girls come around.
Puppies sleeping after a busy morning nursing and socializing.We call this pose the Buddha Belly.
Meora meets a puppy and Phoebe gets a well deserved hug.
Puppies are holding their own weight-wise. They are amazingly active and well developed.
Phoebe is beginning to relax just a little–lying down now to nurse. A few of the puppies seem to need some supplementing. We started bottle feeding them for this. Then my daughter Jenny had this great idea to turn Phoebe into a ‘mlk machine’ while the bigger puppies were sleeping. Worked like a charm!
Just to give you all an idea of how tiny these puppies are, here are a couple in Jen Brown’s palms. She has this magical touch. As soon as they were in her palms they fell asleep!
