More pics from the weekend

Cute Mindy with her mom

 Mork and Juliette

 Mork playing with Juliette's tail

 Mork checking out the world outside the puppy pen

Silly Mork

Fun weekend

I love this age when the pups start "emerging" - a fun weekend.  Although still sleeping most of the time, when awake, the pups are busy.  They are starting to play with each other and Juliette, or just sit and look out the pen (although they are very short sighted at this age).  Juliette is comfortable letting the other dogs around the pups, so Great Grandma Yuma and Auntie Tacara have been checking out the new additions.  The pups are very interested in people.  I will go in the pen and Juliette will often come in also, yet the pups will often choose to be with me, sitting in my lap, enjoying being stroked, doing a bit of licking.  Juliette is starting to encourage them to try different nursing positions, and occasionally nurses them while sitting.  It will still be at least a week before they are coordinated to nurse with Juliette standing.  Their ear canals are starting to open, and I expect they will be reacting to sound in the few days.  And they are starting to toilet on their own, although Juliette is still being very diligent in her clean up duties.  Their walking skills are not advanced enough to use the litter box, but hopefully by next weekend.  It should be a busy week of puppy development. 

2 week old puppy pics

New puppy pen with a litter box at the far end

The pups are starting to interact with each other

Mindy sitting up

Mindy practicing her walking

2 weeks old

Two weeks old, and 4 pounders, the size of 3 week old pups (actually weigh more than Bridget's pups did at this age).  Just this morning, I set up the puppy pen in the living room and introduced the pups to their new home.  Juliette seems fine with the arrangement.  The pups are busy learning how to walk.  They are also starting to sit up, and I heard Mork bark and do a cute puppy trill.  Now that they can see, they are more interactive with each other, with Juliette and with people.  Mindy is quite the cuddler and a very calm pup so far.  Mork is a bit more outgoing.  I still can't tell for sure if Mork is a Golden or Lab-Golden cross, I am thinking he may be a Jammer puppy (Lab-Golden cross).  BioSensor exercises end today.  They have had their first worming and two nail trims.  It is amazing how much less time it takes taking care of two pups versus ten pups. 

Puppy faces

Mindy wins the prize for the first pup to open its eyes.  Her eyes were open Monday AM.  Mork's eyes are almostly completely open this morning.  I added a stiffer blanket as a pen liner to give the pups better traction to practice their walking.  They both are doing well getting their feet in proper position, but they are so big, they having a hard time balancing and getting much propulsion.  Poor Juliette would very much like more chow, but she is in good body condition and the pups are of course huge. 

Monster puppies doing what they do best

Puppy pics

 Cuddles

 Mindy 8 days old

 Mork 8 days old, note his little dark foot pads and nose

Note color differences.  Mindy is the darker pup on top.

Mork's blaze.  You can barely see it in this pic, but Mork has a faint white blaze on the top of his head.  This color fault comes from his great grandma Yuma and his great aunt Bridget has a similar marking. 

Juliette and puppies pics

 Juliette and Mork, Mindy going for the milk bar

 Mindy nursing - note how similar her color is to Juliette

 Mindy again

Juliette is keeping the pups and the pen very clean

1 week old

The pups weighed 2 lb 7 oz (male) and 2 lb 9 oz (female) at 1 week of age.  Big pupstsers!!  Poor Juliette is only getting a bit more than normal rations since I don't want her glands to become distended and at increased risk for mastitis, nor do the pups need any extra milk.  Such a change after keeping a litter of 10 fed.  The pups are still not doing very much, mostly sleeping and eating.  Now that they are 1 week old, the pups need some names, and I have decided on Mork and Mindy - yes, I am dating myself.  Mork is the more active of the pair and has been making some attempts to walk.  The very first litter I bred was a litter of two, and with those pups having extra body mass and little competition, we noted that they were also slow to start walking.  Eyes should be opening early next week, and then the fun starts.  During the first week, baby pups tend to be quite reactive and startle if you stroke them.  But now by the second week, they are starting to seem to enjoy some interactions - petting and cuddling them in our laps.  But mainly just interested in mom and the milk bar.

2 pounders

The pups have already doubled their birthweights.  The boy weighs 2 lbs and the girl weighs 2 lbs 2 oz. 

 Female

Male

Pupdate

The pups are thriving.  Their umbilical cords have dropped off and their dark pigment has come in - they now have black pads and noses.  The first day or so, the pups cuddled tightly up against Juliette since they had poor thermoregulatory abilities.  But within a couple of days, they were lying off by themselves in the pen.  Their days are spent mostly sleeping and nursing, although their sleep is "active" with lots of jerks and movements, all part of normal neurodevelopment.  I even saw one of the pups wagging its tail.  On Sunday, I moved them into ex-pen on a blanket, with a crib bumper since the pool was too warm for Juliette.  When awake, the pups have been busy scooching around the pen (I still have it arranged in a circle).   I started BioSensor early neurological stimulation exercises on Sunday (Day 3) and so far, they are a passive pair.  Juliette has noticeably relaxed and is already spending short times away from the pups.  She is still being an exceptional mama.

Cute pics

Everyone is doing well.  Juliette's temperature was normal this morning and no abnormal discharge, so she appears to have come through the whelp in good condition.  All mammary glands are functioning and keeping the pups well fed.  The pups gained 2 oz each since yesterday. 

 Female pup

Female pup

Day 1

Juliette and the pups are doing very well - we had a quiet night.  The boy weighed in at 16 oz and the girl at 18 oz, so nice weight gain the morning after whelping.  It is normal for newborn pups to immediately start gaining weight.  The challenge is to convince Juliette to leave the puppy pool to go outside to toilet. 

Happy birthday

Juliette's milk came in on Wednesday and she started doing a little nesting - digging around and sleeping in the plastic crate.  On Thursday, she ate breakfast, and I felt comfortable going to work.  Nancy checked her at noon, and all was well.  She seemed very normal when I got home and ate her dinner, although with much less enthusiasm.  Figured we would have a restless, but uneventful night, and expected puppies on Friday.  Plus small litters often come late.   I was just getting ready to close down the computer and go to bed when I heard Juliette digging furiously in the crate, and then I thought I heard a soft groan, grunt.  I jumped up and went over to check on Juliette and she was having contractions!!  I had just gotten the whelping suite set up Thursday AM and had clipped Juliette's belly hair and rear feathers.  Yikes, that was calling it a bit close.  So I hauled the poor girl out of the crate - she really didn't want to change venues - and coaxed her into the large plastic pool I use for whelping.  Then called my whelper helpers.  Contractions started at 9:40 pm, a 13 oz yellow male pup was delivered at 10:35 pm and a 16 oz yellow female followed at 11:04 pm.  And that was it.  We all think the pups look like Goldens, and the girl is definitely golden in color, but we won't know for sure until around 2 weeks when Golden pups will start growing a fluffy coat.

Puppies in the making

Juliette is a sweet little Golden who was whelped at my house and is the granddaughter of my Golden Yuma.  She was bred to two studs.  The first was Canine Companions for Independence's Golden stud Zorba II - this was by shipped artificial insemination ("boy in a box") and then we used ICAN's Lab Jammer as backup boy.  One plus for Juliette as a breeder girl is that she really likes the boys!  Paternity will be easy to determine since any Jammer pups will have short coats, and of course any black pups would be by Jammer.  Although it palpated like a normal pregnancy at 4 weeks and the pregnancy was uneventful, by 7 weeks, it was obvious we were expecting a small litter.  Due dates are July 14 or 15.

                                                                    CCI Zorba II