One Week Birthday

The puppies had their 1-week birthday last night.

I added some more pics to the set that I have uploaded to Flickr.  The last six photos should be new, I think.  I'll also include the link on the sidebar of the blog so it is easy to find as we continue to add photos.

My friend Annie brought by some items for the babies "puppy packets" yesterday.  The puppy packet is a goody bag of items to get your puppy off to a good start such as a collar, some food, a crate pad, chewies etc.  In the next week or so I'll make a list of things that will not be included in the puppy packet that would be good to have when your puppy comes home.

The puppies start out crawling and need to gain size, strength and coordination before they can walk.  One of the bigger pups, Redstone, was lifting himself up on his front legs yesterday as he pulled himself around the box.  I wonder if he will be the first to walk?

Neonatal Period and Upcoming Engagements

The puppies are in the "neonatal period" right now,  This period lasts for about the first two weeks of life. During this period the puppies and the mother are best kept in a low stress, controlled environment with specific exposure to defined stressors.  Pups are born helpless and completely dependent on their dam, responding to her warmth, touch and smell.  Newborns can't regulate bodily functions such as temperature and elimination.  The pups eyes will not open and they will not have usable vision until they are 18-21 days old and they will be unable to process sound until they are around 21 days old.

What appointment have we scheduled for the pups already?  Noted AKC judge and author Pat Hastings lives just 15 minutes from our house.  Pat has authored books and DVDs on performing puppy evaluations and structural assessments on dogs and she is available to evaluate litters of puppies.  We have taken two litters to her for evaluation and feel she provides an unbiased opinion on the structure of our puppies.   Pat has a website at http://www.dogfolk.com/ if you are interested in learning more about her.

Fussy Puppies, Hearty Eaters

Hello humans - 

Delta (yellow girl) snoozing upside down near Juno (purple) and Loki (red)

Scout (pink girl) - hardly a handful

This is the puppies speaking, and speaking and speaking and squeaking....  We were NOT very happy to go to the vet and have our dewclaws removed yesterday and made sure the humans shared our pain by being extremely FUSSY for about 12 hours afterward.  We were not upset enough to miss any meals, however.   Perhaps it is just that we all agree that a nice drink of milk is very comforting....  The vet said we all looked very healthy and mom did too.   Everyone there told Mom she had done a super job and she got lots of extra cookies.  Boy, do they know the way to her heart!

Two of us (Redstone (orange boy) and Delta (yellow girl)) passed the 1 pound mark yesterday despite our drama, and today Atlas (Blue boy) joined the "over one pound" club.

Settling In

On Sunday evening, we had some problems with the scale we were weighing the pups with.  Fortunately, my office is very close and I ran down and borrowed our digital postage scale for subsequent weigh-ins.  Assuming there might be some small discrepancies between the two scales, the pups are still gaining nicely.  As of last night, Titan (green collared male) was leading the weight gain charts with a 36% gain over birth weight, with Loki (red collared female) bringing up the rear with a gain of 17% over birth weight.    Loki had lost a small amount of weight on her first weigh-in, which put her slightly behind the others, but she is making up ground just fine now.  I love the XL chart a friend of mine found and shared with me that tracks percentage gained.

Today, the pups have a date with the vet for their first check up and to have their dewclaws removed.  Defined in one on-line dictionary as "the rudimentary first digit of dogs and cats, found on the inner side of the front legs, above the weight-bearing digits", dewclaws are easily removed in tiny pups.   While arguments can be made both for and against having them removed, we chose to remove them with our pups. 

Ecko will get a check-up from the vet too, just to make sure everything looks okay with her.  She had a bit of diarrhea yesterday, but that resolved itself by the end of the day and she is energetic and has a good appetite.  She was a bit anxious the first few days, but seems to be relaxing into her new role as Mama within the last 12 hours or so.

Another addition to the pups routine for the next week or so will be a series of  bio sensor exercises which were developed by the U.S. Military in their canine program.  You can learn about what is involved by clicking on this link.

I'll try to post more pics in the next day or so.

New Arrivals

Delta hasn't joined the party yet...

Grandma Stoker helping clean a puppy

Maquah and Ecko's puppies arrived last night.  Ecko's due date was officially Monday, but the puppies were within the window for safe arrival.  Delivery was very efficient with the first puppy born at 6:05 PM on Friday evening and the last pup arriving at 8:37 PM.  We'll double check our notes (umbilical cords sometimes look surprisingly like boy parts during the rush of delivering a puppy) but we believe we have 4 females and 3 males, all black with some white markings and all wavy (we think).

Instead of just calling the pups by the colors of their neck tags for the next 9 or so weeks, we like to give them temporary names.  This litter is named after rockets in honor of the 50th anniversary of John Glen orbiting the earth.

Here are the names/color codes in birth order:
Atlas (male) Blue
Scout (female) Pink
Titan (male) Green
Loki (female) Red
Redstone (male) Orange
Juno (female) Purple
Delta (female) Yellow

The first few days are important ones for the puppies, as that is the time they are the most fragile and most likely to "fail to thrive".  It is not uncommon to lose a puppy this way.  We have been very fortunate over the years to only lose one puppy this way, so hopefully our record will hold with this litter and all the little ones will grow strong.  We will monitor the pups weights frequently in the upcoming days to make sure they are all gaining weight.

Hope that is coherent - slightly sleep deprived...