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.