Happy 3rd Week Birthday, Splash Puppies

Splash's puppies are thriving and have developed their own voices!! 

They have gone from snoozing and eating constantly, to walking, talking and exploring their world.

The nannies continue their work, socializing, cleaning and playing with them.

Splash is taking great care of her puppies. They are getting plenty to eat and will start their smoothies next week. Their teeth are starting to show....youch!

Trimming nails is SO much easier when they are asleep! 96 toenails in all!

As usual, photos and video are much easier to shoot when the nannies, not the moms, are hanging with them.

They are ready for more great adventures!

Fat and Sassy

Week three is almost behind us for Koda's puppies. Their eyes and ears are open and they are just getting their sea legs under them. We tiptoe through the house, trying not to wake them.

The nannies continue to keep a close eye on them and have started to become obstacles to climb over. The downside to this is their ability to climb out of the whelping box in the middle of the night, raising holy heck until someone comes and rescues them.

The night time is filled with the sounds of puppy barks as they test out their new skills, oh goody!

Apparently, social media sites have become part of Puppy Socialization 101.

They are finding out what toys are about, as well as how each other tastes!

They have just been started on puppy smoothies to supplement Mom's milk.

Life is now a party!

They have no idea how many puppy adventures are ahead of them!

Round Two

Our Pirate and Splash puppies arrived December 28th. Four girls and two boys. Enjoy our photos and video. They are thriving!!

The New Arrivals

The new puppies made their arrival on December 23rd. This is a repeat breeding of  NFC-FC Watermark's Running Back, "Emmitt" and Copper River Running, "Koda".

One of our secret weapons for a quiet, easy whelping is our iSpy camera. We know when puppies are arriving and don't need to go in and out of the whelping area needlessly. Koda is easy going, but other females get upset when we go in the room too much. The red circle below shows one of the puppies just being born.

Five boys and four girls, all healthy, strong and very squirmy!! The girls are shown below.

The boys.

One of the reasons we rotate puppies is to make sure they all get enough to eat, especially when litters are larger than 7 or 8. Even then, it is important to make sure to weigh each puppy and make sure they are gaining weight. We will pull the big puppies off of nursing and place them in a warming box while their smaller siblings have a chance to get at the good milk stations!

This is an example of "nipple guarding". Orange is sound asleep, but he stays over his milk station and will wake and start nursing if someone tries to knock him off. This is a reason we rotate puppies and give the smaller ones a chance to nurse well.

When cleaning the whelping box, it's common for one of the nannies to get in and check out the puppies. Koda likes to sit in my lap when I have my camera, so it's tough to get good puppy pictures when she's with them. The nannies make sure the puppies are clean and they help to provide extra stimulus at such a young age. Below, JJ is listening to the iSpy camera, as Splash gets set to whelp. All of the house dogs get very excited when puppies are due!

Koda continues to take great care of the puppies, and they are gaining weight quickly. At the end of a week, they are serious chubbs! The next week will bring open eyes and ears. Oh boy!