7 Weeks Old

A day late, again.

So, we had our CERF eye exams on Thursday. I was joined on my hour long ride North by one of our new owners, Kim. We had a nice quick lunch at my favorite Seafood place, Bob Chinn's in Wheeling. It's directly across the street from the eye clinic. After reverting to highschool mentality to fill out all the little circles on 10 forms (make that 12 - we screwed two up), the pups were seen two at a time by a doctor I hadn't yet seen. He said he's one of four retinal surgeons in the US, so I took my time asking him some questions I had about previous exams and the benefits of doing early CERF on our litters, as not all breeders do this. He examined all ten pups and we got the good news that everybody was normal. Off we went, in Chicago rushhour traffic, but the pups were so tired out from the stressful experience that they pretty much slept the whole way home.

On Friday my son Al and I took the pups on another car ride to our reproductive vet in Westmont. The pups were equally well behaved and had their first shots and puppy exams. They all did great, with just a couple of self-correcting developmental things noted. Still waiting on two boys' family jewels to descend. The pups were very sweet and gave the vet and tech lots of sweet puppy kisses.

We came home to a case of the runs, pretty typical for after shots. It's clearing up but I haven't stopped cleaning up. Yuck. I spent a cold afternoon scrubbing down my patio outside and the floors inside. So much still to do. I'm actively taking picutres and will be posting some tonight. I was able to get some decent ones of most of the pups this evening.

Anyway, looking forward to sending the puppies off with their new families next week. Our pups are heading to MA, MD, PA, WI, MN, IL and FL. I'm busy, busy, busy getting all their papers and stuff finalized.

6 Weeks Plus

Happy Monday! The pups have had a great morning. First they ate their warm Honest Kitchen meal outside, despite the wet and cold concrete they were forced to stand on. Then they emptied all of last nights dinner outside. I got to clean the pen really nicely and then the pups came in the house to play for a good hour or so (before they turned into pooping machines on the carpet I spent hours steam cleaning last night). So, back outside they all went to finish that up. Then they had some play time in the house again with the big dogs. They just love to watch their mommy run from them. :-)

The floor is well picked up these days, so I can handle letting the pups run around unsupervised when they aren't in potty mode. How great it was to come to the stairs to find Campbell half way upstairs and totally calm about it. When I went to retrieve her, several others followed me up to the landing and back down again. Very nice to see that they are making progress on their own.

We introduced a wiggly ball that runs on batteries. Let's just say they all had a blast following that ball all over and nobody cared when it ran the baseboard and made loud noises. Seabrook and I spent some time face to face with a mirror. She didn't care much about the puppy in the mirror, but she went straight for my face with a thousand sweet little kisses.

What a happy bunch of puppies on this cool Monday morning!

6 Weeks Old

Growing...like...weeds. That's my description of the puppies over the past week.

The puppies are doing wonderfully. They are getting more and more used to the cooler weather and they actually like to go outside to eliminate, even if it's chilly or rainy and then they come back in. I'm not saying they always go potty outside, but they definitely seem to try to avoid pooping in the pen for as long as they can. With all ten pups running loose in the house for a few hours today, amazingly two went to the door and whined (and I have lots of witnesses to prove it) and went straight out to poop. Some seem to know to head towards the paper to pee instead of just squatting where they stand. Any which way, I appreciate having less of it in the house and more of it outside.

This week was full of visitors again. I seldom have a day or evening for that matter without them. The puppies are very receptive to new people, new places, new surfaces and I must say this seems to be an intelligent bunch of pups.

They've been eating solid kibble for the past week, though they do get a nice warm Honest Kitchen soupy meal for breakfast every morning outside, as they are so hungry that they forget how cold it is. Then they poop and pee outside, I clean the nasty morning pen and within a few minutes they can have free reign of the house. Of course they spend most of that chasing mom down in a group. Kinda sounds like thunder, all those little puppy paws charging through the house after her. :-)

Nikki remains a super mom. She is still nursing the pups at least once or twice a day, whatever she can handle. She likes to spend one on one time with each pup, teaching them how to play bow, growl, bite gently, roll over, take a heavy paw - and whatever else dogs do in play. Some pups easily submit to her (which she seems to find pretty boring) and the challenging ones get the paw. I love watching her with them!

All ten of the puppies have homes in PA, FL, MA, MD, IL, and MN. We aren't keeping one, but let's just say we were tempted. Thank Goodness there are laws to how many dogs one can own because I think I might have kept all of them otherwise. They are a very, very, very good litter of puppies and I think they are all going to make amazing family members for the wonderful owners we've selected for them.

So, I'm back to work on puppy books and yes - a photo shoot is due! When it's yucky outside and we are stuck inside, my pictures just aren't good. And when I have a lot of company, I don't get a lot of photo time. I've taken some, but not individuals yet. I'll have an update soon, I promise!

5 Weeks - New photos too cute not to post!

Nieme 5 Weeks Old

Skille 5 Weeks Old

Brophey 5 Weeks Old