Month: March 2023

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Echo’s Adorable Puppies -3 weeks old

Three weeks old

I am a day late posting our weekly blog because this past week has been extra busy for our household. In addition to caring for our dogs and eleven puppies, my husband Tom had surgery Wednesday. The same day, my Son and Daughter in law welcomed their second baby into the world. This is Grandchild # 12 for Tom and I. Children are a blessing from God and we are so thankful for each child He has entrusted to our family! My granddaughter stayed with us while her parents and new baby brother had an extended six day stay in the hospital.

A big thanks to my daughter for stepping in to care for the puppies while I was back and forth to the hospital this week!

LOOKING BACK

Echo continues to be an amazing mama. She knows just what to do to take care of her babies. She loves her puppies and loves to check on them regularly between feedings. We have a bed for Echo just outside the whelping box where she likes to rest and keep an eye on her babies.

The puppies are getting stronger and becoming more mobile. This past week we had to add a door panel to the entrance of the whelping box because some of the puppies climbed out to explore LOL

A Look At Echo’s Puppies

Below is a list in order of puppy appearance
  • Black Collar Boy – Blonde Abstract
  • Grey Collar Boy – Blonde Abstract
  • White Collar Boy – Chocolate Abstract
  • Light Blue Collar Boy – Chocolate Abstract
  • Dark Blue Collar Boy – Chocolate Parti
  • Red Collar Girl – Chocolate Abstract
  • Orange Collar Girl – Black Parti
  • Yellow CollarGirl – Black Parti
  • Pink Collar Girl – Blonde Parti
  • Green Collar Girl – Blonde Parti
  • Purple Collar Girl – Blonde Parti

    • Critical Socialization Period

    The puppies eyes are completely opened and their vision is improving, Their ears are now open and they are starting to hear. The puppies have now entered into the “Critical Socialization Period”.

    Socializing puppies by exposing them to as many new experiences as possible while the puppy is young is only part of the process of socialization. Our goal is to raise dogs that have the emotional intelligence to connect with you. Emotional intelligence can be taught to young puppies and is one of the goals of the Puppy Culture Program. There are 7 key things that will nurture the emotional intelligence of a puppy. Over the next five weeks, we will work with each puppy as we endeavour to prepare the puppies for their forever homes. Our goal is to raise healthy, calm, confident, well-adjusted puppies

    1. Communication – giving a puppy his own voice
    2. Emotional stability – the ability to recover easily from fear as well as stress i.e., startle recovery, barrier challenges etc
    3. Habituation – familiarity with the maximum number of things ( sound protocols, household noises , meeting different people, dogs etc.)
    4. Enrichment – teach that novelty and challenges are opportunities for enrichment not things to be feared or avoided (Ongoing introduction of new novelty items, activity centre, car ride, outdoors, etc.)
    5. Health – physical wellness and motor skills that will allow the puppy to develop in a neurologically and physically sound way (weight checks, grooming, proper nutrition, fecal checks, and deworming, if necessary, vet health checks and vaccinations)
    6. Skills – learned behaviors which teach the puppy to function in human society i.e. recall, manding, simple commands, potty box training, crate introduction, resource guarding, bite inhibition etc.
    7. Love – teach puppies to seek out the company of both dogs and humans as emotionally positive experiences: i.e., Daily cuddles with humans and puppy’s mom.
    8. Shaping emotional responses: happy and calm CER (Conditioned Emotional Responses)

    A Day in the Life of Our Puppies

    A day in the life of puppies is full. Along with sleeping and eating, we have to fit in cleaning their whelping box and puppy cuddles. On Sunday we had some help with cuddling from some of my grandchildren. Interacting with people of different ages is great socialization for the puppies.

    Pics of Our Adorable Puppies

    LOOKING AHEAD TO WEEK FOUR

    • Puppies will still sleep most of their day as they continue to grow rapidly
    • Puppies will play with each other and begin developing important social skills
    • Puppies hind legs will continue to become stronger as they practice walking on all fours
    • Hearing will improve 
    • Puppy milk teeth will begin to erupt 
    • Puppies will be moving to the main floor sometime during the week
    • Potty Training will begin
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    Echo’s Sweet Puppies – Week 2

    Two Weeks Old

    LOOKING BACK

    Echo’s sweet puppies are now two weeks old and growing bigger and more adorable with each passing day. Echo continues to be an amazing mama taking wonderful care of her babies!!

    We have had another busy week and the puppies have made so much progress. We have fallen into a daily routine. Most of the puppies’ time is spent eating and sleeping. In addition to this, we continue the ENS exercises and weigh-in for each puppy. The puppies are moving faster and when Echo returns to the whelping box the puppies scurry around ready for another meal.

    Weight-in

    We continue to weigh the puppies daily and keep a record of their progress

    Double BirthWeight Milestone

    Echo had done an amazing job feeding her puppies. All our puppies have been gaining weight daily. Puppies should double their birth weight between 7 – 10 days. The first puppy doubled her birth weight on day 7 and the rest followed over the next few days. All our puppies have doubled their birthweight and continue to grow with each passing day.

    As you know, the Goldendoodle breed is an intentional mix of Poodle and Golden Retriever. We breed Standard Size with a weight range of 50 – 75+ pounds. Riggs who is the stud of Echo’s litter is 55 pounds, so I expected some puppies to be smaller than our previous litters. We have a few smaller puppies in this litter. The below picture shows the comparison of our largest puppy and our smallest puppy. (Both are males)

    Light Blue Collar Boy on the left and White Collar Boy on the right

    Feeding Time

    Echo has a large litter of 11 but can only feed 8 puppies at a time. At first Echo was constantly in the whelping box and puppies just cycled through taking their turn eating without any intervention on my part. Now that Echo spends time away from her whelping box when she returns, all the puppies want to eat. So, I have had to step in and put three puppies into a “waiting box” until some puppies have finished nursing. It is important that all the puppies get their fair share of mama’s milk.

    See puppies sleeping in the “waiting box” while the rest of the litter nurse.

    LOOK AT THOSE BEAUTIFUL EYES

    The puppies have reached another Milestone. On Thursday I was excited to see that Grey Collar Boy had opened his eyes. Over the next few days, the rest of the puppies’ eyes began to open. Though they cannot see well yet, it is always exciting when the puppies’ eyes open – they seem to come alive. Their vision will continue to improve over the next weeks.

    Transitional Period

    The first 12 weeks of a puppy’s life are incredibly important. This is an almost magical time when a breeder has the power to change the outcome of a puppy’s life by what we choose to teach them. By doing just the right things at just the right time, we can give your puppy the best start possible.

    Now that the puppies’ eyes have opened they have entered the Transitional Period. Every puppy is different so “Behavioural Markers” are used to identify the beginning and end of each developmental period. These timelines are simply guidelines. The transitional period begins when the puppy’s eyes open and ends when they first startle upon hearing sounds. 

    Daily cuddles

    Puppy socialization starts at birth. We handle our puppies as soon as their mamas feel comfortable and give them all daily cuddles.

    My grandchildren are great helpers with this. I love to share this learning experience with them; teaching them to love and respect animals and to be gentle.

    Today my two-year-old granddaughter helped me hold and cuddle all the puppies 🥰

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    😊

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    LOOKING AHEAD TO WEEK THREE

    • Puppies will continue to eat and sleep most of their day
    • Puppies will continue growing 
    • Sight will slowly improve 
    • Puppies ears will open and they will begin to hear.
    • Puppies will practice walking on all fours, strengthening their hind legs
    • Puppies will become more aware and start to interact with their litter-mates
    • Puppies will start to vocalize
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    Happy Saturday

    Today Echo’s puppies are 12 days old and growing quickly. Echo continues to be an amazing mama and loves to care for her babies.

    L.A. Doodles goal is To Raise Healthy, Calm, Confident, Well-Adjusted Puppies. One thing we do to work towards achieving this goal is ENS (Early Neurological Stimulation)

    ENS Demonstration

    This past week we have continued our daily ENS exercises. ENS (Early Neurological Stimulation) begins on day 3 and continues daily through day 16. Research shows that tiny struggles and stresses in small doses are good for puppies and will help them grow into strong, healthy, well-adjusted adults. Benefits include greater tolerance to stress, greater resistance to disease, faster adrenal system, stronger heart rate and stronger heartbeats. This is a gift that a breeder can only give their puppies during the 3 – 16 day window.

    In this video I demonstrate the ENS exercises we do daily with each puppy.

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    Echo’s puppies – One Week Old

    Looking Back

    One week old

    Our precious puppies are now one week old. We have had a busy week caring for Echo and helping her care for her babies. Echo suffered loose stools for a few day which a common occurrence after whelping. She also took a couple days to get an appetite. We put Echo on a diet of boiled chicken and rice with an added probiotic supplement. Echo didn’t want to leave her puppies so I fed her inside her whelping box. She recovered quickly after a couple days of this diet and is now eating well on her regular diet.

    Neonatal Period

    The puppies are in the Neonatal Period which is from day 0 to day 14. During this period, puppies spend their time eating and sleeping. On day 3 we began ENS (Early Neurological Stimulation) which continues through day 16. We preform ENS daily during our weigh-in time. Research shows these tiny struggles and stresses in small doses are good for puppies. Benefits from ENS include greater tolerance to stress, greater resistance to disease, faster adrenal system, stronger heart rate and stronger heartbeat. This is a gift that a breeder can only give their puppies during the 3 to 16-day window.

    Puppy Twitches

    The above videos show sleeping puppies “twitch” This is a sign of a healthy puppy.

    Feeding

    Before puppies are born, they receive immunity and everything they need to grow from the placenta. After birth newborn puppies do not possess immunity. A mothers first milk called colostrum is a protein-rich, nutritious, balanced, and protective food. The special milk provides passive immunity which can last several weeks and protect them from various infections and diseases. For this reason, the first twelve hours after birth it is vital for the puppies to nurse frequently and build up their passive immunity. (Passive immunity is the short-term immunity which results from the introduction of antibodies from the puppy’s mother. Compare with active immunity – the immunity which results from the production of antibodies by the immune system in response to the presence of an antigen)

    Puppies are born with their eyes and ears sealed shut; they cannot see or hear. They have to rely on “smell” and “touch” to find their mother. Puppies are born with a natural instinct to nurse but as the days pass, they have become more proficient at it. The puppies are now experts at nursing! As you watch the video below, listen to the cute little sounds the puppies make as they nurse – so precious !

    Echo is an amazing, attentive mama. She has a large litter of eleven babies and is not able to feed all the puppies at once. She has done an amazing job feeding her babies and cycling them through. She is very dedicated and stays with her babies around the clock.

    With a large litter, we have to keep a close eye making sure all the puppies are getting their fair share of milk. We weight our puppies daily and keep records to track their progress. Some of our puppies are putting weight on quicker than others but, all our puppies are gaining weight daily. Good job Echo!

    For the first two weeks of their life newborn puppies spend their time eating and sleeping.

    LOOKING AHEAD TO WEEK TWO

    • Much the same as week one – Eat, Sleep, Repeat!
    • Puppies will continue growing 
    • Puppies still crawl; hind legs will become stronger
    • Eyes should begin to open towards the end the week – so exciting !!!
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    Introducing Our First Litter of Parti Puppies

    The past few days we have been busy with limited sleep helping Echo care for our tiny new arrivals. With 11 puppies to feed, it can be a challenge making sure everyone is getting their fair share of milk. Puppies can lose up to 10% of their birth weight the first day. I was pleased that 10 of the eleven puppies gained weight after their first day. Good Job Echo! 

    What are Parti Puppies

    Parti is a pattern of colouring observed in the dog’s coat characterized by a white base colour of at least 50% with random patches of another colour such as black, brown, apricot, red, merle, etc. Each puppy has their own unique pattern. The Parti Gene is recessive so, both parents must carry the parti gene to produce a Parti Goldendoodle. It has been over two years in the making and we are excited welcome our first litter of Standard Parti Goldendoodles. We have a variety of colours in both Parti and Solid Abstracts. Below are Echo’s babies’ newborn single pictures. 

    The Boys

    White Collar Boy – Chocolate abstract – Birth Weight 365 grams
    Grey Collar Boy- Blonde abstract – Birth Weight 380 grams
    Dark Blue Collar Boy – Chocolate Parti – Birth Weight 364 grams
    Black Collar Boy – Blonde abstract – Birth Weight 271 grams
    Light Blue Collar Boy – Chocolate abstract – Birth Weight 216 grams

    The Girls

    YellowCollar Girl – Black Parti – Birth Weight 382 grams
    Purple Collar Girl – Blonde Parti – Birth Weight 324 grams
    Orange Collar Girl – Black Tuxedo Parti – Birth Weight 279 grams
    Pink Collar Girl – Blonde Parti – Birth Weight 347 grams
    Red Collar Girl – Chocolate abstract- Birth Weight 329 grams
    Green Collar Girl – Blonde Parti – Birth Weight 277 grams