Month: April 2024

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Our New Ultrasound Machine

Ultrasound Machine

As an ethical breeder, we are always looking for ways to improve our breeding program. Something that has been on my wishlist for a while is an ultrasound machine. We finally decided to go ahead and make the purchase. It is a big investment but I am so excited to add this tool to our mama dogs prenatal care.

Our new Ultrasound Machine

Advantages

Some of the advantages of having an ultrasound machine ….

  • Monitor our mama’s in their home throughout their pregnancy
  • Pregnancy confirmation can happen as early as day 25.
  • Rule out a singleton litter. Extra care is needed when a mother is carrying a singleton litter
  • Get an idea of the size of litter
  • Useful during whelping – We can check during whelping to make sure all the puppies have been delivered

Technology has come a long way!

It is amazing how far technology has come. Years ago, I always found it difficult to figure out “what was what” on an ultrasound picture. To demonstrate, I found this video clip on YouTube of an ultrasound picture from 1979.

Machines have sure have improved since I had my first child in 1981. They didn’t even give me a picture of my baby but they did point him out on the screen. It wasn’t very clear and believe me he didn’t look anything like a baby😂

CBC news clip of Ultrasound pic of baby from 1979
1979 ultrasound picture

To illustrate the improvements, compare the 1979 ultrasound pic to the 2024 ultrasound pic. If you weren’t told what the 1979 picture was of, you may have been puzzled as to what you were looking at. But, the 2024 pic is obviously easy to see that it is a baby.

FYI – This is an ultrasound pic of my grandson who is due in July. We are so excited to welcome on 13th grandchild into our growing family! My daughter and her husband are expecting their first child – such a blessing!

2024 Ultrasound picture – My handsome grandson that is due in July

Time to Learn

Learning how to use this machine is going to take practice and Maui and Willow are my “guinea pigs” 😂. Not only do I have to learn to use the machine but trying to get the video’s saved and downloaded was no easy task. Hopefully moving forward I will become more familiar with the process and things will be easier.

Even though I am a novice, I want to share a couple of video’s saved from the girls ultrasounds that we did last night. As Willow and Maui are nearing the end of their pregnancy and their puppies are getting bigger, you are not able to get a picture of the whole puppy at once. I had the depth setting further away so I could get more of the puppy on the screen. The downfall of changing the depth is that the image doesn’t appear as clear.

Even so it isn’t too bad. See if you can make it out. Look for movement from the puppy’s ribs, spine and a beating heart. Slowing the video by adjusting the speed in the settings may help.

Willow’s Ultrasound

This is a video of Willow’s ultrasound. There are two puppies close together. Look for the spine, ribs and beating heart. Toward the end of the video look for two hearts beating

Maui’s Ultrasound

Maui was a little less co-operative than Willow because she moved a couple times but I was still able to capture a video of a few of her puppies. Look for spine, ribs, beating hearts
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Already two weeks old …how they have grown!

Two Week Old Puppy Huddle

Echo is a loving and attentive mama and she continues doing an amazing job caring for her babies. We have been kept busy this week as well with many of our daily tasks. For instance, some of the tasks include ENS exercises, cleaning, laundry, watching as puppies nurse, bottle feeding, weighing, and collar checks. As a result of both Echo’s and our care, our two weeks old puppies are growing bigger and stronger with each passing day.

While watching this video, notice the small movements made while the puppies are sleeping. These movements are called “Puppy Twitches” and are signs of a healthy puppy.

Why do puppies twitch?

A quote from the Puppy Culture Program we follow while raising our puppies explains Puppy Twitches.

“This twitching actually has a functional purpose – “activated sleep” helps build muscle and form the connections that will allow the puppies to develop motor coordination. This is why twitching is a key indicator that the puppy is healthy and developing normally.”

Puppy Culture

Milestones

When raising puppies, we watch for Milestones to gage the progress of our puppies. This week Echo’s puppies reached two milestones.

Weigh-In

The first milestone the puppies reached this week was Doubling Their Birthweight. Unquestionably, this is a milestone we pay close attention to because when puppy isn’t gaining enough weight it indicates there is a problem.

On average large breed puppies double their birthweight between day 10 and day 14. Because Echo has a large litter we justifiably would expected that the puppies might be delayed in reaching this milestone.

However this was not the case for Echo’s litter because some of Echo’s puppies reached this milestone early. Three puppies doubled their birth weight on day eight. Following close behind on day 9, one more puppy reached the milestone. Four other puppies followed suite with one puppy doubling on day 10 and three on day 11.

However two or Echo’s puppies, took a little longer to reach this milestone. Because they are our smallest puppies it is hard to compete with their larger littermates. Therefore we have been intervening to help them achieve this milestone. Firstly with a waiting box to separate the largest puppies during feeding time and secondly by supplementing with puppy formula.

Puppy Formula syringe

Finally our last two puppies reached the milestone. First of the two was Black girl on day 13 followed by Red girl today on day 14.

Eyes Opened

Another milestone was reach later in the week – Eyes Opening. Puppy’s eyes open between day 10 and day 14. While doing our ENS on day 11, I was excited to notice that two of our puppies had opened their eyes. Black girl and Purple girl, our two apricot parti puppies tied for the title “First Puppy to open their eyes”. It is always so exciting to see the puppies look back at me – I think they look more “alive”!

Soon after, and day by day the seven more puppies opened the eyes too. We are still waiting to see our Dark Blue Boy looking back at us…..maybe today he will open his eyes too.

Day 11
Purple Girl
Black Girl

Daily Cleaning

As we stated before newborn puppies are susceptible to disease. For this reason it is important to keep their area clean. We clean and disinfect their whelping box daily. During this time we put the puppies in the basket.

Disinfectant
Cleaned whelping box
Echo keeping an eye on her babies in the basket

Vet Bedding

In addition to the daily cleaning, we will replace the Vet Bedding when needed sometimes two or three times a day. As you can image, this makes for a lot of laundry LOL

What is Vet Bedding? At first glance, you may think it is sheepskin. It is in fact a manmade version of a sheepskin. It’s made from artificial fibres and has two sections: first, an underlying mesh, similar to the “skin” part of a sheepskin, and second, the comfy, soft, springy artificial fleece part that is attached to the mesh.

Vet Bedding is a costly investment but when we began our breeding program without reservation it was imperative that we provide our puppies with the best. Undeniably, vet bedding provides excellent traction for our puppies and keeps them warm and dry. It is important that puppies have proper traction while nursing, moving around the whelping box, and learning to walk as this traction protects the puppies growing joints.

Clean whelp[ing box and vet bedding
DAY 9
Puppies return to a clean whelping box as mama Echo looks on. When all the puppies are back in the whelping box, Echo checks things out 😊
Day 12

Too cute not to share

I thought I would share a cute video that I caught of one of Echo’s puppies. Echo had poked her head into the whelping box making sure all was okay. While doing so, dark blue boy, whose eye’s had yet to open, could smell his mama. He then crawled over to the opening and began to climb out. LOL😂

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.

Because every puppy and litter is different, we look for “Behavioural Markers” to identify the beginning and end of each developmental period. The transitional period begins when the puppy’s eyes open and ends when they first startle upon hearing sounds. Now that the puppies’ eyes are open they have entered the Transitional Period.

Looking Ahead to Week Three

  • ENS exercises will continue until day 16
  • Puppies will continue to eat and sleep most of their day
  • Sight will become clearer
  • Ears will open and they will begin to hear.
  • Puppies will practice walking on all fours, strengthening their hind legs
  • They will become more aware of their littermates and start to interact
  • Puppies will start to vocalize
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Look How Much Our One Week Old Puppies Have Grown

One week old already….It is hard to believe the seven days have passed since Echo’s babies arrived. We have had a busy week because raising newborn puppies is a 24/7 job. As you can see from the comparison pic below, our one week old puppies have grown so much!

See how we have grown
Picture on the left – Friday – Day 2
Picture of the right – Wednesday – Day 7

Caring for Echo

As with her last litter, Echo suffered loose stools for a couple of days. Although this is a common occurrence after whelping, we need to treat her symptoms before it affects the puppies. So, we gave Echo a diet of boiled chicken, rice, pumpkin, and added a probiotic supplement. By doing so, she recovered quickly and is now doing well on her regular diet.

Vitamins

Looking after the mama both prenatal and postnatal is an important part of producing healthy puppies. During labor we give our mamas Oral Cal Plus which is a Calcium Supplement between each puppy’s birth. This supplement helps support productive labor with 3 calcium sources.

We also give our Postnatal mamas a daily vitamin Oxy Momma to support lactation and recovery.

Mother’s Pudding

Another thing we give our mama’s to help them recover is Mother’s Pudding. The recipe comes from the Puppy Culture program. We follow many Puppy Culture protocols while raising our puppies.

Mother’s pudding helps Echo produce lots of milk because t is high in calcium and calories. It is also something every mama loves to eat!

Ingredients: goats milk, egg yolks, sugar, and vanilla pudding.

Neonatal Period

ENS

The puppies are in the Neonatal Period. This period is from day 0 to approximately day 14. During this period, the puppies spend their time eating and sleeping. On Saturday, day 3, we began ENS (Early Neurological Stimulation). These exercises will be continued daily until day 16.

The ENS exercise causes tiny struggles and stresses in small doses which are a benefit to the puppies. For example some of the 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 to 16-day window.

After we finished our ENS, Echo was happy to have all her babies safely back in the whelping box with her.

Feeding

Before puppies are born, they receive immunity and everything they need to grow from the placenta. But, after birth, newborn puppies do not possess immunity.

A mother’s first milk called colostrum. This first milk contains a nutritious protein-rich, balanced protective food. Colostrum provides passive immunity. This immunity can last several weeks and protect the puppies from various infections and diseases. For this reason it is vital for the puppies to nurse soon after birth and over the next twelve hours. This will help the puppies build up their passive immunity. 

Passive immunity is the short-term immunity which results from the introduction of antibodies from the puppy’s mother. Active immunity on the other hand is an immunity built by producing antibodies from the immune system that responses to the presence of an antigen.

For the first two weeks of their life newborn puppies spend their time eating and sleeping. Did you know, newborn puppies sleep for 90% of their day/night?

Puppies are born with their eyes and ears sealed shut so, they cannot see or hear. Therefore 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.

Echo is an amazing, attentive mama. She has a large litter of ten and spends most of the day and night in the whelping box feeding, cleaning and caring for her babies.

With a large litter, we have to keep a close eye on the puppies making sure everyone gets their fair share of milk. So, to keep tract of each puppy’s progress, we weigh our puppies daily and keep a record. This charting showed that most of Echo’s puppies are gaining weight as expected.

Unfortunately though, it was apparent that Red collar girl has been slow at gaining weight. Lagging behind the normal progress is cause for concern.

So on Monday I had to intervene. I spent the day making sure when she was nursing, she wasn’t being pushed off by the larger puppies.

The Waiting Basket

Echo can only feed eight puppies at once so, during feeding, I now put two of the larger puppies in a basket to wait their turn. The basked is placed just outside the whelping box where Echo can keep watch.

Supplementing With Puppy Formula

On Monday, Red Girl was weighed throughout the day with encouraging results. They showed that she was making some progress. But, it was short lived because when I weighed her when we woke Tuesday morning she had lost weight overnight. Because of this set back, I decided I needed to intervene again.

The next step would be supplementing her with puppy formula in addition to her nursing from Echo.

The two puppies in this picture shows Green boy who is our largest puppy compared to Red girl who is our smallest puppy.

With the supplementing it has helped her gain weight. But, we still need to continue monitoring her closely, weighing her throughout the day, and supplement her nursing with formula.

Hopefully she will continue to gain weight and soon catch up to where she should be.

Puppy Pics

Now that is one relaxed puppy! Watch Black collar girl sleeping – her head is rested on Echo and she’s sleeping on her back, (a favourite doodle sleep position) 😂

LOOKING AHEAD TO WEEK TWO

  • Much the same as week one – Eat, Sleep, Repeat!
  • Puppies will continue growing rapidly 
  • Puppies still crawl; hind legs will become stronger
  • Contunie ENS
  • Eyes should begin to open towards the end of the week – so exciting !!!
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The Long Awaited Whelping Day

Echo’s Due Date: April 9th

Echo’s due date was April 9th. When we started our morning, it was apparent that Echo was in early labor because she didn’t want to eat her breakfast. All she wanted was a quiet place away from the other dogs to rest.

During the past few days when Echo was outside in our yard, she would go under our deck to dig. Digging is something mama dogs do when they are close to whelping. I wasn’t too worried because she would always come out when we called her.

When Echo went out in afternoon on the 9th, she went under the deck again but, this time didn’t want to come out. After much coaxing, I finally convinced her to come out. Echo would now need to be on a leash when we took her outside because I sure didn’t want her puppies born under there LOL!

It was now evening, and Echo spent the time with us on the couch as we watched some TV. As her labor progressed, she became more restless, and was panting more but, no puppies yet. At midnight, Echo and I went back to the Whelping Room, and I tried to get some rest while we waited for the puppies to arrive.

April 10th: Whelping Day

Echo spent the next four hours going in and out of her whelping box, pacing the room and taking multiple trips outside on a leash of course. I know from experience that a puppy can be delivered during potty breaks.

Finally, at 4:05 am, Echo’s first puppy arrived into the world. He was a beautiful black curly boy and she quickly tended to him. Echo is a third time mama and knows the ropes well. Her puppies started to come quickly and by 5:51 am, Echo had delivered a total of six puppies.

She then had a 90-minute whelping pause and settled in to care for her babies. At 7:21 the next puppy arrived followed another one at 8:19, 9:35 and the last one close behind at 9:40 am.

Echo did an amazing job delivering 10 puppies in 5-1/2 hours. A beautiful litter of 10 puppies. Well done Echo!

Next was cleaning time because as you can image, whelping is a messy job. I washed Echo with a warm wet cloth, then cleaned and sanitized the whelping box. Now that everything was clean, it was time to take a few pictures before Mama and babies settled back in the whelping box to nurse and sleep.

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Introducing Our New Arrivals

Congratulations to Echo & Riggs

We are excited to welcome these sweet puppies into the world and will spend the next eight weeks helping Echo prepare them for their Forever Families. We love what we do and put our ❤️ into every puppy.

The Boys

The Girls