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Puppies Are Beginning Crate Training Training

I finally got the crates set up to begin crate training. I decided to do one litter a a time. This morning Willow’s litter went in to explore. They were in and out and a couple puppies stayed inside and laid down. After awhile, it was time to put each puppy in and close the door.

I want to make this a positive experience for the puppies so, I gave them a treat. It was a Whimzees dental chew for puppies. This is a first experience for our puppies and it kept them occupied.

Puppies had a Whimzees treat in their crate so that they associate the crate with something good!

Willow’s Puppies

Willow’s puppies Crate Training 1
Willow’s puppies Crate Training 2

Willow’s puppies did very well. Our grey collar girl wasn’t happy at first but soon settled. The puppies slept for a couple hours. Great job puppies!

Ellie’s Puppies

Ellie’s puppies Crate Training 1
Ellie’s puppies Crate Training 2

Ellie’s puppies took a little longer to settle. Our pink collar girl didn’t like the crate at first and it took awhile but she finally stopped whining and slept quietly. Ellie’s litter did a great job sleeping quietly in their crates for their afternoon nap.

The puppies will continue to have naps in their crates for the next few days. Next week we will begin night time in their crate.

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Outdoor Fun For Our Puppies

Just a short post today. It was a beautiful winter day full of sunshine and the puppies had a great time playing and exploring. They are becoming experts at coming outside on their own. We added a couple large stuffies and I opened up a new little area for the puppies to explore.

They have come a long way!
Can you see your puppy?
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See Excited Puppies Enjoy Their First Snow

Selection Day

We had a great day yesterday at Puppy Selection. It is one of my favourite times raising puppies. I get to experience the excitement of our forever families as we introduce them to their puppy.

Our puppies were very tired at the end of the day with so much interaction with people. Meeting lots of new people is great for the puppies’ socialization. Even though the puppies didn’t get their daily outdoor exercise, they were all tired and had a long nap after a late dinner.

Snow Day

Today we woke up to excitement of snow. Being Sunday, my husband Tom went to church with my grandsons who are sleeping over for the weekend. I stayed home to look after puppies (they are never left alone). This gave me a chance to take the puppies outside and introduce yet another new experience – SNOW! I have read and agree, “The only thing goldendoodles like better than water is Snow! Our puppies loved their time outside. While our puppies continued playing in the snow, I went inside to clean out the puppy areas. After their long outdoor play session, I brought tired wet puppies back inside for a long nap.

First taste of Snow
Fun in the Snow

Tired Wet Puppies

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A New Toy For Puppies To Explore

The puppies are growing bigger and more active with each passing day. We have been fortunate with the weather and the puppies have been able to have daily outdoor play. Today Ellie’s puppies went out first for their outdoor exercise which included a new toy – a tunnel. The puppies know when there is a new toy, and everyone wants a turn. The tunnel makes a “crinkle sound” which the puppies loved. At first, they just jumped on it. I waited to see which puppy would be the first to go through. Watch and see.

Puppies love the “crinkle sound” the new tunnel makes
Who will be the first puppy to go through the tunnel?

Willow’s Puppies Challenge

Puppies are always learning and being challenged to build their brain. Today’s challenge was for the puppies to come out of their enclosure and go outside on their own. Watch to see which puppies succeeded.

Puppy Challenge – Who will be brave and make it outside on their own?
All the puppies except our Merle’s made it out on their own. Maybe tomorrow LOL!
Outdoor Play and then, back inside where it is nice and warm for a nap

Look At Our Adorable Puppies

Can you find 17 puppies?
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Watch Our Excited Puppies And Their Outdoor Adventure

Our first Outdoor Adventure with the puppies is one of the highlights of puppy raising. From five weeks on, the puppies will have outdoor play as weather permits. This is exciting for puppies, mama’s, and our other dogs. It is so fun to watch the puppies experience new smells, new walking surfaces, descending steps, and lots of room to run.

At first the puppies were a little timid staying close to the ground and smelling as they moved around. When they felt more at ease they started to relax, explore, run and play.

My husband Tom enclosed our deck with fencing making the outdoor puppy enclosure. This keeps our other dogs out while giving our mama room to teach their puppies without interference. Maui the nanny, doesn’t let the fence stop her. She jumps over with ease and comes and goes as she pleases. In the video’s watch as the mama’s along with Maui teach puppies to submit.

Ellie’s Puppies First Outdoor Adventure

1st taste of the outdoors – Watch the puppies descend the steps.
Fun time of learning and play – Ellie and Maui are teaching the puppies to submit

Willow’s Puppies First Outdoor Adventure

1st taste of the outdoors Willow’s puppies were a little more cautious than Ellie’s puppies to go down the steps. (Ellie is not too please to be excluded LOL)
Fun time of learning and play – Near the end of the video, Grandma Ruska came in for a little training. The puppies were quick to listen!

Grandma Ruska Teaches puppies

Grandma Ruska wanted in on the puppy teaching. She loved being a mama and raised some amazing puppies. Ruska is now retired but still loves puppies. She wanted into the puppy enclosure to get in on the teaching. Watch as she calmed the puppies right down. They listen well!

Puppies learn to listen
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Our Five Week Old Cuties

LOOKING BACK

How quickly time passes and how quickly puppies grow! Ellie and Willow’s sweet puppies are now five weeks old. The puppies have developed from helpless newborns to “mini dogs”. They have learned so much over the past five weeks. This past week we have been working hard on training the puppies to use the potty box. They still have a long way to go and some of the puppies are more consistent than others, but all are making great progress! The puppies are now awake for longer periods and enjoy playing in the exercise area. Nursing time from mama has decreased and the puppies continue to enjoy eating puppy mush and drinking from their water dish.

LOOKING AHEAD TO WEEK SIX
  • Awake will continue to increase
  • Food will become much thicker progressing toward the goal of eating dry kibble
  • Puppies will continue learning to use potty area
  • Puppies will continue to socialize with each other through play
  • Puppies balance will continue to improve.
  • Puppies will begin short outdoor playtime as weather permits
  • Puppies will continue learning from their mama as she disciplines them and teaches them to behave 
  • As always, puppies will continue to get lots of cuddle time.
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Puppy Adventure In Their New Puppy Exercise Area

The puppies had a great adventure today in their new puppy exercise area. It is in our front hall. There is an activity centre in the middle, a potty box in the corner and lots of toys to discover and play with. The puppies were also introduced to a different floor surface. Our front hall is ceramic which is a little more slippery. This is beneficial to the puppies as they need to learn to walk on many surfaces.

1st Willow’s litter

After I set up the new area it was time to add puppies. Ellie was feeding her litter, so Willows litter were the first puppies in the exercise area. I started by putting each puppy into the potty box first to show them where to go potty. Then I stood back and watch them explore. It is so exciting to watch these little ones discover new things!

17 puppies – both litters combined

After a while I decided to add Ellie’s litter to the mix. This worked out very well as all the puppies seem to get along. With 17 puppies to care for being able to combine the litters will make my life a little easier! This also gives me the opportunity to clean out the puppies’ sleeping area which are still separate.

Maui the Nanny

Maui our 1-1/2 year-old-poodle is very agile and can jump our fences with ease. She decided to hop the fence and joined the puppies. She has had prior experience other litters and makes a great puppy nanny! Maui is gentle and loving. It is always a bonus when you have other dogs to socialize with the puppies. After the puppies realize that every dog doesn’t have milk, they had a great time playing with Maui.

The puppies soon tired out and one by one started dropping off to sleep. The end of the video shows “last puppy standing” Magenta Collar Girl from Willow’s litter had all the toys to herself and took advantage of it – LOL!

Sweet dreams!
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Look At Our Adorable Puppies Four Week Old Singles

Just a short post – I know that I already posted on our Blog today but, I spent the last couple hours taking pictures and wanted to show off our beautiful puppy singles. As you can see, the puppies are getting more adorable with each passing week.

Taking pics of puppies is not an easy task and having to get 17 puppies to sit still and look at the camera is almost impossible but, if I do say so myself they look great!

Ellie’s Litter

Ellie and Brinkley’s genetics produce both Teddy Bear Goldendoodle and Flat Coat Goldendoodles (Retriever like – open face – no facial furnishings). The probability says they should produce 50% of each type in their litter. But probability does not always hold true though.

All Goldendoodle puppies look similar at birth and it is difficult to determine what type of goldendoodle they will be. I have had lots of experience through my years of breeding and look for tells. When we have a litter that produce both types, my daughter Kendra and I like to try to predict early which puppy will be what.

I am still unsure with the puppies in this litter. Once their facial hair is defiantly growing and by selection day at six weeks of age, we will know for sure which will be Flat Coats and which will be Teddy Bear. (NOTE: My daughter and I both think that Purple Collar Girl is a Flat Coat. Don’t hold us to that though because we still get a surprise every now and then LOL)

The Girls

Light Pink collar girl
Magenta collar girl
Red collar girl
Purple collar girl
Orange collar girl

The Boys

Light Blue collar boy
Dark Blue collar boy
Green collar boy

Willow’s Litter

With Willow and Brinkley’s litter because of their genetics all their puppies will be Teddy Bear Goldendoodles.

The Girls

Yellow collar girl (Merle)
Mocha collar girl
Green collar girl
Magenta collar girl (Merle)
Grey collar girl

The Boys

Cayenne collar boy (Merle)
Blue collar boy
Cameo collar boy
Black collar boy
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Four Weeks Old – WOW, time passes by so quickly!

Four weeks old already – WOW, time passes by so quickly! I am a couple days late getting our four-week post out. This is because we have been busy with preparations for our daughters upcoming wedding in January, wedding invitations, and bridal showers. All these things and a little under the weather as well. Even though we have had these things added to our plate, our puppies care has not suffered, and they have had lots of love and attention.

It is hard to believe that our puppies are already four weeks old and have progressed so much. A lot has happened this past week. Such as, milk teeth have erupted, moving to the main floor, hind leg becoming stronger, better balance while walking, awake time increased, and more socializing with their littermates through play. Also, our puppies have been practicing their vocalizing and can now growl and bark as you will hear in the videos.

Weaning Under Way

Weaning is well under way. This process is achieved by reducing milk from mama, drinking water from their bowl, and getting most of their nutrition from their puppy food. The puppies are doing well on their food and are always excited for another meal!

Weaning Under Way

Potty Training Under Way

Potty training is also under way and the puppies are making great progress. Although we still have a lot of work to do in this area, I am pleased with their progress so far. This is because there have been less accidents in their whelping box and lots of success in the potty box. Because the puppies are doing so well with their potty training, yesterday we decided to give them more room by removing their whelping box and expanding their puppy area.

Socialization

As I have mentioned before, socialization is important when raising puppies. We have achieved this by introducing our puppies to different people young and old. This helps the puppies to be calm and seek out humans for companionship. The puppies love spending time with us, and it is very apparent when they all run to sit on our laps for a cuddle.

Socialization not only involves interaction with different people but includes many things. Some of these things are new noises, different walking surfaces, and the introduction of different toys as well as challenges. We will achieve these things throughout the coming weeks as we challenge the puppies with as many new experiences. It is through these new experiences that will help strengthen the puppies’ body and brain.

Listen for puppies growls and bark
Watch puppies play with littermate and new toy
Notice that the whelping boxes are gone in the puppy area. We still have the two litters separated .
LOOKING AHEAD TO WEEK FIVE
  • Awake time will increase
  • Continued to socialize with each other through play
  • Balance will continue to improve and they will begin to run
  • Puppies will continue learning to use potty area
  • Daily visits to the Puppy Exercise Area where they will play and explore
  • Mama will now add the invaluable teaching phase to her caring & protecting responsibilities over the next weeks.
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Puppies Are Excited To Start Their Solids!

Puppies are excited to start their solids

Today, we decided to introduce solids to the puppies. I made this decision because both Ellie and Willow have started to feed their puppies in the standing position. When mama’s begin weaning, they still nurse their puppies. As they continue to nurse, they shorten the length. They also nurse less frequent.

Willow has a mind of her own

Willow knows her own mind and once made up, there is no changing it. On Tuesday she made up her mind that it was time to start weaning her puppies. I tried to encourage her to lay down but, she didn’t comply.

Firstly, Willow started to nurse in the standing position. Secondly, Willow began to regurgitated her food for the puppies to eat. This is something wild dogs do to wean their babies. They do this by first eating their food. Then, after a short period of time, they regurgitate the partly digested food. This process makes it easier for their young to eat.

Willow’s puppies eat solids

Willow continued this on Wednesday so, I decided mama knows best. Following mamas lead, on Thursday we started the puppies on solids. This is only a couple days earlier than my usual time.

The” first solids” is made from cooled boiled water, puppy formula, and puppy kibble. I place these ingredients in the blender to make our “puppy smoothie”. As the days pass, we gradually make it thicker. The next step is softened kibble and finally by seven weeks the puppies progress to dry kibble.

The puppies loved their food and ate two helpings. As you can see, things get very messy! So, when Willow’s puppies were finished eating, we cleaned out their whelping box. They then enjoyed play-time before taking a nap.

Breakfast
Play time
After play -time ,the puppies take a nap
Perfecting the Classic DoodleSleep Position

Ellie’s puppies

Ellie’s puppies

Ellie’s puppies loved their first taste of solids. As you can see from the video, they also ate two helpings. Before I could change out their vet bed fleece, all Ellie’s puppies fell asleep. Sweet dreams sweet puppies!

Sweet dreams sweet puppies