Ellie’s Puppies – Day 3

Ellie continues to care for her babies with such love and devotion. The puppies are nursing well and steadily gaining weight! Ellie still spends most of her time in the whelping box but, today she joined our other dogs in the yard for a bit of fresh air and exercise.

It is always challenging trying to take pictures of puppies. Newborn puppies just eat and sleep but, they also like to wriggle and squirm. After many attempts (200 pictures) I was able to capture Ellie’s beautiful babies!

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Willows’Puppies – Day 9

Willows’ babies are doing very well. Healthy puppies should double their birthweight by 10 – 14 days. I am happy to say her puppies had 4 double their weight yesterday (day 8) and the other two puppies doubled their weight today (day 9) Great Job Willow!

Willow is now spending more time away from the whelping box and interacting with our other dogs outside. She has even become a little less protective and let our other dogs come in the room to see her puppies for a short visit.

Puppies in the “Neonatal Period” (day 0 – 14) spend 90% of the time sleeping and the other 10% of their time eating. Beginning on day 3 of the puppy’s life, we do ENS (Early Neurological Stimulation) and continue 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 heartbeat. 

Pics of Willows’ sweet babies

Notice the new collars. Yesterday we made new collars from parachute cord. Usually, our litters are very similar, and we need the collars on from birth so we can track each puppy’s weight. But, because I can distinguish the puppies, I didn’t need them to keep track of their weight. Below are pics of Willows’ babies – sleeping!.

Willows’ Puppies

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March 15, 2022 -1 WEEK OLD

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LOOKING BACK 

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Willows’ precious puppies are one week old today. We have had a busy week! For the first few weeks of life, a puppy cannot regulate their own body temperature. They need a warm space, their mother, and littermates to help keep them warm. This is a winter litter and it makes it more of a challenge than our summer litters to keep our room warm. We have added an electric heater to our room to help keep the temperature at a warm 27 degrees C and a heating pad to our whelping box under our vet bed.

Willow is a great first time mama. For the first three days of the puppies lives she spent all her time in the whelping box with the babies, keeping them warm, clean and making sure they nursed often. She had a good appetite and drank plenty of water from the start which is important for making good milk for her puppies. For the last few days Willow has been spending short periods of time away from her puppies, getting fresh air and exercise in the yard. But as soon as she comes in the house again, Willow runs back upstairs to check on her babies. The puppies are now experts at nursing; they can smell when Willow returns to the whelping box and quickly crawl to find her and begin their next meal.

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LOOKING AHEAD TO WEEK TWO

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• 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 !!!

Ellies’ Puppies

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DAY ONE

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Ellie is an experienced mama with a great love for her babies. She spends all her time in her whelping box protecting, feeding, cleaning, and keeping her puppies warm. Puppies are born with their eyes and ears sealed shut; they cannot see or hear. They must rely on “smell” and “touch” to crawl and find their mother.

Puppies are born with a natural instinct to nurse and Ellies’ puppies are doing great . In the first 24 hours, newborn puppies may lose up to ten percent of their birth weight. Ellies’ puppies are doing so well; they all gained weight at their first weigh-in this morning. Great job Ellie!!!

L.A. Doodles is excited to announce the arrival of Ellies’ puppies. Ellies’ labour started Sunday morning and she spent most of the time lying on my bed. As midnight approached, she became very unsettled, and I knew it wouldn’t be long. Her first puppy, a handsome boy arrived at 2:37 am and her whelping was completed three hours later at 5:36 am when puppy number eight arrived.

Introducing Ellies’ Litter

March 14, 2022

7 Beautiful Girls and 1 Handsome Boy

Ellie is a wonderful loving mama and adores her babies. We look forward to helping her raise her puppies! She now has a 24 hour job caring for her little ones. Great Job Ellie!

Our days have fallen into a routine with caring for Willows’ puppies. The puppies continue to do well at weigh-in and are on track to double their birth weight by the 10-day mark (some maybe even sooner). After weighing the puppies and cleaning the whelping box on Saturday, we took a video while returning them to the whelping box. The video shows the lovely white markings on the underside of the puppies!

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Puppy Socialization

Puppy Socialization is an important part of raising calm puppies. This is why we handle puppies right from birth.

Saturday evening my son’s family came over for a puppy visit. My grandchildren are always so excited to see the new puppies. Socializing the puppies soon after birth by a variety of people is a bonus. It is important for puppies to be handled – even by my two year old grandson who is a little rough. My older grandchildren have learnt to be gentle with small puppies but as my 2 year old grandson is still learning, we watch him very carefully!

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Day Four – March 12

Our Day Four video shows Willow being Willow. She loves to sleep on her back (even nursing LOL) and wants to make the whelping box her own by digging up the VetBed lining. Every time I see her start to rearrange it, I tell her NO but if I’m out of the room and return I can see she had been digging. I think she likes the cooler bottom without the VetBed. It is important for the puppies to keep warm but also very important that they have the traction that the VetBed provides.

Ellie

Willow and Ellie are the best of friends and have kept each other company throughout their pregnancies but, since Willow had her puppies, she became a protective mama and wouldn’t let any of our dogs in her room. But today Willow let Ellie come into our bedroom to see her puppies. Ellie happily spent the day relaxing on my bed and getting lots of rest. Ellies’ due date is March 13th (Day 63) – Just two days away! The puppies can arrive a few days early or a few days late. Either way, Ellie will soon have a whelping box full of her own babies to care for.

Listening for Puppy Heartbeats with the Doppler

Ellies’ tummy continues to expand with each passing day. Her babies are now crowded, and it is very easy to feel and see the puppies moving. In the video below, listen for puppy heartbeats and watch Ellies’ tummy closely – you can see the puppies moving.

Willows’ Puppies Are Doing Amazing!

Today the puppies are three days old. It is amazing how much they grow each day. Willow continues to be an amazing mama as she feed, cleans and keeps her babies warm. Newborn puppies cannot regulate their own body temperature and depend on their littermates and mama to keep them warm.

Daily Weight In

In the first 24 hours of a puppy’s life, it is not uncommon for puppies to loose weight. Willows’ puppies are doing amazing. They all gained weight their first 24 hours and continue to gain daily.

We weigh our puppies daily and track their weight. Sometimes it is hard to keep the puppies still during weigh in time. Watch for Chocolate Boy in the video below – he didn’t want to be on the cold scale but just wanted to stay in the warm whelping box and sleep!

The past few days have been busy ones caring for Willow and helping her care for her babies. She is a first-time mama and doing an amazing job caring for her little ones. The puppies are gaining weight daily – Good Job Willow!!!

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DAY TWO – Puppy Photo Shoot

If puppies just eat and sleep, it should be a breeze, right? —- NOT!

To take the pics, we set up on our bed which is right beside the Whelping Box. At first Willow was concerned that her babies were leaving the whelping box so, she jumped up onto the bed to check things out. This is not helpful at all – If the puppies smell their mama, they don’t settle. After Willow was satisfied that it was okay, she went back in the whelping box with the rest of her puppies, and we proceeded with our photo shoot. It takes a lot of time because the puppies don’t cooperate. They kept moving around, trying to get settled into sleep but the problem was it was not towards the camera – LOL. We were finally successful and got some great singles!

Willow’s Puppies Singles

Introducing ………..The Boys

Introducing ………..The Girls

After we finished the photoshoot and returned the last puppy to the whelping box, Willow gathered her babies close to her and they all settled in for a nap.