Tag: Goldendoodle puppies

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Raising a Singleton – Week Four – Look At That Adorable Face!

Our Adorable Four Week Old Singleton

Wow, four weeks old already – this week our singleton puppy has progressed so much. Echo continues to be an amazing mama, loving and caring for her baby. This past week has been a busy one. Echo’s puppy moved to the main floor, her milk teeth erupted, and she is beginning to learn to use the potty area. Echo’s puppy’s hind legs have become much stronger, and her walking has greatly improved. The puppy is vocalizing more and can now bark and growl . Although the puppy still sleeps much of her time, she spends longer periods awake socializing with her mama Echo, our dog nanny Maui, and her many stuffies through play. She also has lots of attention from our family – both canine and humans including my grandchildren who love to play with the puppy.

Critical Socialization Period

Echo’s puppy is now in the Critical Socialization Period. We raise our puppies using Puppy Culture protocols. 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. (For more details, see Puppy Culture Page )

Moving To The Main Floor

Since birth the puppy has only know the cozy quiet space inside the whelping box in my bedroom. The main floor is very different so, I like to expose our puppies gradually for a few days before the big move. On Friday we took the puppy for a short period of time to the main floor for some exercise.

Basket Challenge

Just as physical exercise builds strong muscles, challenging puppies works on building the brain. This basket challenged the puppy to get out of the basket to get to her mama Echo. The puppy was a little timid at first, but she finally made it out to her mama.

Having the puppy area on the main floor exposes the puppy to many different household sounds. Not only is Echo’s puppy exposed to the normal sounds of a busy household, because we are in the middle of a basement renovation means a bonus of lots of different building noises for the puppy to become accustomed to.

On Monday we moved the puppy to the main floor of our house. This is when Potty Training begins. We have started with a potty pad at the far end of the enclosure. Teaching a singleton puppy will defiantly be less work than potty training a normal size litter. I corrected the puppy one time and showed her where to go potty. Many times, throughout the day, I observed her going over to the potty area on her own when she needed to go – what a smart girl! I’m sure she will have her “accidents”, but we are off to a great start!!!

Main Floor Puppy Enclosure

Stuffie Wrestling

The puppy loves her stuffies. Without littermates to interact with we use the stuffies for our singleton puppy to wrestle with.

Puppy At Play

This video shows how much more mobile the puppy has become. Watch how gentle she is giving my grandson kisses.

LOOKING AHEAD TO WEEK FIVE
  • Puppy’s awake time will increase
  • Puppy will continue to socialize with both human and canines
  • Puppy’s balance will continue to improve progressing towards running
  • Puppy will continue learning to use potty area
  • Puppy will start on solid foods as weaning gradually begins
  • Mama will now add the invaluable teaching phase to her caring & protecting responsibilities over the next weeks.

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Raising a Singleton Puppy – Week Three 💕 Look How Adorable!

Three weeks old already – how quickly time passes! Look at our beautiful Singleton Puppy. Now that she can sit upright, you can see her lovely markings. She is jet-black with an adorable white patch on her chest and a touch of white on her feet and chin. Her eyes are fully opened now, vision is slowly improving and her ears have started to open. Echo’s puppy is becoming more aware of her surroundings, beginning to play and starting to vocalize.

The puppy is now at the stage that she is beginning to play. At times I feel bad thinking she is lonely without littermates to play with but, my daughter and husband reminded me that she doesn’t know any different – it has always been just her.

Play Time With Mama, Maui, and Stuffies

Play Time With Mama

With no littermates, the puppy also needs interaction from other dogs to be taught dog social skills. Echo is such a great mother and is willing to spend extra time with her baby to play. The puppy loves to mouth Echo and pull on her beard, ears and tail. During these play sessions, Milk Bar is closed – I cover Echo tummy with a blanket or a tee-shirt. Our Chunky Monkey definitely doesn’t need extra milk!!!

Nanny Maui

This week Maui, our one year old poodle, spent a little time in the whelping box for a few play sessions – she is a great puppy nanny! With no littermates to teach doggie social skills, Maui will take on this important role.

Our Sweet Puppy Has Visitors

My granddaughter and our other dogs also visited to check out the puppy. Echo was willing to show off her puppy but stands by to make sure her baby is safe! The puppy is curious of all her many visitors. Watch the video as she interact

Playing with Stuffie

Puppy plays with stuffie – listen for her little bark

Exercise Time

Echo’s sweet puppy is a big girl – our Chunky Monkey. As I have said in my previous blogs, when raising a singleton puppy, it is important to try to slow the puppy’s weight gain. This past week I again spent much of my time by the whelping box limiting feeding time. Lots of exercise combined with limiting the puppy’s food intake has helped strengthen the puppy’s hind leg muscles. She is making great progress with walking on all fours!

Exercising

This video shows the progress the puppy has made this week.

Sleep, Sleep, Sleep

At this age, puppies still sleep much of their day/night. After her short play times, our puppy walks around the whelping box looking for one of her stuffies to snuggles with.

Sweet Dreams Sweet Baby! 😴

LOOKING AHEAD TO WEEK FOUR
  • Puppy will still sleep much of the day/night as she continues to grow rapidly
  • Puppy will play with her mama and our other dogs developing important social skills
  • Puppy’s hind legs will continue to become stronger as she practices walking on all fours
  • Hearing will improve 
  • Puppy milk teeth will erupt
  • Potty Training will begin toward the end of the week

 

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What does the doppler say…..are we excepting puppies?

Echo was breed at the end of May for her first litter of puppies. Then the waiting began to confirm pregnancy. Echo is Ruska and Tulo’s daughter from their third litter of puppies. My son and daughter-in-law agreed to become a guardian family for Echo. She went to live in their home as a puppy to train, love, and care for her. We believe every dog should be first and foremost a beloved pet.

We needed to look for another blood line for Echo’s stud because our stud dogs carry the same blood line as Echo. I have spent the past year looking for a stud and we finally decided on Riggs from Delilah’s Poodle Doodles. They are ethical breeders – breeding and raising puppies as we do at L.A. Doodles. Their tag line says, “Honest Breeding, Done with Love, Care and Morals”.

After Echo was breed the waiting began until we could confirm pregnancy.   There are various ways to confirm pregnancy ranging from abdominal palpation, an ultrasound performed between 22 – 28 days in pregnancy or my choice – waiting patiently for five weeks until Day 35 and using a Doppler Ultrasound. 

Day 34

Today, one day early, (I can never wait until day 35 lol) we decided to listen for puppy heartbeats. Echo’s tummy is full of fur which makes it a little harder to pick the heartbeats up than a clean-shaven tummy. My husband Tom helped keep Echo calm by patting her head as my daughter Kendra helped out to video. This is Echo’s first experience with the doppler, and she did a great job laying still while we listened for those tiny fast heartbeats. Her calmness reminds me of her mama Ruska.

Listening for puppy heartbeats using the doppler

Exciting news…….we found puppy heartbeats!  

Congratulations Echo and Riggs on your upcoming litter of puppies!

Due date: July 30th, 2022

We have room on our waiting list for this litter. For more information and to apply

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