Tag: Goldendoodle 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 Sweet Puppies are in the Transitional Period

Early Neurological Stimulation (ENS) Exercises (day3 to day 16)

We have now finished our ENS exercises with both litters. While raising our puppies, I want to do everything possible to produce Healthy, Calm, Confident, Well-Adjusted Puppies. During the ENS exercise the puppies experience tiny struggles and stresses. These stresses in small doses are good for puppies and the benefits include greater tolerance to stress, greater resistance to disease, faster adrenal system, stronger heart rate and stronger heartbeat. This will help our puppies grow into strong, healthy, well-adjusted adults.

Transitional Period Day 14 – 21

Ellie and Willow continue to take wonderful care of their puppies and they continue to grow stronger with each passing day. The puppies are now in the Transitional Period. The transitional period begins when the puppy’s eyes open and ends when they first startle upon hearing sounds. The puppies are becoming more aware of their littermates but still sleep most of the time.

Although the puppies still spend most of their time eating and sleeping, they are now awake for short periods of time. During their awake time, they are now beginning to interact with their littermates. The puppies are also vocalizing. I was able to take the videos below during the puppies awake time. As you can hear, they are quite noisy – I was talking during the video but not loud enough (sorry) LOL!

Puppies interact – Willow’s above, Ellie’s below

Adorable Puppy Pics

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Introducing Our Beautiful Puppies

Just a short blog to introduce the puppy singles. Both Ellie and Willow are great mamas and are doing a wonderful job caring for their new babies. The puppies in both litters are gaining weight daily. They are doing what newborn puppies do best – eat, sleep, repeat!

Ellie’s Litter

Ellie’s puppies have variety of colours in the red spectrum ranging from cream, apricot and reds and one brown male. Many of the puppies look similar so we put different colour collars on them to help keep track of who’s who at weigh-in.

The Girls

Dark Pink Collar Female
Orange Collar Female
Light Pink Collar Female
Purple Collar Female
Red Collar Female

The Boys

Green Collar Male
Dark Blue Collar Male
Light Blue Collar Male

Willows Litter

Willow’s litter has a variety of colours, some with lovely white markings and three merle puppies with their own unique chocolate spots and lovely white patches. I haven’t given them collar colours (except green collar girl) because I can visibly differentiate between them at weigh-in. Their collars are pending.

The Girls

Blonde Female Green Collar
Chocolate Merle Female
Blonde Female (no collar)
Chocolate Merle Female
Black Female

The Boys

Blonde Male
Chocolate Male
Chocolate Merle Male
White Male
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Time To Say Good-bye To Finley, Our Sweet Singleton Puppy

8 weeks old

Eight weeks have passed since our sweet singleton puppy came into the world. Remember how tiny she was – I could hold her on the palm of my hand. Echo has been a wonderful mama caring, loving, and teaching her baby. Finley has learned so much over these past eight weeks. I have enjoyed helping Echo raise her puppy to the point where she is ready to join her forever family.

Substitute Littermate – The Snuggle Puppy

Finley with her “Snuggle Puppy”; her substitute littermate. Look how much she has grown over the past eight weeks!
Finley was not too impressed with her bath and wanted no part of the blow dryer. I had to let her dry off in her puppy pen.

A Look Back At The Past Eight Weeks

This video looks back on the past eight week – how quickly puppies grow. Finley has grown into a Beautiful Girl!

Off To Her Forever Home

Our sweet puppy left for her forever home on Wednesday. Finley is a lucky puppy to be joining a wonderful forever family. Her forever family already have a dog Charlie (red collar boy from Ellie and Brinkley’s 2021 litter). Finley and Charlie will be great companions, playmates, and best friends.

Even though Finley was a singleton pup without littermates to keep her company, I am so happy that she will always have her brother Charlie as her companion. She goes from Finley the singleton to Finley and Charlie the duo! Good-bye sweet Finley girl, we wish you a long and happy life full of love, continued learning and, lots of adventures !

Finley is already getting comfortable in her new home. Watch as she plays tug-of-war with her big brother (Spoiler – Charlie wins this time LOL!)
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Raising a Singleton – Week 7

Seven weeks old
LOOKING BACK

Echo’s baby is now seven weeks old. Finley continues to grow bigger and more adorable each day. She is full of energy and curious about everything. Finley is a smart puppy – she knows her name, the sit command and is doing well on recall. Finley had an exciting week experiencing more firsts. Sunday she met her forever family who will soon be her world. Her forever family includes one of our puppies from Ellie and Brinkleys 2021 litter – red colour boy now Charlie. Big brother Charlie didn’t show too much interest in her other than a few sniffs every now and then but Finley was very cautious of this new dog. She hid under a chair when Charlie came to investigate her. I am sure that they will quickly become best friends playing and exploring together.

Finley meets her big brother Charlie

Outdoor Play

Finley, our 7 week old singleton puppy loves spending time outdoors! She has lots to keep her busy: running and exploring the yard, playing with my grandchildren, learning from the big dogs and wrestling with her mama.

Finley thinks that she is a big dog drinking from our elevated water bowls LOL

LOOKING AHEAD TO WEEK EIGHT
  • Puppy will start eating dry kibble this week
  • Puppy will continue exploring and playing inside and outdoors as weather permits
  • We will continue to work on Recall with “The Puppy Call”
  • Puppy will continue learning from her mama Echo and our other dogs
  • We will continue to encourage puppy to use potty area 
  • Puppy heads to the Vet on Saturday for her wellness check, first set of shots and her microchip
  • Puppy will continue to get lots of cuddle time
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Raising a Singleton Puppy – Week One

What is a Singleton Puppy

Singleton puppies are puppies that are born solo. They don’t have any brothers and sisters (littermates). A litter of one is not a very common occurrence, but it happens every now and then. This has never occurred in the past five years of our breeding. Believe it or not but, this may take more work on our part to raise a singleton puppy than a normal size litter.

As a breeder, I am always trying to improve through courses, research and new experiences. The past seven days have been a learning experience. Raising a litter of puppies I have done many times but a litter of one, I have only read about. Now that this is a reality, I have been doing in-depth study on the puppy raising process of a singleton. Below are some differences between raising a singleton litter and a average size litter.

Warmth

Newborn puppies cannot regulate their own body temperature. They rely on the Mama and littermates for warmth. Echo’s puppy lacks littermates to help keep her warm when mama is not in the whelping box so we added “sock buddies” to mimic littermates. They are socks filled with rice that can be heated in the microwave.

Sock Buddies to keep Echo’s puppy warm while mama is away from the whelping box
Normal size litters have a littermate to snuggle with for warmth while mama is away from the whelping box

Feeding – Monitoring Puppy’s Food Intake

With an average size litter it is important that puppies gain weight daily. If this doesn’t happen, you have to start to worry and spend time making sure that the underweight puppy gets his fair share.

With a singleton litter weighting daily is also important but for a different reason. Gaining too much weight too quickly can cause problems. There is plenty of milk available and no competition from littermates. With this unlimited supply of milk the puppy can become too chubby which will make it more difficult for the puppy to support her weight as she grows.

Echo’s puppy is my chunky monkey. She doubled her birth weight on day six – two days earlier than the record from my previous litters of day eight. So, the past few days have been spent by the whelping box limiting the puppy’s nursing time. It has helped slow the puppy’s weight gain some. This will be something that I will continue to do.

Exercise

Exercise is an important part of puppy development. Newborn puppies crawl on their tummy pulling with their front legs and pushing with their back legs. As the days and weeks pass, their muscles become stronger and eventually they are strong enough to support their bodies by walking on all fours. Singleton puppies development is delayed as they do not get as much exercise as puppies with littermates.

A singleton puppy doesn’t get exercise as they nurse; she just leisurely nurses without littermates pushing her off. I have to step in and add exercise. I will stop her nursing, move her to the other side of the whelping box so that she will have to crawl back. To mimic littermates to crawl over, we added stuffed toys, a bolster bed, and blanket for her to crawl over. This will help strengthen her muscles.
When raising a normal size litter of puppies, exercise is something that happens without any work on my part. Puppies rush to their mama and fight for position as they nurse. All this action is a normal form of exercise and puppies get stronger with no help from me.

Human Socialization

Handling puppies is something that we like to do from day one. Our puppies get lots of cuddles, love and attentions from young and old. Singleton litter or average size litters doesn’t matter – we love to cuddle puppies. Echo’s puppy may have a bonus in this area- one puppy and so many people to cuddle her 🤗

LOOKING AHEAD TO WEEK TWO
  • Much the same as week one – Eat, Sleep, Repeat!
  • Puppy will continue to grow 
  • Puppy still crawls; hind legs will become stronger
  • Eyes should begin to open towards the end the week – so exciting !!!