Tag: newborn goldendoodle puppies

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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

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Willow Puppies – Week One

Willow’s precious puppies are now one week old. We have had a busy week caring for Willow and helping her care for her babies.

Looking Back

Whelping Day

I am always in awe when I puppies are born and to see the instincts God has give to animals. They know just what to do to birth and care for their newborns. Willow did a great job whelping her puppies.

On Thursday evening (October 19th), it was apparent that Willow was preparing to have her puppies.

Now that my daughter is married, I decided to turn her bedroom into my Puppy Room which is where we now set up the Whelping Box. My husband kept the other dogs in our bedroom for the night and I slept in the puppy room with Willow. I didn’t get much sleep that night as I woke many times to Willow digging in her whelping box. This is a sign that puppies are on their way.

When morning came Willow followed me everywhere as we went about our day waiting for puppies. By late afternoon, Willow and I went to the Family Room to relax, watch some T.V. and rest. When I knew that the puppies would soon arrive, we moved to the Whelping Box.

Whelping Begins

Labor progressed and at 7:20pm Willow’s first puppy arrived, a girl weighing 376 gram. Things moved very quickly with the last puppy, a girl arriving at 9:35 pm weighting 411 grams. Over the sort period of 135 minutes Willow delivered nine puppies; 4 boy, and 5 girls.

The next few hours, we spent cleaning Willow and the whelping box, putting fresh vet bedding in and making sure mama and babies were doing well. Willow was tired after a job well done.

CARING FOR WILLOW

It is important to care for our mama’s so that they in turn can care for their babies. It starts at Prenatal care feeding high quality food and continues postnatal care.

Mothers Pudding

We made a special treat for Willow to eat called Mothers Pudding. It is full of protein and calcium to give her energy and help her regain her strength. All our mama’s love this pudding and are willing to eat this even if they are not ready to eat anything else yet.

We also put our mama dogs on a supplement called Оху Momma which is a postnatal Vitamin that supports lactation and recovery.  High quality food and plenty of fresh water is a must to produce milk to feed her nine babies. Willow made a quick recovery and had a good appetite soon after birth.

Caring for the puppies

Before puppies are born, they receive immunity and everything they need to grow from the placenta. After birth newborn puppies do not possess immunity. A mothers first milk called colostrum is a protein-rich, nutritious, balanced, and protective food. The special milk provides passive immunity which can last several weeks and protect them from various infections and diseases. For this reason, the first twelve hours after birth it is vital for the puppies to nurse frequently and build up their passive immunity. (Passive immunity is the short-term immunity which results from the introduction of antibodies from the puppy’s mother. Compare with active immunity – the immunity which results from the production of antibodies by the immune system in response to the presence of an antigen

Expert Nursers

Puppies are born with their eyes and ears sealed shut; they cannot see or hear. 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. The puppies are now experts at nursing! As you watch the video below, listen to the cute little sounds the puppies make as they nurse – so precious !

Willow is attentive mama. She has a large litter of nine puppies and is doing an amazing job feeding her babies.

The first two week of the puppies lives, we weigh them daily and keep records to track their progress. All the puppies are doing very well and gaining weight daily. Good job Willow!

WHAT A DIFFERENCE A WEEK MAKES

See how they grown newborn on left; one week old on the right

KEEPING WARM

Newborn puppies cannot regulate their own body temperature. They depend on their mother and littermates for warmth. For the first few days Willow spent all her time in the whelping box, feeding and caring for her babies and keeping them warm.

As the days past, Willow started leaving her babies for longer periods of time. Even though she now spends more time outside the whelping box, she regularly heads back in to check, clean and feed her puppies. When she is away, the puppies snuggle together with a buddy or two to help keep warm.

Willow has an evaluated bed just outside the whelping box where she can rest while still keeping an eye on her puppies.

 Neonatal Period 

The puppies are in the Neonatal Period which is from day 0 to day 14. During this period, puppies spend their time eating and sleeping. On Monday, day 3, we began ENS exercises (Early Neurological Stimulation) which will continue through until day 16. We preform ENS daily during our weigh-in time. Research shows these tiny struggles and stresses in small doses are good for puppies. Research shows that benefits from ENS include greater tolerance to stress, greater resistance to disease, faster adrenal system, stronger heart rate and stronger heartbeat. This is a gift that a breeder can only give their puppies during the 3 to 16-day window.

Puppies continue to receive lots of handling to become accustomed to the human touch. Part of the “Puppy Culture Protocols” that we follow when raising our puppies is socialization. I am blessed with a large family that love to hold our puppies. 

LOOKING AHEAD TO WEEK TWO

  • 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 !!!
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Introducing Willow’s Puppies

Introducing Willow’s beautiful litter of puppies. We have five beautiful girls and four handsome boys in a variety of colours and patterns.

The Girls

Cream born @ 7:20 pm weighing 376 grams
Blue Merle Parti born @ 8:14 pm weighing 417 grams
Chocolate Abstract born @ 8:30 pm weighing 354 grams
Black Parti born @ 9:14 pm weighing 361 grams
Blue Merle Abstract born @ 9:35 pm weighing 411 grams

The Boys

Apricot Parti born @ 7:32 pm weighing 382 grams
Black Parti born @ 7:45 pm weighing 399 grams
Chocolate Merle Abstract born @ 8:05 pm weighing 393 grams
Apricot Parti born @ 8:56 pm weighing 300 grams
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Introducing Ellie and Brinkley’s Retirement Litter

Introducing Ellie and Brinkley’s Retirement Litter

D.O.B. Monday, May 15th, 2023

The Boys

Red Collar – Birth weight 428 grams
Orange Collar – Birth weight 476 grams
Blue Collar – Birth weight 480 grams
Yellow Collar -Birth weight 493 grams

The Girls

Pink Collar – Birth weight 456 grams
Purple Collar – Birth weight 328 grams
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Surprise, An Early Arrival

Ellie surprised us with a early whelp

Due Date Window

A dogs due date is an approximate date. When calculating a dogs due date , we count 63 days after mating. A dog can safely give birth between 58 and 65 days from mating. Ellie Surprised us yesterday by going into labor early on day 59.

Labor Begins

Ellie went into labor early in the morning. By noon we knew the time was close and took her to the whelping box, wrapped her tail and waited with her for the first puppy to arrive

Because whelping is a messy business we wrap Ellie’s tail to keep it clean
Ellie breaks the puppy’s sac
Ellie cleans her baby
We rub puppies with a towel to help dry them
Watch as a newborn puppy crawls to join his littermates to nurse
It is important to get newborn puppies nursing as soon as possible to get the important first milk called colostrum. This protein-rich special milk provides passive immunity to the newborn puppies. Passive immunity can last several weeks and protect them from various infections and diseases.

Adorable newborn faces

Ellie delivered her first puppy at 1:05 pm and the last puppy at 3:12 pm. The total whelping time was just over two hours. Ellie had six puppies in her litter – 4 boys, and 2 girls.

Left to Right: Female, Male, Female, Male, Male, Male

Ellie looks very tired after a job well done. It is a hard job whelping and Ellie will spend the next few days sleeping and caring for her babies.

Ellie & Brinkleys 2023 litter

May 15, 2023

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Echo’s Sweet Puppies – Week 2

Two Weeks Old

LOOKING BACK

Echo’s sweet puppies are now two weeks old and growing bigger and more adorable with each passing day. Echo continues to be an amazing mama taking wonderful care of her babies!!

We have had another busy week and the puppies have made so much progress. We have fallen into a daily routine. Most of the puppies’ time is spent eating and sleeping. In addition to this, we continue the ENS exercises and weigh-in for each puppy. The puppies are moving faster and when Echo returns to the whelping box the puppies scurry around ready for another meal.

Weight-in

We continue to weigh the puppies daily and keep a record of their progress

Double BirthWeight Milestone

Echo had done an amazing job feeding her puppies. All our puppies have been gaining weight daily. Puppies should double their birth weight between 7 – 10 days. The first puppy doubled her birth weight on day 7 and the rest followed over the next few days. All our puppies have doubled their birthweight and continue to grow with each passing day.

As you know, the Goldendoodle breed is an intentional mix of Poodle and Golden Retriever. We breed Standard Size with a weight range of 50 – 75+ pounds. Riggs who is the stud of Echo’s litter is 55 pounds, so I expected some puppies to be smaller than our previous litters. We have a few smaller puppies in this litter. The below picture shows the comparison of our largest puppy and our smallest puppy. (Both are males)

Light Blue Collar Boy on the left and White Collar Boy on the right

Feeding Time

Echo has a large litter of 11 but can only feed 8 puppies at a time. At first Echo was constantly in the whelping box and puppies just cycled through taking their turn eating without any intervention on my part. Now that Echo spends time away from her whelping box when she returns, all the puppies want to eat. So, I have had to step in and put three puppies into a “waiting box” until some puppies have finished nursing. It is important that all the puppies get their fair share of mama’s milk.

See puppies sleeping in the “waiting box” while the rest of the litter nurse.

LOOK AT THOSE BEAUTIFUL EYES

The puppies have reached another Milestone. On Thursday I was excited to see that Grey Collar Boy had opened his eyes. Over the next few days, the rest of the puppies’ eyes began to open. Though they cannot see well yet, it is always exciting when the puppies’ eyes open – they seem to come alive. Their vision will continue to improve over the next weeks.

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.

Now that the puppies’ eyes have opened they have entered the Transitional Period. Every puppy is different so “Behavioural Markers” are used to identify the beginning and end of each developmental period. These timelines are simply guidelines. The transitional period begins when the puppy’s eyes open and ends when they first startle upon hearing sounds. 

Daily cuddles

Puppy socialization starts at birth. We handle our puppies as soon as their mamas feel comfortable and give them all daily cuddles.

My grandchildren are great helpers with this. I love to share this learning experience with them; teaching them to love and respect animals and to be gentle.

Today my two-year-old granddaughter helped me hold and cuddle all the puppies 🥰

🐾
😊

.

LOOKING AHEAD TO WEEK THREE

  • Puppies will continue to eat and sleep most of their day
  • Puppies will continue growing 
  • Sight will slowly improve 
  • Puppies ears will open and they will begin to hear.
  • Puppies will practice walking on all fours, strengthening their hind legs
  • Puppies will become more aware and start to interact with their litter-mates
  • Puppies will start to vocalize
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Happy Saturday

Today Echo’s puppies are 12 days old and growing quickly. Echo continues to be an amazing mama and loves to care for her babies.

L.A. Doodles goal is To Raise Healthy, Calm, Confident, Well-Adjusted Puppies. One thing we do to work towards achieving this goal is ENS (Early Neurological Stimulation)

ENS Demonstration

This past week we have continued our daily ENS exercises. ENS (Early Neurological Stimulation) begins on day 3 and continues daily 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 heartbeats. This is a gift that a breeder can only give their puppies during the 3 – 16 day window.

In this video I demonstrate the ENS exercises we do daily with each puppy.