Tag: two week old goldendoodle puppies

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Ellie’s Puppies Turn Two Weeks Old

LOOKING BACK

Another week has passed, and Ellie’s puppies are now two weeks old. We have had a busy week caring for Ellie and her puppies! Lots to do: ENS, cleaning, weighing, collar checks to name a few. But my favourite is puppies cuddles. Ellie continues to be a loving and attentive mama. She is protective and loves to care for her babies!.

Watch our two week old puppies nursing. They have grown so much!

My family have been over for puppy visits and cuddles this week. The puppies are getting accustomed to different people holding them

Milestones Reached

This week, Ellie’s puppies reached a couple milestones.

Weigh-in

The first milestone reached this week was Doubling Their Birthweight. Large breed puppies usually double their birthweight between day 10 and day 14. Ellie’s reached this milestone early. Four of the puppies doubled on day eight and the other two puppies followed the next day, doubling their birthweight on day nine. With only six babies for Ellie to feed, the puppies get an abundance of milk. They are getting quite chubby.

Daily weigh-in

Eyes Opened

Another milestone was reach later in the week – Eyes Opening. Puppy’s eyes open between day 10 and day 14. I look forward to this milestone from whelping day. When I got up in the morning on day 10, I started checking the puppies every few hours to see if I could see any sign that their eyes were starting to open but to my disappointment, nothing seemed to be happening. Then came Day 12 – on Saturday I could see the puppies’ eyes beginning to open. It starts in the corners of their eyes and gradually unseals over many hours. It is always so exciting to see the puppies look back at me – I think they look more “alive”!

Red Collar Boy was the first puppy to open his eyes!

Puppy Twitches

Puppy Twitches are a sign of a healthy puppy. Watch the video of Purple Collar Girl sleeping and notice the  “Puppy Twitches” 

Look At Those Beautiful Eyes

The video below shows each puppy. Look at the beautiful eyes. Five of our puppies’ eyes have opened. We are still waiting to see Purple Collar Girls beautiful eyes. They should open soon.



Puppies Getting Stronger & Becoming More Mobile

The puppies have gained strength in the hind legs and are becoming more mobile. They are moving faster and a few of the puppies have started to climb out of their whelping box. So, we have added a door panel to our whelping box entrance to keep the puppies safely contained inside their box.

Orange collar box climbing out
We added a door panel to our whelping box to keep puppies safe inside
Watch Ellie and Brinkley’s two week old puppies trying to walk on all fours. They are not steady yet but practicing walking helps strengthen their hind legs. They will progress as the weeks pass, becoming steadier until they can run.

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. 

LOOKING AHEAD TO WEEK THREE

  • ENS exercises will continue until day 16
  • 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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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 🥰

🐾
😊

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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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Look, All Our Eyes Are Now Opened

I always say, when the puppies eyes open, they seem to come alive. Have a look at our puppies two week singles. Don’t you agree? Over the next few weeks, we are looking forward to seeing their personalities develop as we introduce them to so many new things!

I tried to get these singles for our “two week old” blog but, it is never an easy job taking puppy pictures. I had to take these pics over a two day period. Willow’s puppies wouldn’t co-operate the first day so, I tried again the next day. If you think Willow’s puppies don’t look very alert, you are correct. I thought I would have better luck if they had a full tummy and that always makes them sleepy! d

Ellie & Brinkleys Litter

Dark Blue Collar Boy
1245 grams
Green Collar Boy
1085 grams
Light Blue Collar Boy
1150 grams
Purple Colar Girl
1000 grams
Red Collar Girl
1295 grams
Orange Collar Girl
1165 grams
Magenta Collar Girl
1180 grams
Pink Collar Girl
1240 grams

Approximately half Ellie and Brinkley’s puppies will be Flat Coat Goldendoodles (retriever type – no beard). It is not until the puppies are six weeks of age that it is apparent which will be Flat Coats and which will be Teddy Bear. Whatever type they are, Ellie and Brinkley produce smart, loving, gentle puppies. We have had great feedback from their forever families. Some of their past puppies are emotional support dogs for a family member.

Willow and Brinkley’s Litter

Mocha Collar Girl
965 grams
Grey Collar Girl
985 grams
Green Collar Girl
940 grams
Yellow Collar Girl
1005 grams
Magenta Collar Girl
950 grams
Black Collar Boy
995 grams
Camo Collar Boy
895 grams
Blue Collar Boy
1020 grams
Cayenne Collar Boy
1070 grams

Willow and Brinkley have the genetics to produce a vast variety of colours and patterns. All of their puppies will be Teddy Bear Goldendoodles. We have received great feedback from the families of their first litter.

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Our Adorable Two Week Old Puppies

Willow’s puppies (left) and Ellie’sPuppies(right) two weeks old

Willow’s puppies (left) and Ellie’sPuppies(right) two weeks old
LOOKING BACK

We have had another busy week and the puppies have made so much progress. Our puppies are now two weeks old and growing more adorable with each passing day! We reached a couple milestones this week: (1) All our puppies have doubled their birth-weight and then some. (2) The puppies opened their eyes. Their sight will improve as the days and weeks pass.

Ellie and Willow continue to be loving attentive mamas who take wonderful care of their babies. The puppies are gaining weight daily and continue to do what healthy puppies do – Eat, Sleep, and Grow! Besides feeding and cuddling, it is important for our mamas to lick their puppies. The licking interactions between a mama and her pup have been shown to be essential to the physical and emotional health of both mama and baby. Newborn puppies need to be stimulated by their mother to eliminate. This is why the mama’s spend time cleaning each pup before and after feeding.

See How They Have Grown

Newborn
Two weeks old

Although their mama’s take care of cleaning the puppies, cleaning of the whelping boxes is my responsibility. Our whelping boxes are disinfected and a clean vet bed liner is replaced daily. We line the whelping box with a “vet bed fleece”. This is a financial investment on our part but, we feel it is well worth the money. It not only keeps our puppies warm and dry, it also provides excellent footing for the puppies as they learn to walk and stops their legs from slipping as they nurse. When it is time to clean the whelping boxes, I put the puppies into a laundry basket to keep them contained. I am going to have to find bigger containers because some of the puppies are starting to climb out. We have also had to add a panel to the whelping box entrance to keep them safe inside.

Laundry basket
Door Panel Added
A day in the whelping box consists of eating, sleeping, and cuddling with mama and grandchildren
Looking for a comfy spot to sleep

With Ellie locked out of the room, I took the opportunity to take a quick video to show the the puppies progress. Soon Ellie came back … She wasn’t too happy as you will hear in the video 😂 The below video shows the progress the puppies have made. Their hind legs have become stronger and they are moving more quickly around their whelping box. The puppies are starting to vocalize. Now that their eyes have opened they will start to interact with each other.

Things to look for: eyes opened, puppies using hind legs, puppies starting to vocalize
The excitement as mama returns and another meal
LOOKING AHEAD TO WEEK THREE
  • Puppies will still eat and sleep most of their day
  • Puppies will continue growing 
  • Sight will slowly become clearer 
  • Puppies Ears will start to open and they will begin to hear.
  • Puppies hind legs will become stronger and they will practice walking on all fours
  • Puppies will become more aware and start to play with their litter-mates.
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Raising a Singleton Puppy – Week Two

Two Weeks Old

Echo is a loving and attentive mama – whether it is cleaning, feeding, or just snuggling, Echo loves being a mama! This past week we have been busying helping Echo care for her baby.

Milestone Reached

This week on day 13, we were excited to see Echo’s puppy’s eyes had opened! Echo’s puppy is now in the Transitional Period which begins when the puppy’s eyes open and ends when they first startle upon hearing sounds. I always feel that puppies become more alive when they reach this milestone.

When puppies are in the Neonatal Period (day 0 – 14) they spend their days and nights eating and sleeping. Sleep-time – 22 hours and Awake-time – 2 hours is spent eating.

Without any competition from littermates singleton puppies have unlimited supply of milk resulting in rapid weight gain. Singleton puppies have a higher percentage rate of developing “swimmer puppy syndrome”. To avoid Echo’s puppy developing this condition, we have been pro-active and undertaken a few strategies to help the puppy as she develops.

Solid Footing

Puppies must avoid slipping as they try to maneuver around the whelping box. It is important for newborn puppies to have good traction as they develop. We alway use Vet-Bedding to line our whelping boxes. It is a man-made material that is soft, warm and provides excellent traction for the puppies as they learn to walk.

Slow Down Weight-Gain

When raising a singleton puppy, it is important to try to slow the puppy’s weight gain. Much of my time this week during the day was spent by the whelping box limiting feeding time, much to the dissatisfaction of both mama and puppy. I’m sure Echo’s favourite time is during the night – while I sleep, Echo gets to spend all her time with her puppy without my interference. Even though our puppy is a Chunky Monkey, this interaction has helped slow her weight gain.

Exercise

During the limited awake time we have been trying to help the puppy get more exercise to strengthen her leg muscles. As we discussed in my previous blog, exercise for a singleton puppy doesn’t happen naturally as it does for a puppy with littermates. Less exercise combined with extra weight, makes it more difficult for the singleton pup to support themselves as they are learning to walk on all fours. To lower the risk of Echo’s puppy developing “swimmer puppy syndrome“, it is important to develop strong hind leg muscles. Below are a few ways we are using to help Echo’s puppy in this area.

Nursing Exercise – During feeding time, I have added a couple stuffed animals beside the puppy as she nurses. This mimics littermates and makes our singleton pup work harder as she uses her back legs to compete for food instead of just lying down to leisurely nurse.


Taping Exercise – One of the symptoms of “swimmer puppy syndrome” is a puppy that stays on their tummy with legs spread out trying to maneuver around – much like a turtle on dry land. To help avoid this, we spent a few days doing a taping exercise. Using Self Adhesive Bandage Wrap, I taped the puppy’s legs to help them stay close together. This helped her not to drag her legs behind while she crawled and strengthened her hind leg muscles.

Front
Back

Watch the video as the puppies moves with her legs taped. This exercise helps strengthen her hind leg muscles which further reduces the risk of developing “swimmer puppy syndrome“.

Obstacles Exercise – Without littermates to crawl over, we needed to add some obstacles. We filled our whelping box full of obstacles – i.e. bolster beds, stuffed animals, blanket, sock buddies for the puppy to crawl over as she moves around the whelping box. This helps her build strong muscles. They also make great headrests for sleeping LOL!

Hard Work Pays Off!

It has been a lot of work this week helping our sweet puppy build strong muscles. Without littermates to compare progress with, it is hard to judge. Looking back at my previous litters, I would say the puppy’s walking development is a day or two behind but, she is making great progress!!! As you can see in the video below, all our hard work is paying off!

LOOKING AHEAD TO WEEK THREE
  • Eyes will continue to open wider and sight will slowly become clearer 
  • Puppy will still eat and sleep most of its day
  • Puppy will continue growing 
  • Ears will begin to open
  • Puppy’s hind legs will become stronger as she practices walking on all fours
  • Puppy will become more aware of her surroundings and start to play 
  • Puppy will start to vocalize.
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Look At How Adorable Ellie’s Two Week Old Babies Are!

Ellie’s Puppies

LOOKING BACK – March 28, 2022 – two weeks old

Ellie’s puppies are two weeks old today…..Oh how they’ve grown.. We have had a great week! Watching and cuddle puppies are one of my favourite ways to pass time. Puppies have gained strength in their hind legs. Ellie continues to be a loving and devoted mama. They have been gaining weight daily and now we will only weigh them weekly. With all that eating and sleeping they can’t help but grow.!

Friday Ellie’s puppies eyes began to open. Look how adorable they all look with those beautiful eyes . It is one of the most anticipated milestones that I wait for. The puppies seem to come alive!

Magenta Colour Girl
Magenta Girl
Yellow Collar Girl
Purple Collar Girl
Purple Collar Girl
Pink Collar Girl
Pink Collar Girl
Newborn Puppy Huddle
Green Collar Girl
Orange Collar Girl
Orange Collar Girl
Black Collar Girl
Blue Collar Boy
LOOKING AHEAD TO WEEK THREE
  • Puppies will enter the “Transitional Period.
  • Eyes will continue to open wider and sight will slowly become clearer 
  • Puppies will still eat and sleep most of their day
  • Puppies will continue growing 
  • Ears will start to open and they will begin to hear
  • Puppies hind legs will become stronger and they will practice walking on all fours
  • Puppies will become more aware of their littermates and start to play
  • Puppies will start to vocalize.

Willow’s Puppies

🐾 Just a short video of Willow’s beautiful babies ! 🐾

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Two Weeks Old And Oh How They’ve Grown!

February 14TH, 2021 – DAY 14 – 2 WEEKS OLD
Happy Valentine’s Day from our two week old puppies !
LOOKING BACK

Our puppies are already two weeks old. We have had a great week! Watching and cuddle puppies are one of my favourite ways to pass time. Some of my grandchildren have helped me with the cuddling this week. Puppies have gained strength in their hind legs and are moving around the whelping box faster. Ruska continues to be a loving and attentive mama. They are gaining weight daily. With all that eating and sleeping they can’t help but grow. 

Saturday was an exciting day ….. we saw some of the puppies eyes beginning to open. Over the next few days, all the puppies eyes will be opened. Their vision is not well developed just yet but it will improve over the coming weeks.

Notice puppies eyes are opened – so exciting!
Sleeping puppies return to cleaned whelping box

What do two week old puppies do? Sleep……

…….eat……..

Ruska returns to whelping box to feed her puppies

….and then, sleep again!

LOOKING AHEAD TO WEEK THREE
  • Puppies will still eat and sleep most of their day
  • Puppies will continue growing 
  • Eyes will continue to open wider and sight will slowly become clearer
  • Ears will start to open and they will begin to hear (though not well yet)
  • Puppies hind legs will become stronger and they will practice walking on all fours
  • Puppies will become more aware of their litter-mates.