A Puppy Morning

Weather & Lucas getting out of bed

The pups are changing so quickly now!  Every day brings something new!

Everyone is keeping the rug clean now, leaving the box to pee on papers in the pen.  Lucas was the last to catch on, but he's the laziest puppy and the slowest to wake up.  Sure makes it easier to keep the box clean, but now we're doing lots of paper changes instead.

Pups are really starting to play with toys

Letty checks out a toy

now.  I add new toys every day, and they all have to be checked out.  Today I will add a cardboard box which they will enjoy, and perhaps put a piece of lumber in there too, so they will have to climb over it.  We try to expose the pups to as many different things as possible.  Meeting people, exploring, being exposed to a variety of novel objects, and later visiting numerous locations will help to insure that the pups are confident and well adjusted.  It's also great fun to watch their reactions!

It's certainly a promising litter so far.  Although Lucas, Letty and Weather have the best markings, the other two boys are acceptably marked (for showing) as well.  Everyone hears, there are no blue eyes, and the personalities seem very good so far.  Structure is starting to become evident too, and I love the way Weather is built.  Tails are up on a couple of the pups already which does not make me happy, but tails are SO hard to predict - you never know which ones will go up and when/if they will come down.  Trim is done on the blacks and still moving well on the livers.  Letty is about 99% complete and Weather just a little bit behind her.  Eye color is going to be very good, as expected.  Blacks are already very dark, livers with a lot of dark pigment already.  I don't care for light eyes on pups of either color, and especially value dark gold eyes on livers.

The basics are good, but so much else to monitor.  Will the pups be bilateral hearing (hear in both ears) or unis (hearing in one ear)?  Will they have correct scissors bites?  Will they be sound and move well?  Will the boys have two testicles?  Will they stay confident and outgoing? Will their health checks be good?  A pup with no disqualifications (according to the breed standard) may be showable, but that does not mean that it is show quality and that it should be placed in a show home.  We always hope that all the pups in a litter can go to show homes, but that is never the case.  If we get one or two such pups we will be happy, three or more we will be thrilled.   So if you are waiting for a pet here, can't tell you that yet.  But they are suuuuurrrreee all cute!

And over at my daughter Jess's house in Wisconsin, Penny is going through the motions and thinking about having puppies today.  Or maybe not 'til Friday.  She could nest for days, or pop them out shortly.  Glad Jess is the one doing the waiting and watching!