Day Nineteen

The puppies now have teeth and they are interacting with each other. Tomorrow I will buy some puppy food and start feeding them. I'm sure Bizzi is ready for me to assist her in the feeding duties. I think it is about time to switch them to a crate rather than the pool. They are getting more fun to watch every day!

 The patched puppies from left to right.Kenny,Dalton, Gavin, and LaDonna

Day Eighteen

Today's blog post is not going to be about cute puppy pictures. I want to talk a little about why I bred this litter. First, I want to explain what LUA in a Dalmatian means. For those of you who know all about this I am sorry if I am preaching to the choir. For those of you who are saying HUH right now please read on! What is hyperuricosuria? It is a mutation that is fixed in the Dalmatian breed. Fixed means that all Dalmatians have 2 copies of the mutated gene. Well almost all Dalmatians...there is one line of Dalmatians that carries the normal gene. There are not very many of them at this point in time but that is about to change! For the last 30 years many people wanted to keep the status quo but there were others that wanted to do something to improve the health of an already relatively healthy breed of dogs. In 1973 a geneticist, Dr Schaible harvested the normal gene from a pointer and incorporated it in his line of Dalmatians. Fast forward 38 years and many generations later we have a growing number of Dalmatians that are not at risk of forming urate stones.  Right now there are 8 Dalmatians in the world that carry 2 copies of the normal gene! A dismally small number I'm sure but that is 8 dalmatians that will not have and cannot produce dogs that will suffer from hyperuricosuria or high uric acid. There are quite a few Dals now that carry one copy of the LUA gene and they also will not produce urate stones however with only one copy of the gene they can produce puppies that can suffer from urate stones. Maks the father of this litter is one of the eight homozygous Dals in the world. I am thrilled to have been trusted with this wonderful dog.

So now to the reason I bred this litter. What we (a growing number of LUA proponents) are now in the process of doing is slowly spreading the gene throughout the general Dalmatian population. I say slowly because if it is done with out thought a genetic bottleneck could occur. I bred this litter to incorporate Maks's genes into my line of Dalmatians therefore the best puppy or puppies will be kept and places in situations where they will carry the gene into the next generation.

That said. I am pleased that I can offer male Dals that can live out their lives without the fear of blocking from urate stones! I say male but the same goes for females but female stone formers don't block the way males do.

I would be happy to answer any questions about LUA dogs.

My battery in my camera died so not so many pictures to share today. Below is Nancy who escaped and Emily, Kenny and Wade looking on.

 Growing!

 Lila my liver LUA girl trying to talk Bizzi into letting her in with the puppies while grandfather Garrett looks on

Day Seventeen

I have posted a lot of face shots so today I took some body shots so you can see the spotting patterns. I don't believe any of them will be too lightly marked or over marked. They all look pleasingly spotted although  some of the puppies have a thicker coat than others. The ones with the shorter coats look more boldly spotted than the ones with the more plush coat. I believe that the spots are just taking longer to come through on those puppies. I'm sure many of you are trying to pick which puppy will be yours so if anyone wants me to highlight a particular puppy please drop me an email. From the feedback I have been getting Dalton and Gavin seem to be the favorites. They are all very robust but they appear much bigger in the pictures than they actually are. Or at least that is what I have been told. So here they are!

Wade

 Wade

Nancy lightest marked and Holly

Gavin

Justin

Kenny in white striped collar and LaDonna

Dalton

 Emily



Day Sixteen

Today is the last day of the Super puppy exercises. That goes from day three to day sixteen. It is the third day of the sound/food stimulation. They are loving the ground beef and today I think I saw a hearing response in 5 of the 9. The eyes are now fully open and they are interacting with each other and trying to climb out of the pool.... with success I might add.

 I was asked which was my favorite. I had to answer Wade and the reason for that has more to do with Wade's ancestors than he himself. When I look at these puppies I see more than what is in front of me. I can see bits and pieces of the dogs that came before them. Wade reminds me of his great grandfather Ch Rim Rock's Country Spirit. He also reminds me of his GGG grandfather Ch Rim Rock's Constant Comment CD. So I see things in him with my heart rather than my eyes. Of course I always gravitate to the males. I think a male makes a much better pet and I most likely would not have females except for the fact it is hard to be a breeder without them.

Below is Gavin

This little cutie is Emily

LaDonna is the patched girl

I love to watch them when they first start to play and I saw that today. This is Justin and Holly.

Hey Mom what are you drinking? Yellow collar is Emily and orange stripe collar is Wade with LaDonna looking on.

Below is Holly



Day Fifteen and it's all about Nancy

The puppies are responding to the food/sound conditioning already! The first to give a very distinct hearing response was Nancy so today is all about her. They were all sleeping and I went past their box and looked in and made the psst noise and Nancy picked up her little head. I was so amazed that I got a response on the second day of the training. How cool is that? I tried it again about an hour later and she gave me the same response. Nancy was the first born and she is the smallest by a couple of ounces. She is going to be very lightly marked and I think she will be very feminine.

Here are some pictures of our girl Nancy

Week Two

WOW....what a busy day the puppies had. They had visitors again today. LaDonna came to see them again and brought gifts for all the big dogs and toys for the puppies. She is such a good  doggie Aunt! Of course I made sure Maks was still here when she left because I fear she may steal him someday!!! It seems that everyone who looks into his beautiful eyes falls in love with him. I know he put a spell on me and it was love at first sight! Then another friend Marion came to visit. Marion has two of Bizzi's Uncles and has owned Dals for many, many years. Maks put a spell on her too!

This evening the puppies got weighed and their nails clipped again. They now weigh from 2 lb 3 oz  to 2 lb 8 oz. Both Emily and Dalton have their eyes completely open but the rest of the puppies have eyes that are in various stages of opening. As a treat after getting their nails clipped I decided to start the sound / food conditioning. I made the psst sound and put a tiny bit of raw ground beef under their nose. When they smelled it they started to suck on my finger to get the beef. I did that with each of them and then watched them lick each others faces to make sure there was nothing missed. Of course they really have no idea what I am doing but in a week they will know exactly what I am doing and in two weeks they will jump out of a sound sleep when they hear psst.

Here is a picture of Bizzi with her present

Here are Emily and Dalton with their eyes open!

 The two pictures below are for my friend Gayle...Enjoy!

Day Thirteen

Today I got to spend more time watching the puppies and I observed the very beginning of their desire to go away from the nest to pee.  In about a week I will be taking the pool away and putting in the bottom of an extra large crate. At that time they will leave the crate to potty on the paper. It is amazing how they automatically do this. In another day or so their eyes will be totally open. That is when I start conditioning them to a sound that means food is coming.  The sound I use is "PSST" like I am trying to get their attention. I don't use a loud sound just a gentle psst. I will take tiny balls of ground beef and make that noise at the same time I am popping the beef into their mouth. I will do this one time the first day and two times the second day and so on. It won't be long and they will wake from a sound sleep when they hear that noise. If one of the puppies doesn't jump up for the sound I will suspect he is deaf. If he jumps up only part of the time I will suspect he is a unilateral hearing dog. It is a very fast way to tell early the hearing status of the litter.

Here is a picture of the puppies eating. I am sure she will be happy when they are eating from a bowl.

When I walked in the room one time today the pictures below are what I saw. Holly provided a Kodak moment!

I thought I would add a picture of my other litter too!



Day Twelve

Here is a short video which is very poor quality but you can get a glimpse of them learning to use their legs. Bizzi was eating her supper and I think they could smell it because this is what they look like when they want to eat.

I noticed today that their eyes are starting to open. Once they can see and hear they really change rapidly. Below is a face shot of Wade followed by two of Nancy.

Day Eleven and it's all about Gavin

When I downloaded the pictures I snapped today Gavin was center stage in most of them so I guess today will be all about Gavin! Gavin was the seventh puppy born and he was born at noon and weighed 12 oz. He was one of the smallest at birth however at one week he weighed 1 lb. 8 oz. He doubled his size in one week! Gavin is the puppy who loved to eat and even when Bizzi stands up he still hangs on and gets lifted completely off the ground. He will make someone an awesome companion. What a cutie!

Day Ten

Today I noticed that the puppies are really trying to walk. They manage to get up but they haven't mastered taking a step without falling over yet. I also noticed a tail wag! They are so cute that it is hard to drag myself away from them to go to work.  They really like to eat and are very loud when they think it is time to eat and Bizzi doesn't agree.

 Below is Justin

Below is Wade and I love his little face.

 

Holly can't understand why she can't bum a meal from Greenie.