Day Forty One

We had a very busy day today and the puppies are all sleeping. They had many visitors and lots of time to run and play. The first visitors were friends Carl and Kim who own the puppies' Uncle Cash. All the puppies had kisses for them and Nancy even gave Carl a big dally smile! Then LaDonna came to visit. They puppies know her very well because she has been a tremendous help with the litter! I think she will be sad to see them go to their new homes too. After that Marion who will be Nancy's new Mom came to see her girl!

While LaDonna was here we collected DNA samples of the puppies to send in for hyperuricosuria testing. Because Maks has no copies of the hyperuricosuria mutated gene that all Dalmatians have (other than LUA Dals) the puppies will only get one copy of the mutated gene from Bizzi. Since Maks' normal gene is dominate the puppies will all be heterozygous and therefore not at risk of developing urate stones. Since Maks cannot pass on something he doesn't have the test is really not necessary however the AKC wants this testing in order to register these puppies. So let me explain the testing procedure. The DNA that the lab at UC Davis uses is collected on buccal swabs from the inside of the cheek. They require 3 swabs from each puppy. The puppies were not allowed to eat or drink for one hour before they are swabbed. I had to wash my hands after each puppy was finished and put the swabs back into their sleeves and then into an envelope so the swabs don't come in contact with each other. Labeling the swab sleeves was very tedious and I did it yesterday.

One other thing  the puppies experienced new today was a chicken wing. Boy they loved that!

Since I am taking the puppies tomorrow to the GPDC meeting I decided to do nails tonight instead of tomorrow They continue to grow. They weigh from 6 lb 10 oz to 8 lb 8 oz.

Below you will find pictures of all the swabs laid out and labeled ready for us to begin, a picture showing what the swabs look like and a picture of a puppy getting swabbed. Also you will see a puppy hording a chicken wing!

Day Forty

I found out today that Maks is carrying the long hair gene. Because science has come so far it is now possible to find out so many things through DNA testing. I know that he carries 2 copies of the normal SLC2A9 gene, and he does not carry the genes to produce liver or lemon spotted puppies. Long hair Dalmatians are very rare. For those of you who have never seen a long hair Dal here is what they look like. No one really knows what percentage of the Dal population carries the long hair gene but I think it must be very small.

Here are some pictures of the puppies just being cute! A very easy task for them!

Day Thirty Nine

Oh what fun 5 week old puppies are!!!!! They are so curious and playful. I noticed a big change in Dalton this week. He was not the bravest puppy in the litter and a little sound sensitive but he seems to have overcome his hesitation. He is very sweet and very pretty. Every day I have a different favorite! Because it was so cold and rainy outside the big dogs didn't want to be out so we had a free for all inside. Here are some pictures of them all playing.



Day Thirty Eight

I thought that the puppies might be tired after their big adventure yesterday but that doesn't seem to be the case. The played and played this evening until they wore themselves out.  They all are quite sweet except Emily who continues to think it is her way or no way.
Here are a few more pictures from yesterday.

 Very tired Holly

 Playing with Aunt Gia

 Hi cousin Gage!

Day Thirty Seven..... Therapy dogs at 5 weeks old!

What a big day for the puppies! My friend LaDonna does therapy work with her dogs and finds it very satisfying so when she asked if I minded if she took a couple of the pups to meet her "old people" as she so affectionately calls them of course I agreed. I wondered if perhaps she had lost her mind when she decided to take all nine of them! She asked her friend and neighbor Patty and another Dal owner Cindy to join her and the three of them took the puppies on quite an adventure!

I got up extra early to get my morning work done and then packed all nine pups in my car and dropped them off at LaDonna's house on my way to work at 7:00AM. I picked them back up at 5:30PM on my way home. LaDonna reports that they were wonderful!. They never showed any signs of being stressed and just had a great time entertaining the residents at the nursing home. They then went back to Ladonna's, had a nap and their lunch and then played outside with LaDonna's dogs and her grandsons.

I thought they would be exhausted but it seems they have EverReady batteries in them because after a nap they are ready to play again! Early socialization is so important for puppies and these puppies have had many different experiences in their five weeks.

 Aunt Gia playing with LaDonna

Day Thirty Six

Yesterday I promised to put individual pictures of the other five puppies so here they are! Nothing new to report today.....but tomorrow stay tuned for news of the puppies big adventure!

Week Five

Busy...busy...busy! So why are there only 24 hours in a day...oh wait 20 hours I do have to sleep sometime. Today was very full of things to do with the puppies. Weighing first... and they now range from 5 lb 12 oz to 6 lb 14 oz. They are growing rapidly in both mind and body. Then they had their weekly pedicure. Friends Nancy and Mary Ann came to see them and Mary Ann brought presents for the puppies, dogs and me too!  LaDonna came and we did a photo shoot. LaDonna took 324 pictures and I have sorted through them to find the best ones. I didn't have time to go through them all so today's blog will only have a side and face picture of the first 4 we did. Hopefully tomorrow I can post the other five. Today was also the first the puppies were outside. Enjoy the pictures!

Day Thirty Four

Today the puppies got microchipped. The needle that inserts the chip is very big but the puppies were very brave. Some of them cried a little but seemed to forget all about it as soon as it was done.


Tomorrow will be a very busy day because we are going to take individual pictures. Here are some pictures we took today.