Day Thirty Two

 The puppies are not content to stay in the puppy pen anymore. The want to explore! I enjoy watching them but I am very tired and they are not even 5 weeks old yet. I had to work today but I am looking forward to the next two days staying at home with! After every litter I swear I will never do this again and I am swearing the same thing this time. It is so much work to do it right and I won't do it any other way. Here are some pictures from today.

There are 4 generations of my Dals in this picture



Three generations of girls

 Bizzi and two granddaughters

 Hey... Grammy where's your milk?

 Indian

 Kennedy

 Mayflower



Day Thirty One

The puppies had another busy day with visitors. Aunt Chrissy came bearing toys for all the puppies and goodies for me. Shortly after that Aunt LaDonna and Dalton came to visit the puppies. More goodies too! Chris and Ladonna helped me get the DNA samples from the puppies. This involved swabbing the inside of each puppy's cheek with four buccal swabs. The puppies have to be kept away from each other and Mom for awhile before they are swabbed to avoid getting DNA from two different puppies in a sample.

Sleeping boy Kennedy and Pilgrim

Indian

Kennedy enjoying the toys

 Pumpkin thinks they should all be hers

 Toys, toy's and more toys

 I love you Mom

Chow time



Emily saw all the new toys for the puppies and thinks that surely Aunt Chrissy meant for one of those toys to be hers.

Day Thirty

Today was a very busy day for me. The puppies had visitors. James and Vickie came to see the puppies for the first time. They are getting one but they fell in love with them all. The swabs came in the mail today so I will get the DNA samples tomorrow and send them in on Monday.  The first picture is Kennedy.

The next two are of Macy

Mayflower thinks she is very scary

Cranberry has Gobblegirl pinned

UH-OH...They can almost see out of the pen. Once they can stand up and look out they want out to run amok!

Cranberry

Day Twenty Nine

Today the puppies got their toenails trimmed again. They don't seem to mind it at all. Such sweet babies. I also noticed that their bed was dry which is a very good thing. They have decided to go out on the paper to pee. I have started to cut back on the amount of food Emily is getting since she doesn't need to produce nearly as much milk. The puppies are eating very well on their own now so she can start weaning them.  Poor little Cranberry was trying to sleep and I woke her up to take her picture.

 

Gobblegirl looks on as Kennedy and Indian play

 

Indian playing with the chicken

 

Kennedy's cute little face

 

Pilgrim sound asleep

 

Little Angel Pumpkin

Week Four

It is hard to believe they are 4 weeks old already. They are getting more and more playful and now they wag their little tails and bark at each other. Sometimes they get annoyed at each other too.  Grandma Bizzi enjoys playing with them now too. The first picture is of Gobblegirl sound asleep. This is how I found her when I got home from work.



This pretty face belongs to little miss Macy.

That sweet face looking at you in the picture below is Gobblegirl

Macy and Gobblegirl

Gobblegirl in the red collar, Kennedy and Mayflower in the yellow collar

 

Day Twenty Seven

 

Well I got absolutely nothing done today. Just sat and watched the puppies...It is impossible to drag myself away. They are getting cuter everyday. Every day a different one is my favorite.

Gobblegirl is sitting on the curb which always makes me laugh.

 

 

 

I did manage to order the swabs for their DNA testing. Although I know they are all LUA some of them may be homozygous LUA so I would very much like to know which ones those may be. There are a very small number of homozygous LUA dogs in the world so if I have some I want to know it. I also will have them tested for hair length as some of them could be longhair. I have never had a longhair before but it could be possible in this litter. There are so many things we can find out about our dogs through DNA testing. When they get a bit older they will be hearing tested although I know they all hear!

 

Day Twenty Six

The hard part of raising a litter is just beginning. The puppies are getting more active and also getting steadier on their legs. I noticed today that many of them have learned to stand with their back legs under them rather than stretched out. When they eat from Emily they are laying with their legs stretched out. That doesn't work so well when they are eating from a pan. It is very interesting watching them learn. I am also getting a glimpse of their personalities. Now if I only didn't have a full time job.....

 

They are still not coming out to potty consistently. When they do I am very happy!

 

Here is Kennedy with puppy food on his nose.

Playtime

Pumpkin

That can't be comfortable