The Last Post

The puppies have had a change of sleeping arrangements. To be honest I am surprised that they remained in the whelping box as long as they did, but Monday night and Tuesday put an end to that. With the rain on Monday the puppies spend most of the time in the outside kennel and in their box in the house. Net result was 8 puppies overflowing with energy, like 8 toddlers who had eaten too many brightly coloured Smarties! They were just manic on Monday night, playing, fighting, howling and generally being very active puppies.




When I came downstairs on Tuesday morning the energy simply overflowed. The puppies were so pleased to see me that they all started scrambling over the walls of the box which simply folded in half. It was like a comedy and looked like rats scurrying off a sinking ship

So the trusty whelping box had to go in the bin and has been replaced by two large sized metal dog crates joined together. This is probably quite a good thing for those of you who have invested in a crate, as the puppies will be somewhat used to being in a crate when you take them home. For the moment the puppies are rather distracted by the fact that they can see what is going on outside the crate, which they couldn't really do in the whelping box. It is a bit more difficult working with the crate as it is not possible to lean in and lift the puppies out. It is necessary instead to open the door at the front of the crate and as you can imagine, when you do this 8 happy puppies pour out at once!

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Anyway, this is probably the last post before the majority of the puppies leave for their new homes, so it is really quite sad for me. I do hope that you will all contribute to keeping the blog active. As with the first post I have ended with an individual photo of each puppy. Hopefully you can recognise your own puppies by now (but as a clue, girls on the right, and boys on the left).

(Phoebe, Lucy, Tilly, Jasper, Brogan, Casper, Coda & Buster)

It's over to you - Continuing the Puppy Blog.........

A few of you have commented on how much you have enjoyed following all of the puppies' progress, not just your own, and that you feel that you have gotten to know all of the puppies.

I thought it would be nice if, once each of you has collected your puppy, you use this blog to post photos/videos and stories of your puppy as it develops. Each of you can then follow the other puppies as well, and compare to how your own puppy progresses.

I've checked how I do this and all I need is to have an e-mail address for each of you to send you the link, so could those of you who haven't been communicating with me by e-mail give me your e-mail address.

Thanks,
Debbie

7 weeks Old

It's the end of a busy day for the puppies, with lots of new families having visited throughout the day, and the end of a great fortnight for me.

I'm back at work from tomorrow and the puppies are hopefully now used to being in their kennel and so will be outside during the days this week. My neighbour and dog walker, Susanne, will be popping in through the day to let Daisy and the puppies out for a run round the garden at various points.

Photos are in order :

On the left :

• Coda, Casper & Lucy
• Buster
• Daisy being mauled by the hungry crew

On the right :

• A rather funky photo of Jasper which I played about with on the PC
• Daisy & Buster
• Buster & Casper

Digging for Freedom

Another lovely day spent in the garden with the puppies who are becoming increasingly confident and romping around the entire area.

My poor garden isn't faring so well though. The puppies have systematically stripped the shrubs of all their leaves, demolished my pot plants and made a great game of scraping back the stones and ripping the underlying weed matting to shreds.

Not to mention the Great Escape plan which was being hatched, until I noticed the big hole being dug under the fence (see the second video. It frames Brogan and Tilly, but they were all caught at it at some point today!).


Now that the puppies are really playing properly with one another, Daisy is really enjoying playing with them. It is lovely to see.

The last video was the scene from my kitchen window as I washed the dishes this evening. Who needs television? If only it didn't have to come to an end!

Photos are in order :

on the left

1. Brogan


2. Buster


3. Daisy and Coda
4. Jasper


5. Brogan again

on the right

1. Casper/Cosmo


2. Lucy


3. Coda

Puppies take the Toddler Lesson

My two-year old niece, Olivia, has been staying with me the last couple of days.
She has been teaching the "toddler module" on the puppies 8-week long life skills course!

Actually I'm not sure who has been the most tired after a couple of days rolling about the grass (probably me!!!)

You probably want to have the sound on for these video clips.

It's a Dogs Life

What a life being a puppy. You get breakfast in bed, then carried out to the garden where you while away the sunny hours exploring, playing with your brothers and sisters and having the occasional swing from mum's ears.

When it all gets too much you find a quiet spot in the shade to rest your weary head for an hour or so before you start all over again.

It's been a great week and a super start to my holiday. The puppies have been spending increasing amounts of time outside and today have been out since 10am. They are still out snoozing in the kennel with the door open as I type this at 4pm (I hope!).

They have been playing for about an hour at a time, and seem to quite like their kennel, choosing to head into it for a sleep every so often.

5 Weeks old and Enjoying the Sunshine

The good weather has been much appreciated and the puppies have been able to spend a fair amount of time in the garden. As you will see from the photos and videos taken today (Monday) they are much more confident and inquisitive in the garden than they were last weekend



The puppies generally play and roam around for half an hour before crashing out. If it is quite hot in the sunshine they will come and lie behind me to get some shade, hence the reason I took the cage out today and put a blanket over it - not that they used it. I ended up with half of them curled round my legs. As seems to be becoming the norm Coda, believing she is the little princess of the pack, expects to have my lap all to herself, blue girl number 7 (do we have a name yet?) just thought my skirt was a rag for playing with, Jasper and blue boy number 5 out did everyone else for stamina and carried on playing when the rest of the puppies had crashed and Phoebe was in for the rough and tumble but then got tired and just wanted a cuddle.

Thus far I have managed NOT to lose anyone, but give it time !
I need eight pairs of eyes to keep track of this lot.

Photos in order

On the Right:

1. Jasper
2. Buster, Phoebe & Marmalade

On the Left:

1. Marmalade (sitting), Buster (lying), Cosmo (standing) & Phoebe
2. Coda
3. Buster (lying) & Marmalade

Four and a Half Weeks

I can't believe that the puppies are nearly 5 weeks old. The last couple of weeks have flown in.

The puppies are playing more and more now. Indeed sometimes their play is really rough with lots of growling and squealing, especially the boys. There are points when you would almost think they were killing one another, but it's all just about them learning how to interact and learning social skills. And their teeth are now like little needles.

Daisy is spending less and less time with the puppies now, and when she is with them she wants to play with them, rather than feed them. The puppies can almost run now which is entertaining to watch. If you want to see some more photos, Susanne who helps with the daycare has posted some more photos from Monday on her own doggy daycare blog. Check out :http://www.doodlesdaycarefordogs.blogspot.com/

Introduction to the Big Wide World

The puppies got their first taste of the outdoors today, with half an hour in the late afternoon sunshine spent waddling around and sleeping on the grass in the garden.