So the little monsters are a month old today. It’s amazing how they change in one month, from tiny little guinea pig looking critters to tiny perfect little dogs, chubby and already as cuddly as their older siblings.
We have their whelping box raised up on milk crates next to a window in our living room. In the window, we have a dog door that leads out onto a little deck, and from there a ramp down to a little fenced yard.
They go in and out of the pet door at will, to potty outside. I keep all the toys out there, and yummy food that I’m supplementing them with, like cottage cheese, scrambled eggs, tuna, raw rabbit meat.
I love how independent they can be, choosing when they want to go out. I hear the little click click noise of the magnet on the dog door at all hours of day and night. Even when it’s dark out, if someone needs to piddle, they can. There hasn’t been a poop accident in the whelping box in three days. Peeing still happens sometimes by a couple of them, but that’s the next skill to perfect. They’ve only had access to the dog door for a week! Such fast learners when I can capitalize on their instincts to keep their den clean.
If Disa nurses them in the whelping box, slightly before they are finished she walks out onto the deck, and they all follow her. For a while, she stopped there, and that’s where they all piddled, but now that they are older, she takes them all the way down the ramp to the yard. But during the day, she nurses them down there to start with.
They have tiny sharp teeth and are chewing on everything, so they have lots of toys, sticks, bullysticks and bones all around for choices.
Their tails are just starting to curl, and they wag so much we could power a small city if we hooked them up to a generator. Tails make a great puppy toy, if you ask them. They’ve already begun to hang on and be drug around by a sibling, often two or three of them hanging on to one tail.
They growl and bark. They whine when they are sleepy if they have stayed out a bit too long and can’t possibly make it all the way up that ramp to bed. They whine if they can’t get up the step to the porch and then want to come in RIGHT NOW. They are still so little to be out and about, so I go hang out with them whenever they are down in the play yard so they can climb all over me, fall asleep on my lap, and get help when they need it. Such a hard job, I have, socializing puppies.
Gaela is also chipping in. She’s being the perfect aunt even though she’s a big sister. She’s playing with them, and babysitting when Disa needs a break. It took a while, but she has convinced them that she does not have milk. With this experience, and after raising Tara, she should be great when she has puppies of her own.
Two of them have names — Kopur is going to live with my son and his wife in San Diego. They have Roki from the first litter. Kimmie is now Karen Pryor Acadamy trained, and I can’t wait to see what she does when she starts with a puppy from the beginning. She’s done amazing things with Roki’s training, so it’s going to be fun to see.
Freyja is going to a family down in Western Massachusetts that have pigs, Icelandic chickens and children, most importantly a little boy. He can’t quite believe that he’s getting a puppy of his own. Freyja is very affectionate and quite brave. She’s been wrestling with Gaela a lot lately, rougher than I thought she’d like, but she initiates it. She’s also quite independent. I will sometimes find her as the only one in the whelping box, sound asleep, while everyone else is outside.
I’m going to keep one of the girls for myself, but I haven’t decided which of the remaining three. Any of them would be wonderful. This is Disa’s last litter, and I’d like to have two breeding bitches. We have had several families interested in several of them, but no one has decided which exact one yet. No hurry! But if you are interested in one of your own, I think we probably have a girl and the littlest boy still available.
And I want to wish our last litter a very happy second birthday! Look how much they changed! Everyone tells me that they are all happy and cuddly, and I’m so glad! I think they’ve all turned out so beautiful.
