Look Ma! We can eat our own food!

The pups began the weaning process today. Most of what they get now is puppy food soup followed by a good drink from mom. Here is their first experience of non-mom food.



The best part of the day wasn't captured on video. Dawna is a great mom. And we have to keep her away from the pups right now to help with the weaning. They're allowed a good drink after they eat from the weaning gruel. But she wants to visit and it's good for the pups to have mama dog interactions. So we put a tee shirt on her and pulled it up at the back so the pups couldn't nurse. They couldn't.

Except... Well... These are smart puppies... They found the "trap door" at the back of the tee-shirt and figured out that they could enter that way. We had a hilarious ten minutes trying to get puppies out of the tee-shirt! They kept entering through the back-door--at the back of Dawna where the shirt was pulled tight but not enclosed. Several managed to crawl in the tee-shirt and all the way up to her front legs to nurse!

Back to the drawing board for the breeder-caretakers!

Piranas

Tomorrow the pups start the weaning process. Not a moment too soon if you ask Dawna!


Ok, I'll just clean a few of the babies... Hmm... I think they're hungry.


This is going ok...


Here comes more of them...


Oh no! Piranas!!

Actually, Dawna is a very good mom and is very careful and thoughtful about her babies. But with each pup at or over four pounds, she's looking at 35 to 40 pounds of puppies coming at her every nursing. So, even though she's great with the babies...


Whew! All done now!

Many thanks to Dawna's good friend Nancy Vise who stopped by today and captured all of these wonderful pictures. She also captured a great video of the pups today. Check it out on YouTube:

ZZZZZZzzzzzzz......

The pups like their long snoozes after good meals.


A number of them are also particular about finding just the right spot to sleep... You can't sleep until it's just the right spot... Here... no, here... no.... ahhh... The sounds you hear throughout are Fitz trying to find just the right spot...

Happy Birthday CCI

In addition to exploring their new digs, the pups celebrated CCI's birthday today. Happy 35th birthday CCI!

INDEPENDENCE DAY!!!!

The pups spent the evening of July 4th exploring their new home. It was puppy Independence Day. The experience was very exciting. And like most things puppy, it ended with naps all around. The pups didn't even notice the faint sounds of fireworks in the background.

Hungry puppies!

The pups are growing by leaps and bounds these days. All that growth comes from... eating lots and lots! These are very hungry puppies...

Containment.... Part I

The pups are starting to show interest in reaching to the top of their pool. No one has escaped yet.... but.... just in case.... we've placed a portion of the litter pen around the pool and closed it off with a short barrier. Dawna can jump over the barrier but the pups won't be able to get out even if they escape the pool.

A much bigger area is coming... stay tuned!