Pictures of Quick and Quella

Quick (red)

Quella (orange)

Puppies' first trip to the pond

What a hot summer it has been! Dogs are not able to get enough exercise as it is plainly too hot during the day. Last evening I took Gilda and her two pups, Remy and Rilla, to the pond. Gilda needs to lose a lot of weight, and I can see that she is out of shape. We should be taking her to the pond more often if the weather stays this hot. She likes to swim so this is a good exercise for her. Pups, just over 7 weeks old, were exploring but did not get into the water.

Playing with Tommy

Another hot day today but pups had a good time playing with other dogs.

Puppies meet Nolan

Today we had a very nice visit from a future owner of our puppy. Gunn Gardner from Springwater, NY, a member of Deer Search, came all the way to visit puppies, and he was accompanied by his grandson Nolan. A nine-year-old Nolan was natural with puppies, and even though he got scratched by sharp nails and teeth, he played with pups for a long time, and then went for more. It was a great fun for puppies too! Nolan lives in Texas so probably we are not going to see him too often, and that's too bad. After we had played with the pups, we went to the pond to watch Bernie performing his tricks in the water. And then Nolan fished and caught a big catfish. Altogether a great day!

By the way, yesterday Keena's pups turned 7 weeks old and their weights were:

Boys:

1. Quantum Green      1440 gr

2. Quick Red              2470 gr

3. Quentin Light Blue  2740 gr

4. Quint Navy             2360 gr

Girls:
5. Queenie Yellow       2040 gr  
6. Quanta Pink            2470 gr
7. Quella Orange         2560 gr
8. Questa Lime            2130 gr
9. Quipster White        2600 gr

Pups' first blood line and first encounter with a deer hide

Last evening there was a nice breeze, and even though it was still very hot, we managed to do a short fresh blood line for puppies, which ended with a deer hide served as reward. The video below shows puppies coming to the end of blood line and responding to a deer hide (their first). You can also see Geiko there, who now is fully integrated into the pack. He is in the first frame the brown pup on the right.

After pups had chewed on the hide for a while, John started to drag the hide and pups followed. They did well, and it was a good exercise. Some of them were more intense than others, but overall we were very pleased.

This morning started with a lot of excitement. When we got up and let Billy out to our fenced-in dog yard, we did not realize that  a rabbit squeezed through the gate and was munching on the grass there. Billy killed it quickly, after John gutted it, we offered it to the puppies. Well, what can I say? The puppies are little savage beasts.

Pictures of Gilda's puppies at 6 weeks

Rilla (white)

Roulet (Pink)

Ranger (Black)

Remy (Yellow)

Ruger (Red)

A very hot summer day for 14 puppies

After day temperatures in the mid 90s, we tried to give puppies a chance to play and run in the early evening.

Pictures of Keena's pups at 6 weeks

Almost weaned

Both litters are almost weaned. Both Gilda and Keena showed signs of being uncomfortable while pups were nursing and started to snap at them. Most pups have their teeth out so they are ready to make a complete switch! Right now they get 3-4 meals a day, depending on our schedule. They are fed Omas Pride http://www.omaspride.com/ raw turkey and chicken mixes, Canidae or Eagle Pack canned food, and soon we will introduce dry kibble. We also have several bags of frozen chicken necks, and we will start feeding them next week. The necks will be handy when we start crating pups for an hour or two. Pups are familiar with a crate now as there is a crate in each of their pens, and they go there on their own to take naps. But the time is coming to start putting each pup to a crate. With some litters there is no problem with crate training at all, but with others pups take some time to get used to it.

Of course Geico has been most advanced when it comes to diet and sleeping by himself  because we had to handle him separately from other pups and moms. He has been eating on his own for several weeks now, and he has been sleeping by himself in our kitchen. I would have never expected myself to respond to this puppy the way I do. He is so bright and affectionate that it is very hard not to get bonded to him. We still don't know what exactly his problem might be. He continues to weigh around 50% of what his siblings weigh, but differences do not end in the size only. His limbs are quite long, bones are thin, and he seems to lack any fat (no matter how much he eats). He likes to lie next to our fridge, in a warm spot on the tile floor. The other day I saw a program on TV "Born Different", and one of the children showed in the program has a condition called primordial dwarfism. You can see a youtube video on Kenadie here. Well, I can see similarities in Kenadie and Geico's conditions. Next week Jeff Springer, DVM, is coming here to breed Tilly so we'll see what he thinks. I am sure that there are many abnormalities that might manifest themselves in a reduced size. Well, we don't know what future holds for Geico, but we both really enjoy him.

Sound conditioning

This week we are working on pups' sound conditioning. They are being exposed to a variety of sounds and we watch closely their responses. Since their pen is located on the front lawn, close to the house, they can hear a lawn mower, car, tractor, weed whacker, and trap shooting coming from a nearby property. I also use bubble wrap. Popping bubble wrap creates a similar sound to that of a cap pistol. Most of the pups did not show any reaction at all, some noticed the sound but did not mind but one pup showed concern. It is interesting that this particular pup was not bothered by other loud noises (like the banging of metal dog dishes) but did not like the sound of popping bubble wrap. I also let pups play with the whole roll so they could pop the bubbles themselves.

Rain and thunderstorms in the forecast so puppies are going to stay inside

Today we had several new developments. In the morning we brought Paika to the kitchen with hope that she would be gentle enough with Geico. For the most part she was, and things went very well. He is so tiny in comparison to her that all the interaction has to be done with us present, under our supervision. But little guy had  a lot of fun playing with Paika, and after 20 minutes he was exhausted.

We had several scattered showers so pups had to come inside a few times. Tonight the forecast calls for thunderstorms so a shed is not a good place for the pups to stay in alone overnight. They are not ready for this kind of stress. So both litters got reunited and they are going to spend the night inside in the pen filled with wood chips. The pen is attached to a big whelping box, which now serves as sleeping and playing area for the pups. When they need to go to bathroom they use the wood chips in the pen. We have used this system for many years and it has been working very well. This way, puppies learn early to be clean and not to soil their bed.

Q-pups spend their night on their own

Keena's puppies turned 5 weeks old today. Last night for the first time they spent a night by themselves, without Keena. Until yesterday they stayed in my office, but it was getting too crowded so we moved them to the fenced pen, which is attached to a shed. This setup is described in this post from 2009. Keena seems to be relieved to have a break from the pups over the night, and they did not seem to be too stressed out about the new situation.

Today there was a drizzle, and it was a good opportunity to get pups out onto the wet grass and the gravel driveway. New experiences are very important at this age. We also sprinkled some deer blood on the grass to see whether the pups would respond to the scent (yes, they did). Puppies also had a chance to meet other dogs - Joeri and Tommy.

Puppies playing with deer legs

Today pups were exposed to deer legs. They liked it very much.