V- puppies turn 4 weeks old. Puppies' sensory development.

The fourth week between 21st and 28th day in puppy development is referred to as "awareness or identification period". At this stage all puppies' senses are functioning well, and this past week pups have undergone many first experiences. For example they heard a vacuum cleaner for the first time (no problem!).  Since the whelping box is still in my den where I work on the computer, they listened to quite a few youtube sound tracks with a variety of sounds. So far I have not noticed any sound sensitivity. Sure when they hear a door slammed or a sudden loud noise they startle (which is a completely normal response), but they recover from it very quickly. Several times a day they are taken out of the whelping box and allowed free run and exploration of my den. They like that a lot. When weather allows, they get to spend some time outside in a pen, where they are exposed to a huge variety of smells, sights and sounds.

Pups still rely on Tuesday for their nourishment but yesterday for the first time they had a meal of puppy food mixed with goat milk. They were also given raw bones to play with.

Their weights are:

Volt (lime collar), was at birth 221 gr, now 1645 

Vivica (red) was 250 gr, now 1645

Viola (pink) was 210 gr, now 1565

Vincet (blue) was 232 gr, now 1525

Vonnie (yellow)  was 215 gr, now 1505

Fourth week of puppyhood will bring many new experiences

Puppies are 3.5-weeks-old, and as expected today there were many "firsts". For the first time I heard them "talking" to me and to one another. For the first time they got out of the whelping box, and then I took them outside to a pen where they spent 30 minutes on the grass. Their nails got dremeled, for the 2nd time. They start to resemble "little doggies".

Puppies are becoming more active

All is well with V-puppies. Tuesday continues to be a very attentive mother though now she takes long breaks from the whelping box. She continues to eat well and has plenty of milk, which results in chunky puppies. Now pups are starting to interact with one another, and of course with Tuesday. They wag their tails and attempt to play with toys. With every day they are getting to be more active. It is still too cold to take them outside.

V puppies are two weeks old

Tomorrow puppies are going to be two weeks old so today I tried to snap some pictures. As expected all the puppies are going to have wirehaired coats with beards. Tommy is homozygous for the dominant gene controlling the presence of furnishings so even though Tuesday carries a recessive gene for the lack of furnishings these pups, all of them, are going to have beards.

At this stage the pups seem to be very laid back and low key but this might change with age. Tuesday continues to be a devoted mom, and now she takes some short breaks from the whelping box.

Tomorrow we are going to deworm pups and the mom with Nemex 2.

Tommy and Tuesday's puppies: our V-litter

It's about time to introduce our V litter out of our FC Tuesday von Moosbach-Zuzelek, Sfk, V, and sired by FC Tom vom Linteler-Forst, SchwhK (Prize I/100), Deer Search cert., V. We bred Tommy and Tuesday twice, on February 6 and 8, and Tuesday's pregnancy was uneventful. She had a good appetite and was active. 

She started to whelp on Friday night (April 11) and finished six hours later. Puppies arrived in this order:

9:05 PM Volt (lime collar), 7.8 oz (221 gr)
11:50 PM Viola (pink) 7.4 oz (210 gr)
12:04 AM Vonnie (yellow) 7.6 oz (215 gr)
2:45 AM Vincent (blue) 8.2 oz (232 gr)
3:10 AM Vivica (red) 8.8 oz (250 gr)

Tuesday has been taking a great care of the pups, but in the beginning she suffered from excessive milk production, a painful condition called galactostasis. According to the Merck Manual: "The affected glands are warm, swollen, and painful to the touch, but the animal is alert and healthy. Warm compresses should be applied to the affected glands 4–6 times daily, and the young should be encouraged to nurse from these glands." 

She was put on Clavamox and quickly recovered. Puppies have been gaining weight quickly and at ten days they were:

Volt (lime) was 221 gr at birth, now 650 gr

Vincent (blue) was 232, now 625

Viola (pink) was 210, now 600

Vonnie (yellow)was 215, now 615

Vivica (red) was 232, now 715 gr

They also opened their eyes and started to crawl around whelping box much more.

 

Tuesday has been staying with the pups in the whelping box all the time. They are spotless clean. What I like about her that she not too possessive of her pups. She completely trusts us, and even if dogs bark outside my den, she does not get too upset about it.

April 20

April 22

Evaluating puppies' conformation on a grooming table. How to stack a puppy.

All the puppies are now gone to their new homes, but we need to catch up here on the puppy journal with what had happened here during the last ten days. When Cheri Faust came here to breed Danika to Sky we managed to set some time aside to take pictures of puppies on a grooming table and evaluate their conformation. At the time two pups had already left for new homes so we could do stacking with only five pups.

Cheri is a very experienced with showing dachshunds and she taught the pups stack on the table within ten minutes. This is a video of demonstrating how she does it.

There were quite a few differences visible among the pups when it comes to body type, proportions, size, coat etc.

We both agreed that Uschi has the best conformation of the five pups. She has very nice proportions and nice angulation. She was very comfortable in this position.

This was not he best stack for Ursula, who in reality looks better than in this picture. 

If I were to keep a puppy for myself, it would have been most likely Utah. This is a puppy with excellent coat and extreme agility thanks to a very correct conformation.

While Urho has a lot of  very good qualities, he is a little long in the body and overangulated in his rear.

Uta is now residing in Wisconsin

We were planning to keep one of female puppies from Sky and Mielikki's litter for ourselves. Four weeks ago when Cheri Faust was visiting us, we saw a deep connection and quick attraction between her and Uta, the smallest puppy in the litter. So I offered Cheri a co-ownership of Uta with me keeping breeding rights, and she liked the idea. Last weekend Cheri was back breeding Danika to Sky, and we had a chance to see Uta again. She was still the smallest and probably the feistiest puppy, with a lot of potential. Good luck Cheri with the puppy!

 

Uma has left for a new home

Good luck to Matt, his fiance Emile and their new puppy Uma, now "Heidi"! Matt and Emile live in Ithaca, NY, just 3 hours from us. Matt is a licensed tracker and a member of Deer Search of Finger Lakes. Emile is going to take a NYS DEC exam in August. Both are hunters. Matt is involved in two deer management programs in suburban areas. Could we have dreamed of a better home for our puppy? Being able to place our puppies with people who are dedicated to the cause of wounded deer recovery makes all the work worthwhile.

 If a new owner has a car like this one, you know that your puppy is going to be in right hands.

Uma's conformation reminds me of Mielikki when she was a young puppy.

The remaining four puppies will stay with us for the next two weeks. It should be a lot of fun! Last evening they tracked a two-hour-old blood line on a light tracking leash. Two puppies scored 10 on a scale of 0-10 (10 is the highest) and the other two got 9. We couldn't be happier with the pups. Today we started to walk them on a leash and they did well.

10th week in the life of puppies

During the tenth week of pups' life we have continued to work with puppies on tracking. We also took walks in the woods, fields and to the pond.

Puppies were not bothered by the noise of the tractor working nearby.

We exposed pups to unfamiliar situations and objects to observe their response.

On Friday, July 19, Uncas (red male) left for his new home. We are going to miss this lovely puppy, but luckily occasionally we will get to see him as he is going to live not too far from the MD field trials grounds.

Uncas' calling name is going to be Moose, just like his grandsire's.

Uncas' new owner Adam H. is going to give him a lot of opportunities to use his nose. We are very excited about this future tracking team. Best of luck Adam and Moose!