|
Week #6-7 - a wild, frantic
blur...
By Chris
Wow, can't believe we missed
week 6... It's a good thing this will be our only experience with the thrills of reproduction! We can
barely clean up after ourselves...five pups is a lot of work!
I have a theory I'd like to share.
I think teenagers are obxnoxious by design - specifically so that parents end up wanting to let them go out into
the world and become adults. I think this theory also applies to puppies. While they are amazingly cute... man, they
have become a pain in the behind lately...
Week 6 started out with just
more of the same from week 5. On Super Bowl Sunday, Katie (the breeder) had an open house for some puppy buyers.
After that, all 5 pups went home with Katie to start the weaning process. Olive seemed pleased to have a quiet house
again - although her nipples ended up freakin' huge!! and leaky.... We were definitely pleased to have a few days
of normalcy though - something we haven't experienced in almost 4 months now! We cleaned up the messes and all
was good and calm in the world for 4 nights!
The pups came back on Feb 9th
and were different pups! We thought maybe they had been exchanged for alien pups... They were now only eating
puppy food - no more sucking Olive dry. :) And, man do they scream now. We thought they were noisy before, but
now their vocal chords seem to have matured quite a bit!
They had their first set of shots
and their first baths and they are definitely stating to look like Basenjis! Little pointed noses, deep wrinkles, curly
tails. They are way more active now too and simply HATE being locked up. The screams sound like women and children
being brutally murdered. Not fun to listen to at all...
They have also grown big enough
and have become clever enough to be able to get out of the whelping pen, in fact they can get through any barriers we
put up for them. They are amazing climbers. The pups actually work together and use tools to find ways to get
out of the pen. They crawl on each other to lift each other up... they push things over to the wall and crawl up on
it. They are just too smart for their own good.
Little Blue girl is quite impressive.
There were many days when we'd wake up or come home to find her hanging out with Olive instead of her sibs. She's a
thinker and problem solver... and seems much happier to be playing hanging out with Olive or on her own that with those silly
puppies.
Otherwise, everyone is doing
well. Greenie is still huge - he's over 6 lbs! Yellow is maturing into a beautiful dog and he's still the smallest
- over a whole pound less than Greenie. Red is very adventurous and loves to follow Olive and Quincy around.
White Girl and Red Boy get into the most entertaining brawls! Even though we are counting the days until we have only
one to worry about, they are still incredibly cute and it's hard not to love them.
Our new routine is to let the
pups out of the pen and have them follow us outside right away. They are starting to use the great outdoors for a bathroom
- although our floors still seem to be fair game. :( Fewer nasty messes in the pen latetly though, which is nice.
They love the outside and love to run and run. They are getting really fast and can crawl up and down the steps just
fine. They are even starting to come when we call 'em.
I locked them outside a few days
ago for a few moments of sanity to clean out their pen... I turned around and there was Blue girl trotting up to me.
She had figured out the doggy door all on her own! Since then, they have all learned to go in and out the door.
They just don't associate it with going to the bathroom yet. It's just for fun...
Olive has taken a new interest
in the pups now that she is no longer feeding them. She plays and plays with them, sometimes rolling on her back while
they all jump on her. It's very cute.
They go to their new homes sometime
next week. On Feb 28th they are 8 weeks old! Sometimes it seems like it went so fast! Other times, it feels
like I've been picking up poop for years! We'll definitely miss them... but won't ever be breeding dogs again.
We should know for sure which
pup we're keeping sometime next week. Our vote is for little Red Boy... Turns out Yellow Boy is show potential
- and we are looking forward to retiring from the show ring real soon. We defintely want a pet to love and spoil along
with Olive and Quincy.
Week #5 - Playin', Wrestlin',
Chewin'
By Janet
Seven dogs! Seven! I feel like Maria in the Sound of Music -- you know, when she’s learning from
the Reverend Mother that she’ll be taking care of Capt Von Trapp’s brood:
“Seven children!
Yes, yes, but, but…. Seven!”
And when she finds out
that they’ve already gone through a number of governesses, Maria’s wise enough to ask:
“What’s wrong
with the children?”
No puppies have put pine
cones on my chair yet, no frogs in the pocket either, but I have a feeling they’re out to get me.
I don’t mean to
sound bitter or cranky (just because the last week in particular has been nothing but bitter and cranky, but those details
are for my work diary) …. it’s just the foul-smelling diarrhea
smeared all over the whelping pen that brings tears to my eyes. Oh, and the piercing,
wailing cries that often rouse me from slumber before my 5:00 am alarm. Oh, and
the happy yellow puddles of pee during play time that splash my toes.
The worst is that
they’re so adorable, so you can’t stay cranky at them very long. They’re
only 5 weeks old, and they’ve already mastered that soulful look into your eyes that tells you: “Puppies are the
best: gaze into my eyes and obey my commands.” And you do! The feeding,
the picking up, the wiping --- I just can’t help myself because they’re so darned cute! (And their playclothes
are infinitely more attractive and cuddlier than some old, scratchy drapes.) Red
Boy and I have taken to gazing at each other for many minutes at a time. Well, he’s chewing too. So, many minutes of gazing and chewing.
He really is so very cute
when he’s chewing on my feet. And my favorite magazines. And my hair when
I bend down too close.
That’s what living
with 5 week-old puppies is like. You have to smile and giggle at their deviltry.
I ought to try singing.
Week #4 - Hey look, we're eating!
By Chris
What a week! We are now half-way through the puppy process.
They will go to their new homes in about 4 weeks! They get weaned next week. Time is going by so fast...
The big event this week was moving to eating real food. Olive
seems so pleased to be on the way out as the main food source. The pups now have teeth, so nursing is not a lot of fun.
Everyone is doing well and still growing like weeds. Breeder
Katie came to visit them this week and declared that this litter is already bigger than her other liter at the house - a litter
that is a few weeks older! So, Olive's babies are big pups! They are averaging 4 pounds now! Greenie the
Moose is still the biggest by far. Yellow is now the littlest, but is still big for his age.
This week we learned how to feed the pups. We put some puppy
chow in the food processor to get small chunks. Then, 4 times a day we put a bit in a "sombrero" bowl - big round bowl
with the middle raised up. We warm up about an ounce of goats milk (cuz it's closer to dog milk than cow milk, I guess)
and pour it over the dry food crumbs in the pan. It sits for 5 minutes, so it cools down and the food crumbs absorb
the milk to get soft.
Then, the pan goes down in the pen, the pups come out of their new
little den and gather round. We had to teach 'em how to do it... dipping our fingers in the goo and luring them to lap
it up themselves. they were quick learners and are now happily eating like grownups. Very cute. The food doesn't
smell so good, but it's way better than what Olive has been eating. Kinda feels like a farm, with all of the feeding
chores.
The other big thing this week was that Quincy got to come home!
Yes... that means we have SEVEN dogs in the house now. First thing he did was go jump into the pen with the pups, which
did not please Olive much. He's being a great uncle so far but he's still not totally sure what to think of them. He's fascinated
by the pups and will play with them when we let 'em loose on the floor. He gets a bit freaked out when they try to nurse
on him...
The pups are getting more and more playful. They wrestle,
chew on each other, jump on each other, and are even starting to play with toys a bit. They are walking around really
well and are even starting to jump around and "lope" around. It's very funny to watch.
We let them all out of the pen to run around on the floor once in
awhile. They love to tromp around, but within 15-20 minutes, they are sound asleep in one of Olive's beds. There
are a bunch of pictures of them in the bed, cuz it's just so darn cute.
Olive and Quincy play with the pups too, being very gentle, but
batting them around. They seem to love when they go flying over backward! They go flying across the floor, jump
up, and beg to o it again. Red boy seems to be the one who loves playing the most at the moment. He's quite a little
ham.
They are also starting some crate training. In the pen now,
they have a little crate that is too small for Olive. The pups retreat to their little den quite a bit and sleep all
piled up in there. They seem to love it, sometimes they dont want to come out.
So, a good week. They are being very cute. They sleep through
the night and still don't make too much noise. They are making bigger messes to clean up, but they are already learning
to make the messes on the newspaper. Such smart little tykes.
Week #3 - We can see!
By Chris
You're still here? Wow... So, this week was actually
pretty exciting and even had moments of fun. Everybody opened their eyes early this week! Greenie opened up first and
now they move their heads around to see everything they can. Sometimes they look like those little bobbying head dogs for
the car dashboard. They can hear now too, so you can talk to them and they stop crying.
They started walking around too, first on very unsure legs.
They were getting really good at crawling around and slowly started sitting. Now they can move around the pen with no
problem and they are getting really good at crawling over each other. They have even started to play a bit. They
lick each other and chew on each other. Yellow boy seems to be a bit of a prankster... he loves to sneak up and jump
on his brothers and chew on their ears and legs. He even wags his tail when he is doing it. So cute.
Last week if you touched them all while they were sleeping, they'd
just wiggle and start to sqeak. This week, they all jump up with their heads in the air and start talking. Then they start
walking around... looking for mom. They have come so far in just a week.
Olive doesn't seem to be enjoying motherhood as much latetly.
Feeding time has turned into a frenzy. They don't all fit so well at the dinner table, so they crawl over each other,
dive into the pile, push each other around. Mom's getting a few bruises and really doesn't seem to like that they are
starting to get small teeth. She used to be able to just stand up to get them off of her... but they are tall enough
now that they can reach her! She's spending less time in the pen with them, but is still doing a great job feeding them
and looking after them. We're looking forward to having our ol' Olive back when this is all over.
They are starting to make more of a mess which is not much fun.
It seems like all we do is wipe up the pen and wash towels nowadays... But, they are very cute pups and it's fun to sit and
watch TV with a puppy curled up with you. And, on the positive side, they seem to be learning already that it's cool to potty
on the newspaper in the corner and not in your bed. Little Yellow is one of the first to walk away from the pile and
potty in the corner on the paper. Such smart little babies. :)
Overall, everyone is doing great! All are growing, doing great
with their stimulation exercises and doing plenty of eating. Olive is still thinner that pre-puppy, but she's starting
to look a bit better. We are still feeding her icky smelling high protein and high calerie foods 3-4 times a day.
It smells so very bad. ugh.
Next week the big deal will be starting to move onto real food!
Olive will probably enjoy that. Sigh, there are 5 more weeks to go...
Week #2 - Still Sleepin' and Eatin'
By Chris
Not an exciting week really... More sleeping and eating. Everyone
successfully doubles their weight by end of the first week, so the daily weigh ins end. Now just weekly weigh ins, which
is a little less work. We still do the stimulation exercises daily and try to handle them as often as possible.
We've had a number of visitors and Olive has been doing really well with
them. Visitors have to wash hands and then spend some quality time paying homage to Olive first. She seems happy to
show off her pups if visitors follow the rules. She gets a little nervous if she has never met the visitor before, but so
far no real drama.
This week they did get puppy breath! They didn't have it the first
week, but it's pretty obvious now. They are fun to cuddle and they smell so nice!
They are growing so much! We keep having to give them new collars
as they outgrow them. They feel a bit like beanie babies when you pick them up. They've got round little tummies. They
still mostly scoot around cuz they can't really walk yet. They started standing on their back feet while they nurse
a couple days ago, and can start to stand a bit... but mostly they are still crawling. They are getting better and better
at scooting along to get to Olive more quickly when she jumps back in the pen.
Olive seems to get a bit bored with lying in the pen all day now.
She's still good at nursing and she spends the night with them, but she's happy to come jump in bed in the morning with me
or to cuddle with us on the couch for awhile. We're still working on getting weight onto her. Aunt Jung went above
and beyond and made some icky "Weight Gain 3000" concoction full of healthy icky things to mix into Olive's dry food. I hate
it, but she loves it!
We've been eagerly awaiting open eyes, and on Jan 10th we saw the first
signs of eyes opening for Greenie and Yellow boy. The rest are on their way and should be open any day.
Week #1 - Sleepin' and Eatin'
By Chris
We make it through the first night and after that, the rest of this week
was easy. Olive took care of everything and the puppies just sleep and eat. We don't even notice evidence of bodily
functions cuz Olive does takes care of it all. The pups are also pretty quiet. They fuss if they end up alone and kind
find their way back, or they sing when they are happily eating.
Olive looks like a concentration camp victim after the birth. She
was so fat beforehand, but apparently that was ALL puppy! She had almost 3 lbs of puppy and she was skin and bones.
Our first concern was to get weight on her... but she is a picky eater.
We end up feeding her nasty smelly stuff that she loves! Cans of
super dog food made of tripe... gag. It smells so horrible. She's on super protein foods and we're trying to get
her to eat as much as possible cuz she has to feed five little ones!
One of the big issues the first week is getting Olive used to caring for
the babies, not being too rough with them. The challenge was getting her to leave the umbilical cords along until they
fell off (ick.). It took her a couple days to realize that they squeal when she steps on them, sits on them, or licks
them too hard. She learns quickly though and is a super mom.
The other big issue making sure the pups double their weight the first
week. This means daily weigh-ins. We try to help the ones not gaining weight as fast get to the dinner table a
bit more often. Each night we do weigh ins and stimulation exercises.
Apparently studies show that smal amounts of stress in the early stages
for a baby help them deal with stress better as adults. Each exercise is only for 3-5 seconds at a time. We hold
them on their backs. We hold them upside down, with their head hanging down. We hold them straight up, head up,
toes dangling. We tickle their toes with a q-tip. And we put them down on a cool, damp cloth for a few seconds.
All seem to take it pretty well.
We take a bunch of pictures... but they all start to look the same... We
start thinking about fun names to recommend to Katie, the breeder. More on that later...
We survived the first week of grandmother-hood.
Dec 27th -- Birth Day
By Chris
Olive was in "soft labor" for days and days... We were going nuts
waiting. Finally, the morning of Dec 27th, Olive starts acting funny - spinning around in her whelping pen, digging
and trying to get comfy. She is not pleased with the process, but there is minimal whining.
Finally, around 4 pm contractions start... First, every 20 minutes
or so. By 5 pm, they are coming every 5-10 minutes and Katie, our breeder, gets on the road to come be the midwife.
Around 5:45, Katie crawls in the whelping pen with Olive and starts deep
massage along Olive's spine, helping the contractions come. A little after 6, the first sac makes an appearance, poking
through, but then heading back in. A few minutes later it pops out further and you can make out a little face. It looks kinda
like a puppy head encased in a bowling ball. The in and out continues as Olive pushes like a trooper. Finally,
6:22 the puppy pops out, still in the sac. The placenta follows - which is good. All of those icky things need to come
out our we're in trouble...
First puppy is a little girl and she gets the blue collar. Katie
tears the sac and gets Olive to chew on the umbilical cord. FInally, I cut the cord lose. While Katie cleans up
blue girl and gets her breathing and dry, I try to get Olive to eat the wad of icky, slimy placent - that smells and stains
everything it touches an oogy black. After playing with it, she finally eats it... and I try not to vomit.
We weigh the puppy, take a photo or two and Katie introduces her to
Olive and helps her start nursing. Olive does pretty well, although she seems a bit confused about where this little
thing came from... Meanwhile, I wipe up all the goo and blecky stuff in the pen, put new towels in... Ick. Janet
watches and takes a few pictures. It was too exciting when the puppy actually popped out, so no pix of that...
I'm sure you would have loved to see a placenta.
As soon as we get settled, another puppy starts poking in and out... as
soon as the heavy contractions start, Janet gets custody of the Blue pup and shortly after, Red boy is born. Same process:
cleaning, rubbing, holding upside down until the breathing starts, weighing and collars. Olive eats the placenta before
we even have time to think about giving it to her. Red is a great eater and helps Blue figure it out too. Olive
becomes obsessed with Red boy's umbilical cord, so we have to keep her from chewing on it. We assume it is "meat flavored".
:)
Next thing we know, Yellow Boy is poking in and out. When his sac
pops out, it seems yellow. Katie hurries to get him outta there and clean him off. In the excitement, I cut his
cord a bit too short, but he ends up OK. Looks like he pooped in his sac - which isn't good. Fortunately, he gets
cleaned off and seems OK.
Then, we wait a bit, which is OK cuz the three came so quickly. Katie
continues massaging Olive and Olive spends some time tending to her new pups. You can still see two lumps in her tummy
and they move around as they make their way out. Both the White and Green pups have a way to go to get near the exit.
About an hour after the Yellow boy, White Girl appears. She's
the first red and whte dog to appear, which is fun. Same process as the rest and soon all four are happily nursing.
We watch the Green pup make its way across Olive's tummy. He's really
far up so Katie gently massages him along the uterine horn, helping him make his way out. He takes a really really long
time... About an hour later, Green pup seems to disappear in Olive's hips, so Katie can't help with the massaging anymore.
Mary Kay, Katie's breeding partner, shows up to help out with the rest of the process.
A few minutes later, the sac starts to poke out. It's a weird one
- two bulbs, one red, one yellow. We wonder if the umbilical cord is wrapped around the pup and the worrying starts.
As long as the sac stays intact, the pup is probably OK. By this point Olive is totally exhausted and can't help push
as much. Katie tries to help her out, pushing from the outside and encouraging Olive.
A bit later, we see the sac pop and the fluids start to come out... now
our time is limited. Katie continues working on Olive, trying to get her to push. A few minutes later, some feet
poke out and they are blue. Panic time. Katie and Mary Kay both start working on Olive, and Katie "goes in" to try to
straighten out the puppy. It is breech and can't come out. Time keeps ticking and at this point we assume we lost the
pup, but have to get it out to help Olive. With Mary Kay pushing on the outside and Katie pulling on the inside, they
eventually get the pup out. Nobody is breathing... including the pup. They massage it, clean it... and miracuously...
it starts breathing!
At this point I'm thinking Oh My God! I don't ever want to do this
again! Ugh! Fortunately, Greenie lives, Olive gets to finally sleep, and we pop the champagne!!
It's now almost 10:30 pm. I take Olive for a car ride... she is so
exhausted she just sleeps. While I'm gone, Katie and Mary Kay remove the dew claws and cut back the nails. A bit
bloody, but the pups don't even seem to notice.
Finally... all is OK. Olive is back in her pen nursing five beautiful
little pups. Now I can start breathing again...
P.S. We have learned that breeding dogs has a few moments of excitement
and joy surrounded by endless waiting, icky body fluids, stress, and sleepless hours...
|
