Last Puppy goes HOME!!

The last page in the chapter has come to a close..."Delta" found her home today!  Like all the puppies, she has a wonderful family.  When the couple came they talked about how some people just can't 'get' how we love our bulldogs so much...that's so true.  But for us there is just something about these dogs that is so lovable.  The way they get older but still play like a puppy.  The wagging stump at the back of  'em.  Sometimes its the way everyone else's dog is running around and yours is flopped down on your shoe, drooling into the cuff of your pants leg...they are obsessed with their owners and waking up on a cold night to the sound of gentle snoring (and its not yours) is comforting and familiar.

Best wishes to all that took a piece of me and my life this time...K

a past litter ....sleepy puppies ---goodnight!!

Been Busy!!!

Its been a busy time here.  Puppies are going now to their homes and we are really spending a lot of time house breaking and making sure they all spend time playing "nicely" with the big dogs.  I am fortunate that most have seen puppies and are very careful to play easy and scold puppies when needed but not hurt them.  I do have to supervise the newer dogs that really are so young they play too rough.  Really they don't play with the puppies rough they just start playing with each other and then get too rough and I worry they will step on a puppy or knock them down too hard.  So we watch them kind of close.  

There are 3 pups left here today.  Its Monday evening and its been about a week since I was writing in the blog.  Saturday, 2 sweeties left...tiny Squeak was one of them!  Mabel went to a wonderful home and then Sunday "Biskit" went to her home and I've already had a picture from her parents...she's doing well and I know all the others are too.  The people that took the big white pup (went first) was getting her as a surprise and I had an update from her family the day after she left...someone was so happy to have their own puppy!  "Bobby" will go this week, Wednesday I think and his owner is excited and ready to pick him up.  Now Gingerbread and Delta will be alone and soon (hopefully) we will find the right home for Delta.  She's a beauty...

Another vet visit....

Warning:graphic descriptions ahead.  

Well the dreaded thing happened...woke up Monday morning (day off from farming) to a thing all people who raise puppies hate to see--- diarrhea on my puppy papers.  Although everyone seemed great and was ready to gobble up breakfast, someone here had a loose stool.  For a calmer description from here on out I will call it "Scours" like we do on the farm.  Now scours can be, for humans,  just an inconvenience but for puppies it needs to be taken serious.  Many diseases and issues cause scouring in puppies just like in other animals.  I has suspected it Sunday but couldn't be for sure.  I have raised pups for long enough that I recognize if someone is sick or off feed even a little and that was not the case.  But here was a prime loose one on the papers right in front of me.  I carefully scooped up a sample and inspected the pups and decided on at least 2 I wanted to take in for an exam.

At the vets they gave them an exam and then ran a "fecal" exam where they insert an instrument into the rectum and get a swab to look at under the microscope.  They did the first one and found nothing although she could see there was some scours there.  The next puppy was done the same way and still nothing...no worms, no parasites, nothing.  They took my sample and nothing on that either but she could definitely say there was  some scouring by just looking at the sample.  So between the both of us we decided it would be good just to put them on medicine for two possibilities that are common to puppies of this age; Giardia and Coccidia.

The Giardia treatment is a liquid (Albendazole ) given by mouth for 5 days that will rid them of any of the protozoan that causes this illness.  Dogs of all ages can be affected and its pretty common at this age when they put everything in their mouth.  Coccidia treatment is also a liquid (Albon) given by mouth for 10 days and it will inhibit the Coccidia from reproducing in the intestines and they die out.  Giardia can infect almost any animal and there are like 40 species of Giardia known.  It is picked up from ingesting or even sniffing the contaminated ground.  Coccidia infects many different animals but is not a concern for people since it is very "picky" and has certain hosts it stays with...dogs to dogs, chickens to chickens for example.  Since many people come here to look at puppies it is just a possibility it can come in on peoples shoes and infect our dogs, although adult dogs rarely ever get sick from things like that, they can shed the agents when stressed.  I have occasionally boarded dogs here for breeding and that's an issue for puppies too since both can survive in the dirt for years!  So we started medication and even though they don't seem bothered, I AM!  I am always thankful that we have never had a break of Parvovirus here at our place.  All my adult dogs are vaccinated yearly and puppies at 6 weeks but you never know if a potential buyer comes to look at puppies and has just left a kennel with Parvo!  That's the importance of vaccinations at a very timely manner, and why I insist that puppies stay until 8 weeks at the earliest so they can build some immunity to this deadly disease.  This is a diarrhea that will KILL a puppy in a matter of 24 hours.  Always it must be considered serious until they are mature enough that they have at least 4 shots under their belt.  

These were taken today...they definitely are not slowing down at all!  

Vet visit and playing

Not too much has been going on....just getting into the swing of feeding, cleaning, letting puppies out, putting papers down, washing towels, rugs and toys, mixing food, giving dewormer, taking puppies to the vet and treating any issues they come up with each day.  Puppies are just like kids in that they get into trouble if possible.  When I am asleep at night they escape into the entire kitchen and string rugs all over and pee on the floor and other catastrophes.  When you call them to come in 3 come in, 2 go back out, and 1 goes in, 4 goes back and its just pandemonium.   But you can't help but just laugh at them because they are so squirmy and silly--everything is just FUN for them even if you have no time to play they always do!  You put clean papers down and they find a way under them and they just delight in tearing them to shreds so you have to do it all over again.  They love playing with a smashed empty plastic water bottle but manage to get it out of reach behind the kennel each time and just bark until you come get it for them.  In the yard they are a blast...running and rolling around each other and the big dogs.  But that's where some issues come up like a splinter in a toe, dirt in someone's eyes, a bitten foot that causes one puppy to limp for 20 minutes because some puppy played too hard.  That's just like kids to me, but then I raised 2 boys so they were just like that, broken toes, scratches, bruises and scrapes....

Gingerbread

Did you call US?

Gypsy is acting to "above" playing but finally gives in...

Branch carrying 

The little peewee "Squeak" carries the branch too

what are those puppies doing now??

Dr Henry --- picture I took a year ago of him doing puppy exams

first days outside

Sunday we took the puppies outside for the first time.  We put them in the special puppy pen so the other dogs could look without stepping on them and the puppies would have time to explore without the adult dogs getting in the way!  At first they were timid and shy and then after a few minutes they began to play in the grass (and pee) and carry leaves around.  They ran and scampered around rolling over and pouncing on each other.  Big dogs stood at the pen and just watched.  

someone PLAY with me!!!

Boomer lets the peewee puppy stay close

Sweet Boomer

are you my MOM?

Vanilla

Lily plays with puppies

Today we took them outside this morning into the sun and let them mingle with the adults and have some time to play.  They frolicked with Vanilla and Boomer...both gentle giants to them and Lily, in her usual athletic manner, sprung over them and danced wildly.  She found the big white puppy a nice playmate and would poke her with her big nose and drove the biggest puppy to play back.

This is the first beginnings of house training.  We normally have quite a mess in a few hours on the paper but now we take them out and feed during the day outside and let them do their business outdoors.  The much prefer this and WANT do go out for that.  They had already begun to "go" in just one little corner of the indoor pen so they are ready.  We will take them out before bedtime now ....just had to stop typing and go do that.  Papers are clean and have been like that for 4 hours or so.  All "went" outside!   

Another puppy sold

As you can see I changed the font size since really I can't see the smaller stuff.

Today we had two visits.  The beautiful female with the smallest stripe on her face found a wonderful home!  The second person that came fell in love with the littlest pup.  We are going to hold her until her vet checkup at 6 weeks so we didn't take a deposit on her...but will hold her for consideration until we hear from our vet.  So now we have 2 females left for placement. 

The puppies really are starting to play and becoming very mischievous.   They know very well how to escape by means of the "weak point" in our gate.  If you don't have it secured and really have a chair against it they wheedle their little bodies through the gap and wander all over the kitchen.  And they just don't wander around if you get my drift!  Usually it happens early in the morning and I hear Spice (their grandma) moving or growling at said puppy (ies) that are aggravating her.  She is a wonderful manners-teacher since she doesn't like to be bothered much but wont ever hurt a puppy just grab them with her soft mouth and show them its not appropriate to try to get milk from her or bite too rough.  All the dogs are curious about the puppies and Thursday we let Boomer play with them a bit and after about 5 minutes he just begged to get out.  It will be fun when they go outside for the first time and then they will start to really get their running legs developed.  I will enclose some pictures of the adults playing with puppies from the past today.

puppies are finding homes!!

Now two puppies are sold...the male has a lovely home, and the big white girl found her family this week!  Of course they won't go home until mid November but we start showing pups early so people have time to plan and make good solid decisions about the puppies.

Its great meeting people who are looking for a Bulldog.  Most have had one before or are adding a second to their home or sometimes they have wanted one for a long time.  I try to offer help with picking one out if they need it but most times they find a perfect fit on their own.  Or a puppy picks them!  There are some sad stories we hear of Bullies that have passed away or are in their last years, but mostly funny things to tell about their last dog or one they grew up with that makes them want another.

The worst thing we hear about are the people that come to pick a puppy and have lost their heart and many times a lot of money being scammed by someone that never even had a dog.  Many people have lost over $1000 and never even saw a puppy...they just sent money in faith.  I try to tell people even if you don't get a dog from me please see your puppy in person before you put a deposit down or have enough live conversions that you feel very confident there actually IS a puppy to be bought.  Ask for special pictures of the pup with items someone could put next to them like a roll of toilet paper, or a measuring cup ...just tell them you want to see the size of the puppy next to an ordinary thing.

Today was sunny but cold and windy.  The big dogs were out sunning and sleeping when I took this picture.  Puppies were inside eating out of a big dish and we were all cozy!

Feeding and making the move into the kitchen

Feeding the pups 2x a day now.
  I use a big glass pie pan with a custard cup upside down in the middle ....just to keep them out of the bowl!  It keeps the food from moving into the middle too.  I started out feeding them all separate since they need help at first, but they have it now.  They know as soon as I bring the food in- they smell it now and start running around crying.

 I just soak the food in water until it is soft and today I added the first PROBIOTICS to the food to help with their digestion.  There will be bouts of diarrhea at times especially after deworming so this will help with that when it happens.  Of course Salty is still nursing and providing the main nutrition.

 They are barking now and starting to play with each other, wag their tails when they see you real close and lick you on your hands and arms when I'm cleaning up around them...such a sweet bunch of babies.

Well they have finally been moved into the kitchen and have their first experience with the crate.  They are set up in the corner with paper outside the crate.  Today they all mostly pooped in the crate.  It will take a couple of days and they will naturally try to go out on the paper and poop well away from where they sleep.  That's the beginning of being house broken.  They will get used to human life, using blenders, TV, smelling food being cooked, talking, vacuum cleaners, visitors and of course other dogs...soon this will be just regular stuff for them and they will do well going to their new home with no surprises.