Merry Christmas!!!

Blackie---my mischievous horse.

Little lone girl went to her family just before the 25th and they sent a lovely picture of her with one of the children....such a sweet home.  They were a repeat home, had a puppy years ago from us.  That's my favorite home for a puppy!!  She had such a precious spirit and was so loving.  

  Looks like Vanilla is pregnant.  We saw a few little "dots" on the ultrasound and will prepare for puppies due in January.  Hopefully the weather will be more seasonal than the 80's we are in now.  All the dogs have thick coats now even though the hair is short and today, all tongues are out!   Her first due date is Jan. 15th and her last date is Jan. 22nd.  She is sleeping here on the cool kitchen floor all stretched out and I see her belly is much much bigger.   Hoping for a better outcome than the last litter with a c-section.  She should deliver naturally this time.  Again, Merry Christmas!  Kristina

PS.  Posting some wintry pictures to get me in the mood....

 My old girl, long gone, Sugar.

 Snow at night.

 Salty when she was just a pup.

 Gypsy's first snow.

 Same day with Vanilla--both of these girls were just teenagers!

 Our other horse, Pandora

 All we need is a sled...

 Salty and her pup, Vanilla

 Max in a bad mood 'cause it snowed overnight.

 A little puppy we had several years ago---her name now is Seaweed.

 Spicey was eating snow.

 The morning after a big snow.

 Puppies having fun in the snow.

Beautiful tree all dressed up!

Growing up a little

It's not been too busy with this litter!  Lily's puppy has moved to the kitchen area to get a feel for human life and all that goes on in a family.  She's shy but cute and cuddly.  Of course she has no brothers and sisters to snuggle with and socialize with so we have to be the substitutes for that by holding and loving on her more and more now.  She doesn't know she is lonely and that's some of an advantage for a family who takes her...she will not go through the withdrawal of siblings like other puppies go through when they are separated.  She's about to cut teeth and so soon she will start eating foods....you can see her silly yawn and the little teeth poking through--

Blessed by a birth

Last night it happened.  Lily had her litter, even if it's only one puppy it's still a litter!  Sweet girl had only one.  I'm thankful it went just fine and both mom and pup are wonderful.  I have delivered on puppy in a c-section before so it's way better than that.  The little female puppy was born about 7:30 and Lily went to motherhood like a duck to water.  We waited and hoped she would continue on and at least have one more but then a hungry Lily showed me she was most likely done when she downed a can of dog food waiting for her at the end of labor.  (they normally won't eat during labor--she had refused her normally favorite food earlier that morning --a boiled egg)

It's been a while....

So finally we have confirmed pregnancy in Lily!  

We did an ultrasound and saw puppies we thought, on both Lily and something looking like a pregnancy in Salty but now they are down to about 10-15 days and we definitely have puppies in Lily...Salty...probably not.  Which makes me wonder about her or Max.  Salty has missed a pregnancy a few times, she actually is the hardest dog for me to breed successfully.  She has an irregular heat cycle and very little signs when she is in heat so we almost always are caught off guard when she starts standing.  Max is now getting up in age, he is almost 7 ---I thought he was 8---and his eyesight is failing some at night.  He got out in the dark behind the electric fence and couldn't see the wire. He did have a nasty bite in the eye when he was 5 (Juice, my deceased male dog, bit him in the face several times one day while they were fighting)

 Lily was an easy catch this time.  I felt her puppies moving yesterday.  She will be the best mother dog...very attentive and loving.  We are doing a "profile" on her personality. There is a  website I will link you to -----Dognition----and you can play these games with your dog and it will form a personality/intelligence profile on your dog...VERY COOL and interesting.  So far we found that Lily is very bonded to me (and people) and is very collaborative --she wants my input for solving problems.  I will try to paste her profile:

Now that's nice and small!  Well, if you want to read it I'm not sure how to do that....microscope?  I just wanted to show you the format mainly...its a neat website.  I have only completed the first two games so I don't know her final "score" yet.  Oh and I have a "share" link for that site too...so they can see I shared with friends....invitation from Kris & Lily  (....if two people actually sign up we get a pet hub tag or something free)  

Another dog that is so dear to me is Gingerbread.  We actually call her Little because she was so tiny for so long.  She had a severe case of pneumonia as a teen-puppy and was so close to death that we really always feel she was just loaned to us.  I still wonder what her lungs will look like when she has her chest x rayed  in January.  I would love to raise puppies from her but that will depend on how much she has healed.  I won't put her through that unless she gets a green light from our vet...the scans will tell all.

Little Cotton

So for the last puppy...a little spoiling is in order.  My mom came down & had to have Cotton on her lap during Jeopardy.  The funny thing is that she started watching TV!

And one stands alone

Well, all have gone....each to a great home-- it's crazy how each puppy went to a home most suited to his or her personality this time!  The last puppy goes next weekend.  Cotton is here alone but not lonely.  

'Cause Daddy is staying with her!

Getting ready for their new homes!

Now we are readying the puppies for their new homes.  They are well on their way to housebreaking!  

We still keep them on paper in the kitchen but now they "hold it" longer and longer and are starting to ask to go out...of course at night there are accidents but only a couple with 6 puppies...pretty good.  During the day we take them out first thing when we wake up in the morning, then we feed them about 30 minutes later and let them go out again for 20 minutes usually.  Back inside then and they normally sleep again.  Then in 3-4 hours we take them out again after they have played some inside. 

I let them stay out for 10 minutes or so and they come in and stretch out for a nap.  After they wake up and wrestle---out again.  They will play for several hours with toys or with each other and then they just sleep.  

Around lunch they have a dry food snack and crunch that for a while.  They are so good now at getting out and down the steps!  You have to be sure the door is open or they are in such a rush they will all just crash into the door like a big traffic jam.

Dog Flu

I had a call today from a new owner concerning Canine Influenza Virus (CIV).  

There have been several cases in the area where the puppy is going and I would love an opportunity to share what little I know and of course always check behind me (to make sure my info is not wrong)  and do your own research if it's an area that interests or concerns you!  

So here's what I have learned so far:  There are two kinds of Canine or Dog Flu: H3N8 and H3N2.  A couple of vaccines are available for use against the H3N8 strain but not the H3N2.

 The CDC does not know if there will be protection provided by the one single strain vaccine if the dog is infected by the other.  This is a problem in the flu vaccine people take -- if the vaccine doesn't contain the right mixes of flu strains and you catch another you can still get that type of flu.

Puppies can be vaccinated at 6 weeks, but the danger from CIV is much much less than the dangers of Parvovirus, or Distemper or Rabies. A time of isolation of a new puppy when it comes home at 8 weeks is needed to protect it from (especially) Parvovirus which often takes multiple vaccination to elicit an immune response that will protect the puppy.  So keeping your young dog at home is critical during the first 4 months until he or she has had several vaccines and time to build a wall of protection against these diseases.  If you decide on a flu vaccine to be part of that program then you have time to get it too.  Symptoms are similar to human symptoms and providing comfort and supportive care is all that is needed in most cases.  However if you are reading this you probably have or will soon have a BULLDOG and these short-nosed breeds often suffer more extreme symptoms since their noses and sinuses are shortened.  Talk it over with your vet and weight the benefits of vaccination...it may well be worth it to get the vaccine since these are special dogs!!

 

Calling with a kiss....

I just had to post one other thing...started calling the puppies with a "squeaking noise" kinda like a kissing noise. I call them to eat along with going outside and you can see here they are all asleep and one call and they are ready to go!  I wish human kids reacted the same...ha ha!  (Check out the post below because this is the second one today)

dirty little faces

Now that we are going outside to learn how to do our puppy business outside....well of course there is time to play too!  And that means puppies get dirty.  On little brown puppies you never can tell they have dirty faces but on white puppies?  Yes, its obvious we are playing outside.

does "Little" have milk....they will just check to make sure.

this one particular puppy loves to get really dirty....she loves rolling in the grass and sand and she has a really dirty face in this next picture...

snow??  no, just ice little ones.

back inside after playing all puppies are sleepy and very willing to let me take pictures of their dirty little faces...

but they are just too sleepy to play with me and all I can do is take pictures of their sweet little bodies.