Our new babies

So a few hours after the last post, puppies started arriving. The first snuck in right around 1o:30am. I was walking past Sadie's, AKA Mercedes, crate and saw a tiny dark chocolate body peaceful as can be drinking from her mom. I did a double take as I was already past the open side of the crate before I even realize what I had seen. Our Sadie was being sneaky. I open up the door and pick up the baby to do a flip over and see what we got. Right under her tail was her little heart shape indicator of her sex. A beautiful chocolate girl, just what I was telling Sadie for the last nine weeks I wanted from her. Every night I gave Sadie a good pet and whisper in her ear, chocolate girls, all chocolate girls. So we progress with the day and by noon we have another two girls, both shiny and black. Each one another surprise. Sadie was being sneaky, still. Now hours go by and we wait for the next one. Normally we get puppies about 40 to 60 minutes apart. Sadie is doing fine, taking care of the girls making sure they are clean and eating. About 4pm a black boy arrives, again a surprise. Sadie IS being sneaky. I mean come on, four puppies and not one do I see arrive into this world and take it's first breath. Five pm rolls around and another black boy. Again with the sneakiness. Seven pm our first chocolate boy shows up with his little brown/pink nose sniffing for his food. What is it with Sadie the Queen of Sneaktom? Can't she share? A couple of hours go by and I wonder if she is done and so I feel her belly and I can feel a puppy in her belly close to her ribs and know that she has at least one more in there. At 9:30pm I do a head count and surprise a second chocolate boy shows up in the line up at Sadie's belly. He has a blaze on his front chest. He was pretty dry and I assume he arrived at 9pm. Sadie, COME ON AlREADY! So now I am determined to see something. I pace back and forth check on the brood. Every little noise and I'm up to peer in and every time Queen Sadie is just calmly looking back at me. Sometimes she is panting, I swear she's laughing. Hours go by nothing. I check her belly and I think I'm pretty sure there's another in there. About 1am, I convince Sadie to leave her crate for the first time for a trip outside to potty. She doesn't want to leave her babies, but I assure her that I'm shutting the door and promise that no one will bother them. A quick in and out and a big drink of water and Sadie is waiting at her crate to get back in. I change the bedding and check the babies and Sadie jumps back in to verify her babies are all still there. She eats in her crate cause she was pretty sure she was needed back at her babies side. I settle everyone down for the night and do a quick clean up in the hallwall (grossness, I'll spare you the details). I lay down wondering if she will deliver the finally puppy that I'm sure is there. That Sneaky Girl! I wake up in the morning and check on Sadie and everything looks the same as it did when I fell asleep. I invite Sadie out again and change the bedding under the pups and do a head count to make sure no one has wondered off into the crumpled up bedding. There were eight, I do a quick flip of pups to check their under carriage and find the newbie. A third black girl. I can't believe I missed every single birth, and to add insult to injury, 1, only 1 chocolate girl. That sneaky Sadie!

Waiting Games

So we are still waiting for puppies, gee I love this waiting game. I keep sneaking over a peeking at her to see what she is doing and all I see is her big brown eyes looking back at me. She does have mucous string hanging from her whenever she goes outside for potty. I used to be able to watch the moms when they were in my room, but now since I opened up my room into the next room and created a larger area for the dogs, I can’t watch what’s going on anymore. There’s a wall in my way. I can see a small portion of Sadie’s crate so I know when she moves around. I really should just go to bed and get some sleep. Then the puppies will come. Earlier I was holding my grandson, Cubby, in my arm and feeding him a bottle. Cubby fell asleep and let loose of the nipple and smiled. What do babies smile about in their sleep? There are not very many better things in this life to do than hold a sleeping baby or puppy; it forces you to be calm, peaceful and relaxed. Else you would wake the little one up. My two grandsons wake up in different ways. Cubby mostly wakes up grinning at the world or crying for something. Bear wakes up and lies in his bed for a while, I think he wakes up trying to figure out how the world around him is doing. I watch him most mornings do this. He moves around until he is face up, then opens he eyes and stares at the ceiling. He will pretty much stay this way until he hears me move in my bed. Then he just turns his head without moving his body and looks at me. At this point, I smile at him and he smiles back. Then I do a come on jerk with my head and up he pops and climbs out of bed. Today during nap time I trimmed Hiedi and Emma to get them ready for giving birth and nursing puppies. It’s a little early for Emma and I will do it again in a couple weeks, but she needed it done. She has a lot more hair on her body than my other girls, must get that from her dad, and needs to be trimmed regularly to keep her hind end clean. I could feel at least one puppy in Hiedi’s belly. If it wasn’t for Hiedi’s nipples getting enlarged, I wouldn’t think that she was pregnant. She’s not showing very much. I could feel an end in her belly; I can’t tell if it’s a head or bottom so I’m calling it an end. Dogs carry their babies up high under their rib cage until about the sixth or seventh week, when the pups drop down into the belly. Sometimes the puppies stay high and you only notice a little thickening. Last year a dog we know had ten puppies and you would have never guessed to look at her that she was expecting. Hiedi is due in eight days, I guess we will find out then what’s in her belly.

Eve before Puppies

Today I was fortunate enough to get off work early a couple hours, bosses can be nice Christmas Eve. Tomorrow is the day that Sadie, aka Sweet Blessings Mercedes Style, is due to bless us with puppies again. Last time she had puppies, she had them a day early, so we'll see if she does that again. This morning, Wes prepared her bed for her. She usually resides in the first crate she can get to in the dog room. But being on the floor makes for hard times on my knees and back when taking care of puppies. So Wes transferred her to the upper crate. This means keeping the doors on the lower crates closed to keep Sadie from automatically entering the lower one and having to convince her that she belongs in the upper bunk. We treat her when she's in the one we want her to be in. So we have lined her crate with double layer of cloth pads that we will change as needed while Sadie gives birth. Then wait. I wonder if we will be surprised by a light coated puppy. I'll let you know

Why we do what we do.

I had someone ask us last spring why we breed dogs? There are really many reasons, but first let me say that I think it is always better to be able to provide a home or a homeless pet than to add to pet over population. I know that that statement seems at odds with what we do with our dogs. First of all there is a need for dogs that are low shedding or non shedding. I am very allergic to cats and dogs and can't even just walk into a shelter to visit the dogs there without risking serve allergic reactions and asthma attacks. That's pretty sad for someone who loves dogs as much as I do and be face with the fact that having a canine companion was out of the question. The human population has become so ingrained with canines that it seems like most people have at least on or two. If I count the 16 houses on my small street, only 2 of them are dogless. The two without are occupied by families who are new to our country. When I take the dogs for walks, we stir up the dogs in the neighborhood as we walk down the street (need dog tag silencers)and just about hear them at every house. We do what we do to help those individuals and families out there that otherwise would not be able to have a pet with fur. We do what we do by carefully selecting and breeding dogs that will have the highest chances of being non shedding, which is the most desirable. We do what we do for the smiles we see, the joyful voices we hear and the heartfelt hugs we receive. We do what we do because it gives us propose from day to day, tail wag to dog bark and litter to litter. We do what we do because we have great plans for someday and it's good for us to have plans for the future. Someday is for bigger yards for longer throws of tennis balls. We don't do what we do for money, there isn't profit in breeding for small breeders. Most of the money is reinvested back into the dogs for feeding, health care, grooming supplies and cleaning supplies. The list could go on and on.We do what we do for love of dogs.

Moms To Be

Today is Sunday and being the last weekend before the next litter of puppies are due, I do mom prep. Our Standard Poodle mom, Mercedes is due next Friday on Christmas Day. Basically I do a hygiene trim. I search out and find all ten of the puppy feeding stations on mom's very big belly. I wanna make it easy for the babies to find food ad mist all that curly hair. I also trim the business end, aka where the babies come out. I also like to keep Mercedes nose and ears trimmed close as part of her "look" and trimmed her feet. While I work on her belly, I can feel babies moving around and poking out under my hands. Takes me about an hour with my scissors. Then Mercedes gets a nice warm bath, lavender is the scent of the day. Mecedes lays down in the tub, a little unusual for her but hey, she is pregnant. Then after the dry off and color put back on, she gets her nails trimmed. She is the easiest of our dogs to groom. Everyone else complains the whole time and pulls away this way or that and I usually end up all covered with hair if I'm trimming it or soaking wet if I'm bathing it.

Things I do when it's nap time.

So things I like to do when it's nap time around here. Well top on my list is to nap myself. But, since the littles, as I like to call the pair of them, moved into our home almost three months ago. I like to take advantage to the quiet time to get something accomplished. So today I put the littles down for their naps and let the dogs out into the backyard for play and feeding time. I started placing the pavers that my fav purchased and toted home for me. You know he bought out the store? 137 12X12 pavers was all that was available in the whole Home Depot. Isn't he just the best? That's my fav for you. So anyways, I got out my trusty, rusty shovel and started leveling out the area where I planned to start. I figured that since I didn't have enough to cover all of the mud, I would start at the area closest to the back door and work my way out from there. I really had a late start, about 2:30pm. So my daylight started to dim rather quickly and I ended up having to turn on the backyard lights. But, amazingly so I got about 40 of the pavers placed before I called it quits. I am planning on leaving to 3'X3' planters for two trees that I am hoping to plant before spring. (I'll take pictures of it later). One thing really nice is that I already have a dip system installed in the area that I can tap into to water my future trees. I'm hoping it will be nice, but mostly clean. We moved my cement bench onto the pavers. It needed to be moved to place the pavers, just the seat portion weighs a couple hundred pounds. It's not very steady right now, but should settle in place in time. If not I will reset it and maybe set it with cement epoxy since I don't have plans to move it again. It is located in the middle of where I plan to plant my trees. Now my husband and are have been discussing the type of tree to plant there. He mentioned a pair of curly willows, which in nice because they grow real fast and love areas where the ground is really wet. But me, I'm wanting maples, for nice shade in the summer for whoever sits on the bench and beautiful fall color. Maybe I'm get some dwarf burning bushes to plant at the base of the trees, for a super bright red in the fall. I sent out emails today to families who have puppies turning a year old in a few days, for comments and photos to post on my website. I think the letters have resulted in quite an increase in hits on my website today and I've received comments and 39 photos back from one couple. Hoping tomorrow I get more. Both our sons leave tomorrow, the older, back on the road for three weeks and the younger to his next Army duty station. Sure going to miss them being around. Good thing we have the littles to keep us occupied.