The last two weeks have been quiet, and that’s the best way to start off a litter of puppies. Nova has been an excellent mother, and the puppies have been eating, sleeping, and growing. My work has been very minimal. I take care of Nova, monitor the puppies’ growth, and keep their bedding clean. This will change, of course, as the puppies grow and begin to explore their world and begin to wean from mom. But for now, they are solely dependent on her, and she has been doing a great job. Their eyes are open, and their sharp, little teeth are beginning to grow in.

The best thing I can do for the puppies in the first couple weeks is keep their momma healthy and happy. Good quality food is the number one way to ward off infections and disease and ensure mom is healthy and has plenty of milk. Nova is eating Life’s Abundance All Life Stages dog food and is getting one NuVet Plus supplement a day. Currently, we are free feeding her, which means she can eat as much as she wants, so her body can make plenty of milk for her growing babies. Life’s Abundance food gives a great foundation of high-quality proteins, probiotics, vitamins, minerals, and everything else she needs. NuVet Plus is a supplement that gives an extra support to her immune system. This is important, since a momma’s immune system often gets stressed and run down during pregnancy and while nursing puppies. Because her body is working extra hard, it makes her vulnerable to illness, so we take care to give extra immune system support to keep her healthy.

In the coming weeks, the puppies will begin to explore. This is when the socialization really begins to kick in! Right now, the puppies get handled very gently a little every day. I usually pick them up, hold them on their backs, tickle their toes, and of, course, snuggle them close. Soon, they will get to experience all sorts of things including new sights and sounds, food, toys, outdoors, etc.

For now, though, they remain quite sleepy and peaceful. From left to right is Bailey, Paddy, Lucky, and Clover (female).

My children are very excited for the time that the puppies will be able to play with them. They enjoy petting them and holding them, but they know the real fun is yet to come!

Have a blessed day!

Happy Friday! We had a busy, but very good week, and I hope you all are looking forward to your weekend!

One month old unofficially marks the end of the “newborn puppy” stage and the beginning of the “little puppy” stage. The puppies are fully mobile, their eyes are open, and they are ready to begin learning new things and drift away from their dependence on their mom. Here are the things we have been working on this past week.

1- As the puppies gain their mobility, it’s time to begin potty training. In the puppies’ pen, I have a removable and washable liner. This get changed and washed daily to keep it smelling clean. This is done, obviously, for general cleanliness and sanitation. However, it serves another purpose. By keeping the nest area clean, it works in favor of a dog’s natural instinct not to soil the area where they sleep. As puppies begin to walk, they naturally seek a different area in which to do their business. When I see this happening, I add a “potty area” to their pen. I usually use newspaper in the potty area, and I add a clean layer on top several times a day. This keeps the potty area sanitary, with clean and dry paper on top, but it maintains a faint smell, teaching the puppies where they are supposed to do their business.

At this age, I do not expect full success. I would say, 70% of the time, the puppies make an effort to go to the right spot, even though only half of the time they actually get there. But, it gets better every week! And soon, the puppies will be big enough to begin pottying outside. Once this happens, they really start to catch on. Usually, by eight weeks old, the puppies are pottying outside successfully 99% of the time! (They certainly are not house trained at 8 weeks old, but they have a foundational knowledge that usually makes the house training process easier in their new homes.)

2- This week began the very exciting weaning process! This starts very slowly with only one small meal a day of Life’s Abundance Large Breed Puppy Food. I soak the food in water or goat’s milk for the first week or two. I do this until the puppies’ teeth are fully grown in. The soft food is easier to chew, and it also provides a source of liquid to prevent dehydration for the puppies that may be slower to learn to eat and drink from bowls. Over the next two to three weeks, I will gradually increase the amount of solid food they get and decrease how much time mom spends nursing them. I will also begin to limit mom’s calorie intake, so that her body is encouraged to slow its milk production. That helps keep her comfortable during the weaning process.

Excellent quality nutrition is the number one thing that keeps puppies healthy at this age. As they begin to wean from the protective antibodies in mom’s milk, puppies can become more vulnerable to illness, digestive upsets, infections, etc. Their young immune systems and digestive systems don’t fully mature until 18-24 months old. To keep puppies healthy and allow their growing bodies to develop properly, it is very important to provide them with excellent quality nutrition.

Not all dog foods are created equally. For example, while all dog foods contain protein, the kind and quality of proteins vary significantly. Foods like Purina Dog Chow, rely heavily on corn to add protein. But dogs don’t digest corn, and therefore, all the protein in there is useless. Life’s Abundance food uses chicken meal (a highly concentrated protein source) and eggs (a source of not only protein, but also essential amino acids, vitamins, minerals, and healthy fats). All the ingredients in this food are of excellent quality and high nutritional value for dogs, and they work to keep puppies healthy and growing well from the inside out!

https://lifesabundance.com/Pets/Puppy/PuppyFoodLargeBreed.aspx?realname=20552921&cat=5&hdr=&Ath=True&crt=0&Category=LargeBreedPuppyFood_v11(Pet_Base)&Sku=401306

The puppies have been very excited by getting to eat solid food this week, and they have needed no encouragement! I place the plate of food in the pen, and it is usually devoured and licked clean in less than a minute.

3- Probably the most fun part of this stage is the socialization training! Basically, this means daily interacting with the puppies and gently exposing them to new sights and sounds. I personally think children provide some of the best socialization. The puppies become very accustomed to children’s loud and shrill voices, sudden and unpredictable movements, and over-bearing love in the form of rough hands and tight cuddles. I also bring the puppies into a small pen in my kitchen to help them get used to normal household sounds, like pots and pans, vacuum cleaners, ect. I also play music and other sounds for the puppies most of the day. This gets them used to a variety of sounds. Right now, I am mostly doing just music. Soon, I will start sounds like thunderstorms, traffic, fireworks, etc. This helps give them calm and positive experiences with these sometimes scary sounds, which sets them up for success later in life when they hear these noises for real.

This socialization will continue daily until the puppies leave for their new homes! Each week, they will get to experience a few new things, and I do my best to give them a good foundation for their new families to continue to build on.

And that is what four weeks old looks like at our house! It is full of soaking puppy food, washing bedding, and snuggling puppies. I am excited for the next weeks, since the weather is turning warmer. The puppies will be able to spend more time outside, which is always fun for them and for us!

It’s turning out to be a beautiful spring week! In February… I’m secretly wishing for one big snowstorm, but you certainly won’t find me complaining about this warm weather in the bleak mid-winter.

And there aren’t any complaints from these guys either!

The cutest stage of puppyhood has arrived! We now have nine bouncing, barking little pups! They aren’t as easy to tire out, and they just LOVE to interact! This stage of puppyhood is when we are building the foundation for the rest of their lives, and there are so many important aspects of a healthy, happy, and well-adjusted puppy. There’s nutrition, which directly affects immediate and life-long health. There’s socialization, which determines how a dog reacts and interacts to the things and people around it. There’s training, which affects how a dog behaves in response to its owner. I do my best to give my puppies a solid foundation upon which their new families must continue to build. With a good foundation and the proper continuation of that nutrition, socialization, and training, puppies can grow into happy, healthy, well-behaved members of the family.

In the last couple of weeks, the puppies have gone from fully dependent on Jade to almost fully weaned. It’s a time of big transitions for the little guys. Because the temperatures have been unseasonably warm, the puppies have been able to transition to the outdoor pen. For them, this means twice as much space, outside pottying, fresh air, and more interaction with our other dogs.

The puppies are now eating three meals a day of Life’s Abundance Large Breed Puppy Food, and they are doing so well on it! The high quality and multi-sourced proteins are so very good for young puppies. The large breed puppy food contains chicken meal (much higher protein concentration than whole chicken) and eggs as the two main protein sources. Healthy fats and antioxidants are also very important for growing puppies, as well as DHA, probiotics, prebiotics, and everything else that will help these puppies grow and develop properly.

I cannot overstate how important proper nutrition is for young puppies. All of their bodily systems (immune, musculoskeletal, digestive, neurological, etc.) are immature and still growing. Giving on-point nutrition during this developmental stage is so important! If a puppy is not well-nourished, its body cannot develop properly.

One of the most obvious vulnerabilities of puppies is their immune systems. After weaning from the protective immunities found in mom’s milk, puppies become very vulnerable to bacteria, viruses, and parasites. Most times, the immune system is fully developed and honestly quite hardy by 18-24 months old. However, during that in between time, I find it best to supplement puppies’ immune systems.

Now that the puppies are weaning from mom’s milk, they are starting on NuVet Plus Immune System Supplement. They each get one wafer every day to help bolster their young immune systems, especially as they get ready to head to new homes. The stress of a new home can often make puppies much more susceptible to infections, which is why supplementation can be so beneficial during this time.

As for socializing and training, the puppies are soaring through things with flying colors. Now that they are transitioned to an outdoor pen and have outdoor access for the potty business, we have been 100% accident free for the last half week! (Yay for my laundry!) We are still practicing crate training, but the puppies have been doing well so far. They do cry some, but that’s still to be expected at this age.

They have also gotten to experience some new things, such as seeing and hearing traffic, hearing a fire siren, seeing and hearing normal household sounds, etc. They haven’t been phased by anything yet. They are a very confident and happy-natured litter!

In the next week, the puppies will get a vet check, vaccinations, another round of dewormer, and then… it’s already time for them to head to new homes! There are two super sweet gentlemen available yet, so if you or a friend need a little Golden Irish love for Valentine’s Day, give me a call!

And for your viewing pleasure, here are some pictures of the puppies and my kiddos enjoying the 60 degree afternoons we have had this week!

This puppy was so proud of finding this big stick!

Believe it or not, this was completely unstaged! This pup crawled up into the back pocket of my stroller to hide from (and then pounce on) siblings.

Enjoy the rest of your week!

 

Happy Saturday!

This week, Jade’s puppies had their one month birthday! We have left the newborn puppy stage behind, and we are diving into the teething and tail wagging stage of puppyhood. Today, I took updated individual pictures of the puppies. This guy here was being a real gem for his picture! You can see the rest of the puppies on the Available Puppies page. I will note, though, that the pictures are a bit deceiving! The puppies of this litter are all very close in color, but the lighting in the pictures makes some of them (like this guy) look deceptively lighter than they really are.

Here are a few of the highlights from the puppies’ daily routine.

Potty training

The puppies started with the Misty Method of potty training about a week and half ago. I gave them access to a corner of the pen with newspaper, and I am working on teaching them to ONLY potty on the paper. In the last two or three days, they have really started to get the idea. There are still a lot of accidents, but I am happy with the progress I’ve seen! I’ve tried a variety of different materials for the potty area in the past, but I always come back to using newspaper, especially for the training period. When the puppies potty on the paper, I lay a clean sheet of newspaper on top. This keeps the area clean, so the puppies aren’t stepping in any messes. However, it keeps the smell. Being able to smell it helps establish in the puppies’ minds where the potty area is! The flip side of this is that I have to keep the play and bed areas smelling clean to remind the puppies NOT to potty there. This means I am changing bedding several times a day, and I usually do one or two loads of puppy laundry every day. Potty training is a lot of work, but it’s worth it when they get it!

Weaning

Four weeks marks the time that I usually begin weaning. This week the puppies got their first taste of solid food, and they didn’t need any encouragement. As soon as their little noses found the food, they all dove right in! The puppies are getting Life’s Abundance Large Breed Puppy Food. As you all know, I LOVE feeding my dogs Life’s Abundance. It contains high-quality proteins, antioxidants, probiotics, prebiotic fibers, vitamins, minerals, Omega-3 fatty acids, and DHA. Of course, it has all of that, but NONE of the unhealthy things like artificial flavors or colors. You won’t find any corn or wheat. Instead of those hard to digest grains, Life’s Abundance uses other nutritious grains like brown rice and oat groats that are better for a dog’s body. Healthy puppies are happy puppies. 🙂

Play time

Now that the puppies are fully mobile, play time is one of the most important aspects of their training. A few times a day, I let the puppies out into the large section of their pen. (They will gradually get more and more time out here as they get better with potty training.) They spend time playing with each other and playing with myself and my children. They have been briefly introduced to my other dogs, but I’ll wait until they are a few weeks older yet before they are allowed to play with the other dogs.

Socializing

The puppies get to spend some time every day upstairs in the kitchen. This gives them time to get used to normal household noises, and this is also when I work on their crate training. The puppies did very well in their first time in the crate. There was one accident but very little whining! I also practice noise desensitizing with them by playing music, sounds of fireworks, thunder, traffic, etc. at a low, background level. This helps get them used to some of those potentially frightening noises. Of course, they get plenty of socialization with people (especially the little kind) every day. 🙂

I hope you all have a great weekend!