August 6, 2019 – The pups have all gone home to their forever families and the puppy play pen is empty. Always bittersweet at our house. The pups all went to great homes though and we know they will be loved and well cared for! We’re thankful for each of the families that found us and supported us, and because of them our pups have great homes and because of them we were able to donate $3,000.00 to Amazima ministries to help a bunch of kids in Uganda eat, learn and simply live! All good! Here are the pups with their new forever families.
July 31, 2019 – This is a long post, but trying to be as informative as we can to help our families make their selections tomorrow. But before we start, please know that you can’t go wrong with any of them! With humans that love them and are consistent with training and positive reinforcement, and with giving them the right balance of crate time, human interaction and exercise time, they will be excellent companions for life!
The pups all did well at the vet today and all are in excellent health!
Remember that some of the pups are making it clear if they will be more mama’s size (40 lbs.) or dad’s size (closer to 35 lbs.) Some are showing that they may be somewhere in the middle. Hunter is still the smallest, and Harvey still the biggest, and here are their weights from the vet today to give you some perspective:
Heather – 5 lbs., 8 oz.
Heidi – 6 lbs.
Hannah – 6 lbs., 8 oz.
Harrison – 7 lbs, 4 oz.
Harvey – 8 lbs, 2 oz.
Henry – 7 lbs, 2 oz.
Hunter – 5 lbs., 4 oz.
Huckleberry – 6 lbs., 9 oz.
Huey – 6 lbs.
Hollister – 6 lbs, 2 oz.
We also completed their Volhard temperament and aptitude testing and each of them scored as we expected and what we see and expect with every one of our litters. All of the pups are so social, confident and connected to humans. And smart! Overall, every pup scored very similar and is described in test result interpretations as follows:
“The pup is outgoing and friendly and will adjust well in situations in which he receives regular training and exercise (what every pup needs). He has a flexible temperament that adapts well to different types of environments. Good with people and other animals, trains very well and learns quickly.”
During the test, each pup is challenged with “scary” noises, sounds, objects, restrained on their back to test for submission and gentleness and they are testing for social attraction, following, sensitivity and retrieving. We’ll see slight differences at this age, but because their personalities are just barely beginning to show at this age, we are mostly looking for their level of submission, confidence, intelligence and social skills with humans. They did great!
Some are slightly more sensitive, like Heather. She loves her humans and is more cautious when something new is presented, looking to her humans for assurance first but then proceeding with confidence. She just takes a minute to process and give it some thought. Unlike her siblings that bound right over to any new thing without caution. She takes her time to watch and wait if it’s safe. Not as adventurous as her bigger brothers for sure, but they are all growing in confidence daily. Hunter has shown to be very smart and very playful and fun to watch. He hides and stalks his big brothers (so much bigger than him!) and then he’ll jump out and surprise them, jumping on their backs as they pass. Heidi and Henry are playful and wanting human interaction and love to wrestle and interact. During playtime, they seem much more interested in interacting with their humans in the room than their siblings. Huckleberry and Harrison seem more aloof, but we take that as more chilled and alpha and can be viewed as confident pups that will not be needy dogs. They still love to snuggle and love to be picked up! Harvey seems like Mr. Chill. He approaches everything with more of a slower, take-my-time, don’t-really-care, “whatever” attitude. Huey and Hollister also seem chilled out and mellow. Henry, Hunter, Huckleberry and Huey already are showing the intelligence and confidence to be retrieving when tested. And Hannah scored slightly higher on being submissive and had a slight edge in showing might be a little easier to submit to control and adapt with even young kids giving the instruction. Heidi seems to fight the crate the hardest. That makes sense with her strong longing to be with her humans. Sometimes we just have to let her cry it out as part of this important phase.
All of the pups, overall, each and everyone of them, are exactly as we hoped for and each and every one of them will be great puppies. They will continue to form their personalities more at home, being influenced by their new environments and the personalities and energy level of their humans. Calm, pack-leader humans (even the kids!) will help them succeed in life.
Please remember, all of the pups will thrive best in loving, consistent environments with humans that are giving regular, positive reinforcement to teach them. Ignore the bad and keep rewarding the good behaviors you see in them! They shouldn’t get pet or even talked to or looked at when they are doing the wrong thing. They all LOVE humans and thrive on our attention and they are learning that to get our attention they need to sit and be quiet. And a loud “ouch!” is helping with puppy playful-yet-hurtful nipping. They are so excited to use their new teeth! Ow.
July 30, 2019 – We started our day with some play time, then baths and blow drying, then some crate training time. Then. . . today was our photo shoot day for our seven week pictures. Tomorrow morning we have a vet appointment for their final exams and we’ll post their weights tomorrow once we’ve settled in back home. Here they are sitting nicely for all of you to see how cute they are. We love each of them! (Just fyi, their truest coloring is revealed in the pictures where they are sitting by the window near the natural light, with no flash or filter.)
The Girls
The Boys
July 27, 2019 – We took some more pictures of the pups yesterday! We’ll still take more individual pictures at 7 weeks and post their weights after their vet appointment next week. Here they are….
July 24, 2019 – Hazel’s puppies are six weeks old today. They’re changing so much and so fast, it seems.
We’re seeing them continue to grow in confidence and they’ve adjusted to being independent of mama. They are fully on kibble now, no more nursing. We’re thankful for sweet Hazel though, she’s been such a great mama. Now the pups are going through the natural transition of bonding more and more with humans and aren’t so focused on Hazel, which is a good, natural progression.
The pups are playing hard with each other and it’s fun to watch them wrestling, chasing, and climbing and gnawing on each other. Just being healthy, happy pups. When they’re with humans, they settle right down, loving to be held, as we expect. We are working with them daily during play time, sitting among them, teaching them to be gentler and that hands are not for biting. This takes time as teeth are all new to them, and this process of learning not to chew and bite humans (the same way they nip at each other) will take time even after they get home to their families. This is true of every pup, every litter, every breed.
We are working on crate training for short periods, twice a day. They are happy with a buddy in a crate and settle right down. Soon we’ll start alone time in a crate for short periods daily. This will help them get ready for the separation that will happen soon; always a little hard for a pup.
They continue to have visitors daily and we have helpers working with them all they way into the evening, seven days a week. It’s a team effort at our house to raise great pups where no steps are missed with each critical phase they are going through!
The conditioning and desensitization seems to have done it’s job: fireworks, storms, clanging noises, doors slamming, knocking, vacuums, honking, yelling, barking etc., etc. doesn’t seem to phase them. If they startle, they quickly bounce back in seconds as no big deal. This is important and something we strive for with each litter.
Here are the weights as of several days ago and we’ll post their seven week weights when they are weighed at the vet’s office next week.
Harrison 4 lbs. 14 oz.
Hollister 3 lbs. 12 oz.
Heather, 3 lbs, 12 oz.
Hannah, 4 lbs. 11 oz.
Heidi, 3 lbs. 15 oz.
Hunter, 3 lbs. 2 oz.
Henry, 4 lbs. 8 oz.
Huckleberry, 4 lbs. 9 oz.
Huey, 4 lbs. 1 oz.
Harvey, 5 lbs. 2 oz.
We snapped some pictures of different happenings of today. Here they are at six weeks old!
July 18, 2019 – Five weeks old and doing great! They are eating well, playing hard, and still so loving and wanting to settle down in our arms quickly. They track us as they watch us closely (something we always like to see in a loving, connected pup) and they are growing in confidence daily. We don’t see timidity, we see calm, adaptable pups that have been challenged and conditioned, exposed to many experiences, sounds, people and surroundings, and well on their way to a great life! They are using their litter box like champs and they are separating from mama naturally as they should, and focusing on their human caregivers. Here they are, posing nicely for their pictures.
The Girls
The Boys
July 17, 2019 – The pups are changing quickly now and becoming active. Just wanted to post a few more pictures while you’re waiting for their individual photo shoot for their five-week pictures, coming soon! They’ve enjoyed some outings in the grass and they’re fun to watch! New experiences like grass and cement and playing outside challenges their comfort zones and adds to their conditioning and confidence. Here are a few pictures of the cutie pies enjoying a field trip to the backyard. They’re almost entirely weaned from mama now. They like their kibble and she doesn’t like their teeth!
July 11, 2019 – Hazel’s pups turned four weeks old and are still pretty sleepy and not very active, but doing well. Not a whole lot to report quite yet. But it won’t be long! They started eating kibble this week and hopefully you saw the Instagram video of their first taste of real food. They loved it and are eating well. They will still be nursing and supplementing with mama for another week or two.
There is some sizing differences becoming evident as we see some pups are showing mama’s larger DNA and some are showing to be more the size of their pop, Gunner. Sizing will become even more clear over the next two weeks.
They’re starting to wrestle and move around a bit, but mostly, they sleep. Some litters are lazier than others and take a bit longer to get super active. We expect there will be a lot more to report and a lot more action over the next ten days.
They can hear now and their sound de-sensitizing has begun! So important, and we’ll continue that over the next several weeks until they go home. We didn’t take individual pictures this week, we’ll do that again at five weeks of age and post in about a week. But here’s a glimpse of some pictures we took with our phone so you can see what’s happening with them in their pen this week.
July 3, 2019 – Hazel’s puppies are three weeks old today and they are doing great. They still can’t hear (any day now) but they are very alert and much more active. They’re starting to interact more with each other (instead of just sleep all the time) and they are beginning to wrestle and play. Not running and chasing yet, but they are stronger and moving about. They notice the humans more and it won’t be long before there’s a lot more action in the pen. They were introduced to the litter box yesterday and they started to use it almost immediately. Ahhhh… will soon make for less cleanup for the humans. Here they are at three weeks old!
The Girls
The Boys
And some random shots…..
June 25, 2019 – Hazel’s puppies are eating well, sleeping a LOT and gaining weight regularly. And their eyes are opened! They are starting to become more alert, increasing in strength enough to start lifting their head more, and with eyes half open, they’re looking around. Their pigmentation has been darkening, as it always does during the first two weeks. Not a lot of action going on and it’ll be that way for a couple more weeks.
Oh, and one mishap to report. It’s kind of a big one and a first for us here. One of the girls, well, she’s actually not a girl after all. To explain, at this really young age the male parts can look like an umbilical plug. Well, that’s what happened when we examined one of the “girls.” We no longer have a “Holly” in our litter….she’s actually “Hollister” as all parts have now been accurately identified. Sorry for the confusion!
Here are the pictures we took of them . . . . . turning two weeks old tonight!
The Girls
The Boys
June 19, 2019 – The puppies are one week old today! They’ve had baths, lots of holding and massaging and they are going through our Bio-sensor steps daily now. They can’t hear or see yet, and there’s not much action in their pen. They sleep and eat, and that’s what they’ll do for at least another week. We took a few pictures so you can see what they look like. So little still!
June 12, 2019 – We’re excited to announce that Hazel went into labor around midnight last night and by early this morning, we had ten healthy red and caramel puppies!
We’re calling this our “H” litter – keeping things easy. We welcome to our world: Harrison, Harvey, Henry, Hunter, Huckleberry, Hollister and Huey….. and the girls, Heather, Heidi and Hannah. Mama Hazel is doing well and she and the litter are in the great care of our guardian family that is trained and very experienced in raising our pups. The litter will come to us in a few weeks so we can do all the final steps of conditioning and preparing them for their forever homes. Now’s time to mark your calendar! We’ll host a puppy open house for our puppy families to come and visit their pups on Friday, July 19 from 1-2:30 pm. and puppies will be coming home to their forever families on Tuesday, August 6.
We’ll keep you updated on this blog post and Instagram as they grow and are moving around. Now the fun begins all over again for all of us here!