June 9, 2018 – Roo’s puppies have all gone home to live with their forever families, and it’s been bittersweet to say good-bye again. Thank you to all of the great families that joined us through adoption! By adopting a puppy from us from Roo and Basil’s litter, we were able to donate $2,100 ($300 from each puppy adoption) to Amazima Ministries to help children in Uganda eat and live! The send-off was uneventful and we hear good reports that all of the puppies are transitioning well. Thank you to all of you for adopting and taking our puppies home to a great forever family.
June 1, 2018 – Our pups are seven weeks old today and they are so loved at our house! They have brought a lot of joy to a lot of people already. It will surely be hard to say good-bye next week. This has been a special litter. Basil does it again with amazing temperaments! We’ve continued to work on emotional conditioning and we’re very happy with where they’re at. Next week is their final exam and we’ll have more final information for everyone on their weights. And as personalities continue to develop more and more, we’ll share more on that next week too. Even though the pictures surely show their cuteness, we honestly think the photos don’t do them justice!
May 24, 2018 – I can’t believe these pups are six weeks old this week. Wow. This time with them is flying by. At this point, we’re loving their temperament and they settle quickly in our arms and typically can just relax easily with whoever is holding them. They greet new people without fear and they’ll go with anyone. No fear, no anxiety shown. They love to play and are getting ready to get out of their pen and soon join their forever families. We have play time with them daily, outside of the pen, and we have started challenging them with “sit” and “come” and each are getting small amounts of time alone in a crate every day. It’s going well, as we expected. We’re at the point that we focus on good manners, such as making them sit to be picked up or pet. The ones sitting are the ones that get our attention. They’re starting to understand! Here they are at six weeks old!
May 17, 2018 – Roo and Basil’s puppies are doing very well! They’re developing more each day and getting beautiful coats this week. We’re starting to see the wavier hair come in and they’re beginning to look a little more plump. They’re enjoying kibble and almost fully weaned from mama Roo at this point. (They have sharp teeth and she is reluctant to go in their pen anymore.) The past two weeks we’ve focused a great deal on their socialization, noises and experiences and lots of holding time. We think they are now exactly where we want them to be at five weeks old: calm, drawn to humans, confident, making good eye contact with us, sitting comfortably in our laps without anxiety, and not shying away from most new experiences or sounds. They are interacting with us and each other and becoming very focused on connecting with humans – a great sign of a well adjusted pup. Today they had their bath and blow dry (now pretty comfortable with the loud blow dryer in their face and sitting patiently to be dried) and we took their pictures. Here they are at almost five weeks old!
May 10, 2018 – Roo’s puppies will be four weeks old tomorrow. A lot is happening this week – we started crate training; trying to get them used to the feel of a crate before fear sets in at around five weeks old. They had their first taste of kibble today. They seemed to get teeth a little earlier than usual and mama is not thrilled about nursing anymore. They loved the kibble! Now we’ll start to see their coats fill in and really start putting on some weight. We like chunky puppies! Today is bath day and we always blow dry them to get them more and more used to new things and different noises. All part of the conditioning we do. We’ve been blasting fireworks and thunderstorm noises too (the neighbors must wonde… ???). At first the pups cower a bit, but we are right there comforting them. They are growing in confidence daily as we go through our routines. There is much more work to do to get them ready for their forever families. Today, we took some pictures of them. We’re enjoying these little pups!
May 4, 2018 – Our little cutie pies are getting bigger and stronger every day! A healthy, litter of beautiful pups. Roo continues to be a great mama and she feeds them well and is very gentle with them. They’re starting to wrestle with each other more and some of them even try running. It’s hilarious, with that awkward, sideways, clumsiness they have at this age. We’ll try to catch it on video and post it to Instagram. This morning when I came in and interrupted their sleep, one of them barked at me. Ha! So scary, too, at this age. They are noticing us more and more and becoming observant about their surroundings. Time to bring them out into the kitchen for some loud noises and new experiences! We’ll put them in the crate this weekend too, to get them introduced to it. We now have this short window (lasts about 2 weeks) where they are aware, yet without fear. This is a critical, once-in-a-lifetime period in a dog’s life. This is when we get busy! We have friends coming this afternoon and tonight to continue the socialization. The pups sat with us at a family-friend viewing of American Idol the other night and they got exposed to lots of noise and people. We’re excited to watch them grow and change daily at this age. Here they are at three weeks old.
April 28, 2018 – We normally only post about once a week because there’s usually not much new to report. But today was exciting! We woke up to pups sitting up and looking at us! Eyes much more open and noses turning darker.
As we said good-bye to our last pup from Piper’s litter today, it was a great day to fall in love all over again with a new batch of puppies. (For me, there’s a bonding that takes place when we start to make eye contact.) I love what we do! We just had to post a few more pictures to show you what we are seeing today. Total cuteness.
April 27, 2018 – The pups are two weeks old today and their eyes are opening! They are starting to stand a bit, and even are trying to walk. We can see them getting stronger every day. They’re continuing to gain weight and are nursing well. Each day, we have a routine of holding and massaging them and are continuing with the Bio-sensor program. Mostly though, at this point, mama Roo is doing all the work of caring and feeding for them. Our real work will start in a week or so. The pups look great and seem so healthy. Here they are at two weeks old:
April 20, 2018 – Roo and Basil’s puppies made it through that first critical week, and we can rest more easily (and I can go back to my normal bed!). They are all doing so well, are becoming stronger daily and gaining weight. Mama Roo is so careful with them, and is cautious not to step or lay on them. She’s a good, attentive mama! Their eyes are still closed as expected, but they are starting to lift their heads more and are quite active crawling (it’s more like dragging themselves) around their little pen. We started the Bio-sensor program with each of them a few days ago. And each day, we give them each time to just be held and massaged. They are becoming very comfortable with our human touch more and more. Here they are at one week old!
April 13, 2018 – We are happy to announce the arrival of Roo’s first litter! As a new mama, she wasn’t sure at first about what was happening and what to do with the lively, little creature that came out of her early this morning. But after I reassured her and told her to lay down by the pup, she soon got into the act of motherhood with ease. She quickly started to bond with the pups, licking their faces and watching over them. She’s been gentle about where she lays, and that’s important in our mamas, yet not always the case. She delivered seven healthy and thriving pups! They started squirming around immediately, each one, and they actively crawl around the pen blindly, looking for mama to nurse. We welcomed four new girls, and three new boys into the world this morning. Introducing our “Animal Litter,” here they are, the boys: Moose, Bear and Badger. And the girls: Monkey, Bunny, Otter and Fox. We’ll post individual pictures of each when they are a week old.
