Down to three puppies

It's been a busy few weeks with puppies going home and getting everyone adjusted. I have some fun photos and video to post from their vet visit to first time swimming and will link them as soon as they finish uploading. 

Here are some photos of the last three boys that are looking for forever families.

Blaze

Kobe

Aries

6:30 AM Messy Marvins

I just posted a new video on YouTube Messy Marvins. John has been feeding the puppies at around 5 each morning which allows Morgan and I to sleep a little later. Since he is usually long asleep at 11:00 PM when we do the last feeding it's great to get that little extra sleep.

We have not been using much newspaper during the day as they are doing great going outside and other than a little pee most of the mess is outside. This morning after cleaning up and feeding them John put down lots of paper and I woke up about 6 to the sound of paper ripping and puppies gleefully making a mess!

They were having such fun with the paper I couldn't help but laugh and then put them out in the pen while I cleaned up. 

I also gave them dry food about 8:30 to see if they would eat it, not only did they but I gave it to them again at 1:30 and they gobbled it right down. About 15 minutes later a few of them were raising a racked and I let them out again. They all did their business and then came back in for a nap.

Week five update

It's been a very busy week with the puppies learning to go outside before and after eating. While it makes clean up much easier it can be a challenge getting all ten puppies in and out of the house without losing track of any. They are really doing a great job, even telling me when they need to go outside. If I leave the door open they go out, do their business and then come back in. I did take a few video's this week and will post the links below.

Currently five of the puppies have been spoken for. We have one girl, Hope and four boys left, Aries, Hanson, Kobe & Blaze. 

Kobe is the largest of the boys and looks like a little bear. He is super sweet and cuddly.
Aries is our people puppy. He loves to be with whoever is around and typically under foot.
Blaze is engaging, curious and constantly looking to expand his horizon.
Hanson is our hearth dog, energetic but loves to cuddle and snooze.
Hope has turned out to be our alpha and rules the pack. She is sweet, cuddly and a tiger all rolled into one pudgy puppy package.

Please send an email if you are interested in one of the puppies.

Learning to hop like bunnies

Following momma J into the house after playing

Week four - we go outside

We introduced the puppies to outside this week and some played in the sun and some in the grass. Morgan even took one down to the waters edge and put her feet in. Here are a few pictures from Alex's outing.

Weened at one month - not the original plan

Morgan woke me late last night to tell me Jada was sick. Jada had thrown up around 5:30 pm and I was not sure why, she did it again about 11:30. After calling the Emergency Vet in Manchester they suggested I bring her in. So off we went at 12:15 am. After a full exam by a very kind lady vet we decided to be cautious and start Jada on some meds to clear up any intestinal issue and giver her some fluids. 

Unfortunately the medication they gave Jada is not safe for the puppies. Fortunately we were well into the weaning process with the puppies eating solid food a few times a day. To dry up Jada's milk we have to keep her totally away from the pups, she can't even be in the same room with them. This is proving to be a challenge. We are also feeding her brown rice and boiled chicken for the next few days. 

The vet assured us the first two weeks are the most important for nursing and the puppies don't need any additional nutrition to replace the breast milk. Feeding them every 4 - 6 hours is going to be the biggest challenge. 

I use a crock pot to make the rice and chicken, here is how. This is a great recipe for anytime a bland diet is called for.

2 boneless chicken breasts
2 cups water
1 cup quick cook brown rice
Add water and raw chicken to crock pot and out rice on top. Cover and set to high, let cook 3 hours, cool and shred chicken. 
Makes about 5 cups 

Update - 4 weeks old (yesterday)

Morgan and I did a little photo shoot on Tuesday and weighed them all too. 

"Hansen"

Mr. blue  is mister mellow. I keep calling him one of the "Blues Brothers" because he is just so chill. That's not to say he doesn't have personality and spunk because he does but he does his own thing and on his own time table. He was 3 lb 4.9 oz at his last weigh in.

"Kobe"

Mr. black & white is very independent and likes his space when sleeping. He is also fluffy and gets hot so he likes to sleep on the bare floor. He was 3 lb 14.9 oz.

"Aries"

Mr. red & white is a character! He is very affectionate and quite a talker. He is compact but solid weighing in at 3 lb 14.6 oz. 

"Misty" RESERVED

Ms. red is oh so sweet! At 4 lb 7.2 oz she is also the biggest puppy. She loves to snuggle, has quite a tickle spot and is quite the escape artist. She was the first to climb out of the box, the pool and crawled under a table to get out out to the pen.

"Gabby" RESERVED

Ms. pink & black is going to be a handful. She lets you know she wants something and is very smart! She is also a big girl at 4 lb 0.3 oz.

"Alex" RESERVED

Ms. purple & black is super sweet and pretty. She was 4 lb 1.2 oz at the last weigh in and loves to get all four feet in the bowl of food. 

"Hope"

Ms. Blue is our ankle biter! She loves to chase my feet as I clean the pen, grabbing for my laces or nibbling my toes. She is already 4 lbs 0.7 oz and is not shy about pushing the boys out of the way when she wants to eat.

"Ryan" RESERVED

Mr. blue & black is our toy boy, he loves the Nyla bones and other toys we have for them to play with. I can't wait to give them a ball to see what he does with it. Ryan was 4 lbs 2.3 oz when we weighed them.

"Jake" RESERVED

Mr. Green is fully of energy and a real rascal. He is small but mighty at 3 lb 11.2 oz and always looking for someone or something to play with.

"Blaze"

Mr. black & orange is personality plus and is always looking for attention. Smart and funny he was 4 lb 1.4 oz on Tuesday.

Update - almost 4 weeks old

As the puppies get bigger it takes more time to take care of them and I get less time to take photos even though they are stinkin cute and even less time to blog. I have some new video and photos today though. They are learning to jump, run and play fight with each other.

First an update. The puppies now have teeth and have been drinking formula a few times a day for the past three days. This morning I dismantled the whelping box and set up the small crate and pen. We started using the pool to feed the horde and added soaked puppy food to create a mash. Let me just say they LOVE it! 

The downside for Morgan and I are they now are peep'n and poop'n on their own which means we are doing a LOT more clean up. We are trying to teach them to use the paper and sometimes I think they are getting it and then not so much.

Paper training

Our new area

A view into the crate

We are not going to fit in here for long!

 This is the small crate, I don't want to give them too much room to discourage peep'n in the crate.

Some alone time with Momma J

Why we have a spay/neuter contract

We get this question a lot when people find out we breed Jada and many express their opinion that we should not be breeding at all, we should instead be encouraging people to go to shelters to rescue a dog. While I agree rescuing is a great thing to do and we have, Kaja is our second Weimaraner rescue, there are specific reasons we breed.

First a little background. Jack was the first dog in our family from this line of Labrador Retrievers and was a wedding gift to my sister-in-law and her husband from his childhood friend Cooke. Jack was a fabulous dog, great hunter and great family dog that lived to the great old age of 15. My husbands parents received Jack's sister Bonnie two years later and Bonnie was also black. Our extended families have since welcomed Winston (third generation), Jada and Boog (4th generation) into the family. Winston is the only yellow for our family but there have been other yellow and chocolates in the litters. They have all been smart, good with the kids and good hunters, easy to train and long lived. Jada and Boog are from the same litter in which Jada was the only female. We had been waiting 5 long years for her and were beyond excited she was finally coming to us, however we didn't intend to breed. Until that is we found out the line would end with her if we didn't.

After much research and discussion we decided to have a litter and made sure we had people interested in the puppies before we went forward. We just could not let this steady, calm and well managed line die out. We spent hours looking for a stud we liked as well as a breeder we trusted to help us. We wanted to maintain the "Field breed" style of labs, not too stocky and not too lean but but with well shaped head and deep chests for good swimming. 

It is because of the time and energy we put into maintaining the characteristics and temperament of the line as well AKC requirements that we don't allow breeding. We also don't want to contribute to the shelter over crowding with unwanted or unexpected puppies. Rescues work for many people but some families are looking for the comfort and dependability of a breeder that knows the background and history of the dogs that are going to be part of their families. Hunters are looking for dogs that are not gun shy and have a history of good retrieving in the field. We also have dogs that are being trained as therapy animals and that takes a special temperament to make these dogs shine. We also don't over breed, only having one litter every few years, so we rarely have puppies available.

Day 20 update - Sam & Ethan visit

My sisters children Sam and Ethan have been waiting to come see the puppies and play with them. They were so excited to get right in the box like they did last time and Betsy got some great photos. 

Ethan

Ethan really liked the blue puppy

I'm not sure which puppy Sam has but I suspect it is the red one as it seemed to be her favorite.

 

Snuggle time

 

Time for some formula?!

We introduced the puppies to formula today but only one, black & blue, really figured out what to do with it. Most just licked our fingers or each other. 

Update - day 19 Weigh in

I haven't weighed the puppies for a few day, some a week and wanted to see how everyone was doing. They are all doing great and growing fast, here are the weights in birth order:

"Gabby" pink & black - 2 lb 10.1 oz
"Misty" red - 3 lb 2.9 oz
"Kobe" black & white - 2 lb 10.8 oz
"Ryan" black & blue - 2 lb 8 oz
"Alex" purple & black - 2 lb 13.4 oz
"Aries" red & white - 2 lb 10.5 oz
"Jake" green - 2 lb 6.9 oz
"Hansen" blue - 2 lb 3.7 oz
"Blaze" orange & black - 2 lb 8.5 oz
"Hope" blue - 2 lb 13.2 oz

Big sister & little brother 

So tired

Learning to climb

Hello?

Update day 18 - the line up

With the last litter we really wanted a photo of all the puppies lined up at once but couldn't get it. With lots of patience today Morgan got it today and shared it on facebook. Here is a link plus she put up some videos too.

The Line-up

The line-up in video format

More photos tomorrow when I have a chance to edit them.

Update - Two weeks & 3 days

We are really getting our legs under us and climbing already. Grandfather (John) put the door on the box today because Kobe and Misty tried to climb out to get to Nana. She was sitting outside the box talking to Barb from next door who came to cuddle us, Barb loves puppy breath, :)

Nana took lots of photos and video today so get ready for some tail wagging, wobbly laughs!

Wobble, wag and woof!

Eating is a contact sport!

You sleep, I want to play!

Momma J sleeps like this.

Really, we put ourselves in the corner...

Kobe loves it under the pig rail

Misty is so cute

Blaze sneaking in for a cuddle

Pretty Momma J!

Look Nana my eyes are open in a picture!

Update Day 15 - videos

Here are the video links promised yesterday.

Two weeks old video 1

Two weeks old video 2

Two weeks old video 3

Off to take photos for today, hoping to get some open eye ones today.

Two weeks old!

We are two weeks old already - how the time does fly. Nana didn't have time to take photos today but Morgan took lots of video which Nana promises to post tomorrow when they are done uploading to youTube. Just wait till you see how good we are at walking, climbing on mom and what Lisa calls full contact eating!

Day thirteen - learning to walk and see

Today is day thirteen, tomorrow we will be two weeks old! We started opening our eyes last night and they will continue to open over the next few days. We have also been pushing up on our legs and wobbling around. We are getting stronger each day and continue to gain weight. We also are getting quite loud looking for each other and Momma J when we get separated in the box.

Here is a link to a short video of us wobbling around and making lots of noise. 
Pawtuckaway Labs puppy video

Here are some puppy pile photo from the past few days. Enjoy!

Blue "Hansen"

Black/White "Kobe"

Red/White "Aries"

Update Day 12 - Monkey see, Monkey do

At almost two weeks old the puppies are really getting their legs under them and trying to walk. It is fun to watch them wobble around but in just a few days they will be pro's at it and then the fun starts.

Melissa, our oldest niece, came by to visit and she was the first one that Jada didn't growl at and let touch the babies. Jada was so excited to see her and probably wondered where her Ally was. Melissa had left Ally (New Year's eve litter, 18 months) and Winston (Jada's uncle, 8 years) home with Mom.

Monkey See, Monkey Do

Blaze and Ryan were too cute laying beside each other today in exactly the same position.

Hope

I love this profile photo of Hope's profile.

Female (purple/black) "Alex"

"Alex"

Puppy Pile

Alex was puppy number five and weighed 12.3 oz, today she weighed in at 1 lb 13.9 oz. She loves to be part of the puppy pile!