Puppy update - week 1

The puppies are now just over a week old and growing by leaps and bounds. They have at least doubled their birth weight. The largest is Nightingale at about 450g; the smallest is Galaxy (formerly Daisy but we decided we weren’t keen on Daisy as a name) at about 360g. We weigh them morning and evening to ensure they are steadily gaining weight.

They still aren’t doing much besides nursing and sleeping. We do neural stimulation exercises with them on a daily basis, to stimulate the develop of brain cells and a coping response to unfamiliar stimuli. This takes about 30 seconds per puppy so it’s not a lot, but apparently promotes calmer, more resilient puppies who are not stressed out by new and unfamiliar things.

Ariel 

 Nightingale

Garnet is already a bit less anxious about spending all her time with them. We take her on short walks around the block, though she doesn’t like to be gone for too long. Amore knows not to get too close to the puppies and Aspen has also learned that. One of the early days he approached the whelping box with curiosity and got snapped at by Garnet. She didn’t hurt him, but boy did he yowl! You would have thought he was being murdered!! Now every time he sees her he hesitates or steps back. You gotta watch those Mamas! He is still curious and occasionally, when the gate to the puppy nook is open, wanders in furtively to take a look. Garnet isn’t usually too far away though and will come stand between him and the puppies, though she hasn’t snapped at him that way again.  Garnet is actually fairly relaxed about her pups – at least compared to Amore – and doesn’t mind too much if strange people get close and handle them, though we do limit total strangers during these first couple of weeks.

 Galaxy

 Scarlett

They are starting to show early signs of eyes and ears opening – the eye slits getting “thicker” and ears starting to grow and flop a bit more, instead of being very small and thick. By next weekend some of them might have eyes open.

Cardinal 

 Leo (x2)