We still have puppies available!

Update on 25 November: Three of our puppies have gone to their new forever families, and two have been reserved, so we now have three still waiting for adoption!

Sweet little girl - avalable

This sweet girl is the tiniest of the litter and will mature to about 15-18 lbs. She is very quiet and calm and absolutely adores snuggling with her people. She play hard, though when her big brothers get a bit rough she'll duck out of the play. She has been on several outdor adventures and enjoys playing in the grass and leaves (or snow! - but be sure not to lose her as she blends in!) She is mostly white with a few small caramel marks on her back. She will be happy in a family with children (4+) or a couple or single who have lots of love to give, preferably where she is not alone too much as she has lots of love to give. We think she's adorable!

Big active boy - available

(yellow collar)

This boy is a big fella who will mature to 24-28 lbs once fully grown. He is very active and playful and prefers to be with people than on his own. He lets you know when he wants attention or needs somethings, and is very people oriented. He will do best in a family where at least one person is home most of the time so he can enjoy their company as much as possible. Children (6+) will be welcome (especialy if they want to play!) but not required.

Active chocolate girl - available

This chocolate girl is a fairly active pup who loves to run, play, pounce, give kisses, and snuggle. She is generaly quiet and happy and is happy playing with her siblings, with her people, or just exploring on her own. She wil mature to about 18-22 lbs. Her dark chocolate coat is likely to fade as she gets older an turn a striking silver-cafe just like her mama. She is friendly and inquisitive and quite confident. She will do well in an active family with or without children and should be okay in a working family as long as she gets plenty of attention when her people are home.

Happy caramel girl - RESERVED

This girl is quite active but also a good listener and very friendly. She likes to play tug, ball, or pounce with her sibs. She is a pretty caramel colour that should not fade much (except in the sun!) with a cute white blaze on her forehead. She is quiet, happy, and a hard player. She will mature to about 18-22 lbs. She will do well in a family that is active and spends time playing outdoors, with or without children. 

Big cuddly boy-RESERVED!

(black collar)

This boy is a big fella who will mature to about 24-28 lbs. He loves being wit people and is always one of the first to come running when we enter the puppy nook. He plays rowdy with is sibs and eagerly plays tug with his people. He is relatively quiet and moderately active. He will do well in a family where there at least one person is home most of the day, as he would be too lonely on his own for long stretches. A family with or without childen will be fine, as long as he gets plenty of attention and play time. 

Big calm boy - GONE HOME!!

(Black diamond collar)

This is another big (but not quite so big) boy who will mature to 22-26 lbs when full grown. He is fairly quiet and laid-back, independent but snuggly, inquisitive but attentive to his people. He plays hard, runs fast, and sleeps well! This boy loves to snuggle but is not demanding of attention. He is a happy, content fella who will do well in a family with children (4+) or with a single or couple who are home eenings and weekends to spend time with him. 

Trick or Treat!

Some of the pups got into the costumes...

   Happy Halloween!  

And remember... leave your dog at home, so it doesn' get scared by all the strange people in weird costumes.

Meet the puppies

In this post we will give you a brief description of each of the puppies.

First, the chocolate female: She is very friendly and loves giving kisses.She is very active and adventurous - she will not hesitate to explore anything. She i also quie uiet and wil not whine to get attention.

The chocolate parti girl is next. She is a  bit shy at first, but quickly gets over it and also lkes givng kisses but not as much as her sisters.When she was a litle puppy she was very noisy but since she started walking she has gotten very quiet - we think he just wanted to be mobile!! In new situations she askes a few moments to get her bearings before becoming comfortable with her surroundings.

The third puppy is the caramel female She is one of the smaller pups and is very very active, rambunctious nd excited. She is an adventurous and playful girl who never stops running when she is awake. She is an extreme kisser and is has a lovely sweet temperament.

The first boy is strong, cute, has a good build, is sweet and somewhat independent - he doesn't always need to hang out with the rest of the pack. 

Then we have the first  aramel parti girl who is also petite, cute, sociable, good-tempered and playful. She will fight back with her brothers and sisters - if you bite me, I'll bite you!! But in a fun way, of course.

Then wen we have the second boy who is quite independent minded and very inquisitive. He is a very playful just like his two tiny sisters. His is one of the most kiss puppies and very snugly. he always lets you know when he wants attention and is very vocal about it!

The second caramel part girl is very cute and doesn't have many spots so we  call her Angel as she is mostly all white - and very very beautiful.  She adventurous like her caramel parti sister but not so bold. She is a little bigger than that sister but one of our smaller pups.

Finally, the last boy is is a real people puppy - whenever we go into the puppy corner to play he is right there wanting to be picked up, petted, played with  and cuddled. You can barely turn around witout him beingthere, butting out his brothers and isters to be sure to get (more tha) his air share of people time. For al hat, he doesn't insist on attention when you are not in the corner with them.

photo!!!!!!!!!!!

first picnic

I would like to start off with a caveat / apology – I had eye surgery in early September and recovery is taking longer than anticipated which is the primary reason for the lack of updates on the blog and website – I simply cannot see very well yet, which makes doing anything on the computer difficult. We have implemented Windows’ built-in accessibility features for low vson and these are helpful but not quite sufficient. Eve with them, I tire quickly working on screen. However, thins do seem to be slowly improving so I am hopeful I will be able to post more frequent updates henceforth.

Secondly, my keyboard has gotten “sticky” and doesn’t respond to every keystroke I make, especially when  get typing fast, so soe of the words might be missing letters -  will ry to make as many corrections as I can but I might miss some, so please forgive me! As for photos, I really ca’t tell which ones are in focus and which not, so some of them migt not be that great. For my last post I had my kids’ help, but this time I am going it solo as they are at school and it is challenging to find time after homework and dinner and a bit of play time for them to lend a hand at this too (though somehow they usualy find 30 inutes or more to play X-box or watch YouTube!!)

Finally, those of you who have received bizarre e-mails from me – I’ve been using my iPhone for e-mail as the settings make it easier to read text than on the compjter, but I seem to have “auto-orrection” turned on in a couple of languages, and it is actually auto-miscorrecting (!!!) so I had some weird things going out before I realized the problem and started proofreading to make sure  e-mails made ense!!!

Okay, enough of that – on to puppies! They turned a month old on Sunday and are real little dogs now! They’ve found their feet and are happily scurrying around the puppy corner on the vinyl floor, wagging their little tails and squaking to let us know they want food or attention.

Galena is stl nursing frequently but we are also starting to feed thems some puppy mush to supplement the milk and get them used to other food. As their teeth grow in we will decrease the mushiness of the food and let it stay more and moe solid until they are eating straight kibble by the time they go home in late October. All of them have at least the beginings of their upper canines poking through by now, ad a few have a couple of incisors and molars sarting to appear too. This, of course, is what makes it more and more uncomfortable for Galena to nurse tem – who likes to be chewed on the niples??? So the fod we give the pup wil be less “supplement” and more “that’s it” as time progreses.

With the lovely fall weather we are enjoying these ays, we took the pups outside to play in a nearby grassy area on Sunday afternoon. At fist they were a bit uncertain of this new strange sensation under their feet, but it didn’t take long for them to start exploring a bit and playing in the green grass. Mama came along to supervise (and so she would’t get anxious ifher babies all disappeared into te great unknown without her). We spent about 20 minutes outside and had a grand time! As the weather continues nice we will take them outside more. By Thanksgiving I expect we will be able to have some fall leaf play – alays a fun activity!!

Now is the time when we start seing more of their personalities coming through, too – which nes are more adventurous , more cuddly, more playful, etc. I wilprovide you with some specific descriptions next post.

Reminder that I would appreciate phone calls these days (tjoug I am now checking e-ail more regularly. If you do e-mail and don’t get a response within 2 days, plase call 613-552-3066 or 613-260-3447.

Pictures of puppies!!

 Note that these pictures are a bit old - as in they were from one week old and the pups are now three weeks old and have their eyes open and are walking a bit. We will take more pictures and upost them soon (ish). 

Belated birth announcement

Sorry for the delay, folks - I had eye surgery and am not seeing well at all so my kids are now helping me to get this post up finally!!!!

WE HAVE PUPPIES!!!

They were born three weeks ago  - yes, that's right, they're already 3 weeks old. The birth date was August 29 - so we ow know that Galena's favourite umber is 29 - her last litter was born on Jauary 29. 

There are 8 puppies. - one solid chocolate  female, 1 solid caramel female, one chocoalte parti female, ad 5 caramel parti - 3 male, 2 female. 

First to arrive was the solid chocolate girl. She is calm and quiet and loves to give kisses.

 Next out was the chocolate parti.She has a mostly chocolate head with a white blaze down the middle and a white muzzle. She is bouncy and quiet at the same time, and is very playful and fun.

Third was the caramel  solid girl She has a white blaze down her forehead as well, as well as white o her toes and chest. She is very fun and silly and bouncy, and extremely playful.

 The next one to arrive was one of the male caramel partis. He has a small saddle on his back and a dot of colour on his forehead as well as of colour covering bot eyes. He is quiet and sometimes a little whiny but very sweet and likes giving kisses. He is the second lragest of the pups and eats a lot.

 The fifth was another male, who does not have very many spots He has one spot on his back and two near his rear end as well as similar markings on his head to his older brother.He is quiet if he's not hungry but lets you and mama know when he wants to eat. he sleeps a lot and likes to tackle his sisters but they usually win because they are bigger than him.

  Then another female arrived who was the smallest at birth but is now second smallest. She has a half saddle and a big spot on her rear end and again similar head markings.This girl is very quiet and super super sweet and very adventurous.

  The second-last was another female who is very pale with hardly any colour markings on her at all, just a faint band of colour around her head and small saddle, but the markings are quite pale and not too much darker tan the white.She is really playful, active and likes to run around but she also is feisty and pushes the others away to get the best milk.

  Finally the last was the third male, who was and continues to be the largest of the lot. He is very big and very very playful s well as calm and sweet-tempered.

Now at three weeks of age they have opened their eyes about a week ago and are starting to toddle around on their four legs like real puppies, though they still stumble and fall a lot. We are just now beginning to feed them a little bit of soft mush to supplement what  they get from mama, who for her part is eating voraciously to produce enough milk to feed eight hungry babes.

In our next post we will give you a bnuch of pictures. 

Reminder of September Doodle Romp

Don't forget the Doodle Romp this Saturday 7 September afternoon from 4 to 6 pm. As we did in August we will again set up our agility equipment in the field by the nearby school and and meet in the school paring lot. Everyone who wants can take a run or three at the equipment and test their paws out! 

Puppies are welcome (well, not the one-week-old babies but any pup age 8 weeks or older!) as we can set the jumps at any height. 

Hope to see you there!

Last trimester

Galena has now entered her final "trimester" (last 3 weeks) of gestation.  now the pups are pretty much fully formed - just a few litle "details" left, including calcification of the skeleton and finishing off toes and fur colour. Most of what they wil be doing for the next 3 weeks or so is growing a LOT bigger so they are big enough to move around and face the big wide world (with Mama's love and protection for the first few weeks at least!).

She is definitely showing signs of pregnancy now wit a slightly swelling belly and teats - these will all get rounder by te time she gives birth!

It may not be a full 3 weeks yet - she was a few days early with her first litter, so I for one am expecting the pups to arrive before the end of August.

Stay tuned!

Doodle Romp reminder`

Don't forget the Doodle Romp this Sunday 11 August afternoon from 4 to 6 pm. Given the situation in the locale we usually use, we will meet at a nearby school and then cross the grounds to the hydro easement behind the school (details have been sent to confirmed attendees and DragonRam puppy owners). We will set up our agility equipment in the nearby field, start the Romp there with a chance for all interested dogs and their people to try their hand (or paw) at this sport, ehtn walk around a bit and - if the weather`s nice and people bring their stuff - enjoy a picnic supper at the site.  

We have 2 bar jumps, a tire jump, a weave pole set, pause box, tunnel and chute.Don't forget that we can set the jumps at any height so even the pups an participate. 

Hope to see you there!

Galena's ulrasound!

Galena had her ultrasound last night to confirm her pregnancy. At five weeks’ gestation (out of nine) she is beginning to show signs of pregnancy – picky eating, tummy filling out a tad. The pups are still very small – a bit less than an inch long – but in the next 3-4 weeks they will grow like crazy.

At this stage in their development, the embryos have fully formed nervous systems, eyes covered by eyelids, other facial features, lengthening leg buds with the beginnings of toes, and sexual characteristics. (So if we could see really well on the ultrasound we might be able to tell how many females vs. males, but it’s too fuzzy and the characteristics are not as obvious as on humans. It’s more a question of “Is the little bump closer to the navel (male) or to the tail (girl)?” than “what does it look like?”) Over the course of the next two weeks they will complete their skeletal development, gain pigmentation (fur and skin colour), and form fully developed limbs and heads. After that it will just be a matter of gaining size so they are real for the real world out there!

So how many are there? Well, we counted 8 puppy blobs (maybe 7). Which means that – provided we didn’t miss one on the ultrasound and and none of them is lost between now and then – the finalists in the “Guess How Many Puppies Contest” has been narrowed down to Tristan or possibly Amélie or Suzanne (or me - but I wouldn`t actually give myself a prize). We’ll need to wait for whelping to see who has guessed the closest time and date for a final winner. And, of course, whether the ultrasound was accurate or it’s actually those who guessed Y or Z puppies who are the finalists!!

Puppy development

Galena is now entering the second “trimester” of her gestation. Except in her case it’s weeks 4‑6, not months 4‑6. At this stage the signs of pregnancy are minimal. She may be starting to get picky with her eating (she was VERY picky with her first pregnancy!) but other than that you’d never know she was expecting.

The pups are still very very tiny – little more than oval-shaped cell clusters, albeit with a developed nervous system, that have implanted into the uterine wall – with as of yet no real puppy characteristics. That will happen quickly over the next three weeks, and by the time she enters her final “trimester” the foetuses will actually look like very tiny puppies with most of their characteristics quite well formed. The third “trimester” is devoted to completing the final development, calcification of the skeleton, and a whole lot of general growth.

In two more weeks we’ll take her for an ultrasound to count how many puppies she’s carrying. Stay tuned!

Summer Doodle Romps

The last couple of weeks have given us some lovely summer weather, after a very mixed-up month of June that couldn’t decide if it wanted to be hot, cool, or rainy. We’d been “promised” (long-range forecase) a hot sunny day for our June Doodle Romp, but it ended up being cool and rainy. Figures. I’m not keen on super-hot, sultry weather but I sure do enjoy a bit of heat as long as it cools off enough at night for comfortable sleeping.

Since so many people have varying summer schedules, I’ve just picked some dates for summer romps that suit our family and I hope enough people will be around town to come and enjoy a bit of canine fun and games.  

There will be no romp in July. My kids are off visiting their grandparents, and while their presence is not essential I know they like to meet all the dogs, so we’ll wait until they’re back from Edmonton.

The August Romp will take place on Sunday 11 August at 4-6pm.

The September Romp will be Saturday 7 September, also 4-6pm.

If the weather is nice, bring a picnic supper and some lawn chairs.

I’m pleased to report that our agility equipment arrived two weeks ago. We have 2 bar jumps, a tire jump, a weave pole set, pause box, tunnel and chute. We tested it out once before we left for camping, and I had it set up over the weekend again for some play time. Amore, who has had some agility training, took to it right away. Phoenix has not had training so she wasn’t as sure what to do with this stuff, but with a bit of work she was starting to get the hang of it too.

Anyhow, during our Romps we will set the equipment up in the field where we usually hang around and chat while the dogs run and play. We’ll start the Romp there with a chance for everyone who wants to to put their dogs through the paces and see how they take to this sport. Those with pups under a year in age will be able to do everything, as we can set the bar jumps and even the tire jump to any height and will put them almost ground-level for the little pups.

If you are interested in joining us, just send an e-mail to roma@dragonramdoodles.com and I will provide specific directions to our Romp site.

Happy summer doodling!