Only two puppies left!

This past week was a busy one - seven families submitted applications for a puppy, we welcomed three families to visit, and two more deposits were made plus ongoing negotiations with another breeder to take one of our girls, resulting in all the girls now having been reserved. 

That means only the two boys are left - both are solid chocolate, and one has a bit larger white spot on his chest while the other has just a very small white line that won't show much once his fur grows out. One of them is still the biggest of the pups, while the other (slightly more vocal dood) has now slipped in rank from second to third largest, with one of his caramel parti sisters having surpassed him slightly in the weight department. 

Those looking to take a pup who have a preference for a female should bear in mind that with early neuter, the male Labradoodles end up with termperaments little different than the females. Their hormones never get a chance to kick in, so they never really get a chance to figure out that they're guys. So the issues of heightened dominance or aggression and territory marking that people often associates with male dogs are simply not an issue. The males are just as sweet, gentle, loving and fun-loving as the females. I'm sure any of our previous puppy buyers who's taken a male would be able to attest to that!

 

Three week update

What a difference a week makes! Now three weeks old, the pups are getting more active by the day! Their eyes and ears are now fully open and they are getting steadier on their legs. On the vinyl flooring they still tend to slip and slide, but with a blanket under their feet they are toddling along quite well and we’ve even seen a bit of running going on. They are starting to play together a bit and get a bit more interested in what’s around them. They still spend the majority of their time sleeping, but that will start to change as time goes on.

 

We gave them a bit of food for the first time today to see how they’d react. They weren’t particularly interested, except for the big chocolate boy – who walked through it and then licked some it off himself! (Mama finished the cleanup job.) At this point any food we give them is just to start getting them interested in eating something other than Mama’s milk and to supplement what Galena cann provide – as the pups grow bigger and eat more, it will be harder for her to produce enough milk for them so we like to help her out. But Mama is the one who decides when to wean the pups – usually once they get their teeth and it starts to hurt when they suckle. Those sharp little teeth will start appearing in another short week, at which time the supplementation will start to get a bit more serious – and their interest in it will likely increase.

The sizes now range from 1.1 to 1.4kg. If they continue to gain like our other biggest pup from Amore’s litter of April 2012, the biggest boys might get to 40 lbs. But if they behave more like their Mama, who started out big but whose growth slowed, they might just end up at 25 or so. Seeing as Galena and Spirit are both about 22-25 lbs and there are no big dogs in these pups’ recent ancestry, I’m thinking they may well be more like Galena in terms of growth 
 patterns. It remains to be seen.

While we still have only one pup spoken for, we’ve gotten an incredible amount of interest in the past few days and there’s a chance – if things work out – that they might all be spoken for within a week or so. So if you’re interested, don’t wait too long, or you might have to wait another six months (at least) until Galena has her second litter.

  BOY 1 

 

  BOY 2  

  CHOCOLATE GIRL 

  CHOCOLATE PARTI GIRL   

  CARAMEL PARTI GIRL 1  

 

    CARAMEL PARTI GIRL 2 

Now we are two (weeks old)!

The puppies turned two weeks old yesterday and are growing by leaps and bounds! Their eyes are almost all open - the two cream parti girls were first in the eye department, and the two boys are the last. Their vision will remain fuzzy for a while, but will gradually sharpen and grow more acute. Their ears are also open, meaning that they are now able to experience the world through sight and sound as well as smell and touch.

This coincides with them growing stronger and starting to try to walk. They are attempting, with varying degrees of success, to get their legs under them and bear their weight, rather than "swimming" like an alligator across the bedding. Of course, they are still extremely shaky and can't take more than a few steps without tumbling over, but it's a first few steps in the right direction!

The pups had their first deworming yesterday evening. We deworm them with Strongid at 2, 4, 6, and 8 weeks of age. They weren't all keen, but in general didn't mind the medicine. We do the adult dogs at the same time, since while the other adult dogs don't yet interact with the pups they do interact with the Mama so if anything is present it can get passed around.

These are some of the biggest pups we've ever had - only one fellow from our last litter, PJ, compares to the biggest of these pups, and the biggest of them has now surpassed him in size too. Even the smallest of these is in line with some of the bigger pups we've had in the past. The biggest boy weighed in at over 900g yesterday, while the smallest girl was over 650g. Only 5 pups out of 26 previous ones have been over 650g at this age. One of them was their dam, Galena, and she didn't turn out that big, but I think the fact she was one of a litter of 2 meant she was bigger at a young age and didn't grow so much later.

Given this, we estimate that the small ones - the caramel parti girls - will end up around their dam's size, 20-25 lbs, while the chocolate girls (solid & parti) will be 25-30 lbs and the two males will be 30-35 lbs or possibly as much as 40 lbs at maturity. These estimates are likely to be refined as their growth patterns evolve, but for now that's our best scientific guess. That makes these pups in line to be large minis and mediums in the Labradoodle sizing department.

One week update

The puppies are now one week old and growing well. They still spend most of their time nursing and sleeping, but we do see them trying to crawl a bit around the whelping box already. Slight cracks are starting to form between the eyelids and we’ll start to see eyes by the weekend or early next week.

Galena is a very relaxed mother. She doesn’t like the other dogs getting too close, but isn’t too snappy with them, just growling to let them know to keep their distance. She also is fairly relaxed about people handling her pups. We haven’t had any real strangers visiting yet, but our kids’ tutor, the housekeeper, and a couple of family friends have all been over and she hasn’t seemed to mind people getting close to the pups, though if any of us takes a pup out of the whelping box she is anxious until it’s back with its littermates.

The two males are the biggest of the litter – both are well over 500g now – more than double their birth weight! The females are all a bit smaller, with the chocolate parti female and solid chocolate female being the smallest. One of the caramel partis has very little colour – she’s almost solid white with just a few wee spots. The other has some nice but small caramel spots scattered here and there on her coat, especially over the eyes and ears. The chocolate parti has some lovely markings very evenly spaced over her back and head, and nicely symmetrical – she is a real beauty.

We have puppies!

Galena's babes were born on Tuesday January 29 starting at 2:45pm. (Yes, I know, I am horribly late in announcing the bith - it's been so busy both at home and at work that to find a few spare moments to prepare a post and add a few pictures has seemed too much to accomplish). 

Galena came to us on Saturday, January 26 to prepare for the bith. We weren't really expecting it until about Friday, which was day 63, although it's definitely not rare for a dam to whelp any time after day 56 or so. Seeing as this is her first litter, we didn't have any real track record to go by, other than that her mama, Amore, usually whelped right around her due date and her half-sister, Garnet, usually was about 4 days early.

We started taking her temperature on Sunday evening, as a drop in body temperature is one of the harbingers of whelping. Sunday evening and Monday morning her temperature was normal, but on Monday evening it had dropped almost two degrees Fahrenheit. During the night she was a bit restless, waking everal times and engaging in some "nesting" behaviour.. Tuesday morning her temrperature had risen slightly but was still low, leading me to believe that the pups were likely to be born sometimes between late Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday noon or so. 

Not wanting to leave Galena alone but not thinking the birth was yet imminent, I arranged for my daughter to come home during her morning spare period and spend some time with Galena, and then a friend to come be with her from around 12:30 on until the kids would get home from school a bit after 2:30. That would mean Galena would be alone for only about an hour at a time in the early and late morning. 

My friend called me shortly after she arrived to say that Galena was acting a bit restive, circling, needing to go out to pee frequently, and so on - all signs of whelping coming within a few hours. I said to call me again if things changed. 

The next call came around 2:50. My friend said things started to happen just after the kids got home. She had been sitting in the chair near the front door reading, and Galena was lying in her box seeming to sleep, when the kids arrived. My daughter, of course, wanted to go check on Galena immediately and came back saying that a puppy was on its way! They could see the sac coming as Galena lay there. The puppy had just barely been born when my friend called me. 

I quickly finished off what I was doing at work and called a cab to get home quickly. I arrived home at 3:25 and the second puppy had just arrived. For the next two and half hours we watched and assisted as needed while the last of the six puppies arrived, with the last one showing up at 5:42. 

Galena did a great job - she was very quiet through the whole process, just lying down as she gave birth and letting the puppies who'd already arrived suckle as the new ones came on the scene. She didn't grunt, groan, squeal, or make any kind of noise at all, seeming to take the whole process in stride. 

We now have six beautiful babes who are growing by leaps and bounds, drinking and sleeping mostly. They are not yet very active, and their eyes and ears are still closed, but they are very cuddly and snuggly and don't mind being handled. 
We have:
1 - a chocolate male with a small white "tie" on his chest
2 - a chocolate male with a larger white spot on his chest and a white chin




3 - a chocolate parti female who has a mostly chocolate head with a white blaze down the forehead, and three chocolate spots on her back, hingquarters, and at the base of her tail
4 - a chocolate female with a small white spot on her chin
5 - a caramel parti female with a caramel band across her eyes and a small spot on her forehead and back, and 
6 - a caramel parti female who is almost entirely white but has a few small caramel spots here and there. 
 
Galena is a very relaxed mama, not minding when we handle her pups and very easy about strangers or newcomers approaching her pups as well.

We have one reservation so far and some interest in the others, but there are still five available so if you're interested just let us know! 

Galena's ultrasound

We took Galena for her ultrasound on Wednesday, January 2 to confirm her pregnancy and get a rough puppy count. Guardians Martin and Carole said they were sure she must be pregnant as she has been a very VERY picky eater the last few weeks. I hope she starts eating better soon as she does indeed have a bunch of pups who will soon be starting to grow very fast as they finish developing and put on muscle, fat and fur in preparation for birth!

The ultrasound showed 6 healthy foetuses on the way! The vet said it looked like there had likely been 7 but one was resorbed – not an uncommon occurrence with dogs, it seems. No one really knows why, but it’s possible the foetus wasn’t developing properly so the body just shut it down and didn’t let it continue.

The six remaining are all a good size (about 1.25cm or ½“ at 33 days gestation). They had strong heartbeats and you could see the beginnings of leg buds. According to our puppy development chart, they have eyes already and eyelids too, and the nervous system is fully developed. In the four weeks between now and the expected whelping date, they will grow about 14cm (5½“), gain a whole lot of weight (up to say 200g or 8oz).

As for the guess the puppy contest, here is the final tally of those who submitted guesses before the deadline:

Name	# of puppies	date/time
Roma Q	8 puppies	31 Jan, 14:45
David Q	8 puppies	1 Feb, 15:30
Niloufar S.	8 puppies	1 Feb, 18:00
Mathom Q	7 puppies	31 Jan, 13:00
Tristan Q	7 puppies	1 Feb, 03:00
Monica S	6 puppies	31 Jan, 21:00
Mary Q	6 puppies	1 Feb, 17:00
Martin L	6 puppies	2 Feb, 16:30
Carole M	6 puppies	3 Feb, 06:00
Linda A	5 puppies	30 Jan, 03:00
Adrienne tC	5 puppies	2 Feb, 16:19
Denise C	5 puppies	3 Feb, 11:15
James B	4 puppies	31 Jan, 01:15
Beth D	4 puppies	1 Feb, 09:00

So the prime contenders are Monica, Mary, Martin & Carole. It remains to be seen when the first pup makes its appearance to decide the final winner. Though we do also need to have them all born, because there is the possibility that there was one hiding that the vet missed, or that another is resorbed and we end up with just five.

Stay tuned for a birth announcement in about four weeks!