puppy pictures

Black boy says " I love cloud gazing - look1 there's a bunny up there"

Red girl says: No, it's a squirrel! Let me go get it, quick!"

Black parti girl: "Me first! I'm on it! I'll bet all of you!"

Red girl: "Oh, who cares - I found a better chew toy!"

Gold boy: "Who cares about chew toys! I just want to smell the flowers. "

Red boy: "Who cares about squirrels or flowers?! Lying here is the best thing in the world - pina colada please!"

Black parti girl: "Those squirrels just run too fast! I'm exhausted..."

Topaz puppies: Six weeks old!

Hard to believe, but these little doods are six weeks old! They are growing well, with more and more teeth every day, and very playful and happy little tykes. They are still nursing, but we're starting to notice Topaz is not comfortable while nursing, whining a bit and moving around, and she doesn't let them nurse more than a few minutes at a time, but she is still being a dutiful mama and feeding her babes when they get noisy. They are also eating more an more "solid" food - that is, soaked kibble to make it mushy. But with their teeth being pretty well developed now, in the next week we will begin mixing dry kibble with the mush and soon enough it will be all dry kibble mixed with soft food (but not mush).

Topaz is a great mama from another perspective (great for us!) - she is still cleaning up after her babes very regularly and efficiently, meaning there is little clean up for us to do. This makes our lives a lot easier - not so much poop to deal with and not as much laundry to do with continual washing of pee pads. Not sure what it does for Topaz's diet, but hey, this is normal for mama dogs... though many of our other mamas stop being so diligient by the time the pups are that old. Isn't hat what humans are for, after all - cleaning up after us dogs?

The pups' personalities are starting to be more distinguishable as well. The white-and-black parti girl is very brave and adventurous. The black and white boy is very social and cuddly. The red girl is confident and friendly. The red and gold boys playful and independent.

A couple of them - black boy and red boy - will have quite curly coats, while red girl has a very soft, more wavy coat. As far as size goes, they are fairly similar in size - they are not huge pups, in fact a lot smaller than Phoenix's were at this age, but they're all growing well so there's no concerns in that department. Topaz is on the small side herself, so we fully expect these pups to be in the 20-lb range, give or take 3-4 lbs.

The next 2-3 weeks will mark lots of adventure and change for these wee pups. The near future holds microchipping, a vet appointment, temperament testing, neutering, and then - bye-bye mama and the hopme they've know so far and off to begin a new life with their forever families!

Strawberry Doodle Romp

The next DragonRam Doodle Romp is scheduled to take place on Saturday June 28 at 10:00 am. We're going a morning romp this time, just to see whether it makes for a nice cool time with lots of dogs.

As usual, gather at DragonRam hQ and we will romp through the fields and forest. This is the "Strawberry" romp as I expect the wild strawberries in the nearby field will be ready for the picking.

The kids will have finished school the day before, so this will be the first day of the summer holidays! Hurray!

Please rsvp to roma@dragonramdoodles.com so we know whom to expect.

Topaz puppies: One month old!!

So these little pupsters turned one month old on Sunday! They are starting to get some real teeth by now - the canines are poking out and the incisors are on the verge of emerging too. We have started feeding them puppy kibble, softened with water or broth until they get more teeth, to help supplement the milk they get from Mama and make it easier for her to keep the hungry beasts satisfied.

On Sunday these babes had their first real outdoor experience. We took them to the field and let them run around. As we were taking them there, a worker from the old folks home next door saw my son carrying a big bag and came out to see the pups - she knew what he must be carrying, as she's seen us out there with puppies before! She spent a good 15 minutes playing with the pups and taking some photos.

As usual, some of the pups were a bit more adventurous than others, but all of them didn't have any qualms about this new experiences, enjoying the texture of the grass under their feet and sniffing all the diffierent things around. It was a hot day, so we all ended up napping in the shade for a bit, humans and pups alike.

Topaz puppies - photos

What, it's not Monday still? How did that happen?!?!

Okay, so I'm late again. As usual. But here are the photos of Topaz's pups at 3 weeks of age. Of course, they're now almost 4 weeks old... so I'll try to get even more up-to-date ones up by the weekend.

I do recommend checking out our Facebooks page every so often, as you're more olikely to get updated pix there than here (these days at least) since my daughter makes it her job to post there. (Thank goodness!) (In fact, I have to confess these photos are simply reposts of what she put on Facebook last week. Shh, don't tell anyone!) But for those of you not yet into Facebook (is there any such person out there besides me?), here they are!

DragonRam Pot o' Gold Juniper (Marley)

The last pup from Phoenix's litter did actually go home on the May long weekend, too. In fact the family came Saturday to see him - came again with Uncle Vet an hour or so later - and took him home that very evening. He is to be the special friend of Mikayla, a university student, though will be well-loved by the whole family.

Here is Juniper's temperemant evaluation:

SENSITIVE, CAUTIOUS, SMART
Juniper is a gentle and non-confrontational puppy. He becomes very nervous in new situations and will attempt to remove himself and seek a ‘safe’ place to hide. He will bond strongly to his humans, learn to trust them and look to them for guidance. It will be import an to encourage his confidence and not reward his insecurities. Juniper is excellent at reading body language and will need a soft approach to training. He is intelligent and food motivated making him easily trainable, Juniper will vocalize his emotions, be it excited and happy or uncertain and frustrated. Building his confidence and providing reliable rules and structure will help minimize his emotional extremes. Provide chew articles and encourage chewing as an outlet. Juniper will do well in a family setting as long as he is provided with regular rest periods and spacial respect.

His new name will be Marley. Good luck to you, Marley & Mikayla!

Good-bye Ophelia Angel!

Ophelia Angel, that last puppy from Galena's August 2013 litter, finally found her forever family home over the May long weekend. A wonderful family with 2 kids was looking to get a dog, had been taking care of a friend's Labradoodle and fallen in lvoe with the breed, but didn't think they wanted to handle the more intense needs of a young puppy. The answer? Ophelia, aged 9 months!!

She went home to them this Thursday evening, May 29 - her 9-month-iversary. We wish her a happy and fun-filled life and hope to see her again at our future Doodle Romps. I will miss her most, I think, as she was my bed-warmer and personal toe-licker, but the kids will be happy not to have to pay so much attention to putting shoes away to avoid chewing...

Good-bye Opheilia Angel, we love you! See you soon, we hope!