PUPPY ARCHIVES
People have asked me to leave these pages up. So I will archive puppy pages here after puppies have gone to their new homes. If you want to watch videos chronologically you will need to start at the bottom of the page and work backwards.
Litters ‘R2’ and ‘S2’
31st May
Puppies have had their vaccinations and health checks and it is getting closer and closer to the time they will be leaving. I am already starting to make preparations for their travel and for them to meeting their new owners.
I have some vids of them enjoying their first pig’s ears. I have hung these up among their toys on the umbrella frame. It did not take them any time at all find them. It also didn’t take them long to remove them from the umbrella!
Watch what Q’ld Blue does when I get too close and another puppy is approaching too.
Mums love having fun too. Both Rilla and Breezy love all the toys and often play with them with the puppies. Both mums still spend some time with their puppies, teaching them good solid life lessons, but they are also spending more and more time with the older dogs now. If you look in the back ground of the video below you will see Breezy coming down the raceway. I don’t know why she thinks Pvt. Ryan needs to be pushed into the corner. Maybe she thought he was in the way. LOL. – That’s mothers for you!
Then when the fun is over it is time for a drink. The puppies are now 8 weeks and fully weaned. This is just comfort drinking. However, both mothers are very happy for them to have a nuzzle. They make me laugh because now puppies will drink for either mum. They don’t care and neither do the mums. Frequently the mums line themselves up for the babies to have a quick drink. The truth is they really do not have any milk… but of course, babies just have to test that out.
Rilla is on the right and Breezy is on the left in this video.
25th May
Puppies are growing like weeds and love using all their toys.
Last Sunday the ‘microchip lady’ came and gave them each a microchip – without one word of complaint from any of them. They are tough little creatures. Then on Tuesday they were bundled into the van for a 45 minute journey to see, Dr Andrew Turner, the ophthalmologist who visits from Victoria. They all received good eye checks. I was pretty sure this was going to be the case as those little eye-peepers do not miss anything! This procedure took over an hour for all 10 to be checked. Then it was a 45 minute return journey. On the first trip there was a fair bit of protesting going on, but no car sickness. On the return journey the protesting only lasted 2 city blocks before everyone was soundly sleeping – again no car sickness. They will have another journey next week to the ‘big smoke’ for vaccinations and health checks.
All puppies have homes and most will be leaving mid June (makes me feel sad, already). Three are going to Q’ld, two are off to NSW, two have new homes in Vic, two are staying in Tas and one is joining her new owner in SA. But, in the meantime lets get back to enjoying them and their antics. Here a few snippets of the things they are getting up to.
15th May
As I just mentioned on the ‘News’ page, we have had some very inclement weather recently. Over the last few days, the babies have just not had the toys and playing times or opportunities they normally would have had in their play yard if the weather was nicer.
They do have the choice to leave their comfortable little house, but being sensible collie babies, they have decided rain and wet paws are not for them!
I like to offer new experiences each day, but this weather has delayed some of these. This would have included morning walks in the big yards – which are now just big mud baths, playing with balls and pull toys – which is just about impossible to do in their puppy house. However, today I gave them their ‘piano’.
It is always interesting to see which puppies gravitate to which type of toys. I already have some who are much more interested in balls than others and there is a different group who like paper things, e.g. paper cups, paper scrunched into balls and the inner cardboard tube of toilet paper and paper towels etc.
Yes – puppies are enormous time wasters, and can outdo Stephen Speilberg for entertainment – every time.
4th May
Babies are starting to need a lot more space for playing. While they come out of their whelping pen for a play on the kitchen floor, they have to be fully supervised as there are too many things and places where they can get into trouble. However, we do have a dedicated outside puppy space with lots of room and toys for them to play with and learn new skills. They will be migrating to this area over the weekend. This is the last video before they venture out into a new world (for them).
Both mums are starting to leave them for longer periods. Puppies now are developing little teeth and they are needle sharp. They like to test them out on everything including their mums. The look on both mums’ faces, and particularly Breezy’s, at feed time tells me they are not really enjoying this anymore. I now need to step up and help by feeding the puppies solid food more often. We are in the first stage of weaning.
30th April
From the weekend: Saturday morning – breakfast can be a bit messy.
Sunday morning: I wanted to see what their reaction was to something they had never heard before. Who will run away? Who will stay and listen? Who will investigate? All these reactions do not mean much at this age, and responses of each puppy can change from day to day even, but it is interesting, and it can tell you where the puppy is at that day. So while they were sleeping, after breakfast, I set the octopus toy to play some music. Rilla’s boy who was sleeping with the pack (for the first time – he usually takes himself to the opposite of the box to sleep alone) was quite excited by the music.
27th April
The following video was taken the morning the babies turned 3 weeks old. They have just had their first grown-up breakfast and are getting ready for a nap. (Rilla’s baby is hanging out with this mob for breakfast and the occasional ‘playtime’).
16th April
Breezy’s puppies are two weeks old today. This is a video from this morning. (Guess what my first job is tonight? – cutting puppy toenails. I didn’t realise just how long they were until I saw this video. Oh my, poor mother dog! – Sorry Breezy).
and this is Rilla’s little boy with his Kookaburra.
Rilla and Hardy’s boy
I did try to give Rilla a couple of Breezy’s babies – thinking this would mean her baby had company and that it would help to bring her milk in. I also thought it would help Breezy, as nine is a quite a lot of puppies to look after for a first time mum. It wasn’t the mothers that kicked up a stink. It was the babies! They screamed the house down and got everyone upset (including me). They were not going to have Rilla as their mum! So the status quo was restored and calm returned. Babies Rule!’
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9th April
Puppies have arrived. – Very unexpectedly, Breezy, pipped Rilla at the post and delivered 9 healthy babies pretty much on schedule (evening of the 3rd April…)
1x sable and white – male (smooth)
2x tricolours – 1 male, 1 female
2x sable merles – 1 male, 1 female
4x blue merles – 3 males, 1 female
It will be a little longer before we know which coat type the puppies will be – i.e. roughs or smooths.
Mum and all babies are doing well. The smallest was 6.5oz born and the largest 10oz. The rest were between 8-9oz. A nice even litter! I’m sure mum is feeding them growth hormone as they are all gaining 1.5-2oz a day.
The vagaries of breeding – this time Rilla decided one baby was quite enough! Arriving 4 days later than expected, he is a very big boy (16oz at birth). Rilla needed a cesarean to deliver him. Both mum and baby are doing well.
Litters ‘R2’ and ‘S2’
Two litters are expect at Easter time (2018)
Litter ‘Q2’
FEBRUARY 2018
This is our current litter who are now leaving for their new homes. They are the puppies of Champion Baqilodge Jewels and Gems and Herditall American Culture.