Day Twenty-Three

As 2023 comes to an end and I think back over the past year the most enjoyable times happened because Tiffin was the center of it.

• January 6 - she finished her Championship with her 4th major win.
• March 11 - she became Farm Dog Certified
• March 12 - she passed her AKC Temperament Test
• April 23 - she got her Coursing Ability Test Title
• May 28 - she got her Coursing Ability Advanced Title
• June 5 - she got her Fit Dog Bronze Title
• July 8 - she got her Fast Cat DCAT Title
• December 8 - she presented me with 7 beautiful babies

When we weren't out competing, we were in different types of training classes. At home she followed me as I mowed the grass or went from room to room as I pushed the sweeper. Words can describe how much she means to me, so I won't even try.

So today in puppy world I made some changes. I expanded the pen by adding 2 ex-pens. Also introduced them to some different kinds of toys. I put in a wobble board which didn't really phase them. Here is Polar getting on it.

They are learning to eat out of a pan more each day.

So, it took Maks all of 45 seconds to open both latches on the ex-pen and go in with the puppies. Neither Tiffin nor I was happy about that.

Here is a picture of how much more room they have now but I realize that I don't have enough potty patches.

Arctic is just sitting back and trying to figure this all out.

All of us here at Rim Rock are wishing all of you a HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Day Twenty-Two 

 It doesn't take much to make me happy with these sweet puppies but hitting the potty patch is definitely smile worthy. I would say that they hit the potty patch about 50% of the time. I hope they get better at it. I added a second potty patch today.

I didn't get a chance to take many pictures because we were busy swabbing the puppies for the DNA test. This requires the puppies be separated from their mother and each other for about an hour. I had puppies in crates laundry baskets dog beds and any other thing I could find to coral them. Luckily most of them were very accommodating and curled up and went to sleep in their new environment. 

My good friend and co-breeder Chris had plans to come today to help with the swabbing but she woke up very sick. I know she is very disappointed that she had to miss the fun. My other good longtime friend LaDonna who is the breeder of Tiffin's mom Harlow came to see the puppies today and helped with the swabbing.  Each puppy has to have three brushes put in their mouth between the cheek and gum and moved around to collect the DNA. Hands need to be sanitized between each puppy. I hope we got enough DNA from each of them to get results but if not, we will have to do it again.

Tiffin is being very protective of the puppies and is not happy with visitors coming to see them. I am hoping when they get a bit older, she will mellow out. So unlike her to growl or bark at anything let alone a visitor. She eventually got comfortable enough for LaDonna to hold the puppies, but she made sure she watched what was going on. 

Here are a couple of short videos of them playing.

Week Three

Time is flying by. Three weeks old already and Tiffin is ready to give up the job of motherhood. I do believe when they start crying for momma, she would roll her eyes if she could. They are just beginning to get teeth so she will like this job even less and I will try to keep them fed so she doesn't have to pull the load all by herself. The pups won't even give her a chance to lay down. 

I made some changes to the puppy room. I took out the air bed I have been sleeping on for over three weeks and last night I slept in my own bed! I also added a potty patch to their pen. 

Since this is their three-week birthday, here are the three-week pictures in birth order as always.

Chill (male)

Tundra (male)

Blizzard (male)

Arctic (female)

Shiver (female)

Polar (female)

Avalanche (male)

 

Day Twenty 

Today I had errands to run so I didn't get to spend as much time with the puppies as usual. My niece took some pictures of them, so I have her to thank.  

Because the litter was produced using frozen semen I called them the Ice, Ice babies. That is why they all have call names that pertain to something cold. Part of each parents name pertains to traveling. Sire is On The Road Again and mom is Are We There Yet? A friend suggested that part of the registered name should maybe be famous roads or streets. Thanks Elaine, I like that theme. Here are some pictures from today. 

Polar

Tundra

Something else I did today was refrigerate a couple more urine samples. Here is a comparison. Cloudy is HUA on left and clear is LUA on right. Of course, until I have DNA results this is only my experiment.  Any questions about anything on this blog please feel free to just send me a message.

Day Nineteen 

Yesterday I highlighted the girls, but sweet little Shiver got left out. Today I decided she needed to have her day too so here she is. She has always been the smallest in size but not personality. 

This morning before I cleaned the pen, I decided that I would see if they were interested in eating something from a saucer. I know how much they love the small bits of ground beef they get a couple times a day for the PSST hearing conditioning so I thought it might be time to start helping Tiffin with the feeding duties. I gave them Kefir and they seemed to like licking it off each other but only Chill lapped it up from the bowl. I would have used goats milk, but I don't have access to anyone with milking goats and I've always had luck with Kefir. Here they are trying to figure out what this is all about.

Another thing I tried today was collecting urine samples to refrigerate to see if they stayed clear which would indicate LUA or turned cloudy which would indicate HUA. I only managed to get two samples because it isn't easy to get a tiny puppy to pee on a spoon like gadget.  I won't tell the results until the DNA testing is done through VGL but it will be interesting to see if I get the same results. Here is the gadget I used to collect the samples.

Of course, I did snap some pictures of a couple other pups.

Blizzard always seems to get in the pictures.

 Arctic thought she could crawl over the edge but she didn't make it yet. Maybe tomorrow.

Today I also trimmed their nails and weighed them. Shiver is the smallest weighing 2.5 pounds. The largest is a tie between Chill and Tundra at 3.1 pounds.

Day Eighteen 

By the end of this week, I am going to have to rearrange things because they will need to be introduced to the potty patch. Tiffin is already tired of being a mom and ready to let me take over the cleanup duties. She stays very close to them but not in with them. She goes and checks on them hoping they don't wake up. When they do spot her, they go crazy. 

I wanted today to be about the girls since yesterday was mainly pictures of the boys. Here are a couple pictures of two of the three girls. It appears that Shiver didn't make it in any of the pictures.

Here is a video of the girls.

Today wasn't all about the girls. Tundra managed to get in some of the pictures. He was thinking that he just might be able to crawl over the ledge of the pen. Here he is being just too cute, even with the bad lighting.

Day Seventeen Merry Christmas 

Spent a lot of time puppy watching today. I believe I have seen 3 of them respond to sound. They are loving the tiny ball of ground beef. They are not connecting the treat with the sound yet but it will come. They are playing with each other more now and even making play growls. They are starting to come over to me when I look in on them. 

I don't have a favorite one, but Blizzard was in most of the pictures today. Here are three pictures of him.

This sleepy little guy is Tundra.

This one is Avalanche

Chill is checking out the Santa Monkey

Here they are in motion.

Here they are getting something to eat.

Day Sixteen 

A lot of changes are happening now. They are starting to interact with each other, and it is quite fun to watch. They try to mouth each other to see who has the biggest mouth. Then they knock each other over. I tried to get a video of it but by the time I thought to do that it was too late, and they tottered back to the bed. I am happy that every one of them leaves the nest to go potty already.

They had a visitor today which was a trial to see how Tiffin would react to someone holding her babies. She was ok but concerned at first. Then her tail started to wag, and she was fine. Maks on the other hand was a total lunatic. He didn't want a stranger to even go near the pups. I had to crate him. I have never seen him act this way before. 

Today I started something I call PSST conditioning. I am conditioning them to react to a quiet sound. Back before BAER testing people would do different things to see if the puppy had hearing or not. One method used and I'm sure still probably used today was making a loud noise like banging two pans together. Of course, hearing pups would react, but sometimes deaf ones would too because they could feel the vibration. Back then we assumed Dals were either hearing or deaf. We didn't really know about unilateral hearing.  

Back in 1981 at my first National I met a wonderful lady from New Mexico by the name of Cathy Nogar from Hopi Kachina Dalmatians.  Cathy taught me a lot about breeding and raising dogs but the one thing she taught me that I have used ever since was PSST. What I do is I make a very quiet sound like you would to get someone's attention.  Pssst  While I am making that sound, I pop a tiny piece of ground beef into their mouth. Once their ears are open and they hear that sound they know something good to eat is coming and they will jump up from a sound sleep. I will use the sound when Tiffin comes in to feed them and later on when I am feeding them.  I will watch each puppy a million times laying on the right side or laying on the left side and I will be relatively certain of the hearing status of each ear before the BAER testing is done. I did it once today and they were curious as to what that yummy thing I gave them was. I will do it twice tomorrow and every day. I haven't seen anything that tells me they are hearing yet but, in a few days, I think I will.

Here are some pictures from today. The yawning boy is Avalanche. He is getting cuter every day.

What's not to love about Tiffin and bunny. Bunny got thrown in the washer today because one of the puppies pooped on his nose. 

Merry Christmas and Season's greetings to all!

Day Fifteen 

The puppies are starting to leave the sleeping area to potty. I am enjoying watching them figure this all out now that they can see. I am waiting for them to start interacting with each other. 

 The first picture is Chill and bunny having a nap together. 

I was happy to see that they are making their way back to the bed after they eat.

Great great grandpa Maks loves to take a peek at the babies. He feels totally left out of this whole thing, but he is scoring extra treats when he gives that "woe is me" pathetic look.

I am so happy that Shiver is now 2 pounds. She is tiny but that doesn't stop her. Here is a video of my little overachiever finding her way to the milk bar.

As many of my friends know Dalmatians aren't my only critters. I also have 8 chickens. Since today was a nice day, I decided to let them out of their run to peck and scratch. They have a very big secure run, but they like to free range too. Here is the view from my kitchen window.

Playing with the puppies is fun but today I spend some time working on the puppy packets that will go home with each of them. 

 Week Two

The puppies are two weeks old today. Nothing much has changed other than the fact that their eyes are open. We took two-week face shots which turned out to be a 3-person job. It is amazing how well they are getting around. Still three steps forward, one step back and fall over but they can get to Tiffin very quickly when she gets in the box with them. I am glad that there are only 7 because they all can find a place at the milk bar without much of a struggle. Here they are in birth order as always.

Chill (male)

Tundra (male)

Blizzard (male)

Arctic (female)

Shiver (female)

Polar (female)

Avalanche (male)