Day Nine

I am looking forward to the eyes opening. That is when they start to get cute. Today they had a visitor. Grammy Chris came bearing gifts for the puppies and the humans also. Tiffin was very happy to see her and to show off her babies. 

The puppies seem to have very soft poop today so, of course, I am constantly watching them to make sure it is nothing to worry about. Normally I wouldn't even see this, but Tiffin is not really into keeping their butts clean. If it is still like this tomorrow, I will get some kaolin/pectin for them. 

The ENS is going well, and they are getting much more comfortable with it. The ESI is still a work in progress. It is hard to tell if they are responding sometimes. Today's scent was almond extract. Most of them seemed interested in it but the best result was from Blizzard. He sniffed then turned away then sniffed again and licked his tiny little lips. Of course, then I had to give him a few kisses because he is so cute.

Yesterday I said that Tundra was not snuggly. Today was a different story. It is fun to see how they react to me each day. Here are a few pictures of them. You can see the spots are coming.

New Toy from Grammy

Day Eight 

Today was uneventful because all they do is eat and sleep. I did the usual ENS and ESI but not much else with them. Yesterday's scent was clove and today they sniffed nutmeg. Most of them just sniff and turn away. A couple sniffed and then went back for a second sniff. 

I have been trying to give them all a little cuddle time and everyone but Tundra will snuggle. He wants nothing to do with it. He is the biggest and seems to have a mind of his own already. It will be interesting to see how that plays out when he can see and hear. The little patch girl Shiver is the one who loves a snuggle. She is so cute I can't stand it!

Poor old great, great grandfather Maks is feeling very neglected. I had to give him a lot of love today because he looks at me so pathetic it wears me down. Only took a couple of pictures today but here they are. Spots are getting more noticeable. 

How can that be comfortable?

 ONE WEEK OLD ALREADY

The first week had some ups and downs but the puppies are strong and healthy, and Tiffin is doing a good job of mothering. I did the ENS and ESI but other than changing their rug and taking pictures the day was uneventful. 

Tiffin had a problem because she couldn't find bunny. I took him and threw him in the washer. She was searching for him. She was happy when he came out of the dryer all clean and as fluffy as he gets anymore. Here she is when she got him back.

A couple pictures of sleeping pups. Left to right: 

Avalanche (m) Tundra (m) Chill (m) Arctic (f) Blizzard (m)

Left to right:

Shiver (f) Polar (f)

I will do a weekly picture of each puppy so here they are in birth order.

Chill male Patch

Tundra male blue collar

Blizzard male red collar

Arctic female yellow collar

Shiver female patch

Polar female green collar

Avalanche male white collar

 DNA

Today was pretty quiet. Tiffin continues to improve and today she wanted to spend time away from the puppies when they were sleeping. She still isn't eating as much as I would like her to so we ordered 100 pounds of raw food. I think this will encourage her to eat more. She will be finished with the antibiotics soon so I think her tummy will feel better then.

Today the puppies had ENS in the morning, weighing in the afternoon and ESI in the evening. Plus some snuggles in between. ENS is going well. They are not struggling as much now. The weight gain is steady.  The reaction to the scents is not dramatic. Only one seemed to be interested in the scent today which was vanilla. Two of them turned away and the rest didn't show any reaction at all. 

Still jumping through hoops with the AKC. They have the information they need but not on the correct form. So now they want the frozen semen collection report which is the same information as the freezing report. After this is sent to them, they will have the information in triplicate. I hope this is sufficient. 

So today the DNA swabs arrived. I use VGL at UC Davis. I believe they are the most reputable and efficient DNA testing lab. For those of you who don't know I DNA the puppies for a genetic mutation that affects the Dalmatian breed.  Most Dalmatians have a genetic mutation called hyperuricosuria. This is a metabolic defect that can in some instances cause a Dal to form bladder stones. It is not a huge problem in the breed but it is a huge problem for the individual dog who is a stone former. Unless one or both of the parents have at least one copy of the normal gene all the puppies will have the mutation. Because Tiffin has one copy of the normal gene she will not be affected with hyperuricosuria. Dogs that have either 1 or 2 copies of the gene are called LUA dals which stands for Low Uric Acid. All other Dals are called HUA, you guessed it, High Uric Acid. I will swab the cheeks of each puppy and send the swabs in and hopefully the results will be favorable for LUA. Now here is the clincher. Although the LUA pups will have this health benefit they may not be quite as pretty. Time will tell. It is recommended that the pups be 3 weeks old before testing.

Here are a few pictures from today.

Blizzard red collar boy and of course bunny

Swabs

Puppy Love or Bunny Love 

Last night was great. Tiffin didn't make me get up other than to let her out to potty until 8AM! It felt good to sleep in. It was a busy day for the puppies. They had ENS first. Then in the afternoon they all got a pedicure. My eyes are not as good as they once were and seeing those itty-bitty nails was hard. I ordered a magnifier to fit over my reg glasses so I could see them better. Even with that I managed to clip one a little too short. I felt like a monster. The fact that they were squirming didn't make it any easier. 

Then I get an email from AKC saying they couldn't register the litter because they didn't have a freeze report. The Veterinarian hospital where the semen was collected and stored for 11 years was the same place where the insemination took place, and all that info was on the 2-page litter application I submitted. However, that wasn't good enough, so I had to send the freeze report. Now I am waiting to see if there are other hoops to jump through. Silly me.  I thought I had all that covered when the repo vet that did the insemination filled in her part of the form and the semen owner filled in her part of the form and Chris and I the co-owners of Tiffin filled in our part of the form. 

After I decided that I could do nothing more about the registration issue I went back to watching puppy TV. This evening I introduced another scent. Today they got to smell lavender. Five of the seven sniffed and two turned away. Interesting to see how they respond. 

Here are a few pictures from today.

Here is a face shot of Blizzard

And this is Polar

 Spots

My day started at 4:30 AM when I was awakened by a stuffed bunny shoved in my face. Tiffin wanted out. I did ENS early because I had a new adventure for the pups to try. I started ESI which stands for Early Scent Identification. This is something new for me, but I believe some of the Golden breeders have been doing this with their litters. Here is what I learned about it.

Early Scent Introduction is a concept developed by Dr Gayle Watkins, a Golden Retriever breeder, scientist, researcher and competitor in a range of dog sports.

When?

Perform these exercises once a day from days 3-16.

What you need
13 scents
Pen and paper

How many?

Use a selection of 13 natural scents, no chemicals or meat products. You can use herbs and spices, things from your garden, or training items to make up your collection of scents to introduce.



Hold the scent in front of the puppy’s nose for 5 seconds per day.

Make a note of the responses to each scent;

+ is a positive response when the puppy actively tries to sniff the scent.

0 is a neutral response when the puppy does not respond in any way.

– is a negative response when the puppy turns its head away from the scent.



ESI should be performed at a different time of day to ENS. If the puppies are feeling mild stress from the ENS, you do not want them to associate that stress with the novel scents you are introducing.

Why?

Scent is the way puppies experience the world. Introducing natural scents early on can help:
Introduce puppies to new scents in a controlled way.
Improves scenting ability in later life.
Enhances confidence and stability as adults.
Reduce behavioral issues in the long term



Research has shown that when puppies are exposed to scent at this early age, they have an association and a recognition towards that specific scent.

If your puppy is likely to be used for a service role, detection role or perhaps as a working gun dog, then you can introduce them to “job specific” scents and increase their association with that scent, even at this age.

Today was the first day I tried this with the puppies. It is day four but yesterday was way too stressful for them. They had ENS in the morning and then a car ride to get their dewclaws removed. I didn't think another thing was using good judgement. So today, the first scent I used was birch. Because I have never tried this before I did not know what to expect. Only a couple of them responded at all. I'm sure they and I will learn this together.

Tiffin was nice enough to let me take a 2-hour nap in the afternoon! She is doing much better but I am having a hard time getting her to eat. On a happy note, the little patched girl Shiver gained an ounce today!!!!!

I didn't take many pictures but here are a couple. As you can almost see spots are starting to peek through. 

The heat light makes the pictures look yellow

Happy momma

Welcome back Tiffin 

Today was a turnaround busy day. Tiffin seems to be herself again. She was a litter better last night and today she was much better. She wagged her tail for the first time since this all began. Of course, I feel better too because I actually got some sleep. 

The morning started with ENS. For those of you who are unfamiliar the initials stand for Early Neurological Stimulation. It involves 5 exercised which last from 3 to 5 seconds on each puppy everyday from day 3 to day 16. If you would like to read about it here is a link explaining it. The 5 exercised are:

1. Tactical stimulation (between toes)
2. Head held erect
3. Head pointed down
4. Supine position
5. Thermal stimulation

At the suggestion of a friend (Thanks Sue) I made a cover for part of the whelping box. She seems to like it because she hasn't come out of the whelping box since we covered part of it. It makes sense that dogs would like the den effect.

This afternoon the pups had their dewclaws removed. It is always a hard decision to make but for me the good outweighs the bad regarding removal. 

All the puppies are gaining weigh except Shiver the patch girl. She is not thin looking, and she is strong and active but not gaining like the rest. I try to make sure she gets a good spot at the milk bar, but the bigger pups push her out. 

I made a cheat sheet with the collar color and puppy name to make it easier to remember who is who. This first picture is Shiver the smallest one and the second picture is Tundra the biggest one.

Below are a couple pictures of a very content Tiffin. Notice the bunny in each picture of her.

Finally, the cheat sheet.