I also got a video of the puppies feeding, I adore the way they hold their tails up and wag them when feeding, very happy babies.
Today the puppies have all been starting to take proper steps! It's absolutely adorable and, like human children, there is a lot of wobbling, falling over and getting right back up. I managed to get a video of Purple and Green walking today which is below. I also got a video of the puppies feeding, I adore the way they hold their tails up and wag them when feeding, very happy babies.
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It has been a big week for the puppies all of them have opened their eyes and boy do we know about it. Since opening their eyes they're more vocal, wrigglier and less likely to settle when being held by us. Photos are no longer going to be easy to take and they tell me all about it if I upset them by clipping their claws or doing the ENS. This week also marks the first time I have been peed (thanks Orange) and pood on (thanks Black) it won't be long before they're all toileting by themselves and Kumi no longer has to stimulate them. We've noticed them starting to lay on their backs more often, a typical English Shepherd pose, it's utterly adorable! Below are a couple of pictures and a really cute video, enjoy! I thought it'd be interesting to put photos of the puppies side by side to see just how much they have changed. I'll continue doing this until they leave us :) You can really see how their colouring has developed and, as you can see, Orange has opened his eyes! Black has started to open hers too and it won't be long before the others do too.
The puppies are needing their claws clipped every 3 or so days, if they don't have them clipped they grow into sharp little hooks which is damaging for both other puppies and Kumi. I didn't get much clear footage of the claw clipping but I did take a video of me introducing the dremel to the puppies, the earlier we start this the easier it will be when they're adult dogs. I personally prefer using a dremel over clippers, you don't get the crushing/pinching sensation clippers can give and if you do nip the quick it bleeds much less than it would if you're using clippers. It also enables you to do something called the "Alternative Cut Line" which is used to recede the quick and keep it short. My little Dotty would scream blue murder when it came to nail time, it didn't matter if I did them, if the vet did them or if the groomer did them she hated it to the point I ended up having her sedated to get her claws sorted. Now, although it's still not her favourite thing to do, she will stand and let me use the dremel on her little feet with no issues at all. We're both dremel converts and we're not the only ones, there's even a facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/nail.maintenance.for.dogs/?fref=ts Below are some more links about dremeling and the video of myself working with the puppies. Once they're a bit older I will do another video for you :) http://www.doberdawn.com/doberdawn/dremel.html http://susangarrettdogagility.com/2013/08/cutting-your-dogs-nails-how-important-is-it-really/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cq5X8aV95E 8 days old, how time flies! The puppies are happy and healthy, gaining weight so fast they have now all doubled their birth weight (and more). Kumi has settled into motherhood and is now comfortable leaving the puppies for small periods of time and doesn't worry so much if one of them cries.
The puppies are starting to growl and make noises in their sleep, they're so big we've taken the pig rails out of the box as they couldn't fit under them any more! Carole is looking forward to being able to sleep in her bed at some point this week after 2 weeks of sleeping on the sofa. Today we had the first of our puppy families come and visit, we had 4 very excited kiddies and 2 excited adults! They had a fantastic time and asked lots of questions. It's important to get the puppies used to kids as we all know they can be quite loud and startling at times, the sooner they get used to it the better! Next weekend we're set for more visitors, better get some rest in during this week ;) Yesterday we started doing Early Neurological Stimulation (ENS) with the puppies. The idea behind ENS is that presenting puppies with a small amount of stress stimulates the hormonal, pituitary and adrenal systems and later in life enables the puppies to cope with and recover from stress better than those that haven't been through ENS. It was a system developed by the US Military, known as "Bio Sensor" or "Super Dog Programme". You normally start at 3 days old and carry on until 16 days old, we decided to wait a little longer due to the stress of having dew claw removal and currently I'm not doing this with Black as she is under going extra stress as we're having to help her feed a little bit (nothing to worry about, she just gets pushed off the teat easier than the others). The benefits of doing this are 1. Improved cardio vascular performance (heart rate) 2. Stronger heart beats 3. Stronger adrenal glands 4. More tolerance to stress 5. Greater resistance to disease. It has also been noted that they are more active, exploratory in new environments, stronger in competitive scenarios and much more. You can read about it in the links below. http://www.angelfire.com/fl/alaturka/imgArticles/ENS.pdf http://breedingbetterdogs.com/pdfFiles/articles/early_neurological_stimulation_en.pdf Here is a video of our experiences today, holding them upside down is more awkward than you'd think! Hi all!
We're all settling into our roles here and starting to relax. Kumi is being a wonderful mum despite some initial anxiety, her babies are fat, healthy and very clean. We're struggling to get her to eat, currently she'll only eat in the whelping box with someone holding the bowl but she's starting to voluntarily leave the box. Today the two girls had their rear dew claws removed so Carole to Kumi for a short walk, not everyone is a fan of removing rear dew claws on young puppies but they can cause injuries when they're older so we felt it was best, I actually found that the puppies made more of a fuss when they had their claws clipped than they did with the dew claw removal! While they lost their claws they have all been gaining weight really well, we didn't weigh them on Sunday but the weights for Monday and Tuesday are as follows Purple - Monday 360g (40g gain). Tuesday 411g (51g gain). Green - Monday 353g (53g gain). Tuesday 408g (55g gain). Black - Monday 305g (47g gain). Tuesday 351g (46g gain). Orange - Monday 372g (39g gain). Tuesday 428g (56g gain). Beige - Monday 325g (60g gain). Tuesday 381g (56g gain) We're really pleased with these gains, they're growing so quickly now. I got a couple of pictures today, you can see them all on the puppy pages. They've arrived! After much waiting our puppies have finally been born. We had been taking Kumis temperature for a week, on Saturday it finally started to go down at 8pm it was 37.1c so we thought we had plenty of time to get ready. At 8.15pm Kumi started doing tiny pushes, at 8.30 I received a call from Carole telling me to hurry up and by 8.45pm the first puppy had arrived! Trust Kumi to deviate from the normal path.
In order of birth we had Purple - a shaded sable female weighing 320g Green - a shaded sable male weighing 300g Black - a shaded sable female weighing 258g Orange - a black and tan male weighing 333g Beige - a black and tan male weighing 265g Sadly we lost a sable male and a black and tan female leaving us with just 5 puppies. We never imagined something like this happening and we're gutted but we've got to focus on our remaining babies who are happy and healthy. Kumi is a fantastic mum. I have added pages for each puppy and group photos which you can find by clicking "Puppies" on the page bar at the top of the page. I can't quite believe we are almost there, just a few more days until Kumis due date. This past week we have put the plastic down, set up the whelping box and Carole has started to sleep in the front room with Kumi. I've been spending most of the day there with Kumi keeping an eye on her, giving her an extra meal and taking her temperature. When a bitch is getting ready to whelp her temperature will drop to 36.6c, once that has happened puppies should start arriving within 24hrs. We're currently taking her temp 3 times a day, once around 6am, once at lunch time and again at 7pm, she really doesn't enjoy this and despite being heavily pregnant she moves pretty quickly! This is her chart at lunch time yesterday, last night she dropped from 37.7c to 37.6c. Both myself and Carole have had a fleeting feel of a puppy which is so exciting! We can't wait now for them to arrive, I don't think either of us is sleeping very well at the moment because we're so excited.
Kumi has been quite uncomfortable and isn't able to find a comfy position and has been moving around the room trying to get comfy. She still needs her cuddles though! Here are some pictures from the past few days. Hopefully my next update will bring news of labour or puppies! Time is flying by and we are less than 2 weeks away from Kumis due date. Over the past week we have purchased a whelping box and some vet bedding to go into it. Kumi tried it out for size on Monday and it is absolutely perfect. She is rapidly expanding getting noticeably bigger every day and is now on 3 times the amount of food she was getting pre-pregnancy. Kumi is moulting all the fur from her belly so that the puppies can get to her nipples easily, her boobs are also starting to fill out. It's hard to get a decent photo of her belly being black and fluffy but you can see she is no longer svelte with a tiny waist. Yesterday we went back to the scanner just to double check everything is going well, to make sure we have no giant puppies and to try and get a picture of one of the puppies. Everything is going great, Sam measured a skull for us which is 2.5cm at the widest point, incredible! I also managed to get a picture of one of the puppies, you can just about make out the ribs, heart and skull which I have labelled for you. Next week will do our final preparations for the puppies arrival. On Monday night we will put down heavy duty plastic sheeting to protect Carole's carpet, on Tuesday night we will set up the whelping box and leave it up, Carole will also start to sleep downstairs with Kumi. I will start going in every day to feed Kumi an extra meal and we will begin to take her temperature. Usually within 24hrs of the bitches temperature dropping she starts going into labour so it's very important we keep an eye on this, we'll also be watching for Kumi digging, being restless and panting a lot.
We're hoping to get some video footage of at least 1 puppy arriving and we will try to keep updating if we have the time to! |
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