Friday, February 24, 2012

Quick Photo Update (just pics -- it's a little busy here!): 7.5 weeks old

We still like snuggling in all sorts of positions.

Especially on our backs.

We like the crate; it's like a small den, and we often go in there to hide from our brothers when we have a toy we don't want to share.

If one of us picks up a toy, it becomes the treasured toy to everyone else! 

"Whadya mean, share?"

I still have remnants of my white chest stripe. I may get to keep it!

"Whoa!  We can't all squeeze through the door at the same time!"

We've sprouted! We're so tall now, we can pull things off the table (but our humans don't let anything get close enough to the edge for us to pull off, harrumph!).

It's mine.

Well, I might share it if you want me to.

We still love the jolly ball!

And we love tug-o-war with each other (but never with our humans, though; they don't want us to think that's okay to do with people since it can foster aggression and competition for dominance).

We're hungry!!!!  Feed us!  Please!!!

How can you resist a face like this?!  Mwah!

Monday, February 20, 2012

Puppy Adventures at Seven Weeks: Steps and Yard

The pups' skills and world are expanding.  Here they are using their voices to express their desires, then going down steps for the first time, and then practicing following their humans around the yard (we're quite thankful for a ridiculously mild winter here this year). 

Such sweet silly seven-week-old puppies!  Enjoy.




'til next time,
Joan

Saturday, February 18, 2012

Seven Weeks Old: Video in Stills

The soundtrack to this project is Louis Armstrong's "What a Wonderful World" and the pictures were taken today (all pups are seven weeks old now).  Enjoy!


Thursday, February 16, 2012

Puppy Play (at 6.5 Weeks Old): My first movie attempt!

Regular Reader should recall that Chessie the Wonder Dog (as in "I wonder how much money she's cost us so far...?") recently chewed up the small digital camera I use to take videos of the puppies.  It was, in fact, DH's camera. Since Chessie, who is approaching her second birthday next month and still quite puppyish, also chewed up my cell phone and Bluetooth ear piece over the summer, I guess that means Chessie loves us equally. DH's camera; my cell phone; silly girl.

In both cases, btw, it was my fault for leaving the items at nose height outdoors and forgetting to put them away when I let the doggies out to play unsupervised. Thankfully Chessie just chewed and didn't ingest. We really dodged a bullet there, both times.

So, don't you know, DH ordered himself a new point-and-shoot camera, and while he was doing so, ordered one for me, too (hehe.... me thinketh he doesn't trusteth me-eth with his-eth anymore-eth).

Guess what I got for Valentine's Day?   A delightful Canon PowerShot A1200.  And yup, it takes videos.

What follows is my very first attempt at creating an actual movie using video software.  I shot the clips yesterday, February 15th, when the pups were 6.5 weeks old. 

(NOTE: if you want to view this enlarged, view it at YouTube by clicking on the YouTube icon at the bottom of the video box below, and then (once at the YouTube version of this video) click on the full-screen icon at the bottom of the YouTube video box -- the full-screen icon below doesn't appear to work.)





Enjoy (and don't be too critical of my novice movie-making skills!).

'til next time,
Joan

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Wordless Wedsday: Puppy Close-Ups (6.5 weeks old)

Green

Red

Green

Blue

Red

Green

Blue

Blue


Red

Green

Blue

Red

Green

Green

Monday, February 13, 2012

Puppies' Vet Visit (Six Week Check-Up)

The pups visited the vet this morning for their six-week-old check-up, routine de-wormings, vaccinations, and micro-chipping.  And all survived:

Initially, they weren't thrilled about riding together (all three) in one crate.  In the picture above, Master Red is front and center; Master Blue is top right climbing on his brother; Master Green is bottom right underneath Master Blue.

They settled down, though, and relaxed for the car ride.  No fussing at all!

Then we got to the vet's office, and of course our people-loving puppies wanted to come out and greet everyone (but Gramma Joan wouldn't let them; she's super protective).

Everyone stood well for weighing, and here's what their weights are (as of this morning):  Master Blue is the lightest at 12.4 pounds; then Master Red at 13.3 pounds; and (no surprise here) Master Chunky Monkey Green weighed the most at 13.8 pounds.  All three are solid and healthy.

They received their standard six-week-old vaccines (DHPP -- for Distemper, Hepatitis, Parvo, and Parainfluenza).  They also received their first deworming (oral Strongid), and will receive their second dose of Strongid at eight weeks right before they leave us for their forever homes.   All three were microchipped as well and handled the big needle for the chipping without protest (well, Master Red wiggled).  The chips were wanded before insertion to make sure they worked, and then again after insertion to make sure they were located where they were supposed to be (between the pups' shoulders high on their backs). Everybody's chips made the wand beep when wanded so we know their chips are in and active. :O) 

Master Green was the most timid on the table, but he relaxed in time (above).  Dr. Wagner checked the pups over well, and all "feel" great to him; their joints seem sound; their ranges of motion are good; their hearts and lungs sound fine; their occlusions (jaw alignments) and palettes look good; and their eyes and ears are all as they should be. They do all have umbilical hernias as we suspected (Red's is biggest), but our vet isn't too concerned. He does want us to watch them, however, and the new owners will have to as well, but we're hopeful that the hernias will self-correct in coming weeks.  If the hernias do not self-correct, the treatment is a simple surgical procedure that can be done at the same time as pups' neutering surgeries. So it's all good. 





After the "trauma" of their exams, vaccines, and micro-chipping, the pups were more subdued.  They were quiet for the ride home.

All were quite happy to return home to the security of their familiar "den" in our kitchen.

And they were quite hungry!

They ate well as soon as we returned.

And then they settled in for a long winter's day nap.

Sweet silly puppies.  Our vet thinks they're gorgeous and doing very well.  They look good and have their clearances to go to their forever homes.  Now we"ll just love them and work with them over the next two weeks, and then they'll leave us for their new families.

Wow!  It's hard to believe they're six weeks old already!  So far so good.  Let's hope we have an uneventful final two weeks.

'til next time,
Joan

Saturday, February 11, 2012

From the Puppies: Milestones in the last Ten Days

We've transitioned to solid food. We even like dry kibble now! 

We've explored confined, closed-in places (like this kitty cube). This week Gramma Joan says she's going to introduce us to a "crate" (whatever that is).

We've played with lotsa toys.  Oh, and we play with each other, too.  Sometimes we play too rough and make each other yip. But Gramma Joan says that's how we learn.

We're figuring out how to carry things in our mouths. We like to do that.  We are Labs, after all!

We got to play outside when in was warm.  We even learned to climb up on a canine hammock (under the red and black fleece above).  Climbing in hard, but Gramma Joan says she's helping us get ready for steps.

Master Red was the first to figure out that he could climb up on the hammock, but Master Blue was quick to figure it out, too.  The red stuffed bone motivated him.

We're beginning to lose the blueness of our eyes.

We've become quite observant, and we let our humans know when we see things.

We've almost learned to trot with things in our mouths (almost is the operative word there...we still trip a lot).

We sometimes watch things before we pounce on them.

Oh, and we got to "meet"  Auntie Elsie.  She was really nice to us even though we tried to nurse from her. We also got to meet Daddy Tuc (he wasn't too interested, but at least he didn't step on us), Pinot (who wanted to sniff us a lot), and big puppy Chessie.  Chessie (she's our half-sister since we have the same mom) likes to play with us.  She wants to play all the time!

But Auntie Elsie is the best at teaching us canine manners.  She'll get to do that more over our last two weeks here.

Oh boy!  We also got the play in the snow!   Gramma Joan only let us play in it for about ten minutes because she didn't want us to get too cold (we're still pretty little), but she wanted us to be familiar with snow so we wouldn't be afraid of it when we get bigger.

We're still learning how to navigate steps and door-frames. They're a little tricky, but we're getting it!

We've also found our voices.

We use our barks on purpose now.

And we're learning to sit to get attention.  No one will pet us or pick us up unless we're sitting. 

We can sit pretty well now, but we sometimes bark to let our humans know we're waiting very patiently (note Master Green in the back).

We think we're quite special, all-in-all. We play for much longer periods of time now, sometimes even a whole half hour!  But we still sleep a lot, too.  And we dream.  Dreams are fun.

We love being with each other, but we're also quite happy to have 1:1 time with our humans. And we love to explore.  Sometimes new things are a little scary, but we're brave enough to investigate, and so far everything we've investigated has turned out to be okay.  Our humans protect us a lot, though. They don't let us get into trouble. 

We're down to nursing just once per day (we like puppy food), and we don't sleep with Momma Kenya all night anymore. We barely see her at all right now (Gramma Joan says it's because we're being weaned). 

Oooooo... and today, while it was still sorta warm outside, Papa Don took us out in yard one at a time. It was a grand adventure. We followed him all over the yard, so now we're tuckered out and sleepy again.  We'll let Gramma Joan tell you anything else...   Zzzzzzzzz......


From Gramma Joan: 

Yup, that's puppies: play hard, then sleep even harder!

The pups are doing quite well  They're in the very-busy-creating-more-work-for-the-humans phase of development. Between pen cleanings, pup training (very limited and preliminary), puppy socialization, laundry (about 3 loads per day for the pups alone), and life stuff,  I've had less time to be on-line. 

And, lol, since Chessie chewed up my little camera with which I take videos (yes, you read that correctly; Chessie destroyed our Canon Powershot... silly puppy...yomp, yomp, yomp, but thankfully not ingested), I can't take puppy videos anymore. At least until we get a replacement camera (which I will remember not to leave on the table outdoors when the big canine kids go out to play -- my fault, not Chessie's).

The pups have their six-week-old vet visit on Monday morning during which they'll be examined, dewormed (routine -- no sign of parasites, but it's standard practice), and will receive their first round of vaccines.

I'm taking them in on my own (no help), so I'm not sure how well I'll be able to document the vet visit with pictures, but I'll post their check-up report sometime later on Monday after we return. I'm not expecting any surprises.

We do know that (get this) all three boys have umbilical hernias!  In all our litters combined, we've only had one pup with an umbilical hernia before, and it was a larger black male from last year's litter. I'm wondering if it has anything to do with their birth size and the difficulty of their passing through the birth canal (putting more strain on the umbilical cord perhaps).

Our vet assured us last time that these are nothing to worry about and that they usually self-correct in the first few months of life (all three are fluid and can be gently pushed back in). And if they don't self-correct, they're easily fixed when the pups are neutered later on.  I'll check with Dr. Wagner on Monday to be sure, but I suspect he'll say the same thing.

How odd, though, that all three have them. All three were more difficult to deliver than any pups from past litters (and were much bigger), so maybe that's it. That's the only reason that makes sense to me.  But I'll check on that, too.

So that's it from here.  All is well! :O)

 'til next time,
Joan