Our St. Patrick's Day Parade - A New Litter of Puppies!
Mom Shayleigh is fine and adapting well to motherhood. Dad Chance is back home at the beach living the good life - not sure what news of the parade has meant to him yet (hehe). Kathy played midwife and did an admirable job. I assisted where I could (mainly by washing 10 loads of towels). Kids are ecstatic. Here's a brief record of the St. Patrick's Day Parade at the Arnold's: 3:10 pm F 12 oz white head w/ black right eye 4:05 pm M 15 oz black left eye and ear w/ mottled right ear (he got his dad's right ear.  )
4:35 pm F 13 oz all white head and ears 5:30 pm M 14 oz black left eye and ear; black right ear down to neck 6:01 pm M 12 oz white head with black left ear 6:35 pm M 14 oz all white head and ears 7:20 pm F 14 oz large black spot on top center of head; left eye and cheek black (nicknamed "Lucky") 7:36 pm F 13 oz black right eye and cheek w/ spot over left ear; white patch just above tail (nicknamed "Patch") 9:13 pm M 16 oz black right ear (nicknamed "Titan" as he's the bruiser of the bunch; Shayleigh had a hard time getting him out) We went to the vet's today to have the tails docked and Shayleigh checked out. Mom and pups are all in excellent shape. Have to admit, though, the post partem tissue 'evacuation' almost had me lose my lunch. 
A grinning Shayleigh with a portion of her brood. Feeding happens in shifts . . . 
Food's on! First shift digs in. 
What do you do between shifts at the buffet? ZZzzzzzzzzzzz  |
|
|
| Puppies! We neeed pictures in the picture forum, of course! |
Congratulations on your grandbabies  |
Nine puppies  Lots of work and tons of fun! |
 Way to go Shayleigh!!! Hope mom and pups are doing well. I would love to see pics of baby sheepies as I got ours at 6 months. Missed out of a few things...  . |
| Yay, congrads! |
| Congratulations Shayleigh, Chance, and family! I can only imagine the joy it must be to welcome a litter into the world. That's fantastic. I hope they all go to wonderful, loving furever homes. |
| Congratulations! I want to see pics too! |
| By the way, I was wondering if most you know dock the next day, we dock at 2 or 3 days, and I am planning on either doing it earlier than is normally done around here, like the next day as you have. I wondered if you think it works out better for them? Any whining or whimpering that you think is pain related? Do you have them docked right to the bum or leave one vertebre, or two vertebre? |
| Tails should be docked within three days. After three days the puppies' systems have developed such that the procedure becomes more traumatic and is considered 'surgery'. Up to three days and it's a minor thing - snip, a stitch in the tail, and home they go with no visible discomfort. |
| I thought it might be fun to keep a running blog of sorts on the puppies. Perhaps some usefu tidbits will be shared. (I'd edit the original post in this thread but for some reason the 'Edit' button is not available)
March 18 - day one The first 24 hours was a scramble of sorts. The pups were a bit earlier than expected so our schedule with the vet was off for the tail docking. Thankfully the vet had a 90 minute opening we could slide into on Friday as Saturday and Sunday would have been difficult to coordinate. While having the tails docked we also had Shayleigh examined and a post partem 'evacuation' shot administered. Yuckers. Getting the schedule down for feedings took a bit of effort at first. With nine pups the mother can't take all at once. In fact, even taking five at once seems to be a chore. The pups tend to move about a bit while feeding and sometimes a larger pup will knock a smaller one off its nipple thereby forcing the smaller one to go hunt for another or do without. Four pups at once seems manageable, three even moreso. We have a heated 'puppy box' in additon to the whelping box where the pups sleep when it's not their turn to eat. Ideally, at any given time six are sleeping while three are eating. We keep a log of who is 'on', who just came 'off', who should go 'on' next, when Shayleigh went outside/ate/drank, etc. It's curiously like managing a baseball team - these guys are at bat, these are 'in the hole' to go to bat next, these others are available to 'pinch hit' as necessary. LOL. If a pup is schedule to go 'on' but is happily snoozing then we'll pinch hit for him with one that may be rousing about some. If a pup has awaken early and is bothering his siblings we'll put him 'on' in another's place or make the current shift a foursome instead of a threesome. Not too difficult and lots of fun to 'manage'. We tied some pink rick rack around the necks of the girls to help identify females. That, with the color markings, is sufficient to identify which pup is which. I think we'd be lost if this breed had identical color markings as many breeds do.
Nicknames have been given to each of the pups for our convenience. Since the pups don't hear for quite a while it's harmless to name them now. The real danger is we're growing attached to all of them now that they have names and we're identifying each pup's own little quirks and personality traits. Here are the names: pup #1 is Shaggie-Too (named for my previous OES Shaggie) pup #2 is Matts pup #3 is Tangles pup #4 is If (my son's wish; sire is Chance so the pup is 'If, by Chance' pup #5 is McFluff pup #6 is Bailey (the early favorite of the sire's family) pup #7 is Lucky (Lucky 7) pup #8 is Patch (curious white spot just above the tail) pup #9 is Titan (largest pup at 16 oz and hardest to deliver) Shaggie-Too, Tangles, Lucky and Patch are all female. Shaggie-Too and Tangles are the smallest in the litter. Titan the largest with Bailey and Matts close behind. This first day the pups were largely quiet. Except for one. One little girl is very vocal while eating and had me scurrying to check on her numerous times in the night. She's quiet when not eating but quite the talker with a full mouth. Thank you, Patch, for keeping me on my toes and making sure things don't get dull.
The puppies are cute as can be while sleeping. They thrust about quite a bit while sleeping as their neuromuscular system develops. Curious, Shayleigh does the same thing but we call it 'dreaming'. March 19 - day two Ugghh. I knew puppies weren't the cleanest things but I had no idea how messy the mother would get. Post partem stuff. Puppy poop in her hair. Very messy muzzle. Yuckers. I had shaved Shayleigh's rear and tummy to make things easier during delivery now I wish I'd shaved her whole back end.  She did get her muzzle and beard clipped short today to help improve her looks during the puppy period. You can see her as the 'Happy Mom' on the pictures forum.
Our whelping box is working well. We opted to build one and have an interior railing so Shayleigh couldn't pin a pup against the side of the box. I have already seen a pup saved from a squishing by that railing. Who knows what might have happened. Thank you Al Weber for urging me to build a proper box! A railing can't save a pup from being squished all the time, however. We heard a plaintive squeal and investigated to find Shayleigh on top of Bailey. She had stood up and shifted sides but landed on Bailey as she did so. Poor little guy had a fearful experience but is unhurt. Size does matter, at least at the buffet. The larger pups tend to go for the upside nipples while smaller pups often lay on their side to attack the downside nipples. Are we seeing the beginning of personality traits just from how/where the pup feeds? I sooo look forward to the Volhard aptitude testing at 7 weeks to see if it confirms the observations I'll be making along the way. |
| Congratulations! How wonderful to hear about your 9 beautiful puppies! So releived to hear all is well w/ mom and new arrivals! If I remember right from my childhood- your going to be pretty busy the next few weeks! I'm going over to see pics of mom now! Will pics of babies be soon to follow?
Karen |
| I love the updates!
Are you weighing them every day? I'm curious to see how fast they grow? Bo's 7 pups were all born at 16 oz except one who was 15 oz, and in less than a week they have doubled their birthweight. |
| I love the update post! And the puppy named "If!" How creative of your son to come up with that!
Can't wait till Ron gets the pictures up! Congrats! Chris |
| Ohhhhh I'm so jealous you get to experience this with your girl!!! Congrats to all of you!!!!
The first pic is priceless...now that's a Happy Mom photo!! Thanks for sharing this with us ...can't wait to see and read updates on these guys. Sigh I wish I could take Shaggy....same name as my previous OES and one day I want to have a little girl sheepie again. For now , I'll just drool over your pics. Marianne and the boys |
| Such beauties! Shay looks so happy with herself and her little ones! |
| March 22 - Day 5
Well, the vet said to feed her . . . so we are. Shayleigh is eating like a tiger - a 300 pound tiger. The vet said to feed her whatever it took to get her to eat and produce a lot of milk so since Friday Shayleigh's diet has been different. Ground hamburger is a staple now, as is turkey stock, milk, scrambled eggs, chicken broth and cottage cheese. Five pound tubs of cottage cheese from Sam's club seem to be zipping through our refridgerator. I'll have to make yet another run to Sam's tomorrow. The good news is that Shayleigh is providing ample milk for the pups and they are growing nicely! Would you believe they are barking? Not just the puppy squeak but true bark, albeit at a high pitch. This crew is going to be a noisy bunch in time . . . The pups outgrew the laundry basket used to hold them between feedings. I am now the proud owner of a 46 inch wading pool in my kitchen - no water but it IS heated. This should hold the pups for a good while - a couple of weeks at least. Once the pups are weaned from the mother we'll have to go to the next level in accomodations and, er, containment.
My wife Kathy cringes when she sees some of the pups eat. I would too if I'd ever nursed a baby. Thrashing about on the nipple looks awfully painful for the mother but I have yet to see Shayleigh show anything but infinite patience. Some pups act like they're tearing meat off a kill yet mom justlays there taking it all in stride. /wonder Feedings are going well. Basically, we have three 'shifts' but can adjust as needed. The first shift are the 'Sopranos' (Shaggie-Too, Tangles, and Patch) - called such because they are all female, they all now like to 'sing' while they eat (Patch is a terrible influence) and they are the smallest of the pups. It made sense for the smallest pups to be on the same shift so that their larger siblings couldn't black their access to the buffet. Second shift is 'Two guys and a Gal' (If, McFluff and Lucky). These are our middleweights. From a weight standpoint this group is heavier than the first group but lighter than the third. Also, this group is easily the most polite and each member tends to grab a nipple and stay there until satisfied. Shift three is the 'Bruise Bothers' (Titan, Bailey and Matts) - all boys and the three heavyweights of the litter. Just by sheer heft these three tend to move their siblings about so we put them on the same buffet shift. Also, these guys tend to be a bit impolite and move from nipple to nipple as they eat. It's a bit of a scramble when theyse guys eat but the other six pups do much better by keeping the 'Bruise Brothers' together. Some interesting traits that are showing up: - Bailey has to sleep on top of other pups or beside them. If any pup dares climb on top of him then he immediately rouses, extricates himself, and proceeds to climb to the top of the puppy heap. - On the other hand, Titan is a big happy guy. It doesn't bother him at all to have his litter mates climb on top of him. It's not unusual to find Titan soundly sleeping at the bottom of the puppy pile. - Patch and Lucky seem almost inseperable. They migrate towards each other when in the same box and usually are found sleeping side by side. |
| Thanks for the update! I love hearing about them, and in such detail too!
How much do they weigh now? |
| These updates are great, John! And it amazes me - only 5 days old and you and your wife already know each one's individual traits. Boy, are you ever gonna miss them when they go!! Are you keeping any of them?
And as always, more pics, please!! Chris |
| With all those gorgeous puppies how do you find the time for such wonderful posts? This is like reading a great book a page at a time....more pictures please (I'm sure you have nothing better to do with your time)LOL |
I love reading these updates, too. Since I'll probably never do this myself, I enjoy living vicariously through your experience.  |
| I just love the updates, keep them coming! Those puppies are gorgeous!!!
I wish I could have one or two or three...I've got puppy fever really bad!:) You all are doing a fabulous job. Keep it up! |
| March 24 - day 7
It's been a week! A whole week since nine puppies came into our home and our lives. It's been a good week, a very good week. Shayleigh has proven to be, in my opinion, a very good mother. She has stayed in the kitchen with the pups the entire week except to go outside and relieve herself. We have to keep a schedule of when she eats and drinks because she'd rather be in the box feeding pups than anywhere else. I can't tell you how many times in the last week we have held a bowl of food or water for her so she could eat while nursing. If we didn't assist her in this way then she wouldn't get enough nourishment as she's reluctant to leave the pups. The pups are growing! They haven't doubled in size but they have all gained about 50% or more of their initial body weight. Here's a breakdown: Pup Weight at birth Weight today Titan 16 oz 25 oz Bailey 14 24 Matts 15 23 If 14 22 McFluff 12 20 Shaggie-Too 12 18 Tangles 13 21 Lucky 14 21 Patch 13 21 The pups are sooo cute when they finish eating. Often they just fall asleep right there at the buffet. Always their tummies are full and round and they are ready to snooze somewhere, anywhere. Here's a shot of McFluff after a recent feeding . . . 
Sleeping is a large part of their lives, naturally. But sleeping is also a social act for them. There is constant movement amongst the pups while sleeping. They climb on top of the pile, burrow beneath it, burrow out from underneath as they get too hot, etc. Fun to watch! The pups usually sleep together in one large pile. 
Every now and then a cute pose is struck while sleeping. Here, it looks like If is forming his mouth while dreaming about his next foray at the buffet . . . 
Sound has become a curiosity. The puppies do not hear and won't for a good bit. Yet they bark, squeal, groan, etc. They make quite a bit of sound at this tender age. Also, if one pup starts to bark the others may chime in as well. This morning we had 5 pups all barking and making a ruckus. And they don't hear? /boggle The pups must sense some disturbance in the air waves through their noses. Something is telling them when their siblings are making noise, and, from our observations, those noses are pretty well developed. Perhaps I'd best do a little reading on this. |
| I'm kinda new here, nice to meet you but I've been reading for months...These updates on your puppies and Shayleigh are such a treasure...love reading them...can't wait to see the pictures |
| Cuties! |
| Awwwww.... so cute! |
| Beautiful!!! I too am envious. I am presently looking for a sir for my girl. We plan to have one litter with her as we missed out having them with our other girl Bailey. Keep us posted and thanks for sharing those wonderful moments!! |
| Awww, how precious! I can't wait to see pictures when their eyes are open. I want puppies! |
| Puppy pile!!! Brings back fond memories! Keep updating- I love hearing how your little ones are doing! So delighted to hear all are healthy and gaining weight on schedule!
Karen |
Didn't find exactly what you're looking for? Search again here:
Custom Search
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|