August 15, 2021 – All of Bella’s puppies have left and they went home to great, loving families. This was such a wonderful litter, Bella’s last.
August 9, 2021 – All of the pups have excellent health and got a good report from the vet. They all received their vaccinations and microchips today. A few of the pups have teeth that are not coming in exact, called “base line narrow” and we have a couple pups out of every litter it seems, but with labradoodles, I’ve never seen the teeth not come in completely right when the adult teeth come in. Right now these are baby teeth – the vet saw no overbites or underbites. All good. The pups all scored very similarly in their temperament testing. We could see some small differences in personality come through and this will develop more as they are influenced over the upcoming months by their new pack leaders and environments. All of the pups show no anxiety, well socialized, equal in intelligence, following and energy levels. The more submissive ones in the group are Bobbi Jo and Bambi; more followers than leaders. Betsy is showing to be the leader in the group: most confident and adventurous at this point. Bennett and Baylee are already retrieving – we are quite sure all of the rest will be retrieving soon. It’s a lab thing. Bunny is still the most laid back and likes to observe a while before engaging in new things. They are all fairly close in weight and are all expected to grow to around 40-45 lbs. Each of the pups scored similar: very adaptable, great family companions, easy to train, smart and will respond very well to consistent, positive training. All are tracking and following us closely and will stay close to their humans and make life long companionship;being very loyal and wanting to stay close by. (These are not dogs that will do well being left alone in a yard for hours or without a lot of human interaction. They will thrive with lots of human companionship and positive rewards. Keep up the crate training throughout puppyhood (greatly impacts their temperament and energy levels if you don’t, they can become high-strung and anxious, never learning how to really settle down) and you will have an excellent new family member for life!
Selection calls begin at 11 am tomorrow! 🙂
August 8, 2021 – We took new pictures of Bella’s puppies this weekend, at seven weeks old. The time has flown by here! Bella has gone home now to her forever guardian family and will be spayed soon and retire and live happily with her loving family. The pups were ready to separate (well, mostly Bella was ready to separate! As soon as they had teeth she seemed kind of done.) The puppies are eating well with their three meals of kibble each day and this weeks we’ve been working on more crate training and learning to walk on a leash. Leash training takes a lot of patience (they start off hating the leash) but they are starting to prance around the house and patio on the leash now. They’re doing great with baths and blow dryers, becoming comfortable with vacuums and fireworks and thunderstorms don’t even phase them now. We have watched more sensitive Beth become more confident. She was so connected to Bella and now she is showing to be more confident and independent. It’s rewarding to see them grow through each phase. Tomorrow is temperament testing and their final vet exams (to also get microchipped, nails trimmed and vaccinations.) Here are the pictures we took of them!
August 2, 2021 – Bella’s puppies are six weeks old now and we are nearing the home stretch. They’re doing very well and are right where we want them to be with their conditioning. We’re now focusing on crate training and naps in crates once or twice a day to get them used to not only a crate, but to being away from their litter mates. It’s a process that we’ll continue to work on daily, and of course they cry, but crate training is critical for their overall development and there is a significant difference in temperaments of pups that are not crate trained throughout puppyhood. They have no fear of strangers, love to be with people, love being held and baths, blow dryers and scary noises don’t bother them. They are now fully on kibble, three times a day. Their teeth are in and mama doesn’t want to be too close! A few personality traits are showing and will develop more in upcoming days (and months! as they are influenced by their families and new environments). We made a couple notes of what we see so far. Here are the pictures we took today. We’ll post some video of them on Instagram this week.
July 26, 2021 – The pups are doing great! They are now using a litter box regularly, eating kibble three meals a day, and are conditioned to “scary” noises. They love being held and are socialized and very comfortable with all humans. They are gaining weight and so cute Here they are at five weeks old!
July 19, 2021 – Bella and Barkley’s litter are growing up. They are now starting to eat mushy kibble to give mama a break. They are starting to play and wrestle and they are being brought out to the patio daily to explore and play. They are becoming more and more desensitized to loud sounds and they’re doing very well. Here they are at four weeks old!
July 12, 2021 – Bella’s puppies are doing very well and are three weeks old now. You can see by their pictures that they’re becoming much more alert. They are starting to hear now, so our next step of conditioning is sounds. We’ll be playing loud “scary” sounds like thunderstorms, vacuums, traffic and fireworks while we massage and comfort them. They’ll make the connection of scary sounds to feel goods. 🙂 They are starting to play with each other and in a week or two, they’ll be active and playing outside of their pen. Here they are!
July 5, 2021 – Bella’s pups are now two weeks old and their eyes are starting to open. Still, they are mostly sleeping all the time, so hard to get a picture with a glimpse of their eyes. It won’t be long now though! They are working on the bio-sensor steps daily and becoming very calm when held, very used to the human touch at this point. They still can’t hear, so mostly, they just sleep and eat. We know that will start to change in a week or so, and they’ll start to move about a bit more. Here they are at two weeks old! Our B Litter:
June 21, 2021 – Bella went into labor in the evening and it didn’t take too long before seven healthy puppies arrived! We are excited to announce she had 6 girls and 1 boy, and everyone is doing well. They are all red like their parents, and all are gaining weight and nursing well. This is Bella’s final litter before she retires to live with her forever guardian family. We have themed this the “B Litter,” and we welcome to our world: Bennett (our only boy), Betsy, Beth, Bambi, Bobby Jo, Bunny and Baylee.
The pups are with our friends that help us whelp and raise our litters during their earliest days. The pups are already started on the bio-sensor program for the very early conditioning of their temperaments. Bella and her pups will stay with them until they arrive in our home in a couple of weeks when we will continue the rest of their care and conditioning. We’ll post pictures about once a week on this blog spot, along with a little info on what the pups are up to! Here they are.
