Katie’s pups went home to families that will dearly love them! Katie is now retired from breeding and will rest (or romp) happily with her forever guardian family. Little “Kristy” will go through lots of testing to qualify as a breeding pup to continue Katie’s legacy and bloodline for another local breeder. The other siblings should be settling into their new homes tonight. We do miss them! We’re thankful to all of the families that chose us and because of this litter, we were able to donate $1,800.00 to Amazima Ministries and World Relief to help desperate families at our southern borders and starving children in Uganda.
We wish everyone a happy ever after! And we hope our families keep in touch to let us know how Kristy, Kurt, Kyle, Keith, Kaleb and Kevin are doing. We’d love to see how they grow and update this post with their cute pictures at home.
Xo to all of you, from the Valley Vineyard Family
September 20, 2020 – We completed temperament testing on the pups this morning and each and every pup scored exactly as we would expect. They scored almost identical in almost every category, with only slight differences in a few scores. This is what we have seen litter after litter, and it must be because of all of the conditioning steps we take every puppy through starting at four days old. The average scoring of the pups came out to describe them this way: “This pup is outgoing and friendly and will adjust well in situations where he will receive regular training and exercise. (True of every pup of any breed!) Pup has a flexible temperament that adapts well to different types of environments. Good with people and other animals. Does very well with training and learns quickly.”
Keep in mind that personalities are just starting to form at 7 weeks, but these are some slight differences we see:
Keith, Kyle, Kurt and Kristy are fetching. 🙂 (A lot of litters aren’t interested in fetching. This must come from Barkley!) Kristy and Kyle seem to have a slightly more mellow demeanor, perhaps a little less energy, or maybe just a a little less adventurous. Hard to tell. They’d rather observe the others first before jumping in. Keith is so confident, happy and playful. Tail wagging with delight at every new experience. Always ready to go with an adventurous attitude. No concern about anything. Kevin has come out of his shell and we see no lack of confidence at all anymore. In fact, he has found his voice and can be vocal, talking to us if we are not preparing his breakfast fast enough in the morning! He has no shyness about anything new. Kaleb is all about the humans and will knock the others over to get to his humans for snuggles. His weight (3 lbs. bigger than Kristy) has a lot to do with that. He isn’t the leader of the pack though as we saw earlier. As the other pups got stronger and could keep up with his weight and growth, he’s now just a part of the pack. He just goes along with the rest. Keith may have stepped up to be the pack leader, leading the way with his confidence and energy.
All of the pups are tracking us, watching us closely and they stay close. They all are following our leads, are submissive and smart. All of them thrive on human interaction. Being with their humans for time in a lap is extremely important to each and every one of them. They will want to be beside you all day, but they are getting used to alone time in a crate and learning to be content on their own too. We’ll continue crate training for 1-2 hours a day to help them prepare for home.
Every one of them is ready for their forever families and will do very well. Keep up the socializing – this is critical – as they will go in and out of fear stages throughout puppyhood! Have lots of people over, take them with you whenever you can.
September 18, 2020 – Katie and Barkley’s pups are on their home stretch with us. Their temperaments are outstanding and it’s clear that the conditioning and human interaction with them has worked. They are exactly as we expect them to be! We are now working on crate training, and they are eating kibble and are now independent of mama. We will start leash training tomorrow. Today they had a bath and blow dry (always good conditioning) and we will continue to work on sound desensitizing until they leave. Here are the pictures we took of them today!
September 10, 2020 – We got a little delayed in posting pictures due to internet troubles. Fires are in our area, but we are safe. The pups are doing so well! They are growing in confidence daily, and it’s evident as we see them explore and greet people, that they show no timidity and the temperament work with them that has been done is so evident. They’ve had visitors to socialize them, and they will have much more exposure to humans at our house during their last couple of weeks with us as we continue to build their confidence. Here are the pictures we took of them this week, now over five weeks old. When they arrive here next week, from their guardian home, we’ll post videos of the pups so you can see them in action.
September 2, 2020 – Katie’s pups are doing great! They are still at our guardian’s home with Katie and being loved and well cared for. The pups are done with the bio-sensor program, and have been working on sound desensitization and getting outside to explore. The neighborhood kids come over to get a break from quarantine and this helps socialize the pups. Good for everyone! The pups will come to us soon, and we can’t wait to have them here with us for the last couple weeks of conditioning and socializing with all of us here. Here are some pictures of what they’ve been up to over the past week.
August 26, 2020 – Katie and Barkley’s litter is growing and changing fast! They are still fairly slow moving and not very active, but they have almost tripled their weight over the past couple of weeks and are nice and plump. They don’t seem to be hearing yet, but that will come any day and soon our sound desensitizing will start for them. They are using the litter box now and learning that there’s a special place to go potty. They move about a bit, but mostly they still spend their days eating and sleeping. We got them up and out of their pen for some pictures so you could see how cute they are!
August 24, 2020 – The puppies are growing and doing very well! It’s time for new pictures. Here’s a quick glimpse of the pups today and we’ll do more individual photos later this week and get them posted. They just finished the bio-sensor steps, are starting to hear and are moving about a little more. We are working now on sound conditioning. They are great pups – as expected!
August 14, 2020 – We took pictures of the pups and they are doing well! Gaining weight and getting stronger every day. Still, just sleeping all the time. Their eyes are starting to open a little bit, but because they’re always asleep, we don’t see them yet. In another ten days or so, we should be able to post some new pictures and you’ll start to see some change in them. Here they are!
August 13, 2020 – The puppies are almost two weeks old and doing very well! They’re gaining weight and Katie is a super mama. If she’s not in the pen, she’s nearby keeping her ears and eyes open to their every need. We’ve named this litter “The K Litter” and we welcome to our world: Kristy, Keith, Kyle, Kevin, Kurt and Kaleb! Each day they are held, massaged and each pup is worked with through the Bio-sensor program that helps stimulate them and condition them at this earliest age – probably THE most important process of everything a breeder can do. Touch is our only real connection with them at this age since they can’t see or hear yet. Here are a few pictures of the pups in their pen and we’ll post more individual pictures of them soon!
August 3, 2020 – Katie’s litter was born on Saturday August 1 and the pups, and mama, are doing well. Katie and Gunner brought us six healthy pups: five boys and one girl. All appear to be shades of caramel or red and we’ll see them develop in their colors over the next week or so. (Sometimes we see them darken or lighten.)
Katie and her litter is in good hands with Katie’s family, our trusted guardians, that have done an excellent job working with us in helping whelp and raise our litters as part of our program. Pups have good weights, seem strong and are nursing and thriving.
For the first several weeks, pups will remain in their care, then come to our home for more conditioning and socialization with all of our family and staff here. With COVID and quarantine issues, we’ve altered things somewhat to make sure pups are getting exposed and getting the extra socialization (since we had to cancel open houses this year) so that nothing is missed.
We won’t have a lot to post or report until the pups have reached two weeks. Once they open their eyes (at two weeks or so) then we’ll post an update with some better pictures!