April 9, 2026 – The pups had their vet appointment today. Vaccinations, microchips, and a thorough check, as you can see below. They all did great, waiting patiently in crates, and also did great on their car ride. All are totally healthy as expected! Great teeth and joints, eyes, etc..
We also completed temperament testing this morning and we made notes on any personalities traits we are starting to see at this young age. Each pup is doing very well and are exactly as we expect them to be at this point! They each had a bath and blow dry before photos. Not that they needed it, but we do that a few times a week here to keep them conditioned to it. Here they are at seven weeks of age. We’ve noted their weights from the vet. The girls are all very small. Our guess is the girls will all grow to be under 20 lbs, unless they have a growth spurt in coming months. Marcus is the biggest and he could be closer to around 28 lbs. full grown.
For the temperament testing, all of the pups scored nearly identical on most categories. We test them on sound, touch, height and sight sensitivity. We check them on tracking and following and also on retrieving. Max, Milo and Madeline are actually playing fetch already. That’s fun! All of the pups follow and track us readily. The testing isn’t a predictor of what personality or temperament a pup will have as an adult, but we think it’s important for us to test them here so that we can make sure we haven’t missed anything. The ultimate temperament and personality will be defined greatly by the care, love and assurance they receive in upcoming months throughout puppyhood. But they’re all off to a great start with an outstanding foundation!
Personalities are a little hard to see at this young age, but we tried to indicate anything helpful below. Please know that every puppy is social, confident, affectionate and loves to be held. They will all want to follow and stay close to their humans! They all play hard at this point, but settle and snuggle in our arms immediately when picked up. This is what we expect out of each litter!
Mandy is very sweet and gentle. She is usually one of the first to fall asleep in her crate. She is more of a follower than a leader.
Milly is spunky and slightly more energetic than her sister Mandy. She sits readily though and loves snuggles.
Madeline is always the first to sit for attention. She is focused on us and understands quickly! They are all very intelligent, but she seems to get the wanting to please so that she gets picked up first. 🙂
Micah is intense with his focus and eye contact on us and seems to be watching us humans closely all the time and taking it all in. (Perhaps a sign of extra intelligence?) He seems very in tune with us. He is the most communicative. He seems to “talk” to us when he’s trying to indicate he wants to be picked up or he’s sees the food coming.
Milo is a pretty chilled out pup and prefers being held even when there’s an opportunity to romp. He’s not the leader and would rather follow the others.
Marcus is easy and seems like a pretty laid back pup. He is more content to observe before engaging in activity.
Max is friendly, perhaps a little extra social and gets wiggly and excited when us humans are coming near. He is gentle and observant. Max may have just an extra ounce of confidence and is a little more on the alpha side, leading others.
April 3, 2026 – We’re having a lot of fun here with these cutie pies! Each week goes so fast. They hit their first fear stage several days ago. They suddenly acted shy and uncertain, even not sure about us humans. The first fear stage typically happens between five and eight weeks, and we like it when it starts here, so that we’re here, with mama to help them work through it quickly. By the next day, they were back to their normal confident selves, unaffected by all the normal “scarier” things we like to introduce them to for their conditioning. The pups will go in and out of fear stages throughout puppy stage, and each time, we have a great opportunity to assure them and build their confidence. That’s why all the conditioning we do, along with lots of socialization now, and throughout puppyhood is so important. They are doing great!
They are sleeping through fireworks and scary thunderstorm sounds, and seem unaffected by blow dryers, vacuums and other objects at this point. We’re starting to teach them to sit for any attention and they’re getting better at it every day! They are litter box trained within their pen, and getting better about using the litter box in the play area as well.
We’ve started working on crate training this week, having them have rest time in the crate once a day. They’re still pretty whiney when it’s crate time, but it’s important we do this and follow through. They can’t come out until they’ve been quiet and settled down. If we let them out before they quiet, we’ve just rewarded the bad behavior! They’ll get it. We reward the good and ignore the bad. They’re smart and that’s how they learn. They’re getting a little more comfortable in the crate each day. Here they are at six weeks old! We’ll see some of you at the open house tomorrow. Happy Easter everyone!
March 28, 2026 – Mabel and Nelson’s puppies are growing up so fast! Time really flies here when we get so busy with the day to day of their care. And it never gets old and we never stop seeing the cuteness in each litter. They are really adorable. They are really conditioned to sounds and blowdryers and baths now, and they’ve been getting lots of socialization here with all of us here. We’re really happy with their relaxed, easy going temperaments. They’re exactly where we want them to be at this stage. Fear stages can set in any time now, and so we keep up all the conditioning, socialization and new experiences to keep building their confidence. Next week we’ll start crate training. They’re getting really good at using the litter box and that keeps the pen so clean. They’re smart! We hardly ever see an accident in their pen anymore. Their learning to romp and play and have taken an interest in toys now. They’re started eating mush every day now (their teeth aren’t in yet) and getting used to it. Mama will probably go home in about a week. We’re watching for her to separate from them emotionally and tell us she’s ready. That usually happens once they get teeth! Ha ha. Hopefully you’re seeing our occasional posts on Instagram. Here they are at five weeks old.
March 20, 2026 – Mabel and Nelson’s puppies are growing fast! They can hear now, so we’ve been doing lots of sound conditioning during the day to get them really comfortable with sounds of fireworks, vacuums, thunderstorms and more. They’re already totally nonreactive to it. They had their first blow drying experience yesterday. That too is part of their conditioning. The groomers in our area have told us they can completely tell which of their pups came from Valley Vineyard Labradoodles. They tell us they’re the best clients. We love that! They have started to interact with each other and with toys a little bit. So now we daily bring them out of their pen for some playtime and allow them to explore. They are getting cuter every day! They’re becoming more alert, though they still sleep the majority of the day. They are learning to use the litter box now, as it teaches them to respect their sleep and play areas. We keep showing them where to do their business and they’re starting to get it! Here are the photos we took of them today to show them at four weeks old.
March 13, 2026 – Mabel’s puppies are growing and changing every day now. They will be able to hear very soon. They’re becoming more alert, and starting to interact with each other and even stumble around the pen a little bit. Like drunken sailors! They are starting to see us and make eye contact as their vision becomes more clear. We just completed the daily bio-sensor daily steps with them as we now move into the next phase of temperament conditioning: conditioning them to “scary” sounds like vacuums, blow dryers, thunderstorms, fireworks, etc. This is all part of raising a confident, carefree, anxiety-free pup for life! We took photos of them today so that you can see them at three weeks old! They pups were all pretty sleepy, as usual, but we got some of them to look a little more alert. Here they are!
March 7, 2026 – All of the puppies have opened their eyes! We tried to get pictures of each of them with their eyes open, but they were pretty sleepy. They still sleep a lot. Here they are at two weeks old.
Milly
March 4, 2026 – The puppies continue to thrive and gain weight and all is well here! The pups still can’t see or hear, but we anticipate them opening their eyes this weekend. Once all they open their eyes, we’ll post individual pictures of them so you can see who’s who. They will begin to hear at around three weeks of age. For now, our regular massaging and warm baths and the touch of human hands offers a lot of connection and adds to conditioning their temperaments. We do the bio-sensor steps on them daily as well, and that will continue for another week. They are able to crawl around the pen more easily as they get stronger. They will start to walk a bit in about a week or so. Here are some group photos we took of them today when mama stepped out. Sleeping as usual. 🙂
February 25, 2026 – The puppies are five days old now and everyone is doing well! We’re excited to have puppies again, it’s been almost five months without pups here. Mabel is a wonderful mama, very gentle and super attentive to her babies, just as we expected. The pups are thriving and healthy and they’ve continued to gain weight each day. We started them on the biosensor program to begin their temperament conditioning. They can’t hear or see yet, so the massaging steps and our handling them for warm baths and human touch is our main way to connect with them. They can smell and they use that to find their way over to mama to nurse. We have seven pups: four boys and three girls (originally we announced that one of the girls was a male, but upon closer examination, we realized we had made a mistake. lol)
We welcome Mabel’s first litter, we are calling the “M Litter.” We’ll keep the pictures and videos coming, and we’ll be posting about once a week so that you can watch them grow and see what’s happening here. Welcome to our world, Marcus, Max, Milo, Micah, Mandy, Madeline, and Milly! Here are some photos we took this week.
