Piper’s litter has gone home to their forever families. We’re thankful for each family that trusted us with their new family member and we pray for Happy Ever After! Because of this litter and the families that supported us, we were able to give $900.00 to Amazima Ministries to help kids in Uganda continue to live. Three pups were adopted to go to great new homes, and one pup is being held back with hopes she will carry on our Piper’s great legacy. Sweet Piper is now officially retired, to live happily with us, at our sides for years to come. Thank you to Patrick, the Chaves, the Cochrans and the Murphy’s! We’re here to support you, please send a picture once in a while so we can see them all grown up.
xo, Mary and family
April 14, 2021 – Piper and Bear’s pups are nearing seven weeks old now and we’re on the home stretch with our time with them here. Tomorrow is their vet appointment for exams and microchips as we ready them for their forever families. We continue to do crate training, with two to three naps in a crate each day. Each day, they cry a little less. Whew, crate training is loud and takes time, but it will help them adjust when they are home and have to get used to being away from us and their siblings. Mama Piper still pops in to see them periodically, but they are fully weaned from mama. We continue our work this week on leash training, blow drying, vacuums, and sound conditioning. They are growing in confidence each day. We find at seven weeks, their personalities are just starting to show, and their personalities will form more at home as they are influenced by their new pack leaders and their new environment. We also find consistently, that the pups score almost identical on temperament testing due to all the same conditioning steps we do with each pup starting at only four days old.
Here they are!
April 6, 2021 – Piper’s puppies are almost six weeks old now! They are doing very well and are learning to separate from mama and each other a little more. The crate training is going well, and they still cry, but it doesn’t seem to ever last more than five minutes at this point. They don’t like being away from each other, and they’ll have some adjustment when they leave us, but the crate will at least be something they will be familiar with. We have started leash training and they are getting better at eating their kibble (they still always prefer mama!). They are growing in confidence every day! Here are the pictures we took of them today.
March 30, 2021 – Piper and Bear’s pups are almost five weeks old now. They are doing great with all of their conditioning and are growing in confidence every day. They are unfazed by any of the “scary” sounds we introduce them to and completely fall asleep to sounds of thunderstorms, vacuums, fireworks and more. They are not showing any shyness with people and their socialization is exactly where we want them to be at this age. We are working on naps in crates every day now. They cry a bit, but that doesn’t last very long. We give them NO attention until they are quiet, as we ignore bad behavior and reward the good. We’ll continue this pattern of two to three naps a day in a crate so that they are conditioned to a crate and also are learning to be okay apart from their litter. (All hard challenges for a young pup, but we want to make the transition as easy as we can for everyone.) They will still have some adjustment (and even some crying) when they leave us and their litter, but the transition time should be brief.
Next week, we’ll be working on some leash training and we’ll continue with more conditioning and introducing them to new things. They’re doing great with the litter box and they started eating mushy kibble this week! Last night, they spent their first night away from mama. Everyone did well and they all reunited in the morning. Here are the pictures we took of them today. It seems like they changed a lot in a week!
March 23, 2021 – The pups are doing well! We fell behind a little bit on posting pictures, and actually, time has flown and didn’t realize it’s been a bit. The pups are very alert now, and they can hear! We’re working on the next phase of conditioning them to all kinds of “scary” sounds. We finished the bio-sensor program steps, and we now are focusing more on new experiences such as more baths and introducing them to blow drying. Yesterday we brought them out for their first play time. They mostly sat and explored a bit. They aren’t incredibly active yet; sleepy little chubby pups that mostly still eat and sleep. We focus on daily massaging, walking them around the house, lots of holding time and human interaction. Very soon, the pups will be wrestling, playing and chasing. We’ll capture that on video and post on Instagram next week. Here are the pictures we took of them today!
March 21, 2021 – They’re eyes are open! We welcome to our world: Peter, Phillip, Paul and Patty! Here they are. . .
March 5, 2021 – Piper and Bear’s pups are a week old now and doing well. They’ve gained a lot of weight and are strong and eating very well. Piper continues to be a great mama and hardly leaves their side, other than to eat or go potty. Their eyes won’t open for another week, but we see their pigmentation in the paw pads and noses are turning black. We started their daily bio-sensor steps and all is well. Here are some pictures we took of them today. We separated them from mom for a minute for some of the pictures and they didn’t like that! Here they are.
February 25, 2021 – We have a new litter of babies here and we’re excited for the arrival of Piper’s puppies, three boys and one girl. All arrived with healthy weights and latched on immediately and are nursing well and thriving. Mama had to have a C-section because labor wasn’t starting. With the vet’s guidance, we knew the perfect time to bring the pups out into the world. She spent a day or so resting and being monitored at the vet hospital so we could bring the pups out when we knew they were ready. Everybody is settled in at home now, and mama is a little sore, but content and loving her babies. We’ll post updates and pictures here weekly so you can watch them grow. Here they are!