August 8, 2021 – Sophie and Leo’s puppies are home now! We are excited to hold back two pups from this litter for our future breeding (they have a lot of testing to do over the next year to qualify) and to continue filling some gaps for our other dogs that are retiring. We are thankful to each of these families that chose us for their next family member, as a forever guardian to partner with our program, or as a family that was ready to adopt, and because of them, we were able to give $1,200.00 to Amazima Ministries so that some kids in Uganda can eat, learn and LIVE! Each of the puppies was ready for life and we are hoping for happy-ever-after for each of them. Here they are moments before leaving to enter the world as a well-prepared pup!
July 30, 2021 – The vet appointment went a little long, but all of the pups are in excellent health and back home now. We posted their official weights below, and as we thought, Samson is the biggest and will probably be about 55 lbs. Samuel should grow to about 48-50 lbs, and the girls should be closer to mama’s weight, around 45 lbs. Savannah is the biggest girl and will be a little bigger than the other girls. They all did well at temperament testing. All very smart, socialized and ready for their families! Samson is the most energetic and playful at this point. But I think it’s based somewhat on his size, since birth, he’s always been a bit ahead of his siblings. He does seem to be alpha of the pack, a leader. The pups all scored self-assured, outgoing and friendly, adaptable and ready to accept human leadership. They all score identical in intelligence and will each be loyal, loving and stay close to their humans. They all track us and want human affection above all else. They are ready to become great additions to their families. Keep up the consistency of crate training through puppyhood, along with positive, consistent training and routines, and each will be a great dog for life.
July 27, 2021 – The pups are spending two to three short naps a day in a crate alone at this point, as we try and help them adjust to separating from each other and get a little more used to a crate. Each day, they get quieter and there’s less crying. We kind of hate this part of their conditioning, but it’s necessary to help them adjust easier and more quickly at home. They are all doing very well and are exactly where we want them to be. Here are the pictures we took of them today!
July 20, 2021 – Sophie’s puppies are now five weeks old and getting cuter all the time! They are a calm, quiet litter – we know they will become more rambunctious soon, but their conditioning is working and this is clear by their amazing temperaments. They love humans, love to snuggle, and are calm and non-reactive to loud scary sounds, new people, and new experiences. They are calm during baths and blow drying; one more sign of their confidence and conditioning. Here are the pictures we took of them today!
July 14, 2021 – Sophie and Leo’s pups are four weeks old! They are starting to eat mushy kibble to help give mama a break. They’re starting to get teeth so she’s not as thrilled about laying in there with them to nurse. She’s patient, but we can tell they’re teeth are effecting her. They are starting to really enjoy their playtime outside of the pen. We’ve introduced them to tubes to crawl through and they’ve started experiencing a little crate time each day to try and get them used to it. That will take some time and we do this slowly over the next several weeks. They are unaffected by loud scary sounds now and are pretty relaxed about everything. They love humans and are starting to draw more interest in us then mama and each other. All part of the important human bonding phase. They’ve had baths with blow drying as we have tried to introduce them to lots of new things before their first fear phase sets in (around five to six weeks old.) Here are the pictures we took of them today!
July 6, 2021 – The pups are gaining weight steadily and their eyes are fully open this week and they are much more alert! This is a really sweet, quiet litter. This is because they barely need to squeak and mama comes running right over to take care of them. Sophie is a wonderful mama. We knew she would be. The pups are so calm and it’s evident that all the massaging and bio-sensor conditioning has done it’s work. They are so comfortable and calm in the hands of humans. We walk around with them daily now on their backs to help build submission and trust in humans. They can hear now, so we play loud noises daily now, before their first fear stage sets in, and we do this while they eat and while we massage them to help them make the connection of good feels when they hear “scary” sounds in life, like thunderstorms and fireworks. Here are the pictures we took of them today.
June 29, 2021 – Sophie and Leo’s pups turned two weeks old today. They’re gaining weight steadily and doing well. They are already acting calm when held, after over a week of the daily bio-sensor steps. Sophie continues to be a great mama! Their eyes are starting to open! Welcome to our world, little pups.
June 21, 2021 – Hello, the pups continue to thrive! All is well with mama and the pups and they’ve started on their bio-sensor steps. Here they are at a little over one week old. We’ll post pictures and an update about once per week!
June 18, 2021 – Well, we like to wait several days to make sure each pup is thriving before we make a litter announcement. And I can assuredly say that this is a fantastic litter, that is doing very well! They arrived two days early (gestation can be anywhere from 60-65 days so not necessarily “early”), on June 13. They all arrived with really good, strong weights so we felt confident immediately that this was a good, healthy litter. Mama ate well during pregnancy! Sophie was a champ and had a great, easy and short, non-eventful delivery. We are proud to say we have 6 apricot and cream colored, standard size pups and we’re excited to watch them grow.
The litter is currently with our family friends not too far away, that do a lot of our whelpings. They commented that Sophie is probably the best mama they’ve ever experienced. Yay! The pups will stay with our friends until after July 4, when our other litter here goes home to their families. The pups will go through the earliest days of conditioning with our friends overseeing everything, including the daily bio-sensor steps, until they come to our home where we will continue all the work on conditioning to help create amazing dogs for life.
Here’s a snapshot of their early days of life and next week we will post more pictures. Oh, and important to know…. we have four girls and two boys! We’re naming this “The S litter” (it helps us keep track and to remember each litter and pup we raise!). We welcome to our world: Samson, Samuel, Savannah, Sarah, Scarlet and Sidney.
(Watch this page weekly, and at around 5+ weeks, we’ll post some video of them on Instagram once they start becoming active.)
