Nora and Gunner’s litter is home

April 30, 2022 – Nora’s puppies have left us and things are quieter here today. The pups are with their forever families, all carefully approved knowing that they will lovingly care for each pup for life. Because of these families choosing us, we get to give $3,000 to Amazima Ministries this month to help some pretty desperate kids in Uganda eat, learn and LIVE.  Thank you to everyone that contributed to this work and conditioning and JOY of this litter! Here are the pups with their new families.

Nadia went home to the Kozlak family
Nate went home to the Bain-Brinks
Nellie and the Cvrkels

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Neumann and Chloe
Nick and the Humes
Niles is now in California with the Hill family
Noah and the Hall family

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Noel and the Erbs
Nolan is now “Harry” and is part of the Anderson family
Norm and Irene

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

April 26, 2022 – The pups all did great at the vet. All in excellent health. We have noted their official weights below with their pictures.  None of the pups are getting car sick, all were so quiet for their long wait at the vet.  Here are the notes and details that we have talked about here as we are trying to provide as much personality info we see here on our end. But please know that their temperaments are all showing equal and very solid, and personalities are just starting to show and will develop and be formed more over the months that follow as they will be impacted by training styles, environments and personalities of their new families. ALL the pups are well socialized and love people. ALL are showing equal in intelligence and submissiveness. All should be easy to train (it’s in the breed!) and are very adaptable. They ALL play hard, but calm down when picked up and thoroughly enjoy being held (normal healthy puppy energy and behavior).  ALL of the pups bond well with humans, they love us and track us and are exactly where we want them to be!

Noel is a follower, more than a leader. Common for the smaller ones in the pack. She is a little more apprehensive with brand new experiences and just takes a minute and then jumps right in and becomes comfortable and excitable. Very loving and sweet. Fun and loves to play.

Nellie is outgoing and playful, loves to chase and romp, a little sensitive with new things (like still getting used to crate time alone) but growing in confidence all the time.

Nadia is curious and loves to explore. Loves to wrestle and play, confident.

Niles is curious and confident. He’s wanting to explore and try new things. Probably one of the leaders in the pack and will probably adapt quickly to new adventures like hiking, swimming or boating. He shows he’s not intimidated by things that take some of the other pups a little longer to adjust.

Nick is very affectionate and prefers humans and snuggling even over the fun of playtime with his siblings at times.

Nate is more quiet and would rather observe first before diving in. When the other pups are playing too hard, he’ll go off quietly with a toy and enjoy time to himself. Not sure yet if this is being super calm, or more shy. Shows to be kind of independent. He is very affectionate.

Noah is a little more cautious with new experiences we test with them.  He needs a minute to observe, not the alpha or leader for sure. He seems very calm and independent, but just needs to check things out and get comfortable before jumping in to something new.

Nolan is outgoing and playful, maybe a little more sensitive – we saw his reluctance more with leash training and crate training. Very sweet and playful. We’re continuing leash training all week. He’ll get there.

Neumann is curious, very affectionate and seemed to have a harder time with mama separation. Took him a little bit to adjust and we see that he also stays right by his humans, wanting to snuggle and stay near. A sensitive little guy! But also this trait is common with being the smallest in the litter. He’ll grow in confidence much faster when he’s not surrounded by all the other bigger pups that play a little harder than he has the size for.

Norm is very curious and loves to be the follower. He mimics the other leaders in the pack. As a follower, a little more mellow, waiting to see what’s going to happen next. (Similar to Nick and Neumann)

 

 

April 23, 2022 – Nora and Gunner’s puppies are doing well with leash training, litter box training, sound conditioning, crate conditioning and socialization! They are (mostly) sitting for attention – it’s called “manding” – we ignore them until they sit before petting or picking up or giving any attention. At home, IGNORE jumping and once they sit, reinforce with petting and attention.  On Monday or Tuesday, we’ll post weights from the vet and any personality notes we have. Here they are at seven weeks old!

Nadia
Nadia weighs 6.6 lbs.
Nadia
Noel

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Noel weighs 5.5 lbs. and like her small brother Neumann, will probably be around 30 lbs. full grown.
Noel
Nellie weighs 6.9 lbs. and will probably be around 35-40 lbs. full grown
Nellie

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nellie
Nate
Nate
Nate weighs 7.2 lbs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Neumann weighs 4.7 lbs. and our guess is he will reach about 30 lbs. full grown along with the other smaller pups in the litter.
Neumann
Neumann
Nick weighs 5.9 lbs. He’ll probably reach about 35 lbs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nick
Nick
Niles weighs 7.3 lbs.
Niles

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Niles
Noah weighs 6.3 lbs.
Noah
Noah

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nolan the biggest puppy in the litter by far.
Nolan is 9.9 lbs. and by far biggest in the litter and will likely be 45 lbs.
Nolan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Norm weighs 7.3 lbs.
Norm
Norm

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

April 15, 2022 – Nora’s puppies are on the homestretch and we are working on all of the final conditioning to prepare them for home. They are six weeks old now and we have two more weeks to get them ready.  We’ve started on crate training, and next week we’ll start them on practicing having alone time in a crate for their naps. This helps them start to learn to be apart from each other and get used to the feel of being in a crate alone.  Crate training is critical for the temperaments of puppies. Crate trained puppies make better dogs for life! Dogs that haven’t been crate trained as pups often have anxiety issues and other problems.  Through crate training, pups learn to settle down and be content by themselves, they learn to hold their bladder and it also becomes their special place, their “den,” a safe haven of security where their favorite items are kept.  We took some new pictures after a bath and blow dry (more conditioning!) and here they are at six weeks old!

Nadia
Nellie is the biggest girl.
Noel is the smallest girl. She’ll take after Gunner’s sizing, around 30 lbs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nate
Neumann is one of the smallest boys.
Nick
Niles

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Noah
Nolan is the biggest pup in the litter. He’ll most probably reach 40 lbs.
Norm

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

April 9, 2022 – Nora and Gunner puppies are changing fast. This week, they started eating mushy kibble, learned to use the litter box and are becoming much more independent of mama. They’re playing with each other more and starting to become a little more active. We’ll post some video of them on Instagram in the next week so you can see them live.  Here are the pictures we took of them at five weeks old!

Nadia
Nellie
Noel
Nate

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Neumann
Nick
Niles
Noah

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nolan
Norm

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

April 2, 2022 – Nora’s puppies are four weeks old now. We started training them to use the litter box and they are very smart.  They realized pretty quickly they have a special place to go potty now. We also started them on a little bit of mushy kibble to give mama a break with ten hungry pups. Nora is doing a good job, but ten pups is a lot of mouths to feed. 🙂  We are well on our way to sound conditioning for them now that they can hear. They are starting to recognize the humans caring for them and they’ll soon start to be drawn to us more than mama, more and more each day.  Here are the pictures we took of them so you can now see who’s who.

Nadia
Nellie, the biggest girl.
Noel

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nate
Neumann
Nick

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Niles

 

Noah
Nolan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Norm

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

March 26, 2022 – Nora and Gunner’s pups are doing very well and all are continuing to grow and change. Still, mostly they sleep and eat, cut we’re seeing a little more walking around in the pen, but still very wobbly.  They’re eyes are more alert this week and we expect them to begin hearing any day. So far, not much reaction to sound, though we’ll start loud sound conditioning this week.  As of next week, we can post some individual pictures so that you can see who’s who.   Here are the pictures we took of them this weekend, at three weeks old!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

March 21, 2022 – Nora’s puppies are doing very well! All ten of them. Nora continues to be a great mama!  We continue to take pups through the bio-sensor steps each day, and once or twice a day they get warm baths and they are held and massaged regularly.  The big news today is, though they still only eat and sleep…. that their eyes are opening!  Here they are!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

March 13, 2022 – Nora’s went into labor on March 4 and surprised us with a large litter of ten puppies! Mama is doing very well, and we’re impressed with what a good, attentive and careful mama she is. She doesn’t want to leave their side, and the pups are all eating well, thriving and gaining weight.

The pups are staying warm with a heater to regulate their body temperature (this is important for the first couple of weeks of life) and we started them on their daily bio-sensor steps several days ago to begin their most important early neurological stimulation and temperament conditioning.

They already get warm water rinses twice a day and are held and massaged regularly.  Touch is our only way to connect with them at this early age. They can’t see or hear yet.

This will be a great litter and hopefully, as calm as mama Nora is.  Here are the pictures we took of them this weekend, at one week old. We’ll post on this blogspot weekly, with updates and new pictures, and we’ll post videos eventually on Instagram once the pups are active in later weeks.

We have seven boys and three girls – all red or caramel.

Here they are!