Puppies start their next important phase

The pups left us this morning and life is returning to normal.

When I look back on the last 6 weeks, I can hardly believe how quickly it has gone. 6 weeks and 2 days ago, I was watching life coming into the world. that in itself is a very special experience.

Now 6 weeks and 2 days later I watched the pups being driven away to Guide Dog kennels where they will be vet checked and microchipped before making their journeys to the puppywalkers on Thursday.

I feel such a rollercoaster of emotions as always. I’m so sad to see them go. I’ve devoted 6 weeks of my life to caring for them. And I say devoted because caring for young pups is not a job you can do half heartedly. It’s a job that uses up every physical and emotional ounce of strength I have to give. You can see from previous blog posts what is involved in this process. It’s one of the most rewarding things I do every year and I’ve given my all.

I’ve had moments where I’ve sat just watching them sleep, moments where they have all been jumping on me and biting me and I’ve been laughing out loud and moments where I feel as though I can’t cope (usually 10pm at night or 6am in the morning when they escape!)

So now I listen to the silence in the house where once there was barking and squealing (if I ignored the barking!) and my kitchen looks like a kitchen again instead of a dog breeding centre. The floor is mopped, vet beds and toys are being washed and all the puppy stuff is being packed away for another year.

It’s incredible to watch how quickly they grow, how their personalities are formed by day 2 and develop further over the 6 weeks. I know each pup by name (and some of them by smell much to the horror of my friend Shaun!)

I know their personalities, what they like, what they don’t. I know which one wakes first and which one goes to sleep last. I know which one likes to help with cleaning up and which one likes to bite my nose and which one likes to chew my shoes. I know the fastest eater and the slowest and the ones who like to swap bowls half way through!

This morning, I allowed Blade to play in the lounge with his mum. It was fun watching them together. As soon as I put him back, he barked and squealed for about 15 minutes. I know that they need one to one attention now so it was time for them to go. It’s time for them to enter their new phase of being puppywalked, where they will get even more attention and even more love than I can give because it’s hard to give them the attention they need when there are seven of them.

My body is aching all over and I’m physically exhausted.

I know I’ve done my best. I’ve given everything I have. I’ve given them the best possible start and now it’s time to devote some attention to Pepsi and Gracie.

As soon as the pups had gone this morning, I picked Gracie up from a friend’s house, brought her home and then took her and Pepsi out for a walk. They were really pleased to see each other again and Pepsi was really happy to be out walking again.

So life is returning to normal and the barking and squealing will start to fade and become a memory.

Good luck to Amy, Blade, Ashleigh, Arthur, Angus, Marden and Beacon. You all have a piece of my heart. And good luck to their puppywalkers whose hard work begins now.

Thanks for reading, for sharing in the joys, the heartache, for laughing. Thanks to those who came and visited and helped give the puppies such a good start by socialising them and getting them used to different people. You are all an essential part of providing blind and partially sighted people with their future. That’s what makes this all so worthwhile.

Jude. x

Counting the days

Amy and Marden

The pups are growing fast. I can hardly believe that they are 6 weeks old tomorrow. They leave us on Tues and it’s about this time that I start to get sad about them going.

Every moment with them is really precious now so as well as doing all the feeding and clearing up and taking lots of photos, I’m spending as much time as possible just watching them, taking them in and remembering their individuality.

After last week when we were playing noises and I was going round the kitchen slamming drawers shut, the pups seem unfazed by any noise at all. So I turned my attention to sights and tried on a variety of different hats, wore my waterproof jacket with the hood up so you could only see my eyes, wore a fluorescent jacket. They were not bothered by any of it. they did bark at first at me in my sunglasses because they could not see my eyes and could see their reflection but now they don’t mind. I also walked round the kitchen putting an umbrella up and down and they didn’t mind that either. They really are chilled out puppies.

On Thursday this week, we had the local infant school come to visit the pups. There were at least 16 4-5 year olds in my kitchen squealing with delight and the pups didn’t seem to mind at all. Pepsi absolutely LOVED all the attention. In particular, we told the children to sit down on the floor which was Pepsi’s cue to sit on everyone’s knee so she really enjoyed that. The children loved it when she wagged her tail so hard, she was hitting two boys in the face with it! all in all, it was a big hit with both the children and Pepsi and it tired the pups out for a couple of hours!

The pups only sleep for about and hour and a half in between playing now so it’s pretty full on hard work. In between they wake up, make a mess, I clear it up, they shout a lot, I walk away and they eventually fall back to sleep. Of course at meal times, I play with them for about an hour so they are hardly attention-deprived!

For the last few days, I’ve let them outside so they are really enjoying that and it makes my life SO much easier as I don’t need to mop the floor as much! Paul has not been working this week so that has helped enormously because he’s been clearing up whilst I’ve been playing with the puppies. Mmmm…. guess who got the best job here!!!

they love being outside and the noises I’ve played in the last week have certainly helped because they never even looked up when a plane went overhead or the lawnmower next door started up, or a horse went by or cars, etc.

Here are some photos. As usual, there is a period between 3 and 5 weeks where the work was so manic that there are hardly any photos and then today I’ve taken loads in the garden. I’m making the most of the last few days with them. Poor Pepsi has now been separated from them so that her milk can dry up so she is only allowed to feed them when her milk starts to build up (max once a day and hopefully not at all by Tuesday).

If you click on any of the photos, you can see them full size.

 

Dennis the cat comes face to face with Blade

 

Ashleigh and Arthur – no trouble at all

Angus, 4 weeks old

Pepsi, looking sorry for herself with one of the pups' toys

Amy chasing Marden

Angus in full flight

Pepsi wishing she can be with the pups

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Blade is often the last one to sleep so he often gets more cuddles because he squeals whilst the others are sleeping so I often mop the floor with him in one arm and the mop in the other.

Amy, the first born, is not as feisty as she was when she was born although she loves to jump up and bite my nose still. She eats her food faster than anyone else and I have to pick her up and stop her from eating everyone else’s food.

Beacon is the opposite. He’s a gentle boy who eats so slowly that he has only usually eaten half his food by the time everyone else has finished.

I have such a soft spot for him because I have to protect him from the others eating his food.

He seems completely oblivious to the chaos around him as I hover above him, fending off 6 other puppies.

He chews each mouthful slowly and looks up at me with such a sweet face that it just makes my heart melt. I am really going to miss him and the looks we exchange!

Marden is the sort of pup who can easily be overlooked because he is gentle, neither a fast or slow eater. He’s just the perfect pup! So I make sure he gets lots of cuddles as well.

Angus and Arthur (the two black ones) often fight together and are pretty full on. They also eat really quickly and always think that everyone else’s food is better than theirs!

Ashleigh is a sweet little girl who has also slowed down eating so she also has t be protected now but not as much as Beacon. She loves to try and dominate Blade (the biggest boy) but as she’s the smallest in the litter, she has no chance really.

Wow, the last 6 weeks have flown by as usual. the good news is that Gracie will come home on Tues after the pups leave so I’ll be pleased to see her.

Jude. x

 

Dog tired – and that’s just me!

The pups are now 4 and 1/2 weeks old and growing fast. In the last 10 days, they have put on 1kg each and now weight approx. 3kg each.

I have to say, I am totally exhausted. I move from sheer joy to wondering why on earth I ever do this in a matter of minutes.

Last week, I went to my spin class as usual on Thurs evening. I normally come home afterwards and crash in front of the TV. The difference is that now I have pups to feed, mess to clear up, kitchen floor to mop, etc. As I was mopping the floor at 9pm at night, I could feel my thighs getting tighter and tighter. the next day, I felt as though my right thigh was going to snap every time I bent down. Thankfully Paul was home that evening and over the weekend, he had to do all the work whilst I sat on the kitchen worktop directing him to mess that needing cleaning up as I couldn’t even stand on my leg at one point without it being agony!

I remember now how physically demanding this job is. Fortunately, after resting for 2 days over the weekend, my legs feel ok again. Good job as Paul went away again on Monday and won’t be back until Friday.

I now have “Moppers back”. It’s probably a bit like tennis elbow although I imagine tennis is more fun than mopping a kitchen floor!!!

the pups are now waking at 6am every morning as the sun comes up. Which means that I am up within minutes because the noise is horrendous. Then it’s downstairs to feed Pepsi, let her out and then onto the pups.

I start my day by boiling the kettle before feeding the pups which means that they now associate the sound of the kettle with being fed!!! Oh, the puppywalkers will love me for that!

It takes about an hour for each feed because I feed them, then clear out their sleeping place which involves removing the soiled newspapers, hoover the floor, mop the floor, prepare their next meal (involves weighing out and soaking dried puppy food), washing their bowls up, cleaning the floor again because as soon as I clean it, they mess it up again. then there is vet bed to wash twice a day, toys to wash too as they get pretty dirty.

Feeding them is a job and a half with 7 pups. Normal breeders might put one large plate of food down and allow the pups to feed. the problem with that is that they feed at different rates so you end up with a runt of the litter. As all of these dogs are destined to be guide dogs, it’s important that they all get a good start in life. So they all have a separate bowl and the challenge (should I choose to accept which mostly I do and sometimes I give up on!) is to keep them on their own bowl.

Usually in seconds, they move from bowl to another. So I sit on the floor with them and move them back as fast as they move. It basically looks like an upper body arm workout because as fast as I move one pup onto its bowl, the next pup has moved and I pick that one up and put it back on tis bowl… and so on for about 4-5 minutes.

Finally, I kneel on the floor with my arms around Beacon fighting off the remaining 6 puppies. Beacon is such a lovely laid-back dog. He’s a slow eater. There is always one in the litter who is slow. He eats quite happily but he just takes his time. Which means that when the others have finished eating, they want to push Beacon out of the way and eat his food too. So I sit with my arms around him fending off 6 lively, determined puppies.

Then, I stick the bowls in the sink, ready to be washed, grab the blue roll of paper because as fast as you put food in one end of a puppy, it comes out the other end. So when all 7 are making a mess, the challenge is to get the mess cleaned up before they stand in it and get covered in it and smear it round the kitchen floor.

Usually, Pepsi is hovering at this stage dying to come in and clean up any remaining puppy food. Which of course, she can’t because she doesn’t tolerate meat very well so it’s back on to my hands and knees to clean up the puppy food before I let her in to feed the pups.

So Pepsi feeds the pups, then she wants to play with them and rushes round the kitchen with pups flying everywhere. She’s a bit of a boisterous dog when playing so her version of playing with the pups often leads to them flying about and smacking their heads on the floor. So there are squeals from the pups and from me shouting “Be gentle!”

Oh this is so much fun.

In about 5 mins, Pepsi gets dizzy from running round in circles (I do too when she does it!) and I let her out of the room again. We have a child gate on the kitchen door so she lies down the other side of it and watches me clearing up.

If there is time I like to sit on the floor with the pups and they all leap up at me, barking, growling, trying to eat my hair, biting my legs and arms, chewing my clothes and biting my shoes. Yes, I’ve learned to wear shoes all the time when they have grown their teeth

This morning, Blade had some kitchen roll in his mouth and when I tried to remove it, he sank his teeth into my nail. It brought tears to my eyes!

eventually, the pups start to fade and I put clean vet bed down and they fall asleep on it. We have 6 panels of puppy fencing up that keeps them contained so I close that off and put clean newspaper down as soon as they have gone to sleep. Then mop the floor. Usualy Angus or Blade don’t want to go to sleep so they squeal at the fencing. I’ve discovered that if I pick them up and carry them in one arm and mop with the other, they usually fall asleep within a bout 1 minute. Then I put them back with the other pups and all is quiet and I can carry on!

This week, I’ve been playing a noise CD with the pups which has every kind of noise on it that you can possibly imagine. So they are now used to the noise of traffic, steam trains, police sirens, hairdryers, pneumatic drills, thunder, heavy rainfall, children squealing (although I often fast forward through that one… it’s soo piercing!). All in all, there are 32 different noises. There is a man laughing which sounds very sinister and scares me but the pups don’t seem to mind him!

For the last 3 days I’ve been coughing very loudly and fake sneezing. At first they were a bit scared but now they barely notice. They seem to quite like my singing!

I’ve also been playing lots of different radio stations. the last litter we had didn’t like Classic FM but this litter fall asleep to it and they also seem fine with Radio 1, Talk sport (not my favourite) and Radio 4.

Crikey. We have done a lot in the last week! We’ve also had lots of friends with their children to play with the pups so they’ve been well socialised. Oh, and they also had their first trip outside yesterday. Most of them managed to climb over the doorstep and onto the concrete path and didn’t seem to mind the wind blowing their fur (other litters were freaked out by this at first).

All in all, they are pretty easygoing and pretty chilled out puppies so I hope this continues. I like to think that all the hard work we put in is worthwhile. Of GRacie’s 22 pups, 21 passed so I like to think we had a small part to play in that.

sorry no pics.,.. I just can’t hold a pup, a mop and a camera! Paul is home on Friday and off work next week so hope to get lots of pictures of them next week.

Next week, the local infant school are coming to see the pups so that should be fun!

Hope you enjoyed reading

Jude. x

 

 

Photos of Pepsi’s first litter

Here are the pups only 4 days old. Pepsi likes to sleep on her back so it’s no great surprise that she’s adopted this as her preferred feeding position! At this age, their back legs are still to weak to walk on so they crawl around by pulling themselves forward with their front legs and drag their back legs behind them.

2 weeks old, the pups have grown from 0.5kg birth weight to 2.2kg! At this age, they have their eyes and ears open and are starting to get up on their feet. The fun is about to begin….

The pups are wormed at 2 weeks old and then we give them 2 days to let their stomachs settle again. At 2 and a half weeks old, they start their first solid food. This is a challenge as they are used to sucking milk and don’t know how to eat solid food. It involves a lot of patience and I get more food over me than the pups get inside them in the first two days!

This is Beacon being fed his first meal:

At 3 weeks old, from L-R: Amy, Arthur and Ashleigh discover that there is a whole new world outside of the whelping box. Who will be the first to escape?

Amy was the winner… 5 mins after this photo was taken, Amy was running round the kitchen squealing. She was the first born and has always been the feisty one so it was no surprise that she found her way out first.

Once the pups found their way out of the box, they spent the night escaping and then squealing because they were frightened of the kitchen floor. I spent last night getting up and putting them back. After being up 3 times during the night, I decided that they are big enough to leave their box now.

So at 3 weeks old, this is a key turning point as the pups go from being babies in a box to miniature puppies in a pen. They look so cute fast asleep. Ah… silence. Enjoy this whilst it lasts!

From the top: Amy, 2nd row: Beacon, 3rd row L-R in yellow: Ashleigh, Marden, Blade, Bottom row L-R (black): Arthur and Angus

Funny how the camera comes out when they are asleep. When they are awake, I am usually found picking up soiled newspaper, mopping the floor, preparing food, washing bowls or feeding pups one at a time! Not much time for a camera at those moments!

At 3 weeks old, the pups are now really vocal. After a quiet first 2 weeks where I thought they were the most chilled out, laid back pups I’ve ever had, they have proved me wrong and shown that they have excellent voices. the last couple of days have been really exhausting as they have hardly slept. Pepsi is getting fed up now and doesn’t want to feed them any more. However, she has plenty of milk so she needs to as they still need her milk in addition to the small amount of solid food.

The pups are slowly taking to their solid food, although slower than previous litters we’ve had. Today, after 4 days of solid food, I managed to feed 3 of them at a time although it was a mad scramble as they all walked in their bowls and pushed each other around. Still, this is a lot of fun!

Meanwhile, Gracie (our retired 8 year old brood) has gone to stay with my parents as she was starting to get bored in the house all the time. I think Pepsi would have liked to have gone too!!!

 

2 weeks old – where has the time flown?

Well, the last 2 weeks have FLOWN!

Pepsi gave birth to 7 beautiful puppies on Sun 6th Feb 2011.

She had 2 yellow girls and 5 boys (2 black, 3 yellow).

Their names are:

Amy – named after my god-daughter

Ashleigh – named by Pepsi’s puppywalker

Arthur – named after my grandfather

Angus – named after Pepsi’s dad

and 3 sponsored pups called Blade, Beacon and Marden. Not so sure about those names but as they are sponsored, we didn’t get to have a say in them!

the whelping went really well. Pepsi spent weeks before the birth wrapping herself in the lounge curtains so I was concerned she would try and have the pups in them. I was determined she would have them in the whelping box in the kitchen. On the night she had the pups, Pepsi wrapped herself in the curtains again so I took her out and made her go into the kitchen. 5 minutes later her waters broke and 2 hours later she had contractions. The first pup was a bit of a challenge. Pepsi is strong-willed and didn’t want to have the pups in the box so she wandered round the kitchen squatting, whilst I followed her with a towel in case a pup shot out!

Eventually, she saw sense and moved into the box where she had all 7 pups. The first pup, Amy, was born at 1am, 2 hours after Pepsi’s waters broke.

She then continued to deliver them until 4:30am when the last pup was born. This one was Beacon and he came out with a blue face and completely lifeless.

I’ve had one like this before so I knew what to do. I held him firmly and shook him between my knees until the fluid came out of his lungs and then rubbed him vigorously for 10 mins until he eventually came round. It was weird because when I rubbed him, his face turned pink and as soon as I stopped, it went blue again!

At this point I dragged Paul out of bed to help because it gets exhausting rubbing them so hard!

Pepsi is a natural mum. when the first pup was born, she wrapped herself round it and wouldn’t let me check it over. She just knew instantly what to do.

She has been going crazy trying to build a nest in the whelping box which has involved her digging the newspapers up and once caused a pup to go flying across the room with the vet bed! Thankfully after 2 weeks, she is doing that less and less. She is pretty chilled out with the pups and although she’s a good mum and keeps them clean and fed, she doesn’t stress about them like Gracie used to.

Last week was an interesting week as Pepsi got an upset stomach and eventually ended up on antibiotics.

She even refused food for 2 days and when Pepsi refuses food, we know something is seriously wrong!!!

We don’t have many visitors in the first 2 weeks to keep the risk of infection down so we banned everyone from going into the kitchen, I turned into a woman with OCD as I scrubbed the kitchen floor every 5 minutes. Thankfully, 5 days on, Pepsi and pups are all fine so it looks as though we caught it early before it took a hold. And the mop is now getting a rest and only being used twice a day.

I am surprised to say that Pepsi pups are really chilled and laid back! This really surprises me because Pepsi is a livewire and apparently her dad is a fun-loving golden retriever called Jamie so I did think their pups would be crazy. I’ve not met Jamie but I know his gorgeous brother Jim who is a dark toffee colour.

So watch this space. At the moment, life is pretty calm and quiet but we start the pups on solid food tomorrow so that’s when the fun starts.

The pups weighed 450 – 500g each when they were born which is a really good size. In the first week, they doubled in size to 1kg each. They will be weighed again this afternoon when the Guide Dog supervisor comes to visit. Let’s just say they are pretty big!

More photos to come soon.

A big hello to Yvonne who is Amy’s  puppywalker  and who made contact with me via facebook! It’s great to be in touch and I hope she’ll keep me posted when Amy leaves us. I get far too attached in the 6 weeks we have them!

New whelping bed and a lot of wailing

We put Pepsi’s whelping bed up on Sunday. This is basically a wooden box, lined with lots of newspapers and fleece called vet bed. Pepsi seemed quite happy to go into it and lie on her bed so with lots of “Good girl”, we thought we had cracked it. Much easier than Gracie who took several days to get used to her bed.

Gracie’s bed was moved into the hall and Dennis the cat was shut up in the utility room. So far so good.

that is… until we went to bed. 1am in the morning, I wake up to the sound of Pepsi wailing. And I mean wailing. Crying like a baby.

Wondering if she was having the pups, I charged downstairs. She was delighted to see me and wanted to go into the garden. Worried that she might have the pups outside, I went out with her in my dressing gown in the freezing cold. (I was told in the morning it was -8 degrees C!)

She came back in. We all went to bed again.

2 minutes later, Pepsi started wailing again. This time, I went down and moved Gracie’s bed back into the kitchen next to the whelping box, hoping that it would calm Pepsi to see Gracie near her. Gracie, bless her, who is normally the sensitive one who doesn’t like her bed being moved and doesn’t like change, she seemed to know that it was all in aid of a good cause and quietly went back to sleep right next to Pepsi’s box.

With Pepsi calm again, I went back to bed. Pepsi continued to wail for another 2 hours, at which point I either fell asleep or she did. Not sure which.

Mon evening, I went to see some friends for 2 hours. Paul stayed at home, dog sitting. Pepsi wailed all evening again. When I came home, she was so delighted to see me. It seems that she needs to know I am near to reassure her.

Thankfully, she did sleep ok last night… whereas I didn’t because I spent the night listening out for her.

Only 8 days to go now…. by the time the pups come, I will be falling apart with exhaustion.

Off for a nap now!

Jude. x

2 weeks to go until the pups are due

Pepsi is now 7 weeks weeks pregnant and the pups are due 2 weeks today on 9th Feb.

She is continuing to make a nest in the lounge curtains so I will now have to tie them up away from the floor. I am adamant that she is gong to have the pups in the whelping box in the kitchen. Pepsi has a different view so we will continue to gently argue our cases over the next 2 weeks.

This is one argument that I am determined to win!

This is a photo of Pepsi. Normally her waistline would be in almost a straight line from underneath her front paws to where you can see her tail so you can seen how much weight she now has with the pups and there is a still a lot of growing to be done in the last 2 weeks.

What you also cannot see from the photo is how expanded her rib cage now is.

Pepsi normally likes to sleep on her back with her paws in the air but that is now completely out of the question. She has given up trying to roll onto her back because the extra weight causes her to lose balance and she flops back onto her side again.

Gracie is continuing to push poor Dennis the cat out of the cat flap so I am having to put a stop to that. He is taking it all in his stride.

Pepsi is no longer charging in like a puppy and wanting to play with other dogs. Instead, she goes and says hello and then growls and barks at them to tell them to back off. I did have to stop her playing with Sam her best buddy when she met him in the woods 2 days ago because she loves playing with him so much, she would have been silly.

The guide Dog supervisor is bringing the whelping box today so this evening will be the first night of new sleeping arrangements.

In another week, I will need to start taking Pepsi’s temperature. We can expect her temperature to drop 24 hours before she gives birth. Then we can expect her to start panting and that is the start of the birthing process. Usually they start to dig holes either in the garden or gather the newspaper up in the whelping bed a couple of days before.

That said, there is no exact science to this. Gracie’s first litter was a text book case. For her second litter, she made no signs at all and her temperature didn’t drop until 5 days after she had given birth! And it was at that point that she went out and started to dig a hole in the garden. Clearly confused!

With her third litter, her temperature dropped 4 days before so I spent 4 nights sleeping on the kitchen floor expecting her to give birth at any moment!

It’s not easy this!

I know a lot of breeders and farmers just let them get on with it. For us, it’s important that we are there at the birth because the pups are so valuable and we can’t afford for anything to go wrong. Every pup counts because they are potentially going to change someone’s life.

More in a week’s time.

Jude. x

1 puppy, 2 puppy, 8 puppies or more!

Pepsi had her scan a week ago. She was an absolute trooper, allowing herself to be shaved (in this cold weather!) and then tolerating the cold ultrasound on her stomach. All I can say is that when we watched the scan, I can honestly say I have never seen so many puppies on a scan before!

I think we were expecting Pepsi to have a big litter because her mum and her grandmother have regularly had big litters. It was still a bit of a shock. There were 5 in one place and that was before the supervisor moved the ultrasound around to other parts of her stomach. We definitely counted 8 and I think it’s more likely to be 10. Once you get to 7 or 8, it’s really hard to see if they are ones you’ve already counted or additional ones.

Not only that but the ultrasound can’t go through the ribcage and Pepsi looks as though she is carrying the pups high in her ribs… which apparently is what her mum does. So we basically have no idea how many… let’s just say it will be a lot. And if Pepsi is true to nature, they will come at speed!

So, 9th Feb, I shall be ready with the thermometer, rubber gloves, towels, vet bed…. The supervisor came today and brought me a box of things. It’s 2 years since we last had a litter so I’d forgotten how much stuff we need.

The dining room has now become a puppy storage room and very soon we will have to start changing animal sleeping arrangements. The cat will have to be shut in the utility room (he hates being locked up so we can expect to find him opening doors and having to wedge it shut).

The whelping box will go where Gracie normally sleeps in the kitchen and Gracie has got to be separated in case Pepsi turns aggressive with her so she will have to sleep in the hall.

This weekend, Paul is off to the local newspaper to pick up a stack of newspaper. You really cannot imagine how many papers we get through in a day when we have pups!

I was going to take a photo to show you how fat Pepsi is already but she is curled up on her bed so I’ll load one another day.

Pepsi has already started digging holes in the garden so her paws need a lot of cleaning when she comes in. In addition, she is already nesting in the lounge curtains and tying herself up in them in the evening. I do hope she will be happy to have the pups in the whelping box like Gracie did and not in the lounge curtains!!!

As for Gracie, she is now retired so it will be interesting to see how she takes it all. I am convinced she knows that Pepsi is pregnant because she has become quite protective of her. I’ve had to stop her pushing the cat out of the cat flap several times in the last few days which is so out of character for Gracie. She is normally so sweet and gentle with everyone, including Dennis the cat, so for her to start pushing him around is very strange. It just shows how strong animal instinct is.

Pepsi is now struggling on her walks a bit. She has realised that running is now completely out of the question and it takes forever to walk her back from the field we normally walk in because she suddenly gets tired.

So there is an air of anticipation and excitement once again.

More later.
Jude. x

Pepsi is pregnant!

Pepsi went into Guide Dogs kennels and was mated on 8th Dec 2010 to a golden retriever named Jamie. This will be her first litter and the pups are due on 9th Feb 2011. If they are anything like Pepsi, they will be full of fizz!

So far Pepsi is keeping well in her pregnancy, having only had morning sickness once. It takes a lot to put Pepsi off her food!

She is incredibly tired all the time which is really strange for us because she now spends most of her time on her bed sleeping, apart from her two walks a day. In between, she keeps coming to me for a cuddle, putting her head on my lap and looking a bit sorry for herself. This is really strange behaviour for Pepsi as normally she is in the middle of any activity, full of energy, constantly on the go and likes to be the centre of attention.

On walks, she is now avoiding other dogs quite a lot, only going up slowly to say hello and coming away again. This is very different from her previous way of greeting dogs which was to go steaming in, knock them over and play rough and tumble.

Pepsi is known for being a fast runner and has been known to keep up with a lurcher! Now though, she seems to be looking after herself and taking things at a more sedate pace. I have to say I’m surprised because I didn’t think she was quite as sensitive. Poor thing doesn’t understand though what is happening and keeps coming for a cuddle and reassurance.

Pepsi gets her scan on 10th Jan 2011 so we will have an idea by then of how many pups she is having. Fingers crossed it’s not too many!!

More next week when she has her scan.

6 week old puppies leave us for Guide Dog training

Last night was the last night we had the puppies. We had lots of visitors yesterday and the pups had fantastic fun chasing my friend’s children round the kitchen! The pups were exhausted when they went to bed finally. I re-applied nail varnish to the pups. Not sure if I mentioned this in a previous post but we have to apply nail varnish to each pup in a different place. This enables us to monitor the growth of each pup so from birth we know who is who. They don’t like the nail varnish and it always makes them sneeze. It’s hilarious because they run around the kitchen trying to run away from the smell. Ernie rolled on his back and rubbed it off all over the kitchen floor. Berry managed to get some on her nose and Ebony managed to get rid of hers all together (probably on Berry’s nose) and had to have it re-applied again this morning ! There’s really never a dull moment when we have pups

This morning the puppies left us early to go into Guide Dog kennels. Gracie fed them for the last time and I think she was pleased about that as they have been really biting her hard. The last few days, they have knocked her over three times and she has really told them off with a sharp bark and a really scary growl where she showed all her teeth! I backed off although the puppies didn’t seem to take much notice!

I had never heard Gracie bark until she had her first litter so you know when a gentle calm loving dog like her is telling the pups off, then they are pushing her over the edge.

As soon as the pups went off in the Guide Dog van, Paul and I took Gracie for a walk, to cheer us up as much as her! She really enjoyed it. She was tired when we got back and has slept all day. She has surrounded herself with the toys that the puppies were playing with as well so she obviously misses them.

Paul and I have spent the whole day cleaning. First I had to remove the nail varnish from the kitchen floor with nail varnish remover. The kitchen floor gets so dirty with wet newspaper and the print stains the floor so we always have to steam clean it. The newspaper print also gets all over the skirting board and up the walls as far as puppy paws will go so it takes quite a long time to do all of this. I also steam cleaned the fence panels that we used in the house and the garden and the child gate that stops them escaping into the hall but enables Gracie to keep an eye on them. Then we put away all the puppy stuff into the loft. It’s incredible how much stuff we need. I washed all the vet bed and towels and cloths.

Finally the house is back to normal which means the kitchen table and chairs have been moved back into the kitchen from the dining room. The mops, brooms and bins have all been put away. The kitchen looks like a kitchen instead of a nursery / cleaning cupboard and you can actually get into the dining room which has been a dumping ground for puppy parphenalia during the last 6 weeks.

All the windows have been open all day and the house smell cleans and fresh again instead of stinking of puppies! Don’t get me wrong, I’m still sad and at the same time, I’m relieved to get my life and house back to normal!

Gracie is cuddling puppy toys this evening and keeps sniffing them so she obviously misses them. It makes me sad to see her do this because I know she really loves her pups. As we do too.

The cat has been coming and going all day through the cat flap. I don’t think he can believe that he can actually get through the house without being chased and barked at!

So that’s it for another year and in Gracie’s case, that’s her lot. She has had a total of 22 puppies:

• Jan 2005 – 8  puppies, all of whom passed
• Jan 2006 – 1 puppy who passed, plus 3 puppies that she fostered from another dog who had too many, they also passed
• Jul 2007 – 6 puppies. 1 of them has been retired as she was too small and didn’t like town centres. The others are still in training but I believe are all doing well and we expect they will all now pass
• Jan 2009 – 7 puppies. Who knows where they will end up but we’re hoping that Gracie’s gentleness will carry them through

Gracie will now retire as she is now 6 and 1/2 years old so that’s her lot. As for Paul and me, we will have another Guide Dog brood bitch and start all over again. We’ll wait until the summer so that Gracie gets chance to recover. She usually loses all of her hair and goes really thin so we have some work to do over the next few weeks to get her fit and back into condition. We will start back at agility with the rest of the Guide Dog breeding stock team on Sunday this week so that will be a good start to getting her fit.

Meanwhile, I’m also having to reduce Gracie’s food to try and get the milk to dry up. Hopefully this will happen naturally and she won’t need drugs. She’s always managed it ok before with some careful balancing of feeding from us. So whilst the puppies have gone, we still have some responsibilities with Gracie over the next few weeks. Guide Dogs will continue to come and visit us during this time to make sure Gracie is well and that we have the support we need.

Thanks for keeping up with us over the weeks. I hope you’ve enjoyed the updates and learned something about the first 6 weeks of looking after Guide Dog puppies.

If I was to sum up the 6 weeks, there have been highs and lows, hard work, love and dedication but the overwhelming word is FUN!  Now it’s over to the puppywalkers and we hope they will love the pups as much as we did. I’m sure they will