The Puppy Confinement Area

I just wanted to share a bit about what kind of set up I recommend when you first get your puppy home. On our "Puppy Items" page on our website I show a couple kinds of containment areas; a portable exercise pen or an Iris pen.

Right now I have the Iris pen set up in my dining area. Our house has an open floor plan so this is a main area of the house for the puppies to see and hear what's going on. Plus it's close to the french doors that open to the back yard where I have a couple exercise pens set up for potty breaks.

This is the taller of the two Iris pens available. I am using six panels which is just big enough for a small crate, a litter box (more on that later), food and water dishes and some toys. In the beginning you do not want to give the puppy to much room and freedom; less room, less mistakes. As the pup gets older and is consistently using the litter box you can allow more room.

This is where the puppy should be unless he is with someone under constant supervision (playing with someone, attached to someone, etc.) When you're at home the puppy can be taken out for potty breaks (after waking from a nap, eating, playing etc.) But if you have to be gone for a couple hours or you work away from home this is the perfect set up to keep the puppy in. The puppy is safe, your house is safe and there are not a lot of options for puppy to make potty mistakes while you're away.

Our "Puppy Items" page on the website mentions the Ugodog potty system. This is a clean, professional set-up which works great for one puppy. I have found when raising and training a litter of puppies that what works better for me is the system you see here; a Rubbermaid container with wood pellets (the kind that are burned in a pellet stove). Just use a cat litter scoop to scoop out the droppings, the pellets will "fluff up" when they absorb the urine. You can change the whole box out every day, but I usually wait until the pellets have become fluffy before I change the whole container. The only disadvantage I find to this is, the fluff does get tracked around a bit when it sticks to the puppy's feet. Your puppy should be able to use either system.

Right now I have two Cavapoos  (Kai and Fritzi from Belle and Desmond's litter) that are waiting to go home so they are using this pen. They should have a jump start on potty training by the time they go home!

 And like children, puppies also like to rearrange their "room" and make messes!

I also like to use this as "Jennifer's Lazy Way to Crate Train a Puppy"! Seriously, raise your hand if you love getting up at night to take your new puppy outside to go potty! Yeah, I didn't think to many of you enjoy that. *wink*

Your puppy will not be able to hold his or her bladder/bowels for several weeks after you get him home (if you're getting the pup around eight weeks of age.) It's just not physically possible on a consistent basis. So if you're crate training them (which I highly recommend) you will be getting up at night to take them out. Unless, you use my "secret" system. And for only 6 monthly installments of $29.99, I tell you my secret. Just kidding!

Seriously, I've done this before and it works. Take your puppy out to potty one final time when you're ready for bed, then put him/her in their containment area and off you go for a good night's sleep. (Granted most puppy's will be a bit fussy the first few days as they adjust to their new home and routine, so be patient). Do not shut the puppy in the crate! (*For more crate training information, don't forget to read the "Puppy Info" that is sent home in your "Puppy Packet"). Most likely the puppy will go into the crate to sleep and when the need arises can then freely go out to use the litter box and put itself back to bed. When you get up in the morning, first thing, take the puppy outside to potty.

As the puppy grows and matures you will start to notice a clean litter box in the morning. When puppy is going all night without using the litter box, you know he/she is old enough to hold it all and and now can be closed in the crate at night if you wish. Simple and easy!

Our morning routine with the newborns

The first week or so is usually pretty routine with a new litter (unless there are little ones that need supplementing). Each morning when I let the mom (in this situation it's Belle) out for one of her potty breaks, I quickly (because mom doesn't usually stay out long and then she's banging on the front door to get back to her babies!) pull the babies out of the crate and put them in this little dog bed.

The whelping crate has a grate in the bottom so I am able to tuck a towel around it and lay it back down in the crate so mom doesn't mess up the bed with her digging and scratching. So while the babies are out I change the towel and check that her food and water are full.


Then it's time to weigh each puppy and record it's weight for the day. Babies' weights, color and markings are recorded at birth so we can keep track of each one and know they are gaining and getting enough to eat. This litter started out with weights anywhere between 5.7 ounces on up to 8.1 ounces. Here we are on day three and they are already between 7.6 ounces and 10.4 ounces. (If we had one or two that were teeny tiny at birth or were not gaining we would supplement them as long as needed.) Belle has done wonderful with this large litter. They all seemed to latch on and nurse well from the start and are putting on the weight!

After the puppies are all weighed and they each get loved on and looked over, it's back into the crate.

By now mom is ready to come back in. And in she goes to make sure they're all there! The babies wake up when mom comes in the crate and immediately start looking for breakfast!

Hope you enjoyed a look at our little morning routine!

Sister, rivals, friends!

These two are something else! Raising two litter mates and both females is not highly recommended. Since mama Zoey was retiring, I was hoping to get at least one daughter to keep and take her place here. Zoey surprised me with three beautiful girls! I decided to keep these two and place the littlest one in a wonderful pet home.

So double trouble is what I've kept for myself! I've never had two puppies that make so much noise wrestling, growling and fighting with each other! Granted they do have their down times, but they are very active and vocal! (I can hear them behind me scraping in their Iris pen as I write this.) I haven't figured out if they both want to be "boss" or if one is always top dog picking on the other. I have a feeling it's the first one. ;)

You'd never know it by this picture though. Look at the little "angels".

Delivery day!

Just had to share a few pictures of delivery day! This one worked out great as all three families were able to meet me and pick up their pups on the same day.

I always enjoy meeting the families in person and presenting them with their long awaited new furry, family members. Some have waited a long time and some not so long, but all are excited and happy to receive their new baby. Some come from quite a distance and some are local. Of these three families one lives locally, one came from the coast and the other drove from another state to meet me that day!

First little Missy went home. She is going to live with another Pinewood pup, who is also her half brother! Her mom is expecting a baby (human) and her dad had to work so her new "grandparents" were nice enough to drive over and pick her up! Here is a quick note from her new mom; "Molly (her new name) is absolutely precious and we are so happy! Thank you! My parents now want a little cavalier puppy after picking her up. It's hard not to fall in love with them. :)"

Right after little Missy (Molly) left, Kris' mom drove up. She had been wanting a tri-color male Cavalier for a long time and after little Kris (now Cooper) was born the timing was just right! He has two big "siblings" at home, another Cavalier and an older Lab. Hopefully, he won't torment them too much!
She wrote to let me know they got home ok:

"We made it home OK.

Cooper is quite the pup, happy and wiggly and very vocal.

He is happy to be out of the car!

He seems to like his iris pen.

Ruby(Cavalier) has been steering clear cause he pulls her ears.

Hershey (lab) doesn’t know what to think yet."

Then I got another update this morning: "

"Little stinker indeed! He is Baxter(her old dog that just passed) reincarnated. Cooper has a new nickname, “charlie dickens”

He got that one by using his paw to flip over his food bowl and scatter kibble everywhere.....LOL

Hershey likes when he does that!

He finally started eating today, drinking more water.

He ended up sleeping with the pack on the bed last nite, and did really well, and even had his head on Hershey’s back.

I just love him to death.

Thank you so much!"

 

Not to long after Kris (Cooper) left, it was time for Nicholas to be picked up. Nicholas' family as been waiting for months for him! The family has two teenagers that have been wanting a dog for a long time. They decided that the time had finally had come. They were so excited to pick him up! Can't you just see it on her face?! :) And I love this picture of Nick with his little head tilted!

Wishing our Pinewood pups long, happy lives with their new families!

Wonders never cease!

I had prepared everything in readiness for Piper's upcoming litter. The crate was ready with a layer of newspaper. My whelping kit was stocked and handy. And my thermometer told me it would be soon. Wednesday was my "town day", but I decided to postpone that when I saw what Piper's temperature had dropped to. (For those unaware, a dog's normal temperature is usually around 101.5. About a week before whelping (delivery) it will drop to around 100 degrees. Then 12-24 hours before the big event it will drop between 98-99 degrees.) Just before leaving for town her temp had registered 98.4 and now she was "nesting" in her crate. Town could wait.

Murpy's Law of course kicks into affect now. Had I gone to town she would have had the pups while I was gone. (I know dogs have been having puppies on their own for thousands of years, but I'm the type of person that likes to be there to make sure everything is going as it should.) But since I stayed home she didn't do anything all day. Of course, I knew what that meant, I'd be up all night!

My normal routine is to park the whelping crate between the couch and the wood stove. Momma dog goes in the crate for the night and I "sleep" on the couch so I'm close by when things start happening. "Sleep" is relative when you're talking about being next to a dog that's panting, scratching, digging and shredding papers in her crate of course.

I had somehow dozed off when in my semi-sleep stage I heard a "kitten" meowing. When my brain translated that to "puppy crying", I was suddenly awake! It was 1:15am when little "Romeo" made his appearance.

 Only about 45 minutes passed when Juliet showed up.

Now if they would all pop out in that time frame I'd be happy. But it was not to be. I dozed off and on, checking and rechecking Piper's progress, or should I say, lack of progress. I was getting a bit concerned when a couple hours passed and no puppy appeared. (She wasn't very big for this litter and I had guessed there were only three pups. Feeling her gut confirmed there was another one still in there.) I did my usual thing, pray that something would happen soon and give her an herbal supplement that is suppose to help with contractions.)

Finally around 5:15 am, little Cupid was born!

I was happy and relieved that all three puppies were finally here. And pleased with the beautiful colors. I was surprised though that we hadn't gotten any black pups. Piper's last litter consisted of a ruby, a blenheim, two tris and two black and tans. Oh well, that's what's fun about this "business", the element of surprise.

I rechecked Piper and she seemed done. So I let her settle in with her pups while I caught a bit more sleep before it was time for me to start my day. 

Soon enough my day began. After giving Piper a new bed, making sure the pups were all nursing, and making her the customary "post delivery" meal of a warm scrambled egg, I headed out to do my regular chores and get ready for my trip to town later.

I left for town later that morning, ran my errands and headed home in time to pick up my youngest son from school at 3pm. When we arrived home, I opened Piper's crate to let her out for a potty break and spotted something black! What?! There was another puppy! He was already pretty dry, so he had to have arrived quite some time before. Voila' Casanova!

So we had our black puppy after all.

Six o'clock rolled around and it was time for Piper to have a break and me to change her bedding. She came out, I looked in and; I know math is not my strong point but I do know the difference between four and five. You guessed it, there was another little body in the crate!

Hello little Valentine!

All I can figure is Valentine was probably in there when I spotted Casanova, but since Piper was in the crate and there were already two ruby pups, I must have missed her. There's just no way a dog could go that long in between delivering puppies and have them come out alive.

Don't you just love Valentine's Day surprises? Wonders never cease!

Why taking puppy pictures is not easy (but is rewarding)

Fact #1~Puppies are cute, soft, sweet and adorable.

Fact #2~Puppies rarely sit still for pictures.

I guess my main "complaint" about taking puppy pictures is not having a camera fast enough to catch them!
Let me present some evidence why taking puppy pictures is not easy.

But when you get one of these....."Ahhhhh" pictures it's all worth it!

Photo shoot~Boys!

Yep, the boys are just as silly as the girls! Can't hold still either;)

Hope you've enjoyed our blooper show! I'm sure there will be more in the future:) Please try this at home. Take one wiggly puppy, add some props and start taking pictures~good luck!

Photo shot~Girls!

You know that adorable puppy picture that I share with you all on Facebook? Well, we take a gazillion (ok, not quite, but it seems like it!) more so we have at least one to post:) Just thought I'd share some of the bloopers from the last photo shot or the four girls together. (And this isn't even all of them!) Please enjoy my arm;)

So glad we got at least one of them all holding still!