Darling Puppies – the past seven and a half weeks have gone so fast, I can’t believe we have reached the day for microchipping!  (not a day I look forward to).

A few sweet photos…

The puppies have all now had two trips around the block – they are enjoying taking in new sights, smells and sounds.

They are now weaned on to Royal Canin Junior Medium.  Initially they start the weaning process on Royal Canin Starter, but as they will need to be used to Royal Canin Junior in their new homes, I started the change over from Starter to Junior at the age of 7 weeks.  As from today they will be having 100% Royal Canin Junior.  They are loving their food (typical labradors!!) and have good poos too (providing a great clue as to how the food is working for them).

The puppy photo gallery has been updated.

Here are some videos from the past couple of days.

Pups being pups

Our dressage puppy….Miss Pink gallops

Puppy mayhem in the garden

More mayhem!

Pups found the red ball

Division of black and yellow puppies

Maggie getting down with the kids, featuring the dressage puppy!

Utterly pupperly!

It has been a crazy few days – as always Marchstone House is working at full speed ahead.

We have had a few incidents (not puppy related) resulting on Monday, in spending the entire night at A&E (everything is fine now), then on the Tuesday we were given a baby bird to rear (as the finder didn’t know what to do with it, but thought we would be able to help… which of course I am more than happy to do so).  It took us a while to work out what kind of baby bird it was, to discover he is indeed a squab.  A baby pigeon at approximately 21 days old ish!  So I have had a crash course in how to feed a baby pigeon!  I discovered what food I can give him in an emergency (oats with water, milled linseed), whilst ordering some food on the internet for him.  His special food arrived today and he is loving it.  We have called him (Feisty) Frank.  Of course people think Im nuts for saving a mere pigeon.  My thoughts are that ALL living things deserve the chance to life.  Now if this means I rear him, wean him, set him free and then he gets eaten by a cat then the point would be, he had a chance.  Everything deserves a chance of life.  (however long or short their life is).

Wednesday – saw the puppies turning 7 weeks old!  It was also worming day!  They had a fun filled day of me weighing them (twice… as they don’t sit still long enough for the scales to settle!) then getting covered in the pink wormer syrup!

In the evening…we then had to deal with Huey who had got into another horses field.  Naughty pony!

I have now taken all the puppies around the block and need to get them taken around again!

The puppies gears have gone up again …. we are almost at level CRAZY… but not quite.  My walk has now had to evolve into an elongated large step and gentle slide before placing my foot on to the floor with the “ability” to take the weight off that foot at a moments notice!

Roll on to today.. this morning…. we had puppies that believed they were monkeys.  Our morning routine is to put the pups into the pen (in the garden).  As I was placing them into the pen and Dave was taking the dogs out on to the back path… (so the back gate was open), it was noted that Miss Yellow was climbing to the top of the pen at an alarming rate!  Quickly sorting out the safety of the garden, I sorted out the monkeys, let them out into the rest of the garden, turned around to see Mr Red jumping BACK into the pen.  So the garden pen has now been removed and the morning routine has been changed to accommodate the lack of pen.

The puppies photo gallery has been updated.

Here are some videos from the last couple of days.

Is it dinner time yet?

Puppy romps in the garden

Puppies in the garden

Round and round the garden

See how they run

Charging puppies

We have had a very busy few days, lots of photos and videos have been taken.

A nod to my friends wedding on Saturday….

The puppies are now asking to go out into the garden for a wee.  I feel so proud when they go to the patio door and do a little bark to ask to go out.  A great step in the right direction for positive toilet training. They obviously will still have accidents however their association with the garden and using it to go to the toilet is now sticking in their minds rather than automatically going wherever they happen to be.  Clearly they have some way to go – but I am really pleased with the progress they have made.

Katherine and I have taken four of the six puppies for a little trip around the block.  We carry them so they can experience seeing the bigger outdoors in the safety of our arms.  We do aim to do this with all of the puppies at least twice before they go – if we can do three trips with the pups… then we will try!

This week is a busy week for us, I have puppy packs to complete, worming on Wednesday, microchipping them at the weekend, then next monday they will be having their vaccinations.

I have updated the puppies gallery

We have had quite a few sessions where Granny has been part of playtime which is just smashing.  I love seeing all of them together, here is a video of Molly enjoying her grandchildren:- Granny playing with the puppies

Puppies trying to say hello to their mum

Larking about in the garden

Chase me Charlie

Dressed for a wedding a friend of mine got married on Saturday so for a little bit of fun, I put bow ties on the pups.  Colour coded so you can see who is who!

The puppies are just fabulous – they are now moving faster than ever, getting under our feet very easily.  We have a variety of barricades so that we can keep them safe so we can then move in and out of the living room, or from the utility room to the garden.  This involves me having to be agile (ha ha) as I “nip” over the various hurdles we have constructed.  As a result of this newly found energy and speed from the puppies,  I am finding it harder to get the photos and the videos as they rush around my feet.

If you can picture the scene at 7am.  With the help of hubby, the pups are put outside for the first wee’s of the day….. its feed time.   A tired “older” lady who used to be fit, “nipping” over the barricade whilst carefully placing her feet the other side with the “step and slide manoeuvre” (this is actually a sliding step so you are not putting pressure in any one place on the floor!) so as to avoid stepping on a puppy, but also maintaining her balance and continuing to hold the feed bowls aloft and the jug of warm milk…..whilst… the puppies maintain a high level of excitement that their dinner is coming…soon…now!!! WOW this is exciting. The puppies are bouncing around all over the place at my feet.  This older lady then has to figure out as quickly as possible where to place the bowls and get these cute little guys fed …..AND FAST!  The next task is to manage getting the milk dispensed into the bowls without pouring it all over them!  What always makes me smile is how they are so excited for the food but they NEVER actually look at what they are doing, so they will stand in the bowls whilst I attempt to pour their milk in!  After they have eaten I then pick up the bowls – SIMPLE?! In theory this easy task would be completed without any bother however, when you have six puppies hanging off your shoes and your trousers (invariably still in my PJ’s) it is almost impossible to move.   I attempt to make it to the barricade in one piece, I have to gather momentum to “leap” over the top ….. don’t be daft, Im not leaping anywhere….. I manage to get back to the safety of the other side with some effort.  AND BREATHE!

I love my puppies very much – the 7am routine is the craziest time as we need to get them out for a wee as quick as we can, then feed them.  They are super little puppies and in the main the toilet training is going very well.  If we could get them all out quick enough in the morning I think we would have a fairly dry pen.

The puppies have playtime after every meal and then will eventually have a sleep when their tummies feel nice and full.

The feed routine is repeated a further three times a day.  With wee breaks in-between whiles and also playtime scheduled in.  I keep a log of mealtimes for both the pups and Maggie.  Particularly with Maggie having such high demands currently.  Maggie’s dietary requirements are managed by staggering the mealtimes and alternating the additions to her kibble.  I have been continuing to give her the kibble, two tins of sardines a day, 2 lots of scrambled eggs, 2 big chunks of cheese, supplements and now… starting from today some rice pudding (hoping this will help).  Maggie is loving being on her post whelp diet!  The pups have the four meals a day and goats milk twice a day.  (slightly more simple to keep a log of!).

Our day is pretty much full on for both the puppies and the other residents at Marchstone house.

Here are todays videos :-

Makes my heart soar to see Maggie with her puppies and Granny with Mr Blue.  Seeing three generations together makes my heart melt, this for a breeder is bliss, a sense of accomplishment.

Six puppies in the garden

Chase me Charlie! (Such fun!!)

Puppy chaos in my living room!! (Pure Joy!)

Photo gallery updated.

I felt I needed to broaden my horizons on the animals I care for and the animals I have helped look after over the years.  Nothing ever gets turned away at Marchstone House – I have reared lambs, a baby rabbit, a duckling, rescued a parrot, rescued a rabbit and saved a hedgehog…. so as bees are important for the environment, the welfare and future of our planet, I thought bee keeping…. this will be my next venture.  So here is what I have discovered so far…

How to deal with an invasion of bumble bees.

Are Bees really Busy Bees?

cute little bumble bees

Flight of the bumble bee

to bee or not to bee

In other news…..

double trouble (same two again!)

puppy power

Time is going by so quickly.  It is hard to think this time six weeks ago we had newborns!

They are having so much fun enjoying new experiences in the garden and learning how to play with each other which does mean they have to learn to understand body language of the puppy they are playing with!

Here is a rather cute video – you need to play it with the volume up as loud as you can.  Mr Purple has hiccoughs!

Turning heads….

Mr Blue 

Miss Yellow 

Miss Pink

Miss Lilac (less than impressed by the photographic session)

Mr Purple (swing head back to the right!)

Mr Red 

The puppy gallery has been updated.

Puppies playing in the pot

Mummy is here!

Puppy Love

Puppy Puppy Puppy!

Aw Mr Purple

Charging Puppies

We have been enjoying watching Maggie play with her puppies, as she is managing to gain some respect from the puppies, this has enabled Maggie to play without them constantly feeding from her.  It is a joy to watch her moving the relationship on from being the provider of milk, to mother earth – loving and embracing, whilst also teaching the pups boundaries.

The puppies are becoming quite lively, they like to be rush about at my feet, so moving around is quite tricky.  They are really enjoying time in the garden, and playtime in the living room.  They are learning how to play with Maggie.  It is a steep learning curve for them to see Maggie as anything but a milkbar.

The toilet training is going well – it is a lot hard work getting all six puppies in and out quickly….. it is so important to get the message through that the first wee of the day is done outside!  We are making progress.  Im happy that many times after the puppies have been playing, we put them out after ten minutes play and the majority as doing a wee as soon as they get outside.  I feel rather proud of the progress they have made.  (just like a Mum thinks their child is the BEST child at school… well I don’t like to say it so publicly… but my puppies ARE the best!)

The other good news is that Maggie has turned a corner with finally gaining some weight.  She still has some way to go but at least her ribs are not as prominent now.  So sardines are the way forward (along with all her other meals!)

Here are some videos from the last couple of days

Double Trouble

Playful pups

Puppy play

Puppy playtime

Mr Red with Grannie Molly

The gallery has been updated.

Footnote – to buyers.  It will be compulsory to purchase a bean bag for your puppy.  They love throwing themselves into it!

To update from yesterday, the puppies had a clean and dry pen overnight!  Even with the weather being awful during the day I still managed to get most wees outside.

This morning the pen was not so good – but at least we have made some progress and it should come together.   I do have a couple of puppies who have asked to go out so this is a good sign too.  We have had the puppies in the lounge for playtime and as soon as any start to show signs of needing a wee they all go straight out.  Touchwood our timing has been good so far.

I have lots of videos of the puppies….. not naming names or anything but the owner of Mr Blue may well want to remove ALL socks from their household.

The latest development with the puppies is more with how I have had to grow with them.  As usual the step and slide, shuffle slide walk has to make a feature – well I started the step and slide today – the little monkeys are moving so fast and with six of them it is a worry as you might step on them.

Mr Blue

Miss Yellow

Miss Lilac

Mr Purple

Mr Red

Video featuring a galloping puppy

Puppy kerfuffles

Miss Lilac with a plastic bottle

Mr Blue and Miss Pink playing bitey face

oh oh I can’t move, something has got my tail

Mr Blue loves playing with socks

playful puppies featuring Miss Pink showing off her dressage skills 

Maggie playing with her puppies

Maggie with her pups (and a swimming Miss Lilac!)

Maggie spending time with her pups

A few of my favourite photos….

then a photo (below) to make me feel guilty.  I was giving the puppies some warm goats milk.  Maggie wasn’t in the pen at this point, as I finished pouring it into the bowls I turn around to find Maggie in the pen looking at me…. as if to say… “THAT… is MY job” oh dear.  Just trying to help you Maggie Moo! (Maggie has finally put a tiny amount of weight on – at least it is a start, the sardines plus everything else must be helping).

Photos will be added to the gallery later on 🙂

Today has been rather wonderful to see a relationship blossom from Mummy to being seen as only the provider of milk, but the Mummy who teaches the pups how to behave!

Maggie has had some special time playing with her puppies, Granny Molly was also on hand to give Maggie a break and Lucy the cat made an appearance too.

Granny with Miss Yellow

Mr Blue playing with his Mum

Mr Blue meets Granny, Mr Purple hangs on to his Mums tail!

Puppies playing with Mum, featuring Lucy the cat

Photos have been added to the gallery.

It has been a fairly average day, Miss Marple concluded who was giving too many kisses to the puppies! (see previous puppy entry)  Meanwhile the puppy antics continued!

The puppies are more active and we have had a couple of escapees from the puppy pot.  So the outer pen has now been installed for their safety!  I had predicted it would be Miss Pink…but in fact it was Mr Blue who got out first!  Then Miss Yellow managed to get out!

I have changed all of the puppies collars to the next stage, so they are safer from the rough and tumble play.  They are cat collars which will come apart very easily if necessary.

Bundles of trouble

Is that a puppy I see?  No its a wabbit

Mr Red thinks Miss Pink should see the wabbit

Puppy playtime

Love Mr Purple – just wait for the end – he looks like a kiddie who will lick ice from a pole and get his tongue stuck to the pole.  Bless him.

The Puppy gallery has been updated.

A note regarding my dear Maggie – in effort to help her gain some weight I have taken two courses of action.  The first being nutritional needs.  I have now bought some tinned sardines to add to her meals (and other supplements).  They are high in calcium and protein.  Of course I will have to keep a close eye on how this is having an impact on her digestive system.  My second course of action is giving the puppies some warmed milk to reduce the demand on Maggie.  The pups didn’t like the powdered milk (from Royal Canin) so I have bought some goats milk – they love this!  I have never had to give any of my puppies additional milk in any of the previous five litters, so it just goes to prove (again) every litter is different.  Again… I will have to keep an eye on their digestive systems also.

The pups are still feeding from Maggie as she is still very keen to feed them.  I just feel the demands on her body are being pushed a little too much.

It is normal for the bitch to lose weight and condition, but it is obviously very important to monitor the welfare of both Mum and her pups and do what is best for all concerned.  This, I feel strikes the balance of keeping Mum happy as she wants to be with her puppies but does help reduce just how much milk she is needing to produce for them.