First snow of the season

Savi & Trixie

In the Northeast, we received our first storm of Winter 2013 and it turned our yard into a winter wonderland.  The girls donned their ChillyDog coats and were ready to play in the snow.

 Savi's switch went off and she had a case of the zoomies!

 Flying Weim

After a fun romp in the yard, time to go warm up back in the house.

Jeepers Peepers!

The puppies' eyes have begun to open.  Even though their eyes are starting to open, they cannot see clearly yet and still bump into each other in the whelping box as they wander around.

With opening eyes, these pups have such character in their beautiful faces and it is difficult to not want to just cuddle them all day long!

 Also during this week in addition to their eyes opening, the puppies' ears will also open and they will begin to hear.

 The pups are very active and starting to go from crawling to trying to walk.

 And Momma Jam keeps a close eye on the pups from a comfy spot on the couch next to the whelping box.

Wonder pups 1 week old!

Hard to believe that our Wonder litter is now over a week old! The time has flown by and we have not had time to make our usual daily blog updates.  Jam is a fantastic mother, careful around the pups and attentive to cleaning and feeding them.  She is quite relaxed and as you can see from the photo above, still very much a clown!  I am still sleeping next to the whelping box, which I do for the first two weeks to keep a close eye on the young pups.  We also have incorporated a puppycam so we can see them from wherever we may be. Our puppy people love to be able to view their future pups and be part of their growth and development.  

The puppies have already outgrown their first set of "infant" collars and we put the next size of velcro collars on them.  The puppies spend the day nursing, sleeping and peeing or pooping, which at this stage, Jam stimulates them to do, although some are doing it on their own, and she is cleaning this up.  The pups get weighed daily and they have all gained and are impressive with their weights, no worries here about the goal of them doubling their birth weights by two weeks of age.  Tails were docked and dewclaws removed at three days of age and they also had their nails clipped for the first time, something we will be doing weekly and we will introduce the dremel.  We also started Early Neurological Stimulation and Early Scent Introduction (ESI), both of which we will continue until day 16. We started doing ESI at the recommendation of our friend, Gayle Watkins, of Avidog, and Gaylan's Golden Retrievers, a few years ago and we believe it makes a difference in the puppies development and translates into adulthood.  We introduce the puppies to a new scent each day for a 3-5 seconds, anything from different birds, such as chukkar or pheasant wings, as these are hunting dogs, to rubber toys, natural materials such as leather and spices.  It is impressive to feel how the puppies inhale deeply or try to eat a bird wing at such a young age!

 When the puppies nurse, they use their paws to kneed the area around the nipple to help stimulate milk flow. Their tongues are curved to perfectly fit a nipple. We carefully check Jam daily to make sure the she stays healthy, her temperature is normal and does not develop mastitis, which could be painful.

 The pups are amazingly active and mobile for this age and have no problem finding a feeding station at the milk bar or a comfortable place to nap in the whelping box. The whelping box has pig rails, those white boards, that protect the pups from accidentally getting rolled on by Jam.  We also have a heat lamp in one corner of the box to keep the pups warm and the box at an optimal temperature as the puppies are too young to regulate their own body temperature.  A puppy getting too cold can be deadly.

 Jam enjoys many meals throughout the day and plenty of water to help make an adequate supply of milk for these ever hungry pups.

Welcome our Wonder Litter!

We are thrilled to announce the arrival of our Wonder Litter - 4 Boys and 3 Girls!!! They are sired by Fala, Multiple Best of Breed, WCA National Specialty Winner's Dog, CH A GraytSky A La Fala Love' A and our Jam, Multiple Best of Breed, CH Grayhart's Purple Haze, CD, JH, AX, AXJ,SD,VX.  This Wonderful litter arrived on schedule and uneventfully, with Momma Jam doing a great job of bringing them into the world.

Jam did another phenomenal job whelping the litter in the early evening and finishing in four and a half hours.  In order of appearance, we are proud to introduce the Wonder pups:

• Miss Pink      16.1 oz
• Miss Purple  16.0 oz
• Mr. Blue        15.0 oz
• Mr. Orange   18.7 oz
• Mr. Black      18.3 oz
• Miss Teal      19.4 oz
• Mr. Red         18.2 oz

Burberry Girl!

 Appearing on the Nordstrom website, Jam as a Burberry model!  This was her last modeling assignment before she went on maternity leave.

 During the shoot, a cameraman was filming a "behind the scenes" video, which is all the rage for fashion shoots.  Jam and all the other dogs are in that video.

Silly Sophie

 Sophie, (Parker x Savi) 6 months old, thinks the pool cover is her own personal trampoline.  Don't worry about her falling in, that cover could hold an elephant!

Ready to burst!

Savi & Jam

With less than a week to go until Jam's due date, she has gotten huge!  Next to her slim sister Savi, you can see just how much her body has changed.  Her nipples are quite large, ready to provide milk to her pups and we can see/feel the pups inside her move around!  A truly amazing feeling to put your hand on her belly and feel a puppy move.

The whelping box and supplies are all set up and on Tuesday, we will go to the vet for an x-ray to see how many pups Jam is carrying.  The x-ray is not always 100% as sometimes there can be a hidden puppy but my vet has an excellent track record of being right on the money with puppy counts.  

Jam is feeling well and loves her increased food portions, eating six cups of kibble a day! She has started nesting, especially outside in  the bushes.  No, Jam will not be allowed to have her puppies under a bush in the backyard!  We will be monitoring her temperature and keeping a close eye on her to make sure we see the first signs of labor which may include heavy breathing, contractions, panting, restlessness and not eating.