Ro shown just hours before birth.

The pups are two days old and individually collared so we can more easily tell them apart from one another.

The pups are now two weeks old. Their eyes are open and they are beginning to walk and doing a good job of it.

The pups have started eating puppy food along with nursing on Mom. As you can probably tell from this photo, they like the new stuff.

A little play time after dinner

Cherry eyeing the rope toy

After a couple of feedings the pups have now graduated to the tray system. This allows them to have individual bowls and to concentrate on their portion rather than that of everyone else.

1) a couple of boys sharing a stick

5) waiting to see the doctor

Puppies at about six hours old resting in the incubator

The temporary names for the pups, while they stay with us, are as follows:

Girls:

Yellow collar - Willow Violet collar - Sequoia

Red collar - Cherry Solid orange collar - Maple

Boys:

Orange collar with dots - Ash Green collar - Spruce

Purple collar - Beech Blue collar - Birch

Not only does this puppy have its eyes open but it has a wet face from mom cleaning him.

Here is a short video of the pups, mom, and snack time.

They still need mom to help them wash the new food down.

Left to right: Cherry, Maple, and Sequoia

Everyone getting ready to take a nap

Mom is still there to take care of them and make sure they are getting all the nutrition they need.

We thought you would like to see just how big the pups are getting and how active they have become over the last several days. They now see, hear, and respond to us talking to them.

The five pictures above are of the pup’s last days in the whelping box. At four weeks of age they were moved to a pen and began to learn how to use their potty pans rather than going wherever and whenever they wished. The pen also gives them more room to rompl

Maple seems to be half-asleep as she sits for her weekly weigh-in.

3) Birch looking quite intense

The pups turned six weeks old on September 10th and that meant that it was bath time. On the left is Sequoia, wondering what the heck happened, and on the right is Willow, after her bath and a towel drying. Following a brief stint in the crate the pups are transferred back to their pen and littermates.

A few candid shots below:

Here are some looks of the pens we set up. They start in a 4’ x 4’ (left), move to a 4’ x 6’, and then end up in a 6’ x 6’ size. They are only in the small pen for about two days before gradually moving to the larger pens. The total transition is about seven to ten day to complete. The use of the litter pans makes housebreaking go a bit smoother and keeps their bedding area very clean.

Little Willow loves her lamb but looks a bit lost in the big pen with her siblings off in a corner sleeping.

The bunch got to go outside for the first time on September 2nd. They had a blast.

This video shows the pups at play in their whelping box and outside with their mom. They really like it outside and will soon be able to stay there for several hours a day by use of the outside pen that is identical to their inside pen.

The puppies had visitors on Saturday, September 9th. Dawn and Everett will be getting one of these pups and asked if they could visit. Of course we said yes and they were able to come by and spend a good hour or so with the pups. The visit went well and the pups were thoroughly worn out. We love having people we know visit the litters once the pups are about five weeks old.

6) Ash with a pheasant wing

2) mom showing the pups around the

4) the pups made it out to the pond

7) Spruce with a pigeon