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    Mother Imp on left and Pappa Hawkeye on right.....

Saturday Sept 20: How can it be that this is the last weekend the pups will be together?  The weather is glorious, and the boys are enjoying some afternoon time in the sun and shade.  They have just about outgrown their collars, so its a good thing Marilyn will be here on Monday for them.  Final pics tomorrow of the crew. 

Mr Red is definitely a people dog.  He is vocal but not to the point of being irritating.  He justs puts voice to his feelings.  He is a rugged and sturdy puppy, has a lot of bone and muscle.  His rear assembly is the most developed and he really can jump now.  A good listener, he will make an excellent allround pup to train.  I just love the way he cocks his head to his right and says, 'I'm trying to understand what you are telling me.'  Such a good boy!

Mr Blue is also a people dog.  He is a very sweet fella.  The type of pup you just want to hold and love-on.  Tries so hard to be good all the time.  Wants to be good -- its written on his face.  Is the first to come when you call the group.  Reliable sit.  Touches me when he is close-by.  Gives kisses.  Gentle.  Would be a good first pup for someone to train who is a gentle person.

Hoss.  Just a happy goofy fellow.  Doesnt act as smart as his brothers, or maybe he just wants to be more independent.  Always has that question mark on his face and ears alert.  Just a normal sort of guy.  He will be a good pup to have in a multiple dog household.

Wednesday Sept 17: boys are really learning their 'sit' command well.  And this is the week that we hope we can begin to see evidence of those testicles descending.  Odd to have an entire litter of males, and we can tell some differences in their play patterns because there are no females to 'keep the boys straight.'  But there is also a nice camaraderie between the boys.  Momma Imp visits the pups and enjoys some playtime with them.    We spend lots of time with the pups and will be sad to see them go next Monday.

Monday Sept 15: 
Milestones: 

First inoculations today.  Pups did fine.  We are always the nervous ones when we give those first inoculations.  You just never know if you have that '1 in a million' pups that will have an adverse reaction.... And I remember the advice of a wise old vet we once knew -- if you're going to give shots yourself, then do it when the vet's office is open in normal business hours .... just in case you have a problem, you can get help immediately ... Good advice. 

We give Distemper, Adenovirus, Hepatitis, Parainfluenza and Parvo only for the 1st and 2nd shots.  Then we do give 1 dose of Lepto after 12 weeks to the labradors only.  We never give Lepto to the Ridgebacks.  There ARE some breed specific reactions, and the three times we tried Lepto with 3 different Ridgies, we got the same reaction each time -- swollen, inflamed injection site, diarrhea and lethargy for several days.  Not worth it. 

Next week we will give Bordetella to the puppy we are keeping.  If Marilyn wants the St Francis 2 pups to get it on Monday before they leave, then they can have it also.  We try not to interfere too much with the routine of administration that St Francis chooses for their pups, so we usually limit ourselves to just the first inoculation.

Microchips are another thing we will do in the course of this week.  We use AVID Friend Chips.  It is extremely important to us to be Responsible for all the puppies we breed.  And we believe in being responsible for the life of our puppies.  In order to help do that, we make sure that each puppy we breed -- regardless of whether it stays here or not -- each puppy has a working microchip registered with a recovery agency.  The new owners can change the ownership information at the recovery agency as soon as they choose.  But we have the peace of mind knowing that our puppies can always be positively identified, and that the microchip can be traced to us thru the manufacturer and and the retailer.  We never want any puppy of ours to be 'lost' with no means of assistance.

Also, the pups have been registered with AKC and UKC as a litter.  And the puppies have been individually registered with AKC.  This is a change in procedure for us, and we feel compelled to individually register them with AKC for 1 reason only.  There are new regulations and policies in effect at AKC that involve the Limited Registration option.  Because AKC does not feel legally bound to register a puppy as Limited if the original individual registration is presented to them by a 3rd owner [breeder is first, the first transfer to owner is the 2nd, and another transferred to owner is the 3rd owner] ... our pups that we designate as Limited could conceivably be registered by a Career Change owner or a Partner as full registration.  This is not an issue with us as long as the dog is spayed or neutered, but what if the pup developed a significant issue and was career changed before it was spayed or neutered???

So, the pups have been individually registered with AKC under the discounted-fee-entire-litter-registration-option now available at AKC.  Their names are:  Ynda's Mission-Impossible and Ynda-N-Colton's Last-Of-The-Dreamers.

NOT TO WORRY, the St Francis policy of allowing the recipient to assign an official kennel club registered name is still intact!  AKC now has an option, the same one that UKC has had for 10+ years, of allowing the registered name to be changed by a new owner.  We will staple the AKC name-change-application to the individual registration certificate for each puppy.  That way, we are satisfied and St Francis policy stays intact.  The new owners can change the official name of their dog when they receive the dog.

Saturday Sept 13.  Well the pups are about 99% normal.  They responded beautifully to Pepto Bismuth and Flagyl.  Still no definitive word on what the problem was.  But since the chips are gone and the symptoms treated, the pups are back to normal.  Go figure.  We had used these chips for the last 6 years with no problems.

The boys immediately retrained themselves to 'park' on the newspapers when they are confined inside the Nursery overnight.  Hurrah.  Good Job, Boys, Good Job.

As you can see from the pictures, the differences between them are now very noticable, and not just to a breeder's eye.  The personalities are as unique as the look of each.

Sept 22nd the day that Marilyn and Elizabeth will be here to test and take puppies.

Time goes too quickly.

We have some sunny weather and good health and can resume training where it left off the pups.  They are very much into enjoying the obstacles in their play yard -- up on everything! and now they have a ramp which they love going up and also going 'under' the ramp to lie down.  Good practice for 'under' later in training.  The pups will follow a ball when its rolled, and they will pick up the hose piece AND a metal spoon, plus a nubbly plastic fish and soft plush toys and rope toys.

They are not afraid of the lawn mower today -- good, and the weed eater!!!!  Good noise distractions.  They are eating 1/2 cup at each of 3 meals a day.  That's 1.5 cups of food per puppy per day. 

They are reliable on puppy come and walk with me.  We are beginning work on 'sit'.  We reinforce 'park'. 

And we have decided that Mr Purple, Bopper, will remain with us at Ynda.  This was an excruciating decision to make, since we have to feel that any puppy we keep has the potential to make a significant contribution to the breed, in order for us to exclude it from training to help the life of someone else.  We hoped for a female from Imp, but God gave us a male instead.  The pup has his own page now, and you will see from the pictures the 'magic' that exists already between this little guy and Andy.  This is the same sort of bond that instantly developed with Andy and Martin almost 7 years ago.  Click on the navigation bar at left, and choose 'Hoss'.  Hoss -- that's for 'big' and for Dan Blocker, the endearing middle brother character Hoss on Bonanza.  He is registered as Ynda's Shenandoah-Dream.  He is the only labrador in our new generations to carry the old Shenandoah labrador name, and the only one ever to carry both Ynda and Shenandoah.

Thursday Sept 11:  Well look at the weight gains.  As you can see, Red collar was the one most recently under the weather and didn't quite measure up to the weight gains of the other pups.  But the gains are very nice nonetheless.

We were back to the vet's office today, more tests on the the other 2 pups, still nothing turned up.  But the Red and Blue boys have been on and off their food, very very very loose stools, a bit distended in the bellies.  As my grandmother would say, this vexes me.  Its not parasites, its not coccicidia, its not giardia, its not a communicable disease.  Its not anything we have done or failed to do as dog breeders.  The symptoms look and act like colitis. 

Tonight we are trying Pepto Bismuth and continuing Flagyl which we started yesterday.  It seems that the boys are feeling better tonight.

Not surprisingly we are looking for the source of upset.  Thanks To Jeannette Scott and Ellen McKinnon for encouraging us to look in unusual places.  Tuesday night we had removed all the chips from the nursery in case the pups were eating the chips.  Jeannette and I speculated that perhaps something was ON the chips.  Later today Ellen confirmed she knew of a case with labradors where fire retardant had been sprayed on the chips, causing the coats to feel like something was on the coat and making a dog sick.  .... So maybe that's what's happened to our pups ??? Is something on their chips? and on their coats? and they mouth each other so much its now in their digestive system???  who knows for sure, but the chips are gone, and we hope the pups will continue to improve.

We will keep you posted.  Meanwhile it continues to rain and be foggy.  And cool.

Wednesday Sept 10:  6 weeks old.  And the pups are sick.  Spent until midnight last night at our vet's after hours service diagnosing.  No idea what's going on with them at this point.  Puppy diarrhea. No fever.  Pups still play and act fairly normal.  Except that Mr Purple was vomiting last night, listless, and received sub-q fluids, injection to stop vomiting.  Have ruled out 'all the usual suspects'.  Driving us crazy with concern.  Doesn't appear life threatening, but pups can go downhill quickly with such little in reserve in their little bodies, that even small concerns can become major crises.  Enzymes, tagamet, starting flagyl which they can only get in small doses for a minimal time.

Mr Purple doing OK today. Other two have the diarrhea but not listless and no vomiting.

Sorry, but no new pics or anything until we get this health crisis worked out.  Will keep you updated.

Monday Sept 8:  Pups had a visit today from Marilyn Wilson, St Francis Staff Trainer.  They were thrilled to meet Marilyn.  This week the pups begin their 'individual' work.  Pups will get individual time with each of us, introduction to the leash, walking with us, away from the usual puppy areas.  This is the real time consuming work of training for these young pups.  But this time is really critical for the pups, too.  It helps build the foundation for how the pups will learn throughout their lives. 

We will probably post updates every several days for a while.  Thank you for your readership.

Wednesday Sept 3:  Pups are 5 weeks old today.  They are doing great.  My, how time flies !  The pups are now running for real.  Last week they were trying to run, mostly bouncing up and down in the same place.  Now they cover ground.  They get under our feet so quickly that walking around them is like playing that old game of 'Twister.'  You have to put a foot down and hold it in place, then look for a safe place to somehow put another foot down quickly while that space is still 'empty.'

The pups love their chow being soaked and not ground up anymore.  They rush to the WeanaFeeda when they hear 'Puppy Come' because they KNOW.  They are greedy for their 1 cup a day.  We will increase their food as soon as we think they can use more efficiently.

Imp still loves her time with her puppies.  Today, she cried to go into them about an hour or two earlier than normal.  We let her spend evenings and overnight with them, then she comes in the house in the mornings and afternoons.  That way she is drying up her milk and getting her 'special time' but also continuing to socialize the puppies.  Imp truly loves these pups and enjoys playing with them in the grass.  She is the only adult female who doesn't try to take their toys!  Morella jumps gleefully into the puppy playground and nabs a toy then is off over the fence with the toy.  But she does that only when the pups are not in the playground.  She senses when it is truly 'off limits'.

Obstacles have arrived in the play yard -- the puppy tunnel, puppy window, and several 'surface' items were put in today.  Also the items for the pups to pick up and carry -- part of a hose, a plastic coat hangar, a tablespoon.  Mr Blue has already picked up everything for a test.

We'll get those new 5 week old portraits up tomorrow.

Tuesday Sept 2:  Great holiday weekend, the pupsters were busy growing and playing.  Today they celebrate their Mother Imp's 6th birthday!  Happy Birthday to Imp and her brother, St John.  [John has celebrated by having a girl come in for mating, thank you very much!]

Pups are now eating regular puppy chow without having it ground up!  This is a Big-Boy step.  We soak their food for about 45 minutes prior to each meal.  And their amount of food has really increased, too.  Now they are eating 4 Tablespoons of dry kibble at each meal.  When it is soaked, that's quite a bit of food.  But their poops are OK, which means this is the right amount for them at this time.

And the pups are now drinking water without any inducement of goat's milk in it.  Another Big-Boy step.  They like their cool water, and are using the puppy saucer exclusively now.

Mr Red managed to find a way 'out' of the playground under the plastic fence on Sunday.  Found him outside playing with Auntie Ella in the yard, just a foot away from the puppy playground.  A heart-stopping experience nonetheless.  What a clever lad you are, puppy !

And the puppies entertained their first visitors yesterday.  Rob and Harriet Meinecke came to visit and play with the pups in the afternoon.  The boys had just finished their lunch and quickly greeted their new friends.  Together they had a great play session.  Mr Blue puppy got to demonstrate the Super Puppy Exercises and gave a flawless performance, even to the upside-down-puppy-hang.  That is hard to do now since it takes 2 hands bigger than Marti's to make it work safely.  Good puppy !

The puppies now know their first command: Puppy Come.  They are very reliable on their Puppy Come and it is delightful to see them do it.  It will always be their best command since they learned it at such an early age.  We teach Puppy Come as soon as we start the weaning, and call the puppies to their meals using Puppy Come.  So the association with something Very Good is strong in their minds.

The next command we are working on is 'no bite.'  We are trying not to let the pups nibble at all on our fingers.  That way there will not be a lot of work to do on 'no bite.'

"Good Park" is being taught every time a puppy eliminates.  That way the pups learn what 'Good Park' means very early. 

Tomorrow the pups will be 5 weeks old and the obstacles will go into the playground.  We have a puppy tunnel for them to crawl thru, a window frame for them to climb thru, a pool turned upside down for them to jump onto and off of, and an umbrella to play with.  We are adding a ramp this year to the obstacles.  The pups are already adept at getting under the stools and climbing out again.

Time is moving much too quickly with these boys!

Saturday August 30:  new pics

Friday August 29:  A look at the weights and you will see that feeding puppy chow has really made a difference this week.  The pups have gained at least 1 pound and a few ounces each.  That's a lot to gain in a week.  The pups also feel different -- they are more sturdy now.  Instead of being 'soft' they are solid.  The pups are good climbers now.  Mr Blue in particular likes to climb up to my shoulder and onto my shoulders, go around my neck and stand on my other shoulder.  Mr. Red likes for me to sit on the ground and climb on and over my legs, thighs are best thank you.  Mr Purple is fascinated with clothes and textures, and likes to mouth them.  He crawls into my lap for a nap.

The Nursery has undergone its final transformation and will remain essentially the same until the pups leave.  Our philosophy has always been to allow pups maximum freedom while keeping them safe.  We want to encourage their natural instincts to explore and learn about their environment.  We want to encourage them to develop muscle and coordination.  We want to expose them to learning opportunities.  To that end, we don't want to restrict them to a whelping box longer than necessary.  And we know we are exceptionally lucky to have the time and the space to follow our desires for the pups.

When we moved the pups to the nursery, the entire whelping box went with them.  This guarantees continuity of surroundings for the pups.  We removed the sliding doors to allow the pups to climb in and out of the box -- to the papers and space outside, to the chips outside the box, to the dog door, etc.  With the advent of days of rain, we blocked the doggie door entrance to restrict the pups to the inside of the nursery.  This is not something we like to do, but the amount of 'overflowing water' and 'creatures displaced' by the flooded ponds here and next door to us necessitated that we protect the pups from anything seeking a new home or dry place.  Today, things are drier and more normal.  We removed 2 of the 4 sides of the whelping box.  That gives the pups a completely open area now inside the nursery.  But by keeping 2 of the 4 sides and half of the floor, we have given the pups a bed area that is familiar to them, is raised and insulated off the floor by a couple of inches, and is small enough that the pups are choosing not to foul the bed/sleep area.  [Look at the picture of Jasmine with the pups above.  That's the back and side we have left.  Where she is laying down is their bed space now.]  The puppies now toddle off the bed/towel area, and choose to 'park' either on newspapers or in the cedar chips.  This works great for them, and they easily recognize the entire inside of the nursery as their play area.  The bed is directly across from the outside doggie door, and the pups are choosing to go outside often.  They are curious about the outside, and they already know their way in and out and around the outside concrete kennel.  There is a larger water dish outside and they have doused themselves in it already.  They also have a puppy bowl of water inside.  When we open the outside door, the pups can go directly onto their playground area.  They already have shown us that they enjoy the smells and textures of the grassy area.  When we are sure that the pups are regularly drinking from the outside water dish, then we will remove the inside water dish and newspapers and only have cedar chips and the sleeping area.  This is a much more sanitary method for the pups.  There is plenty of space for Miss Imp to sleep with the pups when she goes in to spend her evenings and overnights with the pups.

Within a few days, we will begin to add more obstacles for the pups to climb on to give them more surfaces to experience.  We will also give them different heights to experience also.  They love toys, and are having a lot of fun playing with various types of toys.

Now that we have some sunshine off and on, we will get some pictures of the entire 'puppy environment' for you.

Thursday August 28:  Rain rain rain for more than 2 days.  Puppies have had their 4 week old milestone.  That means several things -- another Nemex dose, and then we can wait for 2 weeks until we dose them again.  And now they are eating only puppy chow, no mother's milk at all.  And we have introduced them to cedar chips.  Many things happening.

As you can see from the pics, we caught a break in the rain and were able to take the puppies outside into their playground.  This is an area that Andy makes with plastic fencing.  It either opens from the door into the Nursery building or it opens from the concrete kennel outside the Nursery.  This time it opens from the door.  The puppies love their outside time in the grass.

The pups also like their cedar chips!  They are attracted to the odor and readily go to the chips to 'park.'  This is wonderful and makes the sanitation engineering job much easier.  We put down papers and chips over the papers.  We wait until the 4 week mark to make sure the pups are tall enough to 'clear' the chips easily.  The boys are great with 'parking' in the chips.  They wake up, toddle out of the box and dash over to the chips to 'park'.  Good puppy!  Good job!

Pups are hard to weigh as they like to play on the scale.  We are trying to get an accurate weight on each one to post for you.

Individual identities and personalities are very apparent by this age.  Each one of the pups is his own little person now, and we know them by their sounds and behaviors without having to look at the color of the collar.  Mr Blue is fearless, agile, fun-loving and adventuresome.  Mr Red is the vocal one and tells you everything about how he feels, he even makes contended noises when he eats.  Mr Purple/Periwinkle is the quiet one who is a 'near-by' dog, likes to be next to his people.  He is very curious about everything.

Tuesday August 26:   Toys !  The puppies let us know they were 'ready' for toys !  How? by grabbing their towels and tugging them around everywhere.  So, toys they now have -- a rubber nubby round cat toy with a bell inside, a small tennis ball, a plush elephant with a squeaky, a rope toy, a cloth diaper twisted and tied to the fence (serves as a tuggy toy), a plush bone made of leopard print.  All I had to do was put the toys on their towels-bed and show them the toys -- away they went with them.  Pounce, pull, knaw, push with the paw, carry..... yep, they were ready.

Food, the pups eat 3 times per day, as I mentioned.  Its Purina Pro Plan Puppy, Lamb and Rice.  Weaning is a fun process, but one that requires good observation skills.  Its the quality and quantity of puppy poop that tells you if you are feeding too much, too little or just enough.  We start off with 1 Tablespoon of ground up puppy chow and 2 Tablespoons of warm water.  Then we adjust upwards.  If the poop is not formed and loose, then you are feeding too much.  If the poop is rounded and hard and the pup has trouble getting it out, you are not getting enough moisture or enough food to the pup.  You want the poop to be more formed than 'soft serve ice cream', to see that intestinally rounded 'tootsie roll'  effect.  And each pup is a little different, too.  So you just pay attention and adjust.

Today, each puppy is getting 7 teaspoons of dry ground up puppy chow with 3 ounces of warm water and 3 ml of goats milk.  We add 1 scoop, which is 1/8 teaspoon of Dog Zymes to 1 meal per day.  That's 1 meal for 1 puppy.  We only use the goats milk in the meal for the first week.  This is to use the smell of the milk to attract the puppies.  Since smell is the first sense that a puppy has a uses to find its mother before eyes or ears are open, smell for pups is highly developed.  And a puppy will find a nipple based on its smelling like mother's milk.  So we use that natural attraction to milk smell to encourage the pups to eat their puppy chow.  Works like a charm.

We also use the milk smell and taste to wean the pups from milk to water.  We use one of the WeanaFeeda bowls, and put warm water in it.  To that we add a small bit of goats milk.  We use progressively less and less goats milk over time until the pups are drinking pure water.  We do this to teach the pups to lap up the water, and use the smell to help them find and go to the bowl, which we typically put in a corner where it is less likely to be tipped over [well less often tipped over].  We use our flying saucer puppy dish to hold water and leave it on the outside kennel for the mother dog when she visits, and for the pups as they go outside more and more often.

Many years ago I knew a breeder who had a puppy accidentally drown in a water bucket.  That memory always reminds me to make sure that the depth of any bowl is appropriate for the size and coordination of the puppies as they grow.  I cannot imagine many things more sad than a pup drowning because it could not get its head back up out of a bowl of water.  As you can see from the picture above, the WeanaFeeda bowls are matched to the size of the puppies.

The WeanaFeeda station is a marvelous invention of an English veterinarian.  We got ours last year, and just love it.  The beauty of the WeanaFeeda is that each pup gets its own measured amount of food, and this encourages each pup to eat more slowly at its own pace.  As you can see, the bowls are visually separated so that a puppy must back away from its food bowl to see the bowl of a litter-mate.  Excellent!  The carry handle on top is very handy -- we make all the feed, plus a bowl of 'liquid' for the pups to drink, and carry it all out together.  This eliminates the flying-saucer puppy dish feeding frenzy with puppies walking in the food, competing with each other for food, gulping food, and you never can be sure that each puppy gets the measure it should.  I dont think anything stops puppies from stepping in their food.  This is a carry over from nursing when the pups will use their paws to knead their mother's mammary glands to speed the flow of milk from the nipple.  Slowly over a few weeks, the pups learn not to step in their food bowl.

Miss Imp.  She is in the process of 'drying up her milk' right now.  What a tough time for a mother dog !  The only effective way to stop milk production is to fast the mother dog.  Fasting by itself is not a bad thing, but in our household, it is a terrible miscarriage of justice for 1 dog to be left out of the 'meals' ritual.  In order to make sure that Miss Imp knows we still love her and want to take care of her, I give her 1 teaspoon of Benefiber in warm water at each meal time.  To that I add 1/2 teaspoon of Peanut Butter and about 5 grains of dog chow.   Its not much at all, but she gets a bowl [I use a puppy size bowl] with something in it at her favorite place to take her meals.  She gets much much praise and petting.  Today, I will take her up to the grooming station in the big kennel, and she will get her spa treatment -- oatmeal shampoo, deep conditioner, her nails will get done, her ears will be cleaned, and she will be towel dried and rubbed/massaged all over.  This always makes her feel very special -- to be THE only dog to get a full grooming and massage.  Diva? no! not Miss Imp.

In addition, we have been letting Imp go into the pups and spend the night with them.  This serves the purpose of letting them go ahead and drain out what milk is left, and it gives the puppies a guardian in the night-time.  For those of you who have not seen our Nursery, it is somewhat of a fortress with covered wire top to the kennel, concrete pad, and chain link fencing.  In addition, we add a 'barrier gate' to prevent pups going out or anything coming in where the gate swings open.  In the winter, a hard doggie door will block the kennel house from the outside run.  In the summer, that is covered only with a towel for the pups.  The towel is pulled up during the day to open the doorway, encouraging the pups to explore and go in/out.  At night, the towel is dropped down to cover the opening.  Nevertheless, we like to have an adult dog present with the pups.  For the next couple of nights, that role will be handed over to Grandmamma Jasmine who will guard the pups.  We want for Miss Imp's mammary glands not to be stimulated by the pups for 48 hours.  That plus the fasting should do the trick to get the spickets turned off.  Jasmine will provide the nurturing and adult dog experiences that the pups need during this transition until their mother can come back to teach and interact with them.  Jasmine says, 'throw me in that briar patch!'

Rickie is doing well even tho its only 4 weeks since she was hurt.  She is running and playing nicely now with no visible hitch in her gait.  Still, we limit her exercise and supervise her all the time.  Yesterday and today, she has been allowed to spend the day next to her grandsire, St John, in the 'big kennel' on a concrete run.  Martin, the King, is on her other side.  Rickie loves it!  She has been passing toys back and forth with John and I often see her with a paw thru the fence touching Martin.  He's so funny, he pretends to look away like he doesn't want to be bothered, but at the same time he is wagging his tail when she touches him.  Such a softie!  Melody-Schmelody is on the other side of Martin, and she and Rickie get to have their 'romps' in the big yard together.  They are great buddies.  St John is perfectly well now, adjusted to being on the 'south' end of the kennel as opposed to the 'north' end of the kennel where he was before.  Lewis and Anna changed runs with John.  They now have the 'north' end kennel which is 4 feet wider than the 'south' end kennel which is an 8 foot wide kennel.  Both Lewis and Anna are active dogs and it made more sense for the 2 of them to share the 12 foot wide run and for John to have the 8 foot wide run.  We had no idea St John was so fond of the kennel he was in, but evidently he was. So we think he was stressed when we moved him.  We apologized to John over and over.  Plus, John and Hawkeye are big buddies, they are great friends.  They were side by side, and now John is beside Rickie, which he likes, but I think he misses Hawkeye.  Hawkeye for his part, is not at all fond of Lewis, thinks he is a pest.  But Hawkeye has always liked his sister, Anna.  Preferable to his sister, Tango, who was well known for tormenting him throughout their puppyhood.  Tango was relentless!  but that is another story. Hawkeye also does like Melody, who is now spending her days next to him on the other side.  And so, the days of their lives go by with a measure of peace and contentment...

Monday August 25:  My, my !  What an eventful weekend for the pupsters.  They are now IN the Nursery.  That happened yesterday after church.  We usually wait for the pups to crawl out of the box on numerous occasions before moving them.  But something told us that even without this behavior they were ready.  And ready they are.  My goodness.  This morning after an easy first night, the boys are out of the box and out thru the doggie door and to my arms almost before I can get 'puppy puppy puppy' called!  All at once, here they are.  Their tails are wagging and they are not at all intimidated by climbing in or over or out or find me by my voice when I am out of sight.  Here they come!  Happy as can be.  Amazing.  Last night and most of yesterday afternoon we had kept the shorter of the two 'sliding doors' in the whelping box.  And the boys stayed in the box like they had done in the house.  The only times they had come out of the box in the kitchen was when we took that sliding door out.  I was beginning to suspect that these boys have temperaments very much like mom and dad -- Hawkeye and Imp are 2 of the most patient dogs I have ever known.  They will wait until they are asked to do something, they are excellent 'waiters'.  I think these pups were waiting for permission to come out of their box, something that pups never do!  Now the boys are in and out of their box in the Nursery with no problem.  Mr Purple puppy, Bopper, did have a few 'stalls' at first due to his belly dragging on the doorway.  Now he has figured out how to heft himself over that.  The same thing happened to him on the doorway to/from the kennel itself.  It was funny, but you could not allow yourself to laugh.

Grandmother Jasmine got to have a turn staying with the puppies when they first went out to the Nursery, and for her that was Nirvanah!  Her look said it all, 'now I am ready to go because I have had  PUPPIES again', 'nothing in this world can make me happier than PUPPIES.'  She is such a dear dear girl.  My Earth Mother, Jasmine.

Today, also I had a few moments of tears.  It has to do with my first Ridgeback, Rapidan's Mark Twain, CGC.  I called him Huckleberry.  He loved to have fun.  'Let's have fun, let's have fun' that was his puppy mantra -- all the way until 4 years old when he finally 'grew up.'  Anyway, I had a reservation to get a puppy from Champion Rakiara Ricochet, 'Shay'.  I just adored her and that beautiful soft temperament. [our newest little girl, Ricochet, is named for her]. When her pups were 5 weeks old, I went to look at them, to see if I could pick out the one I wanted.  I sat on the patio, and the pups came over to me.  One of the boys put his head on my right thigh, looked a long time into my eyes, and then went to sleep.  He chose me, and that was it.  More than 11 years later, that was how he went to the Rainbow Bridge, with his head in my lap.  We buried him beside his niece, Suzan, in the meadow where he loved to roam.  We followed the Native American tradition to 'sing' his soul up to the stars, to join the 'web or ring' of life.  The belief is that a soul so sent off will someday return and be born into another.... I have often thought that my beloved June is none other than the soul of my dear, dear sister dog and friend, Scooter, Landfalls Gone-With-The-Wind.  I swear it is so. .... Well today, when I called the boy puppies to me from inside their Nursery, Mr Red came out straight away, wagging his tail, and he crawled into my lap, looked into my eyes, and put his head on my right thigh, snuggled in, and promptly went to sleep. Of course, I dissolved into tears, remembering my Huck, and wondered aloud, 'Huckleberry, is this you come back to me?'  Time will tell, but this boy had already showed me how much of a people dog he is.  I would not be surprised, not at all surprised. 

The pups are doing great, and they are officially 'being weaned.'  3 meals per day, 8 hours apart.  We grind up the puppy chow into a powder, then add warm water.  That way they get warm food that is of a consistency that they can eat easily.  We call it 'puppy mush.'  We also have a pan of water with about 1 part in 8 of goats milk.  That way they are attracted to the water.  The pups are good at lapping up the water and eating their food.  Miss Imp is ready to wean them since they have a pretty full compliment of upper and lower teeth already.  Yikes !  she says. 

I have some new pics to put up but am going ahead and posting this info first....

August 22:  The pups are doing well.  Their mobility increases every day.  Toenails now need the dog clippers, and we can no longer use people fingernail clippers.  The pups are very cooperative with getting their nails done.  The pups have started eating their Puppy Chow.  This is the 3rd day they have had 1 or 2 puppy chow meals.  Right now they get 1 Tablespoon each.  Their meal is either ground-up puppy chow or well soaked puppy chow.  They seem to prefer the ground up puppy chow the best.  We are encouraging them to learn to drink by offering them goats milk in water in a dish.  They love that and lap it right up!  All of this is preparation for weaning and for them moving out to the Nursery.  We will know they are ready to move when they continually climb out of the whelping box.  That way they will be able to go in and out of the doggie doorway and climb in and out of sleeping quarters.  All that will happen soon enough.  Socially, the pups adore their people time.  They wag their tails at us, and give us puppy kisses and cuddle up against us.  They have their puppy radio and noise tape, and of course, all the 'normal' house happenings like daily vacuuming, pots and pans, telephone, doors slamming, etc.  They sleep thru it all.  They are learning to 'park' and 'double park' on their own on the newspaper side of the box.  Good puppy !  good job!  They already love to hear 'good puppy.'

August 20:  3 weeks old.  The puppies are no longer infants.  They are full fledged toddlers.  The pig rails have come out of the box.  The sheets are out of the box.  Half of the box has newspapers in it and the other half has a covering of towels on it.  This is to encourage the pups to toddle over to the newspaper side and eliminate on the papers. 2 do that already, only 1 urinates on the towel now.  They are getting around well enough now to walk easily on the newspapers and the towels. Upper front teeth are starting to erupt.  We will start puppy chow later today.  Their 2nd dose of Nemex was given today.  The deworming schedule is designed to kill the roundworms at each stage of development... Play now consists of mouthing ears, tails, legs and any loose skin on your littermates.    The pups will puppy-grow-trill at each other when they have had 'enough' tugging.  We saw the Blue boy growl at the Red puppy, and then stand over him putting a paw on Red's side... This is certainly 'social' interaction already -- I have had enought, dont boss me around says Mr Blue.  The pups listen to us, and they already know the difference between our touch and that of a littermate.  Mr Red loves to lie on his back and have his belly rubbed.  Mr Purple likes scratches on his chest.  Mr Blue loves to be cuddled. 
August 19:  Hard to believe how the pups are growing now.  So many things have happened.  The pups are definitely hearing.  They know our voices, and those heads come right up when we talk to them.  Imp is really bonded to these pups and we often see them sitting in front of her, and one or more of them is putting a paw on her nose.  They will exchange licks.  The pups love to be picked up and held, and they will nuzzle against my cheek.  They have found their voices for sure, and Mr Purple, Bopper, has that puppy trill-growl down pat.  He practices it on his brothers if they try to engage him in too much play.  The pups will play with each other now by batting their paws in the air.  Blue tries to get the other 2 to wrestle with him, Blue Ritchie is the most coordinated at the moment.  Nails have been done for the 2nd time, and the daily 'super puppy' exercises continue.  They are each getting very good at letting me put them on their backs.  They relax pretty quickly now with that, and also with the holding in the air.  Puppy Racket audio tape starts today.  More pics and second deworming tomorrow.  Pups will be 3 weeks old.  My! how time flies by.
August 16/17, 2008:  The pups have enjoyed a good weekend.  They continue to make those 'milestones' on time.  They are all 3 walking around the box very well now.  They greet their mother with tail wags, and they are starting to interact with each other when they are awake.  They will reach out their paws to one another, touch one another, and make noises at each other.  Red puppy, Buddy Holly, is especially vocal when he wakes up and Imp is not there -- he will lift that head up and howl for her.  Imp has a habit of liking to have her meals 'delivered' to the box.  Well, the pups love the smell of her food and they will toddle over to the bowl and stick their heads in.  Yesterday Imp gently nudged the bowl away from Red, and she had earlier nudged it away from Blue.  Imp is back to her Pro Plan Salmon and enjoying it, thank you very much.  She is eating normally for a nursing mom. 
August 15:  Pups continue to do very well.  Sure enough we found evidence today that those sneaky roundworms had found the puppies.  We were so glad that we had decided to begin the puppy deworming at 2 weeks of age !  The boys continue to walk around the box.  We have had to put the small 'doggie block' up to keep the boys in the box.  Imp can easily get in/out over the top of it.  We still have the pig-rails in the box, and when the pups get stronger those will come out.  Imp is eating 3 meals per day, and has told us very definitely that she does not want any more puppy chow, she wants her Pro Plan Salmon.  So that is what she is getting, but we are supplementing her meals with goats milk to make sure she has enough calcium. 
August 14, 2008:  What about that 1 day weight gain for Blue collar Ritchie?  He is the most mobile and agile of the pups, and he can really 'see' well now.  He literally chases momma-Imp down in the box to get his meals.  And the 1st pup got out of the box last night -- Mr Purple, Bopper was out of the box nursing with Imp who was laying on the floor next to the box.  We heard a puppy almost screaming, and went to look.  The screamer was Red, Buddy Holly, who could see or smell or sense his brother was nursing.  Buddy was screaming, "I want my food, too" and was very indignant that brother was nursing when he couldn't find mom.  We put Bopper back into the box, asked Miss Imp to get in the box which she did.  Buddy Holly was quiet once 'normalcy' was reestablished. Mother dogs don't always stay right next to their babies.  For the first few days they will, and its sometimes hard to get them to get away from the babies, even for a bathroom break or food.  After that, a mother dog will give herself some 'breaks' away from the pups.  But she is never far from them, meaning not more than 4 or 5 feet away.  And she is always watchful for anything that passes close to her pups.  We put several stacked up dog-beds on the floor just outside the box.  Imp loves her fan, and so she can lie down on the dog-beds, soak up the fan breeze, and snooze.  Nothing, not even us, can go into the box without going over her, and so she is very content knowing the babes are safe.  Grandmothers Jasmine and June occasionally sneak over to peep into the box when Imp is eating her meal there (delivery, yes please!) but Imp is quick to tell them to 'back off' away from her puppies and her food. Imp has decided she does not want anymore puppy chow.  This is a potentially hazardous decision on her part, since she needs the nutrition, particularly the calcium, that puppy food affords her.  But she needs to eat eat eat to maintain the milk flow.  So we are catering to her preferences, and Imp is served Salmon food which she adores.  We gave her some extra protein this morning with scrambled eggs.  This afternoon we will see if she likes goats milk and try to use that to get her enough calcium. I forgot to mention that yesterday the pups got their first dose of Nemex wormer.  This is to rid them of roundworms.  Roundworms are very clever in their evolution.  They lie 'dormant' for years as encased cysts in the intestinal tract of adult female dogs.  When that female is pregnant, those cysts will 'activate' and open up, sending worm eggs in to the mother.  The worms are then active in the mother and pass thru the placentas and the milk to puppies.  So puppies must get a series of worming treatments for roundworms.  Those treatments are at 2, 3, 4 and 6 weeks of age.  That way the worms at every stage of development are allowed to come to the intestine where the medicine does its work.  The worms are literally paralyzed, and then excreted from the puppy's body.  We have an aggressive worming program here at Ynda for all the adult dogs, using Ivermectin on a monthly basis.  This rids the dogs of all worms and mites (except for tapeworms).  However, there is nothing on the market that will kill the cysts that lie dormant inside a female dog.  We get lots of rabbits who make their way into the dog yards thru the field fencing.  It is a great past-time in the mornings for the dogs to sniff out and enjoy the 'rabbit raisins' left throughout the yards.  Heaven only knows! what parasites are contained in those 'raisins'.  And so, we are vigilant against parasites.  Nemex is a caramel flavored sticky liquid.  The pups always love the flavor and quickly lap their dosage.  It is very safe to use, and while we dont like to have to give any chemicals to puppies, this is a very mild one.   Worms would be much worse for them.  A heavy infestation of parasites can kill a puppy.
August 13:  The puppies are 2 weeks old today.  As their eyes begin to open, they are definitely starting to have some vision.  As I was standing in the box this morning waiting for the digital scale to 'initialize itself', I looked down and there was Mr Purple, Bopper, looking up at me !  What is that giant??????? he was saying.  He recognized my touch when I picked him up -- Oh, it's You -- he seemed to say.  Safety is always a concern with newborns, and now they will be able to see to get out of their mother's way when she sits down.  And they will be able to see her and get to her that much faster to nurse.  Poor Imp!  her privacy is a thing of the past now.  Will post some 2 week old portraits as soon as we can.  Lots going on today, including Uncle St John not feeling too well and having to go to the vet's office.  Poor John, no one likes an upset tummy.  Later ....   John is feeling better, thank you.  We have posted the 2 week old pics.  They are all thumbnails, don't forget to click on them to see the larger pic.  We wanted you to see some comparison pics of Ritchie with his brothers.  We know that no matter how much we say, Ritchie is OK, just somewhat smaller than his brothers, it's hard for you to get a feel for that unless you see the pics.  Ritchie is really a pretty pretty boy.  That head is going to be very pleasing to see on a daily basis as an adult.  I love the pic of Buddy with the ear on the 'pillow' in the sun.  This is a big boy, but he has a real gentleness about him.  I hope that carries thru to his adulthood, because he really is already showing how very sweet a guy he is. Thanks for all the well wishes for Miss Rickie.  It was 2 weeks ago today that she was injured and pulled her tendon.  She is doing great, spends time with Miss Jeannie, and is allowed limited running time in the yard with Jasmine, June, Imp and Jeannie. 
August 12: Tuesday:  There are some glimmers in the eyes of the puppies.  Those eyes will definitely be open all the way pretty soon.  Mr Blue, Ritchie, is walking all over the box now, even tho he isn't seeing yet.  Bopper, Mr Purple is standing and taking a few steps.  Imp has complained a bit about not getting enough 'Princess' time, and so we have made over her a lot today. 
August 11:  The pups are doing fine this morning.  We keep thinking 'these pups are big, these pups are big'.  So we delved into Imp's journal/diary from 2 years ago.  Here are some interesting facts:

At 12 days of age, the 2006 litter was:             At 12 days of age, this 2008 litter is:

This comparison sort of 'blew me away.'  I was surprised!  I guess with just 3 puppies, its harder to have an objective comparison than it is with 5 puppies.  Essentially, the litters are identical. I went back and checked our other 2006 litter, John to Anna.  There was a small male puppy, Quincy, in that litter.  Sure enough, at 12 days of age, Quincy was actually just 2 lbs in weight.  So Ritchie is bigger than Quincy was at this age. Pups are getting around the box beautifully, really trying to walk already.  They are enjoying their super puppy exercises and know our touch now, reacting immediately when we pick them up.  Buddy loves to have his head scratched and Bopper loves his belly scratched.  Ritchie wants to suckle on my fingers, and that's because he associates my smell with that goats milk supplementation we did for a day or so.  He hopes that I am going to give him some more of that yummy goats milk when I pick him up.  He settles pretty quickly when he realizes its just me and not the milk.  He is the quickest to calm when held up in the air.  Buddy is the quickest to calm when held on his back, and Bopper adores having his paws massaged and his tail rubbed.  They are such individuals already, its amazing to see how different they are!  Buddy fusses when he is not moving fast enough to his favorite spot under the rail to go to sleep, and he just crashes when he gets there.  I think he is asleep before his head goes down.  Ritchie will fuss and turn around in circles when he is hungry -- trying to smell where his mother is so he can get to her to nurse.  He is very smart -- that is a very adaptive behavior to smell her out before he expends the energy to move in any direction.  The other 2 boys just start crawling in one direction or the other, but Ritchie definitely turns in a circle once or twice to get locked onto her smell, and then he crawls or tries to walk.  Amazing! and very consistent.  Buddy loves to sleep on his side with his paws curled in toward his belly.  He's like a big comma.
August 10:  The puppies continue to do well.  We saw Ritchie sleeping on his back with his paws in the air, just like his mother does, how about that ?  Grandmothers Jasmine and June continue to keep a watchful eye.  Mother Imp is taking excellent care of the puppies, and enjoys all her special attention. Today, for the first time, Andy and I took a quick break together and left Imp and the pups home alone.  We went to lunch at Jethro's home with his person, Susan, and doggie-mentor, Katy.  Thanks to Susan for a fabulous lunch. It is so much fun to see Rickie's litter brother, Jethro, and see how well he is growing up.  Jethro will soon have his own web page at JanRod Labradors.A note on progress of the pups.  Look at the green notes above.  Looking at their progress from last Sunday until today, they have each doubled their weight in 7 days plus a little extra.  The pup who has made the biggest gains is Ritchie, followed closely by Bopper and then, Buddy.  We are very pleased that Imp is making enough milk for the boys to post these gains. Many milestones will happen quickly this week.  Look for eyes to begin to open and then fully open.  That will be closely followed by ears opening, and pups walking.  New individual portraits will be taken on Wednesday.
August 9:  Pups are having a good weekend.  In a totally unexpected move, Imp allowed Grandmother Jasmine to approach, then sniff, then lick the puppies!  Unbelievable.  Jasmine was in heaven.... she loves puppies --- nothing is more pleasurable for her than to interact with puppies.  She would adopt these boys in a heartbeat.  So it was a real treat for us to see her so happy when Imp allowed her to interact with the pups.  Good Girl Imp !They continue to try to stand up and weeble.  This is unprecedented for us to see pups trying to walk so soon.  There are some fun things to see in the pictures -- look at the real perspective of the size of the pups compared to Imp's paw.  Look at your own adult labrador's paws and then you will see the current size of the puppies heads. In terms of personalities, the pups are already such individuals -- Buddy loves to sleep on his side, and Bopper loves to sleep under the pig rails.  Ritchie prefers to sleep with someone else -- next to one of his brothers or touching his mother. The pups are really advancing in their super puppy exercises.  I can see a real difference in their tolerance of the positioning now, they struggle less with the 'on your back' and settle easily now into relaxing when held up.  They are real snuggle bunnies and love contact with our skin when we hold them up against our chests.
August 8:  Puppies are doing great today.  They received their 1st collars and are wearing them full time.  We have 2 sets of colored collars -- a 'wee tiny' size and a 'small' size.  Buddy is already too large to wear the 'wee tiny' size and is in the 'small' size.  The other two boys are wearing the 'tiny' size collars right now.  But it wont be more than a day or so before we move them up a size, too.  All are gaining weight nicely.  Andy swears that he saw Mr Bopper get up and walk on his feet yesterday for a step or two. Puppies usually get up on their feet and 'Weeble' around a few steps at a time, about the same day they open their eyes, or a day or so either side of that.  They are not due to open their eyes until early next week, but these boys are getting around really well.  Especially for such big boys !  We looked at what collar colors we had available, and these were the ones we used.  Purple is just about a retired color, and we have traditionally used it only for the 'most' special of the pups -- Irene, Tango, Martha, Ella, Morella all wore the purple.  I can't think of a single boy that has been allowed the 'royal' color.  But there it is.  Always a first sometime. The Red collar is also a special color.  Red wearers have been -- Ready, DJango, Ian, Quincy, Jeannie, Holly.  Mr Buddy 'Holly' is wearing red because of last year's Red girl (that we called 'Scarlet) and who was named Holly by her St Francis puppy raiser.  The Blue collar is a wonderful color.  Blue wearers have been -- Toby, Mac, Jay Silverheels, Bellavia, Dreamer.  Speaking of markings on black dogs, Buddy has 1 front and 1 rear paw with a slight bolo.  Bopper has those 'silver or white dashes' in his groin where the testicles will be (I always call those 'silverheels').  Ritchie has no markings at all. Puppies are getting lots of snooze time which is important.  As they sleep, they grow.  Naps are important!
August 7:  The pups are doing great this morning.  They are gaining weight as you can see in the weights and in the pictures.  Ritchie is really trying to stand up now, and he is the most agile of the pups, no wonder -- the other two look like seals, dont they?  Imp is doing wonderfully, and is enjoying some time out of doors playing with the other girls.  Of course, she is a celebrity since she is the girl with the puppies -- they must all sniff and acknowledge that she is 'the' one ...  They are such a funny group.  Rickie is spending more time outdoors and working that leg much better now.  You have to look to see the difference.  Yeah.
August 6:  Pups are growing by leaps and bounds.  They had their first nail trim yesterday, and they are already sensitive on their feet.  Buddy Holly has bolo spots on his feet, and he has a few arrow shaped white hair patches inside his ears.  The boys did fine with the nail trim, even allowing us to trim down those dew claws.  The pups have started their 'super puppy' exercises.  This is a series of things that are done each day with each puppy.  The exercises are designed to get the pups used to being handled at an early age and designed to expose them to new stimuli at an early age.  Ritchie is the best at this already, not surprising since we did bottle feed him a few times -- he thinks its wonderful for people to pick him up -- food ! is what he associates with it.  Bopper is the least pleased so far.  He thinks we are interrupting a potential time he could be getting another meal from his mother.  That boy loves to eat !  Yesterday's sheet was a dark jewel green color and not good for photos.  Today's sheet is a lighter color and we will try to get some pics later today.  Rickie is spending some hours today in her kennel and is doing much better.  We are limiting her exercise, and she is continuing to get nap time as crate rest. 
August 5: Rickie spent an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening yesterday out in a double x-pen in the yard, visited and surrounded by her sorority sisters.  She was doing so well that today she will be out on her own in her kennel nearest the house for about 2 hours this morning and 2 hours tonight.  She will get crate rest in between.  She thanks you for your well wishes.  Jasmine who thinks she is the mother of ALL puppies, is back in the house full-time, but she is not allowed to sleep 'loose ' in the house when we have gone to bed, she will bother Miss Imp and try to encroach on the puppies, get in the box and take over mother duties ! Marti has given up the 'night shift' and started using the baby monitor.  Imp did well overnight and the pups only woke the people up once.  Imp is doing just great.  She is totally herself, jumping up in her favorite chair during her 'breaks' from motherhood, and putting her front paws up on the baby gate into the kitchen this morning.  She gave me the 'full body wiggle' today for the first time since the pups arrived.  She is eating a meal every 8 hours, and is getting 2.5 cups at each meal.  The puppy weights tell us that she is making enough milk for them to gain weight.  Yeah !   Updates:  we'll probably just update every morning from now on.  Thanks for your well wishes and prayers.
August 4, 2008:  The puppies are all continuing to gain weight.  Miss Imp is doing better adjusting to her maximum food schedule, and she is clearly producing more milk now.  We have started supplementing the smallest of the three puppies.  This puppy shows every sign of being quite a little fighter, hanging in there when Imp's milk was not abundant, and beginning to gain weight even when his larger brothers consistently tried to muscle him off the best nursing spots.  Because we have a 'small gene' that travels in this family, we would not be surprised if he was always a smaller male like Quincy from another litter, but, we want him to gain more weight to help him catch up to his brothers and be more competitive for the spots with the most milk supply.  Imp is not producing much milk to her front mammary glands, partially because the boys are avoiding nursing there, and partly because her milk supply is adequate but still not abundant.  We are using goat's milk to supplement, our tried and true stand-by.  Ritchie is getting just 2 tablespoons every 6 hours, so this is not a huge supplement, we hope just enough.  Imp likes the goats milk and is happy to lick the bottle when the feeding is completed.  Evening update: We have posted some new pics and weights.  We are supplementing Ritchie at the rate for a healthy 14 ounce puppy, which is 8 tablespoons every 24 hours.  We space them 2 Tablespoons every 6 hours.  The point is to boost and not to replace all the nourishment from Momma-dog.  We have also been able to increase Imp's food again to help her make more milk.  You will recall she had issues with the medicam upsetting her tummy and increasing her food all at the same time.  Now, Imp is eating every 8 hours and gets 2.5 cups at each meal.  Imp seems to feel like her old self again, and is more comfortable physically and in her mother role.  We did find out what was her 'issue' with the whelping box.  I had neatly put in layers of newspaper and towels.  Imp would make a point of digging up every towel I put in there, and some of the newspaper.  Finally, today, I tried to figure out what was in her mind, so I used a sheet over the newspaper, and she loved it.  I put sheets over the cushions on the 2 chairs Imp is allowed to sleep in.  So now, we have a folded sheet in her box and its neat as a pin.  Go figure !We have put Bopper onto the middle and front nipples every chance we get to help clear those glands and to help stimulate more milk production.  Tonight we are seeing the benefits of that effort.The plan is to continue what we are doing since we are getting such good results.  We will continue to re-evaluate every 8 to 12 hours to see what adjustments need to be made. 
August 3, 2008:  Happy Happy Happy 11th Birthday to Lyndhurst Jasmine !  Jazzy is the paternal grand-mother of these pups.  Jasmine celebrated with some doggie-birthday-meatloaf and Andy's home-made-ginger-snap cookies in her breakfast this morning.  Finally, the pups have turned the corner overnight and all are gaining weight now, at about the same rate.  The bigger boys had begun to gain yesterday, but Ritchie was lagging behind.  He is now gaining at the same rate as the other boys.  At the same time, Miss Imp is starting to produce more milk and she is getting uterine discharge again.  These two things -- the discharge and the milk production tell us that her natural oxytocin has been triggered by the puppies suckling.  This seems to have taken a bit longer to happen than usual, and just confirms for us that reproductively, things have 'slowed down' for her.  Imp is eating 8 cups of puppy chow every 24 hours now, and pushing this much food to her this quickly has upset her stomach.  We are talking coooowwwwwww patttttttttiiiiiieeeee here.  We are giving her lots of Dog Zymes to help balance her intestines and also have stopped her medicam.  It might be that the medicam is also upsetting her digestive system.  This morning she started to whine again and so we know she might still be having some significant pains so we switched her to a half-dose of Deramaxx (what Anna and Melody were given when they were spayed) to see if the drug was part of the problem.  If this does not help or if it upsets her stomach, then we will have to switch to a pure pain-killer like Tramadol.  Poor Imp!  We are trying so hard to get her comfortable and stable and at the same time get her producing enough milk for the pups.  And this is one of our points to our readers today -- every time you choose to breed one of your females, you are taking great risks with her health and well-being, sometimes even with her life.  And every litter experience is different, even for the same dam.  It wasn't until last night that Miss Imp began acting like her self again, wagging her tail and giving us her smile.  She is very very precious to us, and in our hearts, no puppy is worth losing her.  To see her in such discomfort has been heart-wrenching. At what point do you or do we consider supplementing a pup or puppies?  This is a huge ethical and philosophical question as well as a practical one for the pup/s involved.  Mother Nature builds in redundancy with dog litters, and this is a harsh fact to accept for any owner.  More puppies are born than Mother Nature requires for the species to survive.  Sometimes puppies do have 'hidden deficits' that are not observable, deficits that cause a puppy to fade and die.  There are times when a conscientious breeder steps in to supplement and save a puppy that turns out in time to have been one of the occasions that there was a 'hidden deficit.'  Other times, the decision to step in and supplement a puppy turns out to be absolutely correct and the result is a healthy, happy puppy and later, adult.  There is no way to judge which one of these 'cases' you have when a puppy lags and a breeder considers supplementing.  Yes, we have had both scenarios -- heroically saving a puppy only to have that pup later develop a debilitating or life-ending problem, AND saving a puppy that later turns out perfectly normal.  Puppies do not come with instructions pinned to them.

If an entire litter is not gaining weight, the answer is clear -- mother's milk is a problem.  But if only 1 or 2 pups lag behind, then each pup must be examined and observed carefully before a decision is made.  What we look for among other things is the pups repetoire of 'normal' behaviors -- does it crawl and appear strong, does it nurse vigorously but just not gain enough weight, does it sleep and eat in a normal cycle, is it fussy and complaining, does it object to human and/or mother's touch, does it pile normally with littermates, has mother-dog identified something abnormal in this pup and 'cut it out' from the pack, are there so many larger littermates that push smaller ones off the teats, are there normal reflexes for 'righting when turned over' and 'rooting out a nipple' and 'suckling', does the pup 'knead' when it is suckling ??? These are all things we look at in a puppy before we make a decision to supplement. Anyway, Imp is content in her box with her boys and they are happily sleeping and eating.  We will watch Little Mr Ritchie carefully over the next 10 to 12 hours and make a decision about whether or not to supplement him during that time. Our apologies to our readers in Britain -- Angela and Brian -- for posting so late today.  We know you are the first readers to see the Blog each morning as you are probably breakfasting about the time I usually update it here.  Thanks for sharing the readership.
Hope you all join us in wishing dear Grandmama-Jasmine a huge Happy Birthday !
  For those of you who have wondered:    Miss Rickie is doing much better and hopes to be granted her 'Get Out Of Jail Free' card soon.  She is walking consistently on all 4 feet now, and is still tender on that left rear leg.  But she is greatly improved and appreciates your well wishes.
August 2:  Well, what a 24 hours it has been!  We figured out what Miss Imp's whining was all about, but not before she gave us some more clues.  More below. Yes, you will see the weights above on the puppies.  Yes, we have increased Imp's food dramatically to help her make more milk, and we will see if this helps the boys begin their weight gains.  BUT, BUT, BUT we have to reassure you that at this point, all 3 pups seem perfectly normal in every aspect.  They are content pups, meaning they are not crying.  A hungry pup cries.  A cold pup cries.  A hot pup cries.  A pup who needs to be stimulated to eliminate cries.  If ANYTHING is wrong, the pup cries.  These guys are busy eating, sleeping, crawling on the towels, eating, sleeping, crawling on the towels.  They are strong! and they nurse vigorously!  They hardly ever make a peep unless they are annoyed with their mother for licking them and interrupting their feeding.  Some pups will mew in a frustrated way when they nurse if the milk isn't coming out fast enough to suit them, boy puppies in particular.  We don't even get that from these guys.  So, all we can assume is that they are OK.  They were extremely BIG puppies when they were born.  We remind ourselves of that -- in a litter of 5 to 10 puppies, there might be 1 or 2 that would weigh in at a pound.  The others would be between 12 and 16 ounces at birth.  So these guys would each fit the 'big puppy' category by 'normal' standards.  In fact, we've only ever had 1 lab puppy bigger at birth than Bopper, and that was Martin, a singleton puppy.  And Dr Rob repeatedly said at the surgery -- these are BIG puppies, these are BIG puppies.  So if you look at where 'normal' lab puppies would be at this stage, these guys are fine.  They look larger, longer, bigger than they did at birth, too -- not just wet versus dry look either.  So, what we have is probably perfectly OK.  It's just not exactly what we expected to see.  And part of what we are reacting to might also be the wonderful new technology that Jeannette and Jim Scott shared with us -- the magical digital scale.  With an older spring scale we might not even measure the differences we are measuring now.  So, I reassure my 'dog-mom' nerves and continue to watch and wait.Back to Miss Imp.  She continued her whining to the pups in the night, and towards morning, it increased and seemed to change in tone and pitch.  Also, she became restless in the box. She had not really relaxed and slept since the middle of the night.  She had to be exhausted!  I checked her temperature and all outward clinical signs -- was something going on that I was missing?  No signs of mastitis, no signs of infection, no signs of eclampsia .... what gives?  Finally, when I forced her to go out into the yard with me for a break -- and not just go out the doggie door for a bathroom break -- she gave me the clue I needed.  Imp started digging again!  She dug furiously under the kerosene tank and even more furiously behind the garbage cans -- you will remember these were her chosen digging places in the yard when she was in labor.  I remember Jasmine after her litters were born would dig in the whelping box for a few days when she was still having uterine contractions to force the fluids out.  Watching Imp dig immediately reminded me of Jasmine, and I figured that not only was Imp having some contractions, maybe she was in pain. I thought back and could construct in my mind that as her morphene wore off, the difference in whining began.  Was the administration schedule for her medicam not adequate for her pain management?  I immediately gave her the afternoon dose of medicam even tho it was about 4 hours early.  Within 30 minutes she was in deep sleep in the box.  Eureka!  mystery solved.  I phoned the clinic to consult with Dr Rob about her pain medication, and he suggested the split-administration method I had tried was obviously the way to go with her -- keep a more constant amount of pain relief coming her way.  So we are giving her medicam in 3 doses split every 8 hours instead of 1 dose every 24 hours.  She has relaxed completely, no whining and is getting some deep sleep while the boys nurse.So, evidently this C section was different for her from the first one, and is a bit harder on her physically.  She obviously needed more pain management than we anticipated.  Of course, I feel horrible that she was in pain at all, and feel guilty that it took me a few hours to figure it out, we were giving her pain meds I said to myself, how could it be that?  but as a migraine sufferer I should have gotten the picture sooner.  Lesson learned for me and hopefully for others who share this blog.  One of my favorite Yogi Berra expressions:  It's the same but it's different.OK, about the puppies names.  I have always been a HUGE Buddy Holly fan.  And it just seemed the only choice for these 3 boys had to be Buddy and the 2 singers killed with him.  This was later re-immortalized by Don McLean in his epic song, The Day The Music Died, known to many as 'Miss American Pie'.  If you are not a Rock-n-Roll fan, here is the story: 

So, that's it for tonight.  Imp is getting 2 full meals and 2 snacks to space out her caloric intake, and she has been increased from 4 to 6 cups of food.  We will report back to you tomorrow on how that impacts the boys, and her.
From under previous pics: What to look for in these pics.  The first two show you the whelping box and how a mother-dog cares for her pups.  You will see the entrance to the box for Imp to go in and out.  You will also see the 'pig-rails' for the pups to crawl under, and how important this safety feature is.  You can see how Imp is backed up to the rails.  The close up picture will remind you that puppies cannot see at birth.  They eyes are closed by a membrane that will not recede until late in the 2nd week of life.  SO the pups cannot see their mother and cannot see to get out of her way. Pups find their mother and their littermates by smell. It is the first and most keen sense for dogs.  Most mother dogs will lay like Imp is in these pictures.  You will see that she has her pups up under her legs and is curved in a protective position.  Her body language is saying "These are MY puppies".   Even tho she trusts us, it is very important to see a mother-dog bonded to her puppies like this and for her to be protective of them.  For the first few days we do not move the puppies more than we absolutely have to.  Beginning this weekend, however, we will pick them up and start their 'super puppy exercises' and Momma Imp will be there watching every move, I'm sure.  Back to the pictures.  Since the mother dog spends so many hours laying still for the pups to nurse, it is important to provide comfort for her.  What you can't see is underneath the layers of towels and newspapers, there is a thick vinyl sheet and beneath it is matting.  The matting we use is the anti-fatigue type.  It comes in colors, and can also be used for children's play areas.  It provides cushioning evenly and keeps Imp from being sore from laying for so long.  Papers are somewhat absorbent and important as Imp does have some discharge of fluids from her uterus.  The toweling is important because it provides good footing for the pups to crawl on.  Papers are very slick and the pups need more than that to be able to push with their back legs when they nurse.  You can see the boys are piled up together.  They do this to maintain contact and for warmth.  These pictures were taken when Momma Imp was outside for a break.  You can also see the 'foot' of the pig rail, and how convenient it is as a 'holder' for the corners of the towels.   Finally, you can see that the umbilical stumps have fallen off already.  These pups are very clean and well cared for, Miss Imp is a good mother and keeps them licked and cleaned.  Licking is important because it stimulates the blood flow to the skin, it cleans the puppies, and it is part of the bonding process.  Until they are weaned, Imp will clean them and keep the box as free as she can of urine and feces.  This is part of the instinct of the dog to hide the nest from predators and minimize any smell that might attract another animal.
1 Aug 08:  Dont forget to read under the pictures.  Lots of good info there, too.  Imp seems to be fully herself and doing quite well after her surgery.  She is getting medicam once a day, and appears to be pain free.  Her temperature is in the high normal range.  To be expected.  We have to keep watch on her temp to make sure she does not develop any of the things that can happen, such as mastitis or a uterine infection.  With a small litter, it is important that the pups drain each of her mammary glands to prevent mastitis.  Luckily, these boys seem to have lusty appetites and we are only gradually increasing her food intake so as to match milk output with the needs of the pups.  The more you feed a nursing mother, the more milk she will produce.  So right now, Imp is just eating what she was during the end stage of her pregnancy -- 2 cups of Purina Pro Plan Puppy Lamb and Rice at each meal, 2 meals per day.  Fresh water is very important, and Imp has her own personal chilled water dish at her side to encourage her to drink drink drink.  The pups will let us know very quickly if they are not getting enough to eat.  Hungry puppies are noisy puppies, and so far these guys are very content.  Occasionally they seem annoyed with their mother when she interrupts their eating by giving them a spit-wash.  They will give her a 'complaining' noise, but she ignores them. The pups need to nurse at a minimum every 2 hours to keep their brain and liver functions working.  That's not a problem with these guys.  Since they are so small, the amount they take at any given time is limited.  Also, pups cannot maintain their body temperature until they are about 3 weeks old.  So they stay close to mother to use her body heat to keep them warm.  Ambient temperature is critical, and pups cant be kept in an area that is cooler than 70 degrees.  So we try to keep Imp cool enough and the pups warm enough.  Imp is a very very good mother dog.  She is attentive to the pups when they 'mew', which is how they communicate with her.  She is careful not to step on a pup when she gets up or lays down.  And she is very devoted to them, staying by their sides and not giving herself too many or too long breaks.  She does try to whine at them if they get too far away from her in the box and she cant move to retrieve a 'traveller' because one of the others may be nursing.  This is interesting because she has done it with both her litters.  And pups cannot truly hear until their ears 'open' late in the 2nd week of life.  So it makes me wonder if pups can somehow feel the vibrations from her -- she whines very deep and very low to them.  We have not had a female of any breed ever do this before, so it is unique to Imp.  She is very smart, and would not continue a behavior if it did not 'work' for her....
31 July 08:  01:00 a.m.  Chugging a strong cuppa Joe and sitting with Miss Imp and her babies alongside the whelping box.  They have arrived.  The last 36 hours or so seem 'like a blur'.  That was Ellen McKinnon's description of what it would be like, and Ellen -- you were right!  I'll give you a short recap -- this is a pretty typical 'whelping scenario' for those of you who have never done it.  Not recommended for the feint of heart.Tuesday morning about 7 a.m. Imp's temperature is down in the low 98.x range.  This signals that her body has 'completed the gestation' time, her progesterone has dropped below the level needed to maintain the pregnancy, and labor should begin within 12 to 24 hours.  Each momma-dog is different, and each pregnancy is different, so the 'countdown' and 'the watching and waiting' begins as soon as the temp drops.  Andy and I keep a normal schedule on Tuesday, and I notice I am sneezing a lot and feel a sore throat?  I remember to take that afternoon dose of allergy meds usually reserved for times trees are in bloom.  [In the meantime, I have been to the vet's office with puppy Ricochet, who has pulled something in her left rear leg and is on 3 legs -- please dont let this be an ACL tear.  Thankfully it's not, and surprising good news is that our vet knows us so well that when he radiographs her stifle, he makes sure to use a large film and gets those hips, too, for a sneak preview.  Great reviews on the hip joints, stifles look normal.  Thankfully no ACL tear, probably just a strain or pull of some sort.  Crate rest and medicam.  Now there's a nice complicating factor to manage -- a puppy in the house on crate rest during whelping and the first week or so of puppies.  No problem, we've already set up 2 crates in the den, just in case they are needed.]  Talk with the vet about Imp and impending delivery.  Luckily, he is on-call on Tuesday night, and we agree on strategy to manage delivery.  God is watching out for us as Dr Rob is the one who delivered Imp's first litter by C section 2.5 years ago.  He has a great memory and all is 'go'.Tuesday night, we set up 'shifts' with me getting the 'graveyard' duty from midnight to dawn.  I definitely am 'down with something' that feels like a summer cold, fever, cough, etc... why now?  who knows?  where is that Nyquil?Wednesday morning.  Imp's temp still down, we are at the 24 hour point now.  Labor should progress.  We should see signs like panting, needing to urinate and defecate, loss of appetite, restlessness.  I spend lots of time outside with Imp.  She's an 'outdoorsy' girl and my bet is we need to be as 'permissive' as possible if she is going to whelp this litter on her own.  Sure enough, there is a flurry of digging -- behind the trash cans and under the kerosene tank -- how DOES she pick these places?  Imp becomes secretive and doesnt want me to see her urinate for the umteenth time in the last 2 minutes.  We are progressing normally.  Yeah.  Dr Rob calls from the clinic to check on Imp's progress.  He will be in the clinic all day with some surgeries scheduled in the early afternoon.  Wednesday noon.  We are not seeing any evidence of hard labor.  The clinic is not open late tonight.  We are approaching the time when we would need to let them know 'if' we plan to bring Imp in for a C section today.  Otherwise, more time would have to be allowed in the evening for a Tech to be recalled to the clinic and arrange a surgery.  Imp is tiring, having been up and down all night.  She is panting and restless and digs in the yard.  Quiet in the house.  No real nap or rest since about 5 a.m.  Put a call into the vet, and Dr Rob consults. We will go to the clinic and have Imp evaluated.  If appropriate we will put her on an oxytocin drip.  If not, we will wait her turn in the surgery line -- she will be Dr Rob's last surgery of the day, he has an amputation to do already scheduled, prepped and ready to go. Imp at the clinic by 2:15 or so.  Re-image to make sure pups are not already so big that a C section will be required anyway.  Pups are still 3 in number, and all just about the same size.  Big but maybe not too big to be born naturally.  Cannot determine dilation of Imp's cervix on exam, and I couldn't feel it at home, either.  Crunch time.  If we put her on an oxytocin drip, it just might dilate that cervix and get those pups out the chute.  It could also cause her uterus to contract too forcefully and rupture, resulting in a 'bleed out.'  This would seriously threaten her life and the pups.  There is no clear clinical evidence to help make the decision.  3 vets and Andy and I.  We pray for guidance.  The decision we make is to wait for a C section.  We wont know until after Dr Rob gets in there if we made the best decision or maybe we rushed her into a surgery that wasn't totally necessary.  And then there are the pups.  At Imp's last litter, 3 of the pups did not revive after surgery, a very sad thing.  So we are concerned that there would be a risk to the pups lives, too.  But with only 1 surgical theatre and 'going blind' into an oxytocin administration, we felt we had to be on the safest route possible for Miss Imp and the pups.For those of you who dont know about oxytocin, its the hormone used to 'induce' labor contractions.  Once it is administered, all you can do is watch the effect, you cannot counteract it.  I remembered Dr Jane Barber telling me about how little of it is actually needed to shrink a uterus back to normal size.  It is mixed/diluted and administered very slowly thru a catheter.  Still, once it hits the bloodstream, all you can do is watch and wait.  Those pups looked pretty big to me on the xray, and not knowing IF her cervix was dilated enough to let a puppy thru ..... I was just plain scared of the consequences. Surgery about 4:00 -- Imp goes back to be pre-medicated and prepped.  What a brave girl!  By 4:30 we are sitting in the waiting room and hear puppies crying in the back.  The Tech comes out to tell us all the pups are out and alive.  Miss Imp is doing fine. We are allowed in the treatment room after the pups are cleaned up, put them in our basket with a warm towel or two, rub them some more, and wait for Imp.  The post-op report from Dr Rob is that we absolutely made the right decision to go for a C section.  There was a weaker area in the uterus from her previous C section, most likely.  And given that and the size of the pups -- the smallest one is 16.5 ounces -- we likely would have caused a 'real crisis' had we tried the oxytocin.  The Lord was watching over the Miss Imp and the pups for sure.Results:  3 bouncing healthy robust black males .... Just about the last thing we expected was all boys.  But it happens, and so there it is.  Weighed them at home with the new digital scale that had arrived from Jeannette and Jim Scott at Twinholly Labs.  Wow, is it great or what?  The Big Bopper weighs 20.5 ounces, Mr Buddy Holly weighs 19.5 ounces, and Little Richie Valens weights 16.5 ounces.  They are really beautiful boys, and we can see differences in them already.  Tonight, Imp is a bit disoriented still from her anasthesia and morphene.  I got her to eat some food just after midnight.  She is in the box with her puppies, and is most content when they are up against her nursing.  Its mostly about just getting her thru the night alright, and having the puppies nurse as much as they can.  Tomorrow she will be more herself.  Imp definitely remembers the momma-dog routine, and is being very careful with the pups in the box.  She was a little slow to nuzzle and lick them, but we are sure that was the drugs.  She is licking them from time to time now, and all her motherly instincts will kick into high gear as the hours go by.  I am sitting by her side to reassure her when she is in that half-awake-half-asleep phase.
29 July 08: Reviewed Imp's journal from her litter in 2006.  She went into labor on the 61st day after ovulation.  Today is her 61st day after ovulation.  Her temp is down in the low 98's.  Ah, consistency in Mother Nature.  So nice.  We will be off air for as long as it takes to keep everyone safe and sound.  Until then ...
28 July 08: Looks like Imp's temperature may be dropping this afternoon.  That means labor would be due to start sometime in the middle of the night 28/29 July.  27 July 08:  Normal temperature today.  Imp has enjoyed a beautiful sunny day, has retrieved her favorite tennis ball, and eaten heartily.26 July 08:  Imp's temperature continues in the normal range.  She is eating and exercising normally.  She takes some long naps in front of the fan.  Imp has shed the undercoat and almost all her coat on her abdomen, especially around her nipples.  This is a hormonal response to impending delivery of her pups.  In addition, she is also shedding her undercoat all over her body.  Today for the first time I was able to see a few small droplets of milk from her back nipples.  This also signals impending delivery of puppies.  All the things that should happen are happening.  It is strictly now a matter of timing for her progesterone to drop.  Oh yes, another thought on the number of puppies.  There is a chance that the xray is wrong.  We have had several instances where it was, and imaging those pups is not always an exact science.  Just thought we would mention that -- this is the girl that our vet thought was NOT pregnant 2 years ago -- and she had 8 puppies.  So, it is possible that the xray is wrong.  Only time will tell...24 July 08:  Imp had her xray today.  No matter how we turned and looked at the xray, we were only able to see 3 puppies.  The pups were very clear, meaning their bones have already calcified normally.  They are 3 different sizes, a small puppy, a medium size puppy, and a large puppy.  Given the size of that largest puppy, we definitely hope Imp does not go another 7 days before delivery.  Luckily, the smallest puppy is the one that looks like it will be born first.  We have started taking Imp's temperature tonight, and will do that every 8 hours until her temperature drops.So, you ask, why would there be only 3 puppies?  Imp is an older mother, and may be getting close to the end of her reproductive life.  As dog mothers get older, the number of puppies that they have decline.  This is due to fewer eggs being released at each season.  This is most likely what has happened in this case.  Other reasons for fewer pups can be poor timing of the mating or low sperm count for the male.  Both of these did not occur in this case because we did repeated progesterone testing on Imp to determine her ovulation, and we examined Hawkeye's semen used in the insemination under a microscope.  Our conclusions?  Some things are just meant to be 1 way or the other.  Some of our most spectacular dogs -- Martin, St John and Imp herself -- are from very singleton or doubleton litters. Our regret is that there are not more puppies expected for St Francis.23 July 08:  Tomorrow Miss Imp gets her xray to show us how many puppies she is carrying.  She has carried this litter a bit lower to the ground than her last, and has actually kept a 'waist' when viewed from above.  But her rib cage is very very sprung and full.  It has been difficult for us to 'guestimate' what we think the litter size will be.  There are about 8 days or less until she is due to whelp.  She is doing just fine, and enjoys her romps in the yard, plays with her toys, jumps up into her favorite chair to sleep.  Imp is taking a lot of naps these days.  All in all, this has been a very easy pregnancy on her to this point.  We are grateful for that blessing.  Until tomorrow .............
17 July 08:  The whelping box is now assembled in the kitchen.  We use the 'eat-in' area of the kitchen for the box.  We move the table to the doorway of the kitchen, move the desk from there to the entryway, turn the bench seating area around to make a small wall to provide privacy.  Mommy-dogs like to have their privacy where they can feel that their puppies are safe from observation by other dogs and safe from intrusion.  We have a Jonart professional whelping box that was loaned out to Twinholly for Tango's last litter, but the box has now returned to Ynda.  Miss Imp has her xray one week from today -- July 24th -- to see how many pups she is carrying.  At the beginning of her pregnancy we thought she looked exceptionally 'large'.  Now, to my eye, she looks not very large.  But I have learned thru the years that outward appearances can deceive, so we will see just how many pups ARE in fact there.  Imp came from a litter of just 2 pups -- her brother St John and Miss Imp.  Imp's first litter 2 years ago had 8 puppies.  So we will just have to wait another week to find out.  Imp is now eating two meals, each measuring 1.5 cups of Purina Pro Plan Puppy Chow, Lamb and Rice.  She likes this very much.  The 'rule of thumb' for expectant mothers is to increase their food gradually and switch over to 100% puppy chow by the last 2 weeks of pregnancy.  Imp is right on schedule.  She is feeling just fine and seems to like to snooze a lot.  Her agility is high, and she regularly still jumps up into her favorite chair.  She really likes being in the house during the day with just her momma, Miss June and her Auntie Jasmine.15 July 08:  T Minus Two Weeks And Counting. We have begun the 'puppy' transition.  The house girls with the exception of Jasmine and June have been banished from the house during the days.  Tomorrow the whelping box will go up.  For now, the girls can come back for visiting hours in the evenings, but will go out to sleep (except Melody). We will be planning the xray date with our vets.
5 July 08:  Miss Imp is definitely enjoying her pregnancy.  She is eating half puppy chow and half adult food.  She tries to make sure that she reminds us at least once per day that 'she has a secret.'  We tell her 'its not a secret anymore'.  But is still very pleased with herself !  Several days ago she snuck into the pond and went swimming.  She was covered with yukky mukky mud and black water when she came out -- we have not had a lot of rain recently and the pond was really down when she went in.  Needless to say, her escapade required a trip up to the 'big kennel' and the grooming area, where she got her 'doggie day spa' treatment with oatmeal shampoo and rosewater conditioner.  She looks beautiful now, sparkling clean coat.  We have posted Hawkeye's 7th birthday photos on his page. The picture below was taken of Imp on Sunday July 8th.  That's definitely a pregnant girl! I really like this picture since it shows Miss Imp's sweetness and femininity.25 June 08:  Today Miss Imp began having her food switched from her normal salmon food to puppy.  For the next few weeks, she will get 1/2 of her ration in puppy food.  She seemed very pleased with the change.  She has been very hungry during the last week, another early sign of pregnancy.  Imp is now eating Purina Pro Plan Lamb and Rice Puppy Chow AND Purina Pro Plan Sensitive Skin and Stomach Adult chow.  She gets 1000 mg of fish oil and 400 mg of Vitamin E in a teaspoon of Smuckers Natural Peanut Butter each day.
21 JUNE 08:  Well it is not 23 days into pregnancy for Miss Imp, if she is indeed pregnant.  Andy and I both believe we are seeing the first subtle signs of pregnancy.  The next week or so will tell for sure..... In other family news, Miss Wendy has come in for her first season.  These babies grow up too quickly !
9 June 08:  These girls !  Jasmine has swollen up and acts like she IS in season, and now, Ella is in season 2 months early !  Jeannie is in, in, in..... Someone surely has dominant hormones in this household.  All the girls are 'in' much too close together to consider mating Ella at this time.  So we wait........ In the meantime, Miss Imp is getting lots of sleep and demanding attention more and more -- it makes us wonder 'if' she 'knows already' that she is pregnant or not .... Time will tell... She comes to me and offers her paw, hangs her head slightly, and then looks coyly at me, batting her eyes -- she THINKS she has a secret!!! We will see if she does or not.... Meanwhile, Pappa Hawkeye is very pleased with himself these days and waits expectantly to be invited from the 'bachelor pad' at the Big Kennel to come and visit 'the girls' down at the house and Small Kennel.  He's such a dear fella.
28 May 08:  Well, the 'dormitory effect' is certainly hard at work here at Ynda this summer.  First, Miss June came into season for the first time in 3 years.  She was followed immediately by Miss Imp.  Now, as soon as Imp is mated, Jeannie has come into season.  AND Jasmine is trying to have one of her 'you girls cant leave me out of all this, semi-seasons'.... YIKES.  This is disastrous timing for us with Jeannie.  It simply is not fair to Jeannie and Imp to even try to have 2 litters of pups only 2 weeks apart.  Since Imp is already mated, the decision has been made for us by Mother Nature.  Jeannie will have to wait to have pups, once again !!!!  You may remember we wanted to mate her last year at this time, but when Ella came into season almost the same time, we chose to mate Ella to Zack instead.  Jeannie has already 'told' us that she wants to be the 'center' of attention and get the motherhood opportunity, so we will pretty much have to mate her to Calvin at her next season.
26 May 08:  Imp has successfully been mated to Hawkeye !  Her 'due date' is set as: July 29.  That means her pups should tentatively be ready to go to St Francis about September 15th. What happens next?  Well, even tho very important fetal development is taking place during the first 4 weeks post-conception, there is little we can do to influence that except to keep Miss Imp happy and healthy.  That means her normal diet, exercise, and lots of love and praise.  She wont be allowed to swim in the pond as long as her system is 'open.'  She will continue to receive her bath and nail spa treatments on schedule, too.  Sometime between the 28th and 35th days of pregnancy we will schedule an ultrasound to see if we can determine whether or not she is pregnant.  We will probably only have sporadic updates between now and then.
24 May 08:  Progesterone testing continues.  Imp has NOT yet ovulated.
23 May 08: Imp is in season.  We continue to test her progesterone levels every other day.  We believe we should have ovulation and a successful mating early next week.  She and Hawkeye are enjoying each other's company every afternoon, and they play and court each other in the back yard.  Hawkeye is very much the gentleman, respecting Imp's report that the 'time is not yet right.'  Imp is charmed with Hawkeye sharing toys and being attentive to her. 

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