welcome to the lintu litter

Happy mama with her 7 babies

Emmi has done it again - produced a litter of beautiful, strong & healthy puppies with very little fuss or fanfare.  Well, I say no fuss, but there was the matter of the 2 full days of stage 1 labour, during which time we scarcely dared take our eyes off her for a moment, looking out for contractions or some other clue that we were progressing to stage 2.  Last time her puppies came a few days early and the stage 1 lasted hardly any time at all.  In fact, so surprised did she take us that she almost had her puppies in the car on the way to me.  It just goes to show that birthing events can be vastly different, even with the same bitch. 

But after an interminable period of panting, digging and clear discomfort, at about 9am, a day earlier than expected, Emmi scuttled outside for a last poo then settled down to her contractions.  Which lasted all of 10 minutes before the first puppy arrived!  In fact, I was at work when I got the call from Jay that contractions had started.  Before I had even made it to my car, the first one was arriving.  And, oh boy, did they come thick and fast after that.  A new record was set for quickest birth - between puppies 4 & 5 only 3 minutes.

Props to Jay for presiding over the delivery of a puppy all on his ownsome for the first time.  Perhaps next time I can nip to the pub for the event and leave him to it.  No?

So here are the Lintu puppies.  Lintu is Finnish for "bird", chosen because the sire of these puppies is Finnish & Norwegian Champion Shacal Tiltaltti, and Tiltaltti is Finnish for "chiffchaff".  These puppies have all therefore been given bird baby names too.

Puppy 1 - WOODY (woodpecker)

Time of Birth:  9:15am

Sex:  Male

Weight:  355g

Colour:  Brown tri (or possibly brown wolf sable)

Puppy 2 - ROBIN

Time of Birth:  9:50am

Sex:  Female

Weight:  320g

Colour:  Brown tri

Puppy 3 - RAVEN

Time of Birth:  10:10am

Sex:  Male

Weight:  354g

Colour:  Black wolf sable

Puppy 4 - ROOK

Time of Birth:  10:21am

Sex:  Male

Weight:  268g

Colour:  Black (possibly wolf sable)

Puppy 5 - BUZZ (buzzard)

Time of Birth:  10:24am

Sex:  Male

Weight:  270g

Colour:  Cream

Puppy 6 - PUFFIN

Time of Birth:  12:13pm

Sex:  Male

Weight:  330g

Colour:  Brown wolf sable

Puppy 7 - MERLIN

Time of Birth:  13:05pm

Sex:  Male

Weight:  375g

Colour:  Wolf sable - with markings just like daddy

Yes that's right, for the second time, Emmi managed to produce an entire litter of 7 puppies with only one girl present.  She likes her boys, clearly.  And who can blame her, when she does them so well?

Thanks to Jane & Mark not only for lending me their sweet Emmi-pie, but also for coming up with the great names.  Puppies are a family affair after all.

For those of you who are wondering why I can't tell whether some puppies are solid tricolour or wolf sable, it's actually not always easy to spot at birth.  It will get more obvious over the next few days.  Hopefully.

moving day

I was getting worried there for a minute.  These puppies were getting really unbelievably noisy.  Especially at night.  The more noisy they got (at 2am and 3am and 4am), the more we shut them in, sealed the windows and doors and tried to find a way for us (and our long-suffering neighbours) to get some sleep.

And then there was the worry about how the new owners would cope with them.

After two nights of increasingly disturbing decibels, I moved the little sods downstairs 3 days earlier than I normally would.  And then - voila! - the noise stopped.  Looks like the poor little mites were overheating in that small room.  And of course the more I shut them in the hotter they got.  It was a bit of a vicious circle - or a figure-8 even.

And in case there was any doubt what they were squawking about, this morning they went out into their garden pen and had a fabulous time.  A bit later they went out again ... the sun was shining ... it was quite warm out there ... I was a bit slow in getting some shade up for them ... and, lo, the racket started up again.  They were stomping around, tongues hanging out, yelling their heads off.  Brought them back in, quiet ensued. 

Proper little snow dogs.

They are 4 weeks old today, so new portraits going up tomorrow.  If I find time to edit them, that is.  Because we have a houseful of people coming to see the puppies this weekend and I have about an hour of work per person to make the house halfway presentable.  Wish me luck!

When the puppies moved into the big pen downstairs, the first point of business was to get to know their great-granny Neka.

Neka wastes no time getting acquainted (& checking for food)

And then there was Auntie Tuuli to meet

Too much excitement!

Eating from their own little bowls now

All in a row

First time in the big wide world

escape

With each litter, the thing we worry about most at this stage of the puppies' development is that they will escape from the whelping box.  The wees on the carpet are not the end of the world, but we are super careful opening the door of their room each morning in case someone is on the floor on the other side.

And I will never forget the time we found a sleeping 3-week-old Kiittaa on the landing at the top of the stairs.

Whelping boxes traditionally have a cut-out dip for the bitch to easily hop in and out.  Of course, she can easily hop over the side, but in doing so there is the scraping of the milk bar against the edge (not comfy) and the danger of landing on a puppy (cue much screeching, generally in fright rather than injury).  The old whelping boxes I have had solved this problem either by being quite high-sided, including the cut-out, or by having a convenient "door" that fit over the gap at appropriate times. 

The new whelping box, while having one or two features that are superior to the old boxes, does not have a high gap nor a door.  So we have been blocking it off at night with a piece of stiff cardboard.  Ideal. 

Well, almost ideal.

It's less that absolutely perfect because it can be nudged out of the way by Emmi as she jumps over, or even by an unsuspecting puppy.  Or even a suspecting puppy, for that matter. 

So it was that I opened the door this morning to find 4 of the 5 puppies rampaging all over the room.  And who was the one left behind in the box?  Not who you might think - I probably would have put money on Stan being the first out of the box, but in fact he was the last. 

So tonight the cardboard will be taped securely in place.  See how long that keeps them in.

Yesterday the puppies had their first taste of raw meat paste.  They were quite surprised to find something soooo yummy that not only isn't warm, but it doesn't even have honeyed milk added to it. 

NOM

Serena chewing her way out

Stan chewing his way out

Getting a leg up?

Trio

Another trio - with someone else on the bottom

Stan being The Man

Roger being The Man

Andy being The Man

Andy being a cutie

Sleeping like a Lappy already

Today's happy mama & babies shot

2 weeks old

The puppies have reached the next big milestone and everything that goes with it.  At 2 weeks old they are walking (sort of), barking (again, sort of), their eyes are open and they are squatting to do their wees and poos instead of waiting for mama to do the honours.  And they are just starting to think about playing.

They are moving pretty quick when they put their minds to it, and so it can be difficult to get photos - at least to get any that are sharp.  I don't think I have taken a single picture of Serena yet that wasn't at least a teeny bit blurry.  There is a fuzzy one or two in this selection, but the good news is that Emmi's hu-parents, Jane & Mark, are coming to visit tomorrow.  Those of you in the know will know about Mark's famous skills with the camera.  You may remember he took some really outstanding shots of Tuuli's first litter at 2 weeks old.  I'm hoping he doesn't forget his camera tomorrow.  Chances are he will remember.  Do you suppose I should remind him?  Perhaps that would be better than risking sending him immediately back home when he turns up without it...

Normally no one is allowed to visit in the first 4 weeks of the puppies' lives.  I'm careful not to introduce too much in the way of new germs to the house.  It is a moot exercise, perhaps, when you consider the rest of the dogs have their daily walks, coming into contact with all sorts and then coming home.  Emmi doesn't mix with the other dogs a lot, but there is some fraternization - we don't keep her locked up in a room with the puppies, after all.  So I do what I can. 

In addition to the germs, I really don't want to do anything that will unsettle the nursing mum.  Before the puppies came I had warned Jane & Mark that they would not be able to visit before the 4 weeks under any circumstances.  I know what a close bond Jane & Emmi share and I was worried about Emmi abandoning her puppies in the hope of going back home if she saw her hu-parents.  However, now that I have seen what a wonderful mum Emmi is, and how protective she is of her babies, I have no worries whatsoever about her trying to leave them behind and heading for the car and home.  I'm looking forward to seeing how proud she is when she gets to show off her brood to Jane & Mark.

And so to the photos, blurry and all.

mobility

Working long hours is playing havoc with my blog.  I can't believe I am only managing 2 updates a week.  This is the worst documented litter of puppies I've had.   

Rest assured I have been taking photos - just not quite managing to get them edited and posted.  You'll just have to take my word for it how cute the puppies are.

Naw, just kidding.  This is how Emmi is doing - great!  She often nurses sitting up now with her puppies in a skirt around her.

Emmi with her puppy skirt

Nose & toes

Kisses

Yaaawwwn

Since the last update, lots has been happening in the whelping box:  No longer content to crawl around on their bellies, they have been hoicking themselves to their feet to lurch around the box.  Andy hit the 1-kilo mark.  Roger was the first to open his eyes at 11 days old, quickly followed by Stan and then Serena and Andy.  Little Novak was the last, opening his today at 13 days. 

Now that they can see, the fun really starts as they begin to interact with each other, playing bitey-face (or bitey-tail, as the case may be).  They are also learning to bark and growl, and today someone even had a little howl.

Although I don't manage to post here as often as I would like, you can always check out what happening over on Instagram.  I do manage to post a pic or two there each day. 

And I was just lucky enough to catch this funny video today.  In the beginning you can hear Tuuli in her normal position, whining at the top of the stairs, until Jay calls her away.  She has been absolutely frantic to see the puppies.  I'm looking forward to getting them downstairs so she can have access to them and see what she thinks of them then. 

Later in the video you can see Stan is stuck behind Emmi.  But these days, getting stuck doesn't result in panicked squawking that brings me running to the rescue.  These days, they can rescue themselves.

1 week old

The puppies have reached the first milestone of their lives.  They are all strong, vigorous and developing well, and we hope that by now they are well out of the woods for any of the sorts of tragedies that can occur with newborns. 

And I can assure their new owners-to-be that there is nothing at all wrong with their lungs.  Plenty of power there - which comes in useful when one gets stuck on the wrong side of mum and can't find the way back around.