weight

I have to say, these puppies look enormous to me.  They feel fat & heavy & very cuddly.  Don't ask me why - I have no idea why I have this perception, because apparently it's not true!  The numbers don't lie, and as you can see from from nerdy charts below, it seems that these puppies are extremely average in size and weight (if extreme average-ness isn't an oxymoron).

In other news, the puppies have been wormed for the first time.  That never goes down well because it's a liquid and they tell me it tastes terrible.  As proof, you can see their uncles from Tuuli's first litter being wormed at the same age here.  

This time I tried Drontal wormer instead of the Panacur I normally use.  I do believe the puppies tolerated the terrible taste more readily than others have coped with Panacur in the past.  I was slightly concerned as the Drontal is obviously a stronger drug, because you only give it once whereas the Panacur you give once a day for 3 days.  However, there have been no apparent ill effects, and it can only be a good thing for them not to have more than one day of it at a time.  

And here are the weights.  The puppies were weighed twice a day for the first week and then daily for the second week.  From now on they will only be weighed weekly.  The first table shows their weekly weight followed by a chart showing the same information in diagram size; and they are all extremely close.  The last chart is my litter average weight comparison chart.  See - I told you it was nerdy.  

If you're having trouble seeing the images, you can click on them for a larger size.

goings on

In the run up to 3 weeks of age, the puppies open their eyes and ears, start to walk, start to play, bark and growl, and they start to eat real food.  Introduced first to puppy porridge made with warm goat's milk, they soon graduated to raw puppy paste and puppy kibble soaked and mashed up with milk.  Next will come scrambled eggs - that's always a big day for the puppies because they absolutely love scrambled eggs.  And while I am happy to make the puppies happy,  I do have a very slightly ulterior motive. 

The puppies were wormed for the first time at 2 weeks, and that is the first time in their young lives that they experience something truly awful.  And I have to do it to them 3 days in a row.  It's just awful.  This litter's prize for most screwed up face goes to

-->Tähti, who was quite appalled at the experience.  There is no photographic evidence, but for an idea, you can check out a photo diary of some of the Juhla puppies being wormed.  The next worming experience is at 5 weeks and when that comes around I hide the wormer in scrambled eggs and by then the puppies know they love eggs and they tuck right in.  Cunning, eh?

4 weeks is the next big milestone, and at the end of this week the puppies will move downstairs, meet the big dogs and start to meet strangers.  Their tails will also go over their backs, but as they are already sticking up like rudders when they walk, and wagging like crazy when they see us, I'm thinking their tails might curl before 4 weeks.

Another event that normally happens sometime before the 4-week mark is one or another of the puppies find their way out of the box, and that happened on the day the 3-week photos were being taken.  You might think it was Little Arvo, since he first stuck his head over the edge, but

-->Tähti was the first to stick her front paws up there and Kuu was the first to actually find his way over the edge.

Kuu photo bombing his sister's shots

Here's a selection of some of the other cute things that have been happening.

weights & other horror stories

Aw, just kiddin'.  Weights are not a horror story for these puppies - although I cannot deny they are very chubby.  In fact, I was concerned that they would be slow to get up on their feet for being too top-heavy.  But I need not have feared, they are indeed up now and walking around.  Well, kinda.

But it's true they are not a petite bunch, although the stats don't lie - they are no bigger than other litters at this age - and not even as heavy as their dad's litter.  Here's the comparison chart.  Click on the image for a bigger version. 

The horror of this story is the tale of puppy worming.  It's a job I don't look forward to and there are many versions of the story at various points in this blog - you can see them here and here, for example.  It's the first time that the puppies realise that something terrible can come from human hands, and it happens when they are only 2 weeks old.  It's a sad day.  It's a sad 3 days, actually, because you have to do it 3 days in a row.  Poor puppies.

First I cover myself carefully and well with a towel because I have learned from bitter experience just how far this stuff can travel when a puppy shakes his head to get the foul stuff OUT of his mouth and ON me.

Then I lull them into a false sense of security with yummy milk in a syringe.  Then without warning, in goes the wormer.

Tux: "Ok, this milk ain't so bad"

Kukka:  "Not sure about this..."

Kukka:  "Nooooo!  Make it stop!

WAH!

Ensi:  "What did you just do to me?!"

puppies in peril

Up until the puppies are 2 weeks old they have little or no idea that bad things can happen to them.  Apart from the ones who had to have their hind dew claws removed, that is.  And apart from the ones who have found themselves on the wrong side of mum's body when the milk bar opens.  And also apart from the ones who have gotten themselves stuck in the corner of the box between the two shelves.  (Thanks to this regular event, the shelves at the back of the box have now been removed to decrease the likelihood of a puppy getting wedged into the corner with a sibling on top of him, unable to move.)

As far as puppies are concerned, the absolute worst thing in the world happens when they are 2 weeks old; they are wormed for the first time.  At the next worming the puppies will be 5 weeks old and will happily lap up the liquid wormer added to some yummy scrambled eggs.  But at 2 weeks old, the only way to get it into them is to squirt it directly into their mouths.  And it tastes bad.  Really, really bad.  As you can see.

First I lull them into a false sense of security with some yummy puppy milk.

 

Then - bam! - in goes the wormer.

"Yuck!"

"I said YUCK!"

Then in quickly with more puppy milk - but Sox isn't falling for it.

The good stuff  -  the bad stuff
It's really bad  -  WAH!

being mean

It's a terrible thing when the puppies first realise that more than only pure unadulterated good stuff comes from my hands.

At this age they are starting to interact with us.  They respond when we speak to them and when we come into the room to the box, they come to the edge wagging and asking for attention.  So far, we have been the fonts of all good things - clean bedding, food, cuddles, tummy rubs.  But then the day comes when they must be wormed.

Oh, it's a terrible event!  The wormer is a thick white liquid that must be administered to the puppies 3 days in a row every 3 weeks.  I squirt it into their mouths using a tiny syringe and they tell me it tastes terrible.  Truly terrible.  It tastes so bad that they shake their heads and squawk and try to spit it out and it flies all over the place and even out their noses sometimes.  Ah, the poor little puppies!  Suddenly they realise that my syringes hold more than just yummy warm milk.  The second day is tougher than the first.  And the third day?  Yep, they clamp their little jaws firmly shut against any hint of the syringe.  Eventually I lull them into a false sense of security with squirts of milk, then - bam! - in goes the wormer.  Terrible, sneaky human.  Treacherous, mean human.

Luckily they don't hold a grudge and it's cuddles all round again.  After Keksi has cleaned them all off, obviously.

This is how big they are now:

Keksi rarely lies down to nurse them now - or if she does, then she quickly jumps to her feet when they descend upon her like a pack of tiny vampires.  Frequently she will stand in the box doing a general clean up while the puppies hang off her undercarriage.  She is starting to leave the majority of the feeding to me, and that's why the workload is ramping up all the time.

This weekend the puppies will move downstairs and that will be a relief for both Keksi and me.  I won't have to run up the stairs every 7.2 minutes and Keksi will be able to hang out with the gang downstairs, which she really misses.

"Oh, go on, let me come downstairs.  It's boring up here!"















Puppies doing puppy stuff:

The boys cuddling up to the cool water bowl.  There's always one.  At least one.

Brown Wolf discovers that a sibling makes an excellent pillow.

Little Ilo & Hopea showing off their bellies.

Toes spark out & tongue out.

Keksi update

Daniel reports that Keksi is enjoying her pregnancy, and is her normal happy, chilled self.  Here is the Lady of the Growing Belly relaxing ... in front of the fire?  Surely it wasn't lit.  At any rate, I'd say she's blooming.

She has been on slightly more food for a week now and has just started daily worming so that the puppies have the best possible start.  In a week she will come back down to us to settle in and have her puppies and she will stay until they are weaned.

I've been busy compiling all the stuff we'll be needing like the disposable whelping box, rubber gloves, round-tipped surgical scissors and clean towels.  And newspapers?  You may recall that I ran out of them last time and had to send out requests to my neighbours for emergency supplies.  This time I've got plenty.  I'm quite sure it will be plenty.  Well, plenty for a normal sized litter, anyway.  Daniel is threatening me with 11, though, based on the rapidly expanding girth.  Shhh - don't even think it!

Then there is the small matter of cleaning out the puppy room - a mammoth chore each and every time.

In the meantime, I've been told that Keksi performed another expert and impressive bin raid and that Daniel had a hard time retrieving all the bits of ripped up cardboard before she scooped them up.  Between the wood and the cardboard, I'm beginning to wonder if she's planning to have a litter of beaver pups. 

Not long now and we'll find out.  Tiny pointed tails?  Or tiny flat tails?

You get an idea of her changing shape from the photo above, but here is a belly update too.

countdown

We can now count the time before Keksi's due date in days rather than weeks. Or, to be more precise, a week and a bit. In our house we're getting a little nervous because so many things can go wrong. However, Keksi seems her usual chilled self so I'm certainly not trying to stress her out with my worries. In spite of her sister's more difficult time, she does come from good whelping stock in Neka, so I'm being optimistic.

She has been on Panacur 10% wormer for a while now to make sure the puppies have no disgusting parasites. Perhaps I've been lucky, but I have yet to see canine worms.

And, to be absolutely clear, in case it does not go without saying, I have no wish to see any either.

So Keksi has now moved back in with us for the duration of her pregnancy, the arrival of the puppies and staying until they are fully weaned at 6 or 7 weeks. She has slowed down considerably, although she's still up for a game if anyone is offering. She is doing a bit of running with Maija on their walks in the woods. Very quickly, though, she decides that she probably shouldn't be running after all. As well as slowing down, she is panting quite a bit when she's just lying around.

But most dramatic is the change in her shape. Here she is lying down at work this morning.





Only 5 puppies? Really?












In the meantime, in other news, after an enormous amount of work done on one side of our garden a couple of years ago, we decided to rush and get the fence on the other side replaced before we have a bunch of Finnish Lapphund adults and puppies running around. There were a couple of weak spots and one or two actual holes that no canines had discovered as yet. However, the puppies would have for sure, being nosey, clever and capable of finding everything single thing they ought not to.

I did feel sorry for the fencing guy, though, as we've been having sub-zero temperatures for a few days now and he was out there working in arctic conditions. In this weather, I've been making sure to keep the bird seed topped up and lots of fat balls hanging from the trees. That brought all kinds of visitors to the garden, including the usual array of bluetits, great tits, chaffinches, sparrows, black birds & robins. Then yesterday we had the rare treat of seeing a few goldfinches and even my own personal favorite, longtail tits.

Then an even more colourful visitor in the shape of this young male pheasant (perched on the fence).

















Of course, he didn't hang around long once he spotted Keskiyo trotting over to say hello.




















Keskiyo, of course, has been spending as much time out in the freezing garden as we will allow. These days he has tennis balls permanently frozen into the pond that he likes to bark at from time to time. Easily amused.

poll result

So I finally got you! Or the puppies did, anyway. Although Dino was third to open his eyes, the first 2 were actually the twos: 2Toes and 2Tone. Of course, they are all blinking at the world now and I really must get a video of one or two of them trundling around the box crashing into things as they learn to master their legs, because that's the cutest thing ever.

In the meantime I'll think up another poll. I had a message from Stéphanie to say that she was voting for the puppies having their father's head - just in case I was going to run a poll on that. For some reason the message disappeared without publishing, so sorry about that on behalf of Blogger.

I could run a poll on who made the biggest mess when I tried to worm them for the first time today. That won't work as a poll, though, because they all made an enormous mess. Poor little things. They expect only yummy stuff (i.e. Lactol puppy milk) to come from syringes inserted into their little mouths. They get quite a shock when it actually delivers wormer. Apparently it tastes pretty bad. So they have told me, anyway.

More cute photos tomorrow & maybe a video if I get good light in the morning.

puppy torture

I was chatting to Adam the other day & he asked me how things were going. "Fine," I said. "I'm busy torturing puppies." Being familiar with my somewhat twisted sense of humour, he laughed, knowing full well I would never dream of torturing any animal - especially puppies... would I?

As a matter of fact, I carry out a little gentle torture every day. It's important.

On that particular occasion I was engaged in the laborious process of worming and cutting nails. Ask any puppy and I'm pretty sure they'll tell you that both these chores fall firmly within the classification of torture. The good news is they get used to it. The bad news is it does take a while for this miracle to take place and in the meantime you must be FIRM FIRM FIRM and get your own way at any cost. Eventually the little darling realises the stiller he remains the quicker it will all be over.

At this age, worming consists of squirting through a syringe a thick white liquid into the pup's mouth. Once a day for 3 consecutive days every 3 weeks. I'm pretty sure it tastes disgusting. And if I wasn't already quite sure, then the puppies' reactions convince me once and for all. The trick is to get them to swallow it without spitting it out or, what's worse, shaking their heads frantically from side to side sending the sticky stuff flying all over me & the room. A hand gently placed over the face at this point is usually quite helpful. The puppy's face, not mine.

I also quickly follow the disgusting syringe with one full of lovely sweet Lactol. That appeases them nicely and they don't start screaming the next time they see a syringe. Hopefully.

By the time a puppy goes to its new home, he will be taking worming tablets. And that's a whole other ball game.

So far, these puppies are pretty good at having their claws trimmed each week. As I recall, their behaviour will get worse in this respect before it will get better. But, again, patience and perseverence is the key.

Then there's noise torture. Everyday I make sure the puppies are subjected to lots of different noise stimulation. First of all, there is the Crash Bang Wallop cd. Apparently it's been discontinued, which is a shame. I'm really glad I got mine before it was. It's 40 mins or so of everyday noises that can traditionally frighten animals who are not accustomed to them. Included in the repertoire are fireworks, thunder, people screaming, children playing, doorbells, doors slamming, etc. The idea is that you play this cd for the puppies starting with the volume very low then gradually building up the volume. I started using the cd when the pups moved downstairs and at the moment the volume has reached the level where Jay has yelled downstairs "Who's outside leaning on the car horn!?"

In addition to the cd, the puppies' pen is vacuumed around each day. They are still not too keen on this experience, but not overly traumatised either. Perhaps it helps that over the weekend the grass mower - a much scarier type of hoover-monster - was pushed around their outdoor pen. In comparison, the Dyson is a pussycat.

Then there are various things I think up to inflict upon them. Rattling a black bin bag over their heads, crashing things onto the floor, and into the sides of the pen. The point is not to terrify them, but to gently & gradually make them accustomed to lots of different experiences within a safe environment - i.e. in their pen with each other and Neka who, through her own calm, relaxed attitude, illustrates to them that it's ok.

It's all great stuff. If I've said it once, I've said it a hundred times, all together now: along with feeding, the single most important thing you will do for your puppy is socialising him. There is no such thing as too much or too early. The work you put in those first few weeks will pay dividends for the rest of your dog's life. Fail to do the socialising at the best time and your dog will suffer as a result of it for the rest of his life. Yep, it's that important.

This week the pups have begun to go out and about meeting people. One at a time and safely tucked under my arm, of course. They're also getting acquainted with Lenny, the cat. He's a sweet boy who wants to be friends with everyone, so I know the pups are safe with him. The puppies, on the other hand, are not too sure about him yet. Especially when Lenny starts to purr.

Here is Jaska having a cuddle on my lap with Lenny. We tried to get a similar one of Jaana, but she wasn't in a cuddling mood so we'll have another go with her later.

cats & dogs

How's this for getting on like cats and dogs? Witness Taika cosying up to her new friend Charlie. All together now - awwwwww.















Today all the puppies are rampaging around on their feet, eyes open. They had their first worming, which was yet another unpleasant experience for them. I administer the liquid with a small syringe and they open their little mouths expecting something yummy. They're not impressed with the taste of the wormer, though, apparently. They will have the same tomorrow & the next day then a break of 3 weeks before going through it all again.

I'm girding my loins to get the puppy porridge out today and see if I can interest any of them in trying a bit. Should make for a good photo opportunity, so more later...