splitting hairs

You will be pleased to hear we have reverted to the puppy-photos portion of this broadcast.  At least for now.

On a recent photo, Jane asked me if the cream puppy was Andy.  I had to admit I had no idea whatsoever.  That's not to say that I can't tell the cream boys apart in general - I can.  But only in comparison to each other.  Take one in isolation, and I'm completely in the dark.  So, little cutie-pie with paw on mum's muzzle there?  No idea at all.

In photos it often looks like the creams are slightly different shades, and they certainly were at birth.  Novak was lighter and the other two were a darker, richer cream.  They are changing a bit now and are more or less all the same shade.

When they were born I admit I was concerned about being able to tell them apart.  There are little elastic collars made just for that reason.  After all, what do you suppose a breeder of 8 or 10 black Labradors or a bunch of white Samoyed puppies do?   But I've never had any of those little collars.  I've always figured I would be able to distinguish my puppies if necessary.  I've had 2 creams before and it was easy to tell them apart.  I've even had a litter of NINE black puppies and I managed to tell them apart.  But the 3 cream boys, a little trickier. 

So I acquired some elastic stuff from a friend and adorned Roger with one colour (black) and Andy with another (silver) on the basis that Novak is considerably smaller and is therefore easier to spot compared to his more beefy brothers.  So if you are wondering what the collars were that you might have spotted in earlier photos, now you know.  I think the collars lasted about 20 hours.  Maybe even less.  I think Emmi took exception to them.

I've heard of people using nail polish on puppies to tell them apart - a little dab on their tails or backs.  But I really don't like the idea of putting that kind of poison on them.  Or on fur that Emmi licks.  But I thought, maybe a little spot of permanent marker just on Roger.  That lasted about an hour before Emmi had cleaned it off.

So I'm back to trusting my eyes.  So far so good.  I'm thinking it will get easier a they get older.

Pile of puppies - that's Roger looking whiter in this photo.  I think.

Today's video:  more nursing puppies.  To be fair, at this stage they don't do much more than eat and sleep, so that's what you're getting.  But it's not bad, really.  As you can see, we have abandoned all pretense of lying on the soft, fluffy vet bed, and the puppies have been launched into the harsh reality of the Lappy world of scratchy, hard and cold surfaces on which to sleep.  Ahhhh, bliss!

spending money

I positively inundate my puppy owners with reams of information before, during and after getting their puppies.  There are blogs, emails, books, chats, more emails, phone calls.  It's never-ending.  I so want all my puppies to have a wonderful life, and for their families to have a wonderful life with them, that I cannot help but to try and share everything I have learned about Lappies from my own dogs and my 8 litters of puppies.

One of the things I tell people is all the stuff they will need to buy.  There is an endless array of enticing stuff to spend one's money on that one's dogs will love (or not - they can be infuriatingly fickle).  To make the shopping list more accessible and to save me typing it out year after year, I once wrote a series of blog posts on the gear one requires before bringing one's puppy home.  Over time I adjust the advice, tweaking it here and there, and of course the links age and self-destruct.  I have gone back over those blogs a couple of times to update them with new links, but I decided to completely re-write the one about grooming products.  So this is that one.

GROOMING

For a puppy, any soft brush is best until they get used to it and their coat grows enough to warrant proper brushing.  This is a pretty good cheap brush for the very early days of a puppy coat: http://tinyurl.com/qdehlsd   Or you could use a cat brush.

As adults, your Lapphund will need 2 or 3 different grooming tools. (Although it goes without saying that some of us have 12 or 13 different ones. Ahem. No, not me. Of course not.)

Stiff bristle brush

Like a Mason & Pearson, for example. These are the best, and being the best, they are eye-wateringly expensive! About £60-£80 for a medium size one. However, you can get them a bit cheaper than that at the bigger dog shows. These days mine is a cheaper brand of bristle & nylon mix from Hindes after having good ones stolen from my bench at a show.  You can find a selection of various brands, sizes and prices on the Petcetera site. 

Comb

Another necessity for the fine hair around ears and under the legs is a comb. I prefer those with varying length teeth. I can't actually find a link to a comb that is like my favorite one, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's no longer available. You need to personalise it, of course - mine has authentic puppy teeth marks all over the handle, making plastic points that are uncomfortable to hold. Ideal. 

Rake

When they moult a rake is the tool of choice. A brush also works, but it’s slow going.  A comb works brilliantly but dogs generally don’t like it because it pulls too much on the skin.  The rake is the thing you need – it gets out the dead hair faster & easier than a brush but without the discomfort of a comb.

When I say rake, I’m  not talking about a product like the Furminator!   Don't use one of those on your Lappy.  And if you take your Lapphund to a groomer, don't let them use one either.  Furminators not only remove dead hair, it cuts the outer fur off, leaving the undercoat behind - the opposite of what we want.  What we use for Lappies is designed to remove undercoat that is already loose without damaging the outer coat. The type with a double row of rotating teeth is best.

There’s a great selection of combs and rakes on the Pet Express site.

Slicker
This is a great tool for small mats, the thick coat in the trousers, and the furnishings when they are thick.  It's also useful for strippiing out loose undercoat.  Beware when you use it, though, that it can really hurt and even injury the skin if you press too hard.  Just try it on your own arm and you'll see what I mean.  My favorite slicker is a small one, a bit like this one.

COLLAR & LEAD

As advised to me back in the day, I now advise that a Lappy puppy's first collar & lead should be the soft nylon cat collar type. There are some good ones by Ancol.  You will need the small, 12-inch one.  It will take a surprisingly long time for a Finnish Lapphund puppy to outgrow this little collar. It can take a day or two for puppies to get used to a collar & lead, and one of these is much lighter & more pleasant for them to get acclimatised to the idea of being restrained and no longer being free to run amok.

When choosing a collar now and in the future, make sure you pick one with an old fashioned metal buckle rather than a plastic snap.  The plastic snaps are not safe for your strong little Lappy; for one thing, they can break, especially if the collar is getting old and brittle.  Mostly, though, you are in danger of accidentally opening the snap when you grab your puppy’s collar.  And collar-grabbing is one of the first things you should be teaching your puppy to enjoy.  So avoid all those pretty, colourful collars with plastic snaps.  You won’t be able to see the prettiness amid all the fur anyway.

And while I’m on the subject of collars, it's worth mentioning this little warning too.  When you attach your ID tag to your puppy’s collar, be sure to attach it away from where you attach the lead, if at all possible.  Some, but not all, collars have two separate rings attached for that reason.  At any rate, never, ever, ever attach your lead directly to the ID tag ring (yes, we’ve all done it by mistake and if we’re lucky nothing bad happened.)  The ID tag ring is not strong enough to withstand the pulling of a Lapphund of any size or age; with one good tug, off comes the ring, taking the lead with it and there you are standing on the main road, traffic whizzing past, and your puppy is out of control.  It’s terrifying.  Be careful with that ring.

SOME OTHER STUFF

Toys, balls, bowls, chews.  There is no end to the stuff your puppy will adore that keeps pet shops in business.

Nail clippers (yes, it must be done). The guillotine sort are easiest to use & are widely available.

A selection of leads, harnesses, head collars, etc.  Yes, you will want and/or need all of those eventually.  Enjoy the early days when your puppy is not yet strong enough to pull you over in the street.  Oh yes, that happens.  What do you mean, no to everyone?  Just me then.

Back to the cute puppy pics after this, I promise.

peace

I do believe Emmi's milk has come down.  Early.  Why am I not surprised?

The first few days mama dog produces colostrum rather than milk.  In fact, I believe this is true of all mamas, not only dogs.  The colostrum contains lots of good stuff to keep babies healthy.  Then, just as the puppies start to get tetchy and impatient, the milk comes down.  At that point the puppies start getting fat and content, there is less of the elbowing one's sibling out of the way, and they just nestle in there with their little tails sticking out and wagging.  There is grunting, squeaking and paddling with their little paws.  It's all rather irresistible, as you can see from the video at the bottom.

But first, a selection of cuteness from the past couple of days.

Peas in a pod

Squashed mama

Tail snuggler

Cooling down

More cooling down

And the video of the day - content little fatsos.

black slime, green slime

Oh, I'm sorry - did you think this blog was all about puppy whiskers and waggy tails?  You must be new around here.

Just to make it worth your while clicking on the link, here is the family this morning - just a quick phone pic.

See how she is rucking up the bed out of the way.

And so to the slime.

The day after the puppies are born is the slimy day.  The green slime discharge is still coming from mama at this point.  Luckily, supplementation with raspberry leaf during pregnancy enormously decreases the amount of green slime produced.  When Emmi's mum, Keksi, had her first 2 cream puppies, they were stained green for the first several days of their life.  Ew.

And as for the black slime, well that's even worse, if you can imagine it.  As the puppies are born, mama generally eats all the stuff that comes with the puppy - the bag, the umbilical cord and the placenta.  The placenta is chock full of nutrients and blood, so it's good food for a new mama dog.  However, like ice cream, too much of a good thing is usually not such a good thing.  Too many placentas generally = the most foul black, tarry diarrhea.

(Bet you never thought you would have ice cream compared to placenta and black slime.  Have I put you off your porridge yet?)

I usually try to stop bitches from devouring all the placentas, if I can.  Believe me, I learned my lesson with Neka's 9 puppies and the resulting scary diarhhea.  However, Emmi was so on the ball that I didn't so much as see a placenta, let alone get the opportunity to rescue it from her greedy chops.

Yet, today, not even 48 hours after giving birth, I'm delighted to report that normal poos have resumed.  Halle-flipping-lujah for raspberry leaf, I say.

And as a reward for getting through the black & green slime, here are some 2-day-old puppies jostling for a good spot on mum's milk bar.




I don't know how they're supposed to get a good grip with their little paws on newspaper or - even worse - bare plastic.  But Emmi is quite certain she no longer wants them to be sweating it out on the vet bed and she keeps shoving it away.  It does create puppy chaos occasionally when one finds himself caught up in the vetbed, far far away from Emmi's belly. This bunch will end up with strong back legs.

Emmi's tennis puppies

Mama and babies settled & happy

The plan was to meet Jane for lunch on Friday.  Maybe have a little dog walk.  Bring Tuuli so she and Jaana could have a play together.  Then gather up Emmi and her belongings and make our leisurely way down the M5.

Then the plan was to get Jay to finish setting up the whelping box, clear out the puppy room and find me a box to put the hot water bottle in for the puppies while Emmi was busy with each new one.  I would introduce her to the whelping box and get the last few bits together that I needed to.  After all, there was plenty of time.  Those puppies weren't coming until Sunday at the very earliest.  In fact, as I had to go back to work on Tuesday after 4 days off, I was pretty sure Emmi would wait until after midnight on Monday.

Yup, those were the plans.

Need I say that Emmi had her own ideas.  Right from the beginning she was in a hurry with these puppies.  Her season started unexpectedly early.  Then she mated early in her season.  And sure enough, the puppies came on Friday afternoon - much earlier than I expected.  And far more conveniently than I expected.

Luckily Jane and I had been in contact Thursday night for me to get regular updates on her development.  When I saw a video of her panting away in the dog bed, I thought to myself "stage 1" and waited to hear about digging.  Jane was standing by to let me know when any digging got going or - heaven forbid - if there was water breaking or the grunting that is a tell-tale sign of contractions.  But stage 1 labour can and often does go on for 24 hours or even more before anything more exciting starts to happen, so I wasn't unduly concerned.

When the text arrived at 4:45am to say that digging had been going on intermittently all night, I hopped out of bed, straight into the car and met Jane to collect Emmi at a convenient spot on the M5.  Lucky, lucky, lucky.  If we had stuck to the plan, that first puppy would have been born in the car coming down the motorway.  Or I would have had to bring the whelping box to Jane's.

The next plan was for me to get to watch the 2 Wimbledon men's semi-final matches while Emmi's stage 1 progressed.  I got to see the Djokovic/Gasquet match ok, but as soon as Murray and Federer started, so did Emmi.  Oh, and they finished about the same time too.

It is said that it's best not to pay to much attention to bitches as they are going through their various stages of delivery until the cucial moments.  So it was nice to have something to distract me from what was going on in the whelping box.  However, it's true that I saw a lot more of the whelping than the tennis.

But it's only fitting that these puppies get named for the top 4 men and the top woman in tennis.

Did I mention that the plan was also for 6 puppies, 2 or 3 females and a couple of wolf sables?  Emmi had her own ideas on that score too.  Five puppies, 4 boys and 1 girl, 3 creams, one black and one brown.  Although I think we're blaming this plan on dad.  Salo has produced a handful of gorgeous cream puppies before, but all girls until now.  I'm sure they knew what they were doing, though, because look at what a good job they did!  I'll have to bring a big juicy bone next time I see Liz.  Although I dare say Salo will appreciate the bone more than Liz would.

Novak
Cream male
Birth weight:  259 grams
Time of birth:  4:08 pm

Roger
Cream male
Birth weight:  355 grams
Time of birth:  4:44 pm

Stan
Brown tan & white male
Birth weight:  303 grams
Time of birth:  4:50 pm

Serena
Black, tan & white female
Birth weight:  300 grams
Time of birth:  5:10 pm

Andy
Cream male
Birth weight:  384 grams
Time of birth:  6:25 pm

Did I mention that the plan was also for a Murray/Djokovic Wimbledon final?  Uh huh.



But we can't blame that one on Emmi or Salo.  

birthday puppies

No, I don't actually think that getting a puppy as a birthday present is a good idea.  In fact, I think it's a bad idea.  Puppies are not presents - they are carefully planned members of the family.  Would you adopt a child as a present?  Of course not.  So there you go.

But today, on the 8th birthday of Neka's first litter of puppies, I had confirmation that one of the daughters of one of the girls in that litter is in whelp and we have puppies on the way in about 5 weeks.  Little Neka great-grandkids, courtesy of Emmi.

Tuuli & Emmi in the car on the way to Surrey

A couple of months ago Emmi's season coincided with a sudden, unplanned trip to Surrey - such convenient timing!  But in this instance the timing was actually perfect as Emmi was on her way to meet her beau Ch Lecibsin Salo of TabanyaRuu JW ShCM. 

We were thrilled and very grateful when Liz gave us the opportunity to have puppies from her special boy and everything has been crossed since then.

It was pretty early in Emmi's season, but it was love at first sight and although I thought it should be too early for her to be mated, the two lovebirds were both convinced the time was right.  As usual, the dogs knew better than the humans.

Emmi meets Salo

And so without delay or kerfuffle, the deed was done.  And done again the following day.

The happy couple

Salo is exhausted after all that hard work

In addition to the quick visits for mating, there was also time for some old fashioned fun out walking.  And if you're wondering why Emmi was off lead at such a crucial point in her season, we were walking in an area where I could see far into the distance and we were quite alone.  And fortunately Emmi is never one for running off.

Emmi & Tuuli -- fun in the woods

Pretty Emmi chilling in the back of the car

southern counties 2015

Usually I really enjoy the Southern Counties dog show.  Usually we have a Finnish judge and no one can ever predict what choices will be made on the day.  It's usually great fun and we usually have a terrific turnout.  And usually the sun shines on us.

Yesterday all that was true again ... apart from the sun bit, that is.  It was cold, it was wet, it was crowded in the tent.  But still a good day for team Infindigo, overall.

Our judge was Harri Lehkonen and first up was Tito in the big Postgraduate Dog class.  At only a month out of Junior, I dare say he was the youngest in the class, so I was especially thrilled when he placed 3rd out of 8, qualifying for Crufts 2016.  And hot on his heels in the same class was Kuura, shown by Jane and placing 4th.  Kuura & Jane then went into Limit Dog and placed 4th again.  So proud of my boys!

Infindigo Pippuri Aatami (Tito)

L: Tito  R:  Infindigo Persikka Kuura

Kuura & Jane

I should take this opportunity to point out that despite appearances to the contrary, I was not actually wearing baggy men's Y-fronts over my trousers.  Truly I wasn't.

Next up was Taika in the mixed Veteran Dog or Bitch class.  I took Taika to the club show last month, and that was the first show she had attended in .... I don't even know how long.  But the time can be counted in years rather than months.  And plenty of them.  But once a showdog, always a showdog, and she was a little brown star, placing 4th out of  a big class of 8 and beaten only by 3 champions.  You go, old girl!

Infindigo Taika - the old girl's still got it

Next came the biggest class of the day, Postgraduate Bitch, where the total of 9 competitors included Emmi, Talvi, Kiittaa and Jaana.  We were all thrilled when Emmi took 2nd place and qualified for Crufts and Talvi took 3rd.  And then they both went into the Limit Bitch class and did exactly the same thing again.  Super proud of my girls too.

Infindigo Riemu Emmi & Jane

Infindigo Pippuri Talvi & Ian

Apparently the judge didn't like the creams - he binned every one of them, including Kiittaa.  For Lexi it was a completely novel experience not to place.  Never mind, we thought she & Kiittaa did a great job anyway.

Infindigo Riemu Kiittaa & Lexi

As Mark was pressed into service showing Jaana, photography for the class fell to me, which explains why the pics are not up to their usual standard...  But after a little emergency ringcraft from Jane, Mark did a stellar job of showing the tiny brown dog and she actually looked more or less like a showdog.  Perhaps for the first time.  Can it be that she's growing up just a little?  I particularly love the shot of her looking straight at me, wagging away.  Hopefully that doesn't count as double handling (which, in case you are not aware, is strictly forbidden).  I wasn't actually trying to attract her attention. 

Lapinlumon Pilvipouta for Infindigo (Jaana) & Mark

Cutie-pie Jaana & Mark

3 of our 4 girls.   L-R: Jaana, Kiittaa & Emmi

You can visit Fosse Data's website to see the full list of Southern Counties results.