A WHOLE NEW WORLD

Today, the puppies discovered there is another world outside of their pen....with sunshine and birds singing and FLOWERS! They were out on the front porch for three hours. After the initial "typical" unhappiness of Dal puppies being in a new environment, they began to explore and taste and have a good time. And then, visitors all the way from Vermont to play with the puppies. On Monday, more visitors for puppies and then we will also do individual pix of puppies with the name assigned to each....update will be done Monday evening.

EVERYONE FOLLOWS THE PUPPY BLOG!

here is a picture of jack.....reading the latest news about his puppies on their blog !!!!

WHAT AN EXCITING DAY !!!!

What a wonderful day. Four sets of puppy visitors, as well as Daddy Jack's family also. Jack, Bubbles and Grandma Brandy all visited with the families, and the puppies were held and snuggled and kissed and learned about new people. From now on, there will be more and more visitors as the puppies learn to interact with new humans and have new experiences. All this is soooo important for their education and their transition to successful placements.

Question was asked today: What is litter theme? Well -- it is CHAMPAGNE -- after all, Bubbles' real name is Cote Des Blancs (which is champagne country in France)....so names will be quite expensive champagne brands. There is Dom Perignon (m), Krug (m), Bollinger (m) Perrier (m), Louis Roederer (m), Taittinger (m), Laurent Perrier (f), Piper Heidsieck(f), Crystal Perignon (f). So far, tho, we have not decided who will be graced with which name...will make that designation next visit...so watch for updated pix and names on Friday, Sept. 30.

Pix below are face shots -- of course, boys are blue and girls are pink...next time we do shots we will do full body pix so that you can see their lovely markings. Three of the boys have their mom's blue eye (but theirs is on the left and hers is on the right).

BIG CHANGES TODAY!

Today we are three weeks old and....hooray....REAL food and a new apartment! The two Nancy's set up the puppy pen for us, and made us a home-cooked meal to celebrate our three week birthday....and being true Dalmatians, we set right in to eating it all.

It is absolutely amazing how puppies can transition from suckling at momma to lapping food from a pan...no training required...they just get right down to it. For now, we are just letting a few at a time at the pan, which is why the pix below will only show a couple of them eating (but rest assured, they ALL got their fair share). Eventually they will all eat from multiple pans at the same time and then will transition to one very large diameter puppy pan. The first meals are a formula composed of evap. milk, water, egg yolk, yogurt and baby rice cereal.

Their new pen is much larger and more open so that they are now exposed to all the sights and sounds of active family life right off the kitchen. As they grow, it will be enlarged to accomodate their increased activity level and other toys will be added for enjoyment. They still have a heat lamp over the sleeping area (which is why you see a slightly red cast to the pictures).

Next posting will Saturday (9/24) after the first puppy visitor "open house" when they will get lots of visitors.

AN UNSCHEDULED POSTING!

Had not intended to visit puppies til next Monday, but other commitments needed attention so it would not have been til Tuesday for the visit, and my daughter was available to help me load up various items that the puppies will be needing as they transition from the whelping box into a larger puppy pen, as well as next week begin to eat from a dish in addition to nursing off mom....so...tonight we did a quick run to visit puppies. We did a weigh in and each puppy has gained...they are now gaining about an ounce a day and that will increase tremendously after they also eat from a dish!

The spotting patterns are looking quite nice; one of two will have a few more spots than the others, and some of their coats are a bit longer (understandably so since their grand-daddy Hummer has a slightly longer coat). Those with a longer coat are showing spots are sorta "faded" - in another week that will all change and their spotting will be as sharp as others. Faces are clean and will have a few spots over their noses, which most of my line produces.

Eyes are bright open now and next week we will begin to check for eye color (momma Bubbles has one blue eye). Right now they all have a slightly bluish tint which is normal for this age.

Of course, they all had their weekly pedicure.

They are now acting like real puppies and learning to walk around more and they leave their sheepskin bed to go to opposite of the pen for potty purposes.

They are also learning how to vocalize with little barks and yips and grrrs. Too funny!

Here are the latest pictures...of course the boys are on blue towel and girls are on light pink.....

WE ARE GETTING SPOTS !!!!

We had a wonderful visit today and puppies got their weekly weigh-in as well as a pedicure...they are growing and gaining weight in a correct fashion, and eyes are now at least partially open, and some all the way open. Next we watch for ears to open and do preliminary testing for hearing. Formal testing (BAER) testing will be done mid October. Next blog update will be done on Monday, Sept. 19th -- and we will begin feeding them out of a pan and they will go into their new puppy pen....Visitors are scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 24th.

HERE ARE THE BOYS.....

WEEK TWO CHECK IN

AND THE THREE GIRLS.....



AND THE ENTIRE LITTER....

ALL IS WELL

With Mom and babies (the Bubblettes). Today they had their weekly weigh-in (although it is not quite a week this time) and their first pedicure (which will be done weekly so that they do not scratch Bubbles belly too much. All have gained some weight, some more than others, and this time it is hard to tell for sure since the first weight was done at the vet office, on a different scale. There are two slightly smaller one, both boys. but we watch them carefully to be sure they get "prime" nipples and that the larger ones do not push them off. Hope you enjoy their latest pictures.

Next "photo shoot" and blog update will be Sunday, Sept. 11 -- and then we will try for some face shots and will also separate pix of boys and girls.