Note to Sheila

I posted this note on the Yahoo Field Spaniel group in reponse to the latest edition of Sheila’s puppy journal:

I’m very sad to see the end of the puppy journal; I’ve looked forward to the wit and the wonderful side stories (like the kids at school and their reactions to the puppies). I hope you’ll take Kathy’s suggestion and update this a few months down the road. Plus I’d really like to hear the end of the washing machine saga…

You said one thing in your journal that I feel compelled to comment on: “…I feel I have done a very good job of getting these guys ready for interesting and active lives."

Miki (whom many readers will know is one of the puppies from your latest litter) is the third field spaniel we’ve gotten from you. He joins Lea and Mo’i (both still going strong), whom we got 7 and 5 years ago, respectively. I don’t know this, but I suspect we’re amongst the most experienced recipients of Sheila Miller’s puppies.

So I think I can speak with some authority on the subject.

Each of the puppies you (Sheila) have raised for us have been simply wonderful; two have grown up to be extraordinary adult dogs — cherished companions, without any health or temperment issues, and even enthusiastic competitors (in agility).

Debbie and I are considerably more ancient than Sheila. We both grew up on farms, surrounded by dogs; we had dogs before discovering field spaniels. Before getting Lea (our first field spaniel), we did a lot of research about breeds — and breeders — before picking Sheila and her litter. Since then, we’ve met lots of field spaniels, especially when we visited Colorado for the nationals a couple of years ago. Our dogs stand out in the field spaniel crowd (we may be just the teensiest bit biased in that assessment), and we are certain that you (Sheila) deserve a good part of the credit for that.

So here’s a hug just for you. And thank you, ever so much, for being the source of so much joy for us…

Puppy Journal

Hope turned three on Cinco de Mayo, the puppies are 12-weeks old today, I am 48 tomorrow, and it is time to put this tome to bed.

There wasn’t a journal entry last week because I try to support small and local businesses whenever possible. That means that Mike my server guy went fishing and left everything on auto pilot. The pilot crashed and I was without Internet for several days. :-) Remember all those weeks ago when I wrote about my washer? I had a call yesterday from Dennis the appliance guy saying he had the part. I was in Reno. Who knows how many weeks it will take to coordinate a visit. The only person lonelier than the Maytag repairman is this woman in Battle Mountain, NV waiting for him to show up. :-)

When last I wrote, Bogey (white boy) moved to New Berlin, WI, Miki (blue boy) moved to Jamul, CA and Emmy (purple girl) moved to Poway, CA. The three remaining puppies came to school with me last Thursday so I could get them to their after school vet appointment on time (2nd set of shots). It was a pretty great day. My math students were given their assignment and told that we would take the puppies outside as soon as everyone finished. Great motivator! :-) Due to a string of anti-dog administrators, it has been about 10 years since I’ve been able to bring a dog to school. I almost forgot what an effect they can have even on jaded high schoolers. Many girls just wanted to hold them and several boys told me they just wanted to jump in their pen with them. :-) When we had them outside, they didn’t hesitate to get down on the ground with them. Rural schools aren’t perfect but we generally have good kids. However, we do have our troubled youths just like any school.

We also have a number of students (usually boys) who are living here with relatives in order to get them out of a bad home life with their parent(s) or to get them away from a drug and/or gang culture. It isn’t unusual for me to butt heads with these kids until they bend to my will. :-) Once they do, we get along very well. I have a boy who is a particular challenge to me, his grandparents, and his P.O. He loved those puppies. He tried to stuff Clancy (green boy’s new name) into his backpack (in a kind and gentle way) but he really took to Lucy (pink girl). He recited poetry to her and sang her love songs. He got down on all four and play-bowed and wiggled his butt for her. He answered his math problems correctly. His behavior reminded me that there is a little boy in him. On those days I have a hard time liking him, I will remember how he was with the puppies.

My fourth period class began with two boys puffed up and ready to fight (spring mating season). They sulked in their desks and didn’t interact with the puppies. What the puppies did was defuse their classmates. Normally, a situation like that would affect the entire class with students taking sides and engaging in off-task, nonproductive behaviors. All these kids knew was that there were puppies to hold and hug. One girl asked one of the sulking boys, “Do you want to hold a puppy? You’ll feel better.” He didn’t but the class did.

Conversations that day centered around stories of their own pets. They all wanted to take pictures of the puppies with their camera phones. They told me it was the best day ever. It was such a good day, I’m thinking about talking to my principal about raising Lucy as a therapy dog.

Saturday was another trip to Reno. Mercy and Picabo had appointments for acupuncture and a post-birthing adjustment respectively. Yellow Boy was going to meet his new family and head home. Yellow Boy is now “Rex” and is settling in (and disrupting!) his new family’s home in La Mirada, CA.

Then today I drove to Elko to meet Debbie to return Picabo to her and pay her for the lease. I show-groomed Picabo and told Debbie not to put any more weight on her. Her coat is coming in and I think she will be just beautiful in a month or two.

There are two puppies in my house. Pink Girl will be Wolftree’s Stardust and I am calling her Lucy (in the sky with diamonds…). She is the black bitch and I won’t lie and say it was an easy decision to keep her. Purple Girl (Emma) is more my kind of girl - shorter coupled and an unflappable attitude. Lucy has a lot of very nice features and I eventually made the decision to let Purple go. Lucy still has a white frosted face (stardusted) and her front is worrisome. I keep looking at Juno’s front and ask myself if that is Lucy’s front. She moves beautifully and effortlessly for a 12-week old and sometimes she stands and stacks herself so nicely I tell myself not to worry. The rest of the time however… Well, we will just see how she grows up. The fact that she is black is another worry. If I can’t keep my liver dogs from bleaching red, what hope do I have for a black dog? :-)

The other puppy is Green Boy and I have been calling him Clancy this week. That name seems to be sticking. He was hands down my students' favorite puppy. He is happy and outgoing. He is boisterous. He is all boy. He is still waiting for the right family to call. He needs a home where he will get to go out and do things (like meet people) but (like a lot of boys) he also needs a structured home so he knows his boundaries. He is pure pet with his freckled face, one white foot, tan smudged wrists and ankles and tan butt (not tan under the tail but the whole butt).

I worry about keeping two puppies for too long. The things I have done to socialize my litter now need to be done with each individual puppy. I can’t do that well and I worry that all of my hard work will unravel as these two get older. Debbie and I talked about splitting them up for a week or two. That would be great if we each had one puppy for one week and then swapped for the next week.

As I reflect on the last 12 weeks of life with puppies, I feel I have done a very good job of getting these guys ready for interesting and active lives. I have no complaints about them. The four that have been placed live with wonderful people. For me though, these were 12 of the hardest weeks I have ever gone through and there really isn’t any end in sight. I was already exhausted when they were born (school in upheaval) and it went downhill after that. I have shed many tears over whether or not everything would get done. The experience was such that I am definitely stepping out of breeding for awhile. I have three dogs over the age of ten (10.5, 11.5 and 13) and three dogs over the age of six (6, 7.5, 7.5). I have a 3-year old who forgot her flip finish. In three years my old dogs will most likely be dead and my veteran dogs will be old. I will look at Lucy and see if the world and I need another Field Spaniel. Right now the ones I have need a little more attention from me.

Time for a group hug! Everyone hug and kiss your old, young, and in-between dogs! :-)

Sheila Miller

Wolftree Acres

Nevada, USA

sdmiller@the-onramp.net

Puppy Journal

The latest installment in Sheila Miller’s “Puppy Journal” — a diary of her experiences raising the litter of puppies that our little Miki was one of…

This week was my spring break (finally!!!) and I usually go back to school with stories of some home improvement or garden project, or at least a clean house. :-) All I did this week was take of the puppies. It was nice to be home with them and be able to get them outside more often.

Monday was our trip to Reno for eye checks. We got a late start due to awakening to heavy spring snow blanketing everything. The shade cloths in my kennels collapsed and I had to dig them out before I left. Just when you think it is safe to put away the snow shovel…

The road to Reno was sloppy but good. We made it in time to visit with Ken and Diana Braunstein and their dogs Emma (Sayward, Crockett, and Moi’s sister) and Sherlock (rescue). Ken and Diana are always so good about opening their beautiful home to puppies and Emma and Sherlock couldn’t be better with puppies than their own mother. Eye checks went well. The Dr. said, “perfect”. I ran a couple of quick errands and we were back on the road home. I was hoping we could drive the four hours in one shot but they definitely reminded me that 3 hours was their limit.

Tom and Karen Gracz arrived at my house Tuesday morning to pick up their puppy. Wow. They drove all the way out from WI literally through tornadoes, driving rain, and blizzards. Karen told me, “All the sign said was 'Winter Conditions Over Parley'. What’s Parley"? Now they know as does anyone who has entered UT from WY on I-80 (or vice versa). The weather was good when they got here (though muddy from the previous day’s snow) and they stayed a couple of hours to play with, study, and go over each puppy. Karen brought toys and Tom shot off his starting pistol. After much careful thought, Karen packed up White Boy and they started for home. She made the right choice because I started crate training him and had his bags packed the night before. :-) White Boy (black male) will soon be “Wolftree’s One Over Par", call name “Bogey”. He is related to Tom and Karen’s previous FS Casey (1/2 brother to grandma Juno, littermate to great, great grandma Chevy) and his daughter Keeper. Bogey is going to have a great life in WI.

I had to run a few errands in town on Wednesday and I was just too plain lazy to put the puppies in their big x-pen (I didn’t want to clean it again when I got home) so I decided the puppies needed more practice riding in crates (like the 3,000 miles under their belts wasn’t enough). I’m glad I brought them. I ran into our music teacher and her two little girls at the Post Office. I asked her if her girls would like to see the puppies. Would they ever! We went over to their house and let the puppies and girls loose in the fenced yard. I love to watch young children with puppies. They speak to them like they were people. It is so charming and innocent. :-) After the play time, I listened to Keetna’s (spelled wrong I’m sure) piano recital and then watched little Kyra work the monkey bars hand over hand. Pretty impressive.

Since this was my spring break, Thursday meant working in my classroom. :-( I’m sure something happened on Friday but nothing memorable.

Saturday was another going home day. Tom and Debbie Dilatush drove over 800 miles to pick up their new agility prospect (Blue Boy) and to transport Purple Girl to her new home near them. Blue Boy (liver male) tested high for trainability and also scored high in physical structure. Tom picked him up and huffed, “This is a lot of dog”. Very true. I reminded them that he was also one of the top show prospects in the litter so that means he needs to keep his hair and his testicles. :-) Tom brought tons of camera gear and took enough pictures to fill a daily calendar. Debbie brought a plethora of toys to tempt the puppies. Cheyenne, my shy dog, couldn’t resist those toys. She gingerly entered the living room, carefully picked up one toy, and then slowly retreated back to the bedroom with her prize. I’m sure she was thinking, “If I don’t look at them, then they can’t see me”. :-)

Blue Boy will soon be “Wolftree’s Wild Card", call name “Miki”. Miki is Hawaiian for “Agile One”.

Purple Girl (liver girl) has gone to Poway, CA (San Diego) to live with Richard and Judy Shriver and their aging Welsh Springer. Those who have been in the breed awhile will know of their previous FS. Their Smokey was a littermate to Higgins. So their puppy is also related to their past dog (Grandma Juno is a Higgins daughter, Smokey niece). Richard and Judy are still mulling over an appropriate name. Sometimes you just have to live with a puppy before you know the right name.

So I am now down to three 10-week old puppies, Yellow Boy (black male) whom I am calling Bo for the time being (you know, because he wore a yellow ribbon <groan> ), Green Boy (liver boy) who doesn’t have a moniker that sticks yet (today I was trying out “Amigo"), and Pink Girl (black bitch) who I have decided to keep. Her name will be “Wolftree’s Stardust” in keeping with an astronomical theme I started with Juno. Stardust is the comet-catching spacecraft that flew over my house this winter on its way to landing in UT. It fits Pink Girl because she still has stardust on her face. Her call name is “Lucy” (think Lucy in the sky with diamonds…) Of course, her markings look more like black pearls than diamonds. :-) I’m going to write more about the futures of these three puppies later this week.

Since I am on spring break AND it is a Sunday, that meant that I spent most of the day in my classroom. :-( Unfortunately, that time turned out to be the nicest part of the day. I came home and gave the puppies lunch and a little walk and then walked my old chessies True and Mercy. A spring storm was swirling around the mountains. We were in bright sunshine but the mountains just got darker and darker. Lots of thunder rumbling and I could see sheets of rain falling and a few lightning strikes. We made it back to the house in time to take the puppies out to potty one more time and then back in the x-pen. They aren’t too happy today being confined but better that than in the rain. The black sky moved over my house and it has been raining steadily for over three hours. The road is a mess and the grass is growing! My mower still isn’t fixed so crap.

Do you remember the early days of this journal when I would comment on life with the Dura-Whelp? Well, those troubles ended about the same day my troubles with the AKC began. Just over two years ago, I leased Picabo from Debbie, Sandy, and Carla. I did everything by the book and had my lease papers signed, sealed, and delivered by the time of the breedings. The AKC sent me my lease notification and a note telling me that I forgot to include the litter registration. I told them the puppies weren’t born yet. They said breeders usually send them in together. OK. This time around, I sent the lease papers in after the puppies were born along with the litter registration. About three weeks later I received the lease notification. The very next day I received a letter from the AKC stating that I was the litter owner but they were unsure who the breeder was. I made a mistake on the lease form and it would cost me another $15.00 and three or four weeks to correct. Damn.

I was mad at myself but got the needed signatures and wrote another check. Then began my almost daily checks at the AKC web site to check on the paperwork progress. It was always listed “pending” or “under review”. Monday morning, the day of the eye checks, I called AKC and asked what was happening. The customer service operator told me everything was in order, I was the breeder and litter owner, she gave me the litter number, and told me the registration papers would go out in today’s mail. Good news!

On Tuesday, Debbie received an e-mail from AKC congratulating her on her new litter of Field Spaniels and that she would be receiving the papers in x days. Oh that can’t be good. I went to the web site and the litter was there but I wasn’t. I paid $15.00 to AKC to lease Picabo but did my second $15.00 de-lease her? I called on Wednesday and this time it was AKC’s SNAFU. My paperwork was correct but instead of releasing Debbie and Sandy, they released me. She admitted it was their mistake but thought that maybe I had confused them by sending in the lease papers with the registration application!!! Here is the most interesting part of the call. I asked her how long this would take to fix. She replied, “Well, you know this is Wednesday”. What the heck does that mean? Is Wednesday code for “holiday"? It is going to take a few more weeks to straighten out. I was so mad all I could do was shampoo my living room carpet (just water though because of the puppies). I almost thought I was going to have to do my ironing but there is no point going overboard. :-)

On behalf on younger siblings Bogey, Miki, whatsername, Lucy, Bo, and whatisname, I would like to congratulate big sister Ruby on gaining her tracking certification this weekend. She is now eligible to try for her TD. Congratulations Julie and good luck to you and Ruby!

Sheila Miller

Wolftree Acres

Nevada, USA

sdmiller@the-onramp.net

Puppy Journal

I am so tired I could cry.

I am so tired that I called in sick today so I could sleep in until 6:20 a.m. and catch up on the whirlwind of events from the last two weeks. :-)

Someone please remind me to file my taxes this week!

On Saturday, April 1st, I had my van serviced. After I paid the bill, the attendant reminded me to come back in 3,000 miles. I said, “I guess I’ll see you in about three weeks”. Foreshadowing events to come. :-) The puppies adventure that day was visiting at the home of some friends. They got to go to a new place, meet new people, and even meet a new dog (6-month old goldie cross).

Sunday was the puppies 7th week birthday. We celebrated by taking our first walk in the desert. Usually puppies are unsure of themselves on that first big walk in the wilderness but these guys just trailed behind me with a “where are we going now?” attitude. They slept the rest of the day.

Monday was another big day for them. Temperament testing was done that evening by a friend of mine who owns a boarding kennel and breeds or has bred goldens, Bostons, and Aussies. I like to think of temperament testing as a puppy party. It is a test to see if I have properly socialized the litter. In a nutshell, I have. They handled all of the tests very well. No one exhibited any extremes of aggressiveness, dominance, or shyness. As Sharon said, “These puppies could be talked into doing anything”. That is what I am after. Sound and trainable puppies. 150 miles round trip for the PATest.

I took my last two of three personal days last Friday and this Monday. BIG trip to Portland for their structural evaluation. I stayed with a friend in Salem and kind of took over her house. When I came in I said I wasn’t traveling with a baby, I was traveling with sextuplets and proceeded to bring in load after load of stuff the puppies would need. What a great friend to allow 8-week old puppies into her home. What an even better friend to provide three grandchildren to entertain said puppies. :-) My two favorite comments of the weekend came from 3rd grader Madison. She said outside to rough-housing puppies, “Here! Here! Settle this over a game of tug of war!”. Then later she came in the house, leaned against the wall and said, “I can’t take it anymore. They are so mean to each other”. :-) She got over that later when they fell asleep in her lap. The only downside to the weekend was that it was in Oregon. You know, wet and soggy, the sun rarely shines in Oregon. It could have been worse. It could have “rained”. We only had “showers”. :-)

That Saturday I took the puppies up the road to Aloha for their evaluation by Pat Hastings. I am very pleased with the results. According to her, there are four show quality and two pet quality puppies in the litter. She rates their structure only (not breed type) on a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being the best and 3 being average show quality for the breed. Any score less than 3 in any single category designates a puppy as pet quality. Purple Girl received a rating of 2.5 to 3 on her rear and that labeled her “pet”. Well, she is a darn pretty pet.

On Sunday, I again drove the puppies up the road to Portland this time to be one of the litters used in Pat’s “Puppy Puzzle” seminar for the Boston Terrier national. The puppies had a great time there. They have a bit of their grandma Juno in them and would scan the crowd from their x-pen until they made eye contact with someone. Then they just “reeled” them in. I found the seminar to be very interesting because of the questions people would ask. People sometimes have a hard time accepting faults in dogs. I think if you don’t know what faults your dog has, then you might think that your dog doesn’t have faults. All dogs have structural faults and all dogs deal with or compensate for those faults. A fault is a deviation from perfection. I was happy with the evaluation in that my puppies have one or two structural faults each instead of having collections of faults. None of them won’t be able to lead active, physical lives. My job now is to put all of the pieces together to match temperament, physical structure, and breed type and match puppy to puppy buyer. I am having the toughest time picking for myself. LOL

1300 miles round trip for the structural evaluation.

Today we went to Elko for their first set of shots, worming, vet check, and microchipping. Thumbs up all around. 150 miles round trip.

On Monday, we travel to Reno for eye exams. That will be 500 miles round trip. After that, the puppies are ready to be released to their new homes. All of my hard work with the litter will pay off when they get to develop their individual personalities and potentials with their own family.

Yup, should be time to service the van in another week or so…

Well, they are not afraid of the lawn mower.

We had two sunny days in a row so I figured I better mow the backyard while I had a chance. I started the mower (it actually started!!!) in the corner of the yard away from the puppies' kennel. They didn’t blink an eye. In fact, every time I mowed in their direction, they would rush up to the chain link to greet me. What an ordeal cutting the lawn was. I don’t know how you who live in the lands of regular rain do it. The long, wet grass kept clogging up the mower causing it to stall. My backyard only has a 50' by 60' patch of lawn but it took me almost two hours to cut half of it. Almost to the halfway mark, it choked on grass and died. I cleared the muck out (I could actually squeeze water out of it), pulled the cord, and the cord snapped. I can’t win for losing. :-(

Last year one of my math students drew me a little picture of how you attach a new cord. I attached the cord but didn’t save his directions. I brought all the dogs in for dinner and tried to remember how to do it. I knew it had something to do with a wire and winding the top part of the mower. With the big dogs crated for dinner, the puppies got the whole backyard to play. Do you know six puppies can all fit on top of a lawn mower at the same time IF that lawn mower is taken apart and someone is trying to fix it? They weren’t much help and thankfully with their short attention spans, they were eventually bored with the whole lawn mower thing and left me alone. I did manage to reattach the cord, wind it up, and start the mower (but the darn cord wouldn’t recoil). I held the excess cord in one hand and hurried up and finished mowing the lawn. Did that scare the puppies? Heck no. Just like with my adult dogs, I had to finish mowing to the tunes of “Get the hell out of the way!”. :-)

They ate way too much grass and are now crashed in the kitchen floor. No doubt later tonight we will experience the revenge of the green grass.

I DO have new pictures of the puppies. Head shots taken this weekend. Gosh they’re beautiful. Gee I hope I find time to upload them to the list file. :-)

Don’t let me forget about those taxes!

Sheila Miller

Wolftree Acres

Nevada, USA

sdmiller@the-onramp.net

http://www.wolftreeacres.homestead.com

Puppy Journal

I came home Monday to a house full of puppies. :-) Debbie is on spring break this week and drove over to return the puppies and Picabo. They came home with twice as many toys as they left with.

They are doing well! Debbie provided them with wonderful experiences. I’m trying to keep them busy too.

It seems my whole house is now nothing but a series of x-pens. I took the crates out of the dog room, layed down a 6' X 9' vinyl floor remnant, and set up my big plastic x-pen. That is where they stay during the day and while we sleep. For the first time ever, I took down my dining room table and set up my compost bin/x-pen there. That allows them to see all the action going on in the house in the evening. I’m trying to cook more for my dinners. John is convinced that Crockett’s fear of the stove comes from a lack of exposure to one at a young age. Ha ha. Outside my patio door, just off the deck and under the tree, I have two metal x-pens clipped together. This is a great place to put awakening puppies to pee and poop. Then there is the 12' X 12' dog run that has been converted into the puppy run. The weather still isn’t great but it is good enough for 6 1/2 week old puppies to be out in for a little while each day. All these x-pens give me places to put the puppies while I clean all the other places they’ve been! LOL

I take puppy socialization very seriously. Three things have influenced the way I socialize young puppies:

1. I have owned unsocialized dogs. There is a difference between loving a dog and being happy with a dog. It is hard to be happy with an unsocialized dog.

2. The “Rule of Sevens” socialization guide that I first heard about years ago at a Pat Hastings seminar. In a nutshell, puppies should be exposed to seven different things in seven different categories by the time they are seven-weeks old. For instance, under the category “surfaces", my puppies have experience with and are confident on: carpet, linoleum, newspaper, wood decking, gravel, concrete, and grass. As a bonus, they will also walk across a fallen baby gate. The gate fell on Yellow Boy this morning, he crawled out from under it and proceeded to make several trips over it as he and his littermates traveled in and out of the dog room. Didn’t phase him a bit.

3. A National Geographic video about gorillas. One of the segments in this program shows a study done on captive gorillas to help them with their boredom. Every day they went into their exercise room, there was something new and exciting. Like yards and yards of butcher paper draped on everything. The gorillas loved it. They were excited to go into the room every day and played with the new stuff until they were exhausted. I try to do that with the puppies. Little things intrigue them. A big fluffy blanket with lots of folds to explore, a toddler’s tunnel, or a big pile of shredded paper. They have the traditional toys but every day I try to give them an untraditional toy. An empty water bottle, a cereal box, and scrub brush top their list of cool toys.

They are also at the age where they need physical challenges. They can go out the patio door and down the deck stairs. They can come up the deck stairs and Pink, Yellow, and Purple can come in through the patio door. Going out the back door and down those steps will be a different challenge.

My biggest challenge is to provide them with a lot of opportunities to relieve themselves in appropriate places. Yes, they are peeing and pooping all over my house but they are also peeing and pooping outside or on papers. The more time I put into this now, the easier it will be to housetrain them later. That means hauling them out in yesterday’s rain and this morning’s snow. Thanks to yesterday’s rain, I will probably have to mow my lawn this weekend. :-( BUT the sound of the lawn mower (or me cursing it for not starting) will be another good experience for the puppies.

Next week is their temperament test and the following weekend is their structural evaluation. Everything is happening so fast…

Sheila Miller

Wolftree Acres

Nevada, USA

sdmiller@the-onramp.net

http://www.wolftreeacres.homestead.com

Puppy Journal

When last I checked in, Debbie was taking the puppies for a week during the critical socialization period. Monday was Debbie’s reality check as she realized that no matter how prepared you are for a litter of puppies, you aren’t. :-) By Monday night Debbie knew she wasn’t going to get anything done as she all wanted to do was sit with them.

So she got up at 3:30 on Tuesday just so she could have that sit with them time before school started. :-) Tuesday afternoon was the first day she brought them to her classroom (4th graders). That was a learning day for all. They quickly learned that 25 students don’t evenly divide by six puppies. They learned you don’t rush puppies and that colored rick rack collars are pretty cool.

Wednesday afternoon and back to the classroom. The kids were expert by now and what a difference 24 hours made for the puppies. Tuesday was all new stuff to them, Wednesday was old hat. Her class nearly panicked when they noticed that Pink Girl lost her collar. “How do we know who this puppy is"?!!! Debbie said, “Is it a boy or a girl? Is it black or brown? Whatever color is missing, this is the puppy.” One by one, the other grades came in to see them. When the kindergarten class came, their teacher asked, “How many puppies are there?” “One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven…” OK, they need to work on that counting thing. :-) Then they named their colors (coat and collars).

Thursday was the best day yet. Her whole class has fallen in love with these puppies but especially one boy. On Thursday he came to school with six little wrapped packages. Each one with a different color bow: blue, white, pink, purple, green, and yellow. A present for each puppy. This is Nevada Reading Week and Debbie’s class divided up among the two first grades and kindergarten to read to those students and help them with their AR (accelerated reading). What about the puppies? One student said, “Six divided by three is two. Each group will take two puppies with them”. So they did and they brought the presents too so the little kids could be there for the opening. Each group sent a messenger back to Debbie, “The puppies like their presents"! Their presents were appropriately colored squeek or rope toys. This is so touching because I know the little town where Debbie lives and that young man in her class must have made his mother drive the 50 miles to Elko so he could get those presents.

Friday is going to be another good day. Debbie is very proud of how well her students handled the puppies and she is pretty darn proud of how the puppies have handled all of their new experiences. Each student in her class is going to have his/her picture taken with a puppy of their choice. I need to write a very special thank you to her class and send them updates and pictures of the puppies. I’m sure they will want to know where each of these puppies ends up living. Hey, that could be a geography lesson!

Sheila Miller

Wolftree Acres

Nevada, USA

Puppy Journal

The puppies are five-weeks old today and weigh between 5 1/2 and 6 pounds each. In another week, their combined weight will outweigh Picabo. They are eating three meals a day and don’t need their food mashed up or goat’s milk added to it. They have graduated to yogurt. :-) It took Picabo a couple of days to get over her illness but she did and is back to 3+ double portion meals a day. She will still allow them to nurse but on her terms. She softly growls and gently snaps at any puppy sneaking in for a snack. I don’t blame her. Their teeth are sharp and they don’t have much bite inhibition at this age.

Their fourth week was spent with me studying them and seeing what they were ready to do. For instance, up until now, the bedroom door has been open when they were out of the Dura-Whelp. While they were eager to explore the bedroom, crossing the threshold was a different matter. The hallway is dark with a vinyl floor whereas the bedroom is bright with carpet and newspapers. They would venture to the door but would not pass through it. That is, until Tuesday. Purple Girl just nonchalantly passed through the doorway and into the hall. When nothing happened to her, her littermates cautiously followed her. That was my cue to go to the end of the hall, get down on my knees, clap my hands, and call “puppy, puppy”. The hallway is only six feet long but that was a long six feet for them. We worked on walking down the hallway and into the living room (love that room) and into the kitchen (don’t like that room yet - too bright - too hard to walk on the floor). Now I have to have a baby gate up in their bedroom to keep them in!

With me gone all day and sleeping a few hours each night, I worry that they spend too much time in isolation. So this was the week I utilized the compost bin/x-pen in the living room. While the other dogs were crated for dinner, I would be in the living room with the puppies while they explored and used me as a jungle gym and living pin cushion. I would then put them in the x-pen with their toys and let the other dogs out. This is good for the puppies to be in the center of the house seeing dogs walk around, sniff them, hear them bark, etc. The puppies were put back in the Dura-Whelp for bed.

Week Five begins the socialization period. Deliberate socialization is necessary for the entire first year but weeks five through seven are critical in helping the puppy develop problem solving skills and a “shake it off” attitude as he faces the challenges and fear periods of puppyhood and adolescence. Sights, sounds, people, dogs, surfaces, toys, food, the list is endless. You don’t socialize a puppy by scaring it or forcing it to do things it isn’t ready for. You socialize the puppy by putting it in new and different situations (not scary) and letting the puppy get used to it. Besides exposing the puppies to things like vacuum cleaners, plastic bags, and TV sounds, I try to put the puppies in situations where they will go forward (toward) instead of backwards. I only get so close to the puppies and then encourage them to come to me. I also try to get out of the habit of carrying them. It takes us a lot longer to get to places in the house, but it is better for them mentally to make the journey themselves.

The puppies had a big journey today. My sister Debbie volunteered to take the litter for a week to give me a break and to give the puppies some great experiences. The journey to my van took about 20 minutes. With Picabo’s supervision, I carried two puppies at a time out the front door and since it was sunny (OK, it was only 32 degrees), I put them down on the lawn. The first pair out were Pink Girl and Green Boy. They were initially stunned but got to sniffing everything and slowly walking around. Green Boy stopped to pee and Pink Girl pooped. I scooped them up and put them in the warm van. Next pair was Yellow Boy and Purple Girl. Purple Girl sat at my feet and shivered. She didn’t like this. Yellow Boy on the hand, practically bounded off. He scampered through the grass, ran up to a tree and looked at it, then scampered over to the gravel. I had to chase him down before he noticed the deck. The cotton tails fit under there and so would he. They went into the van. The last pair out was Blue Boy and White Boy. Blue Boy was very funny because he kept pawing the air like he was afraid to take a step. The texture of the grass was giving him a sensory overload. White Boy sniffed around but stayed close to Blue Boy. I got down, clapped, and called them and White Boy bounded toward me. Blue Boy came too and once he took that first step on grass, he was OK with it. I wish it would warm up so they could have more outside adventures. It is a two-hour drive to my sister’s house. We met at the halfway town (Elko). They traveled well and didn’t hesitate to come out of the crate. We transferred them to Debbie’s van and she brought them home. She called to tell me that they needed zero time to adjust to their new digs. They like her kitchen and the stuff she put in it for them. They also like her and never shied from climbing all over her and biting her face. They do that pretty well. :-)

Monday will be “develop a daily routine” day for Debbie and her dogs. Beginning on Tuesday, she will be bringing the puppies to her fourth grade classroom in the afternoon. Her students are so excited! I am excited that both kids and puppies will be learning lots of stuff this week.

This week is going to feel like a vacation. I don’t have to get up at 4:15. I can sleep until 5:00! :-) I’ve already taken the Dura-Whelp down. This week I will clean the bedroom where the puppies have been and then redesign my dog room so the puppies can have a 4’X6' x-pen space when they come back next week. If I had a place to put my table, I would set up another x-pen in the kitchen.

One other thing happened this week. Green Boy had an “awakening”. He is now on the same clock as everyone else and is a different puppy. He thinks wide awake puppies are more fun than sleeping ones. :-)

Sheila Miller

Wolftree Acres

Nevada, USA

sdmiller@the-onramp.net

http://www.wolftreeacres.homestead.com

Puppy Journal

And in the blink of an eye, they are puppies. :-)

They bark, they bite, they pounce, they wag their tails, and they tumble ass over tea kettle. They make each other cry. They are inquisitive. They are underfoot. They are developing their personalities (though these are subject to major change as the weeks go by).

Pink and Purple Girls are the “Hey, what is that?” puppies. First to do everything.

Blue Boy is the most alert. He shakes and “kills” his toys. He protests when things don’t go his way. Case in point. He wants under the bed. I blocked the way. He wants under the bed. HE WANTS UNDER THE BED.

Green Boy is already marching to the beat of his own drummer. When his brothers and sisters are awake, he is asleep. When he is awake, they are asleep. He explores and plays by himself (or torments sleeping puppies).

White and Yellow Boys are my “good boys”. They are the “What are we doing now?” puppies. They are good to cuddle, game to eat, love to sleep, and willing to do whatever the other puppies are doing.

They are four-weeks old today and I don’t know how much weigh. The pan they sit in on the scale is the perfect size to block the corner of the bed (and foil Blue Boy’s attempts to get under the bed).

Last week I wrote that I would be starting the weaning process. I wasn’t going to waste my time fixing their first meals if they weren’t ready for it. So on Tuesday night I tried them on water. They were all curious about the dish and dipped their noses in it. Good sign. I decided that I would fix them their first meal on Wednesday when they were 3 1/2 weeks old.

Wednesday was the night of the flood. Flood #1 occurred after school when I was putting down a clean bowl of water in the laundry room (dogs come and go in and out of the house through the laundry room - I fix their meals in there - Booster bath is in there) and some blonde CBR head knocked it out of my hand. Much cursing ensued because I cleaned this room when I was home sick. Flood #2 occurred in the puppy room when I was putting Picabo’s dinner down and she jumped up and then down into her water dish sending water everywhere. More cursing (sorry you had to hear that puppies). I started a load of puppy laundry and fixed everyone else their dinner. Trip #1 and I carried the Field Spaniels' dishes into the dog room. Trip #2 and I carried Hope and True’s dishes into the dog room. Trip #3 was to put Mercy’s food down on the laundry room floor (she is 13-years old and eats in there. She eats a little, takes a break by going out into the yard, comes back and eats some more - it takes her about 20 minutes to eat). Trip #3 into the laundry room and splish splash there is water everywhere! The washer filled, overfilled, and overflowed! I rushed over to shut off the machine but the water kept flowing. The main water shut-off valve is right there so I shut water off to the house. I am speechless. No cursing this time. I put Mercy all the way outside to eat and grabbed my mop. You know that dog hair that collects under the washer and dryer? You know that dirt and hair that we never clean up often enough? There was my sparkling clean laundry room floor with all that dirt and hair floating on it. I mopped up enough water to stop the splashing, hauled the Booster Bath into the kitchen, and literally tossed my used-to-be clean but now soggy rugs out the back door (where they still sit in a frozen lump). The rest of the evening was spent cleaning the laundry room (it ain’t easy pulling out the washer and dryer) and puzzling out what was wrong with the machine (cold water valve is stuck open for some reason). I turned off water to just the washer and turned water back on to the house. Oh, to raise a litter without a washer. Not good. But not that bad. The washer works, it just has to be manually filled with water. I can do that with a hose from the laundry tub. Not convenient but workable until the local repairman gets a day off from his regular job. He’s supposed to be here this coming Friday after school. Needless to say, the puppies did not get their first meal on Wednesday.

Sometime during the school day on Thursday, it dawned on me that I wasn’t sick. I felt better than I had in over a month. I went home in good spirits. I opened the front door and a wave of something foul-smelling hit me. My FS were all there fine and well. I went into the puppy room and Picabo was sick. She had thrown up twice and had one bout of diarrhea. More cleaning up but this time without an easy to use washer. Picabo didn’t have a temperature and her gums were nice and pink. She was quite green around the gills and you could tell by looking at her that she didn’t feel well. I shrugged it off to the stress of raising a litter. This same thing happened to her with her first litter at exactly the same time. My plan was to let her fast until morning, put her on a bland diet, and of course, I would feed her puppies. If that didn’t work, I did have the pills the vet gave me when this happened before. Pills are a last resort because of the drug transference through her milk. It is now Sunday and she is bright and perky but not 100%. That little bit of extra weight I have been working so hard to keep on her is gone. She is positively gaunt. She is eating a 1/2 portion of her food with cottage cheese. She isn’t vomiting anymore but her stools are still really loose (but she goes hours and hours between poops). She is drinking water well. She will be fine. She just can’t bounce back as quickly as she could if she wasn’t under this stress.

So the puppies were given their first dog food meal on Thursday night and they think I am one heck of a cook. :-) My weaning formula is:

1. Put the kettle on to boil.

2. Put a small amount of mom’s kibble in a mixing bowl.

3. Cover with boiling water.

4. Let soak until cool.

5. Smash it up with a potato masher.

6. For six puppies, divide it into two shallow dishes. I’ve been using the little dishes that come with frozen entrees.

7. Pour a generous amount of either goat’s milk, buttermilk, or Esbilac on top. I’m using Esbilac Goat’s Milk. It takes one can per day.

8. As days go by, reduce the milk product and add things like yogurt and cottage cheese. Reduce the amount of mashing. If mom is getting puppy food, switch the puppies over to adult food once they get the hang of eating and digesting dog food.

These puppies have taken to food really well. Thursday night they basically lapped up the milk. This morning they actually ate the food. Speaking of mornings, now that they are eating (and pooping real poop), the 30 minutes extra minutes I need in the morning to take care of them is now 45 minutes (and 60 would be better). The puppies are more fun now but they are also a lot more physical work. Karen Miller called me Saturday morning and asked how things were going. I said weakly, “Oh, fine”. LOL I can’t help but think of the song lyric, “So you had a bad day”. :-) Actually, its not so bad. It could be a lot worse. Things just got a little complicated this week. :-)

Sheila Miller

Wolftree Acres

Nevada, USA

sdmiller@the-onramp.net

http://www.wolftreeacres.homestead.com

Puppy Journal

The latest from Sheila Miller:

The puppies were 3-weeks old as of Sunday. They weigh between 3 1/4 and 3 3/4 pounds each.

Their third week was a big one for them. Between 14 and 21 days old, several little miracles happened:

1. Eyes fully open and responsive

2. Can pee and poop on their own.

3. Ears open as evidenced by the first startle reactions to sound.

4. Have started wandering around the bedroom instead of staying put on their blanket while I clean the Dura-Whelp. :-)

5. Have noticed each other, especially each other’s noses.

6. Their milk teeth erupted!

7. They had their first nail trim.

This current week, going on 4-weeks old, is also a big one as they make the transition into real puppies. This is the week where I will see if they are interested in the weaning process. Picabo’s first litter wasn’t interested at all at this age. Puppies have to be hungry to try food. Picabo is too good of a provider. They will also become more curious about everything and more playful with each other. The game we can play now is the one where I kneel down half in/half out of the whelping box (not a very glamorous position) and the puppies come to me and explore my hair, face (take off the glasses!), and crawl over my arms. As each day goes by, I will be looking for signs of escape. I’ve given them their first toys - soft baby rattles - and they bite on the toys' little ears. They need to have more little adventures out of the whelping box now that they are comfortable in the bedroom. I put them on a blanket in the living room and they definitely knew they were somewhere else. They cried a little, wandered a little, and then piled up and went to sleep. Once they are comfortable in that room, I will set up an x-pen in there so the whole family can watch TV (is anything on??).

Let me tell you about my new x-pen for the living room. I bought it a couple of years ago from a gardening supply company. It is a 4-panel compost bin. Each panel is vinyl covered and is 28” high and 35 1/2” wide. It comes with clever connectors but I just use zip ties to hold it together. I bought two of them (8 panels) to keep the dogs off of my tomatoes (doesn’t work on chipmunks). I was excited about its potential use for puppies because of its height. I’m not a tall person and regular x-pens are hard for me to reach over and pick up a puppy. I should be able to reach over this. Because each panel is separate, I can overlap them to get exactly the size I what. If I put the ties on loosely, it will even fold up and out of the way.

The puppies are trying to suck the life out of Picabo but she is holding up very well. She is thin but still has flesh covering her bones. She is eating very well. She is on track to consume between 70 and 80 pounds of puppy food from her second trimester until weaning. Wow! That doesn’t include all of the yogurt, cheese, meat, eggs, and other snacks I give her. She is, however, quite bald. Her body has no intention of diverting any food to hair production. Time enough for that later. She comes outside with the other dogs and goes on walks with us. She is doing very well. I, on the other hand, am not. I’ve been fighting a virus or combination of viruses since a couple of days before the puppies were born. Every school is a cesspool of microbes. They usually miss me but not this year. The latest incarnation is in the form of laryngitis. Five days without any voice at all - just air. :-) I taught one day like that and called it quits. I’m about 75% now and will go back to school tomorrow. Raising a litter a puppies during the school year is tough. My life would be so much easier if I had a husband with a job, a wife with upper body strength, or a lover who could cook. Since I have none of those, I guess I will clean the Dura-Whelp again, run a load of laundry, and fix a bowl of cereal for supper. :-)

Sheila Miller

Wolftree Acres

Nevada, USA

sdmiller@the-onramp.net

http://www.wolftreeacres.homestead.com

Puppy Journal

The puppies are 2-weeks old as of Sunday and have been put into rick rack.

1st born black male = white boy (2 1/2 pounds)

2nd born black male = yellow boy (2 1/4 pounds)

3rd born liver male = green boy (2 lbs, 10 ounces)

4th born liver male = blue boy (2 lbs, 10 ounces)

5th born black female = pink girl (2 3/4 pounds)

6th born liver female = purple girl (2 1/2 pounds)

Whether CBR or FS, every “pink girl” in every litter of mine has grown up and accomplished things in show or performance rings. All those girls were brown. This time around I put the pink rick rack on the black bitch. Not because I am picking her to be the “one” but because she needs the extra luck that goes with pink. She is the only puppy in the litter with clear white. Everyone else has black or liver ticking filling in their muzzles and/or toes. The white comes from both Cosmo and Picabo but the absence of ticking come from Cosmo. :-( I know it is way too early to worry about their color (it can take up to six months for facial white to fill in) but I can’t help but notice how “clean” she is compared to how “dirty” the rest are. Yellow boy, Blue boy, and Purple girl are going to basically be solid-colored dogs with a little white on their throats and chests. White boy might end up with a slight look of gray around his nose (like Picabo - you have to look for it). Green boy and Pink girl are wait and sees.

A lot has happened in the last week. They are up on their feet and wobbling a few steps forward and backward. Their eyes are open and at the very least, pink girl has shown signs of useful vision. I held her today by the window and she turned toward it, then she turned toward me. When Picabo was outside the Dura-Whelp’s gate, she wobbled toward the gate and made the first attempt at climbing over it (a pretty feeble attempt but she stood on three legs and put her other paw on the barrier). They are also very vocal the few seconds they are awake. They don’t cry but they make a baby barking sound.

Sunday was a big day. I took out the pig rails because they were threatening to become lethal. The puppies are now just big enough and mobile enough that they could get their necks caught between the rail and Picabo. I know because I had to rescue a couple of them Saturday night. I made yet another modification to the Dura-Whelp. I bought a piece of white marker board, used the whelping box’s removable door as a pattern, and cut two new door sizes. The doors slide into grooves and close off the opening. There is no inbetween. The gate is open or it is closed. I want the puppies in but I want Picabo to come and go as she pleases. The opening to the door is 7 inches high. I cut a door that now makes the opening 9 inches high. It is still easy for Picabo to step over but I won’t have to worry about escaping puppies this week. Next week will be another story. I made a second door that is 12 inches high. That one will only go in when I notice the puppies trying to get out. Picabo can hop over it but I don’t want her landing on a puppy. My hope is to keep them contained until they are four-weeks old and then move them into the x-pen. I’m not hopeful that they will last that long in the Dura-Whelp. The other big thing that happened on Sunday was that I moved back into my own room. Ahh, to sleep for six uninteruppted hours… The puppies don’t need me and Picabo wanted the bed in that room anyway. :-)

My oh my but I have had to invest a lot of time in that plastic box. I have it sitting on 1 1/2 inches of styrofoam for additional insulation (that will come out when the 12” door goes in), I have added additional Velcro to both the floor and the two pads I purchased. I made two more pads and I have made two replacement doors. I coded the pig rails with a Sharpie so when I use it again, I can line everything up the way I had it this time. The box is guaranteed for three years. That’s funny because it will be at least three years, maybe four before I use it again. :-)

Not much else has happened. Picabo has rejoined the family on our daily walks. I don’t have to supervise her toilet duties anymore. To say she is blowing her coat is an understatement. She scratches herself and oops, she is bald there. It will all grow back nice and black and shiny. I do have the pictures back from last week and I will make an album to put up in the list’s photo file.

Sheila Miller

Wolftree Acres

Nevada, USA

sdmiller@the-onramp.net

http://www.wolftreeacres.homestead.com

Puppy Journal

This is the latest installment of Sheila Miller’s “Puppy Journal", covering the progress of a new litter of field spaniels — one of which will be ours, and the next agility champion! You can read the previous installments here and here. We’ve named our new puppy: Miki (pronounced MEE-kee) — Hawai’ian for fast, agile, and alert. Pretty good for an agility champion, eh?

And now without further delay — the puppy journal:

My how time flies. Has it been 10 days now? Everyone is doing well. The puppies have more than doubled their weight. They weigh between 1 pound, 10 ounces (the two black males) and 2 pounds (the two girls). The other two boys fall in between but are closer to the girls' weight. Picabo is also doing well and is keeping her weight and attitude up.

10 years ago when I first started breeding dogs, a CBR friend of mine told me, “The first three weeks are easy. The dam does all of the work. Just keep her clean and fed.” True, the work right now isn’t physical but it is stressful. There is that little worry always in the back of your head about puppies not gaining weight, getting cold or squished and not getting handled enough. They receive mild stress every day in the form of a series of 5, 5-second exercises. The pads of each foot are tickled with a cosmetic brush. They are held vertically (and I look at their sealed eyes), on their back in my hands (and I look at their umbilicus and the pads of their feet), held head down and finally placed on a cool surface. The mild stress boosts their developing immune system, oxygenates their tissues, and helps their neurons make connections as they attempt to right themselves. The things I look for are the first signs of an eye infection, umbilical hernia, and pigment to cover those white toes! The pigment is there!! :-) I am also looking for Cosmo’s perfect feet. His first puppies with Picabo have nice feet but they aren’t his (and he got his from his daddy Spicer and I think he got his from his daddy Roger). Right now it looks like one of the black boys might have the “squishy” pads I’m looking for. On my “to do” list with the puppies is to put them in rick rack. Because of the gender and color split I have, it is very easy to tell the puppies apart. Well, if you pick them up. I need to color code them so I can ID them from a distance. That comes in handy when they become more interactive and I keep track of what they do. They can do a lot right now. They can root, they can crawl, they can snuffle your ears and sleep their twitchy sleep in the crook of your arm. They have a wide range of vocalizations. They “purr", cry on occasion and even bark (though they don’t open their mouths so it is muffled and very endearing). I love these puppies. :-)

As for Picabo, she is much like a puppy herself. I take her outside, not just put outside, to relieve herself. I swear I have a permanent poop bag on my right hand. As long as I am outside (in my pj’s, parka, and flashlight) walking her up and down the yard, I might as well pick up whatever poop is out there. The longer I am outside, the longer she is out getting some exercise and fresh air. I pick up her poop for two reasons: two of my dogs have developed a “taste” for hers and for quality control. I have become quite an expert on her poop as each bowel movement determines her next meal. Her base food is Iams Puppy with either meat, eggs, cheese, yogurt, bran, or whole wheat bread added to it. Two of her meals are soaked in one half cup of Goat’s Milk Esbilac. The result so far is a bitch who is keeping up her weight and pooping well (I can pick it up). After every trip outside, she gets (in this order) her face washed, boobs washed, discharges wiped away and butt wiped. Once a day I comb her out. She is getting kind of itchy (she is starting to shed) so tomorrow night I am going to give her a bath with oatmeal shampoo.

I have to tell you about Monday (President’s Day) and the ongoing saga of my Dura-Whelp. I went to Winnemucca for my weekly shopping. I couldn’t get my film developed because one place had their machine torn down for maintenance and the other place was closed because of the holiday (but I was able to get the van’s tires rotated!). I went to Wal-Mart and was irritated that part of the parking was fenced off and torn out (Super Wal-Mart is coming). I pulled my van up to the newly set up outside garden area and there they were with a little new snow drifted around them - plastic wading pools! My puppies were born one week too late. Oh well, I went inside for paper and plastic products, dog food, and Velcro. They had 3” wide industrial strength Velcro in your choice of adhesive or nonadhesive. I grabbed the adhesive because I needed the one side to stick to the Dura-Whelp. I also bought 2 1/2 yards of fleece so I could make two extra beds for the Dura-Whelp. I thought I was so smart. I would cut the Velcro in squares, stick the loop end to the Dura-Whelp and sew the fuzzy end to the fleece. Oh, the adhesive! The adhesive! It gummed up my sewing machine needle. I had to keep wiping the goo off the needle with rubbing alcohol. My poor Pfaff. It was never meant for crafts. :-( I finished the job and put a note inside my machine that said, “Gummed up”. I will deal with it the next time I use the machine. The sad part is that I already resolved the shifting bedding problem I had with the command, “Don’t dig”. When Picabo has the urge to dig, she leaves the box and scratches up a blanket I left on the floor. Oh that hindsight! I should have bought one package of adhesive Velcro for the box and one package of nonadhesive Velcro for the fleece. And forget “industrial strength”. It is so hard to peel off that the fleece will tear long before these puppies are weaned. LOL

I promise I am trying to get pictures! :-)

Sheila Miller

Wolftree Acres

Nevada, USA

Puppy Journal

From Sheila Miller:

So the puppies were born late afternoon/early evening on Sunday. A very civilized time to be born. Let me go on record right now by saying that Picabo is one hell of a brood bitch. I can’t believe how much she has emotionally matured since her first litter almost two years ago. She was a great mom then but so serious. Age and experience have left her very skilled but easy going with the newborns.

It was an easy delivery and easy clean-up. We settled into bed by 11:00 p.m. If you haven’t been around neonate puppies, they mew like kittens. I laid in bed and listened to the sounds they made. They have sounds for “too cold", “too hungry", and “too squished” and one for “just practicing my mew”. They weren’t cold, they weren’t hungry, and they weren’t being squished. They nursed and slept. So then I laid in bed and listened to all the sounds this end of the house makes. There was the ticking of the clock, the rumble of the space heater and further from the bedroom I could hear the whole house ventilation fan and every once in awhile, the fridge. IOW, I didn’t sleep much. One of the things that kept me awake is my new Dura-Whelp whelping box. Since it is winter, I couldn’t buy my reliable $6.00 wading pool and had to buy the $280.00 plastic box. I’m happy enough with the Dura-Whelp though I’m still a bit in shock over the price. The box is held together by Velcro. Every time Picabo would stretch out, I would hear that distinctive tearing sound of Velcro separating. I was positive the whole thing would collapse in the night. It didn’t but the bedding kept shifting.

I am always “sick” for a day or two after a litter is born. This time I really was (still am) sick. Some respiratory virus that has overtaken our school has traveled the whole of my body and settled in my chest (and has turned me into a mouth-breather). I was hoping Monday would be a day of checking on dogs, puppies and sleeping. Monday was spent ironing out the wrinkles of the Dura-Whelp. My main concern was the bedding. The bedding is just a square of synthetic fleece with Velcro sewn in the corners to match the Velcro in the corners of the box. Picabo doesn’t dig much in her box but she does shift her body position. Every shift from her, shifted the bedding. Every shift of the bedding put the puppies at risk of getting caught underneath the bedding or on the cold, slippery surface of the plastic box. I had some Velcro in my sewing box and tried adding more to the edges but its adhesive wouldn’t permanently stick to the plastic. I wasn’t about to use a stronger

adhesive and let those babies inhale the fumes. I had to fix this problem because in just another day, Picabo and her puppies would be on their own all day long. What I came up with was carpet tape. I clean and dry the Dura-Whelp and then place additional squares of carpet tape around the fleeces bedding. It sticks fairly well to the plastic an OK to the fleece. Enough to last the day. When I change the bedding, I just pull off the tape and repeat the process.

Monday night was another short night because Picabo had her post-whelping diarrhea. I would like to know how the other breeders on this list feed their bitches during the first 36 hours after whelping. Mine all get yucky diarrhea as they work out all those consumed placentas from their bodies.

We headed over to Elk Tuesday afternoon for tail docking and dew claw removal. I used to be so conservative about this. I always waited until they were 3 or 4 days old and had definitely put on weight. No more. Picabo’s first litter was docked at 48 hours old and they immediately bounced back. This litter was a few hours shy of 48 hours and each one’s whimpering stopped before the next puppy was docked. It is the most disgusting ordeal to witness but I like the look of a docked tail and they really do recover quickly.

Wednesday I was back in school and Picabo was on her own. I came home to a stinky house as she had a poopy accident (but hit the papers!) in the bedroom. Picabo’s GI tract consumed a lot of my time with her first litter. I am going to stay on top of her digestion this time. I’ve added bran cereal to her diet to help hold her together as she adjusts to the physical stress she is under. It seems to be working so far.

Now it is Friday and these puppies and their mom are just great. OK, I said 2 boys and 1 girl were liver and 2 boys and 1 girl were black. But you really didn’t think they were all black and all liver coming from Cosmo and Picabo did you? LOL

Little Black Boy: White muzzle, white toes on front feet, white chest, and a thin white line between the eyes.

Bigger Black Boy: Dusting of white on nose. White cross on chest.

Liver Boy (AKA the Border Collie): White muzzle, four white feet, white chest, and white spot on the BACK of his neck.

Other Liver Boy: Dusting of white on nose, white chest, white toes on two front feet. This boy is a darker shade of liver than the other two liver puppies. He is also the only puppy in the litter NOT to show bright tan under the tail. Most believe that is a sign the puppy is a carrier for tan markings.

Black Girl (AKA the springer): White muzzle, full white blaze between the eyes, white chest, and four white feet.

Liver Girl: White chin, white chest, and white toes on the two front feet.

The good news is that everyone now has “dirty feet” meaning they are ticking up. I am confident that all of the facial and toe white will fill in. I know that the chest white will decrease in size to just a flash of white. But they sure are cute now. :-)

Debbie is going to stop by my house on Saturday. We will take pictures and I hope to have some up for you to view by Monday.

Sheila Miller

Wolftree Acres

Nevada, USA

Puppy Journal

You’ve read my scribblings about our two field spaniels (Mo’i and Lea). In fact, you’re probably really tired of them <smile>! Well, I’ve got bad news for you: things about about to get worse.

We’re going to have a new field spaniel puppy in a few weeks! That means completely out-of-control field spaniel blogging (with photos!) is just around the corner…

Meanwhile, Sheila Miller will pick up the slack. Sheila is the field spaniel breeder whose inspired matchings produced Mo’i, Lea, and a whole bunch of other beautiful brown dogs. This time, though, they’re not all brown — you see, field spaniels come in variations and mixes of browns, plus black and white.

Picabo just gave birth a few days ago to the litter from which our puppy will come — and that litter, as you can see below, has a variety of colors. A little later Sheila will have the puppies “temperment tested", so we can choose one with a better likelihood of being a good agility dog. I’m hoping that the winner of that contest will be at least partially black — I really like the black, black-and-liver, and black-and-white field spaniels that I’ve seen at shows…

Sheila is writing a “Puppy Journal” on her experiences with this litter, and here’s the first installment:

Sheila Miller’s Puppy Journal:

First, let me thank all of you who have sent private and public congratulations. Its not like me to not reply to an e-mail but I’ve been busy. :-) I appreciate your warm thoughts.

I also want to thank Picabo’s co-owners Debbie Miller and Sandy Burt-Jones for allowing me to lease Picabo. Like Scarlett O’Hara’s line, “I depend on the kindness of others”. LOL

Let’s go back to May 23, 2004 when Picabo whelped her first litter. Her puppies were huge, the time between water breaking and first puppy being born was long, and every puppy was delivered with screams from her. I told myself that I would not lease Picabo again (I’m a wimp when it comes to the pain of others). After the dust settled with that whelping, I told myself that IF I lease her again, then 2006 would be a good year to have puppies.

Picabo’s first litter was sired by Cosmo, son of Spicer and Juno. They are turning out very nicely and I figured I would breed her to a relative of Cosmo’s (half-brother, nephew or cousin). Well, the best laid plans… After the fourth stud dog choice wasn’t going to work out, I found myself with an in-season bitch and nowhere for her to go. So I brought Picabo and Cosmo to the vet for blood tests (brucellosis and thyroid) and made the appointment in Reno for eye checks.

I’ve never repeated a breeding before. I don’t have anything against it. It is just that since I’ve never bred a bitch more than twice in her life, I’ve always chosen different studs just for the genetic variety. The breedings went very well. I would crate all of my dogs for dinner, put Picabo out in the front yard and Cosmo out in the backyard. I would close all the doors to rooms where I didn’t want a breeding to take place and then let the two of them in. They would run around the house while I flipped channels on the TV. When they stopped running, I would go look for them and wait out the tie. What could be easier than that? :-)

Flash forward to a couple of weeks ago. I’m getting ready for the whelping by making sure I not only have everything the dam and puppies will need but also everything I will need such as food, paper products, beer, wine, etc. Once the puppies come, I will be a weekend-only shopper.

Wednesday, February 8th. Picabo and I run to Elko after school for her x-ray. Since I live so far from my vet (75 miles) and there aren’t any emergency vet clinics closer than 250 miles, I x-ray my bitches to get an idea of how many and how big to expect. Picabo is water buffalo big but the x-ray only shows 4 puppies. One puppy shows a complete spine, full ribs and head. I ask Dr. Rob if that couldn’t be two puppies overlapped. He said, “Where’s the second head"? OK, good point. So four for sure, maybe, just maybe a fifth. Rob thinks they look good-sized (i.e. big like the first litter). He then tells me that he is leaving the next day (Picabo’s first due date) for a four-day rock climbing trip near Las Vegas. He asked me if I wanted some oxytocin to go. Of course I do. I always have a shot on hand in case I need it. If I don’t need it, then I give it an hour or so after what I think is the last puppy as a clean out shot. He gave me four shots. OH MY GOD. Does he think they will be so big that I will need one per puppy??? Oh, this will be a long weekend by myself.

Even though Thursday is her first due date, I absolutely don’t expect puppies until the weekend at the earliest. Picabo’s first litter taught me that she breeds well before she ovulates. Thursday and Friday go by as normal days for little black water buffaloes.

Saturday is pretty normal too. The only thing I noticed about Picabo is that she crated herself after dinner (not her crate, but Cosmo’s crate). No nesting, just sleeping. She didn’t show any other signs of labor. Her appetite and attitude were both good. She was crated in my bedroom that night and I awoke at 12:00 a.m. to sounds of her digging in her crate. I listened as she flipped her crate pad around and settled back down. I fell asleep. I awoke at 1:00 a.m. to the same sounds. She settled down and I fell asleep. I had a dream…

I dreamt that Picabo easily whelped her puppies. Puppy #1 was a bitch! Unfortunately she was a rather large Bernese Mountain Dog. :-( Puppy #2 was a dog. A big, fat, deadgrass MALE Chesapeake Bay Retriever. A handsome boy but I need another male CBR like I need… Puppy #3 was a bitch! A small bitch! A black bitch! A black bitch with two white stripes down her back??? Puppy #3 was a skunk! LOL Not a puppy marked like a skunk but an actual skunk. It doesn’t take a dream analysts to know that I was worried about the size, sex, and color of these puppies. I awoke again at 2:00 a.m. to sounds of Picabo digging in her crate. Enough was enough. I put all of my dogs outside for a potty break and went into the spare room/office/whelping room and made up the bed in there. By 2:30 a.m., Picabo and I were in bed. She scratched around the whelping box a couple of times then jumped in bed with me. We slept the rest of the night away…

Sunday morning dawned and Picabo’s appetite and attitude were good although once again she crated herself. She had to be in the early stages of labor. She asked to go out with the rest of the dogs around noon. I watched her dig a nest under a bush. By the time I walked to the back door, Picabo was at the front door asking to come in. She came in and went back to bed. Later that afternoon came out all peppy and joined us on a walk (well, more like a waddle). When we came back to the house, I told the dogs we would feed the birds and put out the trash. Picabo said, “groan”. I said, “Picabo was that you"? Again she said, “groan”. The two of went in the house. I admit all I could think about was that I was hungry and wasn’t going to get to eat for awhile. :-) Her water broke and she delivered the first puppy ten minutes later. This was an easy, stress free delivery. Boom, boom, boom. 3 puppies followed and Picabo took it all in stride. I on the other hand, became more depressed with each birth. We were expecting four puppies and the first four were all boys. I crossed my fingers that there would be a fifth but I had to wait about an hour to find out. Boom, boom, two more puppies this time girls!

Here they are in birth order:

black male - 9 ounces

liver male - 13 ounces

liver male - 12 ounces

black male - 10 ounces

black female - 15 ounces

liver female - 14 ounces

These sizes are all normal for FS and very good for little Picabo. They are now four days old and the only puppy who hasn’t yet crossed the one pound threshold is the first black male and he is only an ounce away.

To be continued…

Sheila Miller

Wolftree Acres

Nevada, USA