Can’t believe tomorrow is week 5. I’m really starting to see personality. Blue is independent like mom. Always exploring and following me. Very brave litter guy. Keeps his self entertained. The blacks are playful. Always playing with the toys. They love to sit and chew on one or play with the jungle gym. The Merle’s play with each other. They like to get in the crate and play. Or they go play on the rug at the door or under my desk. They love each other’s company. More to follow in the next couple days.

I know I said I’d go out of order. But this is really out of order. As I see posts on fb I think of things to blog about. Someone just posted that they picked up their pup (7 hour car ride) he vomited most of the trip and now it’s been 3 hours and he won’t eat or drink. Everyone is telling her to go to the vet. The last thing I will tell you when you walk out my door with your pup is that everything will be brand new to the pup when they arrive home. It’s not uncommon for pups to go 3-4 days and not eat. Don’t panic. Car sickness is also very common. I send a bag with you and paper towels and a special blanket just Incase. Trust me. I’ve sent 100 puppies home. This is all very normal. The pup is is scared. They were with me and litter mates for 8 weeks and as much as you love them you are a new person they don’t know. You spell differently. Your house is not familiar. No other pups are around. In just a couple days they will have relaxed and forgot all about me and littermates. But those first couple days they will sleep a lot. Not eat much. And not play. It’s ok.

One of the most important things you can do when you get your pup is formal training. I will send you home with a book. This is a great resource but does not replace formal training. I recently partnered with a company called bella and Baxter. If you have not saw me post about the free podcasts, go download them now! They are free. They are short. They are easy to follow and touch on real life stuff. This is the link for iOS. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-puppy-training-podcast/id1458176724

Bella and Baxter also have a formal training class. It’s done online. It’s very reasonable. And you can use the code curly to get 25% off! Which is amazing. They offer one on one training calls if you need help with a particular situation. I really like their setup. I like how easy the training is to follow. And I love the support. If you have an area you need extra help with don’t hesitate to call me and I can help you as well.

I send home all pups with their first set of vaccinations. They will need 2 more boosters. And elect shots if you choose. So there are lots of vaccinations on the market. Things like Lyme and influenza. You will need to Decide if you want to vaccinate against everything or just the minimal. I can see both sides. I have done both. Over vaccinating has its issues. Linked to all kinds of things including seizers and death. So you along with your vet need to decide what is important and what is not. Are the risks so great that you should. Or should you skip that one. Each elect vaccination should be looked and figured out yes or no. Don’t just say yes to everything. See if you have a need for that vaccination or not. The only one not elective is rabies. Some holistic vets will titer test. Check levels before just giving vac. Mine vet is costly to do this. So we just do yearly boosters after all puppies shots are given. I recommend coming up with your game plan for shots. Your vet will most likely recommend boosters at 12 and 16 weeks. Then yearly.

I just can’t believe we are to week 4 already. I know the weight chart looks like the black ones are huge but in person it appears they are just fat and not really that much larger. They are all active. Eating well. And starting to drink water. I’m starting to notice some personality. I will start to comment about each one over the next 2 weeks. All are sweet and doing great. But some are definitely more outgoing. Others more shy by noises. Some love more attention than others. Some are independent.

Today’s post is going to be about tick flea and heartworm medication. In light of one of our pups passing from ihma I thought this would be a great topic to cover today. Ihma can be brought on from tick diseases. Not always the case but it can. The rest of the cases they just don’t know why it happens. If you missed the post, daisy age 7 passed away this week from ihma. We are very saddened by this. So I wanted to take the time today to talk about prevention. As a breeder I’m limited to what I can use on pregnant dogs. Very few medications are safe. Actually most are linked to formalities at birth. So we strictly use revolution. However we have had diagnoses of Lyme and ehrlichiosis because of tick bites. Revolution is not great with ticks. I really like bravecta and serresto collars. Those are my 2 go toos. They work well with little side effects. There are others on the market. I recommend discussing with your vet the best recommendation. Because of age not every product can be used. You will also need a separate heartworm medication. Revolution covers all 3 but most do not. I recommend doing a snap test every year at your yearly exam. We will discuss shots/vaccinations tomorrow. But at each yearly vaccination appt I recommend doing a snap test, a fecal, script for flea/tick/heartworm meds in addition to your vaccinations. This allows one appt to cover the entire year. A yearly check-up. A lot of meds for fleas/ticks/heartworm are cheaper if you buy a yearly supply at a time.