its the eve of pick day. I focused a lot the last couple days on each pup individually. Their strengths and weakness. So this is it. In no particular order.
Pink. I miss judged her. She is still sweet. Loves to roll over for belly rubs. She loves to be held. But she is a little shy. She hangs out with everyone else for company. Not because she is out going. She is alert and watches my every move.
Red. She is the most out going. She prefers to escape the cage and sleep alone in the window. She is independent. She is dominate to the others. She likes to kiss my check. She is a smarty pants.
Yellow. She too flips over for belly rubs. She is easy going and usually on the big dog bed rolling around with the others. That’s her favorite place to be.
Purple. She is a happy girl. She is in the middle of everyone else. She loves to snuggle on my feet. She loves the doggy door. As soon as it’s unlocked she spots it and comes out. She learned that trick first.
Brown. He is a little more outgoing than most. He is playful. And usually he is in charge if red isn’t. He rolls around with yellow on the bed trying to clam it. He is independent as well.
Black. He is very mellow. The snuggler. He is fun. He hangs out with everyone else usually curled up in a ball.
Grey. He is the most mellow of the litter. He sits so I can pet him. And if I’m petting someone else he will beg for me to pick him up. He likes his head and chin scratched. He is fun and plays but prefers to be loved on.

I hope everyone understands my descriptions. I look forward to seeing everyone tomorrow.

By now most of you have heard me talk about pawtree food and the seasoning. I have researched and researched foods. You guys know me, I’m brutally honest. I started with Natural balance years ago because I had fed it to a dog with allergies and he did great on it. Then I switched to Merrick. I because all the dogs loved it. The down side was it caused runny poo and it was very stinky. Weaning pups was awful. My whole house smelled from puppy poo. I also had a couple of pups report uti issues because the protein was so high. So I switched back to natural balance. But I found at least 1/2 of the pups I sent home changed foods because they wouldn’t eat the natural balance. Along the way I also fed raw. I would feed all raw if I could. But I can’t. If you have one dog it’s easy. You know the amount every day to defrost and feed. But when you have pregnant and nursing mommas it’s hard to guess every day the amount you may need to defrost. Plus a lot of puppy owners just won’t feed raw. But it’s the least amount of un stinky poo there is. I can pick up poo in the middle of summer and put in trashcan and no one knows it’s in there. I don’t shudder every time I see the trashmen. Lol. Anyway we have tried countless other brands over the years. I’ve never weaned a litter to anything else other than merrick and natural balance. But my girls have tried lots of food. So after all the info that came out in the Tuff’s article then the pea/lagume infertility issue another breeder told me about Pawtree. It took me a month to finally order the seasoning. The first time I used it Curly went crazy. So a month later I bought the food. The kibble was perfect size for weaning a litter on to. So fast forward to this week. I started pups off on raw and goats milk. This litter has teeth early so I decided to by pass mush and try the kibble in goats milk. They ate it! So by today I stopped goats milk and did just kibble. They ate it! And I’m getting to the best part, no odor in the poo! I couldn’t believe it. Nice firm poo that didn’t smell up the whole house. I’m more impressed with Pawtree every day. Finally a food that’s made in the USA, a food they will eat, and nice firm odorless poo. A win win in my book. I just wanted to share this with you guys. Some may say it’s only poo. But a good poo is the indication of health. And gi issues. This is a picture of the girls trying to steal the puppies kibble. This would never have happened ousting another kibble. They eat and love raw. They refused kibble for a long time. But when I purchased the pawtree kibble they all decided that they loved kibble again.

this will be a long one. I’ll start with, I know a couple are really focusing on color. Remember you have to live with this pup for a long time. So the first year can be super easy. Or it can be very difficult. When a pup fits in the family they fit. It’s easy. When they don’t you struggle and so does the pup. I have many pups over the years that it just clicked. It was easy and pleasurable. And then you have the couple that you had that hunch from day one that it was going to be a lot of work and it was. What you expect from them is not what they are giving. And this can work both ways. Either too shy or too outgoing. So with this in mind this is the run down of personalities. And we have a wide range in this litter. No particular order.
Pink. She is the happy go lucky social butterfly. Always going up to others to play or exploring. Always happy. She is a little happy butterball. Few things scare her.
Red. She is the smart one. The explorer. Learns something and repeats it. She will be head strong. She wants to learn and approaches things with ease. She is a kisser and loves to kiss my cheek.
Purple. She is the follower. Always in pinks shadow. She is always happy and likes to follow along and play. You will find her always with someone else. An easy going personality.
Yellow. She is the shy girl. She is content to entertain herself with a toy or play with someone else. You will often find her sleeping with a toy. She prefers low key and being laid back.

Brown camo. He is very independent. He will go off and explore and I find him at the glass door most often. He is sniffing and exploring everything. He is quite and enjoys searching the floor for a special toy to play with.
Purple Grey. He is a solid boy. He wants to play with the rest and enjoys being social. You will find ihim in the pile with everyone else. He is quite and is a follower.
Red black. He is the most laid back of all the pups. It’s as if I cloned Harley. He is quite and likes to snuggle and have me rub his neck. He can sleep in my lap for an hour and not a caeebin the world.

this is usually the week I start to get emails about preparing. Everyone is getting excited and counting down the days. I have a pretty good list on my website of what you need. What I recommend l. And what I send home. Amazon has a good selection of stuff. As far as food I’ve switched food this litter. I will be sending home Pawtree. I am over the moon about this food. Every food I’ve used in the past has had an issue or something I just didn’t like about it. Soft poo, dogs didn’t love it, recalls, ect. But Pawtree is made in the USA. Only healthy ingredients and no fillers. You feed less of it. And it’s about the same amount of poo as when I feed raw.

as week 3 starts I can’t believe they are so mobile. I changed the whelping box around and added potty pads and blankets. And it always fascinates me that they go straight to the potty pads to pee. It’s fun watching them toddle back and forth. I’ve been working on basic touching and handling and vibration. Using a soft toothbrush on their feet. Their eyes are fully opened now and they can see a couple feet away. They also can hear and recognize my voice when I speak. Dolly is spending less and less time in the box. Feeding about every 4 hours now. They are starting to play with each other now and interact. Red actually climbed out of the box yesterday ( I’m still sleeping beside the box!) so now I have the 1/2 door on the box. They are really finding their voices today and get pretty loud at times. Coming up this week will be a change in scenery. I will be moving them out of the whelping box and into a bigger puppy play pen. They will have a crate for sleeping, a potty area, and a small play area.

well the pups have arrived all healthy and are 2 weeks old now. Up until now they really are just Dolly Polly milk monsters. But at 2 weeks the eyes are starting to open. They can smell momma when she gets close to the whelping box. And they start to make lots of noises. Some even have developed a bark. This week I have cut toe nails and did the 2 week dewormer. All are gaining weight nicely and will start to thin out as they get mobile.