Log
This is my attempt to write about the puppies..
Thursday Sept 15
Had a long face to face with little Orange today - his eyes are open, and perhaps he even wondered what or who I was. He made a few squeaks and only attempted to wiggle away after a few minutes, pretty mellow little guy. Wait 'till he learns what a refrigerator is and that I know how to open the door. I think I saw little little tiny teeth in his mouth when he yawned, haven't actually felt them yet.
Males are all now bigger than females, although Orange is only a smidge bigger than the girls. Blue (the monster!) is almost 30% heavier than the rest. Blacks all seem smaller than the Wheatens, but I think this is because their fur lies down smoothly, while the wheaten's fur all sticks straight out like a bad crew cut. Boy is their soft!
Kaare is starting to get curious about the puppies and came visiting today. Vali says Anya not only chased him out of the room, but downstairs and out the back. Apparently she's not ready for visitors yet. I did steal Orange when she wasn't looking and let Kaare sniff him a bit, not sure what Kaare thought about the little bundle of fur. Mostly curious I think. Granddad Jaksi was nowhere to be seen, probably on purpose.
Swear Orange had a twinge of that buffalo look that I captured in of Anya's puppy photos (Anja As Buffalo (15 days old)). I'll have to try to get a photo him doing this.
Speaking of Anja as a puppy, other than Blue (the monster!) all the puppies seem to be within an ounce or two of her weight at 15 days old (she weighed 36 1/2 oz, her daugthers are in the 36-38 range). Looks like their not growing any slower because she had 5 of them rather than Sophies one. Anja's eye's did seem to open a day or two earlier than her puppies.
Sept 14 (2 weeks old)
All puppies have their eyes open, although I'm not too sure how much they can see. Anya eating 3 of 4 cans of dog food a day, lots of hungry mouths to feed.
Puppies spent the day mostly sleeping and eating. Did have to herd them a bit back to the center of the bed when they escaped, but not too much. I give them perhaps two more weeks before they start getting into trouble.
Puppies have taken to yawning a lot and sticking out their tongues at me. I try not to take it personally.
Vali thinks the puppies all look like walruses.
Tuesday Sept 13
All the puppies are 2 lbs or more - 4X their original weight in less than two weeks. One of the black puppies (Orange?) gave Red a hicky on her stomach this morning, probably thinking her fat little tummy was actually mom - maybe we should call him Blackula?
All the wheaten ones seems to have opened their eyes (or at least Vali says so - to me, they seem to just be squinting....) The black ones not so much, they could be open but black eyes next to their shiny black fur is hard to see.
Orange (the boy black one) has been gaining weight the fastest, and should be 2nd biggest (behind monster blue) by tomorrow. He started out as the smallest.
Sort of strange, the wheaten puppies are actually gray in color when you compare them to Sophie and Kaare. Vali says their color is going get more golden as they grow up. They all seem to have black masks like grandma, particularly little Red.
Monday Sept 12
Vali said she saw Red open her eyes today. Haven't really seen her eyes really open much, but I do see a bit of squinting.
Anya doesn't exactly encourage Sophie to play with her puppies yet, but doesn't get aggressive with I let Sophie smell the puppies. Grandma is starting to have some good licking time with the grand kids. Granddad Jaksi and Great uncle Kaare are nowhere around. (Kaare sort of sneaks in and has a look, but I can see the total puzzlement on his face, doesn't yet have a clue what the little bundles of fur are yet.)
Sunday Sept 11
Exhausted from working an extension to our fenced in backyard for the puppies to play in. Anya is exhausted too, came up and curled up next to me for a few hours before going back to her puppies.
Watched them late night on the infra-red video puppy monitor. All of them, including Anya, were on their backs feet straight up in the air. Little puppies seemed to all running in slow motion. Couldn't be dreaming of chasing anything yet could they? They haven't even learned to walk yet?
Thursday Sept 8
Didn't get much sleep last night - grandparents getting rowdy!
Puppies started sucking on my fingers when I picked them up. Gave them back to mom after just a bit, didn't want to disappoint them. Have seen purple licking other puppies faces already - wow, didn't know how ingrained that was in Bu's.
Monday Sep 5th
Snuck Sophie into puppies room when Anja was outside. Sophie really wanted to lick the puppies, could barely restrain her. Figured it would be a bad idea however, so just let her look and smell. Had her in hallway when Anja got back. Anja knew something was up, growled a bit but didn't act quite as mean as before. Give it a few more days before grandma can help.
First time I really held puppies (purple) for a long time. Anja sat up and watched me like a hawk the whole time to make sure I didn't steal one with them. Did try hiding orange around a corner while she was focused on purple. Anja caught on to my trick in about 15 seconds, and came over and found orange where I had hit him.
Wednesday Sept 7 (1 week old)
Puppies have all tripled in weight! Poor Anja, she's ravenous - she wolfed (literally!) a can of dog food down in under a minute. More ice cream for desert!
Puppies are all fat and happy, pulling themselves about with their front legs - poor little back legs are still too weak to carry their huge stomachs! Moving around alot, starting to find them in corners of their puppy bed. They make lots of mewing noises, not loud, but you can hear it from a long way away - Anja comes running when she hears it.
Don't expect their eyes to open for a week, although the tend to flinch when I take flash photos of them, so something is going on.
Tuesday Sep 6th
Blue is gigantic! Also, a total huggy bear - Likes to curl up on Mom's arm when he's not eating. Orange seems to be the explorer, always finding him deep in the corners. Purple remains the smallest, but gaining weight nicely. She's a real cutie.
Sunday September 4th
Started using a new web editor, one used for older web sites no longer supported and not worth using. However, touching the older sites with new editor turned all the text white on white (making them better as far as some are concerned!) Lucky I have a puppies to put a smile back on my face!
Poor Anja showing the strain. Woke me up at 3 am when she snuggled under my arm for a well deserved rest. Stayed there about an hour, then heard puppies whining, and left me - back to her job. She's being a great mom! (Not too sure I want her to lick me knowing where her tongue has been!)
Saturday Sep 3rd
Vali packs puppies up and takes them for their first doctor visit. When she returns, she hands me a small ziplock back with what I think are little grains of black rice. She says they're actually the puppies thumbs (dewclaws) - I'm rather shocked, thinking of bad gangster movies. (This was actually expected, Buhunds often have their dewclaws removed when they are 3-4 days old, otherwise they tend to get caught on modern carpets and couches).
Puppies have all double in weight since they were born.
Hottest day of the summer, or at least it seems. Anja's panting all the time. Try moving her and puppies to shadier downstairs room. Lots of vanilla ice cream!
Thursday Sept 1
Poor Sophie (Anja's Mom!) She really wants to help, but Anja will have none of it. She growls and nearly attacks when Sophie gets near. We figure that in a week or two Anja will be be so exhausted she'll want the help, but for now we have to keep them apart. Lucky we have lots of puppy gates!
Wed Aug 31
Puppies are born! Vali had taken our bevy of Bu's to Marymore park, walking Anja on a leash while the others enjoyed the river. Just after they got there, Anja started dripping. Vali immediately returned, and Anja started giving birth an hour or two later. I did as any experienced man would do and when I got home, took the other dogs for a long walk in a forest far far away rather than stay and watch. Vali took lots of photos, none on this web site.
All puppies are in fine shape, and weigh between 6 1/2 and 8 1/2 oz. Rather amazed we have all combinations of boys/girls and black/wheaten colors, plus a spare wheaten girl. Black puppies are both weigh about 20% less than the Wheaten ones, which is also true for our grown up dogs.