Another ADULT Emy/Shad Pup

This is Zoe, who lives in Pennsylvania. She is a litter sister to Stoney (from Emy and Shadow's first offering.)


Sharing her home is Murphy, previous known as Brother, who is her HALF-sibling. He is from Emy and SPARKY's last litter.


Murphy, doing his "stacked show dog" imitation


Speaking of dog shows
Did everyone watch the Thanksgiving Day Show after the parade? The Best in Show line up was terrific! I'm satisfied with the Irish Setter winning... he won the previous day as well (his first two Best in Shows)... and he's a really nice looking Irish. Perhaps it's that he is just a youngster (only 3) but his coat is not as exaggerated as many show Setters and he actually looks like a dog that could do what he was bred for (originally bred for!) BUT if I had been judging, BIS would have done to the Affenpinscher. What a gorgeous, saucy little dog! Or, if that was not an option, my second choice would have been the Scottish Deerhound. She is just yummy! The Boxer was a nice gal as well. I did not care for the Border Collie or the Schippeke and wasn't overly thrilled with the Am Staff. And David Frye wasn't as obnoxious as usual, so a fun time was had by all!

Pix - Di and Em's

5 weeks tomorrow...



Diamond and Brogue's 5 pups
3 females and 2 males
Notice how the color is changing.

Emy and Shadow's 8 pups
3 light colored males (1 born blond, 2 will be)
3 black males
2 females




Other shots on the website on the puppy page.

And yes, some of the shots are fuzzy. YOU try getting three... or even TWO... healthy, normally active pups to sit still at the same time long enough for a digital camera to get the shot!

Shadow and Stoney

Dog Meets Son
Last weekend Stoney came to visit for a few minutes. He sure has changed since the last time we saw him, almost 2 years ago! Shadow made his acquaintance... and then was totally disinterested. (Now, if it had been one of his daughters, it would have been a different story!) Since Emy was busy with Stoney's new brothers and sisters, she wasn't able to join in.

Cotton's Weights at 4 Weeks

Here we go again. And the main thing I've learned in weighing this entire batch of pups is that I could use a new scales! Mine is 9-10 years old and like most things in the house (human included,) has not aged well!

Cotton's pups weigh between one at 1.95 pounds (a girl) and four at 2.20 pounds (a girl in this bunch also.) The average weight in the litter is about 2.10 or just a tad more than Diamond's. And, here's the test, class, what does this equate to (sort of) as ideal adult weight? (One possible answer will be at the end of this post.)

This is the group I think will show the greatest difference at 8 weeks and beyond. Nine of them being fed entirely by their mom would seem to mean they haven't been getting as much as they might like as five in the same situation would. They are as active AND as quiet as the others, so nobody is suffering. (A quiet pup is full... or into something. But they're too little for that.) Now that they've discovered a bowl of food readily at hand, 24/7, they're on their way to being dogs.

Breakdown is
Cotton's blond females:
1.75. 2.0, 2.2
Blond males:
1.96, 2.0, 2.1,
2.2, 2.2, 2.2

For a couple days, Cotton had this bunch under control. They all learned at the same time how to get out of the pool. Since they hadn't figured ut how to get back in, she traded places with them. However, they have watched and learned from their aunts and uncles living next door and now Cotton always has 4 in and 5 out or vice versa.

Here's why there aren't any new pictures
I am in the process of moving the pups out of the bedroom because they need more room and I'm not adding on to the house! This means, furniture in other rooms has to be moved (and removed) and adult dogs resituated so I can set up puppy pens. I can't just DO it because I live alone (and my son has just started work on a new club... he puts together nightclubs, everything from locale to name to licensing to equipment to advertising to... you get the picture... and can't help me) AND because dogs are very oriented to structure and situation, especially when there are a bunch of them. AND they are all fascinated with the pups. So this is taking several days. I hope to get time for a photo session over the weekend.

But I may sleep instead.

****
Answer to the question: Cotton's pups should weigh just slightly more than Diamond's, a little over 30 pounds.

Weights at 4 weeks

This morning, to mark the 4 weeks birthday of Diamond and Emerald's litters, I weighed all 13 pups. Di's averaged at 2 pounds while Em's averaged 2.5. In Emy's litter, 3 pups (2 black males and the red female) are larger than any of Di's and one (the other black male) is the same weight as Diamond's largest (a female.) The smallest pup of the baker's dozen is also Emy's, a red male, and her other red guy is just slightly bigger than the smallest pup in Di's litter (the BLACK male!)

Now, there is a formula that works VERY well with large breeds and is fairly accurate with small breeds if you adjust it. It's just so-so with medium breeds.

The formula is a pup weighs 10% of its ideal adult weight for every 4 weeks of age.
That is a large breed puppy who weighs 5 pounds at 4 weeks will weigh around 50 pounds as an adult. (For small breeds, the pups weighs 20% of its adult weight for every 4 weeks or a small breed pup who is 2 pound at 8 weeks will weigh about 5 pounds full grown.)

I usually figure the Whoodles fall in between the two... 15% per 4 weeks. SO! Diamond's pups, on average, should be in the area of 30 pounds and Emy's 37.
Here's a little (another) disclaimer... the pups are weaning off moms. Most of them are somewhat hungry. SOME have found the food and are eating it, a couple on a regular basis. In another 4 weeks, they will have been eating as much as they want whenever they want and I believe weights taken at 8 weeks will be a better indication of adult size.

For those keeping track, the weights are:
Diamond's: black male - 1.81#, red male - 2.16,
red females - 2.25, 1.96, 1.90

Emerald's: black males - 3.0, 2.55, 2.25,
red males - 1.85 & 1.75, blond male - 2.12,
blond female - 2.0, red female - 2.55

One more thing: One of Emy's two year old sons from her previous Shadow litter came to see me this weekend. He is just under 40 pounds. And ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS! Off white in color and put together like all dogs should be built. Just a stunning fellow!

Big BIG Deal!

Remember Emy's smallest black male... I said he was the first one to be able to get out of the swimming pool. Well, smart little fellow that he is, he's figured out how to get back in. For one thing, it is always much harder for pups to climb IN than out and for another, it's a huge mental leap to realize IN is where they should be. This pup needs a really smart owner!

Leaps and Bounds

Cotton's litter at 3 weeks which was yesterday.

ALL the pups are making dog noises... growls and barks... and are wrestling with each other. Of course, they're not steady enough to stand on all fours and tussle so they lie down next to (or on top of) each other and try to get someone else's head, ear, foot or tail in their mouths. Since they don't have even an inkling of teeth yet, no one is getting hurt. Moms sit and watch and never try to break it up. That will come later when things get rougher.

The pups are also noticing when they see me... when I open the pen gate or stand by the pen and talk to their moms. Sometimes I get a little chatter back from one or two babies... don't know if it's welcome or warning!

Couple things about the moms. They are feeding the pups often... every 2 hours or so... but for only a few minutes at a time. (In the next week or so, the pups will get tired of being hungry and will start in on moms' food, first sucking on it and then, as their teeth start coming in, gnawing on the kibble.) If moms don't feel like nursing the babies, they lie flat on their bellies so the pups can't get to the nipples or will leave the nest altogether. At night, since I keep the bedroom cool, they stay in with the pups all night long, but as soon as the sun comes out and things warm up a tad, they move out of the nest. When they have been outside, even if only for 5-10 minutes, they hop into their nests and inspect every pup like they suspect I'm doing something to them while their backs are turned! Every mom has visited every other mom's babies, but only for a second. So far, no one has growled at another dog for being in with the pups.

Individual Achievement

The prize for first to make Honest, Unadulterated Contact with a Human...
goes to the smallest red girl in Diamond's litter.
(I was holding her in my hand, with her belly up so I could rub it, looking in her face and making small talk with her when she made eye contact with me and started answering with little barking sounds. She was lying still, just looking straight in my eyes, making sure I knew it was ME she was talking to.)

Winner of first prize for Walking All the Way Across the Nest without Falling, Staggering or even Touching a Nose to the Ground to Maintain Balance...
is one of Cotton's larger boys.
(I had all the pups out of the nest while I changed the bedding and I put him back first, on the side away from where the gang always congregates and watched in amazement as he marched his little butt straight across to where his mama had left him. He's one pup who will always be first in the chow line.)

And finally, the prize for the first pup to make a Deliberate and Planned Escape from the Nest without the Aid of Mom's Nipple or Climbing Up and Over a Pile of Littermates...
is presented to Emy's smallest black guy.
(And he's done it not once or twice, but several times. Here we have an Edmond Dantes, folks!)

"Old" Pups Pix

MONTANA
a little over a year old, from Diamond and Brogue's last litter.
She USED to be black and tan!

CHARLIE
from Emy and Sparky's last litter.
He used to be red.

TUCKER
from the same litter as Charlie.
He has always been blond.

As a point of interest... Charlie's picture was sent to me by someone who got it from someone else. The person who took the picture knew the lady who sent it to me had a Whoodle and he just wanted her to see the cute Whoodle puppy he had run into during his travels. SHE recognised the "look" because she has spent so much time on my website and wanted to know if he was one of mine. After we compared notes, it was easy to identify the puppy!

Moral: you can run, but you can't hide!

Trivia

These are the biggest pups from each litter. The red is from Di's, the black is from Em's and the blond is from Cotton's.
As is to be expected, the overall biggest puppies are in Emy's litter and some of them are huge (compared to the rest.) I am still impressed by the general size of Cotton's which are as big as Diamond's. In two of the litters... Di's and Cotton's... the current largest pups overall are female.

I think you can tell from some of the photos that eyes are opening. Yesterday, no one was focusing but today several pups appeared to be startled when something moved unexpectedly in their line of sight. AND noises seem to be bothering some of them today as well.

During picture taking yesterday, one of Cotton's boys objected the whole time with a very cute puppy growl. Okay, so maybe it was more of a grumble, but he didn't like going outside and didn't like my son handling him and was still rumbling when I put him back in the nest with his mom.

I started the photo session with Di's pups, leaving her foster son (from Emy) in the nest alone. Then I put the rest back and took him and the two red males from Em to be photographed, put all THREE of those pups in with Emy, took the black boys and finally, the girls. The blond boy stayed in Emy's nest while I was doing the rest of her pups. When I first put him down... right under her nose... she sniffed him all over and turned him on his back so she could inspect his belly. She didn't seem particularly delighted, intrigued or amused with him. However, a half hour or so later, when I was leaving the room with some of Cotton's pups, I glanced in Emy's pen and she had isolated her prodigal son from the rest of her pups! He was on one side of her and all his brothers and sisters were on the other and she was lying on her belly in between. So he went back to grandma... who took one sniff of him and seemed to say "Where the heck have you been!"

New Pix

So! This has taken the whole day but I'm getting ready to upload photos to my website. Just hang in there a few more hours and they will be there AND the new (litter specific) pages will be available as well. In the meantime, here's one shot that I just love:

Aggravation!

First, on Saturday,Zenyatta lost by the bob of Blame's head. I know how bad I felt and can only imagine how her people are still feeling.

Second, Emy's little blond girl passed away last night. She gave it all she had and it just wasn't enough. Everyone else is trying to walk and some eyes are partly opening.

And third, I got an email from a friend this morning:

Color Test
A great test, do the test until you get 100%!
Bet you can't get 100% on the first try! But I'm rootin' for ya...This is
pretty neat! See how you do with the colors! Have fun!
It takes an average of 5 tries to get to 100%. Follow the directions! It's
harder than it seems, as it should be!
A brain waker-upper for today!
Click here to start
www.humorsphere.com/fun/8787/colortest.swf

Last, I'm going to try getting photos tomorrow (or Wednesday,) whenever I can get my son to come over to help me. And THAT is real aggravation!

Changes Coming

First off, the pups are doing great! All but one are chubby, active babies who are starting to sleep through their mamas' disappearances when they leave the nests to take care of business. And moms are starting to stay outside, IN the yard, for longer periods of time (instead of rushing out the door, squatting, and then making a beeline back in.) One pup... a blond female from Emy's litter... is NOT doing well. She's very thin and cranky even though she nurses all the time. She is not growing at anywhere near the rate of everyone else and I have serious doubts that she is going to make it. This is not unusual especially considering the number in the litter and their overall size. Of Em and Shadow's nine, a male and female are about the size of Di's pups who are smaller in general. But the others are mostly hunks! And already a handful when I pick them up. Cotton's kids are pretty much the same size within the litter (minor variations,)about the size of Di and Brogue's, and all the same shade of pale blond. Most of them have crinkled coats, indicating they'll have more curl to their hair. We'll see!

Now, for the changes
I've been getting some comments about the website being slow to load and some of the photos not coming up. It IS a little photo heavy (and I don't see much sense in little pictures that you can't see anything in, which doesn't help matters any!) So I am going to develop a puppies page or pages... maybe one for each litter because once I start taking individual photos, things add up fast! Until picks are made, it will have a link off the main page as well as its own URL (so you can directly there and skip everything else... which you already know by heart anyway!) On the main page, I'll post just one photo from each litter with no parents' pix except in the "adults" section at the bottom of the page. It's going to take me a couple days to get this done, so bear with me.

Cotton's Pups 1 Week

Snuggled between mom and the hot water bottle.
And it's supposed to get down into the 20s the next couple nights... guess I'd better go get a few more water bottles!

All 3 litters doing well. Starting to pick their bodies up a little bit when moving around. Their snail stage is on its way out!

Cold Nights and Blast ABC

Emy's pups have figured out how to get through the night even when Mom decides to take a potty break! (Of course, getting up to fill hot water bottles every 2 hours gets old after a few nights...!)

Zenyatta and the Breeders Cup
So, Zenyatta, the maybe best horse to ever live is running in her last race this Saturday, the Breeders Cup Classic, around 6:45 PM at Churhill Downs. And ABC is broadcasting three Breeders Cup races... all much earlier on the card and not nearly as important. Never mind that Zenyatta has won 19 of the 19 races she's run in, including last year's Classic, the fact that ABC is so... well, uninformed is about as nice as I can get... as to ignore the Classic, ANY Classic, just makes me want to not watch ANYTHING they air ever PERIOD. That means I have to give up Castle and Brothers and Sisters, but so be it. I'm trying to find a place to watch the race on ESPN and may have to drive to the OTB site in Virginia.