The Dog Blog

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11/14/11 - Just Halle

Well, for all our breeding efforts a couple of months ago, the results were pretty disappointing. Euphrates, for the first time, didn't take at all and Jordan has one little pup.  Sheesh!  We were expecting more.  Maybe it was something with the moon.  The talk up at the local grocery store is that others among our rural neighbors had poor results with breeding stock; horses, cattle.  Niles checked out well at the time of breeding in terms of sperm motility, viability and count.  And the girls are proven dams so we're going to try again in the spring. 

The one puppy is a little black girl who was born on Halloween so we call her Halle.  She's a big girl as pups go and beautiful with an excellent head and coat.  She's two weeks old today and her eyes are opening.  She's been a great nurser from the first day which makes things easier.  She rounds her belly at each feeding till she looks like a little piggy.  Since she's gaining so well, I stretched her out and got four straight hours of sleep last night and she was fine. 

Jordan and Halle - Sleepy Heads

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09/19/11 - Moody Male

Breeding season is over but our stud dog is still effected by it.  He hardly ate for several weeks and has lost a lot of weight.  He has begun to eat again so that's good.  Still he's not yet his old self.  He quit howling and crying as the pheromone levels dropped but then entered a state of depression.  I'm serious!!  I guess it's from coming down off of the sustained high stress levels.  He was so mopey and unresponsive we thought there might be something more going on.  But, it was pretty much the same way last year.  One morning I got really concerned when Niles wouldn't eat or wag or get up. So my husband dropped the tailgate and ask him if he'd like to go for a ride.  Next to breeding, riding in the car is his favorite thing.  He leaped up and bounded into the car (big faker!!) and that was the beginning of his recovery.  The daily car rides have helped.  There is a big difference in an in-tact male dog and an altered one - all year long but expecially in breeding season.  It's something you only fully realize when you've been around both.

09/01/11 - The Tie That Binds

It ended up that we did not try for a natural breeding today.  The vet felt that our stud dog was somewhat "spent," very fatigued and the A.I. is much easier on him.  Apparently if you let the stud try to the point of exhaustion and it looks like things are close but no tie, his sperm count may drop from good to poor for a short time.  With our first female last week the ties occurred within 2 to 3 minutes of putting them together.  But, with the second female we let him try for 30 minutes.  We will give him a rest tomorrow and try the old fashioned way on Sat.  If we don't get a tie quickly, we'll take them in for the A.I. again.  What we have learned from our vet the past 2 weeks has been very valuable.

08/31/11 - Parental Guidance Suggested

We're all about the birds and the bees here now.  Our stud dog has two females with overlapping heat cycles to cover.  It's a stressful time for him.  He howls and cries like he's dying in between "sessions."  We will all sleep better when it's over.

Last season one of our mama dogs had a single pup litter.  The small-ness of the litter may have been a timing issue.  This season we're working with our vet to pinpoint ovulation.  Some b-i-t-c-h-e-s will throw eggs just before or after "standing heat" - the time they are willing to stand for the male.  So we're using vaginal cytology to get the timing right.  Then, if the female won't stand when the time is right, or the stud becomes too exhausted we can do artificial insemination (A.I.)

Last week we got two ties with our first girl and then did one A.I. at the end to catch any late eggs.  With our second girl we tried for a first tie yesterday and she just didn't fully have her heart in it so, we took her and the stud down to the vet and did the A.I.  Matings should be about 48 hours apart so, today is a recovery day for our stud and we'll try again tomorrow morning.   Wish us luck. 

06/06/11 - This only child has not suffered for attention.  She's too cute to leave alone.  She has been eating raw ground turkey meat since she was three weeks old.  Now she's 6 weeks and ate her first "party wing" (part of a chicken wing) today.  She made short work of it - bones and all.  As she is weaned she needs the new source of calcium. 

  

05/27/11 - Here's a current picture of Truffle.  She's 4 weeks old now.  She has longer waking times when she loves to play.  When we have a big litter we relegate them to the indoor play area or the outdoor enclosure.  But, who can leave one darling puppy all alone.  So Truffle watches movies with us, and toddles around at our feet as we move through chores.  As I write she is snuffling her soft nose against my ankles and tugging on my hem.  She also loves pouncing on her mama making ferocious puppy growls before curling up between her mom's big paws to sleep.

05/19/11 - Solid Food

Dogs are napping.  Truffle is nursing.  Nice and quiet.  Little Truffle opened her eyes about a week ago.  She immedidately decided she loved people.  If someone comes near her she toddles over and clamors into the lap.  She has a tiny ridge of teeth you can feel in her mouth and she has started eating raw ground turkey which she relishes.  After meals her face and paws are wiped as these parts of her are actively involved in the feeding experience.  

She now weighs 7 lbs., 3 oz.  She started out at 1.5 lbs.  She is a beautiful pup.  Her mama is starting to interact playfully with her and they are so cute to watch.

 

05/01/11 - Truffle is one week old today and still improving.  No more crying and she gained 4 ounces in the last 24 hours.  We like to see a daily weight gain of 4 to 6 ounces at this age.  She's still on the antibiotic and I believe it saved her life. 

 

04/30/11 - At Six Days Old

    

Truffle at six days old

 

Our little Easter Truffle still had diarrhea a few times today, but without blood.  She cried for a while earlier today and that worried me.   We have supplemented her nursing with a little Esbilac and I think maybe it’s too rich for an upset tummy.  She stopped crying this afternoon and nursed well and napped quietly.   I gave her a couple of tablespoons of Pedialite to keep her hydrated and she didn’t cry after that.  She has managed to stay energetic and gain 2 ounces today.  Sometimes she reminds me of a little brown seal.

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04/29/11 -The Trouble with Truffle

There is a great size disparity between our mama dog and her tiny baby.  Lots of newborn newfoundland pups are squashed or smothered by their moms even in a correctly fashioned whelping box.  So we take turns keeping a round-the-clock vigil and never leave Jordan alone with Truffle, the new puppy.

Newfoundland dams can easily crush or smother a newborn pup.

And it's a good thing we keep a close eye.  Little Truffle was strong and nursed well.  However, yesterday we noticed she cried a little more.  Maybe just fussy I thought.  But, then she hadn't gone big potty for a while.  Then finally she did.  Jordan, being ever vigilant about a tidy nursery cleaned it up instantly, but not before I was sure I saw blood.  Then I wiped Truffle's bottom with a white tissue and it was confirmed. 

My heart pounded while I was calling the vet with horrible things running through my mind.  Parvo?  Birth defect?  We brought her in immediately.  She was still fiesty, with limbs swimming toward anything warm and sucking available fingers.  The assistant took her from our car through their back door in case we were dealing with parvo.  Truffle looked tiny and vulnerable being whisked away with her little head bobbing in the pink flannel cloth I brought her in. 

Then we tried to read magazines in the waiting room (I still have no idea what I saw on the pages) and waited for Dr. Rich's assessment. 

Finally he invited us into an examining room to talk.  It wasn't Parvo.  Oh, thank You, God.  But, it was a bacterial infection in the GI tract - the sort of thing that can take a pup down in short order.  Fortunately, the vet said, she was a strong pup and it was caught at the onset so our chances were very good.  They gave her some fluids as she was slightly dehydrated.  On the exam table she had continued to have bloody diarrhea.  They also gave her an antibiotic injection and sent us home with two meds.  One was to help heal the intestinal lining and the other a continuation of the antibiotic.  We were to rest her GI tract for 18 hours and so we kept her from nursing and gave her clear Pedialite through the night.   She loved it and had no more diarrhea that evening or since.   We'll continue to be checking in with the vet but this morning he assessed her progress as excellent.  So she's back  to nursing and she has gained 2 ounces through the ordeal. 

04/27/11 - Only Child

Our bitch, Jordan, who I was sure was not pregnant whelped a really nice little brown female pup on Easter.  That morning I noticed she was breathing - panting - a little differently.  As I stayed with her observing, I thought I saw a slight tremble.  No pacing, no den digging, no carrying around a toy.  I had not been able to express colostrum.  But, then after an hour or so I saw something.  A definite contraction with a slight arch to her back.  She was cleaning under her tail.  Her pup arrived a couple hours and a few contractions later. 

Jordan contemplating motherhood - early labor

 

Newborn pup finds her way to the smorgasbord of ten teats

 

The ritual face washings begin

01/07/11 - Farm Alarm

The new puppy is Mackenzie.  Very cute and very sweet.  We're so happy with her.  She's quickly learning the ropes around here.

Our sire, Niles Winston, is sort of the care taker type.  Once he saw as a hawk swooped down and killed one of our chickens.  He was pretty upset and had "called" me to tell me there was trouble because he couldn't get to where the incident occurred.  I ran across the yard and shoo-ed the big hawk but it was too late.  Well, since then Niles has become a sentinel, always surveying the horizion and calling out a warning to the chickens the moment he sees a sky predator.  They run like mad for cover under the porch and I'm sure it has saved us some chickens.   It was interesting to me the other day when little Mackenzie was exploring outside - an activity she never tires of.  Niles suddenly called out his warning bark-moan-whine sound.  Apparently Mackenzie understood clearly and shot toward the house lickety-split on her little puppy legs and skidded into the garage.  A huge dark shadow passed over and moved on to the next farm.  It amazes me how Mackenzie already knows his language.

12/09/10 - So here's Griz at 6 weeks.  He's the little guy who gave us such a scare (see The Resurrection of Griz below).  They are all doing well.  They nurse several times a day with their mama but those sessions are very brief - usually standing.  They eat raw ground turkey, chicken, an occasional egg and we sometimes sprinkle in some Puppy Gold - a powdered supplement.  They will only be allowed to be with their mama for one more week. To ship at 8 weeks some airlines have you sign a statement that they have not nursed for one week previously.  The pups have enough stress with just the separation from their siblings at eight weeks.   

 

11/26/10 - The puppies at 4 weeks take every opportunity to grab a bite even standing under Mama.  They use their little paws to bat at the piñatas. 

 

 

But sometimes Mama Jordan makes it easier.

An affectionate embrace

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11/13/10 - The first litter is gone to permanent homes as of yesterday.  We are still supplementing the second litter with the bottle a little.  And they are so cute when they take their bottles.  They clutch with their front paws, the bottle and our hand like we might get away.  We have to burp them after each feeding.  We're constantly weighing each one to make sure they are all gaining well, which thankfully they are.  They are up and toddling now with their eyes just opened.  We can tell a difference in the bonding of these pups with humans compared with other litters.  I assume it's due to the hand feeding. 

The new litter asleep at 2 1/2 weeks.

 

Fall graduating class of 2010 - sure could use a shampoo and comb out.

 

11/02/10 - Thankfully the puppies are still doing well and growing.  It seems Jordan's milk is finally coming in and we can perceive the let down reflex by the way the pups get perfectly still (except for the trembling, pointing tails) and gulp, gulp, gulp in rythym together.  Sometimes now, they don't even want the formula after nursing.  They've been getting the best of both worlds; mama fed and hand fed.  And guess who is the biggest.  Our little brown Griz-zly cub weighs in at the top.

Below:  A picture of 4 out of 5 pups from the first litter at 7 weeks old - today.

 

 

10/30/10—The Resurrection of Griz

Scary.  Just when we were feeling smugly confident about this new litter we had a crisis.  It happened quickly, literally between two feedings.  We’d had some mild concerns about Jordan not being as voluptuous as our first female dog.  At 48 hours old our pups were fading.  Of the four there was one little brown pup, our first of that color and actually a rich seal color.  He had four white feet, and a big white blaze down his chin and tummy and a white tip on his tail.  We called him Griz.  Admittedly, we were partial.  We discovered to our horror Griz was completely limp and unresponsive.  Through tears, our daughter pointed out that he was still breathing shallowly.  We scrambled for make shift formula, bottle, nipple, correct sized nipple,  with the right amount and size of holes.  But he didn't have the strength to suckle.  With a doll-sized bottle we tried placing a drop in his mouth and stroking his throat.  It ran out the sides.  We tried again.  And again.  Hopelessness.  But, then he swallowed.  My daughter held Griz, oh so carefully at just the right angle and I dropped.  Just one drop again please.  Just one drop at a time…

 

We worked about three hours with him and the other pups too, which were following his decline.  I still can’t believe it.  Gradually Griz began to move and sniff (you can’t imagine how exultant we all were at his adorable sniffing) and gulp and suck and crawl until he recovered fully.  Welcome back little Griz.  There was much kissing and snuggling.  Now we are bottle supplementing this litter.  There was quite a learning curve to the bottle feeding, both for the puppies and us.  The new routine is for them to nurse long and often with Mama  Jordan and then we top them off with the formula till their bellies pooch out a bit.  Now they’re doing great with the bottle.  Whew!!! Very close call.

Here's our Griz

 

Finally getting this thing down

 

 

Born Tues. 10/26/10

 

10/28/10—Well, I Could Have Whelped All Night - but fortunately our Jordan was efficient, starting at 1:30 p.m. and wrapping things up  by 5:30 p.m.   Four darling pups were born on their due date.   This is Jordan’s first litter so there is a certain amount of relief in getting through the floor-pacing labor part and finger-crossing delivery.   Jordan had an obvious Aha! moment  when that first wet wriggler slipped out.  As though it all suddenly made sense she immediately went about the ancient canine ritual of de-sacking and cleaning her whelp.  The obvious design and order of this process is amazing and humbling.  Here are a few pictures of the blessed event.

Whelping supplies in readiness  

Improvised incubator with heating pad set to low

 Puppy shares Auntie Jordan's anticipation during labor

 

Jordan greets her first pup

 

Our 13 year old daughter is our in-house Lactation Consulant

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10/22/10—We had a litter of pups born 9/15/10.  At three weeks old we started them on ground turkey mixed with organic beef broth.  Within moments the bowl was licked cleaned and eventually so were the ears, paws and noses.  They had already shown an interest in meat when their mama would occasionally toss them a drumstick.  It would be instantly covered with black fur balls and great slurping was heard as the babies attempted to suck chicken.  

Five week old pup.

 

Most of us are turning kibble into land fill

when we could be turning meat into dogs.

OR...

What Is So Great About the Raw Meaty Bones Diet?

Though still controversial, the RMB (Raw Meaty Bones) diet is gaining momentum.  A cursory look at the wild canids in nature reveals that this is in fact the basis for their diet.  Wolves, foxes, coyotes and wild dogs all  feed on the whole carcass, including the organs and the bones, which provides them with all the essential nutrients.  Thousands of vets and dog owners attest to the following benefits of the RMB diet:

• Increased immune system function, reduced dry skin, allergies, and inflammation—less scratching. 
• Increase delight over meal times
• Smaller stools that don't smell as bad and are highly biodegradable quickly turning to powdered ash.
• Increased energy
• Pearly white teeth with the resulting better breath
• Fuller coats
• Less arthritis in older dogs
• Less incidents of joint problems such as dysplasia. 

Unfortunately some vets are uninformed of the benefits of the RMB diet.  The  few hours of nutritional training they get at veterinary school are often taught or subsidized by pet food manufacturers. 

Raw Feeding FAQ!

Visit Wolf Creek Newfoundlands - home of the dry mouth newf

The perfect family dog for the homestead would be the NEWFOUNDLAND

... IF only it didn't DROOL! 

A true gentle giant, this hard working breed is distinctively easy going yet alert.  A Newfoundland is an intimidating deterrent to predators like coyotes, foxes, mountain lions and bears.  They provide excellent escort for farm kids with a built in snake alert system.  They enjoy draft work.  They have inherent life saving instincts and are the consumate water dog.  They even have webbed feet. Water-proof and weather proof, they are the homestead's perfect companion.  If only they didn't drool!  So here's the news:

  There ARE beautiful newfoundlands that DO NOT DROOL!

Because of the endearing qualities of the breed, people have loved and cherished their Newfs in spite of the inconvenience of constant hanging ropes of saliva.  They towel and bib them with unflagging devotion.  Newfs have been drooling for so long  that when we think “Newfs” we naturally think drool.  It really speaks to the exceptional nature of the breed that they have been carefully bred, groomed, trained and loved for years and years of drippy mouths.

But it need not be so.  In fact, an interesting statement is made by Emmy Bruno in her classic book, "The Newfoundland."  (A must read for breeders and judges).  Emmy Bruno is an internationally recognized expert breeder, exhibitor and judge of Newfoundlands.  Here are her words on Newf mouths and drool:

"The outline of the mouth is soft, but must not form an evident commissure or closure or form hanging pockets...  An overabundant lip accompanied by lower lip pouches has no functional meaning except to flood everything with saliva every time the dog shakes his head.  It must be remembered that the Newfoundland is not a dog that drools if the lips are correct."  Page 66

Wolf Creek Newfoundlands is a kennel in California breeding beautiful, huggable dry mouth newfs.  Of special interest is the article on breeding for dry mouths.

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