Author Archives: chaletdalmatians

We are having what I will call a partial rest day. The puppies would be ready to go and do a whole bunch of things today, but we do have a good bit of plans for them over the next few days, so giving them extra time to decompress made sense to me. We haveContinue reading “Day 45”

Big time rest day for the puppies… and us too! After a weekend filled with fun, company, and testing, they are ready for this much needed relaxing day. The puppies seemed to like the quiet day that went back to the roots of being a puppy. Sleep, eat, play, sleep, repeat! Everyone had a bunchContinue reading “Day 44”

Today was a very important day, possibly the most important day for any litter of Dalmatian puppies. All of the puppies had their Brainstorm Auditory Evoked Response (BAER) testing done. We have a friend named Sam who is an audiologist and certified to test canine ears. She is a traveling audiologist and comes right toContinue reading “Day 43”

Happy 6 Weeks! Along with taking a new set of headshots and stacked photos, the puppies also had their microchips implanted today. Microchipping dogs is very important because it is the most reliable way of returning lost pets back to their owners. The microchip is a small chip that is about the size and shapeContinue reading “Day 42”

We had a very special visitor today. The puppies had the pleasure of meeting one of our mentors and longtime friends, Barb Allison. She was very happy to see the puppies as they come down from her dogs. Barb has many decades of breeding and showing experience and gave us great insight on which puppiesContinue reading “Day 41”

One of the best things about feeding in individual bowls is being able to put the puppies into their own shapes. I know that that sounds funny at first, but we are bale to put then into a circle like they were still eating out of the saucer, a square, rectangle, a straight line, prettyContinue reading “Day 40”

Big visitor day for the puppies! Trish and part of her family (they own Jill – now Méabh) from our Charlie’s Angels Litter) came for an afternoon puppy fix. Then another long time friend came for some puppy love a few hours later. All 6 puppies loved to crawl all over their new friends andContinue reading “Day 39”

Today we have another rest day or the puppies. We will continue with our basics of sticking our hands in their bowl while they are eating, making sunny noises, toy/obstacle changes, and general household things happening around them. We decided that this was a good day for a day of resting because we have hadContinue reading “Day 38”

The new thing in town, or at least the town of our kitchen, is the umbrella. We introduce this to the puppies here because we want for them to understand that the use of an umbrella is just something that happens. Most of the time, an umbrella isn’t going to be part of everyones dayContinue reading “Day 37”

Since it it much too cold to go outside with the puppies, we decided to bring the outdoors in. I took a sheet pan right off of the patio, and let some snow collect before bringing it in for the puppies to explore. They thought that it was a bit cold at first, but thenContinue reading “Day 36”

Happy 5 Weeks! Of course we took new headshots, stacked photos, and updated weights for everyone! All of the puppies are within a pound from one another. Not that that is super notable, however by this age, they are not all usually so close in size. They nurse 1 or two times a day stillContinue reading “Day 35”

I forgot to mention on the blog post from yesterday that we removed the white box from the play pen and are just sticking with the Regalo gating. It did open the area up just a tad, but nothing huge. The reason that we left that box in there was because they were too small,Continue reading “Day 34”

We had a visitor today! Aunt Tammy came with a ton of fun toys for the puppies to play with. So much fun was had and a great time for catching up on all things dogs! The puppies were super happy to see her and ran right over when the gating opened. She happily satContinue reading “Day 33”

Not much happening today other than puppy cuteness. All of the puppies have a good amount of confidence overall with no concerns with anyone. Just like every litter, we have a spectrum of who is calmer, who is more vocal, who likes to play more, who likes to… fill in the blank! That is whatContinue reading “Day 32”

Over the past 4.5 weeks, we have used both the vacuum and broom to clean up around the kitchen. When they are very young, they will not be able to hear the vacuum because their ears are still closed, but they will be able to feel the vibrations on the floor. Once their ears areContinue reading “Day 31”

Today we worked on resource guarding as an introduction to the basics. This is something that they will start with us, but will need to be continued on with the puppies as they become older. Even now, with the adults and senior dogs in our house, we still work on resource guarding. We don’t doContinue reading “Day 30”

There has been a bit of commotion going on the past few days, so nothing new for the puppies. This is what we call a rest day around here. Similar to people who lift weights take a day off for their body to heal, but instead of physically exercising, we are giving them a mentalContinue reading “Day 29”

Happy 4 Weeks Old! Time is going by so quickly! we took a new set of headshots and took some stacked photos too! Stacking is a show stance that show the structure of the puppies and is a good predictor for how they will look when they are adults. It is also important for puppiesContinue reading “Day 28”

Our last real expansion happened today. I call it a real expansion because there will be some changes down the road that will happen, but we will mostly be keeping the same size to their area. They did pretty well during the move. We typically wait until the puppies are sleeping to alter their “world”Continue reading “Day 27”

Everyone has pretty much recouped from a busy few days and was happy to have the day off from anything new. We did add another potty for them to use. There is no real tell for when we need to expand their grass patch area. We decided to add another one because some of theContinue reading “Day 26”

Tipsy is still nursing them regularly, but is happy to have our help with some of the feeding times. She has been a great mother and is very attentive to her pups! We had a busy day here with a few new visitors and a full day of cooking. I’m sure that the puppies wereContinue reading “Day 25”

We are getting more active! They have started to play bow, jump, and run backwards and forwards. They are also still working on finding those little puppy voices of theirs. They are not quite ready for another expansion yet, but it is right around the corner! Goldie was the first to put her paws upContinue reading “Day 24”

Big day for the puppies! They had their first meal that was not provided by Tipsy. Since they are still very young and not able to chew yet, we heated up some water (hot water seems to soak into the food faster) and added in the kibble to create a mush-like consistency. As the waterContinue reading “Day 23”

The puppies have been quite a bit more playful today. They have even started to bounce around and play bow the other puppies and toys. Speaking of toys, our small change today involved some smaller toys. They drag them around the box and chew on pretty much all fo them. We haven’t see any ofContinue reading “Day 22”

Happy Three Weeks! As usual, we took a new set of headshots! I think that it is just so interesting to watch them develop during the weeks that they will spend with us. Today when I did our puppy call as Tipsy was getting ready to lay down and nurse them, the puppies jumped upContinue reading “Day 21”

Our new item today was the water bowl. There are no specific cues that the puppies are ready for water, as they are still getting all of their nutrition and hydration from Tipsy at this point, but it is around the time that they start to lap liquids and learn how to drink on theirContinue reading “Day 20”

Nothing new happened today, we just continued Startle and Recovery (which they barely have any reaction to , Puppy Call conditioning, and basic toy changes. The puppies are developing and starting into their next developmental period that is called the socialization period. The socialization period is extremely important for all dogs. It typically lasts fromContinue reading “Day 19”

When we are starting to see the puppies use the potty patches pretty well and generally seem like they could use a little extra space, we decide to open up their box. We knew that it would be happening sometime soon, but hadn’t chosen a specific day. Well, today was that day! We collected allContinue reading “Day 18”