NOVEMBER 1ST!!!
GCH ANDIRON’S KNOCK ON WOOD RN FDC CAA BCAT CGC TKP
X
GCH KINGDOM’S SHE’S A PISTOL CA TKN
YOU CAN COMMENT ON PICTURES THAT ARE IN GROUPS!
11-22-18
DAY 22
Since we had a lot going on for the holiday and we were pretty busy, we didn’t take many pictures. We haven’t made any major changes, but we have noticed some things. More and more puppies are making it to the potty patch. When we are cleaning it, the puppies go to the area where it used to be to relieve themselves.
My Aunt also made these super cute cookies with royal icing.
11-21-18
DAY 21
I was trying to take a very cute face picture of Pumpkin looking at Kimber but as soon as I got my camera, I saw her on the ramp! And then she slid down to the bottom. I had been anticipating this would happen for a little while now since the puppies enjoy putting their paws on the pig rails.
We then decided it was about the right time to add a little extension to the box. We got our vinyl and play pen ready and turned them loose to explore. We wanted them to be able to walk and wander before we put them in the play yard so they were not curious enough to try to get out.
They seemed to like the extra space.
11-20-18
DAY 20
We added foil again. This time I took pictures. Im not naming any names but someone that wears the light blue collar might have found it too comfy.
It is a good thing we are planning on making a play area that will be connected to the outside of the box because these little climbers are close to making their way out.
Before I put a picture of Blossom’s little baby teeth bumps coming in. Here is a before and after of her.
11-19-18
DAY 19
Instead of putting the foil back into the box for the second day in a row, I decided it would probably be better to put some toys in. I think it is safe to say that they were a hit!
We will not always have the same toys. We will change them out for other toys to put into the rotation. This will keep the puppies interested and thinking that they are getting newer and better things.
I know it sounds a little weird that I am super super excited that the puppies are really catching on to the potty Patches, but I truly am. Not only have I seen Butterball and Blossom go to the patch, release, and leave, but now I have also seen Snickerdoodle, Tassie, and Sugar do the same thing. Most of the other pups are getting the hang of it too. They don’t always make it fully onto the patch; their front feet are in but their back feet are not. It’s the thought that counts…..Right?
11-18-18
DAY 18
We didn’t have too many changes today as we ventured out of the house and left Kimber and the puppies behind so that we could go to our bi-monthly GPDC club meeting. The pups and Kimber were not completely alone today. Payton and Piper were at home with them.
I’m an very happy about another potty announcement. Blossom went, all on her own, to the potty area and released her bladder and them returned to the nest. They are getting the hang of it!
This period of the puppies lives is having us change a lot of different things in the box. We put foil down on part of the fleece for a short bit today. Everyone was pretty good with it, but as always we had some that were better than others. I didn’t manage to take a picture of this, but I will try again tomorrow if we put the foil back in for a while.
Soon we will be adding some small soft toys. I don’t suspect we will have to add too many because they have each other to chew and crawl on.
Everyones eyes are fully open now. We still won’t know eye color for a little while longer.
I don’t have many specific pictures, just some random shots throughout the day.
11-17-18
DAY 17
Yesterday was the last day of ENS, but I forgot to put that in the blog post since we received the LUA results back that evening and I was so excited to share them.
I am very happy to announce that the puppies have already started to get the hang of the potty area. Today I witnessed Butterball, not once but TWICE, walking over to the grass and releasing on it! This potty area is supposed to help with housebreaking by having them learn at an early age that there is always an appropriate place to do their business.
Today after the puppies nursed for a while at the milk bar I saw a puppy party on top of Kimber. Needless to say everyone was very happy with a belly full of milk and passed out.
Since today is the day after ENS has been completed, we are starting to get the puppies attention with some organic raw ground beef, while saying pssssst, pssssst, pssssst. Everyone, especially Kimber, really enjoyed it.
I am already foreseeing how unbelievably hard it will be to choose where these pups will spend the rest of their lives. Unfortunately, when the puppies are older, we will have to let a lot of great families know who will be offered a puppy and who will not be as we have many more homes than we have puppies. Those who do not get offered a puppy from this litter will have the option to wait for our next litter (not sure when it will be) or we can refer you to some other very reputable breeders in our area.
11-16-18
DAY 16
Today we received the puppies Low Uric Acid (LUA) test results. We have 3 of 9 puppies who carry the LUA gene, like Kimber. Those puppies are Biscotti, Cannoli, and Snickerdoodle. We are happy that the puppies who carry the LUA gene are the boys because they are more susceptible to block with a urate stones than a female. The way that we test the puppies is by rubbing a swab on the inside of their cheek for a few seconds.
If you would like to know more about the LUA Backcross Project, we are always happy answer chat about it.
We swabbed them last Saturday.
Of course we also have this adorable picture of them all lined up!
11-15-18
DAY 15
Two Weeks Old!
Every day for the next couple of days we will be making some little changes to the box. Yesterday’s change was removing the extra pig rail that we added to keep the puppies contained to the back of the box. Today we added their potty area.
When the puppies get bigger we will have to add more of these grass patches when they move to larger play pens.
We put each puppy on to make sure that they had a good feel for the new grass texture. If we can catch them we will move them to the area before they eliminate. Most of them have released in there, but it will take some time to get them to know where to do their business. Here are two of the puppies that I caught pictures of while using the grass.
The puppies have started to be able to sit now too. Macaroon always seems to be the one sitting when I get my camera, but I have seen most of them doing it too.
Some other photo’s from today.
11-14-18
DAY 14
Photoshoot accomplished!
It was actually easier than I thought it would be. Kimber is wearing the collars that the puppies will wear when they are older and grow out of these smaller ones. They are the same colors and styles, but a bigger version.
We also had another big change that everyone seems to be happy with, and Kimber seems to be very happy with it. We removed the extra pig rail so now the puppies have full reign of the whole box. I also added a bed with sides. I, of course, had to take a picture of them in it since it matches their collars.
Miss Pumpkin’s eyes are the most open of all the puppies. One eye is about 3/4 of the way open and the other is about half way open.
Here are some other pictures from today.
11-13-18
DAY 13
The puppies eyes are opening more and more. Their ears are also starting to open too. I have noticed some ear twitches when I am talking to them. It is hard to remember to take the flash off of the camera because their eyes are still very sensitive. We have been using the light from the heat lamp to take pictures.
As everyone knows, we are going to work very hard to match the puppies personalities to their forever homes. I love that many of you are enjoying the blog and some have started to comment on pictures as well. I do have to approve all comments so if you do not see yours there right away, it is probably waiting for my approval.
When the puppies start to look more like dogs, instead of little pigs, we will start to feature a daily puppy to start off the blog and of course the typical blog with everyone else as well.
I have a very special photoshoot planned for tomorrow that I have been hoping to accomplish since before the puppies were born. We will be trying to take “Mommy and Me” photos. Until then, you will have to settle for some more random pictures taken during the day.
11-12-18
DAY 12
Thing out our way are getting very interesting. This morning before I left for school I went to say goodbye to the puppies. When I did, I saw that the corners of Miss Tassie’s eyes were starting to open. I checked everyone else’s and sure enough they were peeking at me too. It is so faint that you may not be able to see it in these pictures. No more flash photography for a little while until their eyes get more adjusted.
I don’t know about anyone else, but I seem to love puppy piles. Here is a nice one of the pups fitting in the corner of the box very nicely.
Some more candid’s from today!
11-11-18
DAY 11
The spots are slowly but surely coming in! Our local Dal club, Greater Pittsburgh Dalmatian Club (GPDC), hosted some coursing ability test’s (CAT) yesterday and today in Jefferson, Ohio. We were not able to make it due to puppies, but we heard that they were a hit! We hope that some of these pups will like to run Lure Coursing some day. Both Brady and Kimber have titles at this venue. CAT’s are a type of chasing game. There are three plastic bags on a pulley system that runs a 600 yard course. if the dog chases the bags for the majority of the course they get a leg, or a qualifying score. This video is Kimber chasing those plastic bunnies. I think she might like it a little bit! What do you think?
This video was taken a year ago at the GPDC’s last CAT trial. That weekend she earned her CA (coursing ability) title.
This year we were home with these cute little ones.
During and after meal time.
11-10-18
DAY 10
Yesterday I mentioned that some of the puppies were toddling, but I couldn’t get a good video of it. Well…after a nice long meal at the milk bar, I waited patiently for the puppies to start to move again. I managed to catch one of the boys moving across the box. He did pretty well for not being able to see where he was going.
I also wanted to put Kimber’s pregnancy progression photos on the blog as well. When she was bred she weighted 49.5 pounds and when she gave birth she weighted about 64.5 pounds. Her waist was 20.5 inches when she was bred and 33.25 inches when the puppies were born.
Some candid’s from today.
11-9-18
DAY 9
As promised I have a report for everyone in regards to how the puppies second nail trim went. The only word that comes to mind is PHENOMENAL!!! The first nail trim took me about an hour to complete. We had a drastic difference in time. Today’s trim took me about 20-25 minutes total. As I was trimming nails, I thought about how all the little feet are so cute, so I started to take picture after picture after picture of the little paws, but I only got a few photos that were not blurry.
Everyone who hadn’t doubled their weight yesterday surely did today. We even had to move to the big scale since the big boys don’t fit so easily in the other scale’s basket anymore.
The cutest thing that we have seen is that all of the puppies have been on all four feet WALKING! It isn’t a very stable walk, but they are doing it. Most of them have gotten about 5 steps in and then they fall over, but they are doing pretty well for their age. As many times as I keep trying to get a good video I can’t. I will keep on trying!
11-8-18
DAY 8
HAPPY ONE WEEK BIRTHDAY PUPPIES!
Everyone has doubled their birth weights except a few puppies who are not too far behind. We keep having to loosen and loosen those puppy collars!
Although we considered many, many things when we were deciding where to put the whelping box, this never crossed our minds. Brady and Kimber rarely have the tendency to put their paws on the counter, but I guess she couldn’t see well enough from the whelping box.
These two boys were in sync while nursing! I’m surprised I was recording when this happened. There are so many cute things that the puppies do that I wish we could get on camera, but it is over by the time that I grab my phone.
Some of the spots are starting to show on their fur instead of just on their skin. I also was able to catch a big yawn from Sugar.
I am also very happy to say the the puppies are becoming more acquainted to the positions involved with ENS.
11-7-18
DAY 7
Since it is so hard to get a picture that you can see all of the puppies in, we lined them up. In order from left to right they are:
Macaroon, Pumpkin, Biscotti, Sugar, Blossom, Cannoli, Butterball, Tassie, Snickerdoodle.
I decided to wait another day to trim nails because they didn’t grow as much as I anticipated them to. So this time, I’ll say I’ll let you know how their second nail trim goes when they are long enough to be trimmed. Anyways… I think it is safe to say that Pumpkin will be heavily spotted, especially on her tummy.
Some more candid’s from today. I feel like all I do is take pictures. Some of the napping pairs from today are Blossom and whoever she is on. They look pretty plump so I’m guessing it was a boy. The two baby boys like to stick together, Butterball and Snickerdoodle. And the oldest girls, Sugar and Tassie, were together today too.
11-6-18
DAY 6
WOW are these puppies growing fast!!! Butterball gained almost 3 ounces since yesterday around the same time and everyone else isn’t too far behind. We also had to loosen their collars again today and they will be ready for another nail trim tomorrow. I will let you know how their second nail trim goes on tomorrow’s blog post.
Here is a short video of how noisy nursing pups are. They sure like to lay in some strange positions and move around a lot, and the video is in normal speed! Over the past couple of days we have been starting to see their little personalities start to show. Pumpkin is a very feisty girl and reminds me a lot of Kimber already. Payton and Paris think Biscotti looks and acts just like Brady. Chris even said that she thinks he looks like Brady a couple seconds after he was born too.
11-5-18
DAY 5
Since the blog has been mostly about Kimber and the pups, I decided to give Brady a moment to shine. Some of you may know his story and some of you may not have heard it before. We actually had bought Brady as a pet on a limited registration from Pat Martin in Erie, Pennsylvania, who owns Andiron Dalmatians. She asked us to wait until he was at least two years old to neuter him to help with joint development and some other things as well. When he was about a year old, we took him to a Greater Pittsburgh Dalmatian Club meeting and the president of the club told us that he needed to be shown. After some consideration we decided to give it a try and Pat changed his registration from limited to full for us. We tried him at a match show and he won BEST IN MATCH SHOW! We put him in at the GPDC specialty and he did ok. He showed twice that day and took turns with the another dog in his class. He was first in his class in morning sweepstakes and second in his class in the morning show. We laid off for a few month and seriously started to show him in August of 2015. A year later he earned his first title, his championship. He has done everything that we have asked him to do and to date he has 12 titles. His favorite activity is being a couch potato, but they don’t give titles for that!
11-4-18
DAY 4
The puppies had their first nail trim! It was a little challenging to cut all of the nails because they are so tiny. Just to give you an idea, they are only a couple millimeters in length and about a millimeter in width. Since they are so small and super soft, we use human nail clippers. Everyone was a little squirmy, but I can foresee improvement down the road. I was so curious as to how many baby nails I trimmed that I actually did the math. I trimmed a whopping 144 puppy nails!
I would like to say that Biscotti found a comfy place to lay…but I can’t. He doesn’t look very comfortable but I guess it must be because his buddy Cannoli decided to join him.
Even though they didn’t look comfortable, Macaroon looked very relaxed taking a nap in between Kimber’s neck/shoulder and her beloved pillow.
We put an air mattress close to the whelping box so that we could be close by for the first week or so. As I was writing this blog post this is what I saw… and I thought everyone would like to see it too.
11-3-18
DAY 3
We had some recurring visitors today, both of which Kimber is very comfortable with. She greeted both of them and let them in the whelping box with her and her pups. Payton’s boyfriend, Colton, stopped by to pick her up for her birthday dinner. He brought her this cute stuffed Dalmatian as one of her presents.
Here he is with Payton, holding some pups.
Shortly after Piper came home and was welcomed by Kimber too. She is holding the record so far for most puppies held at one time. She has claimed Tassie as her favorite and Cannoli as her second favorite.
We started early neurological stimulation (commonly referred as ENS) today. We do this on days 3-16 of the puppies lives to improve cardio vascular performance (heart rate), stronger heart beats, stronger adrenal glands, more tolerance to stress, and greater resistance to disease. Everyone did fine, with some surprises of about half the puppies responding extremely well to it.
| 1. Tactile Stimulation (Between Toes) | |
 |
1. Tactical stimulation (between toes) Holding the pup in one hand, the handler gently stimulates (tickles) the pup between the toes on any one foot using a Q-tip. It is not necessary to see that the pup is feeling the tickle. Time of stimulation 5-10 seconds
|
| 2. Head Held Erect | |
 |
2. Head held erect Using both hands, the pup is held perpendicular to the ground, (straight up), so that its head is directly above its tail. This is in an upwards position. Time of stimulation 5-10 seconds |
| 3. Head Pointed Down | |
 |
3. Head pointed down Holding the pup firmly with both hands the head is reversed and is pointed downward so that it is pointing towards the ground. Time of stimulation 5-10 seconds |
| 4. Supine Position | |
 |
4. Supine position Hold the pup so that its back is resting in the palm of both hands with its muzzle facing the ceiling. The pup while on its back is allowed to struggle. While also rubbing all parts of the pups body with your fingers. Time of stimulation 5-10 seconds |
| 5. Thermal Stimulation | |
 |
5. Thermal stimulation Use a damp towel that has been cooled in a refrigerator for at least five minutes. Place the pup on the towel, feet down. Do not restrain it from moving. Time of stimulation 5-10 seconds |
As they should, every one of them has gained weight again.
EVERY SINGLE PUPPY HAS GAINED ABOUT 2 OUNCES!!!
11-2-18
DAY 2
Today the puppies had their first car ride and vet appointment for dew claw removal. The Dr. said everyone is doing great and is super strong. He checked Kimber and said she was very healthy and was pleased with how well she is doing. Kimber doesn’t seem to be stressed at all and is taking it all in stride. When we got home Payton helped take head shots and weigh the pups. Every one of them has gained a good amount of weight. We were very surprised when some of the puppies (mostly the boys) were falling asleep while they were getting weighed. Here are the puppies in birth order. We were also surprised on how well the majority of them cooperated and didn’t fuss….except Pumpkin. She was a little wiggly.
11-1-18
DAY 1
Kimber delivered 9 beautiful babies starting last night and continuing into early this morning. She had 5 girls (one has a very cute patch that covers most of her right ear and some of her head) and 4 boys. All of the puppies are black spotted. Their birth weights ranged from 12.0 to 14.7oz. which are nice healthy weights. Everyone is doing great, mama and puppies, and she had a nice smooth birth. Thank you to our very good friend for your expert help throughout the night, Chris Aranowski (Soulryde Dalmatians). Once we are settled, in a couple of days the blog posts will get longer with more pictures. We also made a post on Chalet Dalmatians Facebook Page with more pictures.
Birth Order:
Tassie (Light Pink, Female)
Blossom (Hot Pink, Female)
Sugar (Yellow, Female)
Cannoli (Cobalt, Male)
Pumpkin (Orange, Female)
Biscotti (Teal, Male)
Macaroon (Purple, Patched Female)
Butterball (Blue, Male)
Snickerdoodle (Lime, Male)
10-26-18
The reproductive vet said she thinks there are 8 puppies for sure, maybe 9. Paris thinks there may be more. As a wise friend said “Time will tell.”
10-18-18
Puppies are kicking in the womb! Watch right below the hand on Kimber’s belly.
10-17-18
Today we installed the Puppy Cam. We will be able to watch them 24/7 and will upload videos to this blog. Most videos uploaded, from this angle, will be from the Puppy Cam.
10-8-18
Today we put the whelping box up. As you can see, Kimber is very cozy in her new nest. For those of you who have seen the blog from her litter (bred by LaDonna King: Kingdom Dalmatians) this is indeed the same box with a coat of paint on it. A fun fact is that Kimber was the first puppy born in this whelping box. She wore the solid red collar and was called Bonnie.
9-21-18
A very special delivery came in the mail today!
8-31-18
Very exciting news today! Breeding has taken place. That means we have an official due date!!!
This is where you will find the blog for this litter.
7-22-18
chaletdalmatians.com 