Week 1

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.

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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.

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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.

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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!

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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!

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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.

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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.

The five exercises are as follows. The duration of each of the five exercises is 5-10 seconds and done for 16 days.

	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. Also pinching the toes and paws gently.Time of stimulation 5-10 seconds
	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 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 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 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.

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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. Here they are in 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)

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