Today the Seedlings are 8 days old and they have hit some great milestones!
Yesterday, all three black and white females doubled their weight. Today, the remaining 2 liver and white puppies doubled their weights. The liver and white puppies were bigger, so it usually takes the biggest ones and extra day or two to double their w
eight- they have further to go. From now on, each puppy should be gaining 5%-10% daily.
I keep a spreadsheet on the puppies until they leave. This gives me hard data to analyze in case of any issues. I can quickly look and see if there are any warning signs in the puppy development. Every litter is different, so keeping a close eye on the data helps me prevent any issues.
We are continuing the ENS and ESI protocols. I find it very interesting to see how the puppies react. When it comes to handling, the girls all seem more upset than our single boy. He is pretty mellow and does not mind being handled. When the girls are handled, they wake up and the first thing on their mind is "Feed ME!" so they will start hollering for mom. I've quickly learned that for the girls, the best time to handle them is after they've been fed.
All of the puppies have had different reactions to the 3 AKC scents (birch, anise, cypress) that I've introduced. They have all had positive and negative reactions to various scents. Except for our little boy. He really is not a fan of new smells. He is either neutral or moves away. This means doing the early scent introduction is more important for him. We want all our puppies to be well balanced dogs. Maybe this little guy doesn't like moving out of his comfort zone, or maybe he just doesn't like these smells- they are very strong for sensitive noses. Either way, these new experiences are good for the puppies to get used to so that they do not grow up to have problems with new experiences in the future. Does this mean he won't be good at scent work? No. He may actually be better because he is very sensitive to new smells. We keep an open mind, and keep on with these protocols because we know it is good for puppy development. We will be moving on to birds this week. It may be a game changer for some. They are after all bird dogs, and being exposed to these scents may really be exciting for them.
As promised here is a bit of the data I've gathered so far. Purple and Green keep swapping places for heaviest puppy. This is interesting because typically the males tend to be bigger than the females. The Green line is our boy, and the purple line is a black and white girl. If you look at where they started at birth, purple wasn't even the biggest of the girls. She is just a little piggy. Red girl started off smallest and is staying there- which is just fine. Lily Belle is finer boned than Buttercup, so naturally some will take after her. She is just as vigorous as the rest of the puppies, and she is growing exactly how she should, so I do not have any worries.
This litter is hitting all the milestones on time- so we are very happy with their development.
This is really interesting. Thanks for all the work to keep us info, I really appreciate it.