here she is...
I need to think up some registered names for them all now, am still awaiting inspiration... lol
These pups are all noticeably smaller than I'm used to seeing in my litters and there is a vast difference in size between them and Lori's litter but I am confident they will all grow on and be decent sized adults. While Kitten is obviously on the small side, her parents and the rest of her littermates are not and Sea is big lad! Viggo was also a very small pup and he's grown up into a good sized boy now with plenty of bone and leg (it's just his brain that doesn't seem to be growing quite as fast as the rest of him!
Another thing I've noticed with these, and Lori's pups is that some have developed puppy tear stains, it's not a problem, I have seen this before in other peoples litters and it does of course dissapear very quickly but it's not something I've really had before. I am wondering whether it is linked to the fact that these two litters have been in the house the whole time. Usually I have my pups out on shavings at 4/5 weeks old in a large pen where they have lots of room to play and they stay nice and clean and dry on the shavings (their coats also smell much sweeter, like freshly cut wood!). I can't really see any reason why that would make a difference though? Since the utility room at the new house is easily big enough to accommodate older litters I had intended to have them inside all the time but I am thinking that I may build an outdoor pen in one of the garages for future litters. It does just give them more room and they do definitely stay cleaner.
3 comments:
I agree that some outdoor time really does help them toughen up.
With regards to size, I know what you mean there too. A tiny pup can still outgrow its larger siblings.
Same with humans. You get kids, especially boys, at school who are always really short then they sprout up after leaving at 16 and you see them a couple of years later and they are about 6ft 5".
My stepdad is 6ft 2" and both his parents were real short arses.:D
When it comes to puppy size, you can't really tell how big they'll get until they've done some significant growing and gotten to a certain age where there's not much more growing to do...like after the growth spurt.
I've seen massive pups who just grow more slowly into average sized dogs and tiny pups grow more quickly into larger than average dogs.
Our pups were always reared at least partly outside and I never encountered tear stains but then we generally tried to keep litters to being in the summer when the weather was better and days longer.
Yeh thanks Toni :)
In an ideal world I'd rear all my litters over summer so they get long days out to play in the sunshine but as you know, me and my girls are WAY too busy doing other things over the summer so winter pups it has to be!
Hopefully you'll get to meet Dora at Rotherham in April :)
Yes, hopefully. My workplace and flyball don't mix though. Wasn't able to make either day of the last one at Newark because of it.
BOO!!
I'll try and get at least one of the days free for the next ones.
Yes, I understand about the competing in summer etc.. It was lucky we didn't have that issue back then...we haven't had litters for a long time but winter cold was an issue plus bad weather and short days so we just found rearing litters in summer much better for us. Saying that, our old Jess and her siblings, who were born on Jan 21st, screamed to go and play in the snow at only 2 and a half weeks when they weren't even walking properly...so I let them for a few minutes. When we put them back in, they screamed to come back out...HAHA...true BCs!!
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