LaRoux Puppy Blog 2012: The "big puppies" update

... well this post has the big puppies and the little puppies info,

An update on the puppies. The little puppies (Hilde’s) will be 6 wks old Saturday, the 22^nd. The big puppies will be 8 wks old Wednesday, the 19

Both puppies are weaned. They eat Blue Diamond Holistic Puppy kibble scooped out of the bag now. I sometimes put hydrated Stella & Chewy’s mixed with NuVet vitmins mushed in it too. I should be giving them chunks of NuVet vitamins and I havn’t, sorry. If you wanted to keep them on Stella & Chewy’s I would suggest the frozen instead of the dehydrated, hydrating the patties make them a little too soft.

The big puppies are the smallest litter we’ve ever had. They are bouncy, happy sweet little puppies, we have loved and enjoyed them all. La Roux has been a great momma, caring and loving towards them always. The big puppies know what steak is now, they love it. Any of the puppies that fly out instead of being picked up will have a meal of broiled chicken breast that day. It’s digestible and they shouldn’t throw it up on the plane. When picking your puppy up from the airlines, take boiled chicken breast in small bites to give them as a “hello puppy.” They will love you forever and will break the ice. They will be very tired, thirsty and the chicken breast will settle their tummies.

The little puppies are characters and we laugh and love them dearly. The black male (Indy) and the black female (Iroca) are as comical as their momma. All of Viktor’s puppies are animated, happy and sweetly playful. You pick them up and they are all over you with kisses. Irina, one of the small puppies, she will be Viktor’s size. We are happy with the size of this litter. At first I thought they would be all small standards, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. The big boys are Ivan and Irok, Indy will be close to their size but a tad smaller. I think the three bigger boys will be Hilde’s size, about 21”, Indy probably noticeably smaller than Ivan and Irok, about 20”. The other black boy (Icon) is small, he’s the next size larger than Irina (Jim calls her Latte’). Icon, Indiana and Iroca should all be under 20”. They are small framed. Looks like we finally sized down Hilde’s puppies! These are the smallest puppies she’s had. Now I’m thinking we should stay small with her litter next year, so we will see.

The red litter (the big puppies) are moyens. Keep in mind a caniche moyen according to the FCI (Europe) is 14-18” at the withers. Hattie and Hunter will be about 15”. Hannah will be 17.5”, Harley and Harkin will be about 18, maybe 18.5”. Not much difference in size. Hilde’s puppies there’s a few that will have a noticeable size difference from Irina (Latte') and the cream boys.

Daily routine with the puppies

Up about 6:30am we let the big poodles in the front yard, separating Grace and Viktor since she’s in season and we aren’t breeding a silver to a red (!). Pippa is showing signs of being pregnant, we take her for her ultrasound on October 1. Pippa is due the end of October, Grace is due the end of November.

After the adults have gone potty and run around, I put either Viktor or Grace in a crate to take care of the puppies, everybody else comes into the house with a doggy door to the back yard.

First it’s the little puppies get to eat and drink and play in the front yard. We have a huge front yard (1/2 acre+) with a lot of cement. They have lots of things on the cement to play (hammacks, different surfaces, chairs, grass, dirt, each other and the other litter, toys, chew toys). After the little puppies have eaten I let the big puppies out to play. They all play for about an hour while I’m cleaning and feeding and playing with all of them. The big puppies are pretty nice to the little puppies so far, so I do let them play as long as they are nice and don’t scare them. The little puppies get tired fast since they are full, so they are back into their 8x8 kennel on a padded floor safe and sound. They’ve spent a couple of hours playing so I don’t give them food and water. It’s pass out time. I put a crate in with them without a door on it. Irina and Ivan like it the most. Icon likes the riding lawn mower. Most of the little puppies stay out of the open areas so the big puppies don’t run by and push them down. So that’s the only time I notice they don’t want to play with them. Hattie and Hunter are very good about playing with the little puppies. All three of the black puppies prance up to both of them challenging them. I tell the big puppies to play nice and pick anyone that’s not, or the small ones that are tired, like Irina she’s small and gets tired so I seem to carry her around with me. Hannah on the other hand is a little rough, she likes to play with Hattie. I carry Hannah around a bit so she’s not so rough. Then plays with the two big boys in the grass and hammock and they are content. The two bigger boys play rough together a lot, they are growling and chewing and running (fast for pudgy little puppies) and having a great time.

Big puppies get their first puppy shot and worming on Wednesday. Harley (will be Hunter) will be picked up by his new momma Suzanne. Hattie flies out on Thursday, I want to get her a smaller crate before she goes. I have the 16”x22” and she looks like a kitten in that huge crate. As long as her head doesn’t touch the top I can put her in a more appropriate crate for her size. She will be more comfortable.

The little puppies get their personality testing on September 30^th. Hannah and Hunter will be driven to Sacramento where their owners pick them up.

Fair warning about bringing a puppy home when you have other domestic animals. Get your other pets vaccinations and worming and heartworm tested before puppy comes into your home. The adults will sluff off the disease and your puppy is vulnerable to catch it. Please remember your puppy is young, vulnerable and must be protected to be safe and kept safe from animals not vaccinated. As much as we are adamant about not over vaccinating, we are also adamant about not taking your puppy to public places before they are well vaccinated. I also say DO NOT give a young puppy numerous vaccinations at a time. DO NOT give the 3^rd DHPP with the rabies. Don’t’ be lazy, take the puppy back and then get the rabies. You don’t want to overwhelm their immune system. DO NOT put topicals, flea dips, flea collars, etc. on your puppy! It weakens their immune system. After their first shot they should have another about three weeks maybe four. The 3^rd shot should be the same, 3 – 4 weeks later. The rabies shot should be given another day from their last DHPP. Keep your records, they have to have a booster in a year for the DHPP and (not at the same time) their three year rabies. Then every three years after that. Remember never to vaccinate an ill dog (cat, etc.). Do not vaccinate in bitch in season. Our puppy people get all of that in writing in the puppy packet, so please do read that. Julie Borst-Reed put it all on paper and I copy it for every puppy family we have. It’s important to be careful.

As long as everything goes well with our move, we will be living in N. Monterey County. The view from our deck over looks Carmel Valley. We are happy with the house we’ve chosen. It’s a 2000 sqft home on an acre with lots of cement (LOL not much different from this house in Perris). We have the appraisal and inspection yet, hopefully everything goes smoothly.

We will have a gathering summer of 2013 where all of our puppies and their wonderful owners will be invited to come visit. Hope to see you again with your older puppies. We have three two year olds now in the bay area, they will be going on three years old. We also have three one year olds that will be over 18 months by next year. We plan on keeping a silver girl from Grace’s litter, we might breed her once more, we might not.

Morning playtime pictures
here in Perris, CA it's in the high 80s or 90s by 10am, this is about 7-10am

Harkin

Big puppies and the little puppies eating in harmony

there's the boys rassling, I think that's Hattie walking away from them

Harley and Harkin

Hannah

that's Hattie, she's tired

Harkin watching his brother ... come on buddy come and play!

I think that's Indiana, on the right is Hannah

there's the boys, rassle, rassle ... Harley and Harkin

Indiana on the right, she's an apricot/cream
Grown she will cream with an apricot hue and dark apricot ears

Is that a blue collar or purple collar on the cream puppy? Blue is Ivan, Purple is Indiana, the three of them look so much alike, of course Indiana is much smaller than the boys and darker apricot ears.

middle red puppy either Hunter or Hattie, I can't see their face. Far right is Irina.

they are slowing down, time to put the little puppies away

Irok he's resting

a little tilt of the head that's Hattie, all of these puppies are so animated, that's Viktor

this is the pre-tired huddle

pink collar is Iroca, directly in front of her with the round butt is Irina, the others two are puppies

I looked to make sure I knew who this was for the picture, it's Ivan, he's tired looking for a quiet place

Hunter's favorite place. He saw me walking to the door and ran over and played on the little hammack. He's a smart guy and very personable. His daddy's clone.

Looks like Harley to me. He has a longer snout.

Precious little Hattie.

and the boys playing, that puppy pool is just about trash... lol

oh shoot, that's Hunter on your right playing with Harkin

Harley and Harkin playing, Hunter is getting his nose dirty

LOL ... cream puppy

Indy, he likes that toy. my camera gets blurry when I zoom in.

Irina getting tired fast. Soon as I was done cleaning their area I put her and Ivan away and they both walked into the crate without the gate on and took a nap. They were perfectly content.

she looks so apricot in this picture, that's Irina

they all had a bath (all 12 of them) and got their nails trimmed two days ago, probably can't tell this morning. About every 3-4 days they all get a bath.

Icon's favorite place (green collar now that Hunter grew out of it). Probably the quietest and safest place to sleep is on the riding lawn mower and he didn't want me to take him away.