Dillon & Liberty
Litter M!
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Liberty gave birth on November 6th beginning around 6:30 AM & was finished by lunchtime. All told, there were 5 girls and 3 boys born. The last two pups born were very small, but strong. They continue to be strong at 1 week of age, however, Vicki & I will continue to assess them daily for at least another week or so.
Week 1 - All puppies have at least doubled their birth weight size. It's interesting to watch the two little ones as they squeeze in between their siblings to sleep. I can't make any determination on what colors these pups are going to be yet. I can tell that they are beginning to lighten up, which is beginning to give me a better feel for things. Although Monroe is marked like a tri, his body fur is showing a lot of brown tint to it. I feel that he will most likely be a dark sable & white boy. The rest of the pups will have to wait another week before I make a declaration. Most likely, the pups will either be sable & white, seal & white and/or perhaps a tri, but I am not holding my breath on the tri option since most have tan highlights in their body fur. 😉 I have made quite a few trips already to spend time with the pups. When I am not there, Vicki is handling them on a daily basis. Liberty has done a wonderful job as a mother taking care of 8 little pups!
Week 2 - Wow, what a difference a week makes. 😉 The six big pups look huge & the two little ones are gaining weight and size too! Everyone is strong & Liberty is taking good care of them. They have received their first nail clipping, eyes are beginning to open & I have even seen the start of some of them trying to walk, including little Miss Moxie! All pups continue to have a brownish cast to their fur. Still waiting to see whether they will be seal and white or perhaps a few of them could be sable and white.
Week 3 - I made two trips over to Vicki's this past week. Because my first set of photos were not real good, I decided to wait until my return trip on Saturday, Dec. 1st. All pups are walking very well now. Teeth are cutting through, puppy food has been introduced into their diet & they have made their first trip into the great outdoors as well. So far, all pups are very tolerant about being held & being on their backs within my arms. Vicki has done a wonderful job with them! 😉 During both trips, I sat down on the ground & pretty much ended up with a lap full of pups. I was down that low so I could get photos. It's mighty hard to get photos when they are in my lap though. What a price to pay though! 😉 I have included a few pictures below that give a better representation of their coat colors. I forgot that being out in the direct sunlight sometimes is not a good thing when trying to show that they are not black pups at all.
Almost 5 weeks old - When the pups were weaned, I went ahead and brought them on home. They have done really well making the adjustment from their home with Vicki to our house. In the first few days, they have learned how to maneuver steps, even the two little girls. Maggie & Moxie can scale the steps, but still require a little help making it back down at times. Pups understand the word "inside" and are now walking into the house. They have been exposed to the TV (and saw some of them watching it one night), other household sounds including the fiddle and the guitar. All pups are interested in interacting with people, wanting love and attention. So far it has been a good couple of days!
Almost 6 weeks old - The pups continue to grow in size and how they interact with each other, people and Holly has also spent some one on one time with them. We are making the transition from being let out of the inside pen & heading directly to the door to head outside. We are spending a lot of time outside. The little ones continue to grow at a steady rate & are beginning to interact more with the bigger pups now. Both Moxie & Maggie can come down the steps without any problems now. Pups are pretty good about coming when called and sleeping through the night. This has been a really nice litter of pups! One of their favorite things is piling into the small crate on the porch when they get tired. It's like watching to see how many people can be crammed into a car. 😉 They can still manage to get all 8 in the crate and go to sleep!Almost 7 weeks old - I had thought that this week would involve two road trips, but only one materialized, which was the trip to the agility trainer's house. The day was fairly cool, as attested to the coats worn by both Jan Santel (owner of Autumn Winds Agility Center) & her helper of the day, Kay. Pups were fairly noisy riding over there and back & also while waiting their turn. 😉 I have said this on most of their individual pages, but would like to say here that the confidence level of the pups going into this exercise was amazing. Usually I have a few pups within the litter that will walk right up the A-frame & down again with little to no trouble. Some of these pups needed encouragement the first time up & down, but everyone of them turned around at the bottom and went back up without even being asked to do that! I was amazed! This has been a really nice litter for all around temperament & willingness to please. I have been happy so far with all of them.
