The "F" Litter
Bec gave birth late Friday night into Saturday morning.  There were 4 girls & 3 boys that arrived healthy and kicking.  Right now it appears that all of them will be tri-color.  Fontana & Frisco both are showing tan under their tails, but haven't begun to "tan up" elsewhere yet.  Time will tell if there are 7 tri-color pups or 5 tri-colors and 2 black and whites.

After one week, all puppies are gaining weight on a daily basis.  All seem to be strong and content.

Week two - All puppies are growing bigger on a daily basis.  Eyes opened this week and they are beginning to walk around the pen.  By next week this time, they will have found their legs and be moving quite steadily around.  Tan is becoming more visible on the pups.

Week three - This has been a week of new experiences for the pups.  They have discovered their voices, which seems to shock them some to realize that the noise came from within.  All have become reliable in their mobility, learned to nurse standing up, explored outside the pen on the hardwood & rug, are learning to play with one another and toys, and their teeth are beginning to come in!   Also, the first escapes occurred this week.  Fontana was the first one out!

Week four - By the time the pups turned 4 weeks old, they were eating some meals as puppy food, but still nursing every now and then.  Pups are making daily visits outside, drinking water, learning to play fight and use their sharp little teeth.  The pen has been reconfigured by using the x-pen for taller sides.  They were beginning to come out over the top of the other setup.  All pups come quickly when I call.  They are busy exploring new things, but also like to be in my lap while I am sitting on the floor.  All in all, this is a great litter of pups!  I did take "posed" pictures while the pups were all fairly relaxed.  You can see a few were rather displeased with the bother of being moved.  😉

Week five - Pups are pretty much weaned and digging into the puppy chow with gusto.  This week they have spent quite a bit of time outside whenever the temperatures would allow it.  They have learned to maneuver the front steps to the porch.  Going up is easy to learn.  Coming down is harder, but they mastered it pretty quickly & are old pros at it now.  Temperament wise, the pups are pretty much the same, & all like to be with you & be handled.  Frisco, Fontana & Flo have some "spunk" to them and are the first to explore and defend themselves.

Week six - The pups have been playing quite a bit outside this week.  They have learned to dig, chew on sticks and old stumps, explore new frontiers, but they still know where the "safety" of the porch is & will run lickety-split to it.  All still come fairly quickly when called.  Sometimes I just can't compete with the new areas to be explored.  However, give me a food pan in my hand & I am the place where they want to be!

Week seven - This has been quite a week for the pups.  On Wednesday we traveled to Claire Apple's place for their herding instinct test.  This was their first car ride & I am happy to report that other than being loud & unhappy for awhile, the trip was uneventful.  All pups were put on about 15 ducks during their turn.  I happily shot pictures of all the pups until the camera card became full.  It wasn't until that night that I found the card with the most pictures on it had malfunctioned & I can't recover my shots!  Fontana was the first pup to notice the sheep through the fence.  After that, Claire pulled a lamb out into the testing area as well.  Flo & Falcon were happy to work the ducks.  Flo also force barked if the ducks tried to escape.  All pups were very willing to work with Claire & didn't hang around me.  On Thursday, we took a trip to my agility trainer's facility.  Each of the pups were introduced to a short tunnel, a puppy sized A-frame, a ladder on the ground, a short table, the barrel for a chute and a dog walk plank flat on the ground.  Again, it was pretty amazing to see them willing to work with Jan & learn new things.  Over the last couple of days, they have begun to expand their horizons here at the house.  Banging on the food bowl will bring them running when they would rather be exploring a little too far away.