PUPPY UPDATE, June 16, 2008: Lucy began having her puppies around 4:45 a.m. today. All the pups were born by 7:00 a.m., five pups, one male and four females. The puppies are quite small, no longer than 4" in length. One pup seemed a bit weak this morning, but everyone seems fine by this evening. Will try to have individual descriptions and pics posted by tomorrow.

PUPPY UPDATE, June 17, 2008: When I came home from work late this afternoon, the smallest female puppy (Puppy #1) had passed away. It is hard to say whether she may have had an immature respiratory system or whether Lucy possibly layed on her and suffocated her. The four remaining pups seem quite strong. Their bellies are already becoming rounded from their nearly continuous nursing the past 24 hours. Lucy has spent nearly all her time lying in the box with her babies.

PUPPY UPDATE, June 25, 2008: The puppies have grown quite a bit this week. Puppy #2 continues to be the largest puppy, and Puppy #5 is the smallest. Puppy #5 is now sold. Puppy #3 is a little smaller than Puppy #4. Puppy #3 may be a medium sized sheltie and Puppy #4 may be a large sheltie. It's just a little hard to tell for sure about those two yet. The puppies' eyes are starting to crack open now and should be all the way open in the next couple of days. They still mostly spend their time sleeping and nursing. But once their eyes open, they will become much more curious about each other and their surroundings. My younger daughter already has a favorite, Puppy #2, who has been well spoiled by her. But of course all of the other pups get plenty of attention, too.

PUPPY UPDATE, July 4, 2008: The puppies have already undergone a lot of changes. Now with their eyes open and now able to hear and with their now functioning senses, they are now playful with each other, playfully chewing on each other as they practice fine tuning their walking skills. They have grown quite a bit - Puppy #2 has doubled in size since birth. Puppy #2 continues to be the largest puppy, but Puppy #4 has grown signficantly enough so that now we think she'll likely grow to be borderline between a medium and large size. Puppy #3 had first seemed like she would be a small, but now seems more likely that she is medium sized. Anticipated adult weights for Puppy #2 would be around 35 lbs., for Puppy #3 around 25 lbs., for Puppy #4 around 30 lbs., and for Puppy #5 15-20 lbs. I shot a video of the puppies playing a couple days ago and will work on getting that compressed and into our web site soon.

PUPPY UPDATE, July 16, 2008: The puppies are getting so cute! They still sleep quite a bit of their time, but also love to playfully chew on each other. Puppy #3 has become quite a character and seemingly will have an outgoing, friendly personality. She has no problem whatsoever climbing out of their box, mostly just so she can look back at the others as if to say, "Look what I can do!" She likes to mostly hang out outside the box to check out what everyone is doing, and if she sees Mama Lucy, she takes off running after her! Lucy is not fond of nursing by this stage because the babies now have teeth. So nursing requires coaxing, as the babies still need their mother's milk. But because of Lucy's reluctance to nurse them, they also have been started on eating a mush of puppy food, which we now keep available for them. Puppy #4 may be a bit more shy and reserved, so we are trying to give her some extra love and attention right now. Puppy #2 is quite spoiled by my younger daughter, who cuddles him often. So he is friendly also and he also climbs out of their box at times. Puppy #5 is my older daughter's favorite, and she often holds her on her lap while multi-tasking on the internet. Puppy #5 doesn't let her small size keep her from playing just as rough with her larger siblings. I'm not sure whether all the puppies bark yet, but I did hear Puppy #3 this evening barking at a little ball on the floor. It is a very high pitched bark at this point and not really very loud. The puppies have now had several baths, and they cooperate quite well during their baths. I'm not sure how much longer it will be practical for the pups to be in our kitchen. We are working on a problem with our puppy pen/room, that is in our garage - we went to so much effort to make it warmer this past winter when we had such a long stretch of sub-zero temps, that now with the summer heat, it may be too warm out there. So, we are pondering the situation. Lucy typically has a spring litter and/or a fall litter, but has only had one other summer litter, her first litter. So, we have not typically had to deal with summer heat as a problem for her litters. The puppies are too little to safely be out in our yard right now. So as soon as we figure out how best to cool their pen/room, they will likely be moving out there.

PUPPY UPDATE, July 31, 2008: The puppies have been keeping quite busy lately. Nearly two weeks ago they moved out to their pen/room in the garage where they have more room to run about and play, but they have spent several afternoons lately having supervised playtime in our back yard where they have been enjoying playing in a little kiddie pool. The reason it is "supervised" is because of their small size in relation to some larger pups that we still have, we just want to make sure the larger pups don't try to play too roughly with the little ones. The puppies LOVE playing in the pool - they are so cute :-). The past few days when the afternoon temps have been so hot, the pups have spent the afternoons/evenings gated off in our kitchen because the temps have been too hot in their puppy pen/room (going to have to work on how best to resolve that issue). They have been mostly pretty well behaved spending time indoors, but are by no means housebroken at this point. The puppies return to their pen/room in the garage at night and during the morning hours. The puppies turned six weeks old on Monday, and as such, they are no longer allowed to nurse Mama Lucy (much to their dismay.....). They are finally eating solid puppy food - this has been the most reluctant litter I've ever had to get started eating solid food! The pups are scheduled to see our vet this Saturday morning for their first series of shots and preventative dewormer. I weighed the pups last night and although I have suspected that their size differences had changed lately, I was still surprised at the differences in weight. Puppy #2 had very clearly been the largest puppy when the pups were born and for quite awhile thereafter; however, now he is next to the smallest puppy, weighing in at 3 lbs. 10 oz. Puppy #3 had previously been next to the smallest puppy - now she is the largest!, weighing in at 4 lbs. 9 oz. Puppy #4 continues to be the second to the largest pup, weighing in at 4 lbs. 4 oz. And Puppy #5 continues to be the smallest puppy, weighing in at 3 lbs. 6 oz. With their current changes in sizes, I now am assuming that Puppy #2 may likely grow to be a medium, rather than large, size sheltie. And Puppy #3 may likely grow to be a large, rather than medium, size sheltie. Puppy #4 may likely grow to be a large size sheltie. And Puppy #5 will still very likely only grow to be a small sized sheltie. Puppy #2 recently sold and is no longer available. Puppies #3 and #4 are still available. Puppy #3 continues to have the boldest personality in the litter and is very cute and funny. Puppy #2 is a bit spunky and not really afraid of much either. Puppy #5 is mostly a sweet little girl. Puppy #4 is not overly fond of being held, but overall we are not sure about her personality yet. I will post an update after the pups' vet appointment on Saturday.

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Our shelties and chow chow are part of our family, well loved and very socialized. We have a large fenced yard for our dogs to run and play in, and our dogs have access to dog houses and our garage. In our garage is a fenced off area with an insulated, heated nesting box for Lucy's pups; however, her winter litters have typically spent most of their upbringing inside our home. Sabra has a separate, two-room house for raising her pups. Our dogs frequently visit inside our home for love and play with our family.


Lucky & Lucy