 PUPPY UPDATE, January 23, 2008: The temps here right now are quite cold - we woke up yesterday to the temp of -4, but it's been as low as -20 at night over the weekend. So I had great concerns about the birth of this litter in relation to our current quite cold weather. Around 9:00 a.m. I looked out in the yard and saw Sabra nervously
carrying a baby around in her mouth, trying to decide
where best to put him. Initially she took him inside
the pen in the garage, which I knew would cause great
problems because the shelties are very territorial of
the garage plus I still have three sheltie pups in
there (they are now 10 weeks old). So, I took the
puppy away from her and carried him down to her special
puppy house with the heating pad. She followed after and seemed content to have him there. Although the puppy had had
strong cries and seemed quite strong initially, when I
went out to check if more puppies were born about 10 minutes
later, his cries were weak and his body was
stiffening. Not good. So, I brought him inside the
house to warm up for quite awhile. I went back out to
check how things were going a short time later, and
two more were born. Against Sabra's wishes (she was
whimpering a LOT), I took both babies inside the house
right away. They were both quite strong. Sabra has never been inside of our house because she refuses to do the stairs and she is too heavy for me to carry her. Even so, I tried to
get Sabra to come inside the house, she would come up
on the bottom deck, but then would whimper loudly -
still unwilling to do the stairs. The babies were
crying loudly inside the house, obviously hungry, so
against my better judgment, I brought them back to her
in her house. I kept checking on the situation, and
by 10:30 a.m. the first born pup again was not doing
very well, so I brought him back inside and cuddled him
for about an hour. He then got to moving his limbs
better and sounding fine, so again took him back out
to his mom. I kept checking on everyone - I could
tell she had had several, but by then she was wrapping
her arms around the babies and burying them in her
stomach fur so that I could not tell how many there
were. Around 2:30 p.m. I saw three pups were not doing
well (including again Puppy #1) and so I brought them all inside the house. One
wasn't moving at all, but the first puppy was not
either when I had first brought him in that morning.
I had recalled that morning from when I studied nursing that
the body temp can drop quite low and give the
appearance of being dead, and yet not be dead. So, I
still had hopes that the puppy would make it. Sabra
was VERY upset with me taking her puppies in the
house, and I had a very hard time getting the last
puppy away from her - she put her paws around him and
buried her head against him. I was very cautious in
all my dealings with Sabra yesterday, knowing that
their instincts are stronger than any bond when they
have babies. Sabra definitely tolerated me doing a
lot yesterday. Sabra was horribly upset after all the
babies were inside the house. So, then the huge
challenge of how to get her inside the house, because
by this time there wasn't going to be any further
possibility of the babies returning out to her house.
I have tried in the past to lift Sabra, and was not
able to, but this time I knew I had to, no matter
what. And I did - I lifted her and carried her up the
steps and inside the house. She was incredibly scared
- she has never seen the insides of any house, in that
she came from a large breeder who raised the puppies
out in some sort of building. She stared nervously
around the room, before even joining her pups in their
box. The one pup who had not been moving at all, did
come around, as did one of the others. But the
female, who from her markings had been the second born
puppy who had been so strong that morning, died. I
just hate it when we lose one. We've only lost two of
the purebred shelties in the past, but both seemed to
have underdeveloped lungs. This death seemed more
tragic, because it seemed like it didn't need to be,
if only circumstances had been different. Sabra has
done mostly pretty well adjusting to being inside the
house. She's learned that the frig is full of goodies
(treated her with some cheese slices and ham). She's
determined that my cats might pose a threat, and
sounds like she could be potentially vicious towards
them, so have a baby gate in the kitchen doorway. Today the high is to be 0 and tonight the low -14.
After that they say this cold snap should start to
turn around. We will play things by ear as to the
weather in relation to how long the puppies should be
inside the house here. It is inconvenient, but must
do what is best for them right now. I want to make
sure they are quite strong. Our second litter of
sheltchows were born in November and wound up braving
some very cold temps around the age of four weeks - by
then they already had a thick coat of fur and didn't
seem to mind the cold at all. But these babies were
of course born wet and really with very little
thickness to their hair and quite a shock to come out
from inside their warm mom into such incredibly cold
temps. Will hope to have pictures and descriptions of the puppies posted soon....
PUPPY UPDATE, January 24, 2008: The air temp here this morning was -16 - good thing mom and babes are staying warm inside the house here! Sabra seems to be doing okay, but so very hot, with her thick coat of fur. I don't think she's overly fond of being in the house, but she has to be right now because the babies absolutely have to be inside right now. Bringing Sabra in and out of the house has been challenging - she is quite heavy, and my back is killing me this morning. I did get her convinced to come down the stairs to the yard from the kitchen this morning, so that is progress. But she still would not climb the stairs to come back inside the house, instead standing there whimpering for a long time. Ultimately I gave up and carried her back up the stairs inside. I will keep working with her and hope that she will come to do the stairs on her own. I worry about how much injury I could do to my back. A few things to mention about the puppies markings - several have white markings this time, but we have noticed from pics new owners have sent to us that those who had initially had white markings, that the markings have tended to fade or disappear as the puppies have grown. I plan to check with some of those owners later today to make sure that is the case, mostly out of curiosity myself.... Another note about markings is that the babies initially have various blackish markings, especially on their faces, that do disappear as they grow - the sheltie pups have those same blackish markings when they are born, and theirs disappear also. We have found rather interesting the unique marking that Puppy #4 has, as this is a marking none of our sheltchow nor sheltie pups has ever had before, to have the white bracelet like marking on one of his front paws. I tried to capture this marking in his pic above - in the pic it looks like the whole foot is white with the tiny brown dots, but actually his toes are brown.
We had an advance deposit for a female from this litter, so that a couple in the Chicago area will have first pic of the litter.
PUPPY UPDATE, January 31, 2008:
All the pups are continuing to do well. They have already grown so much! All have very rounded tummies and now are sleeping more and demanding to nurse less. They have been a very vocal litter and had not given Mama Sabra much of a break! Size differences are becoming more evident now. I weighed each of the pups this evening, and here are their current weights: Puppy #1 - 2 lbs. 1 oz, Puppy #3 - 2 lbs. 3 oz., Puppy #4 - 1 lb. 15 oz., Puppy #5 - 2 lbs. 2 oz, and Puppy #6 - 1 lb. 11 oz. The puppies' eyes are now starting to crack open. Will plan on getting new individual shots of the pups taken soon.....
PUPPY UPDATE, February 4, 2008:
The puppies are two weeks old today, and everyone's eyes are now open. Now that they can see, they are much more curious about their world. At times they wander out of their box, then whimper if they think they've wandered too far - Mama Sabra then whimpers until I come and put her babies back in their box. They sleep in the cutest positions, mostly with their bellies up in the air. And they now play chew on each other some. They're such little darlings and a real pleasure to have around :-) .
PUPPY UPDATE, February 11, 2008: I took a few more candid shots of the pups off and on the past few days and will try to get those up into the web site today. I also will plan on taking new individual shots of them soon. It's been interesting having this litter in the house and getting to experience them more fully - one thing I noticed is that they learn to bark much earlier than our purebred sheltie puppies do. These pups have always had a "chunkier" look to them - very stout and husky looking. Now that they can see, they are all over the kitchen. They still will at times go to their box, but more often than not are out of it now. I now have a throw rug on the floor, too, for them as the floor is at times cold, and want to keep them all warm and cozy. So far Mama Sabra cleans up all their messes, which is nice. Everyone is now walking pretty steadily, other than wagging their tails while they walk makes their hindsides twist about a bit (kinda funny....). Sabra is lately becoming more receptive to allowing me to hold her puppies. For quite awhile she had been whimpering loudly whenever I would pick one up, so I would respect her wishes and give the puppies back to her. But they need the people contact, so I'm glad she's letdown her guard now. The puppies' sleeping positions are the funniest thing, nearly always lying belly up! They have lately come to at times use the doggie stuffed toys as pillows to lie on also. Yesterday one pup was trying to drag around the stuffed toy, which was so funny because the stuffed toy is larger than he is! I should get updated weights on the pups, too.....
PUPPY UPDATE, February 11, 2008: I weighed the pups today - Puppy #1 now weighs 4 lbs. 0 oz., Puppy #3 weighs 3 lbs. 11 oz., Puppy #4 weighs 3 lbs. 6 oz., Puppy #5 weighs 4 lbs. 2 oz., and Puppy #6 only weighs 2 lbs. 13 oz.
PUPPY UPDATE, February 13, 2008: I took new individual pics of the pups tonight - will plan to edit and have them programmed into our site sometime tomorrow......
PUPPY UPDATE, February 18, 2008: Sorry for the delay adding the new pics - have been having additional problems with the web site and had to downsize additional pics in order to add any additional ones to the site. Will have to explore options for making this site better..... Anyway, please excuse the poor lighting on some of the recent shots - unfortunately I forgot the flash.....
PUPPY UPDATE, February 21, 2008: This is such an adorable litter, everyone is so incredibly friendly! And Sabra is such an awesome mom, so particular cleaning up after her babies. But there is one thing she will not share with them - her canned food! She will first growl, and then nip at them if they don't obey her. I'm really not sure which is larger, Puppy #1 or Puppy #5. The last time I weighed them, Puppy #5 weighed a little more, and yet Puppy #1 does look a little larger. He's such a doll - I picked him up and he just melted into my arms, quite content to be held for a long time. Puppy #1 seems to be pretty laid back with people, although quite playful with his siblings. Puppy #3 has been cuddled and spoiled a lot by my younger daughter. He seems to have a pretty friendly, outgoing personality and likes to nibble at my shoe laces. Puppy #4's most unique marking of a white bracelet on one front paw is now fading. He is second smallest in the litter. Both he and Puppy #6 have rather petite body structuring, whereas Puppies #1 and #5 have the most chow-like body structuring. I think the two smallest ones are the cutest, but beauty is according to individual tastes..... Puppy #5 has the fullest coat of hair and her hair is wavy on the back of her neck. Puppy #6 is so cute and spunky. I think she may be the friendliest in the litter. She also is quite fond of chewing on my shoe laces. All the pups' tails now curl onto their backs, a chow trait that always comes through. They now have a lot of their baby teeth and their tongues are starting to have black spots. Their nails are also transitioning from white to black. Although right now several pups have various white markings, when I recently visited with an owner of two of our Sheltchows who had white markings as pups, she says the white faded till it is barely visible. I'm not sure why that is, as the white markings come from their sheltie ancestry and is a stable trait in our sheltie pups. Already Puppy #4's bracelet is fading, although still somewhat visible. At the present the white markings on the other pups are still quite visible. Like our sheltie pups, the Sheltchows initially have various dark markings on their faces, which fade in both breeds as the puppies get older. Right now the puppy with the least dark markings on his face is Puppy #1. Puppy #1's unique trait is having an extra toe on each of his back feet. We had not seen that trait prior to Puppy #1 of Litter #3. Our research indicated that this is not considered an abnormality and should never be surgically removed. In fact, this trait is common to occur in certain breeds, although not typical of chows nor shelties. Sabra has a spare toe on only one of her back feet. Sabra is adapting quite well now to being inside the house, other than chasing my cats if they come too near the kitchen. Since we've had the coldest winter here for many, many years, she may find that inside the house can be quite nice :-) .....and of course the only place this litter of pups would ever have made it. We're anxious for spring!
PUPPY UPDATE, March 6, 2008: Today a vet made a house call to give Sabra her shots, since she will not get in my car and would be much too scared to go where she is not familiar. We had gotten Sabra when she was seven months old from a large breeder down in Georgia - we soon learned that Sabra had not been socialized, and we could not even touch her the first four months we had her. It was through her first litter, that we established trust, as I helped her with her puppies - by seeing that I was trying to help and not harm, she came to trust me. Sabra has become a wonderful, sweet, and loving dog - but mostly just with me and also to some extent with my younger daughter, who has invested much time to also try to establish a relationship with Sabra. Such is a little history as to why the vet needed to make a house call in order for her to get her shots..... While she was here, since this litter turned six weeks old this week, I also had her go ahead and vaccinate the pups, giving them their first series of shots and preventative dewormer. Each pup also had an exam and checked out in good health. I inquired as to whether there was any possibility of long-term problems due to the hyperthermia these pups experienced the day they were born, and her answer was "no," that once they are over the hyperthermia, that they are just fine. That was nice to hear. Meanwhile, it has still been too cold off and on here for the pups yet to move out to Sabra's house in the yard. So, they continue to grace my kitchen, where they are gated off from taking over the rest of the house. Sabra continues to be a meticulate mom - when I came home last night from being gone nealy eight hours, there were no messes whatsoever on the kitchen floor. That's not always the case, as there often are a few pee puddles here and there, but never any poop. The pups have some pretty wild times of hyper play, where you could swear from downstairs here that a herd of elephants were tromping across the floor upstairs. They can be quite rambunctious during their playtimes.....and then they crash in exhaustion and may sleep a couple hours. They quickly have learned to bark when anyone knocks on the door and unfortunately learned from Mama Sabra to bark at our cats if they walk anywhere near the gate in the doorway of the kitchen. I think now that Puppy #1 is larger than Puppy #5. Puppy #1 is pretty laid back and loves to be held and cuddled. I think Puppy #3 at times has his own agenda, as sometimes everyone else is wrapping around my feet begging for attention, while he will be off by himself checking out a toy or whatever. He's receptive to being held and loved and has been given much attention by my younger daughter - he just doesn't demand attention. I think the two littlest pups are such cute little darlings, although both seem to be more hyper than the larger pups. Puppy #4's white bracelet completely faded away. How odd - it was such a unique marking. Whenever I pick up Puppy #4, he reaches up and smothers my face with tons of licky kisses. But because he tends to be a bit hyper when held, I have to watch out for my glasses when I'm wearing those! Puppy #5 has the fullest coat of hair and her hair is wavy like her daddy Lucky. She can be quite verbal at times, whimpering or whining loudly if Mama Sabra is outside or if one of us is near the gate, and yet not coming inside. She has become quite fond of being cuddled. Puppy #6 is the most hyper of all. She even the other day was repeatedly jumping up in the air - she had her eyes on the frig, but not sure what she thought she was going to accomplish jumping in the air like she was. She is such a cutie....so tiny. But she is too "busy" to want to be held for very long. She recently has developed cream colored hair circling her eyes, which some of our sheltchow pups in the past have had. She can be so surprising, playfully attacking the largest pups, herself on top of them, and seemingly having no idea (nor care) that she's the smallest puppy. Silly girl....she's so funny to watch. The vet did not bring scales out to the house, but I should try to get new weights on the pups soon. Will post those in the site when I do. I also need to get new pics of them soon.....
PUPPY UPDATE, March 15, 2008: Today for the first time we put the pups out in our large fenced yard for them to play. They were fascinated with their new surroundings, playing so hard, that when we brought them inside tonight, they just crashed, sleeping soundly all night and later into the morning than usual.
PUPPY UPDATE, March 16, 2008: Today we again allowed the little ones to go out into the yard to play. They were settling nicely into Sabra's house by evening, so decided to allow them to stay out there for the night.
PUPPY UPDATE, March 17, 2008: Unfortunately the pups were a bit overstimulated by their surroundings and new sounds overnight, as they barked quite a bit throughout the night. They seem to again be settling into Sabra's house for the night, so will give them a second try and see how the night goes.....
PUPPY UPDATE, March 18, 2008: Had a better night overnight, the pups were quiet and content with their mom out in her house. I go out a few times a day to sit with the pups and give everyone lots of loving.
PUPPY UPDATE, March 19, 2008: Puppy #1 thinks I'm only his human! He gets a bit jealous if everyone else tries to get on my lap :-) . Puppy #4 loves attention and jumps at my face to try to give me tons of licky kisses. Puppy #6 continues to not let her small size keep her from doing anything - she just pushes her way through and makes sure she gets her time on my lap for loving as well. Puppy #3 has gotten friendlier lately and wants his kissy time, too. Puppy #5 the past two days has been too busy to seek out much attention - she wants to explore everything in the yard. These pups now have been playing also with their older half brother, 4-month-old Puppy #1 from our current purebred sheltie litter. Today I noticed the pups have already learned how to climb the stairs - they would do anything to be where Mama Sabra is..... Will plan on getting new pics taken soon. Seems like my life has been so busy lately, that I don't always have as much time to devote to our site as I used to......
PUPPY UPDATE, April 16, 2008: Now only two puppies left, Puppies #3 and #6. They spend much of their time playing together out in our large fenced yard, then crashing, exhausted, usually in the pen in the garage, cuddling together in the doggie bed. They get quite excited when they come inside our house, ever so curious to check everything out, with special interest in our two cats. They are always anxious to be cuddled and give tons of licky kisses. They are scheduled to see our vet this weekend for more shots.
PUPPY UPDATE, April 19, 2008: Puppies #3 and #6 saw our vet today for their second series of puppy shots. All checked out to be in good health. Puppy #3 weighed in at 14 3/4 lbs. Puppy #6 weighed in at 11 1/2 lbs. Puppy #6 had some problems with car sickness, but she will likely outgrow this.
PUPPY UPDATE, May 6, 2008: Still two puppies left, Puppies #3 and #6. Have had lots of interest in both, but so far no takers. Puppy #6 is such an incredibly kissy puppy! She's always reaching up, wanting to be held (which she loves also), and then she just repeatedly smothers my face with tons of licky kisses. Her brother, Puppy #3, is a bit more reserved - he tolerates being held, but isn't overly fond of it, sometimes he gives kisses, but not all the time, but he does always reach up wanting attention and petting. Both pups are very friendly and incredibly playful, and Mama Sabra enjoys playing with them. Several times lately I've seen Sabra out in the yard running laps around the yard at full speed, with all the puppies chasing after her, trying to catch up, but not able. I recently bought the pups a stuffed cow that moos - they played keep away with it, running around the yard with it - until - it mooed - hilarious - everyone backed away, startled, and just stared at the toy - for a short while - then they were back to running around the yard with it, playing keep away! Both of these pups continue to be rather small, especially Puppy #6. She's so small and cute and spunky - a nice combination! Puppy #3's coat is redder than Puppy #6's, hers somewhat favoring more of a creamish red (or strawberry blonde).
PUPPY UPDATE, August 2, 2008: To date, we still have Puppies #3 and #6. We took both for a vet checkup today to get final puppy shots and Rabies vaccine. Puppy #3 weighed in at 30 lbs., and Puppy #6 weighed in at 18.5 lbs. We now have a tentative buyer for Puppy #3. They plan to visit tomorrow to decide for sure. We have tentatively decided to retain Puppy #6, as she has really stolen our hearts. Puppy #6 is scheduled to be spayed on August 18th.
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Kandiyohi, MN 56251-0102
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