SoftMaple Spring 2005 litter


6/20/2005 (Day 43)

6 week old Stacked pictures


Pink Collar Liver Girl


Yellow Collar Liver Girl


Red Collar Liver Girl


Pink Collar Black Girl


Green Collar Liver Boy


Blue Collar Liver Boy


Blue Collar Black Boy


No Collar Black Boy


Red Collar Black Boy


Green Collar Black Boy


Yellow Collar Black Boy


Waiting in line for the photo shoot!

6/21/2005 (Day 44)





Let us out!


Ready to pounce!


Sniff...Sniff..



The pups are doing great. We go for Vet checks sometime this week, as well as shots and one more worming. Right now the pups are eating one meal of mushed up food, and 2 meals of dry kibble. I have started to switch them to Iams mini chunks (Green bag) I feed Premium Edge, which I know not everyone can get. Almost everyone can pick up a bad of Iams, then gradually switch over to whatever you intend to feed. There are lots of great foods out there... Wellness, Diamond, Nutro, Life's Abundance... And some not so good foods (Alpo, Kibbles N Bits, Big Red, O'l Roy...) Some dogs will do good on any type of food. And even dogs in the same litter don't do the same on one particular brand of food. I don't like to give puppy food to the pups after about 9 to10 weeks. Puppy food encourages too rapid of growth. Even the pet food companies have realized this, and are now making large breed puppy foods... which if you look at the breakdown, is very similar to that of adult food. Some vets will argue, and say you have to feed a puppy formula... if you have to, then use a large breed one. Or mix the Large breed puppy with the adult food.

I also give my dogs a Vit C tablet every day for about a year. This just helps them with ligament and joint formation. I use just a regular 500mg Vit C from any drug or health food store, and I break it in half. Giving half a day, or even half with each meal. Another thing I like is digestive enzymes. I use Prozyme. (One place you can get Prozyme) (Another place to find Prozyme) You can do a search on this and find it lots of places, and at different prices. I have also used Missing Link, which is on the same page as the Prozyme... for dogs with itchy dry skin. The Prozyme increases the absorption of the food. Dogs have a shorter digestive tract than we do. You can actually feed less food when you use this, and get less mess to clean up.

We have introduced the pups to wings a few times. Had them dragging leashes in the yard to get used to the tug and pull. If the weather stays nice, this week we will take a drive to Camp and see if they want to follow Moxie into the water.

6/22/2005 (Day 45)

This morning I took the puppies to the raised puppy pen

The grass was still too wet to let them out in the yard, and we had hosed down the dog runs, so they were still wet. The raised pen is smaller, and has a plastic mesh type floor.


After breakfast, there was new stuff to check out in the pen


A barrel tunnel, hanging toys, wiggly giggly balls


I don't use this pen a lot, since its smaller, and the mom can't get in with the pups. (I don't like to separate them until mom is ready...but Moxie is enjoying the break!) But this is a good pen to put the pups in after a bath, since the air circulates. Or on days that I worm the pups, and the stools may be a bit more messy.


And its a good experience for the pups to eat in a different place, and get used to other surfaces to walk on.

6/23/2005 (day 46)


Mad dash at the gait!


Some of the pups can climb out of the low partition, and I find them sleeping with Moxie on her dog bed in the morning. Moxie can come and go as she pleases in the puppy room.


I switched to the velcro collars, since the last batch of the litter bands seem to be breaking off too much of the pups hair. The company changed them and made them stronger. So the colors in the pictures may not be so bright.



Yellow girl waits in the dog truck


Breakfast outside with Moxie

6/24/2005 (Day 47)


Some of the pups napping in the swing this morning


Their favorite game, grab my camera strap!



In the play room


The pups love the hanging toys with bells, and make a lot of racket... especially in the early morning!


One pup in the toy corner. Having different areas in the puppy room helps start potty training the pups. They don't usually go where they sleep or eat.


I put the steps back in the middle dog run where the puppies go. The last 24' of the run is raised up about 2 feet. So this creates a small set of mini stairs for the pups.


Some have no problem and rush up and down them. Others aren't sure how to get that last little boost up. This way the pups can explore the larger graveled area with Moxie. Its important that the pups experience all sorts of surfaces to walk on.


Today the pups go for a car ride to the Vets and get vaccinated with Canine 5 Prevent/Vac Combination Vaccine
This Vaccine contains:
Canine Distemper
Adenovirus Type 2
Parainfluenza
Parvovirus Vaccine Modified Live and Killed Virus

6/25/2005 (Day 48)


Breakfast

6/26/2005 (Day 49)



On to week eight



SoftMaple Curly Coated Retrievers
Mark and Cathy Lewandowski
8282 Soft Maple Road
Croghan New York 13327


SoftMaple 2005 Spring/Summer litter
Ch. Dese's Black As Coal, CD, WC, CGC, TT, JH CR-530G26M-T, CR-CA47/30M/C-T, CR-582 and
CH SoftMaple's Pheasant Dreams WC CGC CR-722G34F, CR-El134F34, CR-CA178/41F/P-NOPI, CERF 2005 CR-814N

Moxie and Coal's pedigree


SoftMaple Puppy Application

SoftMaple Contract

softmaple@curlycoat.org