Week 3 Puppy Pics Available at Picassa

It's Hard to Believe, Puppies Nearly 4 Weeks Old!

Hi Everyone!

It has been a week since I last posted and I'm sure you are all anxious to hear how our puppies are doing.  Thanks for bearing with me, as my schedule over the past 2 weeks has left me with little energy and even less spare time.  I'm happy to say that puppies are cute and chubby and snuggly, and I'm thoroughly enjoying all of their puppy antics!

The past week has seen a huge amount of change in the puppies.  They are much more mobile and I've expanded their space to include our entire kitchen.  They run around, pouncing, stumbling, and tumbling all over the place.  They seem to enjoy chasing each other and mom, and can often be found wrestling and chewing on each other.

Speaking of chewing, puppy teeth have started to come in and the puppies now have a mouthful of tiny daggers.  They have put these chompers to the test, trying to eat food out of mom's food bowl, so we've started offering gruel to the puppies.  Gruel is basically soaked puppy chow that is smashed in warm water to give it a soupy consistency.  The puppies go to town on it and we are offering it twice a day right now.  Hopefully the extra calories the puppies get from the gruel will give Rogue a little bit of a break, as we are struggling to put weight back on her since the puppies were born.  We've been mixing canned food in with her puppy chow to encourage her to eat more, since most everything she eats goes straight to making milk for those ravenous little puppies of hers!

One of the most entertaining things about the puppies is watching them eat their gruel.  They all dive into the plate full of food head first with little legs flailing and tails wiggling.  When all is said and done, they are filthy from surfing through their food, but mama Rogue then cleans them up.  They then wobble around like little drunks, headed back to their bed, where they throw themselves into a puppy pile to sleep off their stupor.  I don't know why the puppies look like they are drunk after they eat, but it is pretty darn funny to watch! I captured some of this action in the video that posted to YouTube earlier this evening, so you should be able to check out some clips and see this for yourselves.

One thing to keep in mind when you take a look at pictures and video is that I got new collars for the puppies.  As a result, the color of collars has changed.  Blue boy and green boy are still the same, but yellow boy is now red, yellow girl somehow became pink, pink girl is now turquoise, and orange girl is purple.  These collar colors will now stay the same until you all take puppies home, so hopefully this change won't be too confusing.  Take a look at puppies in the pics below and I will get (tons) more pictures posted to Picassa in the next day or two.

Blue Boy

Green Boy

Red Boy (formerly Yellow Boy)

Purple Girl (formerly Orange Girl)

Pink Girl (formerly Yellow Girl)

Turquoise Girl (formerly Pink Girl)

Latest Video: Puppies' 3rd Week of Life

Puppy Personalities Coming Through!

Hi Everyone!


I'm sure you've all been waiting for more pictures and puppy news, so finally, here it is!  Puppies are getting so big and active, especially now that their eyes are open.  Their little personalities are also starting to come out, which is very entertaining to see.

Orange girl and Yellow boy are the noisiest of the puppies - they cry and complain when they don't get what they want, which is pretty hilarious because they literally throw their little heads back and howl!  Orange girl is also pretty spunky - when I gave the puppies baths last night, she was wiggly, wiggly, wiggly and even made little growling sounds when her crying didn't stop me from bathing her!  Blue boy and green boy are pretty chill, and they just kind of melt when I pick them up.  Green boy likes to roll around belly up, which cracks me up.  Pink girl tends to sleep belly up as well.  Yellow girl is quieter, very sweet and snuggly, and never seems to complain.  All of the puppies are just now discovering their own paws and can often be seen chomping down on their paws!  They are also starting to take an interest in each other, so they can be found mouth-to-mouth chewing on each other or on their littermates' paws, tails, or ears!

So Rogue continues to struggle a bit with keeping up with housekeeping duties, which is why puppies got bathed last night.  She is no longer overfeeding the puppies and the diarrhea has resolved; however, while the crate is pristine when Dave and I get home for the day, I have noticed the crate gets very messy while we're home.  It turns out that Rogue wants Dave's and my attention so much that she doesn't spend as much time with the puppies when we are home!  Silly Rogue!  (But still, she is sooo sweet!)

As puppies get bigger, I'd like to start planning for sending them home with all of you, even though that is still about 6 weeks away.  I'm thinking about offering the options to get puppies with microchips for an additional $25.  Please let me know if you would be interested in having your puppy microchipped prior to taking him or her home.  Also, if any of you would like me to order a customized puppy kit, just let me know and I can get pricing together for you.  Some of the items that can be included are those that are in the survey on the left-hand side of this blog.  I can often order things wholesale to get a better price on everything, so let me know if I can do anything to help you out as you make puppy preparations.

Chubby little Blue Boy has an all-black nose!

Roly poly Green Boy!

Yellow boy finally sleeping - he's got the cutest freckles on his nose!

Pink girl stretches out!

Sweet little Yellow Girl looks like a little mouse!

Feisty Orange Girl crashes!

Rogue & Potter's Puppies Week 2 - Photos Available on Picassa

Picassa Pics from April 8th

Puppies eyes are open and mom is stressed!

Hi everyone,

Thought you would all want to know that puppy eyes began opening up on Sunday night and with each day, the puppies start trying to explore further, presumably as their sight gets stronger.  This doesn't make mamma Rogue very happy, as puppies started crawling out of the crate, making her cry.  As a result, I've put up a bumper at the crate entrance to keep the puppies from tumbling out or making their escape!

While Rogue continues to be a great mom, she is also almost too good of a mom while not the best housekeeper.  She spends so much time with the puppies that they are perpetually feeding - and overfeeding in puppies often leads to diarrhea.  I first saw some diarrhea the other day.  I thought that maybe the liver treats I was giving Rogue were making the milk too rich, so I stopped giving them to her.  Nonetheless, despite stopping the treats and upon close observation, I am noticing that it is the puppies who are perpetually latched onto mom who pass loose stool.  Then, because puppies are getting more mobile, they crawl through the poop before Rogue or I (usually ME) can get it cleaned up.  Grrrr!!!!  I have had to resort to changing out the bedding multiple times a day and to bathing little puppies if they get dirty.  So gross!!!  I've been trying to get Rogue to spend more time out of the crate and away from the puppies to keep them from nursing quite so often, but if I stop loving on her, she rushes to try to get back to her little piggies!

Since I'm kind of running on empty right now, I've not had the chance to download more pictures or video, but I do have pics from the other day available through Picassa.  I will follow-up to this blog entry with a post that links to the new pictures.  Enjoy and I will work on getting new pictures of puppies with their eyes open!

'Til next time,
Barb

Happy Easter! New Puppy Pics

Happy Easter, everyone!  I wanted to share some new photos of the puppies with you to show off how cute, chubby, and wonderful all of the puppies are.  Rogue finally doesn't freak out if I pick up puppies - unless they really start squealing - so I was able to put collars on them.  These collars are for the short term and colors will ultimately change, but I wanted to provide a quick way to show which puppies are girls and which are boys, while also differentiating between them.  For now, all girls have pink and all boys have blue, along with another color collar.  Take a look at individual pics below!  I have more pictures which I'll try to post to Picassa in the day or so - keep your eyes out!

Blue Boy - blue collar only

Green Boy - blue & green collars

Yellow Boy - blue & yellow collars

Orange Girl -  pink & orange collars

Pink Girl - pink collar only

Yellow Girl - pink & yellow collars

Sleepy puppies - first dinner, then a nap!

Video Uploaded to Blog: Rogue & Potter's Puppies on Day 5

Picassa Viewer: New Pics Uploaded

Puppies & Mom are doing great!

Look at those squishy little faces!

Hi everyone,

Just wanted to give you all an update to let you know that mama Rogue and her puppies continue to do great!  Since we haven't been taking weights on the puppies, I can't say how much weight they've gained, but they already seem so much bigger!  I find myself saying this every time we have a new litter of puppies, but OMG...these puppies are so stinkin' cute!  This litter of puppies has a little more white on them than some of our previous ones did and I think it makes them a little showier - I really like for the beagles to have a fair amount of white.

We still haven't put collars on the puppies yet, but I expect to do that tomorrow as Rogue is finally allowing us to handle the puppies without freaking out (although she still keeps us on a short leash).  Depending on how Rogue does when we put the collars on, I'll try to get individual pictures of all of the puppies so you can all check them out. 

Right now I know who is who amongst the puppies based on little differences in their patterns and coloring.  One male has a little white swoosh going into the black on the back of his head.  Another male (the very last one to be born) is mostly black right now (but will likely have lots of tan when he grows up).  The remaining male has a lot of white all over, but especially across his shoulders.  As for the females, two have white stripes on their foreheads while the other one has a white dot - this is the one who has the most black on her body.  One of the striped females also has a white strip across her back from hip to hip, while the other one has a really neat pattern that looks like circles of black got splotched across her back on a canvas of white.  Now have fun seeing if you can tell who is who in the pictures and video!

For those of you on our waiting list, I will be asking you to make deposits on puppies within a week to confirm your position on the list.  If I haven't spoken with you directly yet to make arrangements for payment, I will do so within the next few days (if I don't hear from you first).  Additionally, if you have questions, concerns, or just want to hear more about the puppies from me directly, feel free to give me a call.  I always enjoy getting to know all of you better, since you're the ones who will be providing homes for my puppies - and knowing you'll be giving my little ones a good home will make it easier for me to eventually let puppies go!  Also, the better I know you, the more it will help me make sure that I match the right puppies to the right families.

Well, it is getting late and I still need to get pictures and video posted.  I've uploaded today's pictures to Picassa and you'll be able to view those pics by clicking on the slide show on the left-hand side of this blog.  The video will not be posted until tomorrow, I think, so that I can get to bed here shortly!  Hope you all enjoy the updates!

Barb

The mostly black boy - isn't he precious?!