Eyes are open and puppies are on the move!

So stinkin' cute!!!

Hi everyone,

I was hoping to get another post up this weekend, but it ended up being a busy one!  Puppies are still indoors right now, but we are getting things ready to move them outside next weekend.  While it will be sad not to have them around 24/7, I know they are going to love the set-up in the kennels.

The puppies opened their eyes last Thursday, just as they turned 2 weeks old.  Since then, they have begun tearing around all over the place and I've put down non-slip foam flooring because they were crying every time they hit the linoleum.  Apparently they didn't like being slowed down by slippery flooring!

Aside from cruising around the kitchen, the puppies are also starting to wrestle with each other.  They bite each others' tails and I heard one of the puppies growl at another one for the first time the other day!  Without teeth, the puppy bites are pretty ineffectual, but I was shocked to find bruising on some of their bellies.  Turns out that when mom isn't nearby for a meal, they use each other as pacifiers and have been giving each other hickies!  Too bad they don't make binkies for puppies, huh?

Well guys, I'm beat and I'm sure you are all getting anxious to see pictures.  I didn't update Picassa, but I including several pictures in this blog post.  I also video taped the puppies and just need to figure out how to post the video on the blog so you can check the puppies out in action.  If all else fails and I can't post the video here, I'll post a link to YouTube and upload the video there.  Enjoy the pics!

All my best,
Barb

Hugs or wrestling?  Blue boy on the bottom with Purple (formerly orange) girl on top.

Blue boy gets cozy with White girl

Dark green boy stretches awake.

Enough sleep - let's get moving!

Blue boy snuggles with Lime green boy

Look at that sweet face!

Pink girl with...surprise...Blue boy!

Pink girl is bound to be a belly rub girl!

Purple (formerly orange) girl snoozes.

Nap time all around.

Dark green boy and White girl

White girl is the littlest puppy.

More puppy bellies!  White girl, Lime green boy, & Pink girl.

Yellow girl and Pink girl.

Yellow girl is the biggest girl.

White girl and Pink girl - all that walking around wore them out!

Blue boy...again.  He's always mugging for the camera!

More pics are in!

Summer is a great mother!

Hi Everyone,

I hope you are all having a wonderful holiday weekend!  I finally got a chance to download pictures and sort though them all so that I can share them with all of you.  Some I will post on the blog here, while others will be posted to Picasssa and can be accessed by clicking on the slideshow to the right side of this blog.  Summer continues to be a wonderful mother and the puppies are growing in leaps and bounds.  They are all right around 1 pound each and are growing more mobile everyday!  The black and tan male (lime green collar) still is the worst of the wanderers, but white collar girl is giving him a run for his money!  I tried to get good pictures of each of the puppies for all of you to check out, but had a bit of a difficult time given how wiggly the little ones are!  Check out the individual pictures below.  You'll notice eyes and ears are not open yet, but they are due to open in the next few days (between 10-14 days is typical).  I'll keep you posted as the puppies grow and change...

Gotta love puppy butts!

Feeding time

And then they crash...

Look at those noses and toes!

"The Wanderer" lives life on the edge!

Blue boy - the first puppy

Lime green boy (aka "The Wanderer")

Dark green boy

Orange girl has a beautiful wide blaze on her forehead

Pink girl crybaby

White girl - one of the few times I didn't find her belly up!

Yellow girl is getting big!

 

First Pics of Puppies!

Hi Everyone,

So Summer delivered seven puppies overnight Wednesday into Thursday!  Everyone is doing well and at final count we have 4 girls and 3 boys.  The puppies' birth weights ranged from 6 oz to 7¼ oz, with the first puppy, the blue collar boy (front and center above) being the both the firstborn and the biggest of all the puppies. 

Summer and the puppies seem to have recovered quickly from their birth, but I'm finding I'm not recovering quite so quickly!  (Hence the reason I am just now posting the good news and pictures for all of you.)  While this is Summer's first litter, she is proving to be the best mother we've had to-date.  She keeps the puppies and her nest meticulously clean, is gentle & patient with the puppies, and while she does worry over them, she lets me handle the puppies to examine them and take their weights.

All of the puppies seem to be healthy, vigorous, and evenly matched when it comes to vying for a feeding slot with mom.  Appearance-wise, the puppies are all tri-color with markings that promise to be gorgeous.  Most of the puppies have white blazing evenly in a stripe from their nose to their forehead, with the exception of one little male who is largely black and tan all over (though he has a white tail tip and paws).  It will be interesting to see how personalities develop, because even with the puppies only being a few days old, personalities have begun emerging.  The little pink collar girl is already a diva who is the biggest cry-baby when she doesn't get her way and the black and tan male is a wanderer and an escape artist.  (Perhaps coming from his father's line, Valerie?)  As everyone grows and changes, I will try to share updates and more individualized pictures.

For those of you who are getting puppies from me, I will be asking you to make deposits on puppies within a week to confirm your position on our waiting 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 enjoy having the opportunity to get to know better the families who will be providing homes form my puppies, as it helps me match the right puppies to the right families and also makes it easier for me to ultimately let the puppies go to their new homes!

The Post I Never Posted: Expecting the first puppy within 24 hours!

Hi Everyone,

I had thought I posted this on Tuesday night, but discovered later that I never hit the post button...  At this point, I guess I'll still post this as a recap of what lead up to the birth of our newest litter of puppies!

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Holy cow, it looks like Summer is going to go a few days early!  Taking a dog's temperature is a very good way to tell when an expectant female will be starting labor.  Typically, when a mother-to-be is getting ready to deliver her first pup within 8 to 24 hours, her temperature will drop by a degree or more.  Last night [Monday] and this morning [Tues], Summer's temp was 100 degrees F, but this evening [Tues] around 9:30pm her temperature dropped to 98.3 degrees.  While we were expecting Summer to deliver puppies Friday or Saturday night, she is certainly far enough along that the puppies should be fine.  Actually, the fact that Summer is ready to deliver already supports our guess that this will be a big litter - we are guessing 6-8.  (It is not unusual for large litters to be delivered in advance of 63 days.)  I had every intention of posting pictures of Summer's belly to share with all of you, but instead I'm trying to make sure I have everything ready to go for puppies to come into this world.  I'll post those pictures as soon as I can, but it may be awhile before I make another post, since I expect to be tied up with newborn puppies very shortly!  Wish us luck! 

Expecting Again!

Fan Woods The Boss "Bruce" (Photo courtesy of Fan Woods Beagles)

Westside Summer Squall

Hi Everyone,

I'm sorry it has been awhile since I have been in touch.  I last communicated with most of you via email to share the disappointing news that Rogue had lost her litter.  We have been making plans and putting them into action for another attempt at a litter, but wanted to be sure we had good news to share before we made any announcements.

We were lucky enough to obtain a wonderful, handsome, spunky little male from champion show lines, named Bruce, from Valerie at Fan Woods Beagles.  We bred him to our best little rabbit dog, Summer, about a month ago and have been eagerly, but cautiously hoping luck would be on our side this time around.  While we have not confirmed things with the vet, it is very clear at this point that Summer is expecting and we suspect she is going to have a large litter given the current size of her belly!

I understand some of you were still going to keep your options open in your search for adding a beagle puppy to your family while others were set on getting a puppy from us.  If I don't hear from you first, I will be in touch over the following days to find out if you are still interested in getting a puppy from us.  In the meantime, I made sure to take some pictures over the weekend so I could let you see what Bruce and Summer look like.  I have uploaded their pictures to Picassa for your viewing enjoyment in addition to posting pictures of them with this blog.  Dave and I are getting very excited about this litter, which will be the first for both Bruce and Summer.  We are hoping this match-up will give us puppies with great looks and strong noses - plus, with Summer's sweet, affectionate personality and Bruce's bouncy good nature, these pups should make wonderful pets as well.

Nothing Like Having to Wait a Little Longer!

On the way to the vet!

Hi Everyone,

Work was a little slow yesterday and so I ended up bringing Rogue in for her x-rays a day earlier than planned.  With Rogue being 53 days out from breeding, little puppy skeletons should have definitely begun to show and a day should not have made much difference.  However, we were extremely disappointed when we looked at the x-rays and discovered we could not see any little puppies showing up.  The vet and I began discussing the possibility that Rogue was having a false pregnancy.  Just to be 100% certain, we did a pregnancy test, fully expecting it to come back negative.  When I arrived into work today, I got the surprising results back - Rogue's relaxin pregnancy test was positive!

So what does this mean, since the relaxin test was positive, but no puppies are showing?  The vet informed me that she has never seen a false positive test, though she has seen false negatives when a bitch was only carrying 1 puppy.  Therefore, she has no doubt that Rogue IS pregnant.  Rogue most likely had not ovulated yet at the time she was bred, and so fertilization took place later.  Based on the negative x-rays, Rogue is probably about 10 days or so behind schedule, so we will have to take x-rays again next week to find out how many she is expecting.

What a rollercoaster!  I was dreading having to write all of you and let you know the disappointing news that Rogue was not expecting!  While it is still disappointing not to know how many puppies she has, at least we know that she has at least SOME buns in the oven!  Keep hanging in there for another week and I will post when I finally have an estimate of how many puppies we're expecting.

Isn't this exciting?

Hmm...  Am I or aren't I?  This is confusing!