Puppy close ups

Green Boy

Purple Girl

Light Blue Boy

Red Boy

Orange Boy

Puppy pics

Big puppy pool - the pups were too mobile for the smaller pool

Juliette and 4 day old pups

Marked with paint spots and yesterday upgraded to tie collars

Dark Blue Boy trying out for beach bum

Cute threesome

Tub of pups

Red Boy and Juliette

Red Boy curled up in Juliette's tail

Purple girl sleeping in the tub

Silly Pink Girl

Green Boy curled up in Juliette's tail

Light Blue Boy and Pink Girl in holding tub

Yellow Boy

Little Orange Boy looking over Juliette's front leg

Pupdate

The pups are doing well, and little Orange Boy finally made it to 1 lb.  Unfortunately, Juliette's milk production is still not keeping up with demand and I started supplementing with goat milk on Thursday.  Most of the pups readily took to the bottle.  These pups are especially mobile and vigorous, scrambling over to Juli any time the milk bar is open.  Their umbilical cords have fallen off, we started BioSensor early neurological stimulation exercises on Thursday, and their eyes are starting to crack open.  Most fun is that the pups are starting to enjoy cuddling and petting. 

Puppy closeups

While Orange Boy and Yellow Girl were getting a private nursing session, I took these pics of the pups in the holding tub.

Purple Girl, Red Boy (black pup) and Green Boy

Purple Girl

Pink Girl

Green Boy

Light Blue Boy

Dark Blue Boy

Black Boy

Red Boy with arm over Black Boy

Day 1

Pups are struggling a bit with weight gain, but everyone looks OK.  I will be providing lots of private and assisted (help express the milk) nursing today.  Juliette looks great.  She is being nicely attentive but not fanatical.  She is relaxed enough to spend extra time outdoors and is OK around the other dogs when not with the pups (the other dogs are not allowed in the puppy room).  Juliette was cute this morning when she was coming back in from outside - as she went by the baby monitor in the hallway she heard the puppies crying, paused, cocked her head, and then hustled back into the puppy room.  My guest bedroom is proving to be a cozy puppy room, temp in the puppy pool area is around 77 degrees. 

Tub full of 24-hour old puppies

All lined up in the tub

Interesting arrangement - all 5 yellow pups.  Some of the pups are very light. 

Yellow Girl snuggling with Juliette.  She is one of the smaller pups. 

Newborn puppy pics

First two newborn pups

First three newborn pups, already vigorous nursers

Close up of Light Blue Boy

Juliette and pups in the whelping pool

Proud but tired mama.  Cute little nose sticking out from under Juli's leg.

Puppy pile, a vigorous bunch just a few hours old

Puppy pile, Dark Blue Boy is on the move

More puppy closeups with Juliette's protective paw

Pink Girl on a heated snuggle disc

Speedy Delivery

Juliette has a reputation for fast, easy whelps with little warning.  She is the only dam who has managed to whelp a pup before I knew to be in attendance.  Sunday 12/22 was her due date, but the only sign of an impending whelp was her loss of appetite.  I stayed up late thinking that sundown may stimulate her to go into labor, but finally went to bed.  I didn't trust Juliette and kept a light on so I could easily check on her.  Fortunately, I am a very light sleeper.  Just before 2 am, Juliette asked to go outside, but otherwise looked normal.  I followed her out with a flashlight and sure enough after toileting, she started dripping fluids - her outer membranes had ruptured.  She went back into the plastic crate/den and started nesting, digging around furiously in the sheets I had added as bedding, behavior compatible with Stage I labor.  I observed her very carefully for any contractions and at 2:15 am, noticed the first convincing contraction.  Most dogs have 8-12 hours of Stage I before progressing into contractions, but not our Juli.  Juliette willingly followed me out into the living room where I had the whelping pool set up and hopped in.  The move interrupted her labor, but she finally got going again around 3:15 am.  She easily whelped a stillborn pup who had some pronounced deformities, a sad start to the whelp.  However, I had felt lots of puppy movement and heard puppy heartbeats, so I was still optimistic she had plenty of live pups in there.  I called my whelper helper extraordinaire Nancy at 4 am and together we waiting for things to start up again.  Juliette rested until around 5:30 am and then kicked into speed whelp mode, easily delivering 9 big vigorous puppies in under 3 1/2 hours. 

Collar	Time	Sex/color	Birthweight
Pink	5:30 am	F/Y	17.4 oz
Light Blue	5:35 am	M/Y	17 oz
Purple	5:55 am	F/Y	15.5 oz
Yellow	6:30 am	F/B	14.9 oz
Black	6:50 am	M/B	16.8 oz
Orange	7:00 am	M/B	11.9 oz
Green	8:15 am	M/Y	15.5 oz
Dark Blue	8:35 am	M/Y	18.1 oz
Red	8:50 am	M/B	16.6 oz

Big Expectations

Back in October, Juliette had her final date with Jammer (repeat breeding of the Musical and College litters) and her due date was 12/22 - Christmas puppies!  We had no problem confirming pregnancy between morning sickness, palpation at 4 weeks, and then her rapid expansion.  By the end, Juliette was HUGE!

Ready to pop!