March 12th, 2011

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Grace and Ellie Five Weeks Old

The girls are a blast! They are starting to flash-point each other (especially Ellie). They are into everything and afraid of nothing. The paper training is going okay. I am anxious to introduce them to the outdoors and hopefully this week will provide good weather opportunities for it. They are eating softened puppy kibble now. I no longer mash it.

Ellie 5 Weeks Old

Gracie seems to be just like her sire, Ike. I love her attitude, playfulness, and style. What a cutie! Loves people and loves to bite the pant-legs and toes. 🙂

Ellie is a pistol and takes quite a bit of harassment from her big sister. She holds her own, though, using her small size to her advantage by being able to fit through smaller spaces to which Grace cannot follow her! What a hoot and so smart. She is also a little love-bug and loves to fall off to sleep in my lap or arms. Ellie’s ticking is really coming out on her back and feet. She will be beautifully ticked. It seems like she will be a smaller-built female (like Shay) and that Gracie may follow more after her grand-dam, Sara and have a larger build.

They spend their days out of the box with pretty much free-range of the room. They go back in the box at night and are not too happy about this. They certainly are not shy about voicing their displeasure to me being so mean and putting them in their comfy, safe box with their dog bed, water, newspapers, and toys. But, I feel they must be in the box at night for safety and it will hopefully make crate training easier. There is a crate beside the whelping box and they have ventured inside, but are not spending any time in it, yet. I think I need to move it to a warmer part of the room and use a smaller one that they will feel more secure in.

I will call this week to make the appointment for the 6-week physicals and shots with the vet. I will be taking lots of photos and try some video as well as personality notes over the next week in anticipation of the picking to begin–sometime during week 6, after the physicals. They turn 5 weeks old this weekend and will receive their second worming.

Santana Under Three Weeks to Go

Well, my gosh, poor Santana seems quite large, now. She is more and more uncomfortable and has taken over the love seat upstairs and spends most of her time being a princess and sleeping a lot. She is usually a busy gal, never wanting to miss anything. The past few days, however, she is very content to just sleep and instead of meeting me at the top of the stairs every time I go up, she is content enough to just lift her head to acknowledge my presence! Poor girl is miserable. She needs to go outside quite often and gets me up during the night (usually I am up anyway). She is eating 2 or 3 smaller meals a day. She cannot eat much at once. Just about 18 days to go and we need a litter theme! I am going to look back through previous suggestions, but if you have any ideas for this particular litter at this particular time of year (she is due around the 31st), please share!

I am considering having an x-ray next week to get an approximate estimate of how many pups to expect.