7 1/2 week stacked photos

I hate doing stacked photos!  When my husband & I try to do it we get nothing usable and usually end up bickering!  So, I had my Dalmatian friend, Mary Lynn come over the help me.  She has a way with teaching little puppies how to stand like show dogs.  But, as luck would have it something still went wrong.  It was soooo humid that my camera lens kept fogging up and the majority of my photos were blurry because of it.  These are the ones I could salvage.

Big Brown

Bernadette

(she's staying here with us :)

Mr. Fluffy Head

Laia

Little Man

Spike

Tank

My mentor, Claire Koshar came over today to evaluate the litter for me for the conformation (show dog) potentials.  She was very pleased with the litter.  She said they all had lovely heads, very nice fronts and very good coat.   She especially liked Big Brown and Tank and said she'd have a hard time letting either of those go....we are pretty fond of all of them and will have a very hard time letting any of them go.

Puppies Gone Bad

I had gathered all the poopy shredded paper out of their "potty box" into a garbage bag, left the room for about 10 seconds and came back to this!!  Hmmm...do they look innocent to you??  But could you be mad at those faces??

or this one??  Bernadette pulling on my camera strap...

Or this...Spike chewing on a box...

Definitely not this face...Little Man is always good.

But how about this...Mr Fluffy Head chewing on the rug...

I think not.

Isn't it a good thing puppies are so darned cute...if not, we might not keep having them :)

6 WEEKS OLD!

There have been no major changes this week.  But they just keep getting cuter!  They play so much with each other and by themselves.  They have really started to recognize people and get excited to see them.  When one of us gets home from work they are all over us, wagging their little tails and squealing with excitement.  What a good way to begin our time at home.

Spike getting ready to take a snooze

Tank again.  His white spot is getting much smaller.

A good game of bitey face between Big Brown and Spike.

Little Man is doing so much better.  He is getting bigger and he plays and interacts

with all the puppies.  He's cute as a button!

Grandma Olivia and Brandon watch the puppies play.  Marlene is relaxing

about letting the adult dogs near the puppies.  Just today she

decided it was OK to let Brandon in the house.  He was fascinated

by the puppies and happily wagged his tail when they

all came around him.  Brandon is such a loving, sweet dog.

Little Man looking for leftovers

I bought this nice, $30 puppy pee pan thinking it would be a nice

way to help housetrain the puppies....well, you can see how well

that idea is going, lol!

Bernadette

Leia. She has some big news to share,

She is going to live with a lovely family in Mexico City.

They had a Flat Coat for 12 years and have a place in their hearts to fill

and I know she will love them too.  She is very snuggly and affectionate, just like her mom

They love the box that our new ex-pen came in.  I was 

going to throw it out, but they like to play on it so much.

Mr. Fluffy Head

A Busy Day

The pups had several visitors today.  First was a family that will be buying one of the boy puppies and then their "other" grandma (Andy's owner).  They also took their first trip outside which got mixed reviews.  It was very, very hot and a bit windy.  Some seemed to like the outdoors and others were hot and wanted to get in the shade or snuggle with us out of the wind  A couple of them  made pees and poops while they were out...good puppies!  Marlene stayed close by the whole time.  Since there are a lot of hawks here we only took out one puppy for each person and kept them near by.  They're still so little we didn't want to chance anything.  Marlene was with us and very watchful of the whole situation.  One of the puppies wanted to nurse outside and he got a scolding (first time ever for that).  We figured that Marlene knew it could be a venerable place and not a good place to get comfy and nurse.  She is such a good mom, very wolf like in her behaviors.  At the end of the day I don't know who was more tired, the puppies or me!?!  I fell asleep for 2 hours on the couch!

"Mr. Fluffy Head"

They really interact a lot now, playing with toys and each other.  Marlene has started to play with them a bit too.  The puppies are loving their real food, but still nurse quite often.  Marlene is starting to look a bit worn out, her coat is getting sparse and we have to feed her tons to keep her weight up.  She is putting everything she has into feeding the puppies.

"Big Brown" or UPS as he was called today

"Mr. Fluffy Head" 

Notice the green dab of nail polish?  I needed a way to tell the black boys

apart when I saw them from a distance.  I don't like collars of any kind for 

constant wear on or around young dogs, we had a very scary incident with a collar once

...won't go into that here, but puppy families will hear about it!

"Spike"

"Tunnel Butt" (actually I think this was the black girl)

"Mini Me"

The "booby bar" is getting very crowded these days

"Tank"

"Bernadette"

 A big bitey face game

Marlene & Mini Me

a sleepy "Mini Me"

a verrrrryyyy sleepy "Spike"

named not for his personality, but his dab of nail polish often sticks up

like a spike on his back.

and last but not least, "Little Man," who is doing very well. 

He's getting fat and starting to

grow more each day.  He was among the ones who showed great interest in the duck wing 

his Grandma Liz brought for the puppies and he picked up the tiny puppy bumper

and carried it today.  After talking with other breeders, our hunch is that

he was perhaps conceived on a later date than the rest

of the puppies.  I'm not sure if that's possible, I'll have to 

research it, but that seems to make sense.  He is very vigorous and is

growing, but very slowly and he seems to be less mature than the

other puppies...but again, very healthy and strong. And oh so sweet!  

He will stay here a few extra weeks before deciding on a home for him.

I want to make sure he is doing well and gets a clean bill of

health from the vets before going to a family.

First Food!!!

The pupsters had their first experience with real food on Saturday evening.  Sometimes puppies new to real food aren't really sure what to do with it.  My last litter played with it a while before accidentally tasting some and realizing they could eat it....not this gang!!  They immediately came up and started chowing down like this was what they were born for!!  "Little Man" who has been having a hard time staying on a nipple, the big guns always push him out of the way, had a pretty clever technique with real food....he lays in the dish!! They did a pretty good job of cleaning the bowl, then started to clean each other up (what good brothers and sisters :)  then we let Mom in to finish the clean up job, which she was very happy to do.  Now they are up to three meals a day.  We are feeding them raw chicken blended with some pulverized veggies and goat's milk (from our goats).  A raw diet is what I think is best, but in honesty, I can't afford to keep all of my dogs on raw all of the time.  So when they are adults, I feed them the highest quality kibbles I can find mixed with fresh veggies and fruits, yogurt, cottage cheese, etc. and offer a raw meal about twice a week.  I have been feeding Marlene raw since she got pregnant and still now that she's still nursing, and I'll keep the babies on raw for a few weeks. I will gradually switch the ones going to "kibble homes" over shortly before they are ready to go home.  Any of the "raw homes" will stay on raw.

Little Man and Black Girl were the first to chow down.

The whole gang has joined in.

Little Man's technique was to lay across the food so no one could shove him out of the way.

Little Man again....he's just so cute and apparently a camera hog.

Closing in on each other as the portions ran low.

Cleaning each other up....how sweet and thoughtful.

They kept pulling the shredded newspaper in as they ate.  I learned to make sure the area

was clear of shreds before I put the food down from now on.

Pictures from May 21st

The pups were about 3 1/2 weeks when these were taken.  They were really starting to look like little dogs at this point, a bit less newborn puppyish.  Their personalites and TEETH were emerging. 

Snoozing...sorry can't tell who's who in this picture.

More snoozing.

This is the one we call "Big Brown."  He is an outgoing puppy and looks like he will turn out to be very handsome.

This guy is "Tank."  He was by far the largest for a long time, however a couple of his brothers are quickly 

catching up with him.  Tank has a white spot on his chest which may, or may not go away as he gets older.  It is not common in Flat Coats, but does happen once in a while.  Tank is extremely outgoing and very playful with the other puppies.

The whole gang snoozing.

You can see "Little Man" in the forefront of this one.  He eats like crazy, but is much smaller

than the rest of the pups.

A few more that wouldn't upload in the original post for some reason.