We have had a busy weekend with 5 viewings of pups & a visit to meet the pack from a family waiting for a pup from Millie's litter later on in 2012. I hope we managed to give everyone time & hopefully no one felt like they were on a conveyorbelt.
The chosen pups are from Dolly's litter black boy with blue collar now called Edward, black girl with brown collar, black boy with with white collar & golden boy with black collar now called Alfie. From Ysabel's litter we have a golden boy with blue collar reserved.
The next couple weeks will see people viewing to chose the golden pups & tomorrow & Tuesday will see the last two black pups reserved.
It was my very patient husbands birthday yesterday & our wedding anniversary but with the busy day, my Mum recovering, Molly one of our daughters with Chicken Pox & my husbands parents away it was impossible to get out to celebrate, so we had a meal in & planned to watch a DVD which was The Hangover, really cannot give a review of the movie as we promptly both fell asleep within minutes of it playing under our duvet of Cavaliers & Reggie & we nearly burnt our meal. We did though after rescueing our dinner watch a bit of Peter Kay's new offering on DVD. I have yet to watch all of it but I was almost crying with laughter at one moment but then coughing uncontrollably kicked in as my cold I had has left me with a very tickly throat & laughing sets of coughing. I would though recommend Peter Kay's new DVD he is a funny man.
Dolly's pups are now 4 weeks old & are into everything & my children's interest in them has also increased because of this. They will happily chew a finger or the end of your nose & will wag their tales which I always find amusing when they start to do this in interaction to your voice or touch.
Lots of phot's of Dolly's pups but a little lacking of Ysabel's pups. I think this might be because they are not quite so mobile yet but will soon be venturing beyond the crate.

We have a doggy guest at the moment in Lucinda who is staying with us until the middle of January whilst Sue & Jim visit their family in Australia. Lucinda has been neutered & has settled back into the fold like she had never left us but I am sure she will be happy to see Sue & Jim on their return.
Lucy is now approacing 8 weeks pregnant & at the end of this week will go on round the clock watch. She is now looking quite big but in full health & appetite. Lucy is a very robust Cavalier with an appetite to match & is one of the few Mum's I have to watch her weight while lactating.

Lastly tonight as promised the lovely photo of Alfie sent to me from Vanessa a little while ago showing him with one of the flower heads that Vanessa said he likes to remove. We have another Alfie in Dolly's litter now being the only golden boy just like his half brother Alfie 1 was in his litter. Thanks Vanessa for this special photo & your regular kind commemts on my blogs.

Mum's home from hospital & is on the mend & tonight the last pup of Dolly's & Ysabel's litters has been reserved, so all going well all the pups have good homes & families to become a member off.

Below are a couple lovely photo's of Mum's Ysabel & Dolly  to end with tonight.

Finally got to blog. Been abit of a funny week. My Mum is slowly recovering & thanks for all the kind messages. She is still in hospital & no real date to when she will be home but she is getting better.
 I have managed to do the first worming for Dolly's & Ysabel's Cavapoo pups. I worm at 2 weeks, 3 weeks & 8 weeks. I use Panacur 10% Liquid wormer & I find it an effective wormer. I also wormed all adult dogs with their ever three month wormer. The adults I use Cestem which I found through the internet & my vet checked out & said its the same as Drontal but a lot cheaper & said to get it as they could not match on price.
I buy all my wormers, flea, ear cleanser products on the internet as I am afraid I can not afford to pay the vets mark up prices which in some cases can be 100%. I understand they have to earn a living but do feel that marking up medicines like they do is wrong. Mind you waiting rooms in vets surgerys are more plush than most doctors surgerys & the money for this has to come from somewhere.
Nearly went of on a rant there but to tired so will stop here.
We have now moved in the crates & removed the whelping boxes as one is needed for Lucy in a couple weeks & it gives them more room. I normally do this around 4 to 5 weeks but as Dolly had a big litter & Lucy needs a whelping box to get accustomed to we have done it a little earlier. They all seem happy with their new homes & Dolly's pups are getting very active & even finding the food bowl & having a nibble. We feed Mums & start pups on Royal Canin Starter which is a complete food & is a very small kibble & even at this age they can masticate it & eat it. Around 4 weeks is when we start to feed in earnest & Mum will start to self wean them as they start to eat more they will lessen the stress on her.
We also had delivery of my puppy coloured collars so identification is made easier. These are little velcro collars that you check each day releasing as they grow. They do two things which is make identification easier & make your puppy collar tolerant before you have them as puppies at 8 weeks can sometimes get distressed when a collar is first put on them but using these from such an early stage will make them happy to except wearing a collar. Below I will list sex, colour of pup & collar colour for each litter above the photo's for each litter.

Collar:             Sex :          Colour:

Red                  Girl            Golden

White              Girl            Golden

Green              Girl            Golden

Purple             Girl            Golden

Burgundy        Boy           Golden

Blue                  Boy           Golden

Collar:                     Sex:                  Colour:

Blue                         Boy                    Black

White                      Boy                    Black

Red                          Boy                    Black

Brown                     Girl                    Black

Green                      Girl                    Black

Yellow                     Girl                    Golden

Orange                    Girl                    Golden

Black                        Boy                    Golden

Dawn, I have slightly changed the colours I told you as Biege & White looked the same colour in photo's so changed Biege to Blue.

Lastly tonight a lovely photo of Mum to be Lucy who is now around 6 & a half weeks pregnant. Just one of those lucky photo's were you just capture them & yes my husband was eating hence the adoring look on her face hoping for a little bit.

Tonight I have below photo's of three of Dolly's pups who are available. They are two black with a little white girls & one of the black with a little white boy. They will be ready the 24th December 2011 but we are happy at no extra cost to keep them to the New year. I have decided to put them on my website than trawl through people who have contacted me as I have already worked some way through my contact list & it is getting quite time consuming when people do not reply or have already found a pup & have forgotten to inform me. So if you are genuinly interested in one of these pups & can give one a loving, fun & forever home contact us by email howarthmurch@btinternet.com or ring for a chat on 01769 560969.
Some people have already noticed that I have changed the process of aquiring a pup from us. This is because I am trying to cut down on the hours spent emailing people as it takes me away from more important things. Unfortunately I do get people who seem to waste my time. Most I am sure the original intent was not to do this but the end result is that they have wasted my time. I do like people to be completely sure before having a pup from me. Hopefully the new process will make people think more before contacting me. Rant over now I will load up some more puppy photo's for you to enjoy.
The ones below here are of the three pups available from Dolly's litter.

Photo's below show the maternity wing of our living room. Today I have been able to put the central partition back so that it still allows privacy for each Mum but more freedom & they have happily investigated each others offspring without the other being worried about it. Dolly & Ysabel both now are happy to leave the maternity wing for short periods returning to tend their broods. Both Mums sleep away from their pups now as more comfortable as with heavy with milk & pups lying against them with the heat lamp can be a bit uncomfortably warm for Mum. Both Mums are doing really well & their pups are thriving. Dolly's pups are now 16 days old with Ysabel's being 11 days old.
All Dolly's pups eyes are open or opening & Ysabel's are just starting to open their eyes.
All the other dogs are well & are very curious of the new members to the pack. Lucy is now approaching 6 weeks pregnant & is blossoming. She loves to sleep & she can really snore but have had no reports yet of any of her pups having this talent.

Dolly's pups are now 12 days old & just starting to see their eyes open. Have just had to slide in a higher plank at the front of Dolly's whelping box as twice today one of the black pups has managed to get over the lower plank & found sucking Mum who was lying just the other side. Although still unseeing & unable to hear they are getting quite mobile & can be seen taking their first wobbly steps. The sense of smell the pups have is pheonomenal as you watch Mum arrive & just by smell alone the litter will turn straight towards Mum & straddle & now wobbly towards her & at arrival use the smell of her milk & touch to locate a teat. They can be fooled slightly with sucking as when we are nursing them they will happily suction on to your finger, top lip or ear lobe but soon realise they are not getting any milk. 
The children are now making regular visits to nurse the pups & get them used to being handled. We have had several wet hands tonight as the boys bits only have to have a slight touch & they wee. The girls already at this age are slightly more refined & you tend to escape with a dry hand after nursing them. My children are used to pups & their accidents but do not appreciate it when its a sticky poopy hand that they get from nursing a pup at this young age.
At this age bodily functions are encouraged by Mum licking them & then Mum cleans it all up to, so nursing a pup at this age can stimulate the effect Mum has when licking them. Around 3 to 4 weeks they start to control their own motions without needing encouragement from Mum although Mum is still happy to clean up the mess.
Ysabel' pups are a week old today & they are all doing really well with Tinkerbell looking more like Tubbywell. Ysabel is happy for her daughter to visit her half siblings as a couple days ago she just wandered in with Ysabel & Ysabel was unconcerned having Primrose with her but no other dog at this time is allowed in at this time. Normally from 4 to 5 weeks Mum relaxes of & allows pups to mingle in the pack.
Some photo's of the rest of the gang tonight & a video of Dolly showing one way if your little how to feed 8 growing pups. Enjoy !

Lucy was confirmed in pups to Reggie today when scanned. She is carrying around 5 pups. These will be due around the 7th December, so Christmas is going to be very busy this year.
Dolly's pups are now 10 days old & I would expect any time now to start to see their eyes opening & this is were the fun starts & each pup starts to develop their character.
Ysabel's pups are also doing well. Little Tinkerbell is going from strength to strength & if you spot her in the photo's you will see she is still small but getting more tubby by the day.
I have just invested in some puppy ID collars as with 14 pups when they have been picked then I will know who is who & you can tell in group photo's who is who.
I am slowly catching up on sleep but due to lack of sleep have picked up a cold which hopefully I have seen the worse of now but has left me a little washed out. Luckily at the moment the pups are young enough that looking after Mum looks after them & just keeping a watchful eye over everthing is enough. The fun starts in a couple weeks when eyes are open & legs are in motion.
Enjoy the photo's !

Both Mum's & all pups are doing well. Have had a hectic weekend & have just got to the computer to find the lovely photo's below of Barney when he went on his summer holiday with Victoria & John. Barney is another of Lucy's Cavapoo pups from her litter born last year & is nearly 11 months old. Barney lives the furthest away of all our pups all the way up in Yorkshire in Hull.
Victoria says that "Barney is still into biting when playing & isn't that good at recall but apart from that he's adorable & a pleasure to have around the house. He loves everyone & everything." Barney was a precocious puppy & with his mischevious looks forgiving his willfulness is easier. Thanks Victoria & John for sharing the cute photo's of your boy he looks a character.

Lastly tonight Reggie. He is taking fatherhood in his stride & is very curious but knows to keep his distance for now. I have let him have a sneaky sniff of one of his pups without Mum knowing & I do think he's making some sort of connection as our dogs do live as a pack & it is not beyond comprehension that he understands that the pups are his.
At the moment Mum's are happy for any humans near their pups but they do not like other dogs getting to close but by 4 weeks then Mum is happy for her pups to meet the rest of the pack. 

Dolly's Cavapoo pups are nearly a week old now & are thriving. When born pups eyes are closed & their ears are to. Around 12 to 14 days they start to open & they then become able to here & see although a little blurry at first as the eyes can not focus fully until around 4 weeks old. At first they find Mum by smell & touch alone.
Below is a video & photo's of Dolly's pups taken today.

Got some cracking photo's of some of Lucy's first litter born back in December last year. The first photo's are of Roxy who has just stopped using her crate & has freedom of Tracey's home now & at 11 months old has not put a foot wrong. Love the photo of her muddy & wet on holiday in the New Forest. As always Tracey lovely to hear from you & thanks for letting me share photo's of your beautiful Roxy.

The other update tonight is from Sue who has one of Roxy's brother's Bailey & what a good looking young man he is. Lucy's litter certainly look like peas from the same pod. Sue says he has a lovely temperment but can be a little imp at times having a liking for toilet roll & smelly socks. Thanks Sue for your update & lovely photo's of your very handsome Bailey 

Ysabel is doing really well & her very tiny girl who I can not resist calling Tinkerbell is doing really well. This will be Tinkerbell the second as we named a pup from Dolly's last litter with this name which Darren & Rachel & their family who she joined have kept it, shortening it sometimes to Tinks like I do.
Tinkerbell although tiny is showing she is a determined little pup & is constantly at the milkbar keeping her place amongst her lot bigger siblings.
I will hope to blog later tonight with some photo's of Dolly's pups now 6 days old & with some great photo's of Roxy & her brother Bailey who are from Lucy's last litter.

Ysabel has had her pups after being very uncomfortable all last night she started giving birth this afternoon at 3pm with the last born at 6.20pm. They are all Golden with two boys & 4 girls. We have a tiddler with one of the girls weighing in at just 4 1/2 ounces, she needed a little help to get going but hopefully with care she will rear on. Ysabel is tired but attentive has eaten a plate full of scrambled egg & a good drink. I am very tired having spent the last week with very little sleep but happy all seems well.
Sorry for all waiting on news of Lucy but had to reschedule her scan for Tuesday due to Ysabel looking so close to birth. I did not dare leave her even with my Mum as she does find it hard getting up & down to keep an eye on a Mum giving birth.
Hope to get your photo's on tomorrow Tracey as Roxy is such a little beauty.
Well I am off to give tiddler a feed & hopefully a couple hours sleep.

Dolly's pups are 4 days old now & all seems well. A video & numerous photo's of the brood below. These little pups should be aiming to double there body weight by the first week being born from 5 to 8 1/2 oz & already today all have put on 4 oz at least. This is amazing work by Mum as with such a big litter for a Cavalier you might expect the weight gain in the first week to be below average but Dolly is yet again proving a super Mum with her abundant milk & very relaxed manner to it all.

Ysabel is now looking close to the home straight & will be keeping me up tonight on the sofa bed. Not sure she will come tonight but being so close now & with her temperature dropped, off her food & vigorous bed digging I would not risk leaving her unobserved.
Hope to have some news tomorrow as I will be off to the vets late morning for Lucy's scan with my Mum stepping in as midwife while I do this. Lucy is around 28 days from mating now so hope to get a good scan to confirm that she is in pups.
Ysabel in the photo's below in one of are whelping beds. We use newspaper pre & during birth as Mums can scratch it around between births as very often just before a pup is born a Mum will vigorously dig & then after a birth any wet can easily be removed & replaced with clean.