We have four Cavapoo pups born this morning. The temperature never lies and as I blogged yesterday concerns that Ysobel was going into the first stages of labour and that her temperature had dropped which is for a bitch a sure sign of labour beginning within 48 hours, Ysobel had me up all night, as she digged and digged her bed, panting and puffing and then at around 8 am we had the first strains with the first pup arriving at 8.20am and all done and dusted by 9.30am.
Ysobel is a very fast whelper and the first three pups where born in 20 minutes but unfortunately the third puppy was born dead and like her first ever litter you could see it had been dead for at least 24 hours and was probably why Ysobel had gone into labour early, as this Saturday is nine weeks since her first mating, so these pups are at least 3 nearly four days early. I would think the reason for this pup dying is that its placenta had detached at around 24 hours previous to birth as there was no  fresh blood in the cord, the placenta was not a good colour and the pup had started to peel. Ysobel is a very agile girl and my suspicion is that her love for jumping down from and up onto  the patio wall when even heavily pregnant may be the cause of this pups death and the pup in her first ever litter.
We have though thankfully four healthy pups and mum in fine fettle. Three of them are a very good size for full term let alone 3 to 4 days early and then we have Titch weighing in at only just 5 ounces but don't let his size fool you, he has needed no help and is latching on to mum, with a suction that you would be proud to have on a hoover.
Mum is cleaned up now and all afterbirths accounted for, my husband has come home now for a couple hours to take charge whilst I get a nap in.
I will be intouch in the next few days with people waiting on this litter. Photo's below show events as they happened and unlike Dolly when she gave birth there was not much time to blog between pups, once Ysobel starts labour there's no time to twiddle your thumbs.
Lastly a quick thank you James about the dog food. Eden is one of the two dog foods I am looking at, the other being Barking Heads. Have got my sample this morning of Eden, by the way the dogs where following me around as I carried the sample bag undone and my most discerning diner Toby (who I would like to get another pound or two of weight on over his back) tucked into it, my dogs may of just made the choice for me.
Enjoy the photo's time for shut eye for me.
Nearly forgot to say, "Three boys and one girl." My fault for all the boys, as I said to someone, "that as she had predominantly had girls I would hope for more girls than boys in this litter," I did also say to them, "I might regret saying that."

Last night loaded up photo's and video but was so late when I had got that done, my husband suggested that I come back to it again today, so saved to drafts and finally stealing a moment to get it finished.
We have a house guest since last Thursday. Archie  who is from Smudge's litter born last April. Angie and her family have gone to France for a couple weeks and only living in Exeter, asked if I could have him as they did not want to Kennel him. Angie he is a credit to you all. He such a well behaved sweet and gentle natured chap. He is a big boy for a Cavapoo but mum Smudge is a big Cavalier and with the Hybrid vigour you can get a bit more size than the parents, she and her mother have that easy gentle nature which is evident in Archie but the fact that he has a loving caring home is very evident as good nature needs good nuture.

Ysobel is now 8 weeks and 2 days from her first mating and she's got me on my toes, as her temperature has dropped from 37.8 to 37.2 and she is digging every where and when resting is intermittently panting, its cool here this morning and the other dogs are not panting.
Its a little early but in the past Ysobel starts showing signs a good 48 hours before birth but with her first litter she did deliver the litter five days early and five days early for pups is on the cusp of survival. Her litter that came early, five where born only three lived, one died because to premature and although born alive was just to immature to survive and the other pup born dead had been dead for a little while and was probably the reason she birthed prematurely and we think most likely that it had perished due to detachment of the placenta from the uterus wall which can easily happen if the bitch falls, jumps from a great height or is accidently bumped by another dog.
I'm probably just flapping but we will be keeping a tight eye on her from now and just hope she hangs on a couple more days.

I have had a busy week since last blogging and now with the children on summer holidays from school keeping up with emails is proving a bit hard.
I have also been busy finding a new dog food supplier after Royal Canin's disgrace in being found to of been sponsoring bear baiting competitions in the Ukraine. If you put in your search bar FOUR PAWS you will find on this animal welfare site all about their dicovery of Royal Canin's involvement.
I know that Royal Canin would not of knowingly sponsored such cruelty but its the fact they did not know that is the problem for me and the fact only after a lot of social media pressure they felt they should help the charity with saving these bears and the dogs. Bear baiting is illegal.
Below is the email I sent in reply to their email finally admitting responsibility and offering help.


Dear Sir/Madam,
 the fact that you allowed this to happen and did sponsor bear baiting but did not realise you where sponsoring such things does not exonerate you from your crime (this is an illegal activity which you are involved in and you can colour how you like but the picture will still be the same) but actually makes it worse that you where unaware you where being seen to endorse these acts of cruelty. The fact that in the first place you did not have a robust criteria for sponsorship and the fact that is seems that you just fill in your form and  then like candy you hand out sponsorship, shows that welfare for animals is not a priority for you but only the promotion and sale of your products, profit seems your only driver. 
We all make mistakes in life and it is what we do when we make a mistake defines us as a good or bad human. Your first response has defined you to me as bad and only because of social media pressure have you now offered what should of been offered first not last and it has come due to being under pressure. Sometimes the ability to purge yourself publicly from the moment the mistake is known and to take full responsibility and to rub salt hard into the wound is seen as admirable but unfortunately you took the option to let your wound fester and you have allowed it to become infected. Please take a look at what is written below and the bit where you say "and of course the dogs", you made that sound like an after thought, Friday at 6.30 pm I presume you wanted to get home and get the weekend started, I bet the bears in the videos did not have as good a weekend as you have had.
 So for me I ask that I am removed from your Breeder Club, as I have now sourced supplies elsewhere.
Thank you
Mrs Jane Howarth
 
From: Royal Canin <[email protected]>
To: Mrs Jane Howarth <[email protected]> 
Sent: Friday, 26 July 2013, 18:30
Subject: Updated Statement


Dear Partner
 
As I said yesterday, I wanted to personally keep you updated on the evolution of the current situation.
 
I am now in position to tell you that Royal Canin at corporate level are committing to help the bears and of course the dogs involved in this barbaric practice.
 
Once again, in the name of the company, I want to apologize for having our brand implicated in these events and I thank you for your support.
 
Kind regards
 

 
Jean-Lin Pelatan
Managing Director
Royal Canin UK & Ireland
  
This email has been sent by Royal Canin. We are based at Oak Tree Meadow, Blackworthy Road, Castle Cary, Somerset, BA7 7PH, UK. Our registered company number is 2744493.

© Royal Canin SAS 2013, all rights reserved.

So after deciding to stop using Royal Canin I have entered the maze of finding a new dog food supplier. I've narrowed it down to two after many hours trawling the internet looking a various advice on food products and dog food analysis websites and will keep you posted on developments.

One thing I did find on my quest for a new dog food was a very interesting e-petition "Ban the sale of puppies and kittens without their mothers present", please if you care about dogs and the mothers of dogs and can spare a few seconds please click on this link http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/49528  and sign this petition. 

Dolly's Cavapoo pups are now over six weeks old and are either on the go or asleep, its like switch on and switch off. They are very cute and the last black pup has been named Sasha and at the moment our golden girl is being called Treacle by me because no one has come up with any other name. I think though that the name Treacle might stick though.

A fun video now and not only pups but some of the adult dogs feature in this one with a few seconds of Archie and mum Smudge, also the motley crew is Reggie, Belle and Henry and then the dastardly duo of Belle and Henry. Watch the video and hopefully that will make sense.

Last week was pretty special here in the UK, celebrating the birth of me. Lol. Yes, it was my birthday last week and now I am proudly closer to fifty than forty. Just a bit worried for a moment I might have to share my birthday but I'm born a Leo not a Cancer. I'm not that into astrology but did laugh the other day when my daughter read to me about people born on my birth date, "Although their successes may seem to be the result of careful planning, these are often more the rewards of unshakable optimism." That about sums me up, I think the person who wrote that might be my stalker or my husband. Lol
Any way like a proud old Lioness I just had to share the lovely photo of the my cubs taken on my birthday, by my husband. Can't believe how they are all growing up and they all came from me and must not forget with a little help from my husband as well.
I must get on now, as toilet roll is at a critical level, one toilet roll, six children and two adults you don't need to do the maths to know, I need to go shopping, urgh !!!!!

Ysobel is now around seven weeks pregnant and blossoming. She has been coping well with her expanding waistline and the heatwave we are having. She had her pre birth trim last night along with Reggie who had an all over trim.  Trimming Reggie our Miniature Poodle really should be called shearing as Poodles coats are akin to that of a sheep.

Dolly's Cavapoo pups are approaching six weeks old and will be six weeks old on this Friday. As they get more active it gets harder to get still captures of them especially them all together but managed to catch the photo below this morning, as they where asleep and got the camera and called them .

The pups now have got collars on and only one of the black ones and the golden girl we are keeping lack a name. The names so far are Molly, Pippa, Dotty, Dex and two of the back pups are called Darcy, so Karen your Darcy will be in photo's called Darcy 1 and Julia your girl in photo's will be Darcy 2.  In the slide show below I have put names to photo's when sure of the pup in the photo. The photo's have been taken over the last week.

As the pups get more confident to explore it is easier to catch them on film and I must remember that when I'm talking that also gets recorded. Lol.
The first parts to the video show Mum and pups out on the patio and the last part is the pup we are keeping from the litter playing with Jessica and our Mum's dog Cleo come over to have a look.

I must get on with getting some updates on here of Poundlane pups as my inbox is getting full,  love hearing from you all and on the 25th we have a lodger for a couple weeks, as Archie from Smudge's litter born last year comes to stay whilst his family go on holiday. Will be nice to see how Archie has developed and his size because his mum Smudge is our biggest Cavalier.
Well I've been milking this morning and have come home done the dogs, cuddled the puppies, done the household chores and managed to get a blog in, all children are at school today,  so I think its time for a nap or should I say ,"power nap" with the pack before milking this afternoon.

Another first tonight with a video of Dolly's Cavapoo pups at 31 days old taking their first steps outdoors early this morning. Listen out for Superman arriving for breakfast and by the sounds of it he had a fly around before settling down to eat his breakfast. also listen for the sound of my brain ticking as it finds Pippa's name when asked which puppy Dex is fighting with.

When a new pup enters the pack it has to find its place in the pack and learn what it can get away with, much like humans do. This video demonstrates that Henry has learnt already that Millie is to be respected as she is our highest ranking bitch in the pack. In the first part of the video Millie engages Henry to play and see how submissive he is to her, she wants to play and he knows he must let her take the lead but in the second part he is playing with Belle our Cavapoo who is around 20 months old and a lower ranking bitch, he plays with her no holds barred, until she puts him in his place for getting to rough. See how once he crys out she releases him and there is a time out. This is very normal robust play with young dogs, as they learn about each other and note the flirty moment between Henry and Belle. Henry gets a little amorous and is not back ward going forward.  Belle then has a little flirt, even though she is not on heat but no doubt is noting Henry's strength and social skills.

Gosh, its so warm at the moment here in the UK. We have had visitors today viewing Dolly's pups and we now have five names for her pups which are Dex, Molly, Pippa, Dotty and Darcy, but tonight we focus on Henry our Brittany Spaniel's first walk. Henry is now just over 11 weeks old and the time has passed now after his second vaccination that it is safe to take him out for walks.
So after milking this evening (which was like being put in an oven for a couple hours), I got home and was  honour bound to take children and dogs to the river, having said before going milking, "if you behave yourselves, when I come back we can take Henry to the river for his first walk."  Dad reported that behaviour had been of a standard that was conducive to allowing them to go to the river. So we loaded up children, Henry, Millie and Smudge.
Henry really enjoyed it and we took Millie and Smudge as nurse maids to him. Put together below some footage of the expedition and look out for our youngest when I ask her if she is going to live after she says she has a splinter in her hand and she rather cutely confirming, "I'm still going to live."

Lastly tonight a few photo's of Dolly's Cavapoo pups now four weeks old and a few miscellaneous photo's of some of the dogs.

Dolly's eight Cavapoo pups will be four weeks old tomorrow and today I took a little video of them in action, sorry that I missed catching the play time of the two black pups that start playing just at the end of the video but the battery decided to die at that moment. For the first few weeks I keep the pen where the pups live covered so Dolly has privacy with her pups from the other dogs, as for the first four to six weeks my bitches are happy for humans to be around the pups but do not like other dogs near them so much. This is natural, as another dog could seriously harm pups so young if aggressive and shows how dogs can have more trust in a human than another of their own species. Trusting me with her pups over her own kind shows us just what a special relationship dogs have with humans.
Today I took the pen cover back for a while to see how Dolly felt about her pups being viewed by some of the adult pack and in the video when you see Dolly fix her sight three times and bark a couple times, with me saying her name firmly, she is just warning off Ysobel's attention from the other side of the pen.
Ysobel now just over five weeks pregnant has in the past whelped within days of Dolly and they have reared their other litters together. Ysobel I think does not quite get why Dolly really does not want her attention to her puppies at the moment. Not long now though Ysobel and you will have your own to nurse. Cavaliers are very natural mothers.

Lastly a few photo's taken today of the pups. They are really on fast forward now in development and to think four weeks ago these little bundles could not see, hear or walk but now hear, see, walk, run and cutest of all wag their little tails in response to your voice or touch.

A week has passed since I last blogged and the weather is searingly hot, luckily there is a breeze which helps. Must not complain but not being a sun worshipper I find this heat a little trying especially when milking as the parlour becomes more like a sauna, great though if your looking to lose a few pounds but really draws your energy. On a positive, with the breeze its brilliant laundry drying weather though.
The dogs suffer a bit with this weather and unlike us mad English, know to lie down and sleep through the worst heat of the day in the shade. Yesterday my husband at work, spent most of it in between milkings on top of a cow shed on a corrugated tin roof, trying to remove the roof, madness. He looked like he had been slow cooked in an oven when he got home. As they say, "mad dogs and English men go out in the midday sun."
This last week has seen Dolly's Cavapoo pups become fully mobile and they have had the whelping box taken away and replaced with a large dog bed. The lamp is now off them and they happily can negogiate getting on and off the bed. A couple days ago we started them on food, which is Royal Canin starter, a food specifically made for weaning pups onto up until eight weeks old. They will be four weeks old on Friday and because a large litter, rather than start offering food around four weeks, we start a little earlier to reduce the stress on Mum, although I think you will see from the photo's below Mum is doing very well and carrying very good condition.
Pups can hear and focus their sight now, last night I thought I heard a dog barking and got out of bed and on entering the living room,  I must of startled one pup as it let out a series of barks at me and I leant in over the pen and spoke to her and she then wagged her tail looking up at me.
The children love this stage with the pups and its now home from school , get changed and play with puppies. If the weather stays good we will hope in the next week to let them adventure outside and if it stays this hot the patio may be a little to hot for them, as a sun trap, so we might get the run out to put under the willow tree. The last time I put pups in a run under the willow tree in the daytime, was three years ago when Smudge was born , we have not used this run for sometime due to having such unsettled summers. The picture on my Home page with Millie and her 2010 litter of Cavaliers (which Smudge was one of that litter) is the last time the weather warranted using the run.
Photo's below taken over the last seven days.

Keeping the camera based near the pups I have not got many photo's of the rest of the pack over the last few weeks. Ysobel is now around five weeks pregnant and although not yet obviously showing in photo's of her, in the flesh you can see and easily feel she is. She is looking well and has just decided that she can't quite make jumping out over the patio wall, so now when I jump up over it to go and check the chicken she ambles around it up and up over the lawn to be with me.
Henry our Brittany pup is growing well and had his second vaccination last Saturday morning, so look out this weekend our oldest son can get him out for a walk. He is a very chilled chap which I hope will stay part of him as he enters into his juvenile stage. He sits on verbal and whistle command and will he sit, bolt upright really engaged with you. Walking to heal I think will be an easy one for him, as he happily already walks at heal if you are carrying any treats or chews. Like most spaniels he likes his food, which really helps when training. He has also been displaying the nature of his breed to point. Very interesting to watch him and compare him with the other working spaniels, the Cocker and Springer which I already have experience of. He does seem at this age more relaxed and not so high energy as those two working spaniel breeds but time will tell, he certainly has that very amiable spaniel temperament and the ability to give you that daft spaniel head to the side look.
Beware the photo's below of me looking a bit demented, our youngest daughter had the camera and wanted to take photo's of Jessica and me and she asked me to, " Look mad Mummy", I think I nailed it. Lol

Dolly's Cavapoo pups are now over two weeks old, now seventeen days since born and in the last twentyfour hours have started to respond to the sounds around them and are starting to get about on all fours rather than the wriggling from one place to another like a seal cub.
This evening they are starting to play with each other and enjoy us tickling them and they happily will mouth your fingers and try to latch on to your nose, lip and the childrens favourite is getting them to latch on to their ear lobes. They are handled from day one and by around two weeks old are happy to be picked up and interact with humans. This early contact begins the imprinting for a close connection to humans.

A big sorry to those on my waiting list, as not yet been intouch, Ysobel is booked to be scanned on Wednseday at 11am, so I will get Ysobel scanned and then be intouch with the news of the scan.