Dolly's pups are now 3 weeks old & I think you can see from the photos below that they are now mobile & are developing their individual characters. It is lovely to watch them play with each other & now lick & chew at your face & hands when you pick them up & even at this early age you can tell the which ones are the more out going & the one who are a bit more laid back about things.
I think Alfie is going to be a confident one as just found him on his own half way across the room. Picked the rascal up & told him he's abit to young for big adventures yet.
Have still not got to the bottom of not being able to caption my photos, but took all the photos below today of Dolly's Cavapoo pups at 3 weeks old, so please click on the photos to see full size.

Got an update on Charlie today who is Smudges sister & from Millies Litter born in May 2010. He is about 15 weeks old now & is a very good looking young man.
Got a lovely message with it as well, as this is the first dog that Tess & Lorraine have had & they put a lot of time into deciding on this to be the right dog breed for them & to read in their email that they made the right dicision is great. The message reads "He has settled really well & is such a fantastic dog. I would definitely recommend this breed with other first time owners." Cavaliers are a good breed to have for first time dog owners as they are kind & willing to be trained as long as they get paid with lots of love & I think that Charlie gets lots of that.
Thanks Tess & Loraine for the update on Charlie & will look forward to hearing from you all again in the near future. Also recieved four beautiful photos of Charlie below.
Click on photos below to see fullsize.

This is the last Bank Holiday weekend of the year & were has the year gone Christmas seems to be just aroud the corner again.
We have just moved all the Mums Dolly & Ysabel & their pups into are sitting dining room. We have put them into crates now with a lamp above to still make sure they stay warm. To put them in crates is about safety, because as much as I would love to have all the pups running around all the time the risk to them being stepped on, squat in a door or chewing or eating something not good for them is a real one. Being in the crates in are living area allows them to become fimiliar with all the bussle & noise of a household. When a bit older & more mobile they will be allowed out & about. We have a large walled patio & a puppy run on are lawn & if the weather is lovely these places are great for pups to play & have adventures safely. My children regularily nurse the pups & I think properly supervised this prephars them well for family life & from birth makes them used to human contact.
Dolly's pups had their first taste of solids yesterday & they did not need to be showed what to do, as they tucked in & cleared their plate. Dolly was around to clean them up after they straddled through it & they also took great pleasure in licking it of each other. I feed a whole dry food which when you start them on it you soak it in water to make like a porridge for them.
Ysabel is doing her pups great & it looks like their eyes will be open soon. They are tubby little girls & are all really well marked.
The photos below are from the last couple days & unfortunatly I can still not caption them. Hope we can get to the bottom of why I can not do this
 soon, as I am going to have a lot of photos to catch up on putting captions to.
Click on photos below to see full size. 

Ysabels girls are now 8 days old so time for their weigh in. By eight days you would easily expect all of the pups in any litter to of doubled their body weight by now. I can see they have gained weight, but weighing them helps me to be sure they are gaining the right amount of weight. Not gaining weight can be indications of problems with Mum or that the pup has something wrong with them.
Ysabel has done them really well & all have easily more then doubled their weight in 8 days. The first born girl weighed 8oz at birth now weighs 18oz. The second girl born weighed 61/2oz at birth & now weighs 15oz. The third girl born weighed 6oz at birth now weighs 15oz & the last girl born weighed 7oz at birth & now weighs 16oz. From these weights I can see that Ysabel is coping & doing her girls proud, all of them have gained over an ounce a day for a small breed like Cavaliers that is really good. The girls are also looking fit & well & starting to pigment around their eyes & nose, as when born their noses are pink & it takes at least 4-8 weeks for their noses to fully turn black.
Click on photos below to see full size.

Had to go & get emergency supplies this evening as down to last box of cereal & when my husband announced that I had no dishwasher tablets left, well I did not fancy emptying out the dish washer & hand washing the cereal bowls for tomorrow morning, so have been to the temple of food called Tescos. Do not really enjoy shopping, will have to start doing it on line, but have been saying that for the last 6 months ever time I need to go shopping.
All my dogs are doing fine Bonnie is still on heat, so we are still playing magical doors at the moment ensuring Charlie & Oscar do not have a clandestine meeting with her. Lucy her sister should be in heat any day now so we will be on are toes making sure that she is safely out of the reach of Charlie & Oscar. 
Dollys pups are now 17 days old & all their eyes are open now & their ears are opening to. They are all getting really mobile now, wobbling around their bed like they have been on the beer.Dolly is looking really well, but is moulting now as with all the hormones realised in her body this now causes her to loss her coat & some Mums can go almost bold when this occurs.
Ysabel is looking really well to. The birth & feeding her girls seems to be not taking to much out of her, as 4 pups is a nice size for her & most Mums should cope easily with this amount of pups. Her pups are now a week old, amazing that has flown by.
Click on photos below to see full size.

Been a couple busy days with my three boys doing a Mini Rugby camp & the weather being not the best with very heavy showers & the forecast for tomorrow morning is for torrential rain so they have finished the Rugby camp a day early. So no running aroud tomorrow morning looking for gumshields & boots. Is it me or are all boys the same, it can be right in front of them & they will not see what they are looking for. I do believe this affliction carries on into adult hood as my husband seems to have the same problem or is it his genes.
Enough about me & let me tell you about Dolly's little family, her Cavapoo pups are really getting going, wobbling around their bed blindly on all fours now. Their eyes are almost all right open, but they do not start to focus until around 28 days, so at the moment every thing is a bit blurry. Their ears are just starting to open & that is a lovely moment when they start to respond to your voice. Also it is lovely now to see them wobble up to Mum & on contact wag their tails. We have had a few litters over the years, but all of these little development stages feel me with joy & wonder. Watching pups develop from birth, being allowed into such a trusted position with my girls & for them to allow me to witness their labour never showing no malice to me just makes me feel very privileged. 
Ysabel's pups are podging up as I watch them. They are 5 days old now & are starting to get pigment in their noses & are quite a lively bunch of girls already.
Lastly Smudges final bloods have come back & nothing has been found in them to know why she has had a couple seizure. The next step is to have a MRI Scan & take fluid of her spinal cord or the other option is after two weeks on anti-seizure medication to then take her of it & see if she is still having them. I have talked to varies people & looked on the internet for information & some times like children young pups can have an episode of seizures that then cease & no one knows what caused them or why they had them. So we are going to see how she is when she comes of the medication & hope the seizures have stopped if not then we will go down the MRI scan route. At the moment she is very much a normal pup, running around like an idiot, chewing, eating any old rubbish & then sleeping. In my heart I think that she may have been jarred by one of the older dogs & I am actually feeling that the seizures have stopped, so faith & fingers crossed for 2 weeks time.
Click below to see photos full size. 

Lastly I got this lovely email today about Oliver, one of my pups. Madeleine who owns him took him to a Charity Fun Dog Show today for some socialising & he won Best Puppy & Best Pedigree Puppy, she is so chuffed & so am I. Well done Oliver & Madeleine. Fun dog shows are a really good way to socialise your dog & have some fun.

Ysabel although losing a pup is doing fine & the other four girls are growing before my eyes. They are all nice marked pups & I took a little video below for you to see how well Ysabel is looking after them. Ysabel is such a sweet little thing & is really into her little girls.

Took a little video of Dolly & pups at the milk bar today. Dolly is such a good Mum & the pups are nearly 2 weeks old. They are all going on well & their eyes are just starting to open.
If you take a look at the video below & compare it to the video posted when they were 3 days old, you can see they have grown a lot.
Click on photos below to see full size. 

Ysabel unfortunately has lost one of her pups. Yesterday morning noticed a green yellowish discharge from one of her pups noses. Straight away I new this is a sign of pneumonia. In newborn pups there is a type of pneumonia called inhalant pneumonia, this is were the pup has inhaled a foriegn substance on to its lungs either from fluids whilst being born, Mums milk or if bottle fed bottled milk. This little girl we think through being born backwards had probably inhaled fluids at birth. She fought galantly & I tryed hard to help her but the pneumonia was just to much for her little body to stand & she passed away this morning at 1am. She was only 2 days old & having nursed & hand fed her for the last 24 hours it is always hard to lose a pup, but  you have to pick yourself up dust yourself down & look on the positive. Ysabel other 4 pups are 3 days old now & are all well & very vigerous & 4 is a good size litter, anything above 4 with Cavaliers is always a bonus.
Dolly's pups are getting very podgy she is doing them so well & they will be 2 weeks old tomorrow, how time flys.
Smudge is still a mystery & will hope blood test results may shed some light on why she has had siezures. If nothing conclusive in her bloods it will then be looking at her having a brain scan, lets hope the bloods hold the key to why she is having seizures. She is though still a rascal & yesterday chewed again through the cable from my modem to the telepone connection. The little scallywag looked soo pleased with her work you just had to laugh, hopefully we have solved this problem & it will not happen again.
Having a bit of fun at the moment with the other Cavaliers as Bonnie is on heat & is not being mated as only just had a litter back in March, so are poor old stud dog Charlie is a bit frustrated at the moment & it is a bit of a juggling act making sure they do not get out together. Charlie is howling a bit at night but he will have to learn to wait.  

Got a reasonable night of sleep last night, as moved Dolly into kitchen now pups are 11 days old & Ysabel is now in are bedroom while she gets her pups established.
As much as I love Dolly there is one thing she does & that is snore, so for the last 10 days whilst she & her pups were stationed in are bedroom each night we have had the joy of listening to the rythmical beat of her snoring, so to now have Ysabel in are bedroom who does not snore, means I stand a chance of a nights sleep.
Ysabel is being a very attentive Mum having to  physically remove her to make her go out to the toilet, although being so careful when she returns gentle lying down amongst her girls & gentle gathering them in. All the pups seem strong & healthy with good markings. Ysabel has loads of milk & 5 pups is a nice size litter which she should find easy to cope with.
Dolly & pups are doing well & now look huge compared to Ysabels pups. When you have a litter only 10 days apart you then realise looking at the two sizes how much growth they make in the first weeks all from Mums milk amazing !
Will not be long now till Dolly's pups open their eyes & can just start to see the begining of the fleecy coats Cavapoos get first, like the fleece of a Teddy bear.
 Smudge has been put on Anti- seizure medication for the short term, as there is a risk of her having another seizure & this could cause brain damage. Still waiting for Toxi blood test to come back  to know more, her liver & kidneys are functioning okay as had blood results for them today. Will hopefully know more on Monday. You though other than the seizures would not think anything wrong with Smudge as she was fit enough to chew through my cable from my modem to my phone connection on my computer today the little rascal, so had an extra trip out to get a new cable.  Must remember this weekend to find someway of closing of cables to computer as I think this might happen again. as Smudge just entering into the real chew phase of a pups life now coming upto 14 weeks old.
Click on photos below to see full size.

Ysabel went exactly 9 weeks & gave birth to her first pup at 8.50am today. She had the first 3 pups in18 minutes which is quick & she had the last at 10.33am, so she had all 5 in 1 hour & 43 minutes which is very good going. They are all well marked Blenheim girls & the weights & times born are as follows 8.50am 1st girl 8oz, 9am 2nd girl 61/2oz, 9.08 3rd girl 6oz, 9.23am 4th girl 8oz & 10.33am 5th girl 7oz. Mum is doing great & pups all seem vigerous.
Smudge is still not right & although basic blood tests seem okay this morning she had a seizure & I rushed her into the vets again. She was in with vets all day to take more bloods to run toxin tests etc. Picked her up from vets this afternoon & everyone had fallen in love with her at the vets. She has not had another seizure & vets are thinking that some sort of toxin thing is going on in her body. Hopefully if blood tests confirm what they think it might be, then a course of antibiotics should cure it. Will not know results for a couple days so a bit of a worrying time, but at the moment again she looks like nothing has happened to her, just praying she does not have another seizure as so distressing for her. Will be a long wait for results, luckily have pups to keep my mind of it a bit.
Click below to see photos full size.

Meet Alfie today a charming young Cavapoo who is from are first litter of Cavapoos. He is just over one years old & he is gorgeous, really he is. Its not just his looks but his manner that is lovely. Gill is Alfie's owner, who has come back to me to have another Cavapoo for company for Alfie & came out to see Dolly's new litter today. He surly is a credit to Gill & the pup she chooses from Dolly's litter is going to be sure to have one of the best of homes.
It is lovely to see pups that I have reared from birth turning into such lovely allround individuals & in Alfies case to at first hand see that the Cavapoo cross that we have breed is such a lovely dog. Forgot to ask to take a photo today so have put an old one below so you can see who I am talking about. Looking forward to seeing Gill & Alfie again in 3 weeks time to choose the pup they want. Thanks for bringing Alfie today, it was a real treat.
Funny how things come in threes as got some lovely photos of Alfie from Dolly's litter at  9 days old & we have now breed 3 litters of Cavapoos & in each litter there has been an Alfie, so I think I will have to start putting a number after their name to know which Alfie is which. Also got some photos of Dolly's Black & White girl pup lying curled up on her back & in the last photo is it me or does she look like a baby Gorilla.
Click on photos below to see full size.

As I am up keeping eye to Ysabel, I thought it would be a chance to catch up with pups & their new families.
Maddies owner Alison sent me some lovely photos of Maddie who looks very fetching in her green harness, she looks very happy & is growing up. Thanks for the update & Smudge seems back to her self as I blog this she has stopped drooling & is running around with Bobby like an idiot.
The next is Oakley who seems to not be so keen on water as Jon his owner said in his email especially when he fell in a rock pool. Thanks Jon for the lovely photos & update.
Madeleine was kind enough to send me a photo of Oliver in his comfy new bed. Thanks Madeleine , Oliver is a lucky chap & is going to be so loved.
Meet Jasper's family outside Tescos at the weekend & saw what a lovely dog Jasper is turning into. The photos of him are around ten weeks & he looks very happy with himself & his toys. Paula said that she will send me some more recent ones of him soon as he is around 5 months old now. Thanks Paula looking forward to the update.
Last photos are of Charlie who has gone to live with Cindy her family which includes Rosie another Cavalier who had recently had her eye removed. I had a Cavalier years ago called Penny who had to have an eye removed & when I spoke to Cindy first Rosie had just had the eye removed & I think they were not sure whether they had done the right thing, but I told them about old Penny & how it really did not affect her much other than occassionally walking into things & was a bit of a conversation starter when out & about with her & I hope this was of some reasurance to them.Charlie & Rosie have become
 good friends & thanks for all the photos Cindy.
Click on photos below to see full size.

Smudge gave me a bit of a scare earlier as we think she must of got something stuck in her throat but she is okay now although gave me a fright as she nearly went uncousious. Will hope what ever it is she can pass, so will not be totally out of the woods yet.
Ysabel is hanging on for her due date on Thursday & you can see & feel her pups really moving now. She is sleeping alot & digging her bed up which are all good signs.
Dollys pups were all weighed today at 8 days old & all have doubled their body weight or more with Alfie being the heavy weight of the crew. This is all down to their Mum Dolly who is taking having a big litter for a little girl all in her stride. Their eyes are starting to define & should start opening anytime.
Click on photos below to see full size & read what they all weigh at 8 days old.

Dolly's pups are now a week old & are all growing & going on well. Today was also their first day for visitors. Vanessa & her husband came to see Dolly's pups & see how they are getting on. Vanessa has contacted me through my website to find a Cavapoo pup & has had Cavaliers before recently losing their last boy & wanting to have another pup to bring into their family & help fill the gap that appears when you lose a pet & friend.
Vanessa wanted a boy & there are two boys, one Black & Tan with some white & One Ruby boy with white. The Ruby is the one they already feel they want & they already had a name for him "Alfie" which is lovely, as I always like to have a name for my pups before they leave as they can already learn to come to it before leaving me & it is just nice & makes them an individual.
I do not take a deposit at this stage as they have not been vet checked which is done at 4 weeks old & I also do not expect a person to choose at this stage, normally around 4-5 weeks is when I would like you to choose, but when two pups are so different in colour then some times the choice is made before seeing the pups.
It was nice meeting Vanessa & her husband today who are sure to be a great family for Alfie to join when he is old enough. I enjoyed are chat about are old Cavaliers , the heartbreak & joy they bring us & will look forward to their next visit to see Alfie in a few weeks time.
Click on photos below to see full size.

Ysabel is just changed her demeanor in the last 24 hours, is resting more & has lost her appetite. Anytime now she could go into labour, her due date though from her first mating is this Thursday so only 4 days away.
 I would say she looks like she is carrying about 4 pups, but again do not hold me to this, as Ysabel has had 1 litter before & she looked very small, but had 5 pups.
Took a little video of her earlier in her bed looking very cute, click below to watch it.

Dolly is doing really well & all her pups including Tiny Tinkerbell are growing by the hour. Dolly is quite happy to leave them for short spells now as the smell of roast dinner this evening was to much of a lure & with her pups well fed, warm & asleep joined us for roast dinner, sitting under the table waiting for my kids to drop bits of food. We had roast chicken to night & I cooked an extra one especially for Dolly & Ysabel, so they both have had some roast chicken tonight, although Ysabel eat very little.
Took a little video of Dolly & Pups earlier, click below to watch.

Oliver left us today for his new home. He is nearly 13 weeks old & we looked after him for a bit longer due to comitments that his new owner had to honour. Oliver is one of Millies last litter & is a very laid back character with a splash of mischief about him. I wish Madeleine his new owner all the best, as I know he is going to get bucket loads of love & exercise. Have not had to wait long for photos of Oliver, as Madeleine now holds the record for the quickest photos from anyone I have sold a pup to. The photo below is taken on an iphone of Oliver asleep in the car traveling to his new home, I think you can see he is laid back. Will look forward to his next photo shoot. 

Weighed all the pups today & Tiny Tinkerbell from a birth weight of just 4oz, now at 4 days old weighs 7oz. She has really done well, as a pup should be twice its body weight by 8 days, so she is very much on target. She is just small but perfectly formed. Her siblings have all gained well with all of them 2/3 heavier than born which is all down to their very clever Mum's care & good milk.
Click on photos below to see full size.

Only a short blog tonight as very late as I do this.Dolly is doing really well & yes in one of the photos below she is lied on her back feeding her pups. All the pups are holding their own & growing by the day.
Click on photos below to see full size.

Dolly is doing great with her 7 Cavapoo pups. They are stationed in are bedroom & last night I thought I would be helping Dolly with a few bottle feeds for a couple of her smaller pups, but she has lots of milk & all the pups are strong & seem to have all gained weight in the last 24hrs. I mentioned yesterday about helping very small pups, but if they are strong & keen to suck Mum, this is always better than bottle & will also make Mum produce more milk the more she is suckled, but some pups can struggle to get established in the first couple of days & then if not noticed will soon fade, so I offer the bottle & the pup will soon let you know if they need it or do not & I will tend the litter every couple of hours & make sure the smallest pups get the choicest teats to suckle.
Last night though it was obvious after a couple times offering the bottle to the smallest pups that Mum was producing more than enough milk for them & they were getting it. Dolly is a very clever girl & was such a calm wonderful Mum whilst giving birth & hopefully her pups will have inherited her calm & brave temperment. She is looking after her pups so well that it is a joy to watch.
Ysabel is fastly approaching the end of her gestation & is now wanting to go out for a wee in the middle of the night, as I heard her little woofs at 3am this morning & let her out, the look of relief on her face as she had her wee was quite sweet. As Cavaliers if properly house trained hate to have an accident in the house & will hold them self beyond the call of duty. Ysabel has been quite excited by Dollys new arrivals & has sneeked in a couple of times to have a look whilst Dolly has been having a wee, Dolly on her return just gives Ysabel a look to say"their mine" & Ysabel then retreats.
Got a lovely photo of Dolly with pups & also some lovely photos of Ysabel & she looks like she is really blossoming.
Click on photos below to see full size. 

Below is Tiny Tinkerbell, she is Dollys smallest pup born yesterday tipping the scales at just under 4oz & I thought last night I would be helping her along bottle feeding her to catch her up with the others. I was up last night but just checking they were all sucking as even though she is very small she is very vigorous & once on a teat is not going to be pushed of even by the biggest pup. She is already showing character at this early stage.
Click on photos below to see full size.

Just had to show these couple photos of Dolly & how well she has come through the birth & is being a very accomadating Mum to her 7 pups. We have now moved her from the kitchen were I whelp them in & she is in are bedroom which is quite & can be easily kept at an ambient temperature. I keep the Mums & pups here normally for the first week to 10 days. 
This time of year I use a little low cost oil field radiator to keep the room at a constant warm temperature & I am for the first time useing microwaveable heat pads which last for 5 hours at a time at a constant temperature, so will let you know how I get on with them, as have never used electric pads as always worried about Mum digging up bed & maybe electrocution or burning if thermastat goes wrong. In deepest winter if we have pups we will use a heat lamp , but they do eat the electric.
A good way to know if pups are warm & feeding well is noise, if pups are whining constantly this is a good indication that they are cold or they are not getting enough milk. If Mum is a bit warm in with her pups you have probably got them warm enough, as afraid Mum has to suffer a bit in the early days as the heat the pups need can be uncomfortable for her, but be careful not to overheat or that the bitch is panting because she has the first sign of eclampsia which is talked about in a previous blog titled "Eclampsia" 27.07.2010.
The best way to see she is just to hot is to take the Mum outside  & if the panting stops after about five minutes it is just she has got to hot, but if she continues panting or gets worse speak to your vet.
Click on photos below to see full size.

Thanks for asking, on my last blog said about family getting together, it was a great day. We were blessed with the weather & we all had a good laugh together, as we all tend to have a good sense of humour & fun. The kids all enjoyed it with no falling out which must be a miracle on its own.
So a bit tired this morning, as yesterday evening it was obvious that Dolly was not far away from having her pups. It is hard to explain but you know things are close, not by the text book signs such as digging, panting etc, as I have had girls who do none of those things before birth, but it is a look or they are just lied different it can be very subtle, but I know they are close to having their pups. So last night stayed with Dolly & at 6am this morning the first pup arrived, a little Ruby Cavapoo girl, weighing 6oz, then the second at 8.15am, a Ruby girl, weighing 7oz, then the third at 8.30am, a Black & Tan boy weighing 51/2oz, then the fourth at 8.55am, a Black with a little white  girl, weighing 71/2oz, then the fifth at 9.40am, a Ruby girl, weighing 4oz, then the sixth at 10.20am, a Ruby boy, weighing 7oz & the seventh & final one at 10.50am, a Black & Tan girl weighing 6oz.
Dolly has 7 pups a big litter for a Cavalier, so will need to be looked after really well so that she can produce the milk for her pups, we will help her as there are two below 6oz we will give them extra bottle feds to help them catch up a bit & make sure they are getting enough milk , as even at this age the bigger ones can easily push the smaller pups of the teats so they can feed & having a big litter it my make it hard for the little ones to get established without a little help for a day or two.
The little girl who is only just 4oz is very vigorous but due to size will need a bit of extra feeding & hopefully should rear okay. Very easy to loss pups at this stage through getting to cold, hyperthermia is the biggest killer of pups, the second is not getting enough nourishment & colostrum from Mum as colostrum will help to boost immune system & if they do not get enough can make them prone to infection or disease, so have to be very vigilant at this stage checking they are warm enough & well nourished. As to lose a pup now is always upsetting & I always put my self through the mill wether I did everything I could, but some times they fade & die & there is nothing that you can do, so keeping fingers firmly crossed for the next couple of weeks, as always think if you rear them to two weeks your past the real danger period of lossing them, but you still need to be very careful.
Click on photos below to see full size.

Amy who is the proud owner of Florrie (Poundlane Wild Bramble) & bought her from us in May 2010, sent me these beautiful pictures of Florrie a couple of weeks ago with this message quote "She is a lovely little dog & we are all enjoying her very much, she's a joy." Thanks for this update & it is great to think Florrie is becoming a valued new member to Amy's young family & also by the photos is getting on well with her cats, as this was one of the consideration that was took in getting a Cavalier, as they are if trained right one of the breeds of dog most likely to get along with all other domestic pets.
Click on photos to see full size.