Smudge's pups all flown the nest and Primrose's are on the move

Jake catches forty winks before leaving us today

All Smudge's pups have now left us. With the last, but certainly not the least, Jake, who made his way to Bedfordshire with Sarah and her family on Tuesday evening. Jake travelled well, but unfortunately his only misdemeanour on route was a couple bouts of diarrhoea, which can sometimes happen with travelling and it seems it must of just been the long trip, as the next day he was fine and morning after his first night in his new home I received an email from Sarah to confirm he was okay. Sarah mentions reading through something I sent her and that was information about introducing a puppy to cats, as Sarah also has a cat. Thanks Sarah for the photo and letting me know all is okay after his road trip.

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Jake settles in for his first night with Sarah

Thanks Jane
Have read that through and will make the steps they recommend.
Jake slept well during the night - I didn't hear a peep out of him from midnight through to 6am, and that was only because I got up then. No mess either. We've had lots of fun with him this morning, he's a lovely puppy. Played lots of games and he's now having a sleep.
Kind regards
Sarah

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Next is an update received from Chester's family. Chester being Jakes litter sibling and these two boys will be meeting in the near future, as Sarah's family who have Chester are good friends with  Sarah's family who have Jake.
Thanks Sarah for letting me know all is going well with Chester and thanks for the lovely photos of your family out and about with Chester.

Hi Jane

Just thought I would give you a little update on Chester.

He is a little star, coping with everything in his path and the children adore him.

He is sleeping through now from 11pm until 7am and no accidents at night, we have just had a couple in the day, when to be honest, if we had been a little more vigilant, they wouldn’t have happened.

As I mentioned before the sprinkling of liver on top of his food has helped his food intake to be where it needs to be.

I have enclosed a couple of pictures from yesterday when we took him to Stowe Gardens for a walk. It is doggy walking heaven, all the dogs have to be on a lead so it was really good for Chester to meet other dogs. It was very interesting to see his reaction to each breed that he came across. It was especially evident when we came across a King Charles Spaniel. He was very lively and not at all “woofy” as he had been with other dogs.

 Glad Jake is coping well. We are meeting up with him and his new family on Friday, so it will be interesting to see if they remember each other

Thanks again for all your help

Sarah

Another update from Smudge's pups that have just left us and this one is from Rhian, who has Mollie. Thanks for letting me know thinks are going well and that your Bobbie is taking to Mollie.

Hi Jane
Thought I'd send a photo of Mollie and Bobbie that we took yesterday, she is such a clever girl, we do some training every day and she is picking things up so quickly. She loves running around the garden and her favourite  game is chasing the brush. She sleeps all night and is doing her toilet outside. She has taken to her crate really well and is not at all bothered about going in it. She is really laid back and very good when visitors come to see her. Everyone loves her. Hope the pups are doing well.
Best wishes 
Rhian

Last update for this blog is another from Smudge's pups that have just flown the nest and this one is from Lucy and Alan who have Flora, who was the first of this litter to leave us. Although no photos with this update, Lynne more than makes up for this with her vivid account of life with Flora. Love the image of you with the string of plastic sausages and so lovely to know that she is bringing you both, such joy and fun. Thanks Lucy and Alan.

Dear Jane,

Flora is wonderful!

She had her second injection at 10 weeks and so this week we have ventured outside of the garden - with 4 paws on the ground. She is managing harness and lead well and has enjoyed meeting some other dogs and of course the adoring public! Our vets run  puppy support sessions with the nurse and so she has been to vet twice , and they weighed and wormed her , and said she is putting on right amount of weight.We have kept on her lilys kitchen as all seems well on that  - I cannot believe quite how quickly she can eat each meal!House training has gone well - we followed on from your start of her going outside and are remaining vigilant.Good weather has helped as we keep door open a lot of the time and she just takes herself off outside. She has come with us to a barbeque and dinner party and behaved very well , I am amazed at how she takes things in her stride.We are trying to expose her to new things daily , without over tiring her . We have started to leave her alone in crate in daytime so Alan can  go out for short periods and  this week we will see if we can be brave enough to let her off the lead in the local park.
So, we are having early starts ( I think your getting up for milking is in her body clock!) but she brings us great joy - who thought at this age  I would be running around my garden of an evening , giggling, pulling a string of plastic sausages around!

So Jane , take no news as good news from us - hopefully we can send you some pictures soon , computer has a blip at minute so wont risk sending attachments.Thanks for your email , its great to know advice is there if we need it.

Best wishes

Lucy and Alan and Flora

Now that Smudge's pups have all left, my attention can now be fully on Primrose's litter of six Cavapoos and it's frightening to think they are tomorrow three weeks old and the weekend after this one, we start families visiting to pick and meet their pup that will join their family. They are now twenty days old and a lively bunch, already, they can be seen wobbling around the whelping box and we expect the first breakout any day now.

Loaded the photos up on to the computer to find this bit of video footage, that our daughter Florrie took, she did forget to turn the heat lamp off, so we have an orange/red hue to it, but it certainly shows how active they are already and how vocal.
Treacle is the dog you can hear woofing as she was playing with Henry and Mum, Primrose was just lying out of sight when this was being filmed. Mum at this stage regulates her visits to her pups and she will not attend them straight away when they start to wake and call for her and it's interesting to watch her lie quite unconcerned beside the whelping box as they call her and if you feel her milk bars when this calling starts and when she decides to then tend them around five minutes her so, since they started calling her and as the calling dies down, you will feel that her milk has come down more and her milk bars feel more engorged. I have observed all our bitches do this with their young and I know some novice breeders, when they see a bitch not tending their pups straight away when they start to cry, that they think the bitch may be starting to reject the pups. I believe the bitch knows what she is doing and making the pups do this, gets them motivated to start moving and gets them experiencing stress and to cope with it. Having breast fed all my young, I also know when your young cry a certain way, it makes you drop your milk, in fact when lactating my milk would drop if out shopping if I heard someone else's baby crying in a certain way, so it also works to help the bitch drop her milk and may be more milk. I know the other bitches when her pups cry also show very broody actions and the other day, we found Treacle in asleep with the pups and I have noticed Treacles milk bars looking a little plump.
Within wolf packs normally only the Alpha bitch breeds and the other bitches in the pack, which are normally relatives, often siblings from a previous litter, will also start to lactate and help feed the Alpha's litter as well and this is thought to happen, so that the Alpha bitch, who is often the best hunting bitch can soon be back hunting insuring survival of the pack. Phantom pregnancies in domestic dogs are thought to be from the ancestory connection to wolves and  the group suckling young, and is in my experience why a lactating bitch is one of the easiest animals to get to adopt others young.

Next week the children are back at school, so I will hope to have more time to get some more action footage of the pups, but we do have two of the children's birthdays in the first ten days of June.
We have Tracey and her family visiting tomorrow with Roxy and Charlie, two Cavapoos that we bred and then the next three weekends we have full with families visiting to meet their pup from Primrose's litter.
Finish now on three Cavaliers in a row. Took this photo last night of Dolly, Jessica and Jessica's brother, Toby fast asleep all in a row.

Dolly, Jessica and Toby