March 12th

Pups are two weeks old now and the changes are dramatic.  They've gone from being potatoes both in size and activity to being toddlers.  All at once, their eyes begin to open while they begin trying to lift their fat bellies off the blankets of the whelping box.  Yesterday, for the first time I was greeted with wagging tails from Rover and Spot when I walked in and picked them up.  They could finally see me and they recognized my scent, putting the two together!  Today, I walked in and the sound of the door opening woke them up -- they could hear!  Small idiosyncracies are appearing, touch of personalities to come.  Harold and Lemuel have opinions, especially when it comes to being cleaned by their mom or me.  The bathroom sink and soap will kill them and they are in danger of their lives from wet wipes too.  Mom's tongue isn't quite as deadly but what's wrong with a guy picking up a bit of dirt anyway?  William seems a bit of a clown.  He attacked my shoe so ferociously I was trembling in fear.  Fred is big and laid back.  He loves to lie belly up in the palms of my hands, contemplating me much like Buddha.  Spot and Rover are just happy guys.  If they're as jolly as their dad, I'll be completely happy.  .

Lolo has decided that some visitors are okay.  She's still sure the wolves will burst in the front door and steal her babies any moment but the occasional friend stopping by to admire her children from outside the whelping box is okay.  She has even relented and allowed Taga to nose them a bit.  Taaku was allowed access after the first week -- as long as she stayed away from Lolo's stash of goodies.  After all, Taaku is their grandmother albeit a young one.  Taaku allowed Lolo to see her babies so Lolo didn't mind that Taaku inspected them.  After all, they were certainly far bigger in size than Taaku's litters at the same age.  Lolo isn't too sure about having any strangers handle her pups yet.  (I'm sure once the nubs of teeth I feel in their gums erupt, she'll change her mind quickly.) 

second only to Fred in weight.	Though Lemuel's pink nose has turned completely black, Harold's still has a pink spot that hasn't darkened yet.
Spot is the same body color as Rover but has far less tan masking. I have to see their faces to tell them apart since they're identical in size.	Though he's bigger than even the largest pup in my last two litters, William is smallest of the Oh No! Boys.
Lemuel's color is turning into quite bright honey	Rover will have amber eyes, rather than dark brown

.

The pups are three weeks old, with the four-week birthday coming tomorrow, and they've kept me running so much this past week that it's hard to find time to update their webpage.  I absolutely love pups at this age.  I could easily spend all day just sitting watching them, cuddling them, and occasionally tickling a tummy, chin, or ear.  They're big enough that they can toddle around now though they do seem to be able to go better in reverse; they bark and growl, play with toys and wrestle, but they're still toddlers.  They're easy to take care of since Lolo and I share the job.  For example, she nurses every couple hours during both the day and night and three times a day I set down a concoction that they immediately try to swim inn.  The ceremonial "First Non-Mom Meal" always happens when they're 21 days old.  I set down a big pan with about a quarter inch of puppy formula with a touch of yogurt mixed in and if they don't dive on it right away (some litters go headlong into eating with very little practice as if they've been waiting for me to feed them for weeks), I set the pup's front feet right in the pan.  Some will scream as if I'm killing them since it's SCARY but others just start slurping.  Sometimes a litter will need a few practice runs before everyone catches on and others were born knowing how to inhale their food like Hoover vacuums.

This litter has moderate enthusiasm for food.  They took to it with that first meal but Lolo has been feeding them such copious amounts of Mom Juice that they aren't voraciously hungry like other litters.  To keep them interested and since I just tend to do things this way, I've varied their meals just a touch to keep them interested.  Some were formula (Esbilac) with a can of Gerber's Baby Meat mixed in, sometimes I added yogurt, and gradually I started adding first Gerber's Rice Cereal for infants.  Once they had that nailed, I started adding puppy formula kibble that had been soaked in water to soften it ahead of time.  From there they had the occasional adventure with a quarter cup of chicken broth added and twice now I've added canned Puppy Formula to the whole mix.  My blender is getting a heavy work out; I only use it when I have pups so it's an old unit I got for $5 at a garage sale.  Once they hit 28 days old, I'll start shifting the mixture until it's mostly kibble within the next week.  Lolo will keep nursing them so they will get enough fluids.  They have a water bowl but so far have only looked at it.  Eating dry food will cue their bodies to start being thirsty.

They also made the big move out of the whelping box and back bedroom this past week. Had I not moved them out, Rover would have been living up to his name and going exploring on his own.  The other pups showed no inclination to go anywhere but Rover wanted to get out of the box.  After catching these photos, I had to set up a barrier around that part since that was the only place he was trying to go "over the wall."  I'm sure he was motivated by the fact that Lolo laid on a dog bed just outside the whelping box where she could keep an eye on them without having them constantly crawling all over her and demanding feeding, feeding and more feeding.

Is anybody watching me?

Nah, Ma's preoccupied

Now's the time, I know I can make it!

First I brought them out to the family room for an hour and Lolo would cuddle and nurse them the whole time.  Then I put them out there on my lunch break and tucked them back in after dinner, all cozy in their bright lavender box with the familiar smells and blankets and soft toys.  Finally they spent first a whole day in the family room and stayed out there overnight.  That was spurred mostly by having JoAnn Filce here overnight and wanting to let her use the guest room/formerly Puppy Nursery but they would have spent the night there about that time anyway.  Lolo had already shifted to sleeping with me and getting up to check them and nurse them during the night but that first night in the family room, she spent the whole time with them in the big wire crate  Outside the crate (which is now covered with a blanket so it won't be drafty and lets them feel that they have a cave) is a carpet of newspapers on top of a sheet of linoleum so as to lessen the chance that my laminate floor will be damaged.  I have a portable "x-pen" set up around the crate but they're still little enough that a 12" board is there so the big dogs and I can easily get past the pen and out the back door.  It's a bit awkward but could be worse and they'll soon be old enough to go outside so this will be very handy.

This is where I'm starting to see some strong personalities emerge.  The first to go adventuring were William and Lemuel.  Both of them are going to be world explorers.  They're confident and outgoing in a big way.  Rover isn't too far behind them.  Fred however, is quite lazy and is usually asleep.  He reminds me of Kodi at that age.  We joked that Kodi didn't wake up until he was about seven weeks old when he became a wild man for a while.  Harold and Spot are a bit less adventurous.  I spent a bit of time cuddling them and making sure that they got extra love when they did venture out into the Big World.  The trick was feeding them right smack in the middle of the room.  The reason for them being tentative isn't that they're shy.  I've found that Chinook pups need to be able to get used to all sorts of different surfaces under their feet slowly and carefully.  My job is to make sure they get exposed to every possible surface so they won't be nervous about new things later in life.  I have no factual evidence in the slightest but my personal opinion is that they have more sensitive feet than other breeds.

Now that they are living in the family room, they are almost full members of the pack.  It's somewhat quiet out there during the day but I spend all my evenings after work out there.  The adult dogs are zooming through there hundreds of time a day as they go in and out the backdoor and each time they go through the puppy's pen.  So that means that the little ones now are hanging out with their dad Taataga and grandma Taaku for a good part of every day.  Taaku enjoys them and will play with them very gently.  She loves babies and finds this the ideal solution since Lolo is the one that has to feed them.  She's a very playful dog so the Oh No! boys have a rockin' good time with Grandma Taaku and Grandma scores some warm and rich puppy food here and there.  Taga is in rapture with his sons.  He is so very careful that I'm impressed.  He can still be a bit clumsy so I don't leave him loose with the pups if I'm not around but he's done so well that I can see him maturing right before my eyes.  He is so very gentle with them.  William is fascinated with Dad Taga and and I get a kick out of seeing William stride up to the lying down Taga full of confidence, then let out a tough-guy growl and bark before swatting Dad on the nose.

Now that they have teeth, Lolo, though still a devoted mother, isn't hanging out with them constantly.  She likes to lie near them to keep an eye on them but doesn't feel the need to be in the crate and pen with them all the time.  She still will nap with them a few times a day and the pups love to nurse until they're full then climb on top of Mom for a warm nap.  So with her not right there all the time plus the addition of real food, she's not cleaning up after them like while they were in the whelping box.  And as they begin to wander out of the safety of their "den," clean-up duty now means me picking up dirty newspapers and laying out clean ones.  Thankfully the laundry is getting manageable since they are able to get out of their bed if they need to potty.  But that  means that you need to watch where you step!  I try to stay on top of it and during the day I clean up any donations about every hour or so.  I refuse to mop more than once a day except in extreme circumstances.  I figure anyone visiting will understand that raising six pups is not a naturally neat undertaking.   As soon as they are all feeling comfortable in the family room -- and we get a break in the spring rains -- I'll start taking them outside.  Some of them are checking out the back door when I open it to let the big dogs in and out.  If I feed pups outside they tend to potty outside and that is a very good thing.

From here on I will be at a dead run taking care of pups every minute that I'm not working, eating, or sleeping and the sleeping part of my days is far less than usual.  Those of you who've brought home a new pup know how that first few nights are -- a bit of crying, a few accidents on the rug, trying to explain complex thoughts to a pup.  Now imagine that when they're even littler and there's six of them going different directions at different times and you'll start to get an idea of what my life is like.  Oh well, sleeping is highly overrated and I'm not one of those people who needs ten hours a night anyway.  I'll be able to make it the next month on about six hours a night with the occasional afternoon nap on weekends.  I have so much fun with the pups that the lack of sleep and extra cleaning is more than worth it.

Fred	William
Lemuel	Rover
Spot and Harold were not in a cooperative mood when the above photos were taken so you'll have to wait to see new portraits of them.