Whelping and raising puppies can be stressful and one would have thought after ten litters we would be okay with it all - well we are in many aspects but the most stressful time for Louise and I is when it comes to taking posed photos of the pups ... saying that, the pups never seem to mind, its just the humans that stress about it!

Friday (April 12th) was a big day for the pups as they left the comfort and familiarity of the whelping box for the first time when they were to be brought downstairs to spend time in the puppy pen, their home for the next four weeks.

It's been a busy week for the litter, and we are delighted with the way the pups are progressing.

It's been a week since our last blog entry, not because we had nothing to report but because we didn't want to tempt fate. However we are delighted to be able to now write that the remaining four pups, Ross, Chandler, Rachel and Joey, are all doing well. They were a couple of days slow in doubling their birth weights but yesterday (at three weeks) they had all tripled their weights and had opened their eyes.

You get over one heartbreak and before you know it your hearts are broken again because on Saturday evening, 9 days after her birth, Monica joined her sister Phoebe at Rainbow Bridge.

Deep down I knew that I would probably be having to write this entry, nature had its way, so here it is. Other than the contented murmurings of feeding pups it had been a quiet night in the whelping room and there was no indication that the day would start the way it did. 

Gestation in dogs is 63 days and, if you follow us on social media you would have known that Kassi was expecting her litter of 3, maybe 4, on or around March 18th. Her previous litter was born on day 62 so we were prepared for whelping over the weekend of March 16th and 17th. However things didn't go according to plan.

The weekend was spent preparing the whelping room for Kassi's forthcoming litter (due 18/03/2024) - the photo of her here shows her in one of her favourite spots by the door of the utility room. We think she likes it there because of the draft from under the door.

We have just received an email from Laboklin (DNA testing lab) that Obi is a carrier of PRA. Mara, his brother is clear of PRA.

Luckily I managed to get out for a couple of walks in between the showers so the dogs haven't been neglected (as if) and the rest of my day has been spent tweaking this website and adding to it, specifically content for Miika's page which is now complete including a Miika photo gallery.

So - we are live! And with a blog no less ...