Burntwood PWD's

Whelping and Rearing Pups

    Conception and Pregnancy:  Puppy care doesn’t begin when they’re born.  It begins with selective breeding, high standards, quality care, and seasoned breeding insights (we even know the window of time they should tie to conceive, without going to the vet for hormone testing).  Our sire is given a boosted protein diet to carry him through the heat cycle (as he’ll start to lose his appetite as well once the cycle deepens), and afterwards, our dam will follow a diet that supports both her health and healthy puppy development.  The dam’s diet will continue to be enriched throughout nursing, and then enter a recovery phase for several months after in preparation for the next litter (in about a year - we avoid back-to-back breeding).

    Birth:  Ever since we began raising puppies, every litter has been born and kept in close proximity, as it’s important to us to be right next to our puppies and their mom.  We are very present for the whelping, and all our pups enter this world into our hands.  We assist the mother if they need it, clamp and clip the umbilical cord, aspirate the mouths and noses and dry them, and mom is left to love on and clean them to her liking while we record the pup’s data and take pictures.  Once she’s content, we assure that the newborn latches, and they nurse with their littermates until the next pup is born.  We are generally doing this from the evening hours (around dinnertime) through to dawn.  We massage the mother’s back, comfort and corral the wriggly ones, and foster as safe and calm a deliver as possible, loving on all.

    Newborns:  Newborn pups are very smell- and touch-oriented, as they come into this world blind and deaf.  It may seem like a good time to not do much outside of monitored nursing, supplemental bottle feedings, burping, assisted relief, and weight tracking (plus pictures.  All the pictures.), but these senses are very important for a dog to normalize human activities and oddities with.  Because of this, we spend time each day holding each puppy, walking around their room with them, and cooing at them against our neck and chest with little bounces in our arms (or, hands).  This allows them to feel and hear us, and to prepare themselves for all the wonderful and stimulating experiences life will offer.

    Toddlers:  As their eyes and ears open, their stimulation exposure increases as well.  They don’t have teeth yet, but they’re starting to sit upright, and may stare in a daze at the wall of their whelping box, or at another puppy, as their eyes start to come into focus.  In this phase, we enjoy letting them listen to music with us, or listen to the TV.  We bring in clicker clackers, things that jingle and jangle, and give them toys that crinkle and rattle (though they tend to ‘fwump’ over them more than walk, still).  We’ll also make sure to vacuum in the next room during this time, honk a car horn outside, and listen to recordings of thunder storms and fireworks (though the real things are more intense).  One of my favorite things, though, is when we get a puppy who will go from being in a daze, to realizing your nails are rustling the piddle pad in front of them.

    Runners:  This is a transitional period, from easier to clean whelping boxes to the beginnings of the waking nightmare.  There is nothing more tempting for a brat to go interact with than a fresh and stinky dark brown thing sitting on a pristine canvas of piddle pads.  Momma will start to ween them at this point, and we can’t blame her as their nails seem to regrow within hours of trimming down for her poor belly.  Their teeth start to poke through, starting with the fangs, and the one thing they wish most to do is to use them.  Usually on one another.  Especially if it means getting your littermate to roll over the stinky dark brown thing.  They start to get introduced to how they’ll be finding some of their meals at this stage as well.  Exposure is still happening regularly, with scary sounds happening closer for longer, and basic grooming sensations (such as brushing and nail clipping) happen regularly.  This is also the stage when we begin to welcome possible future owners to visit (about three weeks old)

     Gnawers:  This phase, momma starting to want to pull away from nursing.  They know her smell and her sound, and they will wake up and stop playing and storm the walls of their pen yapping for her to feed and love them.  They start to recognize toys as toys, rather than pillows and obstacles, and they puppy-prance around their whelping box, a clear sign they need to be upgraded to a puppy pen soon.  They get time to nurse, then meals presented in no-tip bowls, consisting of goat’s milk, cooked rice, and a bit of minced cooked meat.  We will also start to grind up a high-quality puppy kibble, and sprinkle that in, more and more, with their milk, transitioning them and their tummies towards their next dietary phase.  Sensory exposure and stimulation is still very much at play in this stage, but our pups tend not to notice our efforts at this point, even when we try to get more creative.

     Yappers:  At this age, we move them to a central part of our home.  This is a perfect opportunity to integrate them in to our daily life and develop their socialization skills.  They hear the sounds and experience the smells they will live with the rest of their lives.  Each day I begin my morning with them.  I crawl into join them, clean the area and play with them for a long time, until they take their first nap.  Throughout the day their parents play with them, touch noses if they are not out of their play area and learn to chew on good things.  We put a small kennel or two in their area to accustom them to crate training, but the doors are off the kennels.  They love to sleep and play in the kennel, but they also crawl all over them.  They are piddle pad trained here which will help with house training.

     Puppies:  We keep our pups until they’re eight weeks old, giving them time to know that they are dogs, not people, and socializing them to how their mom attempts to communicate with and curb them (rather than just their littermates), which is an important step of socializing them.  At this stage, momma isn’t nursing them anymore, and they’re transitioning fully off milk onto a healthy diet, learning to chew their food (and, ideally, not to step in it, or worse).  They have moved into a puppy play pen, which is attached to their first kennel, a dark and comfortable space to retreat to for sleeping and to help them learn to separate sleeping area, food area, and play area, from a potty area.  Little reprimands begin at this phase, establishing people as authority figures, and little games are pursued, such as fetch (yes, young puppies can play fetch!).  While it’s our job to socialize them properly during this phase for transition from our family to yours, it will still be on you to establish your role as leader to your new family member, and to start staying true to the expectations of the house.  If you’ve already picked a puppy from us, then this is the time when we may ask for you to mail us a piece of their new home (an unwashed shirt, a blankie, a toy that you washed then kept in your pocket, etc.) to start to get to know you through.  Once you pick up your puppy, whatever you sent will be given back, unwashed, so that your puppy can take a piece of the home they’ve grown up in with them into their new life with you.