Clover had her puppies on Tuesday 6th of November 2012. Six puppies, 3 boys and 3 girls. All good weights, healthy, happy, strong, drinking well. They have been given temporary names, because I find calling puppies “1st boy” and “3rd born” and “last born” tedious. This post is just to show you some puppy pictures. Enjoy!
First born, “Alfalfa”, bitch.
So we have been undertaking puppy preparations here, in anticipation for Clover’s upcoming litter. We have many basic things, as we have had litters before – thermometers, heat lamp, whelping box, and so forth. So, really, the only stuff we had to get is the fun stuff!
Leave with Work
I put in leave with work, as I pretty much don’t work when I have puppies. I need to be here for the whelping, and I need to be here to clean, socialise, and just generally care take puppies. At a young age, they are not too strenuous. As they get older, the elimination increases, and so does the work load!
Clover in the whelping box, the blanket over the top is to make it more den like for her. The whelping box is next to our bed. You can see to the right the towels ‘ready to go’ on top of a column heater. The brown blanket is lining a box, which has a hot water bottle inside – ready for puppies when they’re born. The blue toy outside the whelping box is Clover’s personal touch!
It is with great pleasure that I announce that my darling Clover, otherwise known as “Ch Burrowa Blue Flame TD ME”, has been confirmed pregnant. The sire of the litter is Caber, otherwise known as “Ch Glenbogle Kiss Chasey ET”.
On the left, Caber, and the right, Clover.
Clover had an ultrasound on the 8th of October, which was day 28 of her pregnancy. Though dog ultrasounds are not hugely accurate in determining numbers, excitedly, we had SIX puppies show on the ultrasound. This is a huge litter for Clover, doubling her 2010 litter of 3 puppies (her first litter), and a singleton litter in 2011 (Myrtle). It is more than we hoped for!
This post is a commitment to keeping you updated on the process of pregnancy, and puppy raising. My puppies are raised using Dunbar’s protocols: I don’t want to produce ‘lemon puppies‘. Unfortunately, pregnancy is kind of boring. At the moment, our efforts are spent on keeping Clover active, taking her for walks as often as we can, and currently catering to her new found food fussiness.
However, I’d like to describe how we got to this point. Why I’ve made the decision to have a litter from Clover, why I chose the sire we have, and the puppy buyer process. Continue reading