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Week 8 - 21st December
The final week has arrived and we are starting to prepare the puppies for their new homes.They have been very lively this last week and the play fighting has become quite competitive. Each of them has been competing for our attention with the exception of Jasper who will quite happily sit and wait his turn.
We decided to change their food a little this week as they are all still trying their best to suckle from the mother. She hasn't let them feed for over a week now after her natural instict of weaning them has kicked in. We have tried to make it easier for her by feeding the puppies something they enjoy eating, rather than something they simply eat when they are hungry, and although the dry food was quite a novelty at first they would only pick at it and take a few mouthfulls. When we added warm water to soften the biscuits it helped to make it more palatable for them, but some of them were still not feeding as well as they should.
We did eventually start to add a very small amount of carton food to their soft biscuits which did prove very popular, every meal we put down was eaten very quickly. They had obviously got used to the smell of it when we were feeding Poppy and wanted to try it themselves. They now seem to have forgotten about their mothers milk as their little tums are always full. From start to finish the weaning process took just under two weeks.
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The video above shows how lively the puppies have become and keeping an eye on all five of them has been quite an ordeal, they have all found little places to hide which is the first place they run to when we try to catch them, more than ten minutes play and you know there could well be a toilet accident so we try our best to scoop them up and put them back in the kitchen close to the training mat.
Today is December 21st and the day the puppies make the trip to the vets for their first vaccination, and also the day the puppies will be leaving for their new homes. We would have much preferered to keep the puppies for one more day to ensure they were all ok after their first vaccine, as we had been advised, but the close proximity to Christmas and other commitments meant that the only other collection day could have been Chritams Eve which was too difficult for people who lived far away. Because of our concerns we kept a close eye on them for a few hours after we returned from the vets and apart from a sore neck, where they had been injected, they were still very playful and didn't look to have any side effects, so we were happy about our decision to let them leave today.
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This was only their second visit to the vets, the first time was when the puppies were a lot smaller and all fitted neatly into our clothes basket, and easier to transport. Now they were all a lot larger, a lot more excitable and inquisitive which made it a lot harder to get them there. We still used our trusty Clothes basket and four of them slotted in quite comforatably while we held the other. Although they were trying their best to get out of the basket they did calm down as soon as we got to the vets and they were all very well behaved.
One by one they were weighed, examined and vaccinated. Lola weighed 2.21kg, Melody 2.48kg, Otis 2.38kg, Little Pop 1.66kg and finally Jasper at 2.09kg. Although we had been concerned about Little Pop being the quite small, the vet had said that she was the one that was a typical size for a Bichon Frise puppy at eight weeks old, it just happened to be that all the other pups were larger than average.
The vet checked the puppies palates, hips and heart beats to ensure that they were normal and the male dogs also had their bits checked which were all present and correct! Three of the puppies had very tiny umbilical hernias about 1mm in diameter (Melody, Otis and Jasper) which our vet said was not uncommon in puppies, most of the time it's simply a delayed closure where the umbilical cord was cut by the mother, she said that there was absolutely nothing to worry about and they shouldn't cause any problems at the size they were, more often than not they will simply heal before six months of age.
The vaccinations were at 9.30 am and the first collection was to be at 1.00pm. Jasper was the first puppy to leave, he looked very happy as he left with his puppy pack and we knew that saying goodbye to the first would be the hardest part of the day for us. Jasper was a lovely little puppy and although we were a little sad to see him go we knew he was going to a lovely home and would be very well cared for.
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Next to go was Otis and then Little Pop and finally Melody, Lola was being collected the day after so we still had a puppy to keep our minds off not having the others around. Lola left at 2.00pm and we have been surprised how quickly Poppy has adjusted to not having the puppies around. She has neither looked for them or shown any distress of any kind, she is back to sleeping in her basket and is enjoying being the centre of attention once again. Walks are now back on the agenda and her routine is getting back to how it was before.
We have now come to the end of our amazing journey, a very special journey that we may never experience again. After spending eight weeks with Poppy's beautiful puppys we can now sit back and reminisce about the wonderful time we have spent with them. Five amazing little puppies, that for eight weeks in 2011, enriched our lives. Thank you to everyone who has been following our story, all the people who have given our puppies homes and, of course, the puppies that made it all possible. Lola, Melody, Otis, Little Pop and Jasper you have all been little stars, it has been a real pleasure to have known you. We hope you all have wonderful lives.