A Report from Puppy Grand Central (Updated)

Mary-Ann Sontag February 2, 2021

Having twin litters is a lot of work but the worst part is the HEAT!!!!

Newborn puppies cannot regulate their body temperature and so need the ambient temperature to be way higher than this human is comfortable. I am currently wearing shorts and a tee-shirt because having the temperature be close to 80 is my idea of a hot summer day.

Staying well-hydrated is one of our daily challenges — for the nursing moms AND the sweating humans.

Portia is lavender and Metis is Dodger Blue

The Bright Stars had a puppy confab…

They apparently decided two things. First, they decided it was time to open their eyes…

Second, they decided it was time to start planning their escape — they sent Heze to do reconnaissance…

Uh Oh.

Eyes open over a period of days, and once open the vision is not clear for some unknown amount of days. But they definitely can see light and dark and shapes, and we are careful about startling them.

This is Sun air scenting as Claire walked by…

Zaniah practicing a sit…

Rosebud was concerned that someone had lost a collar…

She took it to Daisy to see if perhaps Arche was missing his lime green collar. But Arche has his collar and so Rosebud deduced it must be Sun’s collar and no way was she taking it over to Claire — so she decided to leave the collar with the Moonshadows and just take a nap.

The Bright Stars agreed that taking a nap was a Bright Idea and so they did…

…minus one lime green collar. Luckily, Sun has a Swiss kiss and so is easily identifiable.

Have a cool day!

Evening Photos — and Video

Puppy Grand Central Report

Mary-Ann Sontag February 1, 2021

Orion has learned a hard lesson about the dangers of overtraining.

Bright Stars Orion (orange) and Zaniah (pink)

Train too much for a heavyweight title and the overeating gives you the runs. #trainsmarternotharder

Carol will be thrilled to see this…

I think he might actually be gloating a bit.

In a separate — but somehow equal — division for the Moonshadows, our winner is…

Just to ensure fair weigh-in, we have a Scale Monitor.

Like the 2020 election, our weigh-ins are safe and fair. #nofraud

My Mighty Little Peanut, Titan, continues to gain and is now 14.6 ounces.

Don’t you worry — Titan will grow into his name! Small size now means nothing about his adult weight.

Oh No! One puppy is getting away, Rosebud!

The Moonshadows are gaining weight, the Bright Stars have (mostly) stopped needing constant changes of the whelping box (think diaper blowout), and so hopefully the Worry Factor has been reduced a bit around here today.

WHEW.

Eyes should start to crack open in the Bright Stars in the next day or so…

…and they are starting to get some ground clearance when they attempt to stand up. Ears are still sealed shut.

In this time of increased demands and loss of Normal Life, I am acutely aware of the need to pay close attention to mental health. Not just me — all of us.

I wish I had a Magic Wand to make everything better for everyone — but I don’t. If I did, it would head first to Colorado because someone there really needs a Magic Wand.

Self-care is essential to ensuring we can all keep doing everything we do. Like staying upright in a pandemic — or being flattened a bit by cancer treatment.

For me, self-care means dialing back where I can, lowering my expectations, accepting and appreciating help (Thank you Dear Husband, Suzanne, and the Cheerleaders out there), and it means I keep doing the things that help me be okay even though I am busy. #noexcuses

A big one for me is exercise…

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I have my Peloton bike set up such that I can ride and watch both whelping boxes — one on my right and one on my left.

Self-care is not about being weak — it is about staying strong or even just staying okay. It is so critical during this time of increased stress and demands — and I am talking about all of us. We all matter.

Please have an amazing day that includes some kind of self-care.

Evening Photos — and COOKIES!!!

We had a busy day around here, and it included a fun Zoom session between the puppies and Dear Friends…

Our wonderful veterinarian, Dr. Shoni Card of Animal Blessings Pet Hospital, came to the house today for Round Two of rear dewclaw removal. This is so much easier than dragging two basketball teams worth of puppies to the vet clinic — we love our veterinarian.

The Bright Stars helpfully produced loose stools while Dr. Card was here — she was not concerned, which is reassuring, and suggested it did look like the consequences of overeating.

Suzanne came to help with the puppies AND helped me locate the studs in the wall so we can hang the new curtain rod. So great to have such a helpful friend!

And now for the COOKIES! This is Wildflower Zeus and one of his humans, Ada, who is now a Daisy — a Girl Scout Daisy, that is…

Ada is selling Girl Scout cookies and given the pandemic, it is all online. Yippee — the cookies can be delivered to your house!

You all likely remember selling things as a kid — let’s support Ada in honor of those who supported us :) Click HERE to order from Ada’s Girl Scout cookies page.

Puppy Grand Central Report (Updated)

Mary-Ann Sontag January 31, 2021

Sometimes people ask me about what stimulation we do with baby puppies. I wrote extensively about this based on a review of professional literature with our last litter in May but here are the Cliff Notes:

ENS (Early Neurological Stimulation) is not an evidence-based intervention with puppies.
Forcing puppies into distress floods the developing brain with DANGER hormones (BAD) and in some unknown “dose” of distress, WILL teach Learned Helplessness (BAD) .
Mastery is key to confidence — not distress.
Life is hard for a tiny puppy — why add extra Bad Stuff?!

Moonshadows: Kale (purple), Portia (lavender), and Neil (orange)

Because I am here with the babies, I see the ways they master developmentally appropriate challenges all day long.

They cannot see or hear, and so —for example — they use their tiny sniffers to find the Milk Bar, and they do this from greater and greater distances as they get older. Finding the Milk Bar is the perfect challenge for a tiny puppy: it is not super scary, it is do-able, and task mastery is well-reinforced.

These three started on the wrong side but quickly made their way around Claire and found their target.

The goal with tiny puppies should be to minimize distress — not add to it. We want to protect developing brains from getting activated by events perceived by the baby as trauma. Whether we think it is traumatic is unimportant — what matters is how the event is perceived.

Yesterday I trimmed tiny toenails — there are a lot of them around here! I waited until the puppies were sleepy and relaxed, and if one objected I just put him/her back in the whelping box and moved on to another, circling back later until all the nails were trimmed. Even puppies get to have opinions.

That is how we roll around here — we pay attention to this kind of stuff.

They are not just puppies — each of the ten plus ten are invitations to do something really well. They invite us to bring our best to an endeavor, and challenge us to honor the responsibility of intentionally creating life by being diligent, careful, and thoughtful.

Game On.

And speaking of opinions, Zaniah has one! It is so charming to hear puppies — and small humans — find their voices…

And I just looked out the window to see that the newest ten got a special message…

The Moonshadows are watched and loved, near and far.

Have a lovely day!

EVENING PHOTOS

Daisy’s milk was very slow to come in well and this little guy — the smallest — was losing too much weight. His name is Titan and he is a feisty little fighter. Claire nursed him last night to help him hold his ground until Daisy was producing enough.