The puppies continue to grow and are doing great eating dog food.  They have also decided that water is ok. They are only nursed by their foster mom Hershey twice a day now and only for comfort. They are past the age that they are dependent on nursing for their nutrition. They are eating enough now that they don't need Hershey anymore. 
They are increasing their activity time now and will be awake and playing with each other for a couple hours at a time. They play with each other but show no interest in toys yet except to sleep on like its an extra puppy. In a few days they will change their mind and then I will be picking up toys all over the house. It is like chasing a bunch of toddlers. Athough I did have a puppy once who would follow every one else around and steal toys. She would hide all of the toys in her crate and I never had to pick them up. It was terrific! 

AWWW POOP!

The puppies are getting bigger every day. They are eating the soft dog food mixed with puppy formula mixed into a wet mush. At this point the three of them finish off an entire can everyday. They are given their mush three times a day. Hershey (their foster mom) comes to visit and lets them nurse 2-3 times a day also so they continue to grow fat and healthy.
They are also getting big enough to start venturing beyond the safety of their bed. They still don't stay awake for very long yet so their play/eat/ potty sessions only last about 30 minutes at a time. It is pretty comical to watch them as they attempt to play with each other. They can barely walk and totter around similar to a human child learning to walk. When they "play" with each other they will try to bat a one another and set themselves off balance so they fall and roll around on the floor. They will also attempt a growl or bark once in a while to try to sound tough.

Now about poop! The puppies are doing very well on their puppy pad training. They will always return to the puppy pad to poop, sometime not so well when they have to pee.

Just for information.......I spend at least 4 hours a day cleaning up poop. This does not include the extra laundry due to the cloth pads we use as bedding. I built an addition onto my house to be used as a laundry room so that I could have 2 washers and 2 dryers. One I use now only for the dogs and it is being used constantly. One litter of puppies produces at least a load of laundry a day at this age. As they get bigger and need more room (and get messier) they will produce enough laundry for 2-3 loads a day.
I believe that I have seen a mountain of poop over the years. I fill a 10 gallon bucket of poop every other day with the poop that I scoop outside every day. I think about poop a lot. Unless you have been a breeder before you will not fully understand what I mean.  My day starts and ends with poop. The first thing I do every morning is let the dogs outside so they can poop. Then I start a pot of coffee brewing and start cleaning up puppy poop. I pick up all the dirty cloth pads and start the washer, take the piddle pad and toss it in the trash and throw the holder into the shower for the water to spray on it and start cleaning. I spray the puppies crate and floor area down with a disinfectant cleaner and start scrubbing. When that is clean I replace all the cloth pads, scrub down the pad holder in the shower, replace the paper piddle pad and put it in the puppy area. When I have multiple litters of puppies I make the rounds doing the same process until all the puppies are clean. Then I let moms back with their puppies or feed the puppies their dog food and water them depending on their age. Then start more laundry.
On days that I go to work this is when I leave. Usually 0500 to get to work on time. Days I don't work I will find something else to do for a few hours like work in the yard, feed the chickens, work in the green house, repair fences, and the tons of other things that need to be done.
Usually about 11:00 the puppies need to be cleaned up again so moms go outside to play, eat, poop and so on, I repeat the puppy poop process again. This is also the time when I will wash puppies if they need it since they will need time to dry before night. I worry about the temperatures dropping and giving the puppies a chill. A cold puppy can get sick and die. I definitely have to make sure they are not exposed to drafts at all times. This is why puppies are usually born and live in my bedroom for at least the first few weeks. It is a more protected space and I can keep a closer eye on them.
The puppy poop process will also be repeated at least once more in the afternoon and before I go to bed at night. Laundry goes all the time and is folded and put away close to where I can grab it and use it the next time I clean poop.
Sometime during the day I have to pick up poop outside. I take my bucket and shovel and pick up all the poop I can find in the yard and on the deck. I have my deck fenced off for the dogs so that they can be outside but still protected from the bad weather. The little dogs especially don't appreciate rain cold and snow, and my pugs can not tolerate weather that is to hot or to cold due to their short noses.
After the solid poop is picked up I use a pressure washer to clean off the deck and any cemented areas the dogs have access to. At least once a week I also spray down these areas with bleach or a disinfectant spray and wash again. This is to prevent disease. Poop is the fastest was to spread disease in dogs and there are a lot of diseases that dogs can get, so it is extremely important that poop does not stay and is cleaned up as soon as possible.
That makes for tons of poop and tons of work for me.

Yummy dog food

They puppies are now diving into their dog food mush.  They have decided it is good stuff after all. But look how messy they get.  They have to put their hands in the bowl and then rub it all over everything including each other. Every body had a sponge bath and a nap after this. 
They puppies have now started potty training to puppy pads. Yes even at the tender age of 3 weeks they can be trained. They are doing real good. Just introduced them to them to a pad this morning by putting it in the back half of their crate. They have not had an "accident" in their bed since then.  Puppies are smart. Their mom teaches them to keep their beds clean even at a young age. Nobody likes a brother that pees the bed!
The puppies are all doing excellent with the occasional feeding from Hershey, and extra attention from me.  I am checking and fussing over them every couple hours as Violet would have done.  I am no substitute, but we will make it work. Often puppies raised this way are extra human intelligent since they get so much more hands on human time. 
Off to feed them again!

Week three

A major tragedy has occured. I hesitate to even write about this since it is so awful, but want to give every one a true picture of what happens in dog breeding. The good and the bad. Yes I spend a lot of my time cleaning poop everyday and spending a major part of my income to feed, house and care for every one, but this is major.

Yesterday I put Violet and Hershey (who had puppies last week) outside on the deck to go potty and eat while I ran to town to get my son from school.  I was gone for about an hour. When I got home I went and opened the back door to let them in and hershy came running inside headed to the puppies.  I have my deck "fenced" to make separate areas for the dogs. So where violet and hershey were by the back door is separate from the other dogs. 
Well when I opened to door and hershey came in I saw that the big dogs (labradoodles and standard poodles) had broken through the gate separating the two sections and were now also by the back door. This a problem I have been working on daily all week. and just the day before put on the 3rd new latch this week, to prevent them from getting in where they shouldn't be.  This is also where I keep the dog food and the big dogs love to tear up the bags and make a big mess so they are not allowed there.

Anyway.... when I saw the big dogs in where they shouldn't be I slipped my boots on and chased them back out and headed back in the house calling for Violet to come in. That's when I saw her. She was laying dead a few feet away. Her back was snapped in half. The bigger dogs had either gotten a hold of her and shaken her or pulled her apart to cause that to happen. I am horrified. I don't understand why they would do that. None of the other dogs with her had been touched but my Violet is dead.
Violet weighed only 3 oz when she was born and did not take well to nursing. so I bottle fed her along with 2 brothers that didn't make it, and mother molly fed the rest of the litter.  Needless to say I was very attatched to Violet and she was to me. I can not even express the grief I feel right now at the loss of my dog. 
And now I sit here watching her 3 week old puppies and cry to think that they must be feeling confused and lost themselves since their mom has not returned to them. I know dogs don't really think that way, but I have a tendancy to think of my dogs like people so I cry for them. 
So the puppies have now had their first taste of dog food. A bit earlier than I would have normally started them on it, but we have no choice now. Hershey will take over nursing them but since her puppies are only a week old and not nearly as big, the 2 litters can not be mixed as I would do with 2 litters that were closer in age.
So Hershey now takes turns feeding the 2 different litters. I can tell you she knows the difference even though she is putting up with it for now. You see the older puppies have teeth, and hers do not.  Big difference.

Hopefully she will keep feeding them for a couple more weeks until they learn to eat dog food. Aren't my orphan's beautiful?  They are just now learning how to walk around and one even attempted to play today.  Such fun to watch even though it makes me sad to know I have lost Violet.

the pups are 2 weeks old and opening their eyes now.

See the size difference between these to brothers. The puppy on the left is not doing nearly as well as the rest of the puppies this week. He has not gained any weight and is not sucking hard enough to get enough milk.  He is now being supplemented with bottle feeding in addition to nursing from mom.  All of the other pups have opened their eyes now and are over the 1 pound mark.  The pups are now able to scoot around in their crate in search of mom and each other. Mom has a harder time getting a break now since they are becoming more mobile.  Next week I look forward to seeing them start to stand up and take a few steps.  Fun times are coming to be able to watch the puppies tumble around their bed as they learn how to manuver. 

si

Aren't they adorable. they are really looking like little puppies now.  These three are really doing great.

day 7......Look at the posted pictures. the puppies are growing and are now starting to resemble puppies instead of little piglets. They are eating great with no problems. sometimes puppies will have problems learning how to suck and if they do not catch on fast enough they don't make it. These puppies however are growing fat! Next week they will look like fat little bodies with legs poking out to the sides. You can also see that their embilical cords have now dried up and fallen off leaving a small dimple we would call a belly button. At this age there still is not a lot of activity. Their main concern is finding mom and eating. They don't get upset if mom leaves for a few minutes now, since they have learned how to keep their bellies full and can find each other for warmth. Dew claws to be removed today. They wont be happy but it only hurts for a minute and will save them from potential injury latter in life.

They're here

finally early this moring Violet had her puppies. Stayed up all night checking and rechecking to see if there was anything going on.  The first puppy arrived at about 03:30 and by 05:30 all four of the puppies were here. Two boys and two girls.
I am fortunate that Violet has always been a great mom. She has no problems delivering and knows exactly what to do as the puppies arrive. I have the opposite experience with other moms before.  Lucy for example had every single puppy breach and would not push them out far enough to deliver them. If some one was not there to pull the pup out at the right moment, the pup would die. 

I have also had moms that did great with the delivery but then refused to care for the pups and they died.  Or the moms that take such good care of them that they smother them or lick their umbilical cords until they bleed to death. All very sad and heart breaking to deal with. 
If you look at the photo above you can see the drying ambilical cord that will fall off at about day 3. Much faster than a human baby and you don't have to do anything to it.  Mom will take care of every thing. 
And so begins nine weeks of learning how to be a dog........

After nine weeks of waiting today may be the day. Violet is starting to nest in her crate this morning. Violet is a Toy Beagle who is expecting a new litter of puppies. I have decided that since I have the time right now that I will try to follow this litter from day one of life and attempt to show what it takes to successfully raise a litter of puppies. I have been a dog breeder for many years and have people asking me questions all the time about how to raise puppies. Mind you this blog is not for the purpose of incouraging people to become breeders but mearly an informational blog about the work, joys and hardships that will be incountered in the puppy experience. I will try to include as much information as possible as well as pictures. I have to warn you that the pictures may not always be something you want to see, so if you are at all squimish be carefull about what you look at on this site. Click on the tabs above to see the progress of this litter.