Neverland-Retrievers

My fiance and I adopted the “Yellow Boy” (who now has a black, red and white collar…). He now goes by *Bentley*. He weighed 12.6lbs over a week ago and is only getting much bigger! (Next vet appointment is in a week, and this little guy can EAT!). He has been an absolute pleasure. He loves all of the kids in our neighborhood (it is only the two of us in our house, but he sees all our friends, family and neighbors very often) and has loved going on trips with us to visit family and friends. He’s been incredibly gentle with the youngest of kids (2/3 years old!), which I was shocked at! He falls right asleep in the car and is ready to get out to his new destination with a wagging tail.

– Bentley usually sleeps through the night… and if he has to go he has no problem giving us a wake up call :o) – Accidents in the house have been minimal… again he’s pretty good about whining if he has to go out. – Bentley even goes in his crate when he just wants a nap… so he’s really getting to feel comfortable in there – He now sits on command- much better with the hand signal, but will Sit with both hand signals and voice command – He’s enrolled in puppy classes (starts soon!)… at orientation he had a blast playing with another puppy who was actually his size! – He has met my German Shepherd from my parents house and has gotten along great with this gentle giant :o) – He LOVES toys (and he has a lot of them!)… playing tug, fetch or just simply chewing on his Kong! – He had his first football Sunday! (Pictures below!)

As a response to Mark- we’ve shown Bentley his reflection in the mirror… he looks interested for about a half a second, then wants to go play with toys! We see where his priorities are!

Here is a link to Bentley’s public photo album, there are way more pictures here (mostly of him sleeping… his favorite hobby)! 🙂 https://picasaweb.google.com/106823792306584914438/Bentley02?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCOHzr5X64f-QqgE&feat=directlink

It was great hearing all the updates!

Thanks! 🙂

Amy Robbins

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Bentley – Go Ravens!!

All,

Well my wife and I adopted the “Blue Boy” who now goes by the handle “Cooper”. Coop weighed in at 13.4 lbs at last Friday’s Vet visit and got a clean bill of health. Well two (2) weekends have passed now and Cooper has settling in great. My wife, Anne, and I have enjoyed the antics and cuteness of having a puppy again. (She’s holding the little guy.)

* He knows when we get to the office, where to head (front door) then, when he gets inside, he heads straight to our office. 🙂 * Generally, he sleeps in the office at my feet, most of the day. (See photo) * He comes to his name, on voice, clap or whistle. * He sits on voice command or on hand signal. (Seriously, I was impressed) * Stays on command (for a moment anyway) and releases upon command. I use this to control the feedings. * Several fetches have gone great. No problems. * Barks when he needs to go outside to poop! (Thank God for that one!) * He has had a few accidents w/ peeing, but most were my fault. (Attention span is like a gnat and I was on the phone once.) * Gets along great w/ Tucker (our 10 year old Black Lab) and they’ve started playing a bit more each day. * The only problem that he has is with the “other” little puppy that “lives” in the house. He CAN NOT STAND that puppy! Barks, growls and tries to sneak up on him and attack, but, runs away when that puppy also charges back at him. At 4:42AM this morning, I heard a growl from under the bed. Then a couple of barks! I saw Coop looking at the “other” puppy and giving him what for. He charged him head first this morning, but so did the “other” puppy. The banged “heads” knocking both backwards. Ten minutes later, he was stalking the “other” puppy again. I gave up at that point and we went outside for a bathroom break and start the day. We call that “other” puppy, “Mirror”. He’s a Flat Coated Retriever as well. 🙂 * By the way, Coop’s Vet was extremely impressed with the notebook that Pete provided. He said that it was by far the most prepared he’d ever seen anyone on their 1st puppy visit. Thanks again Pete. GREAT job!

Mark L. Jeffress

Anne with Cooper 

Cooper Sleeping in Office 

Cooper at Sit Stay 

The pups are doing fine. They eat, sleep and poop in pretty much that order. There is a constant stream of laundry from the whelping box pads, resting box towels and wash cloths. Last night, the unthinkable happened. The washing machine broke down! It’s not being working well for some time and occasionally it even over flows when the rinse cycle get stuck filling the tank with water. Last night, however, the motor finally gave out and I found a pool of oil on the floor coming out of the bottom of the washer. On Saturday, morning we had an especially productive morning, lots of poop! No sooner than I got the soiled towels out of the whelping box and clean ones in, then another puppy would take his turn leaving us a present. But now I had no functioning washing machine? I found out we have a couple of laundry mats not far from our home, so I gathered up a bag full of quarters and off to the local wash shop with a bag full of smelly stuff.

In the afternoon, we visited the Lowes’ home center and purchased a new wash and dryer. One of those top loading High Efficiency models that uses less water. I certainly hope it gets our soiled towels clean. Can you even believe they deliver on Sunday! I can’t believe I’m looking forward to these new appliances. What is my life coming too?

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As the pups continue to grow, the demands on Wendy increase every day. The puppies teeth are starting to come in and I’m sure Wendy can feel them on her teats. So we’ve started the pups on Step 2 weaning cereal. I’ve been making about a cup at a time to feed about six puppies. At first, they stuck their snouts to far into the puppy bowl and the cereal would go up their noses as they tried to lap it up. After a couple of days, they’ve figured it out and most if not all make a bee line for the plate when I place it in the whelping box. Here are a few pics to enjoy.

Some took to it right away, but others hanged back for awhile.

Most readily accept the supplemental feeding.

In the end, the results are the same for most pups.

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Ok here is the second half of the litter taken on Sunday 7/31.

Black Collar Male

Carrot/Tan Collar Male

Navy/Blue Collar Male

Lt. Blue Collar Male

Yellow Collar Male

The green collar pup has slipped past my color blind eyes two days in a row. I’ll ambush him next.

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Here are some Puppy pictures with their eyes just opening.

Pink Collar Female

Red Collar Female

White-Hot Pink Collar Female

Orange Collar Female

Gold-Lime Collar Female

Purple Male

More to come tomorrow!

P.S. – The reason some pups have multiple color collar names is because the birth color Ric-rack is not always available in the larger sizes as they grow.

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The puppies are making good weight gains, see charts below. They are all over 2 lbs and almost to 3. Several are walking on all four legs and their eyes are starting to open ever so slightly.

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From the beginning, we’ve realized that Wendy could not feed and attend to all 12 puppies together. For the first week we tried separating the puppies based on sex, because the males are generally born large and stronger they will push the girls off a teat. This seemed to work well at first, but the boys nursed to long which meant Wendy needed time to recover before the girls could be placed in the whelping box. It was apparent after a few days of low weight gain that we needed a change. On day 6, we started timing the duration each group spent in the whelping box, giving them 4 hours in/out. During the four hours the puppies would usually nurse twice. Most puppies improved their weight gain significantly.

The down side of keeping the puppies out of the whelping box is cleanliness. Either at the beginning or near the end of their stay in the holding box, the puppies will have a bowel movement. We usually don’t notice until its to late and the puppy is covered in its last meal. I am a strong believer that a clean puppy will be a healthy puppy. So we spend quite a bit of time washing the puppies with a damp cloth, drying them, replacing the linen in the holding box and cleaning the box itself. The cycle is repeated every four hours. As a side note, our washing machine has been going almost non-stop since the puppies arrived. This piece of equipment is the most important item we have in our house right now.

This process of switching the puppies and cleaning up, goes on all day and night. For the most part, I cover the early morning, evenings and nighttime. My darling wife, Deb, covers the morning and afternoon times while I’m at work. I envision this going on for another week and a half until we start weaning the puppies.

Since the puppies are now almost two weeks old, I am considering putting all 12 in the whelping box together for a day to see how things go. I may try that this weekend, so stay tuned.

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Here is a picture of Wendy and all the puppies together,

and close up of all the puppies.

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Yesterday, we took Wendy and the puppies to the vet for a check up and to have the puppy dewclaws removed. She listened to their hearts and lungs, check the palette, and generally looked them over. The vet found the puppies were in excellent health. She removed 24 dewclaws from the front legs without incident. She checked Wendy to make she was also doing well. Wendy’s temperature is back to normal and the small amount of remaining blood discharge is typical at this stage. Everyone is doing great!

I am monitoring the puppies weight daily.They are gaining from 5-10% of their body weight per day, which is typical for puppies at this stage. I am slightly concerned about being able to maintain this rate of increase, since it will mean more mother’s milk. Wendy is currently being feed four times a day and is getting about 3 times her normal calorie intake. In addition to her high quality dog food, she is receiving eggs, cottage cheese, cooked liver, and 4% yogurt (the kind with fat).  The charts below show how they are steadily gaining weight.

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