Having so much fun

[tasha]

With the puppies here I am having so much fun and trying out a few experiments some of which have worked really well and some of which have failed miserably but have still be fun to try.

My favorite at the moment is the 'Paddly Pool Restaurant' the first couple of times that I put food into the whelping crate it went everywhere and cleaning up was a bit of a pain as the puppies are now too big to all fit in their little pink bed. I've had this paddly pool hanging around for years its never been used just shifted from one box to another originally brought to teach bonnie to swim. So this is the result:









The puppies seem to like it and alittle bit of towelling on the bottom has helped to stablize their feet when they are all piling in for food. ;D ;D

It also gives me a chance to do my morning scrub out of the whelping crate so that when they are ready to go back into their bed i can just pick them up and pop them in, where they then spend the next half hour licking off the remaining food from their siblings ;D ;D


Adding a pee mat is helping with toilet training and they now form a relatively orderly cue for the pee mats we still have a long way to go but these mats are fabulous easy to clean away and replace and reduce the smell & need for chemical cleaners, they have a scent mark on them to encourage the puppies to pee which is great for training. ;D

Pups are now three weeks old. I still have a couple looking for good active homes due to the ratio in the litter of 7 boys and 1 girl.

[Rachel]

So cute I am looking forward to Ginger babies soon as my vizsla is expecting pups. Cant wait.

Rachel

[Alkemist]

Tasha I think thats great advice - thanks ever so much. I'm getting together the stuff I need to think about for Anyas litter (she's in season now) and I had wanted something for them to get used to water in anyway - this will serve 2 purposes!!! I don;t suppose it will confuse them if they eat in here when it's dry and play in there when it's wet will it? I have a puppy pen but it doesn't contain the mess so this is fab.

Where did you get the pee mats? Did they try to eat them? Thats the only reason I have never tried those.......

Any other tips??

Nina
x

[tasha]

the pee mats I got at pets at home of all places you can get them on the net as they now have a website. Do the biggest box you can makes it alot cheaper and you'll definitely use them. I was cleaning them out after each puppy had peed I put some under the bedding as liners and two out the front to encourage them to pee and poo in one spot, they got the hang of it although near the end one of them did like to drag it around after he'd pee'd haha!

I had my dad make my whelping crate which was enormous and suited the pups right up until they were ready to leave although the last week I did crate training as well to prepare them for their new homes. As the box was wooden I had a half and a full front put on it so that when the pups got bigger I could raise the height easily which was really useful. Loads of cheap dog blankets that could be easily washed and I lined the whelping crate with a thick plastic liner, I had two of those that went over the height of the floor to avoid any leaks and to make it easy to do a complete clean out with a chemical cleaner, certainly had no mess on the carpet or any smell when I took it down and the whelping crate is ready for anyone else to use as the wood itself never came into contact with the puppies or their mess. My dad also fitted two of the crate bowls to the side high enough so that the pups couldn't get into at any point but meant Bonnie didn't have to leave for water or food something she refused to do the first couple of days other than for a quick pee which I had to lift her out for after that though she wasn't bothered at all.

I brough a little square dog bed with a heat mat in it for when they were first born helped to have somewhere to pop them when I needed to do a clean out and for when I was weighing them so I didn't get them mixed up.

The paddly pool was definitely my best idea though I did their first swimming lessons in the bath upstairs rather than the pool but it was so easy to let them make as much mess as they wanted in it and then be able to give it a quick clean out with the shower afterwards it really paid off and only cost a few pounds to buy originally. It also acted as a play area when they got too big to use the heated bed I had for them.

it seems like ages since I did all this now as the pups as 6 months old now but I have to say I had a great time. I did buy loads of stuff for the actual birth but most of it was a waste of money there are whelping kits on ebay and such places but none of them really fit my needs at all and it was costly. Having the vet on the phone and ready helped but I also had a webcam up and running with a few people watching the birth which was lovely and nice to have the company, Bonnie didn't do much of the cleaning and breaking the sacks she left that to me so if you can and you've not done it before ask your vet to show you how to clear the airways and revive the pups if needed (you basically lay them in your palms and swing upside down gently then give them a really good stiff rub with a towel to get the circulation going having the vet show you helps if your not sure).

I had one hairy moment where one of the pups that came out was nearly stillborn and not functioning as she should have been, she later died and to be honest I thought she didn't have any stripes but before I buried her I gave her a wash and she was covered in a filthy green gunk was a lovely stripey silver grey underneath, the green rubbish is normal so if you get any like that give them a little warm bath, rub her in with the other pups and mum to make sure shes not rejected. Don't know if it will help or not but thats what I'm going to do next time.

The only other thing is one of mine was born 13 hours after all the others, if you get a feeling that shes still got one to go stick with your gut instinct my vet said it wasn't possible after so long but I had a feeling she hadn't finished and in the end did what I would normally do with a horse thats not birthing which is run her to get things to move along, he popped out very quickly after that was huge and squealed from the minute he came out, George as he is now known is a happy healthy monkey and I didn't find the right owners for him so have kept him back.

Good luck with your litter x

[Meander]

Thx for sharing this, this is a real great idea an triggers my mind on all other kind of experiments you can try, so that helps me....if the puppies will agree...not sure.

[tasha]

I found some of my wackiest ideas worked the best you just adapt things to your own situation and to what you have around you if it works great if not well at least you had a go and can chalk it up as a bad idea haha!

I'm sure my putting body parts of various prey species in with them when they were eating themselves was not such a good idea but at the time it seemed perfectly sensible.