The Puppies' Big Day

On Saturday the puppies were 3 days old and had their dewclaws removed. Tom & Dawn packed them up in a cozy box and drove to the Vet Clinc, leaving Boji behind. Most bitches handle this quite well, but Boji was pretty stressed by the time they returned. Had she gone along and listened to the pups yelling, "Mother, mother, mother" (or is it "Help, help, help"?) she would probably have been even more stressed, so leaving her behind was the safest.

The minor surgery went well, and the pups will only have the tiniest of scars to show where their dewclaws had been. If dewclaws are not removed they sometimes get caught and torn on adult dogs, requiring far more extensive, and far more expensive surgery. The dewclaw removal also gives the Vet a chance to check the pups and see how they are doing. And it means each pup has two fewer nails to cut - a big consideration when you are cutting the nails on 8 puppies several times a week!

Tom says the smallest boy has gained the least amount of weigh, and the Vet agreed that he looked a bit dehydrated. Because the pup seems to be nursing strongly, Tom and Dawn will work to be sure that he gets on a good nipple and is not pushed off by his larger brothers and sisters. As expected, the ear patched boy that I revived is actually one of the biggest and strongest pups now - it never fails. The smallest girl, who was revived with acupuncture appears to be doing well!

Pups look very nice & Boji is being a good mother other than being amazingly clumsy. Hopefully she does not flop down on or step on any of the pups! I checked to be sure all the pups were black spotted, hoping that a couple of the boys were livers. No such luck, all black spotted, as with Boji's previous litters. Because liver is a simple recessive, Boji would have to carry a copy of the liver gene to produce liver pups when bred to a liver dog. She obviously is what we call "pure for black", but each of the pups is a liver-factored black. Although they have blacks spots, they can produce livers.

Before visiting Boji and Crew I drove to Rochester to take a look at the Simon/Tess kids who were up from the Cedar Rapids area for BAER testing at Rick's. Had a nice visit with the litter owner Paula, her friend Kim, and Simon's owner Cheryl and got a chance to see Rick's handsome 5-month old liver pup. The Tess kids are linebred on Coral, with Tess being a Watson daughter and Simon being a Coral son, so I wanted to take a look at them. What a pretty litter, with wonderful faces, dark eyes and some very pretty markings! I thought three of them looked extra nice - the only liver boy, one of the black boys, and one of the girls. All were very attractive. The hearing test results were good, with 5 bilateral and 1 uni (5 pups heard in both ears, 1 pup hears in only one ear - which is common in Dals and does not affect the dog's ability function well as a companion or even a show dog).

Boji's litter will be BAER tested (Brainstem Auditory Evoked Response) when they are about 6 weeks old, although I will have identified any deafs (hopefully none) or possible unis by then.

Boji now has a rug in her pen and we are keeping our fingers crossed that she does not insist on hiding the pups UNDER it like some bitches do. The pups need a good surface when they are nursing, so they can get a grip with their back feet rather than sliding on slippery papers.