Tibetan Terrier Puppies - 4 1/2 weeks old

Well what a week!

This hot temperature has been brilliant for drying oddles of 'vet bed', now our little Tibetan Terrier puppies - 1, 2, 3 and 4 - are weaning and then weeing and pooping, ALL over the place...

Above: Claude (left), Ryan, Sable (and Sky asleep in the back)

The Three Boys

Sleepy Sky

"I love my mummy" says Ryan!

Ryan (sitting), Sky and Claude (sleeping)

Summer with her chew. She wanted to hide it in the puppy play area! But ate it instead...

UPDATE

In the last week, the four puppies have not only leant to walk, but now run too! And they are just so funny!!

Eventually their little TT tails will curl over their backs, but for now the pups look a little like a fair ground bumper cars, with tails stuck straight up in the air and running backwards as well as forwards.

They can all escape from the open door of their whelping box and so we've turned the box around so they have a playing area, and have put some fencing up in front of one of the 'french doors' so there is a cool breeze blowing into the room.

Feeding Puppies

At just over 3 weeks, I started to wean our gorgeous puppies (named for now, Sky (no e), Claude, Ryan and Sable). We had managed to nearly get through 12kg of Royal Canin Starter Mother and Babydogs for Medium Dogs, and then couldn't buy any in the shops. The puppies had about four days on this, and really loved it, but then we had to find an alternative and decided on Arden Grange Weaning/Puppy.

The Arden Grange didn't go down quite as well, so I started making up a mixture of very diluted puppy milk - and now they all love it!  I also went for an Arden Grange Adult food, so that I have now started weaning Summer, their mum, off the puppy food.

But Summer is still feeding them, and cleaning up their poop!

I have to say though, that for all of them, they have scrambled egg for breakfast. Summer has an egg mixed in with her biscuit, and the TT pups have it on it's own.

The puppies can now stand up in front of a bowl, but they get distracted, so I sit with one at a time, making sure they eat properly, and enticing them if they try to disappear to play!!


Kennel Club Registration

We have finally decided on the Kennel Club names for all the pups. I'll tell you when they've been confirmed, but the paperwork has been sent off, and it's all in the hands of The KC now.

Day 8 & 9 - Puppies after One Week

All is still going really well!

It's funny watching Summer's (Mummy Tibetan Terrier) reaction to her puppies. She likes to feed them, then go for a walk...but a single tiny squeak...and she's back! 

I was quite concerned about her last week, as she was panting and digging so much. I did a fair bit of research online, and it sounded like there were a lot of people like me, worrying about continual panting. But a few of the articles and forum entries explained that as long as the bitch had been checked out (which she was), then it would be quite common and some dogs even panted for about 10-12 days.

Luckily and with great relief, Summer started to recover and gradually stopped panting on day 7/8, so by day 8/9, she was more relaxed.

Summer can be a fussy eater but she has been loving the puppy food. Now, however, I have to add 'liver cake' sprinkled in, with a little hot water. For breakfast she has scrambled egg with her puppy food. Once we start to ween the puppies next week sometime, we will start reducing puppy food and adding her adult food, so that by the time the puppies are fully weened (about 6-8 weeks), she'll be just on adult food (Wainwright's Light Adult Complete Dog Food).

A mass of hair, or a bundle of pups?!

The pups are looking a bit like guinea pigs right now - but Our Girl (black) has a cuddle with Sable

We don't often see them sleeping together, but with the warm weather, we opened a back door (2 rooms away). It was shut again, quite quickly...

Sable loves to cutch up to Mummy Summer

You can just about make out the four pups!

The puppies are changing too. They're starting to get a little control of their heads, only to lift them for a few seconds, but are turning them!  Their whiskers above their mouths, have also started to grow a little. Rather than tight closed eyes, you can see that their eyelids are developed over their eyes and you can now imagine them looking around.

Weight wise, 'Claude' and Our Girl, remain the heaviest, but Sable and white/sable are getting heavier in great leaps. We think the puppies have just taken on different genes!

The puppies can roll over, and they can travel at quite some speed across the whelping box shuffling on their tummies.

They do look like guinea pigs...really! But I know they'll start to look more dog like in the next few weeks...he he

This week we hope that the puppies will open their eyes and at the beginning of next week, their ears too, which are just tight little buds right now.

Oh, and there is movement in their tails! Only a little but we've all noticed it at different times...

We are trying to come up with a name for Our Girl. We (the family) were so sure on Summer as a name, that we're sure we'll come across another that we all agree on too...  But it's taking a long time.

FIVE WEEKS..and a bit!

FIVE WEEKS - 27 May 2013

I can't believe that the time is flying by so fast! We are less than a month away from Puppy Time!

There hasn't been too much to report on in this last week, except Harris (Summer's boyfriend) has become very respectful of her - no chasing or rolling when we go for walks.

Summer our pregnant Tibetan Terrier is very very hungry and we have now upped her meals to three a day, but only a touch more than she was having with two meals a day.  The change in her was instant and she stopped begging quite so much.

We have decided to introduce an Arden Grange puppy food into Summer's food, as instructed by all the books and our vet, and this will then be used to start weaning the Tibetan pups from about 2/3 weeks old.

Summer's tummy is growing. I didn't think we'd see this early on, but we can. And if we are out walking, and I bump into someone to talk to, she lies down on the floor (lazy!)..

She is still being fed a Raspberry Leaf pill everyday, which I crush in a think plastic sandwich bag and then mix with a touch of peanut butter. When I get the peanut butter out of the cupboard, I turn the lid and say to Summer "And what is this?" - and she licks her lips! I kid you not. I do this each time... Makes me laugh anyway ;-)

DAY TEN - Will there be Summer's Puppies?

Summer is still in season.

On Monday (DAY 8) I took her to Box Hill, Surrey, with Judy, and Summer's Tibetan Terrier "boyfriend", Harris. Rather than being totally subdued, as Summer has been for the last week, there were hints of her pre-season self, coming back. We were also able to see that Harris was still interested in Summer (he has been done, so no chance of puppies), as he climbed on her back and started to hump (she let him) - we didn't!  I know of a friend's dog who, having been castrated, managed a successful tie. Not a situation I'd want Summer to be in, even knowing there would be no end product!!

Back to 'Box Hill', I can't recommend this stunning area in north east Surrey enough as a place to walk a dog in season. You rarely meet other dogs as the area is so vast. Another favourite, is certain areas of the Woodland Trust's Surrey Hills above Wallingham.


DAY TEN (Wednesday)

Over the last few days we've started to notice that Summer isn't humping her big teddy bear quite so much, and that when road walking, she's not stopping to sniff quite so much either.  I'm thinking that her season is coming to an end.  We're meeting Harris again on Friday, so that will be the real telling sign!

Other than what I've mentioned, there have been no signs of pregnancy. Summer was very tired last week, but is a little more her usual self. She is more interested in going for walks, is taking me to the freezer to get her a bone and has started coming upstairs again. There has been no blood for about 5-7 days.

We're trying to come up with a KC pedigree breeders name. Each time we come up with something we all agree with, we check and find it is already being used. This really isn't easy!