Two puppies have joined in the Prison Program for the Assistance Dogs of America, Inc. Way to go Joey and Karl.

The mom has been panting (onset of labour) for 24 to 48 hours.  We have been cooking chicken soup.  The panting gets harder and the restlessness starts.  Then a calmness comes and the mother-to-be settles down.  She then looks at her back end wondering why it feels that way.  Contractions begin, small ones then bigger.  A puppy presents itself.

During the birth the whelping box is cleaned up in between puppies being born which can be spaced  by 5 minutes to 2 hours or more.  Each puppy is born with it's own sac and placenta.  We assist in deliveries to minimize umbilical hernia's caused by the mother pulling too aggressively.  We break the sac, remove the sac, suction the mouth and nose while holding the puppy in one hand in a head down manner.  Once the puppy is suctioned we tie off the cord and cut the umbilical cord on the side away from the puppy.  We then vigorously rub the puppy to get it to take a nice big breath.  Then it is presented to the mother and we ensure it is latching on to the teat.  We repeat this until all puppies are born.  After several hours of resting we bathe the mother.  She is bathed twice per day for one week then once per day for the next week.  These are back end, head and belly washes. 

By the end of two weeks they are ready for a 4' x 4' whelping box for one week.  Focus is still mainly on mother but you are constantly handling the puppies for cleaning, checking their weights, checking who is whom, etc.  The handling is really only myself and other adults at this age.

The nursery ...the more visitors the better for the puppies!

 

At three weeks they are ready for their first meal.  They are now moved to the "dog room" in a 4' x 8' whelping box.  They now have newspaper at one end and towels at the other end.  This is how we start the paper training.  At this age they can walk and love attention.  We make sure that the puppies are sitting nicely before we give them attention.  I believe the earliest you can start rewarding for calm behavior the better.  If a puppy is on two feet, he is placed on all four then talked to and is rewarded by stroking him.  The children are very active at this stage since they know I will allow it.  The puppies are taken around the house and introduced to many new environments.  They have been on carpet, towels, newspaper and linoleum by this point.

House breaking and outdoor Play Area ...

At five weeks they are ready for the great outdoors (weather permitting).  They are now taken out every two hours to go potty.  We wake them up so that they don't have a chance to go before we get there.  "Puppies outside lets go pee.  Puppies inside good puppies."   They all go out do their business, eat, play, do their business come back in and go to sleep.  We have this routine down so that we can pick up poo outside instead of inside.  We continue to do this until the puppies go to their forever homes.  It really helps ... People always say "they are with the program".

We have an open visitation policy for people on our list.  If you just wanted to come and see, well I will do that as well but not if you were visiting other Kennels.  That's how bad things are shared!