These sweet babies are ready to go to their forever homes on June 27th-30th.
happy birthday
Abria & Boaz welcomed a beautiful litter of 7 mini English goldendoodle puppies on Thursday, May 2nd! There are three boys and four girls, and they are all just precious!
Abria is an amazing mom and hardly leaves her puppies’ side. When puppies are first born, they depend heavily on their mama. They can’t yet walk. Their eyes and ears are closed. They can’t maintain their own body temperature and have a natural instinct to pile together for warmth (as you can see in the pictures below). EEGs have revealed that the brain activity of infant puppies is the same when asleep and awake. But these little guys are busy eating, growing, and developing. Abria’s puppies twitch and pop in their sleep, as all healthy newborn puppies should. This activated sleep helps them build muscle tone.
If you look closely at the pictures above, you’ll notice that puppies are born with little toenails. You’ll also notice that the pigment on some of the puppies’ noses & toes has already began to turn from pink to black.
1 week
It’s hard to believe that these sweet puppies are already one week old! We absolutely love having these babies in our home. We snuggle them several times a day, and holding them is unbelievably relaxing. There’s actually research that suggest that stroking the puppies is relaxing for them too. The studies indicate that puppies who are regularly licked by their mama grow up to be more relaxed adults. We can emulate that by stroking them. Abria is a great mom and takes awesome care of her puppies, but we are quite happy to pet them too 🙂
Each day that the puppies are held by both myself and my husband so that they are introduced to men and women from a young age. In addition to regular petting, the puppies also receive daily early neurological stimulation (ENS) and daily early scent introduction (ESI). The brief exercises that comprise ENS take less than a minute per puppy yet are thought to have lifelong benefits such as improved improved heartbeats and stronger adrenal glands. The puppies also participate in an early scent introduction exercise each day. Recommended by Avidog international, ESI involves briefly exposing each puppy to a new smell once a day. So far the puppies have smelled things such as a stick, essential oils, and even a duckling. While their eyes and ears are still closed, they have a strong sense of smell. Even while asleep it’s easy to tell when they catch a whiff of the scent we’re sharing with them.
The puppies are growing like crazy and have almost doubled their birth weights. As you can tell from the picture by the tennis ball (yes, that’s a regular sized tennis ball), they are still very small. We have started clipping their nails for the first time, although I haven’t quite finished clipping everyone’s yet (the little guy by the tennis ball has one front foot with clipped nails and one that still needs to be done!).
2 weeks
The puppies have opened their eyes! And now that they can see where they’re going, they’ve started climbing out of their whelping box! They still spend most of the day sleeping and continue to have activated sleep, building their muscles in preparation for the running and exploring they’ll be doing shortly. The puppies already take wobbly steps around their whelping box and crawl all over each other as they attempt to find the most cozy sleeping nook in the puppy pile.
3 weeks
Abria’s puppies are getting big! They seem so much more like little dogs than they did even a week ago. They toddle over to the gate of their pen when we approach, wagging their tails. They’ve started to play with each other – it looks like they are playing in slow motion! Their eyes are open and so are their ears. we put a new object in their puppy pen everyday to give them something new to look at and explore. We have also started playing their habituation CD which exposes into sounds like doorbells and vacuum cleaners. Habituation CD is not as effective as real life exposure to these different sounds, so we will introduce them a variety of sounds in the upcoming weeks. Listen to the soundtrack is a perfect exercise for them at this age though. The puppies have also had their nails clipped for a second time. Short nails helps them not scratch Abria as they nurse, and it also helps them get used to having their feet handled.
puppies first picnic
four weeks
These little nuggets are growing up fast! They lapped goat milk out of a dish for the first time earlier this week – And they absolutely loved it! They dove in feet and all, and after all of the milk was gone, they enjoyed licking it off of each other. It was adorable to watch 🙂 Hopefully you were able to enjoy the cute little noises they made while drinking the goat milk in the video on Instagram. Don’t worry- your puppy won’t go home drinking goat milk! We’ll begin transitioning to kibble, and your little one will be accustomed to eating TLC puppy food. You should be receiving an email directly from TLC in the next week. The puppies’ teeth are already starting to poke through, so they’ll be ready to try some softened kibble soon. Abria often nurses them standing up now rather than laying down. Everyone fits much better when she’s upright!
Another first over the past week is venturing outdoors. The puppies have gone on short little excursions in our backyard the past few days. They’ll be enjoy more and more time outside in the upcoming weeks. The biggest change is that the puppies have moved out of their whelping area and into a puppy play yard.
five weeks
6 weeks
It’s been another busy week for the puppies! They have been able to play outside every day, which they absolutely love! They have enjoyed playing in the sandbox, climbing on some rocks, and sniffing in some straw. We try to let them experience a variety of different textures and surfaces. They like exploring new things, but sandbox was definitely their favorite! The puppies also went on a road trip in the last week. It’s not the first time they’ve been in the car, and we know they each have a lifetime of car rides ahead of them, so we want to make sure they’re familiar with the feeling. They all piled together into a crate and cruised around town.
We have now combined Junie & Abria’s litters. They had already been playing together, but I wasn’t planning to put them together full time quite yet. The puppies had a different idea! Junie’s puppies kept figuring out creative ways to sneak into Abria’s puppies’ pen and snuggle with them, so I finally gave in and let them all have a giant sleepover last night. Junie & Abria are both inclusive and will nurse any of the puppies. Sometimes all twelve drink from Abria and then head to Junie after the first milk bar is running low. It’s kind of hilarious to see twelve puppies cramming under Abria because she’s such a small dog! In addition to nursing about five times a day, the puppies are also eating TLC puppy kibble soaked in goat milk several times a day. We started feeding them in crates with open doors, first with two puppies two a crate and now with one puppy per crate. They’ve caught on quickly and now start sniffing through each crate looking for food when their tummies are growling. The puppies are all eating and growing well.
The puppies’ favorite indoor toy is their wobble board (as you probably noticed in the video!). We regularly laugh watching them balancing and playing on it. We also brought out the tunnel this week, which they enjoy as well. These puppies are just darling! They are playful, friendly, affectionate, and they bounce around like little fluff balls.
seven weeks
It’s hard to believe these sweet babies are leaving in less than a week! We’ve worked hard to expose your puppy to as much as possible during her time with us, and now it’s your turn to continue the socialization process. Exposing your puppy to new people, situations, sounds, smells, textures, etc. is extremely important. As you prepare for your new fur baby to come home, here are a few things you should do:
- Make a puppy experience plan – Compile a list of places you want to take your puppy and experiences you want your puppy to encounter. Flip through Avidog’s free eBook about creating great puppies and explore what local stores are pet friendly. You’ll find some pet friendly places here to get you started. Consider what safe dogs you can introduce your puppy to (dogs who are predictable, friendly, healthy, and will model good behavior for your pup). Remember, adult dogs aren’t always fond of puppies so be sure to monitor them together. Do you know someone with a friendly cat or rabbit? Do you know anyone with a woods or creek where you can take your puppy for a short romp? It’s great for your puppy to meet a a variety of people such as: man with a beard, someone wearing a big hat, someone wearing dark sun glasses, someone using a wheelchair or stroller, people of different ages, etc. Your goal is for your puppy to meet a minimum of 100 people by the time she’s six months old. Strive to make every experience a positive one!
- Glance over Puppy Culture’s exercise chart – Familiarize yourself with what sorts of activities are appropriate for your puppy at this stage of development. You want to give your puppy a variety of unique positive experiences, but your puppy is still growing & developing, so you don’t want to push your puppy too far. For instance, climbing up one to two stairs is an appropriate challenge but climbing a flight of stairs is not a good idea for a young puppy.
- Pick out and sign up for a puppy class – A puppy class is essential both for socialization and manners. Look for a class that emphasizes positive reinforcement, as learning & training should be a fun game at this point. Clicker training is a plus. This article from AKC gives some pointers about what to look for in a puppy class.
happy gotchya day
getting ready for your puppy
We’ve created a puppy shopping list to help guide you as you prepare to bring your new pup home!
meet the parents
Learn more about Abria & Boaz by visiting our parent dog page. Want to see pictures of Abria’s past litters? You can find those on Abria’s personal page. There’s also are videosof her past puppies if you’re curious what this litter will look like in a few weeks. Don’t forget to check out Instagram for more pictures of the parents, past puppies, and this current litter.
