happy birthday, little ones
Maple & Boaz are the proud parents of six squishy new babies: five girls and one boy. These little ones are absolutely precious. When first born, puppies depend completely on their mama, so we’re blessed that Maple does such a great job caring for them. She nurses them almost constantly it seems and snuggles with them (sometimes Maple nurse them while lying on her back with her belly up in the air – it makes us laugh!). How sweet are these faces? The pups are less than 24 hours old in these pictures.
Our kids have given the puppies temporary names (the pups won’t know their temporary names when they join their families, but our family has fun naming them anyway). The girls are Pancake (pink collar), Waffles (purple collar), Snow Cream (green collar), Doughnuts (yellow collar), and Syrup. The little boy’s temporary name is Sap. We are in the midst of maple sugaring season, so the kids thought it would be fun to give some of the puppies names that reflect one of our favorite winter time activities.
At first puppies can’t yet walk. Their eyes and ears are closed. They can’t go to the bathroom on their own. And they can’t maintain their own body temperature. Fortunately God gave puppies a natural instinct to pile together for warmth, so they snuggle together in a giant puppy heap. And they also cuddling around Maple as she snoozes contentedly, surrounded by her new family. EEGs have revealed that the brain activity of infant puppies is the same when asleep and awake. But these little pups are busy eating, growing, and developing. Maple’s puppies twitch and pop in their sleep, as all healthy newborn puppies should. This activated sleep helps them build muscle tone.
Your puppy’s birthday is February 1st, and your puppy will be ready to come home with you March 29th-April 1st.
weekly puppy tip #1: nap time is essential!
Think about a napping place – The puppies spend most of their lives sleeping now, but did you know that your new furbaby is going to need lots of sleep when you bring her home, too? Puppies, just like small children, require naps throughout the day. When your puppy is sleeping, try to allow her to rest untouched (it’s okay for noisy life to carry on around her while she snoozes, but it’s best not to physically disturb her as much as possible). This may mean that you need to guide her to a different spot than the one she’s initially chosen. Puppy Culture estimates that an 8-10 week old puppy sleeps 3 hours and then is awake for 1 hour before going back down for another nap. AKC gives some helpful insight into the importance of puppy sleep:
Although puppies may seem like little bundles of energy, in fact, they sleep 15-20 hours a day. One minute your puppy may be a miniature tornado, and the next he’s fallen soundly asleep, almost mid-activity. Sleep is essential to healthy growth: during sleep his central nervous system, brain, immune system, and muscles are developing. All of that sleep also helps him rest up during growth spurts… household members, especially children, should leave your puppy alone while he is sleeping. Plan his day so that active time is followed by quiet time for sleep. He’ll most likely be ready for a nap after playtime or a walk, sleep for a while and then wake up ready for anything. Your puppy may nap every hour or so, sleeping from 30 minutes to as long as two hours. All of this sleep is perfectly normal.
Jan Reisen from the American Kennel Club (AKC)
You can read the rest of the article here.
one week
It’s hard to believe that these munchkins are already one week old! They have grown so much! These puppies may still seem incredibly small but they’ve really packed on the pounds, in fact they’ve all doubled their birth weights and passed over the 1lb mark. That’s a lot of growing! These sweet little pumpkins continue to dedicate their entire lives to eating and sleeping – and it shows! They are fat little sausages with adorable wrinkles and rolls.
They twitch and pop involuntarily during their sleep, developing muscle tone for the near future. This phenomenon is known as “activated sleep.” In a few short weeks, these rolly polly puppies will be bouncing around playfully. Their legs, while still wobbly, have already gotten stronger and the puppies wobble around on them instead of just army crawling as they did initially.
The puppies have now had their toenails trimmed for the first time. When you take your puppy home, it’s important that you continue to regularly trim her nails. Right now we trim the puppies’ nails with human baby nail clippers. For our adult dogs, we use a dremel to keep their nails short. We like to keep the puppies’ nails short so they don’t accidentally scratch Ivy while nursing. Plus nail trimming is going to be a regular activity throughout their lives, so we want to introduce them to it at an early age. We’ll continue to clip little nails frequently over the next two months.
In addition to snuggling these sweet nuggets, we also introduce the pups to a new scent each day, and we’ve also started doing early neurological stimulation (aka ENS) with them. ENS involves stressing the puppies just slightly in very specific ways in order to improve their physiological response to stress in the future.
weekly puppy tip #2
Make a puppy experience plan – Compile a list of places you want to take your puppy and experiences you want your puppy to encounter. Any day now, these little eyes will be ready to soak up the sites, and we’ll now start introducing the puppies to items that differ in appearance. We have a thought out socialization plan, working hard to expose your puppy to as much as possible during her time with us. When you take your puppy home, that responsibility then shifts to you as you continue the socialization process. Exposing your puppy to new people, situations, sounds, smells, textures, etc. is extremely important. Give your new puppy a few days to adjust to her new home and new routine. Then begin giving her short, positive experiences (yummy treats make everything more positive!). Don’t try to do too much in one day, as you don’t want to overwhelm or stress her. Start developing ideas of how to want to socialize your new puppy.
Your goal is for your puppy to meet a minimum of 100 different people by the time she’s six months old. Dr. Ian Dunbar, a puppy socialization expert, raises the bar even higher by recommending that puppies meet 100+ people during the first month at home. If you hope to visit a local nursing home or hospital when your puppy gets older, secure some crutches, walkers or wheelchairs to expose your puppy to at home. Meeting people is just one component of socialization. Think about outdoor experiences that you and your puppy can safely enjoy together. Consider what predictable 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 anyone with a woods or creek where you can take your puppy for a short romp? Remember, you want every experience to be POSITIVE (i.e. bring yummy treats and hand out the praise). Making a plan now, before you bring your puppy home, will help ensure that you follow through with a variety of positive exposures once you have your new little fluff ball at your side.
Check out AviDog’s free e-book for more ideas about what to add to your puppy experience plan. Baxter & Bella also has some great ideas for socializing your puppy.
two weeks
These puppies are so stinking precious! And they’re incredibly chunky! It’s fair to say that Maple is diligent about making sure her puppies are well fed. Despite their rotund bellies, the pups are beginning to take wobbly steps. Don’t they look much more like little dogs than they did last week? The puppies are still in a calm, quiet environment. Soon they’ll be ready for the chaos of our main living area but not quite yet. They get around their whelping box fairly quickly on wobbly legs, and it’s fun to see them attempting to walk instead of belly crawl.
The biggest, most exciting change since last week is that puppies’ eye have just started opening. It’s so fun to see them looking back at us. Eye opening is a process that doesn’t happen all in one day. Now that they can see, the puppies are a little more active, making them harder to photograph. As you can tell, we weren’t able to get that perfect group picture this week, but these little sausages are pretty cute anyway, aren’t they?
The puppies have all had their toenails for a second time. It’s important to keep their toenails short now so the pups don’t accidentally scratch mama Maple when they’re nursing. Toenails grow quickly. Be ready to trim your new pup’s nails every few weeks when she joins your family.
These sweet dumplings are getting so big! As you’ve probably already noticed from the pictures, they’ve all moved out of the ribbon collars and into their big puppy break free collars. We use break-free collars to keep our littles safe from the risk of strangulation, but these special safety collars feel like “normal” collars to the puppies, so they’ll go home used to the feel of wearing a collar.
The puppies continue to enjoy nursing regularly. It’s a crazy, active puppy pile as they all search for the perfect milk tap. Once the milk starts flowing, they all settle down and enjoy the delicious warmness filling their chunky bellies. Their happy tails tell us that they enjoy nursing.
Left to right we have: Syrup (white collar), Snow Cream (green collar), Sap (blue collar), Waffles (purple collar), Pancake (pink collar), and Doughnuts (yellow collar). Go back and look at their newborn pictures from just two weeks ago. Isn’t it amazing how much growing and changing these wee little pups have done already?
weekly puppy tip #3: age appropriate exercise
Glance over Puppy Culture’s exercise chart. Familiarize yourself with what sorts of activities are appropriate for your puppy at different stages 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 (a study done on 500 dogs showed that puppies allowed to climb a flight of stairs regularly before 3 months old were more likely to develop hip dysplasia). Remember, free running and playing is a great option because your puppy can rest whenever she feels inclined to do so. If you’d like to read more about puppy exercise, check out AviDog’s puppy exercise guidelines. This article from AKC also gives some helpful puppy exercise tips.
three weeks
Aren’t these little pumpkins really looking like miniature dogs now? They even sit awkwardly and walk around, albeit a bit clumsily. Look at those open eyes! When puppy eyes first open, they’re blue and cloudy but as the eyes change from their cloudy blue appearance, they open more and the puppy’s vision becomes crisper. We give the puppies different objects to explore, and it’s fun to watch them interact with each toy. The pups still spend the majority of their time snoozing, but they’re also starting to play with each other. Their clumsy play right now looks like it’s happening in slow motion.
With their eyes open, the puppies decided to start climbing out of their whelping box and have moved into their first puppy pen. Maple still has free access to her puppies, but they can’t climb out in search of her. Maple spends a lot of time with her crew. She loves to lay on her back with her belly in the air while nursing the pups. It’s a hilarious sight to behold! In their tiny puppy pen, the puppies are still in a quiet, darker environment so the puppies aren’t overly stimulated. They’ve grown and matured a lot, but they’re still not quite ready for the stimulation of the main part of our house. We hold them regularly and give them toys to explore, one at a time. The puppies are also beginning to listen to a habituation soundtrack, which helps acclimate them to different sounds. We play the sounds quietly right now and will gradually increase the volume as the puppies grow.
They puppies have recently discovered that they can bark, and sometimes a seemingly random high pitched bark rings out. They surprise themselves with the sounds that come out of their own mouths!
All of the time these babies spend eating shows! These chunky monkeys continue to grow like crazy. Each puppy weighed 10-12oz at birth and now they’re all hovering around 3lbs, which means they’ve more than tripled their birth weights in just 3 short weeks. Sap (blue collar boy) is the largest pup weighing in at a whopping 3lbs 12oz!
weekly puppy tip #4: be the leader your puppy wants you to be
It’s essential that you establish yourself as the pack leader. Your puppy doesn’t want to be in charge – that’s a scary place to be! Your puppy wants to look to you as the leader, but you have to show yourself as worth of the role by being the leader (this also helps set your kids apart as ranking higher in the pack than your new pup). Some easy ways to establish your leadership include:
- Sit down with your puppy each night before bed and briefly touch your puppy EVERYWHERE. Kneel on the floor with your puppy sitting between your legs. Start by petting your puppy’s head and tell him “head, head.” Then check his mouth, telling him “teeth, teeth,” and look inside his ears telling him “ear, ears.” Briefly go over your puppy from nose to tail in this fashion. This helps establish that you’re allowed to touch your puppy anywhere and everywhere. (see the video below)
- Set boundaries so there is at least one place in your home that your dog isn’t allowed to go in your home (i.e. not allowed to jump on your bed, not allowed to sit on a particular couch or not allowed into a certain room).
- Teach you puppy to sit and wait for you to walk out the front door before her and give her the “okay” before she is permitted to walk through it. If you’ve been consistent, your puppy will offer a sit and wait for a release word (i.e. “okay”) before coming inside by 3 months old. When she’s old enough to start walking freely up and down stairs, teach her to wait for you to finish climbing/descending the stairs before she comes.
- Encourage your puppy sit and wait for you to give her the “okay” before she is allowed to approach her food bowl. Periodically pick up your puppy’s food bowl while she’s eating, reward her with a yummy treat, and return the food bowl. (we’ll talk about the Toy Trade Game and other educational games you can play with your puppy next week).
- Teach your puppy to do a long down during meal times. Buy a soft rug or bed and teach your puppy to go lay on it on command. We have our own adult dogs lay on a rug in a down stay during dinner. Maple was doing a down stay along side them at 6 months old for the entire length of our meal – which means your puppy can do it at a young age, too!
four weeks
I can’t believe how quickly these babies are growing up! The biggest news of the week is that they moved downstairs AND they’ve also explored the great outdoors for the first time. At first pups needed a calm, quiet environment without too much stimulation. But now they’re ready for the chaos that exists in the main part of our home! The pups moved into a small puppy area earlier in the week, and we will gradually expand their puppy play yard during the upcoming weeks. We’ve introduced, and it is fun to find puppies sleeping in it. We continue to give the munchkins new toys to spark their curiosity. And we continue to snuggle them. They shower us with kisses, and we shower them with kisses, too! The pups have sniffed noses with some other dogs besides their mama (Abria enjoys being an auntie), they’ve enjoyed goat milk, they’ve started playing with each other (it’s hilarious to watch because it’s like watching them play in slow motion)… So much has happened this week! The growing and developing puppies do in the first four weeks is absolutely outstanding! In just one month, these pups have gone from being unable to walk to playing with each other. In just one month, they’ve gone from having eyes & ears that are shut to curiously exploring the world around them. In just one month, they’ve gone from being entirely dependent on Maple to using a potty area in their pen, interacting with each other, and giving us kisses! It’s so fun to watch all of that growing and developing unfold. Hopefully you’ve been enjoying the Instagram story videos of the puppies this week. I shared a cute video this evening of the puppies lapping up goat milk. We took their pictures right after they eagerly engulfed the goat milk, so you can still see some of their adorable milk mustaches in the pictures if you look close enough. The puppies are still enjoy mama Maple’s delicious, nutritious milk. I can’t imagine nursing a litter of babies! It doesn’t look like fun, but Maple still nurses of all her sweet babies. Sometimes she still nurses them while lying on her back with her belly in the air, but more commonly now, she sits while they nurse or even occasionally stands. It’s a crazy chaotic scramble of puppies as everyone climbs over, under, and on top of everyone else trying to secure a milk tap before anyone can snag it. It’s easy to tell when the milk starts flowing because the pups suddenly calm and you can hear their little gulps as they melt into a moment of pure milk enjoyment.
weekly puppy tip #5: Get ready to play educational games with your puppy!
Did you know that there are fun games you can play with your puppy that teach him beneficial skills? It’s great to incorporate regular educational games into your puppy’s routine, so read through these suggestions, add any needed supplies to your puppy shopping list, and get ready for puppy playtime!
- Ball On The Wall – Encourages retrieving
- Supplies: A ball that your puppy can carry in her mouth
- How to play: Sit on the floor about 1-5’ from a wall. Put your legs in a “V” and sit facing the wall with your puppy between you and the wall. Toss the ball at the wall, encouraging your puppy to go after it. Give your puppy lots of praise when she brings the ball back!
- Variation: Once you’ve mastered Ball On The Wall, try playing retrieve in a hallway with all the doors closed (so your puppy can’t run away with the ball).
- Toy Trade – Prevents resource guarding
- Supplies: A toy that your puppy likes but doesn’t highly value and a high value treat
- How to play: Briefly play with your puppy using the toy. Ask your puppy for the toy by offering her a high value treat. Reward & praise her for giving you the toy, and give the toy back to her as soon as she finishes chewing. Gradually work on having her give you objects of higher value (i.e. a bone).
- Variation: Work on teaching your puppy the command “give” and ask her to drop the toy/bone on command in exchange for the high value treat.
- Hide & Seek – Encourages recall
- Supplies: Yummy treats
- How to play: Run away from your puppy, hide behind a corner, tree, couch or other object, and call your puppy to encourage her to find you. When she does, give her lots of praise and a yummy treat.
- Variation: Play Ping Pong by having a partner play with you and take turns hiding. While the first person is rewarding the puppy for coming, the second person hides.
five weeks
This is such a fun age! These puppies are cuter every day! Their individual personalities are showing through. They’ve transformed from little guinea pigs who can’t see or hear to actual miniature dogs who run around and play and give kisses. And they already enjoy belly rubs, which is fun too. Hopefully you’ve enjoyed the short video clips on our Instagram story. I’m trying to share short videos there so you can see what the puppies are up to each day.
These puppies have started eating a mush of softened TLC puppy kibble mixed with fresh goat milk. Soon they’ll be chowing down on dry kibble, but for now while their teeth are coming in, the soften food makes for a perfect meal. Maple continues to nurse them throughout the day. The puppies trot about, exploring the world around them. They enjoy playing with the different toys in their pen, and they enjoy playing with each other, too. The pups don’t sit still for long, except for when they’re on your lap or sleeping, so pictures are challenging – unless they’re sleeping! In between their short bursts of energy, they still spend much of their time snoozing. If you sit on the floor, you’re sure to have a lap full of puppies! The puppies have had their toenails trimmed again, and they’ve also had their bottoms shaved with clippers. We’ve started locking them in crates overnight (with their buddies – no one is confined alone at this age), and they all hold their little poos until morning. Then, when we take them outside first thing in the morning, it’s rewarding to see the whole group all pottying at the same time! We’ve some days of wonderful weather for the puppies to spend time enjoying the great outdoors. The pups have also been on two road trips this week where they’ve been able to explore new environments and meet new people. We feel that it’s important for puppies to experience different environments starting from a young age, so we work hard to start that socialization during their time with us. When you take your puppy home, that responsibility passes onto you and then it’s your turn to continue the socialization process. Hopefully you’ve worked on a puppy experience plan like we talks about in puppy tip #2! It’s been a fun week for these little pups, and we’re thoroughly enjoying them.
Weekly Puppy Tip #6
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. Many dog training facilities will allow your new friend join their puppy class around 12 weeks of age, once she has received her second set of immunizations. Allison Camp from Pups Unleashed offers a local puppy class. She’ll be temperament testing the puppies in about 2 weeks and assisting with matching. Temperament testing always an exciting day!
We prefer in person puppy class over virtual hands down, but having online recourses is incredibly helpful, too. Timberidge Goldendoodles is excited to be partnering with Baxter & Bella. These online resources, virtual classes, and video training tips are an amazing option for every puppy owner – there are even a variety of resources to help you now as you prepare for your new furry family member. Plus membership is for a lifetime, so you can access Baxter & Bella’s tools repeatedly over the years ahead for each and every furry child that joins your family.
Use the discount code TIMBERIDGE to save 25% when you join Baxter & Bella!
Here’s a short video from Baxter & Bella’s about how to train your puppy to respond positively the someone ringing your doorbell. You can take this same principle and apply it to a variety of other circumstances, such as teaching your puppy to walk calmly past another dog who is going crazy. You can find more free puppy training videos here. Remember, the best thing you can do to prepare for your new puppy is to prepare yourself!
six weeks
It’s been another busy week full of fun puppy adventures. The puppies have played outside A LOT! The puppies have ventured on another road trip this week. It’s good for them to get used to playing in different locations/ new environments, and they’ve enjoyed exploring the new situations. Plus with this crazy Cincinnati weather, the puppies have experienced pottying outside in the everything from rain and snow to 70 degree sunshine. We’re working hard to expose these pups to a variety of sights, sounds, smells, environments – and in just a few short weeks, it will be your turn to continue that socialization process with your new pup. Another new excitement of the week is that the puppies have officially started eating dry kibble. They have been eating TLC puppy food for some time now, but at first we moisten it and then gradually transition to completely dry. We’ve even given the puppies some fun food games to try such as two different snuffle mats and even hunting for kibble amongst plastic bottles and balls. All dogs have a natural foraging instinct, so the pups have a blast with these games that play on that.
weekly puppy tip #7
Get ready to groom! – Your puppy has had her nails clipped and hair trimmed during her time with us, so she has already had her initial introduction to a lifetime of being groomed. Take her to the groomer for a puppy clip after her 16-week immunizations. The groomer will bathe her, trim the hair out of her eyes, give her a sanitary clip, and trim her nails. Since she will need regular grooming throughout her life, both she and the groomer will benefit if she becomes accustomed to being groomed from a young age, even before she’s ready for a full haircut.
When should she have her first big girl haircut? The wavy adult coat will start replacing the soft, fluffy puppy coat around 5-6 months of age. You’ll notice the new hair coming in is kinkier than the pure fluff on top. Waiting to cut the hair until the adult coat makes its debut beneath the layers of puppy plush helps ensure that the adult coat remains soft. Many poodle groomers and poodle fanciers claim that shaving a poodle or goldendoodle down before her adult coat starts coming in could damage the adult coat, affecting the texture. While there isn’t any substantiated evidence that this is true, it’s worth avoiding just in case. That doesn’t mean that your puppy might not benefit from a puppy clip in the meantime! Don’t let your puppy’s hair get out of control! As aforementioned, take him to the groomer for a puppy clip after her 16-week immunizations. When the time comes, check out the grooming section on our website for a variety of goldendoodle haircut pictures. Learn more about your Goldendoodle puppy’s first trip to the groomer. We have a plethora of haircut resources under the “grooming” tab on the main menu bar.
Waiting until 6 months for the first full big girl clip does NOT mean you’re off the hook for grooming at home! You should regularly groom your puppy: brushing her hair, cleaning her ears, brushing her teeth, clipping her toenails, and checking her for any anomalies (i.e. ticks, cuts, etc.). You want your puppy to become accustomed to being brushed and handled all over from a young age. We HIGHLY recommend doing regular bonding/body handling exercises with your puppy (demonstrated in the video shared on weekly puppy tip #4). Goldendoodles are a breed that like routines (thanks to those poodle ancestors), so it’s nice to do bonding exercises every night just before your put your puppy in her crate for bed. It’s easy to incorporate different parts of grooming into your nightly bonding exercises, just doing a little here and a little there since young puppies don’t have the attention span for lots of grooming at once.
getting ready
Puppy supplies
We’ve created a puppy shopping list to guide you as you prepare to bring your new pup home! Go ahead and pick up a Snuggle Puppy (with a heartbeat) to bring with you on meet & greet day. If you have a crate, you’re welcome to leave that with us that on meet & greet day as well and we’ll start getting your puppy used to her new future “bedroom.”
Baxter & Bella: first 2 weeks with a new puppy
These are all short 1-3 minute videos that are helpful to watch. You’ll learn how to teach your puppy and get ideas for establishing good behaviors from day one. These videos show Amy Jensen training Chili, her young goldendoodle puppy
- Puppy pen & day one crate introduction
- Impulse control
- Toy trade game and building a marker
- Mat work & teaching your puppy to settle
- Teaching your puppy to sit to say “please”
- Settling in a crate, redirecting
- Come
- Keeping an eye on your puppy while you’re being productive & preventing resource guarding
- Helping your puppy enjoy being brushed
- Introducing a harness or therapy vest
- Walking on a leash
- “Drop it” command
- Example of a puppy-sized training session (training sessions should only be 1-2 minutes long for an 8-10 week old puppy)
If you’re eager to learn more, Baxter & Bella’s online resources, virtual classes, and video training tips are an amazing option for every puppy owner. Plus membership is for a lifetime, so you can access Baxter & Bella’s tools repeatedly over the years ahead for each and every furry child that joins your family. Use the discount code TIMBERIDGE to save 25% when you join Baxter & Bella!
If you plan to do service or therapy work with your puppy, the harness introduction and “touch” are both important to start early on. In addition, watch GoodWill or Facebook Marketplace to find assistive mobility assistive such as a cane, crutches, walker, wheel chair, etc. that your puppy may encounter during therapy visits. You’ll want to familiar your puppy with those items early on.
Puppy Culture: first 2 weeks with a new puppy
You will have to put the free course into your cart and check out. Much of this program you can just listen to without actually watching, so this is a great have this on hand while you’re driving. If you only have time to watch part of this course, I recommend watching: Class 1 part 2 about setting up your puppy’s spot at home and Class 2 part 1 about structuring your puppy’s day.Bringing your puppy home by Puppy Culture
Puppy-sized exercise
Puppy Culture explains why age appropriate exercise is critical for your puppy in this article. Also be sure to check out Puppy Culture’s exercise guideline poster and the AviDog (Good Dog) Fit For Life puppy exercise guidelines.