Charlotte
(Canen Sioux) and Real Standards had their first litter together.
The result was twelve boisterous, affectionate and healthy
puppies. Below are some valuable tips and observations about
the experience.
Charlotte was a month short
of three years old and very large. We were expecting quite
a large litter but had no idea what we were in for. When I
went upstairs on 30 June 2003 I knew that Charlotte would
be giving birth very shortly. At 6.30am I was awoken by tiny
squeaking noises and immediately ran downstairs. At the bottom
of the stairs were two squeaking newborns pups. Charlotte
was not in her bed, but unusually under the table. I knew
that the pups must not get cold but instinctively knew that
I had to make sure Charlotte was happy and knew I was there
for her before I attended to the pups. She had another pup
squeaking by her under the table. She seemed mildly confused
but not distressed and willingly was lead to her bed where
she obediently waited whilst I gathered what I reckoned to
be the first born in a towel. Bringing it over to Charlotte
I rubbed it gently and presented it to her. She immediately
started licking it and by the time I had fetched her other
two she was paying no attention to me, already engrossed in
the cleaning and nuzzling of these mysterious creatures that
were apparently hers. She spent the entire day producing more
and more puppies. At ten pm the count was ten and then by
midnight twelve surviving puppies and all seemed quiet. Charlotte
was by this time enormously proud of her self and could only
be persuaded to leave her clutch once they had all been piled
into a comfortably bedded low cardboard box she could peer
in and from which they could not wander. She could then be
persuaded to take a reluctant walk around the village. It
had been decided before whelping that we would not attempt
to resuscitate stillborn or weak pups. Two were born poorly
and quickly expired. There were no weak pups remaining in
the litter. With twelve healthy boisterous puppies to care
for and keep things fair for as it was I had no doubt that
we had made the right choice.
This non-interference was
only to insure the best care for the completely healthy pups.
I had read that dogs have a throw back from the wild days
of expecting to lose weaker pups in the early days. We are
not against human intervention on principle. Dogs are such
sociable animals and I believe are hard wired to need some
mid-wifery in respect to what to do with a newly born pup
and emotional encouragement that all is well.
Charlotte was shockingly
over fed following her whelping with a diet of sardines and
eggs as well as her regular croquettes. Although it paid off
in terms of well-being to teeth and bones to pups and mother,
Charlotte gained too much weight. Next time I will buy super
quality croquettes but again give the puppies on the rich
fish and vegetable and dairy supplements that they have all
done so well on.
One of the most valuable
tips I can offer is something I cottoned onto on the first
day alarmed by the unexpectedly large litter we had to care
for. In order to reduce the relentless demands of twelve puppies
I would remove sleeping and obviously satiated pups and place
them in the cardboard box. This turned out to be a fantastic
ploy. It was inspired by Charlotte's own bay system. She would
lie with two or three snuggled under her tail, against thighs
and between her back legs: The Sleepers, then several on the
nipple bay, The Feeders, from where the more lively would
be shifted into the space between her forearms that was the
cleaning bay where they were nuzzled, licked and smelt. There
would also be the lucky one or two tucked into the armpit,
which seemed very recherché. The supplementary cardboard
box bay worked really well for three reasons. Charlotte did
not have a potential 48 sets of claws and 12 gums mauling
at her all day, it gave charlotte a manageable number of pups
with which to hone her mothering skills, and the puppies that
were sleeping could sleep undisturbed by the blind and greedy
struggling of the not yet full. The feeding puppies could
have a non-stressful uninterrupted feed. At night I left them
altogether and quite a lot of sleeping seemed to go on. I
have since read of another tip that I will definitely employ
next time which is to file so as to blunt the tiny needle
sized claws capable of damaging the mother's soft belly.
In order to reduce the risk
of dehydration for Charlotte I decided that I would encourage
the puppies to drink water as soon and as possible and was
surprised by how soon this happened. Whilst the puppies were
still only blindly crawling around I disturbed fresh water
in a bowl to make a splashing noise and the puppies made a
bee-line to drink. At this point Tokai was always the first
to do everything. The sound of water is obviously deeply hardwired
into the wee things.
We
all learnt a lot and are happily proud of the resulting robustly
healthy, happy and playful puppies resulting from our inexperienced
but enthusiastic diligence.
We would love to hear other
puppy rearing tips from you and will talk about older pups
in the next instalment.
