AND SHE'S BACK

Brandy is a strong girl, after all she did come out 16 hours after two of her brothers. Which is why I might be so worried about her today. She is doing fine now, eating well and moving around. It was quite a scare to see her not interested in nursing. She usually acts like she is starving and her tail wags while she is nursing. 

Beau is still the tinniest. Bear and Beethoven are getting pretty big. If it wasn't for their markings, I probably wouldn't be able to tell them apart. 

BRANDY ISN'T DOING TOO WELL TODAY

Last night was really cold. I had both heat lamps on the dogs. I checked on them at twelve, they were fine, then went to bed. This morning when I got up Brandy seemed kind of weak. I've tried several times to get her to nurse. She drinks a little then goes back to sleep.

I went out to check on them again, she was laying in the sun. Now, she is panting, but, she did drink some more from her mama. She is a strong one, I hope she will be okay.

I'VE NAMED THE PUPPIES...........................FOR NOW

As I was looking at the puppies yesterday, the name Bear came to mind for the first born. He's so big and frankly he looks like a bear. So then I thought about names for the rest of them. The littlest one is Beau, he's so sweet and tiny compared to the rest of them. The only girl, Brandy. For the life of me I could not think of a name for the second born male. Then it came to me, Beethoven.

Beau is on the left, Beethoven on the right

Brandy is on the left, Bear on the right.

I truly think Brandy has Sophie's markings with the exception, she will be more of a saddle back Shepherd. Only time will tell.

I've been learning a lot with this whole breeding process. If I decide to continue breeding Sophie or one of her puppies. I am supposed to start the first litter with the letter A. I of course do not think there are very many good boy names starting with A, so I choose B. I don't know if this is acceptable or not and quite frankly I don't care. Once the puppies leave here, it is up to their new owners to name them. They just have to keep our kennel name. A name with which I am still trying to figure out.


I was thinking of the following kennel names: 

Vom Sofienesshaus, this is a combination of Sophie and the stud, Ness. It means of/the Sophie/Ness house.

or, 

Vom Sophiehaus, which I like the best.

I AM IN AWE OF MY DOG

I cannot remember as a child our dogs having puppies. I know they did, I just don't remember. Watching Sophie giving birth, then cleaning her puppies, was just amazing to me. Watching her cleaning them was a trip, I honestly thought she was going to hurt them. I said as much to Harold, he told me she knows what to do. Each day I am more and more in awe of this process.

We purchased two heating lamps to keep the puppies warm. Living in Volcano, it can get into the low forties in the late evening and early morning hours. Volcano's weather is constantly changing throughout the day. One minute, it will be hot and sunny, then, cloudy and cold or pouring rain. However, I do feel sorry for Sophie with the heating lamps, she hates being hot.

On Friday, we had a beautiful sunny morning. I got up to check on the puppies at 8:00a.m., Sophie was frantic in her kennel. When I let her out of her kennel, thinking she need to go potty, she went behind one of the other kennels and started to dig. It took me a while to figure out what was going on, due to the sun being out she was worried the puppies were too hot. I shut the warming lights off and she instantly settled down. Mind you, I am new at all this. Later that afternoon, she started doing her frantic act again, the temperature was dropping. I turned the lights on, she once again settled down.

I am constantly checking on them, making sure all of them are eating well. I did not have children, I can't imagine how new mothers do it. The constant worrying is just too much and these are only puppies. 

My family thought I was nuts last night cause I didn't want to leave them for too long, after all it was New Year's.  But, it was a pretty cold night and I was worried about them. We went to my sisters house for about an hour and a half. Believe it or not I had a hard time being away from them. When I got home, I checked on them and they were fine. I got up at 3:00a.m. to check on them, the temperature had dropped quite a bit, I lowered the lights which warmed them up.

They are getting bigger day by day, I still worry about the last born. He is so tiny and the other three seem to push him out of the way. So I sit there and make sure he gets a belly full each feeding. 

The second puppy from the left is the little guy I worry about

As usual, I asked to pose and she did!

 As you can see by the above photos, he is such a little guy compared to the other three.