We are a responsible small family breeder of English Springer Spaniel puppies. Our goal is to place high quality, biddable dogs with joyful, gentle temperaments in dog-loving homes.
Time certainly has flown since we were born and we are getting busier and busier (although it might not look it here)!
We still snooze 70% of the time even with the going ons.
Visitors
The last two weeks we had visitors: Carolyn who is a BFF of Ann's and an incredible Springer field trialer checked out how cute we are, and Ann's sister Mary and their friends Pat and his twin 7 year olds came to visit from Montreal. Since we're half Canadian that was fun to play every day with our Canadian friends!
Mary helps us get our portraits done while Uncle Charlie looks on.
Charlie and Momma get some much need personal attention.
Goldie getting loved.
Tiny hands and tiny paws
Ann and Jim left us for just a little bit when they went to the fair with everyone. And guess what Ann found there? GIANT Springer puppies. She wanted to take one home to us but she just couldn't win one!
Look at all those BIG Springer puppies!
Glad we aren't way up there!
Progress Report
With all of that though a lot has been going on inside our pen. First off we began walking, then our eyes began to open (see our new portraits below), and we also began to hear!
Since we now can hear and see, we started rough housing - though we're still a bit wobbly! That meant time to introduce us the solid food.
Right now we have puppy gruel in the morning and at dinner but Momma Bella still nurses us at least 4 times a day or more. She also does a great job of cleaning us and our pen - we get pretty messy in the food dish! She still doesn't want Uncle Charlie or Grandma Addie in our "bedroom" but she does let them sniff us if Ann or Jim are holding us. And of course nothing like cuddling with Mom.
Nothing like a cuddle with Momma
Orchid has Momma all to herself (Orchid looks A LOT like Momma!)
Momma is the sweetest, she's always watches us as Ann cleans our bedroom!
And Ann realized it was time for us to have a bigger pen. Jim and Ann changed it all out last night. Ann's hoping we soon learn to use the paper instead of our blankets for eliminating but really?! We hardly know how to do this ourselves yet without Mom cleaning us and our walking is still wobbly especially on newspaper! The cool thing is that when Ann cleans our bedroom, we get to hang out by Jim's piano — we're in the music room! So any piano you hear in the background — well that's Jim playing for us!
Snoozing again while our new bedroom and play area get cleaned.
Momma checks out our larger room to make sure it is up to snuff!
That was tiring moving in!
Orchid and Indy cuddle up
Uncle Charlie keeps watch.
New Portraits!
So how would you like to see our cute portraits from a week ago when our eyes barely first opened? Well here we are!
Setting up the shots: Ann used her iPhone while Jim used his Canon. Mary and Ann took turns holding us!
Betcha didn't know we spend 90% of our time sleeping right now—helps our brains grow!
Sleeping Sienna
Orchid, Goldenrod, and Cadet Blue snoozing
I’m sitting here with them in the late evening. Charlie at my feet and Bella contentedly nursing her 6 precious Little’s (as Melanie, her Dad’s breeder calls these cutie pies).
Today they started doing 2 new things!!!! Their first attempts at barking. Until now we heard mostly peaceful suckling noises and then sounds more akin to mewing of kittens, and alarmed squeals when needed. However today little barks!!!! So cute!!!! Secondly their back legs are starting to work in a quavering fashion. You can see them flexing their tiny feet in such a way that their weight actually is supported briefly by their tiny paws. Check out the video. We even saw a belly or two a full centimeter off the ground for a second, maybe two!
Any day now they will open their eyes, they’ll be the dog equivalent of crawling then walking, and they’ll hear! Amazing that they are vocal before they even hear!!! Stay tuned!
And some day we'll be as sweet and beautiful as our Mom.
My goodness, we are growing so fast! We've doubled our weight in week! We still can't see or hear but we are getting really good at moving around, finding mom, eating, and sleeping. And once a day, we fly into the air and get hugged, weighed, and out in a new bed. Next thing we know we are back in our whelping box and it is all clean!
There has been a decidedly lack of sleep for myself the last 4 days. You might wonder why if you haven't bred dogs. There is so much to be aware of especially at the start. Mom may become sick and she is dealing with postpartum issues from not wanting to eat, to wanting to eat too much, to panting due to contractions and the heat of the whelping box.
Bella and her nurslings content in the whelping box with guard rail.
The first three days are also the most critical for the pups. Any defects might take them away or Mom might accidently sleep on them, they might lose body heat or not get enough milk. Of course as a breeder you take all sorts of pre-cautions - like in our case, Jim has made the whelping box to meet safety guidelines as well as the guard rail the little ones can sleep under, and a thermostatically controlled heat lamp that keeps the pen at a cosy 85 degrees for the first week and which we will set to cooler temperatures as the pups mature.
Little Violet well fed and fast asleep
But this morning I was more tired than ever when my friend Melanie Conrad, Oliver and Eero's breeder (Waternymph English Springer Spaniels), shared a poem with me. It is ever so true and somehow reading it made my exhaustion fade away.
Here is the poem Melanie sent and I have since found on other sites:
The hand of a breeder...
The hand of a breeder is the hand that calms the dog during childbirth...
It's the hand that caresses his belly to calm her during contractions...
The hand of a breeder is the hand that makes the path free to let the puppies be born easier...
It's the hand that doesn't shake and is under the blood to help a puppy in difficulties.
The hand of a breeder is the hand that breaks the puppies' bag if it is not broken after birth...
It's the hand that helps to rub and clean the puppies and help their breathing.
The hand of a breeder is the one who tries to revive a puppy, but sometimes he has to give up when there is no beat.
The hand of a breeder is the hand that cut the umbilical cord when the mother doesn't...
Also, the breeder's hand is the one that weighs the puppy every day to check if everything goes well.
The hand of a breeder is the hand that puts a puppy away closer to the mother while the mother looks at you full of confidence...
The hand that rubs the chest, so that breast milk is activated...
The hand of a breeder is the one who rubs in his eyes and fights fatigue and sleeps after days without reconciling the dream.
It's the hand that gives milk bottles day and night when there is very little performance.
The hand of a breeder is the one that brings the lost puppy back to the mother, the one who plays with the puppy to socialize, the one who teaches the puppy to change to solid nutrition.
The hand of a breeder is the hand that takes care of the little ones when it does not go well with them
The hand of a breeder is the hand that you have entrusted to your future puppy in the hope that it will go well.
The hand of a breeder is the hand that is ready day and night to answer all your questions if you have any doubt about anything.
For all these and many other things, the next time you shake your hand to a breeder, think about everything that hand has done with love.
Of course it made me all sweetly teary eyed - or perhaps it is these 6 beautiful pups, Bella, and our other two Grandma Addie and Uncle Charlie who are so sweet and gentle right now.
Uncle Charlie checking out his sister and her pups
...or perhaps he wants her food.
And this is the sweetness that greets me once the darkness lifts and the sun rises.
It's Day Three and we have lots to share! As of today 4 have new homes so if you are interested please contact us! This is such a pretty little litter: half are liver and white, half are black and white. At least 2 are tri-colors and at least 2 are going to be full of ticking!
Liver and white top, black and white with ticking bottom
Both may be tri-colored
Therefore Ann has been calling it her Crayon litter. Therefore we dove into the box of crayons to give them temporary names until they find their new families. So today we have two things to share: we'd like to introduce you to them individually and we have some very sweet early morning dreaming puppy videos to share. __________________________________________________________________ First the videos! Enjoy!
__________________________________________________________________ Then the Photo Shoot:
Bella has been a very good mom to her newborns, and even though she is our Addie's daughter, there are some differences. Both dogs hated being away from their pups at this stage for any longer than a few minutes. Both refused to eat or drink unless we hand fed them in the whelping box. However Bella is more tentative with her pups in that for the first two days she really would get nervous if we picked them up very long. Likewise she counts her pups after she's been away or when we return them to her after weighing them!
Bella - such a good momma
Bella and her pups
Therefore we waited a few days until she was comfortable before taking their newborn portraits. You can see us setting up the shoots below!
