Our First Week

Sophie with her puppies mere minutes after they were born. It is like she has done it a million times before.

So, one week in and the puppies are growing up quickly! Everything has been going quite smoothly so far. The first few days after the puppies were born were a little hectic, but Sophie has been a natural, attentive mother - other than a couple of accidental 'squashings'. I am always amazed at how easily animals just cope instinctively with the sort of situations humans need hours of training to deal with (and even then, often still panic in).

 

Just to give you an idea of their size.

This is how big they were on their first day!

We had the stud owner come round on day 3 to look at the girl that he was going to have. He informed us that he would take it to the vets to have its tail docked. We were all fully against this, but as per the studding agreement, it was technically his dog, so we didn't have much we could do. I wasn't involved with the studding so I didn't even realise this situation until pretty recently.

The poor little girl about to be docked.

The next day we took the Sophie and all the puppies to the vets for the tail docking. Sophie and all the puppies came so as not to separate one from her for too long and because she needed to verify her as the mother for the docking to occur. 

Me keeping the other 3 puppies warm while mum had to go into the vets.

For those that don't know, tail docking is illegal in the UK, along with other largely cosmetic procedures to puppies such as ear cropping or dew claw removal, but there are exceptions. Ear cropping is totally banned in the UK for any purpose - and rightly so in my opinion. Tail docking is allowed if you can prove the dog is going to be used for working purposes. This can be for flushing or retrieving while hunting, for use in the military or police, for pest control, or for emergency rescue. It has to be done before the puppies are 5 days old, as this is when the bones are softest and the nervous system isn't as developed, theoretically reducing pain. Dew claws is a bit more of a grey area. It is largely legal but due to the wording of the animal welfare act that was passed in 2007, many vets require the same level of proof as for tail docking. For both dew claws and tail docking, it is true that dogs can get potentially painful injuries as an adult whilst working and so these procedures can prevent that. However, the data on this (specifically hunting and tail damage) is a bit conflicting. I am not going pass judgement here, as I am in no way qualified or experience. What I will say is, I really didn't want our puppies to be docked and in the future, we will likely insist that they are not docked.

The smallest of the litter - the youngest boy. Currently, nicknamed Bran.

The first born. I call her Sansa, but the neighbour wants her and says she is called Phoebe.

Anyway, the girl that was docked (that I am currently calling Arya) seems fine now, although reacts a

little differently when touched. The tail is healing nicely. We weighed them all on Friday, just shy of a week old, and they are all growing well. One of the boys (I am calling him Jon/Pie/Chunk), is growing really fast. He looks like he is going to be a real bruiser. The two girls (Sansa and Arya) are growing well, and the smallest boy (Bran) still looks healthy, although weighs nearly a third less than big Jon. We will weigh them again each week to track their growth.

Our poor tailless girl. Hasn't affected her appetite though! I call her Arya (I really need to get better names).

And lastly, here is the big boy, Jon (or Chunk, or Pie)! 2nd born but by far the biggest. It shows too. His head and paws are huge!

Oh, one more thing, we have a new stream, as the original was accidentally killed by one of the kids here. It is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSj_1a_1Ta0.

Thanks for reading! Looking forward to seeing our little dogs grow up. Hope you are too.

OFP