It’s July 8 in Missouri and these pups are on the heat pad
These puppies are on the heating pad when they are only hours old.
The pups get off the pad when they get warm.
I’m far from an expert on raising puppies but I wanted to share some of the things I do with mine. I have a whelping box inside a shed that is air conditioned. There is a large pen outside that the mother can use by going through a dog door. I move her to the shed several days before she is due. My vet said there are as many pups born at 60 days as there are at 63.
I check the female often but usually they start breathing really hard a few hours before the pups start coming. Even in the summer, I plug a heat pad in for the pups. According to what I’ve read if a puppy loses 1 degree of temperature the mother will kick that pup out. In my opinion, the heating pad will help keep the puppies temperature up. I don’t know if the mothers put the pups on the pad or they go to it on their on but even if it’s 75 degrees in the shed, the puppies will be on the heat pad, in their first 2 or 3 weeks.
I get as many people as I can to come by and pet the puppies. From day one the pups are handled several times a day. If I have a litter of pups and you come by my house you have to go pet puppies. At 2 or 3 days old, either I remove the dew claws or have the vet remove them.
I weigh the pups each week to make sure that they are all growing at the same rate and I need to know their weight to worm them. I worm at 3, 4 and 6 weeks. I worm the mother and the pups.
The pups open their eyes about 10 days old but they can’t hear until they are about 3 weeks old. At 3 weeks old I start feeding the puppies. If I have a pup that is smaller than the others I let it eat first then put the others in with it. When I start feeding the pups I play a gun conditioning CD from Masters Voice. I feed the puppies twice a day so they hear this CD twice a day, starting a 3 weeks old until they go home with their new owners. Also, at 3 weeks old I put collars on the pups with about 18 inches of small rope dragging. They drag each other around with these ropes and it helps teach them to lead.
My vet gave me a recipe for a mix that is close to mothers milk. The recipe is as follows:
* One can evaporated milk
* One can of water
* One table spoon of plain yogurt
* One egg yolk (egg whites are supposed to be bad for dogs)
* One tablespoon Karo syrup or honey
At about 4 weeks old I start mixing dry dog food in with the milk. I let the dry food soak in the milk for 15 minutes or so then heat it to luke warm. I have the milk in a pint jar and I pick the feed pan up and drop it, then pour the milk in. The pups learn to come to the sound of the pan hitting the floor. I also throw pans and buckets into the shed. I want the pups to know that when I’m around there will be noise.
According to the weather I start taking them outside to play. I raise pigeons and once the pups get used to being outside I put a young pigeon, that can’t fly, down in front of them. When they get too aggressive for the young pigeons I start letting pigeons fly from my hand. Until the pups get used to this I make sure that the pigeons wings don’t hit the ground as they fly away. If the wings don’t hit the ground they make very little noise flying away.
I also, take a handful of dry dog food and throw it in the grass. As the pups come into the area where it is I tell them to “look close”. This teaches them to use their nose and the “look close” can be used hunting dead later on, or hunt an area where you think singles may be.
I take the pups on walks and have pigeons in a bird bag. As we walk along the pups will be inspecting every thing then they get tired. When they slow down a little I toss a pigeon out where they can see it. That gets them fired up again.
At about 6 weeks old and after all of the pups are chasing the fly away pigeons I put some pigeons to sleep by putting their head under their wing and straightening their legs out. I put them down on the wing their head is under then cover them with grass. I get the whole litter to go for a walk. The first few times I may have to walk the pups right over the pigeons but it’s not long before they find them from scent. By the time these pups go home with their new owners they are bird crazy.
I like for the owners to leave the puppies until they are at least 8 weeks old and it doesn’t hurt to leave them up to 10 weeks. This gives them an opportunity to learn to be dogs. After 10 weeks old they need to be separated.
This is not the only way to raise pups it’s just my way but I have been fortunate to be able to raise well adjusted puppies that really like people. Today I had calls from two people wanting to buy a pup and they both had bought pups from me in the last 5 or 6 years. They were ready to start another one of my pups. That’s really satisfying.
Teasing the puppies with a pigeon.
The puppies like pigeons.
Puppies with pigeons.