One more puppy update! (May 31st)

Merrdith

 

Today the puppies are 9 days old.  I can’t believe how quickly the days are flying by, in a few days they will be opening their eyes.  That’s when we really get to see their personalities shine through.

Meredith, smooth, sable girl.

Mark, smooth, sable boy

Christina, smooth, tri color girl

Derek, rough, sable boy

Alex, smooth, sable boy

Izzy, our little rough girl

Have I mentioned how much I love these puppies?  

Catching up! (May 24th)

We are so behind on updating, but wanted to make sure everyone was doing well before sharing our puppy news. Peyton is doing great, she is recovering well from whelping her 6 babies.  The puppies are still gaining and they are getting more vocal and active.

Mark (green) Izzy (yellow)

Christina

Puppy update! (May 23rd)

The puppies are all doing great, and steadily gaining weight.  The two roughs, Derek and Izzy, are smaller than their smooth littermates, but they are still slowly gaining.

Izzy snuggling with her Mom

Mark

We love these puppies, and Peyton is being such a great Mom!

More to come…

Finally…our exciting news!

On May 22nd we welcomed our newest Winterberry collies to the family!

Peyton had 3 boys and 3 girls! (Left to right) Meet Meredith, Mark, Christina, Derek, Alex and Izzy!  Derek and Izzy are both rough collies, the others are all smooths.  All our litters have been very special to us, but we were especially excited about this litter as we absolutely love the puppies’ Sire, Dunkin.  We actually bred our Addison to Dunkin last year, but she missed, so we decided to breed Dunkin to Peyton.  Happily the result was a litter of 6 little nuggets, and we are so grateful that they are all doing great.

So prepare for lots of Puppy spam in the upcoming weeks!

Cuteness Overload!

We are still in the grip of Winter, with yet another Winter Storm looming on the horizon.  With all the snow, which has been melting and freezing, the puppies haven’t been able to enjoy the outside world.  But they are growing and thriving, and somehow, they are now 8 weeks old!  We did our usual photoshoot, to get some great pictures of them, and I’m so happy with how they came out!  Let’s start with the boys…

 

Sam (smooth) on the left and Dean (rough)
on the right

Sam the smooth boy

Dean the rough boy

I love the picture of the brothers, with Sam snuggling up against Dean.  The girls were next, and posed so beautifully for us!  You would think they were professional puppy models! 

Left to right, Danika (rough) Shannon (smooth) and Bryce (rough)

Danika

Shannon

Bryce

All the puppies are beautiful, and we had the hardest time choosing our keeper.  In the end we decided to keep Shannon. It’s very difficult to let any of them go, and my heart will break when they leave, but we found great homes for Danika and Bryce.  For now, both Sam and Dean are staying.  We didn’t plan on this, but they both have some beautiful virtues, so we are keeping them for a few more weeks, to see how they look at 10 weeks old.

As we already have their handsome half brother, Nolan, we weren’t planning on keeping a smooth boy.  Since Nolan and Sam are both smooth tri colors, and closely related, we might let Sam go, if the right show home comes along.  There’s just something about Sam that catches your eye.  And we’ve never had a rough tri color, so when our co-breeder asked us to keep Dean, it didn’t take much to convince us. 

They all had good eye checks, and they all went to the vet 2 days ago for their 1st vaccines and health checks, and they all did great.   That’s all for now, I’ll post updates soon, promise! 

So much to be thankful for…

 On Thursdays, in the world of bloggers, we often post about things we are Thankful for each week.  And this week, I have a lot to be thankful for!  Yesterday we took ZuZu for her ultrasound, and the veterinarian gave us 8, possibly 9, reasons to be thankful!  She thinks our ZuZu may be having 8 - 9 collie puppies!  

Of course ultrasounds are not totally reliable, so we won’t know for certain until the puppies arrive.  But what we do know, ZuZu has a nice-sized litter, and they have nice strong heartbeats!  You can see the tiny heart beating in this video.

They aren’t due until Christmas Eve, so we have 5 weeks to go.  We will keep everyone updated, but please send ZuZu and her puppies all your good thoughts and prayers for an easy whelping and for a healthy Mom and puppies!

Another reason we are thankful, Nolan received some mail this week.  With all the winning he has done so far, Nolan earned this “Puppy of Achievement” certificate from the AKC.  This program was created by the AKC to encourage puppy owners to begin practicing in the conformation ring, to socialize and prepare their puppies to begin competing in conformation shows once the puppy turns six months old.  As the 4 - 6  month puppy class does not award actual points towards earning a championship, this certificate is sent to honor and acknowledge the puppy’s wins in those classes, as well as any points they win before they turn a year old.  It’s a nice certificate to receive for Nolan’s wins, and we added it to our Winterberry Collies scrapbook.  Our puppy, Morgan, will be going to her 1st dog show this weekend.  She will be competing in the 4 - 6 month puppy class.   Hopefully she will come home with a bit of ribbon, but even more importantly, we are hoping she has a lot of fun.  We want her to think dog shows are awesome, and hope she gets a chance to shine.

Outside is so Big!

The puppies ventured outside for the first time on Monday, and they were not fans! They liked their new toys, and enjoyed the soft bed.  But outside was too big, the grass too prickly and there were way too many new smells!  It’s the same with every litter, the puppies are always overwhelmed at first.

They definitely like the new toys, but prefer to play inside in the air conditioning!  They also like being downstairs now, so they can see everyone.

Nolan, who is not quite 8 months old and is still very much a puppy, was so happy they were moved into the living room.  He got to meet the girls for the first time, and fell in love with them.  (he is shedding like crazy right now!). Morgan really seemed to like him too.  Rory was a little more hesitant about the big guy.

It was a very big day for them, with lots of new experiences.  But they recovered quickly, and seemed very happy.

We have so many more adventures planned for them, but we are taking it slow, this was enough for a few days.

They are becoming such beautiful collies, I love their sweet little faces!

Morgan

Rory

Rory

Please check back, as we will posting more of these two cuties in the upcoming weeks!

More puppy stuff…

I know lately all our posts have been about the puppies, but these first few weeks go by so quickly and they change so rapidly, I want to capture it all.  This past weekend the girls turned 3 weeks old, and tomorrow they will be 4 weeks old already.  I’m so thankful that they are doing well, and they both have definite personalities already!

Rory

Rory

Morgan

Morgan

Morgan

They’ve also begun playing, and have started doing play growls, which are adorable!

I bought them enrichment toys, and we will be trying them out this weekend.  So there will be lots of pictures and videos as they are introduced to new toys and go outside for the first time.  Please come back to enjoy the fun!  And thank you to everyone who took time to comment about Melanie, it was very appreciated.

10 days old!

The puppies are doing well.  They are healthy and strong, and gaining weight.  Peyton is such an amazing Mom.  She’s very careful and gentle with her puppies, and watching her with them, you can see how much she loves them.  

I was on vacation for the last 10 days, and didn't get much done.  All I wanted to do each day was sit and watch Peyton and her girls.  There is something so peaceful about watching the puppies nurse and sleep. 

Now that they are 10 days old, their eyes will soon be open.  And once that happens, they soon begin exploring and playing.  We are already beginning to see glimmers of their developing personalities.

They grow so quickly, and seem to change overnight. So we are trying to enjoy every moment with them, and have been using the ENS exercises detailed in previous posts.

These girls are so tiny and so perfect, I can’t wait to see how they develop over the upcoming weeks!