My Best Friend…

Summer is almost here, and the collies are shedding their Winter coats like crazy!  I’ve been brushing out their coats, trying to speed things along.  Ryder is my senior, rough collie.  As he will be turning 14 in August, he can’t stand for long grooming sessions.  Since it was a rare nice day, as it’s been a very rainy season, I took him out in the yard to brush out his coat.  He loves to stretch out in the grass while I brush through his fur.  

After we were done, I decided to take some pictures of the old man, he looked so handsome next to my collie garden.  

I feel so grateful to still have him with me, especially after losing Kori last year.  Puppies are adorable, and so much fun, but seniors are my favorite.  They bring so much comfort and are perfect companions.  

The prettiest flower in my garden is my collie flower!

Ryder is slowing down, he has a bit of trouble getting up, and walks with a limp even with his pain meds.  This boy has been my best friend for nearly 14 years, and I desperately hope I will get to celebrate his 14th birthday with him.  So I treasure every day with him, and each night I worry about what tomorrow might bring.  But for now, I still have my best boy by my side.

Socialization and Enrichment

There are three kinds of stimulation that influence how a puppy develops.  The first, as previously discussed here, is ENS or early neurological stimulation.  The second is called socialization.  To be the most effective, the ideal time for puppy socialization is between 4 and 16 weeks old.  Too much or too little socialization during this period can negatively impact the puppies development, creating fearful, anxious or shy adults.

I’ve written posts about puppy socialization in the past, and they can be found here:

Puppy Socialization

Socialization

Of course our new puppies aren’t here yet, but we have already reached out to friends in anticipation of their arrival.  We’ve asked friends to plan on visiting our puppies, to help socialize them.  And they’ve all said yes, because who doesn’t want to cuddle a collie puppy?  

The third kind of stimulation is called enrichment.  This stimulation has no time limit, as you can begin as soon as the puppies have opened their eyes and have begun to explore their environment. Enrichment  provides puppies with positive experiences.  This allows the puppies to explore and investigate the world around them while helping build their confidence.  Puppies supplied with many different forms of enrichment typically grow up to be more inquisitive and intelligent adults.

There are many forms of enrichment, and we have enjoyed creating new methods with our past litters.  I thought it would be fun to share some of the videos from when Peyton and Addi were puppies, as I don’t think I ever shared them here.  They show some of our efforts to provide socialization and enrichment.

In this video the puppy with the white on her nose and head is Peyton.

Hungry little puppies, can you spot Peyton?

Melody, now Lilac, was the only rough puppy in the litter.  This was her trying out the tunnel for the first time.

This is when we introduced some puppy play equipment.

The puppies can be seen here learning about new, loud noises as a large truck drives by the yard.

Here the puppies met a new friend!  They were definitely unsure, but curious, about the talking dragon!

This was the day we introduced the snuffle mat

And here is the first day we introduced their pool.  They quickly became fans of the pool, with the hot Summer weather we were experiencing!

I am researching new ideas to provide both socialization and enrichment for the new puppies.  I can’t wait to meet them!

Gestational Stages

Today is day 45 of Peyton’s pregnancy.  I thought I’d share where the puppies are in their development.

We are at 6 1/2 weeks, so they are starting to resemble puppies now.  The next 2 1/2 weeks will exciting as we prepare for their arrival.  We should be able to feel the puppies moving around Day 50, which would be Friday.

The images are from  Canine Scanning and they have some great info if you want to learn more.

The importance of Early Neurological Stimulation

 

There are many ways to raise a litter of puppies.  Some believe in letting nature take it’s course, allowing the mother to care for her puppies in the first few weeks.  Others follow a carefully regimented plan of care for raising puppies with no deviation.  We believe in providing a healthy diet, proper socialization and in following many of the established protocols of the Puppy Culture program.  

There has been a lot of discussion about the benefits of early neurological stimulation, or ENS.  According to research, starting ENS when puppies are 3 days old is important because this is when the period of rapid growth and development begins.  Between days 3 and 16, puppies experience a surge in brain development, which makes them highly receptive to the gentle manipulations of ENS.

The first step in ENS is to remove each puppy, individually, from the Mom, for up to 3 minutes. (No longer) As puppies cannot regulate their body temperature, they cuddle up against their Mom and/or littermates to stay warm.  By removing them for a very short time, they experience a slight drop in temperature.  This mild form of stress is enough to stimulate their hormonal, adrenal and pituitary systems.  When these same puppies are tested as adults, they were better able to withstand stress.  These individuals were also found to be more resistant to certain forms of cancer and infectious diseases.  According to the research, ENS is found to help dogs cope, adjust, and adapt to new or stressful situations as adults.

There are five additional exercises in the ENS program.  They are only performed once a day, and only for 3 - 5 seconds each.  The study advises that overstimulation of the nervous system can have a negative effect, so these should not be performed more than once a day, and for no longer than a few seconds.

The handler starts with one pup and stimulates it using each of the five exercises. The handler completes the series from beginning to end before starting with the next pup. The handling of each pup once per day involves the following exercises:

    1    Tactical stimulation (between toes)

    2    Head held erect

    3    Head pointed down

    4    Supine position

    5    Thermal stimulation

How to perform the exercises:

1 Tactile stimulation - holding the pup in one hand, the handler gently stimulates (tickles) the pup between the toes on any one foot using a Q-tip. It is not necessary to see that the pup is feeling the tickle. Time of stimulation 3 - 5 seconds.

2 Head held erect - using both hands, the pup is held perpendicular to the ground, (straight up), so that its head is directly above its tail. This is an upwards position. Time of stimulation 3 - 5 seconds. 

3 Head pointed down - holding the pup firmly with both hands the head is reversed and is pointed downward so that it is pointing towards the ground. Time of stimulation 3 - 5 seconds.

4 Supine position - hold the pup so that its back is resting in the palm of both hands with its muzzle facing the ceiling. The pup while on its back is allowed to sleep. Time of stimulation 3-5 seconds.

5 Thermal stimulation—use a damp towel that has been cooled in a refrigerator for at least five minutes. Place the pup on the towel, feet down. Do not restrain it from moving. Time of stimulation 3-5 seconds.

According to the research, these are 5 main benefits that have been observed in dogs that were exposed to the exercises:

1 Improved cardio vascular performance (heart rate)

2 Stronger heart beats

3 Stronger adrenal glands

4 More tolerance to stress

5 Greater resistance to disease

The research goes on to document additional findings.  They claim the puppies who have had gone through the ENS protocols are “more active and exploratory.”  They also claim that these puppies were able to navigate mazes with less stress and fewer errors.   Based on the results, following the ENS protocols can greatly improve a dog’s ability to adapt to new situations with less stress.  As the studies have been around a while now, and as the exercises have been successfully adopted by many dog breeders,  introducing ENS seems to lead to beneficial neurological development in puppies.  When raising puppies, we want to give them every advantage, helping them to become not only healthy and well socialized, but able to problem solve and handle stressful situations.  ENS seems to be the first step in raising happy, well adjusted puppies.  More to come…

(These puppies and their Mom are not our puppies.  My daughter whelps litters for other collie breeders, so I’m getting to spend time with these cuties while they are in her care.)

How do you choose?

Someone asked why we chose Beckham as the sire of our next litter.  There were a few reasons, all equally important.  First, we have been carefully developing our own line of collies.  Although not closely related, Beckham comes from the same lines as Peyton’s sire, Damit.  And Beckham is also the sire of our beautiful rough, Rosie, so his and Peyton’s puppies will tie our future pedigrees together.  So not only were we carefully planning this litter on paper, we wanted to choose a stud dog that produced healthy puppies with beautiful expressions and lovely coats.  Beckham was fully health tested, like Peyton, and also has his championship title.  

Peyton as a puppy 

We haven’t had a litter in so long, we kept delaying while we focused on earning titles with our collies.  But it was finally time, and after carefully researching pedigrees, looking at the results of the health testing  of possible stud dogs, we narrowed down our list to three stud dogs.  What made my final decision was Rosie herself.  I just love her sweet, beautiful expression and gentle temperament.  So we discussed this with Beckham’s owner, and she immediately agreed that it would be a lovely breeding.

I wasn’t sure if I was even going to share this news on our blog until after the puppies arrived. But we are so excited, I just couldn’t wait any longer.  Peyton is due around June 27th, so the countdown has begun, 25 days to go!  

On this short video you can see one of the puppy’s heart beating in the center of the video.

And Finally…Our Announcement

Did you guess our secret?  It’s been so hard to keep this news to ourselves, and we just can’t wait any longer!  Our beautiful Peyton, CH Winterberry’s Lightning Strikes Twice, BCAT, FITB, is celebrating!  

(Don’t worry, She only got a bite)

Why?  Because she has some exciting news!

Peyton is expecting!  Peyton is due sometime around the end of June.  It’s been five years since we last had puppies, and we are so excited.  The veterinarian who did her ultrasound said she thought Peyton was having 5 - 6 puppies. 

As the Sire, Beckham, is a rough tri color collie, and Peyton is a tri factored sable, we could have sables or tri colors and they could be roughs or smooths.  I’ve always found collie coat inheritance interesting.  I wrote about it a long time ago, the post can be found here - A Coat of a Different Color.  The post describes all the different types of coat colors and the difference between the smooth and rough varieties.  The charts below go into a bit more detail, as they give percentages from different pairings.

Going by these charts, Peyton’s litter could be 50% tri colors and 50% tri factored sables.  The litter could also have 50% rough coated puppies and 50% smooth coated puppies.  Of course, we just have to wait and see, as genetics don’t always follow the rules.  Anyone want to guess how many tris, how many sables, how many roughs, how many smooths and how many males and females?  Leave us a comment!