On August 6, Cara gave birth to 5 puppies. She was nice enough to deliver in the middle of the afternoon and quickly settled into taking care of her 3 sons and 2 daughters.
The first days with puppies are always stressful because they are fragile as newborns, but really the most important thing a breeder can do in most cases is support mom and keep her happy, so that was what we focused on. From the beginning the puppies have all gained weight pretty much every day, which always a sign that puppies are thriving and healthy.
Starting on Day 3 and ending on Day 16, we did Early Neurological Stimulation and Early Scent Introduction each day with the litter. Early Neurological Stimulation is intended to expose neonatal puppies to very small stressors to help build resiliency to stress later in life. Early Scent Introduction, which was part of the Avidog program, exposes young puppies to a variety of odors. This isn’t intended as training, just exposure. I try to alternate between odors they may encounter in competition and household smells. The odors I used with this litter were: fresh lavender, birch essential oil, peppermint soap, anise essential oil, leather, clove essential oil, Angora rabbit yarn, cypress essential oil, coffee, vetiver essential oil, licorice tea, my handler discrimination glove, a plastic trash bag, and rabbit fur with bottled rabbit scent on it. Some of these were more appealing to the puppies than others and it’s really interesting to see preferences in such young puppies.
Record keeping is an important part of raising litters. Recording daily weights is obvious, but it’s also really helpful to keep notes, photos, and videos to mark developmental milestones. This became really clear to me last year when singleton Bee had a lot of trouble getting up on her feet. Watching videos of past litters at the same age made it clear to be that intervention was necessary and by acting quickly, we were able to help her get back on track within a few days. Also, puppy pictures and videos are adorable, so everyone needs more of them.
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