The Cookie Sheet aka Therma-whelp
A couple of people have asked me about the Therma-whelp. Here is a photo of the set up.
It has a base that slides under the box and then the pole is outside the box and the ceramic heat lamp hangs over the box. The power cord runs along the pole outside the box. It adjusts in height to control the temps. The cookie sheet tray collects the heat and the puppies climb on and off of it as needed.
The holiday treats, Candy, Cookie, Fudge and Nog thank their Uncle Randy for their great Christmas present that keeps them toasty warm!
Why me?
Mandy is the first victim of the dreaded Christmas hat bag. Isn’t she a cute elf?
The Holiday Treats
Candy, Cookie, Fudge and Nog on Day 4
He's not heavy he is our brother (Nog on top of the pile)
Hooray for Cody and Charlie!
Good job team! 2nd place Rally Novice A for their 1st leg.
What’s in a name?
Naming puppies is a lot of fun. Finding the right theme, the perfect registered name, the perfect call name and of course that all important stupid nickname that doesn’t have anything to do with any of the above.
How do you pick the names? People have different methods, they use the alphabet and give the puppies registered names starting with the same letter. Some use a litter theme with all the puppy names following the them. Some use a word and include that in all the puppy names and sometimes they use the parents names to come up with a connection. I always want a cool name that will sound good when David Frei announces it as the WKC Best in Show winner (a girl has got to dream right?), so normally stay away from cuties names.
Now our babies are really too young to name other than a box name to identify them as babies. Normally I have some type of idea on where to go name wise but not really this time. So I guess it is time to brainstorm.
Here is what we have:
1 Boy and 3 Girls (all Black and White tris)
Mom is Ch Arylan Flying Start
Dad is Arylan Mint Proof
Most of the Solstice Cardigans have the Flying/Fly as part of their name:
Example, Flying Start, Flying Spirit, Flying Snow, Flying Circus, Flying Ace, Flying Farmer, Flight from Justice, Flying the Colors.
These puppies were born on Pearl Harbor Day:
So where to go now? I’ve had some good suggestions on possible themes but nothing has jumped right out yet. I let the companion puppy folks help with the names so they are happy with what they choose but they still follow along the chosen theme somehow.
Any ideas?
What happens tomorrow?
Tomorrow something happens that as a breeder you always hope for, tomorrow a new exhibitor enters the ring for the 1st time with her dog that you bred. Tomorrow Cody and her Charlie take their 1st steps into the performance arena. They will be doing pre Novice A one day and Rally Novice A one day at the local trials.
I’m very proud of them no matter what their scores. I’m disappointed that I can’t be there to watch, Cody said yesterday, I tossed her out of the nest. The trials are in El Paso but I am too paranoid to go to a dog show with 4 day old puppies at home.
So tomorrow I wish them luck and wait for word.
Good Luck Cody and Charlie!!!
Hi World!
We are calling this a wave. I need to come up with puppy box names, so far nothing has hit me yet. I don’t even have a litter theme going yet. What is wrong with me LOL.
A date which will live in infamy
Ok not as dramatic or world-changing as Pearl Harbor day but December 7, 2010 will be remembered as a really LONG day here at Solstice Kennels.
As you know we were expecting Lindy’s litter around 12/6 and the X-ray taken showed 7 or possibly 8 puppies so we were ready!
I had added some new things to my whelping kit. I set up a warming box as suggested by Myra Savant Harris, RN instructions, I had my O2 set up (thanks for the help Cody). I had my new ThermaWhelp system set up (www.breederbase.com) which is very cool, well really warm.
Of course as a responsible breeder, I try really hard to be ready and have things on hand that will help mom and babies. We plan and take precautions but of course we really hope for a nice natural whelping with lots of healthy puppies.
Mother Nature always has the most control over any whelping and she doesn’t always want to cooperate.
Lindy started pre Labor around midnight on 12/7 and by noon her water had broken. She went into labor and seemed to take a long time. I called my vet and while waiting to talk to Dr. Robin (Thanks Northeast Vets!) the 1st puppy was born, unfortunately a stillborn boy puppy at about 3:30pm. Dr. Robin said wait about an hour and then come into the clinic. About 45 min later the 2nd stillborn girl was born and while we were trying to see if there was any life left in her # 3 showed up, a live puppy boy!
Things sort of stopped again and we were packing up to the clinic the 1st live girl puppy showed up and followed by another about an hour later. Then Lindy slowed down again, never seemed really in distress, taking care of the 3 babies and being a great Mommy. This is around 9pm and by this time I have been up over 24 hours. Around midnight our 3rd girl puppy showed up.
By 3am Lindy had pretty much stopped and was taking break. I knew the Lindy’s Mom Gig had done the same thing so maybe what we thought was the last puppy was coming later. Plus I was so tired I knew I could not safely drive to the E-clinic. At 4am I set the clock to wake me up every 15 minutes to check on everyone. I got up and took care of the other dogs and took a shower to prepare to go to the clinic when they opened at 8am and when I came back in the room Lindy was once again having pretty strong contractions and I thought OK, let’s wait a bit and see if we get a puppy. Big NO! Damn it! So at 10:30am we packed up and went to the Clinic.
X-rays were taken and about 24 hours after her water broke we found out that there were 3 left in there and they were nowhere near the birth canal. Dr Bailey (shout out to Dr Bailey!) did some blood work and all her levels were good so she gave her an Oxy shot to try and get them moving along. About 20 minutes we had the 1st arrival and then another not to long later and even with the hard work done by Dr. Bailey and the team the puppies just were gone.
Nothing happened for a while so another Oxy shot was given and even after lots of strong contractions that last puppy wasn’t showing up. During this time the babies had nursed and been mothered by Lindy so they were doing well in their nice little warm box.
Since nothing was happening Dr. Bailey took another set of X-ray and sure enough the puppy was right at the birth canal, a big ole puppy in the breech position and he wasn’t coming out. At 3pm we decided to go in after the puppy via C-section. I packed the babies home and waited for news (we pretty much knew the puppy was going to be dead). I hadn’t been home long when Dr. Bailey called and said that with the help of Dr Scott (Yay Dr. Scott) they had whelped the puppy without the surgery but they had used anesthesia on Lindy to relax her and they wanted to keep her for a couple of hours for recovery. At 6pm I went and got her and brought her home.
We got settled, babies fed and cleaned and then I went to BED!
So we started at 12am 12/7 and ended at 8:30pm 12/8.
Lindy is fine and a great Mom! We have 4 vigorous puppies, 1 boy and 3 girls and I got about 6 hours sleep last night.
I of course am in the “what if” mode, if I had done xxxx would things have turned out different? At this point second guessing will only make me sad, I did what I thought was right and we will now work hard to make sure the 4 we have do well.
Just remember if you want to breed a litter, be prepared because Mother Nature does what Mother Nature does and you can be really prepared and have a battle or you can be like some people who have no preparation and have an easy time. You never know until it happens.
This morning all the girl puppies gained some weight and the boy stayed the same and with the drama I expected a loss so I was very pleased.
I’ll try and post photos later today.
The final four
After a long almost three days here are the final four. A longer blog about the experience after I sleep and remember it.
Solstice Kennels 