The promised decent weather materialized! I finished up taking the photos for the pups pages today and got them uploaded. Will post some of the extras in a slide show sometime tomorrow. Following individual photos I brought them out as a group which was enjoyed by all!!! They're really starting to spring to life and have got the concept of play down pretty well. With each other as well as toys. Fun to watch their confidence build! Safety in numbers... what one does, they all do. With the exception of the occasional pup that goes astray. Never far way, but astray none the less.
Seems the weather man lied once yet again. Too cold... too wet and crappy for outside play or photos. I did get the weights posted though. And had some indoor play time.
Wow! Five Weeks Old Today! And As Expected It Was A Week Full Of Change Mash Was Introduced And Thoroughly Enjoyed By All! I feed my adults... as well as the pups Victor. The adults are on HiPro Plus. The pups on Professional based on protein content. I've read numerous articles from a variety of sources that advise keeping the protein level of food for Doberman pups around 26%. Too much protein during the stage of rapid growth can lead to a condition called knuckling over. Various self accounts I've read state if a pup begins to knuckle the problem can generally be reversed fairly quickly by decreasing protein intake. As a result I try to feed a good food and stick to the 26% in an effort to avoid the situation. Many people have bought into the grain free hype based on superb marketing and wanting to do the best for their canine companions. It seems though, that may not be the best course of action. There's a great deal of controversy and quite a bit of research directed toward the grain free products. Some of which are very expensive.... Expensive but not necessarily good for your dog. I'm actually not suggesting everyone feed Victor. We all have research tools and Google at our finger tips. I do encourage people to do some research and aim for providing quality food for their pups. Chewy.com is a great source for supplies including foods and clearly states the nutritional content of each. They carry most. Dogfoodadvisor.com rates all or nearly all food and also keeps track of recalls. I feed Victor for a variety of reasons. My dogs do well on it, the company's been around for a long time, their products rate well on on the dogfood advisor site and to date they have had no recalls since tracking began in 2009. Early In The Week The pups got their first glimpse of the great outdoors. And All That Entails... I began week four with the weekly photos but since, at least until today, the weather has been too cold and crappy to get the babes out again. This afternoon was pretty pleasant and with it I got started on week five photos. But once again the rains came and caught me buy surprise. Didn't see it in the forecast last I checked. I've got two down and two to go!!! Tomorrows forecast and the bulk of next week look favorable. Hopefully that bears true. I'll get the photos complete and we'll get lots of outdoor time to make up for the week we missed. Seems there's always something interesting going on outside. A couple weeks ago it was the neighbors pigs who came to visit. Today it was Buzzards. Unfortunately, or not... the pups' momma took it upon herself to rid the property of yet another armadillo late last night. This morning and well into the afternoon the Buzzards arrived for grounds maintenance. They are literally huge and there must have been 20-30 of them present for one medium sized armadillo! Their size alone made me a bit nervous with such young pups in the yard. But apparently there is zero risk a buzzard would go after a pup. Per google it's unlikely they'd go after any meat eating animal, dead or alive, preferring herbivore over carnivores or omnivores. Yep, you guessed it. I did look it up. Didn't think they did but wanted to confirm they posed no threat. Hawks on the other hand, which we have plenty of, will scoop up a pup in a heartbeat. I and the adult dogs are always on watch for them. The dogs actually, especially the females, despise all large birds flying overhead. As a result I had the displeasure of listening to lots of barking today. But also the luxury of watching my dogs attempt to guard the property from that which they couldn't reach or ever catch. Dogs in action. Something I never tire of watching. I got a chance to put my cameras zoom feature to the test! Remedy In Action New Digs! Also this week we left the whelping box behind! Replaced by a new indoor habitat that consists of shavings for a potty area, a cot for a bed and a drinking station. Seems it's a smart bunch. We've only had one accident on the bed which I quickly cleaned up and de-scented. They seem to have things figured out which I greatly appreciate. I've turned the gate sideways to keep the pups contained while at the same time giving mom access. So for now the pups have the best of both worlds. Three meals a day and some supplemental nutrition from Ritz if she feels so inclined to provide it. So far she's been pretty good about venturing in there. She doesn't stay long but does still lay with them on occasion. Destroys their toys too! Unfortunately! Good momma. Bad momma! After one blustery, dark and nasty day yesterday we've got a well deserved and welcome break in the weather today. Wasn't sure I was going to get week four photos done based on the forecast but it's reached 60 degrees so I'm going for it. While it's a little chilly for a lengthy first outing for these pampered pooches, a quick photo shoot in the sun makes for a good get acquainted to the great outdoors experience! I'll post weights and update pages this evening. My Props For Week Four
It was brought to my attention there is a discrepancy on the date/day I posted a couple weeks back regarding our cropping appointment. The pups with be 8 weeks old on SATURDAY the 23rd.
Cropping is set for TUESDAY the 26th of February. Assuming all are behaving appropriately and get their health certificates the day of crop they will be ready for pick up WEDNESDAY the 27th. Keeping busy and getting caught up... The slide show below is compiled from photos I took a couple days ago. Pretty well describes the life in the day of a 3 week old GMBD pup. Ritz remains attentive to their needs but like clockwork, she's spending less time in the box and more on my bed. The pups are filling their days sleeping, harassing each other and eating when the opportunity presents itself. They've yet to lose their Roman noses but that should be occurring soon. And their eyes, as you can see, still have somewhat of a cloudy appearance and the third eyelid at the corners still pretty obvious. Completely normal as they're still developing. Their sight actually remains poor for quite a while. I use that to my advantage during photo sessions when they're 5-6 weeks old. Beyond that, they become quite good at keeping me within sight and are able to keep up as I try and gain some distance between them and the camera. Seems the challenge of not loosing track of me serves to solidify their inherent Velcro nature. You'll see some new tabs under the Newbies tab which I added today. Each pup now has an individual page and will have weekly entries added. Sometimes I open them at 3 weeks... and sometimes 4. Often when I do a photo shoot at 3 weeks all I get is a bunch of sleeping, or nearly sleeping pups. This is a pretty active group. None of them settled in for a snooze in the basket I used for this weeks prop. |
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