Lisabeth is a sweetie, a cuddler and very smart. She was fairly easy to house train and had only a few accidents the first week or two but now has found her place. She loves to grab clothes from the laundry basket and sleep on them. Her and my son are best buddies they love to play together and play leap frog. She has made friends with our neighbors dogs and loves to watch all the kids playing on in the neighborhood. She helps me with the yard work by pulling the weeds and picking up the leaves in her mouth. She loves to be outside day or night and watch everything going on and listen to all the sounds. She is really good at not wondering too far and listen well when we call her to come. She has learned to sit, stay, come and working on the jumping up and chewing on people. We love her and she has found a place in our home and family very quickly.

I am aways sorry to see them go.  I think “they are too young to leave their Moms and Sibs.  Who will they have to play with?  Who will teach them the way of the Dog?”.

In reality, I know these are really lucky puppies, each going to wonderful families, eager to have them join their lifestyle.  But I am always a bit sad to see them go!  In the end, though, I don’t lose a puppy, I gain some new friends.

The weather here has been terrible.  Storms and  tornado last week and again last night 70 mile an hour winds and tornados were about 5 miles away.  Too close to call till they had passed.

For those puppies that are leaving, here is a snapshot in their lives.    A photo display  is also available at Puppy Farm Life.

Friday was the pups first visit to the vet and first long “road trip”.  Everyone was perfect.  One upset stomach but no fussing or crying.  They took the vet office with quiet, contained  interest.

The puppies are sleeping on a quilt on the back porch outside my french doors.  There are several crates out there full of toys and soft spots to sleep.  They go in and out of the crates; some sleep in the crates and other on the quilt. 

The pups are in a chewy stage and those hard rubber cylinder toys with knobs sticking out seems to a favoriate at the moment.  Also they are big into bones.. big hard real bones to knaw on!  They love marrow bones.  I don’t cook them..

They are also into the holding on pant legs and grabbing the end of my skirt (not too much opportunity for that.)  I gently fuss at them for this. I may reach down and sort of growl at them and touch them with my hand to tell them to stop.  I might sort of kick at them.  Remember this are going to be working dogs.  They need to learn to respect the hooves or feet when herding.  It is not my goal to hurt in anyway these little pups.. just give them a signal that they must think before biting, or holding on to legs “or tail” of a moving object.

This idea feeds into my philosophy about how to introduce puppies to stock. The puppies have 24/7 access to  the horses that are in the paddock by the house and the calf paddock which is also by the house.  They  go with me on walks around the farm  and they spend time watching the calves and playing along the fence line to the calf paddock.

Lots of fun in the calf water over-run — and calf poo .  Big brother, Cowboy, even takes them into the calf paddock and watches over them – I have seen a calf run at them and they scoot back under the fence. 

They are  naturally wary at this stage and the pups gradually learn about being around stock as they mature.  These are English Shepherds so we are not too worried about them getting excited about being around stock.  We want them to be comfort and sit and watch and “bond’ with the animals.  

Horses are a bit different.  I keep the pups with me when I am around horses as long as I am not doing something where the horse is the first priority. Most pups will be stuck to your leg like glue which makes it easy  to herd the pups away from the hooves. The pups are a bit clumpsy at this age and not quick – so you have to be  careful but they need to learn a little along.  (Much of your behavior depends on your horses.  Thoroughbreds are quick and fractious and draft horses are gentle, kind and slower)

It is important to be calm.  We want the pups to be calm around horses so we must be calm.  If they read excitement from you, they don’t know it is because you are afraid they are going to be hurt.. they think it is because being around horses is exciting.

Their parents are good help.  The pups stay with the big dogs which are always in the right spot.

I never tie a puppy to a fence.  I think this is a big mistake.  If the horses are doing too many “horse things”, I pick the puppy up and carry it out of the area.  I might put a puppy in a crate where it can watch .. but you might be surprised.. if things get wild, most puppies will hide and watch on their own.

 
Much of this learning is in the morning and evening.  At mid day the puppies sleep.  And when they sleep ,they sleep like babies.  Hard to wake up!

As for food,  Mom still is providing some milk (God love, Gabby)  I don’t think puppies need milk at their new homes.  Milk is so full of hormones I don’t even give it to my family.  Organic milk is ok. Goat’s milk, sure.  But none of it is necessary!  Sometimes I top dress their food with milk replacer as a treat.  All the pups are drinking water

I feed the pups 3 to 4 times a day.  I fill up all the bowls and they wander around eating with different partners.  After all the puppies leave, I pick up the rest of the food.  At their new homes, I would just fill up the bowl and let the pup eat till she is full.  Then pick up the bowl.  That way it is easy to figure out about how much the pup is eating.

As for what to feed, I feed Iams Puppy most of the time.  Sometimes I feed Purina One  Puppy. I do feed different types of high quality puppy feeds as I am not convinced that feeding 1 brand is a good thing for the pup. I also don’t think that price is always a measure of quality.  Watch out for dog foods with corn as the first ingredient. 

Dogs are what they eat!  Some can be allergic to corn and other ingredients in commercial dog foods.

And, finally,  the pup will usually have to potty after she eats .. Or wakes up.  At this point abou 4 hours is all a pup can hold its bowels.  If you see your pup put its nose on the ground and start to act like it is looking for something… assume it is a potty spot and take it outside.

Night are hard for house raised pups.  As I mentioned the pups are sleep on my back porch.  Right now, some of the pups are  peeing on the porch at night.. normal.. too dark and scary to go down on the ground by themselves.  I just hose it off in the morning.  it will stop all by itself as soon as they get bigger.

Since they live outside, I am trying to trying to teach them about doors.. how to go in and out of a door.  They sort of wander over to the door but if it is not open, they aren’t yet sure about how to get it to open so they can go out.

I want to try this idea… I want to have a bell on a rope by the door – when I open the door. I want to pull the rope and ring the bell.  I bet the little pups will quickly pick up on ringing the bell for the door to open.  Then we just have to reward them when they go potty outside.

If you try this, please let me know.  One of the pups from a previous litter gave me this idea.  It learned it all by itself.  The bell was just there.. It started ringing it when it wanted to go out ” Smart, eh?”

Video of Jewel at 7 weeks. This video still needs some work but I am posting as is for the folks that are interested this day in this pup. Jewel is the smallest girl in the litter. She weighs 9 lbs while the rest of the pups are 11 lbs. Never the less, she is not timid. Nor is she submissive.

Summer is a delightful puppy. Ready to explore her world and learn about the jobs that need her attention.

There seems to be three stages of development evident in the litter. 

The most “mature” pups are able to move into new spaces and be secure within themselves with me. 

For example, we train cutting horse so each day I “run the flag” for my husband.  This means that I run an electronic device that moves a “flag” back and forth across a “wire” that stretches across the ring.  Two puppies (Happy and Cleo)  come with me across the pen to the chair where I perform this action.   The rest of the pups watch at the gate.

All the pups are walking down to the barn to get the puppy food and walking back with me.  The other day we had an “issue” during this walk.  Their Dad took off after a barn cat.  I don’t allow that! So I began calling him off.

This commotion caused the pups to scatter  in an interesting way. Two pups stayed with me ( Happy and Summer.   Two pups ran back to the house (Lisabeth and Cleo) And the rest ran to their Mom.

Thinking about this and watching the pup behavior this week, I think we are seeing 2 more different levels of maturity.  The pups that are secure as long as they are with their Mom.  And the pups that are secure in their home turf.  

In the beginning all the puppies were most secure in their den (home turf area).  As they develop, they begin to move around the farm with their Mom.  (Secure with Mom stage).   A little more experience and development and this is transformed into the Secure with My Person stage. 

This week has seen Summer going through some of this transition.  She has been out with her Mom and now is coming with me.  She is moving around the farm ( within the space of the house and backyard) by herself.

Lisabeth is wavering back and forth.  Some times she has some independent and some times she reverts back to her previous “security blanket” level. 

Jewel is also making this transition and she is anxious to become more independent.  Happy is the leader of the pack in development.  Very secure.  Very calm and Very polite.  Cleo can be very independent but can  revert back to needing more security.

If you have kids, you know that all this sounds normal for little  kids.  Some days, some moments they are very mature and then in a heart beat, they can need to be held by their Moms and Dad.   

The weekend  was a big time in the life of the puppies.  Friday evening they decided they were big enough to walk halfway to the barn with me.  The leaders were Cleo and Happy and Dakota ( that is the male )  Summer and Lisabeth came part of the way and decided it was too far.

By Saturday evening, all the pups were coming to barn.  By Sunday evening they were all over the front yard and in the space between the house and barn.

Monday morning the two leading ladies, Cleo and  Happy thought they were big enough to follow their Dad down a farm lane to bark at a stray dog.  After several yards, they thought twice about it and decided to come back and get on the back porch and watch.

Lisabeth, Mara  and Summer are close behind them in their development.  Jewel is about a day behind.

They are all maturing at their own rate and gaining speed.

Friday night, we were working horses and I had Happy and Cleo under my chair and the rest of the pups watching outside the fence.  It is an exciting time in their lifes.

I uploaded a video clip of the pups on YouTube.  As soon as I get the web address I will add it to this page.

Well maybe not!  I uploaded but it didt’t get there.  And now I can’t get anything to upload. 

So Plan B:  I am uploading them to website and adding a widget to WordPress (pray for me!)  Hopefully the video will appear on the right hand side of the page later today.    

It is hard to get good footage of every pup when you do a video at one time.  Some pups are tired, others are hungry and some are full of fun.

I am looking forward to see how this works. 

  In the meantime, try this link:  McCall English Shepherd Puppies

It is so hard to name puppies before I know their personalities.  I like the method used by many Indian tribes:  Babies were named as their personalities developed.

My first intimate exposure to this pup happened this morning.  It was stormy and rainy.  I was down in the barn and heard a pup cry out.  Running back to the house I called to all the pups that are behind the bushes up by the front of the house.  This little girl came out of the bushes with her hind leg up in the air. 

She was shivering like she was cold and a bit scared.  I scooped her up and put her in the house.  There I wrapped her up in a fleece blanket and craddled her till she was secure.

Going into my office, I placed her on my lap and she fell fast asleep.  After about an hour, she wimpered a bit and I put her down on the floor by my desk.  She is still there.  Laying peacefully on the floor on her fleece rug.  

No crying. No fuzzing. No fretting. Just comfortable.  You would think she had been raised in my office for the first 5 weeks of her life.  Neat puppy.     

She has a white around her nose narrowing to a thin stripe between the eyes  widdening out to a white blaze ending on the top of her head.  She has a narrow white collar.  Her front feet are white.  Her back feet are white at the bottom with brown and black coming down the leg.  

Cleo is short for Cleopatra. This girl is a take control kind of gal. She came in for some tv time and immediately decided that Jim’s arm was more fun – it was something to chew on. The chair was wasn’t big enough or interesting enough so she decided to explore the rest of the furniture.

She has white collars that split into two in the middle of her neck. This pup has 4 white legs.

There is another pup with the almost the same face markings so I have be sure not to mix them up. I believe the other pup is not as “dominant” as this girl.

This girl is very secure. All the pups came around to the back porch and played with the rest of the dogs. After tiring, they all retired to the front porch, their home base except for Cleo who stayed behind and played by herself with the big dogs. That is a big step for a little pup.

Lisabeth is an interesting puppy.  She was the most “mental” of the puppies on first encounter.  She was very cuddy and wanted to nuzzle into Jim.   She was not insecure but exploring him with naive quiet confidence.

Very interesting pup.

Note: This girl has a very small umbilical hernia.  It should disappear as she matures.  In the past, the vet has told me this is nothing to worry about. It is so small that it could have been done when the Mom was cleaning the pup up after it was born.

Jimani, this is the pup that I think is the twin to Cleo.  She has a big wide collar instead of the 2 narrow ones.

We didn’t get a good read on this pup. It was getting late in the evening and the pups were ready to go to bed.

More soon! 

I renamed this pup.  She is a very nice pup. Very friendly. Social.

Her first trip to watch tv went well.  She was a bit uptight for about a minute or so. Then she got into the idea and settled right down to being petted and rubbed on.

Many pups are like this at 5 weeks of age.  Puppies are like kids.  Each one of them has their own development schedule.  This is not just a bold as some of the other pups at this age.  

She is a very colorful pup.     She has two narrow white rings around her neck and a half white ring over her hip.  She has brown on her face and all 4 legs are white.

Today, I was sitting down on the grass as the pup ate their dinner.  Several pups were coming by and getting rubbed and loved.  Summer can right up and sit down in front of me – sort of like “I would like a little attention if you don’t mind”  Not pushy but not timid either.  Sort of polite.

English Shepherds are basically born with manners.  They come and sit and watch. Of course they are still puppies and love to pull on your pant legs.

Every litter has one puppy that has a big smile. Meet Happy. This was Happy’s first time in the house. She is watching tv with my husband. And she is loving it! Very confident pup.

She has lots of white. Big Blaze. Big Collar.

This evening she came in the house and laid on the floor – just watching the other dogs. Inside at the moment, we had a pocket beagle and 2 pugs ( a boy and a girl). Her Mom was laying off by herself in another part of the house. Happy laid quietly around the living room and then after about an hour went back outside with her Mom.

The biggest pup. I haven’t figured out the “ranking” of the litter but this pup is towards the top.

Very easy to see so I can tell that she is  a leader.  The pups are starting to move further away from the house and she is one of the pups that is the bravest.  Very confident but I don’t see her being too bossy.  She gets along well with all the pups.