Created 9-Jul-11
Modified 9-Jul-11
Our Heaven Scent Litter of Belgian Tervuren. UKC Champion Matti Deabei ''Matti'' x Basquelaine Winning Colors ''Mimi'' aka ''Marie''
Our Heaven Scent babies are now 1 week old. They aren't too terribly exciting still as the only functional scents they have are olfactory and tactile but they have certainly put on plenty of weight and have progessed developmentally in their motor skills. They all really use their front and rear legs pushing hard and moving around and they also are able to lift their chests up quite a bit. The rush to the milk bar is quite competitive with a lot of pushing and shoving.
We have an interesting range of shades - some pups clearly mahogany red colored with moderate or light blackening - some very dark with extreme blackening who appear to be deep red underneath - and a couple lighter pups who might be fawn red or might be some shade of gray [non-red not necessarily literal gray but the generic term we use for genetically not red or fawn. Colors will change over the next few weeks and it will be more obvious what they might be as adults. The very dark pups may not be that dark as adults so at this age it's not predictive.
The puppies are handled many times daily by Rick and I. For the moment the nursery offers privacy in a bedroom away from the other dogs while Mimi is still very protective. She'll become more lax on that soon. She's been a great mama taking good care of her brood and cleaning up after them. Both Mimi and the pups enjoy having lots of toys in the whelping box. The pups love to cuddle up to the stuffed animals. There are a variety of them with different textures for the babies to feel. We do our puppy neurosensory stimulation exercises each day to stimulate all those developing brain pathways to function at maximum capacity.
ALL of the puppies are super vigorous and very feisty making weighing - nail trimming - and ribbon changing one difficult task for me lol. This is pretty typical of most of my litters and this crew is no exception. The athleticism and drive genes are still shining through. This is by design of course ;=P Perhaps red girl and blue boy are a tad toned down from the others but not by much and we'll see what next week brings. We have some variation in size as Blue Aqua and Green boys are moose; next Red and Purple girls and Yellow boy are close in size though a bit less hefty than there moose brothers; and finally Pink Girl is petite agile and very wiry in my traditional pink girl tradition.
A little early to say much about looks other than heads are all gorgeous. There are some variations in length of back and angulation as the pups with the racier body types are slightly less angled than the pups with cobbier body types and more bone. This could all change with growth and maturity.
For their one week birthday pups had their first field trip outside on a blanket under a shade tree and acclimated immediately with zero complaints. I'll start scent discrimination exercises within two weeks. Pups have been on several different surfaces for bedding and on grass as well. Want to increase their inventory of novel experiences at an early age so we do safely expose them to new sights sounds surfaces smells each week. Of course sight and sound will come within the next 4-7 days as eyes and ears open. That's when the fun begins and they transform from neonates to exploring toddlers and their sociability to humans in addition to or over mom turns on as well.
Weights and gain after one week
Aqua male- 20 oz +10 oz
Yellow male - 17 oz +8 oz
Blue male - 20 oz +7 oz
Pink female - 12 oz +6 oz
Red female - 18 oz +7 oz
Purple female - 19 oz +7 oz
Green male - 20 oz +10 oz
Enjoy the photos
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