Puppy Grand Central Report

Mary-Ann Sontag March 6, 2021

My son has renamed Titan — he calls him Tiny Tim. Poor Titan/Tiny Tim (Big T/TT) — and God bless us, Everyone.

Yesterday I did some calculations to see if our little guy was gaining weight at the same rate as his siblings, and he is. Big T/TT is about 4.5 times his birth weight and the couple of his siblings that I checked are in the same range.

Big T/TT has enjoyed some special visits to the high end Milk Bar (aka Claire) to help him grow, and he is eating two private meals a day. In all ways, Big T/TT behaves like a normal puppy — he is just small right now.

Will he stay on the small side? No way to know for sure but probably not. He sure is charming — I love him!

This is Moonshadow Portia…

Two sleeping Moonshadows…

Capella — a very photogenic puppy…

Two Bright Stars sharing a bully stick…

Puppies have visitors today, which is wonderful — and complicated since we need to visit outside (pandemic) and I need to manage the other dogs (shhhh — daytime sleeper Dear Husband) and manage the puppy eating schedule and make sure to feed Claire and Daisy about every 90 minutes and the house is chaos and so on.

Therefore, I shall end now and get back to being busy on that and will post more pics tonight.

Evening Report and Photos

The visiting went so well. How wonderful it is to see humans!

First up was Sandhano, and the Bright Stars.

It was great to see how happy and friendly they were to make a new friend.

They played and visited for close to an hour and then drifted off to sleep right as more visitors arrived…

I trekked the Bright Stars back inside to nap and brought out the Moonshadows…

In the middle of all the fun, another friend arrived. The last time I saw Chris was when we took a walk at the Congressional Cemetery in Washington DC where she was living. Dog Peeps can join something called Cemetery Dogs and do walks in that historic cemetery — it was amazing. Now living back in Montana, Chris came from Helena for Puppy Immersion Therapy.

A good time was had by all!

The puppies have more visitors tomorrow.

Suzanne will be over to help with official photos and then Lee/Adri will come over with their two boys.

I so appreciate people who are helping us socialize the puppies — THANK YOU, Friends!

Eating and Sleeping

Mary-Ann Sontag March 5, 2021

When it comes to feeding puppies and dogs, I am a fan of variety, whole foods, and moderation.

Consider that food is more than calories — it is also important to the immune system via the impact on the gut microbiome. A diet of just kibble is typically not optimal for gut health any more than our bodies would be happy existing on a single food.

This morning, for example, the puppies had a meal of brown rice, butternut squash, stew meat, and a bit of plain kefir — blended up because the stew meat is too chunky for babies.

Titan gets to eat alone to ensure his fair share. Okay — he gets more than his fair share :)

Because their primary food source is still nursing, I am not overly worried about exact amounts of things in the homemade puppy food; this changes when they are not nursing. I use BalanceIT both for the recipes and to ensure that the homemade food covers all the nutritional bases.

It sings and moves — the Moonshadows thought bubbles: What the heck is that?!

The puppies also eat Darwins Natural, which is a raw food that meets the guidelines as a complete food, including for large-breed puppies; I brown it for the puppies instead of feeding raw.

The puppies are not eating kibble yet. I will introduce Orijen Large-breed puppy kibble to them at seven weeks. When they leave us, they will be used to eating three meals a day plus nursing: one meal of soaked kibble, one meal of homemade, and one meal of cooked Darwins.

The puppy that stays here will stay on that level of variety.

Puppies who are not nursing should eat four times a day for the first few weeks, and then can move to three times a day until at least six months. FYI: I feed my adult dogs three times a day.

I ask new homes to choose two of the current feeding options or all three if one is adventurous. Again, homemade food should utilize BalanceIT product and recipes to ensure complete nutrition.

Puppies grow so fast — we do need to pay attention to their nutritional needs.

I have been asked about the platform beds. This one has a leg removed so that it moves under the puppies.

My advice on the beds: Don’t bother. I bought two and none of the dogs sleep on them. The puppies’ favorite thing to do on them is pee but they will do that on any bed.

My adult dogs like Costco beds but I have learned from experience to not use a bed with puppy. If they don’t pee on it, they will chew it.

So let the puppy sleep on a fleece that is easily washed (or the floor) and save the cute beds for later.

Have a wonderful day.

Evening Photos

A new calf born in the neighbor’s field this evening

Real Life

Mary-Ann Sontag March 4, 2021

A few days ago someone basically chastised me for not telling her sooner than I did not have a puppy for her.

My first response was to cry some tired and discouraged tears — that told me about the unfortunate state of my Little Soldiers.

I then told my family all about it when we played Zoom cards that evening, and was cheered when my sisters were indignant on my behalf.

And I get it — people want to know.

There are at least three related issues in play — especially now — for why it is hard to just give a straight answer about whether there is an available puppy.

First, I have ten plus ten puppies and a professional job and other dogs and there is a pandemic and so on. Balls get dropped and this is apparently puzzling to some folks — as if customer service should be my top priority.

Customers buy groceries, lattes, refrigerators and maybe puppies from a puppy mill. I am not a puppy mill nor Starbucks. My priority is puppy happiness.

Second, I know people are typically looking at multiple litters — when I do not hear from people I just assume interest has waned — totally fine!

The third reason it gets harder to have a straight answer at this point in the proceedings has to do with the type of homes the puppies need.

Some puppies will go into companion homes and some will go into show homes. Some puppies are well-suited to a life with a family and others are raring to go, go, go and need something different.

The kinds of homes that the puppies need is only now starting to be revealed, and will not be fully decided until they are eight weeks old.

I cannot, therefore, promise to have a companion puppy if the puppy would better served by a different kind of life and home.

Puppies are not one-size-fits-all.

You get the idea — it is complicated and I am busy. Who knew BOTH girls would get pregnant and each with TEN?! Not me in a hundred years — which is why it happened.

I know my good intentions do not always translate into desired action, and that is why I do not mind graceful nudges.

But when someone gets her knickers in a knot over not getting a puppy and/or not being told sooner — well, I say to myself, “thank you, friend, for confirming my decision not to place a puppy with you.”

A new puppy is hard work, and they need mature, understanding, patient adults who know how to extend grace. Actually, that is what we all need right now.

Please have a kind, understanding, patient and graceful day — no matter what happens.