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.

Evening Report

The Bright Stars went outside for the first time and had a lot of fun.

The Moonshadows enjoyed the wading pool — this is Portia…

Warning: Poop and Worms Ahead

Mary-Ann Sontag February 26, 2021

As most probably know, in real life I am a professor at the University of Montana. But Life with Dogs is also my real life, and there is much overlap. Next month, for example, a chapter I co-authored will be published in a book about college students and dogs.

Harper B for Bethany — when Bethany was one of my students and not my daughter-in-law; hanging out in my office is how she met my son. CUTE!

In one of my classes (via Zoom) I educate students about the impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs); my knowledge of what bad experiences do to the developing brain informs how I raise puppies. I also know what an adult considers an unfortunate experience is insignificant — what matters is how the puppy (or child) perceives an experience.

Did you know that one way baby lab rats are stressed in experiments is simply restraint? Consider how many trainers have taught people to restrain their puppies until the puppy stops struggling. That restraint can result in a puppy brain being flooded with stress hormones — not cool. When we know better, we do better.

Note — no claws (they are trimmed anyway) and Ariel initiated the play.

The job of a human raising puppies is to know, learn, and assess constantly. When you are a professor raising puppies you add to that: Be a thoughtful skeptic and do your own research. Life with Dogs is filled with crazy ideas, recommendations, suggestions, and misinformation.

And to be clear — some of those ill-informed ideas are from professionals. Remember — professionals are just human beings, and that means they are wonderful, well-intentioned, and imperfect.

The imperfection of humans is why the best care — medical and veterinary — happens when we use a team approach.

I wrote last June about worming puppies, and this post is based on the literature review I did at that time.

Some will tell you, “all puppies have worms” and so routine worming of very young puppies is done.

The professional literature does not support the idea that all puppies have worms. SOME puppies are born with worms and last I checked, some does not equal all.

SOME Bright Stars does not equal ALL Bright Stars

Why would I give wormer to puppies who do not need it?! That makes no sense to me.

So, my vet and I worked out a plan. We do stool samples on the mom when the puppies are about four weeks old. If there is any evidence mom has worms, the puppies get wormed.

If there is no evidence of worms in the mom, the puppies are not wormed and we plan/do follow-up stool samples on puppies at 7 - 8 weeks.

Moonshadows watching the Bright Star channel

There are two ways to check stool samples — veterinary clinics can do an in-house test, and samples can also be sent off to an outside lab. I like validated results — our samples are processed both by the veterinary clinic and the outside lab.

None of this seems like rocket science to me but yes, when the puppies head off to new homes there will be veterinarians who will be put off by this blasphemy and tell the new owners, “All puppies have worms” and imply that I am a terrible breeder — clearly a Montana puppy mill. #truestory

Bright Star Zaniah balancing at our Montana Puppy Mill, located in our home and run by a person with a UC Berkeley Ph.D. (insert eye roll) — Bright Star Zaniah balancing at our Montana Puppy Mill, located in our home and run by a person with a UC Berkeley Ph.D. (**insert eye roll**)

My response is to get a better-educated (or at least more curious and open-minded) veterinarian — it is THEIR professional literature that contradicts the assertion that all puppies have worms, after all.

And again — this process was guided by our veterinarian, who is very experienced and wicked smart, and the professional veterinary literature; I am not going rogue on this stuff.

Claire’s stool sample, processed in two ways, showed no evidence of internal parasites; her puppies will not, therefore, be burdened by a medication they do not need.

If a veterinarian were to say — and some likely will — that clear stool samples do not matter and all puppies have worms, one could reasonably respond: Why, then, do you ever conduct and charge for stool sample testing (for internal parasites) if the results cannot be trusted?

Riddle me that, Batman.

Life with Dogs allows us to practice important skills in teaming, critical thinking, and advocacy that I promise will come in handy in other life situations.

And that concludes our conversation about poop and worms — please continue with your meal now and have a grand day.

Evening Photos

A Moonshadow and a Bright Star, companionably side-by-side…

One-third Full

Mary-Ann Sontag February 22, 2021

Something interesting is that the tails are up in both litters. I imagine that a tail is a bit of a balance aid to puppies of this age. As they get more steady in their walking and begin to think about adding scampers, the tail is a way to add some stability.

Someone should study this, comparing the rate of steady walking of tailed and non-tailed puppies. The fact that I think like that in the middle of all this explains why I teach a Research Methods class.

This is Metis practicing his self-stack…

Pozy loves to visit with her family, and the Moonshadows greet her with wagging tails — adorable.

Daisy makes all of this so easy. Here she is with Ariel and Hunter…

Arche checking out today’s fun…

This is Kale and Mighty Titan…

Okay — yes, things are a Hot Mess at the Bright Stars side of things.

The hormone Relaxin is not Claire’s friend. If you do a quick google search on relaxin you will discover that it impacts ligaments and joints in varying degrees in pregnant and lactating women (and dogs).

Claire pulled the short stick in the relaxin department. Ligament #1 went out after a stumble on the stairs while very pregnant and the ligament in her other knee appears to be having big issues. Her braced leg is now the better hind leg.

This is awful. No question. The brace was to get us through puppies and to surgery, and now this.

Deep breaths.

We have a great vet, and I have reached out to do yet another consult with a specialist. Suzanne is lending me a harness, Claire is comfortable when not walking, and the puppies are fine. That is all why the glass is one-third full, and I am focusing on that one-third.

I am not a proponent of feeding solid foods early because it is healthier for babies to wait, and so my puppies exclusively nurse until 5 - 6 weeks; I think we can make it to five weeks (Thursday) before the Bright Stars start solid foods.

My hope and prayer is that they can continue to nurse until they leave for their new homes but we shall see how things proceed with Claire. This is obviously an emerging situation, and Claire’s welfare is important. A balancing act, to be sure.

Claire is patient and good-natured about all of this.

I worry that people won’t understand that all of this is pregnancy-related — Claire is a sound, wonderful dog who just got overdosed on hormones and is having really bad luck.

Therefore, I made this video — it is Claire practicing from a year ago and followed by the Bright Stars today. THAT is the real Claire.

All of us who get one of Claire’s very Limited Edition Puppies are damn lucky and need to understand the price this dog has paid to bring them into the world.

Yep. Tears in Montana today. But that glass is still 1/3 full.