Cottage Doodles

Health testing and breeding practices

Puppies bring me JOY.  I adore every snuggle, wriggle, and cuddle I get from them.  I love nurturing and teaching and just plain old laughing at their silly antics.

My mama dogs are part of our family and sleep next to our bed. When the babies come, they live indoors for the first part of their lives and I am with them continuously, including up and down during the night, just like with human newborns.

As the pups grow, they are moved to the breezeway or garage where they have space to run and play and slowly start to house break themselves by having access to the fenced yard.  As they grow, they potty a little further and further away from their bedding, til eventually it is on the far side of the yard.

This gives them a good start for you training them where you would like for them to go. (Please note that no matter how good of a start they get, it is only a start.  No dog is completely trained at 8 weeks, there is a lot of work ahead for you!)

At almost three weeks, they start edging out of the bed towards the potty pads, and I have pads out for their overnight needs as they get older too.  When we traveled across country to deliver pups to new families, I was very glad that they were also pad trained. That sure helped at 2am in a hotel.

At about the same time they start using the pads, they also get training in eye contact.  From the moment they are born, each has been snuggled, tickled, cuddled, and manipulated around enough to know that human touch is safe and pleasant.  Once their eyes open, I make a habit of gazing into those sweet, befuddled eyes each time the baby is picked up and make sure that everyone in the family knows to do that before cuddle time.

As they learn to wobble around their nest, I start getting their attention, and having them meet my gaze before lifting and petting.  Along with that, I will coax them to me with “come, puppy!” in a sing song tone.  Training has begun very early, but all they know is that someone loves them and wants to give them attention.

At this time, I concentrate on the ones who do not enjoy being held as much as the others. There are always a couple who would rather be left in the nest.  Those get put into a soft, cross body sling I wear as I vacuum or fix dinner. This has worked to turn their attitude around and makes them as comfortable with humans as they are with their siblings.

During weaning, which starts with formula at 3 to 3-1/2 weeks and progresses to soft foods, I set aside some of the meal to hand feed.  This is when I begin working on getting them to sit and look at me for a bite of food. I do this one on one to start with, but by about 7 weeks, the whole litter knows to look in my eyes and sit politely to get their bite. 

A crate is set up with bedding for them, so they are used to it from about 4 weeks old.  Daily, I will shut them all in it together while I mop up. At six weeks, I start putting a couple in with the door shut at random times.  At 7 weeks, they go into crates alone for short periods.  

As an artist, I work from a home studio with a concrete floor. The door opens into the puppies’ yard and in nice weather is left open for them to wander in and out.  In the evenings, every family member scoops up a puppy or two for holding while watching TV or reading a book.  We switch them out so everyone gets turns getting used to being a beloved house dog.

Toys are washed daily and switched out, so there is always a variety.  The little guys are so excited over new toys and run to see what I bring them.  I add bright colored step stools and other large items for them to explore, but do not leave them out all of the time.   The pups seem to thrive by having their play area changed and updated.  

Raising puppies takes months of commitment, running on little sleep, and lots of determination to give those babies a taste of care and devotion so that they grow up to be confident and loving pets.

A dog is a long term commitment, that does not end when the cuteness fades and old age sets in.  This is 14 year old Twinkle, who is now blind and kind of off in her own world but who still loves a scratch behind her ear, hearing her name repeated, and getting a good treat.

My goal is to raise happy, healthy dogs that will be so loved that their families will be there for them til the end, like we are with Twinkle.

Honey, our golden retriever is from Health Tested lines, both her parents were clear. The poodle stud that she was bred with is fully tested.

Sugar has had a DNA panel, and is OFA certified in hips, eyes, and heart.  The stud we use for her is also fully tested.  

I do not do DNA tests on each puppy when born, but can tell you that their parents were studied before the breeding to be a good match up of traits and to produce healthy dogs.  We can do an educated guess of the size of the dog as an adult, but cannot promise a certain weight.  

All pups will be vet checked, treated for parasites, have all required shots up to 8 weeks, and be microchipped.  You will need to register the chip yourself and consult your own vet for continuing vaccines.

I have often given away a puppy to family and friends so I can watch it grow up.  If you decide to get a dog from me, please send me updates and photos, I love to hear how my grand dogs are doing. 

 

 

 

 

Tales (or tails?) from the road, part one

Our cross country adventure with four dogs unexpectedly turned into five dogs instead.

This guy needed to be picked up in Nebraska the night before we left for NY.  My husband was my hero, Rich sped off to get the Butterball on a moment’s notice after his new owners decided that his puppyness was a bit much for him.

I stayed behind to get this Sugar Baby sent off with his new family.

It looks like he is happy at his home with a forever best friend.

I’d also made an airport drop off for this baby to go to her mom who was arriving from California.

Plus, we were in the midst of a too short visit from Dewdrop and her daddy.  A drive to Nebraska wasn’t in our plans the night before we headed out on a cross country jaunt.

But- No Man Left Behind!  We were not leaving him where he was not wanted, so he hit the road with us.

Good thing that he came along, or he would have missed the joys of exploring a hotel room.  The puppies were completely mesmerized by the toilet.

They were actually pretty good in the rooms for the most part.  Their excitement of being out  of the car led to some noise control problems, but overall, they were well behaved.

 I am soooooooo happy I trained them to use potty pads as well as to go outside.  Being mostly housebroken really helped.

Our first stop was Indiana, where the pups could stretch their legs in Sissy’s pretty, custom fence.

We left Ryder there with Jo Jo.

Her name is after my Ryan, who is JoRenda’s cousin.  
Ryder has already had her first photo shoot, and she is a talented model.  That girl loves to show off her sitting up skills.

We missed her, but I have to admit that five dogs on a road trip is a lot.

On our first pit stop, I struggled to attach leashes on the waterfall of puppies pouring out of their crate, and thought I’d walk them all while Rich grabbed coffee.

It didn’t occur to me that five little babies together added up to over 70lbs and i was very quickly overwhelmed.  They wove their leashes in and out and around my legs, then drug me down into a ditch that I couldn’t escape from.  I had to holler for Rich to unwrap me and pull me up from the pit I’d been tugged into.

Did I mention there was a dead raccoon in the ditch that they desperately wanted to get to and I desperately wanted to keep them away from?

It’s been an adventure so far.

A Jump Start on Housebreaking

So far, there isn’t much toy time going on.  But, I toss a few in with the babies every time I change their bedding. Which seems like all of the time!   (The toys need to be washable also, because we can’t have any lingering urine smells on the beds, blankets or toys.  That all needs to be clean so they learn to waddle over to the newspaper and potty there.)

The toys for now are just extra pillows to the babies.  The real toys are their siblings ears.

And the newspapers can still be confused with bedding.  So those need changed often and the puppies need to be cleaned off.  I have some all natural, lavender wipes that make them smell very sweet.

With 16 peeing puppies in pools, the smell is a constant battle.

Now that the older ones can climb out of the pools, they have moved to the garage and breezeway, but the battle continues.  
Keeping their nests clean is the first start of housebreaking.

Oh my, you can tell from this photo that I haven’t been to get my hair colored in ages!!  I’d been cutting it myself due to  Covid avoidance.  Then, my friends Mary and Grace came over to visit their brown and white spotted baby and dear, sweet, talented Grace brought her salon scissors with her and gave me a much needed trim.

A new haircut sure gave me a lift.  But I am not ready for color yet.  Because of all the pups, I am being severely careful on social distancing.  These next few weeks with the little guys will be so busy, I can’t even afford time for a headache, let alone a virus.  And with sleepless nights for weeks on end, I am probably a bit run down, so my hair color will just have to wait until all of these darlings are safe and sound in their new homes.

The goldendoodle pups next step in potty training

Those little guys have outgrown the house!  We have moved them into the breezeway.  For now, the door is kept shut, but by next week, they will have the courtyard to run in.

But Sugar still needs to get in and out, so I took the screen out of the window for her.

She needed a refuge from their hungry little mouths, so I moved a bench into the room for her.  It is the one from the foot of my bed, where she likes to sleep.  I think she is happy to have her bed out there.

They are getting good at not pottying in the nest, but are hit and miss with the newspapers.  You can see here, it is about 59/50.

For 3-1/2 weeks old, that is pretty durn good.  As they get bigger, the papers will get further away from the nest, toward the door.  The goal is to get them going only outside eventually.  This is how I trained their mom, she was housebroken by the time she came indoors to live with us forever and her siblings went to new homes.

For now, this area is easy to keep clean. I can spray it with the hose a few times a day, and use a mop if needed.  This is such an ideal area for babies!