Alfa - day 8

Today the puppies are one week old and have already doubled their weights, at least three of them. Suprisingly it is Alfa 2 and 4 (the biggest ones) who did not reach the goal, but I am sure they will get it tomorrow! This time we made the pictures of the day a bit different - holding them in our hands shows you better how big they have grown yet!

Some words about Skadi - As you probably know, at least if you followed this blog since her pregnancy, she was digging all the time in the weeks before whelping and there was one special place under our doorway that she liked most. Well, her attempts to burrow herself down into this hole hasn't ceased at all after getting the pups and today she finally made it. Just to become stuck there... I guess she speculated that we would finally understand, that this is the best place to nurture her offspring and that we would be so nice to bring them to her... But we are not and she is in her whelping box again - doing her job!

Alfa 1Weight in the morning: 810g
Weight in the evening: 849g

Alfa 2Weight in the morning: 893g
Weight in the evening: 920g

Alfa 3Weight in the morning: 740g
Weight in the evening: 747g

Alfa 4Weight in the morning: 796g
Weight in the evening: 818g

Alfa 5Weight in the morning: 711g
Weight in the evening: 726g

Alfa - day 7

It's unbelieveable how they grow! Tomorrow they are already one week old, just a few days more and they will open their eyes! Fantastic!
Finally all is turning green outside, the trees got the first leafs and it is quite warm for the time of the year. Everything is at peace here and Brunnsberga is a place of joy! I hope it will still be so when the time has come to go out with the puppies for the first time, but I guess it will be rainy and grey then... However, it is a beautiful time to have puppies!




Alfa 1Weight in the morning: 740g
Weight in the evening: 760g

Alfa 2Weight in the morning: 812g
Weight in the evening: 834g

Alfa 3Weight in the morning: 679g
Weight in the evening: 692g

Alfa 4Weight in the morning: 705g
Weight in the evening: 732g

Alfa 5Weight in the morning: 626g
Weight in the evening: 646g

Video Special: Weighing

Here's a little video-special for you out there on the screens (and especially for you Marleen and Katrien ;)) - so you can join me with my daily routine - weighing the puppies - you get one video of every pup!

As you can see, the weighing is not that easy - as long as they move the number on the display changes constantly - what to do? Just wait until they are calm for some seconds!

Alfa 1



Alfa 2



Alfa 3



Alfa 4



Alfa 5

...and one sweet extra-picture:

Alfa - day 6

Alfa 1Weight in the morning: 657g
Weight in the evening: 680g

Alfa 2Weight in the morning: 751g
Weight in the evening: 777g

Alfa 3Weight in the morning: 604g
Weight in the evening: 620g

Alfa 4Weight in the morning: 633g
Weight in the evening: 677g

Alfa 5Weight in the morning: 548g
Weight in the evening: 586g

Alfa - day 5

A real quiet day comes to an end soon. After finishing this blog entry, we will take Skadi and Isa for a little walk in the twilight.
Skadi is now very hungry again - quite understandable I would say! Today you will get some additional information concerning the pups - namely our first impressions about every single one of them!

Alfa 1Weight in the morning: 589g
Weight in the evening: 622g

Alfa 1 is the loudmouth of the gang - he is recognizable by is voice and of course by his color - therefore he is also the grey one ;)

Alfa 2Weight in the morning: 697g
Weight in the evening: 716g

As you can see when you look at his weight, it is quite obvious that he is the boss - the big king of the ring!

Alfa 3Weight in the morning: 541g
Weight in the evening: 581g

Just look at the today's picture and you know it yourself - she is the sweetest of them all!

Alfa 4Weight in the morning: 579g
Weight in the evening: 596g

She is a really nice one - and a quiet one, too.
She is the exact opposite of her two first born brothers - only seldom comes a sweet little voice out of her mouth.
But in one thing she is like her bigger brother Alfa 2 - she's very often seen at the milk bar!

Alfa 5Weight in the morning: 485g
Weight in the evening: 516g

He is the little one, the nestling. He makes also a very calm and friendly impression.

Alfa - day 4

Skadi is feeling really fine, that's actually something I hadn't thought before. I mean, the birth, the puppies and everything around it means a lot of stress. But Skadi is as relaxed as possible, enjoying our tender loving care as much as playing with Isa. This morning we went to the small pond on our yard, were both, the dogs and we humans, had a really nice time. We are very glad to see that there's no whatsoever tension between our adult dogs - both have accepted the unusual situation and are happy to meet 3 or 4 times a day. Let's hope it will stay this way all the time!



Alfa 1Weight in the morning: 521g
Weight in the evening: 546g

Alfa 2Weight in the morning: 649g
Weight in the evening: 664g

Alfa 3
Weight in the morning: 468g
Weight in the evening: 503g

Alfa 4Weight in the morning: 534g
Weight in the evening: 547g

Alfa 5Weight in the morning: 440g
Weight in the evening: 456g

Alfa - day 3

Alfa 1
Weight in the morning: 469g
Weight in the evening: 490g

Alfa 2
Weight in the morning: 584g
Weight in the evening: 601g

Alfa 3Weight in the morning: 440g
Weight in the evening: 440g

Alfa 4Weight in the morning: 467g
Weight in the evening: 487g

Alfa 5Weight in the morning: 406g
Weight in the evening: 414g

Getting a massage...

Also Isa knows how important it is to relax from time to time - so she is helping the stressed mother with a small massage...

Happy Birthday Skadi!

Yes, Skadi has her 5th birthday today - only two days after giving birth to her own pups!
Congratulations!
Both pictures were taken today after a short walk in the woods behind our house - Skadi is doing a small break from the exhausting obligations of being a mother, enjoying the morning sun together with her pack.

Alfa - day 2

So, here we go with this day's news.
We changed the position of the whelping box today to avoid that Isa comes to close to it. We have two females who have very special relation to each other, a relation we don't want to risk.
If Isa would come to close to the puppies she could be attacked in defense by Skadi - that could be the end of the peace in our pack.
Skadi and her pups went upstairs to our bedroom, a quiet place that can also be locked.
Even if we were thinking about more or less completely seperating the two adults, we had to realize that this would not work. Isa is really stressed and also Skadi is very agitated if she had no possibilty to meet Isa at least from time to time. So they can meet and play together under our careful supervision.
We will see if everything works fine, if yes it will stay this way for the next two-three weeks.

I posted some more pics in a new thread on the wolfhonden-online forum. Just have a look!

Alfa 1Weight in the morning: 422g
Weight in the evening: 441g

Alfa 2
Weight in the morning: 520g
Weight in the evening: 552g

Alfa 3
Weight in the morning: 390g
Weight in the evening: 416g

Alfa 4Weight in the morning: 435g
Weight in the evening: 455g

Alfa 5
Weight in the morning: 361g
Weight in the evening: 381g

... and another video showing Skadi a few minutes after the birth of Alfa 3 with her offspring

Just for fun - this was Isa's reaction on the sounds of the first pups...

Alfa - After the birth

Here some infos about every birth and some pictures of the few minutes old pups. Thanks for the pictures to Marleen!
Daily updates will follow every evening after the second weighing.

Alfa 1
He was the first one of the 5 who arrived on this earth and at the moment he came out we did not anticipate that he would stay the only one with grey color in the whole litter.
He came with his back side first but fortunately without any problems at 2.45 o'clock and had a birth weight of 411g.

Alfa 2
The second one who came was an "order" by Katrien who wanted a brown male - a small Kiowa maybe? He came head first at 3.30 o'clock and is with a birth weight of 492g the strongest of the the litter. He was a very active one right from the start and is still Skadi's best customer at the milk bar...

Alfa 3Since I know far less brown females, we wished that we would get one - and we got even two!
She came at 5.26 o'clock with her tail first and weighed 373g in the moment of her birth.

Alfa 4After further 2 hours we could welcome a second brown female. I filmed her birth and you can watch it on youtube. She came out head first at 7.37 o'clock and she tipped the scales at 422g.
She had a bit slime in her mouth and so she needed some assistance in the beginning.

Alfa 5The second brown male who came yesterday at 9.50 o'clock is at the same time the smallest/lightest of Skadi's litter and had a birth weight of 358g. He also came with his head first. He seems to be slightly darker and a bit more long haired than the other ones yet.

Birth of Alfa 4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avQwWKD2mp0

Here can you see how Alfa 4 came out!

The day after the birth

Now we are all a bit recovered from the efforts of the last days and it is time to inform you about every single puppy. They will get no complete names during the first 2 or 3 weeks, since we want to have a little first impression of their tempers before. Potential owners who contact us in this time, will have a possibility to influence the full names of their puppy. I will write about the topic names another time. Now it is only important to know, that everyone of the pups will be called "Alfa"+ the number of birthorder until they get their real names. So the first one is Alfa 1 and so on...
I will give you daily detailed information about growth, weight gain and of course pictures of every pup under the headline "Alfa"

Some words about the birth itself.
It was of course a breathtaking experience, crowned by the aspect of Skadi's unbelievable instincts - it was looking like she had never done anything else before.
As you already know if you read this blog a bit longer, Skadi is not the fastest dog in the world.
Also in this case she took the time she needed and had a rhythm of around 2 hours between most of the whelps. But she was suprisingly calm all the time and seemed not stressed at all while the actual process of the birth was going on.

Every pup did drink shortly after the birth and was taken care of by Mama-Skadi who really does a good job!